Continued from my last posting nine months ago, I have given birth to six pieces of work, and working on a seventh. All going according to schedule.... which I suppose would be a truthful statement if it wasn't a complete lie. In reality, winter came and I got locked into other projects ranging from Christmas presents (see the last couple posts on here) and working on a comic book fever dream of mine that has been in this "development hell" for far too long. Funny how time seems to scream by at an incredible pace. Before I knew it winter has come and gone (which I am SO happy about) and suddenly there's this renewed interest in my Anti-Art project after revisiting the various galleries in the Cleveland/Akron area and getting that "mojo" back.
Now, the initial feelings of negativity toward that wonderful gallery owner which began this whole process all those months ago are still there, but I like to think they're more refined. More focused. With a solid direction of what I'm trying to "do" with this style of horror abstract surreal nastiness that appears on the page from my deranged fingertips. Awhile back someone asked me what I was trying to say through my art. Quite honestly, I'm not trying to say anything. I'm not that profound. I hate trying to put meaning behind a piece of artwork. I could scrawl a traffic light and 20 different people could have 20 different interpretations of what it "means" when in the end, it's a crappy picture of a traffic light and nothing more.
He also expressed that creating art is an emotional activity and without said emotion behind the art, the piece is essentially meaningless. I'm not sure if I fully agree with his statement, but I see where he's coming from. In my heart of hearts, this series is almost a line of me getting out some frustration in some form of therapy. But what makes me more satisfied with making it is watching the emotional responses from others that look at it. whether its positive or negative, some kind of response is what makes doing these pictures worth it. It's shocking. It's gross. It makes you uncomfortable. It could offend you. I've gotten a gamut of responses from my friends and family ranging from "What happened to your art?" to "You're not right in the head" to "That's amazing! I want one!". The pieces are less about the emotion I put into them and more about the reaction I get out of others. In short, I'm a bully. Only doing something to get a reaction.
Anyway, in my travels around the galleries in the Akron/Canton area (in Ohio) I caught wind of someone looking for an artist to set up and work in his studio. This sounded like a really cool opportunity so I responded. Since then, he's made mention of a possible gallery showing at the end of July/beginning of August that will feature my "bully art" along with a number of other artists. This gallery is called the HUB and it is located in Canton, OH. Here's a link to the tumblr account of the owner: http://tscarmany.tumblr.com/
Very excited about doing this. Nothing is set in stone, but I sincerely hope if comes to fruition.
So in light of this development, I've gone back and done some tweaking to my existing pieces and created some new ones. Here is everything I have thus far in this series. First I think I'll show what I'm presently working on:
And here is what I have completed. (Yes, I realize there will be some repeats from previous blog entries)
