Monday, August 24, 2009
INSANITY
Van Gogh cut off his ear, not a strong indication of sanity. Michael Jackson, hmmmmm? What about some of the surrealists, such as Salvador Dali, Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Jean Dubuffet, maybe even George Baslitz. They attempted to, in a sense, create a kind of "insane" art by using their dreams as blueprints for their pieces. While not overly abstract and usually chocked full of symbols in order to lose all obvious coherence (and thus the comprehension of the audience); the surrealists created what was bizarre and strange. Where those mentioned above, insane? There have been countless studies connecting insanity and creativity. Some of those studies are both compelling and convincing. Maybe, because we are all creatives, with a capitol "C", and we spend more time on one side of our brain than the other, we are a little insane. I've had those days. Of course that calls into question, is it the art that brings on our 'insanity' or are we drawn to art because we're insane? Italian psychiatrist, Cesare Lombroso, noted that all the artwork created by "lunatics" exhibited the same basic characteristics: distortion, repetition, minute detail, arabesques, obscenity, and rampant symbolism. However, the most important characteristic of insane art is its creativity. We're going to tap into that part of ourselves for our first project of the semester, a three-color separation monotype based of the theme INSANITY.
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7 comments:
Edvard Munch did a pretty good interpretation of insanity in The Scream. Today, "insane," could be used to describe something good, as in insane ride or insane music. You might even depict the insanity of waging war for oil or power. Distorted surrealism a la Salvadore Dali might be a good option considering the simple line art aspect. Just thinking outloud...
Try not to think about "interpreting" insanity as much as tapping into your insanity. And you're absolutely right, insane can mean a lot of different things today, our vernacular has morphed considerably in the decades since "insanity" was insane. I hope everyone gets a little insane with their imagery.
The challenge is not to interpret the word but consider the ideas that the WORD conveys. We must remove ourselves from the literal, analytical process and just be open to the possibilities contained within our own creative minds.
A good artist can replicate an idea and put their own spin on a topic. A great artist will reinvent the topic.
Both very true, but I think a good place to start is by writing or sketching what might be familiar with an idea, even if inspired by works of other artists. The process of getting there is just as important for me as the end result. Something as simple as sharing the first few words that come to mind in this blog has already given me reference to come back to, sparked some discussion, and given me some new possible directions. I don't believe there is anything wrong at all with producing good art until that seed of greatness is planted. My ideas usually come from the most unexpected sources, so I will explore every possibility, even the cliche and imitated, until I find that elusive beast. We are always critiqued postpartum. This forum is one avenue to improve the whole. Keep it going. I love it.
So let's critique tomorrow the ideas based on "INSANITY", and see what works and maybe what doesn't work so well and why. Maybe a good way to start this image is not with a line drawing, but with a field of color. Dim the lights, get some techno streaming through the boombox, and make marks and passages of response into the gooey ink, and then layer more and more colors until our insanity manifests itself as an image of intense complexity.
The first day of printing was pretty intense, lots of Yellows flying around the studio. In fact, it was a little insane at times. We didn't have much chance to talk about the 'insanity' issues with the drawings, but I think that on Thursday we can explore both the form and content after the last colors are printed. Maybe even a brief discussion on Monday morning before printing starts might be a good idea just to get the final printings going in a productive direction.
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