Looking Through the Artist’s Warped Eyes

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Spencer

2021

In the beginning artists were no more than glorified carpenters. They created images of their time purely for decoration. These paintings were of pleasant landscapes and pastural scenes. Some depicted the events of everyday life. The paintings were memories that would transport the viewer, if only for a moment, to a better time or place.  These works of art would hang on the walls of the wealthy for nothing more than decoration. The truly wealthy and powerful would later have the painter capture their image, so that they might have a modicum of immortality. Because of the artist we know what kings, popes, artists, and other people of note look like. We see moments within great battles and relive great tragedy. Today we can relive historical events because of their work. The artist gave us a visual glimpse into the lives of those that impacted history. A select few artists used their skill in the service of the church. They would use their skill to tell the stories of Christ in a visual media. These stories came to life so the uneducated could also understand the foundation of their beliefs. The early painters were historians, dreamers, and craftsmen. They had a purpose that modern artists does not share.

Once photography was invented, painting images was no longer necessary. No painter could adequately capture or reproduce the images that could easily be placed on film. Things like war suddenly came home with all its horror, and could no longer be romanticized. Absolute reproductions of the rich and powerful were only a click away. The French impressionist realized this and tried to elevate painting to something more than simple images. Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Cezanne, and Pissarro were outcasts in their time because they could see the death of painting if it were not elevated to something new. They tried to capture the essence of a moment. At the same time the madman Van Goth went even further and placed the anguish of his soul on the canvas. Modern artists began to stretch reality to create a mood or tell a story. Dali stretched reality even further by taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary. He stretched time and dilated the mind. Picasso took abstraction to another dimension. Pollock made paint dance and move in a rhythm all of its own. Rivera took ordinary Mexican life and gave it the nobility it demanded. Kahlo mingled her pain with the paint she applied to canvas. Suddenly, art left the realm of carpentry and moved into its own plane of existence.

In modern art Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Vermeer have been replaced with Freud, Hopper, Whistler, Mondrian, De Kooning, and Pollock. Painting has changed and been opened to new interpretations. Anyone regardless of their training can apply paint to canvas. Today many of these home-grown artists or folk artists have gained appreciation by collectors. I take my inspiration from all the above, but especially from the folk artist.

My art training is nonexistent, but I can look at the masters and steal technique. I try to couple the iconic art from the Middle Ages to the portraiture of Rembrandt and the comics of Gary Larson. I try to stretch the faces and turn the people into a caricature of themselves. I love chaos and believe the world around us is in constant chaos, so the backgrounds within my paintings reflect that chaos. Control is an illusion. Life is easier when we stop trying to control it. I had a critic once tell me I should give up painting because I was a no talent hack. They may be right, but I do not paint for the critics, I paint what I see and for the love of it. To look at my paintings is to look through my eyes. Every painting should tell a story. It is not the story that the artist sees that is important, but the story that the person viewing the painting sees. Many times, their story is much better than that of the painter’s. The viewer must become part of the story. Many of my paintings have been lost or disbursed among friends and relatives. Someday all my work will reside in a landfill somewhere, but for now I’ve chosen to pollute the web with my work.