In my last post I expressed some views on explanation and art.
So should all art critics close up shop and become baristas? Would the art world be better for it? I can’t claim to know.
However, I do know that we should definitely keep the art writers, because without them there would be no art books.
I recently returned to the local park that has two huge graffiti-covered water tanks and there were a few new sprays up. Graffiti interests me as a non-explainable art form. I like that they might or might not be words. Also the art is the message, with a spray can as the media.
The Tanks
Here there are no juries, no gallery owners, no CEO’s, no price tags, no thought police. It’s a kind of artistic freedom that only exists in places like this.
I took a dozen or so photos of the tank graffiti and chose one to use as a tank background upon which to do my “grafitti” using Corel Painter. I sprayed the tank a solid color first, then copied a bunch of rivet heads, keeping the tank feel. The I began to paint in the symbols using a style derived from one of the sprayheads. The central figure/ word/ symbol, could be Inglis, could be anything. Needs no explanation. You might see an armored figure on a vehicle there but that was not intended. The title of this bit of art is “I Can’t Explain #4”
I Can't Explain
I would enjoy doing an “applecore ” rain with a plain background on a huge wall somewhere…like the animation on my opening page…..…but wait. How to do it without ruining the urban landscape? Projection graffiti may be the answer and the new wave. Here is my painting entitled “Homage to Rene Magritte” which may need a lot of complex explanation in order for you to understand my thought processes when I created it……..
The “I” in Inglis as applecore was a logo I developed in the 60’s as a pop culture thing. Over the years I’ve reflected on what the self (the “I”) really is, both in a spiritual and psychological way. Dogen, the famous Japanese Zen master said: “To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.” So seeing into the illusory nature of the ego could be symbolized by a disappearing apple, reducing itself to a core of….? In one of Magritte’s paintings we see a rain of bowler hatted men in an urban landscape. He also was fond of large apples in incongruous places. So in my image there is a rain of diminishing golden applecores, set in front of a background of golden herons. The heron here, represents eternity or the timeless realm.
Therefore an apt “explanation” of this art would be: “The perception of ego/ self as a process which must be transcended in order for real freedom to manifest.” And you thought it was merely decorative.
Homage to Rene Magritte
You can find an archival quality limited edition print of this painting at http://www.artbyinglis.com/abstract__other_paintings/homage_to_rene_magritte.asp
Thanx for visiting.
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