Pablo Picasso
In April 2007 I put this painstakingly together as a promotional image, "eating" my painting "MAGNA MATER" like a slice of pizza, while at the same time Pablo Picasso is sucking my brain out from behind in my painting "PABLO'S LAST CONCERT"I agree with Pablo (quoted above) - and also one of my idols, Max Ernst, who said "Art has nothing to do with taste. Art is not there to be tasted”. I made my digital image with these in mind, a sort of tongue-in-cheek statement. I use the phrase "Good Taste in Art" in some of my videos in the closing credits, and also in printed material, hoping that both Pablo and Max will understand how I mean this:
I didn't record the steps I took, except the result of the initial image (selfie) with the Magna Mater Pizza already added:
the photo was taken in my studio in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada - back then, no beard, no long hair!
The paintings used for the image
PABLO'S LAST CONCERT
Now I am flooding you with quotes about art, and you may want to follow some of those links in order to see what interested me about the thoughts of the artists mentioned. We all have to endure criticism at times, and Duchamp put it bluntly:
“Not everyone is an artist but everyone is a fucking critic.”
Marcel Duchamp
These works were from my mature period already. I was not always that accomplished. While I was always good with drawing, painting was a struggle for quite some time, until I began to study the methods of the "Vienna School of Fantastic Realism" more closely. By the time I entered University (1977 to 82), I had already established my style. Starting out is a struggle, as the quote below so well says:
Ira Glass
The above is a writers perspective - and then we have Picasso again that tells you to loosen up:
Pablo Picasso
OK Pablo, here is the perfect video to get motivated:
and that is all I have to say about this!
Visit my website
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PRINTS OF MY ARTWORK AVAILABLE HERE:
here is looking at you - double vision
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MY INTRODUCTION - ABOUT MY WORK
should you not be on the blockchain, or have no upvote power, or this post is already older than 7 days, you can always just buy me a coffee.
I am really looking forward to reading up on all the links you provided. I am always inspired when i come to your posts and hear about your inspirations and creative journey. Thank you for sharing... and i can't speak for anyone else, but i never mind the quotes. In fact, the more the merrier!
The long quote about the struggle being real to get to where you want to be and your end result correlating to your productivity (not necessarily quality) and ambition really spoke to me.
Growing up i was know for being the best artist or among the top two or three in my schools. Of course the higher grade i went to the bigger the school and the more people. I can recall a pivotal moment in my artistic journey when i was in 7th grade. At that time and before i would draw faces in profile most often. When they would be looking straight on something was always off and i could never quite figure it out but it was funky. One day it occurred to me that i was drawing the noses profile when the face was forward.
This became a bane in my mind and eye. It felt like no matter how hard i tried i could never draw a nose with any dimensionality or depth. It was always a sideways triangle. I got supremely frustrated and almost quit art altogether. Then one day i saw something that gave me the epiphany i needed to solve this epic problem.
On my desk, as i sat pissed at another shitty failed drawing, lay a book face down. It was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and one of the illustrations in the book was where i found my solution.
That tiny bit of shading under the nose gave my brain the connection to the dimensionality of the nose from both perspectives. To think i almost gave up art over something that basic blows my mind. Had it not been for Joseph Schindelman i don't know if i would have stuck with it.
I almost cut off my nose to spite my face! (pun fully intended) ... Van Gogh can keep his ear. hahahah Thanks for the awesome memory-invoking post and for sharing your amazing artworks here with us!
Thank you for this elaborate comment - I very much appreciate your insights and enjoyed your story. There would be some anecdotes to share from my end, like, that as a child, I found it boring to draw the other limb (hand, leg) and tried my hardest to "hide" it. So I enjoyed drawing peg-legged pirates with a hook for one of their hands, lol. Eventually, I grew out of it, and then I went the other way and gave them extra limbs, which were attached all over...... my art teachers could not handle this, and the only one that liked my artwork was my English teacher. Bless her heart, unknown to me for the longest time, she was a well known poet - I met her again a few years ago at a reading in Vienna, and this year, she passed away: Friederike Mayröcker.
I am sorry to hear of her passing. It's interesting that she (am English teacher) was the only one with good taste in art! hahaha
That does make sense though... to cover up or hide your flaws... rather from lack of skill or simply out of sheer boredom. Maybe that's where you got your flair for the odd and eccentric with a surrealistic twist!?
You are welcome about the comment... your post was inspiring as well as memory and thought provoking. I used my experience there to encourage everyone to try to express themselves with art. I can't tell you how many times i have told people who said, "I am no good at art" that at one point they were in fact good enough to enjoy it. Every single person i have talked to that gave up on art always had a point where they hit the wall and eventually decided for themselves they were not an artist.
Anybody that spends even a minuscule amount of time with children could observe that everyone is an artist from the start. I think it's the world and our own expectations and criticism coupled with frustration of artistic growing pains that prompts them to give in. Sometimes, no matter how late in life, it just takes a little encouragement and inspiration to get back to where we/they left off in the process of developing an artistic language of expression.
What trips me out and boggles my mind is that i was essentially picking up on what was touched on about hitting that wall. The fact that established artists already had outlined this juncture in the artists' journey made me feel that i may not be as far behind as i felt!
Thanks Otto! Much love to you sir!
She saw life, "like a surprise - you never know how it ends, it's an adventure that you create yourself".
She sure had a wonderful outlook on life and what truer words have ever been spoken?!
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