From John the Baptist to Robert Frost

Oh it’s a long forlorn haul from ‘two roads diverged in a yellow wood’ to this lone voice ‘crying out in the wilderness’.  Bob Frost had it right that ‘… and choosing the other [road] just as fair, for it was grassy and wanted wear’ has made all the difference. But knowing this hasn’t made the trip any easier.  And unlike John the B., I’m not a wildman covered in skins, wandering through the wastelands, eating wild locusts and honey while proclaiming the word of the Lord. My declarations are more humble, sensual and of this earth. 

There I am - that guy over on the service road with the bicycle yelling at all of you in the cars rushing down the freeway. In my small way I’m telling you that you’re hurtling yourselves toward cultural hell like the last shit-stream curlicue fling down the old toilet.  I holler my alternative message, competing with the thunder of your traffic but few of you give listen. Some shout back insults, notable only for their lack of originality, but rarely does anyone stop (something I’ve become accustomed to).  Yet all I want is for you to stop and look.

I’m easy to recognize: the lunatic still making abstract paintings; true believing that this activity and these objects are crucial to living.

Less wilderness and more wildermess, my wasteland is quite simply, American Culture. No vipers, scorpions or other poisoness critters inhabit my domain; still, toxic life-killing entities exist all the same. Look around and you see it easily. Entertainment, politics, commerce and culture have become indistinguishable; all of it bound and tethered by a common denominator in which everything is for sale including you.  Information technology has never been better or faster but what does it deliver? A format that provides a platform to enrich and inspire our lives for the betterment of humanity? Ha! Consider the hundreds of email solicitations I receive each day to make my penis larger, to engage in all kinds of sex, to purchase illegal software, to get a fake college degree, to buy questionable pharmaceuticals, to doll out private financial information. To steal my good name. And yet give the devil his due - I would not have my forum without the web.

We wallow, here in America, within a vast overflowing cesspool of cheap, instant gratification, of sensations over sensibilities.  Cristo and Jean Claude decorate Central Park with those flaccid orange curtains for a couple of weeks and we are seriously expected to accept this as art.  Why? Because it’s big, it’s sensational and due to the insidious over-blown cult of personality running wild today, because it’s Cristo.  Watching the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center amounts to the same thing only it’s better because it is a community event, steeped in tradition and offers something bigger then itself.  Cristo, on the other hand, just dolls out 1970s re-treaded concepts in an oversized way like wide ties and flair-legged pants.

Most of the energy allocated for Cristo projects is consumed by the legal/commercial sideshow hustle to get the thing done rather then the end product.  The thing is,The Gates could have been so much better had the final

product not felt like an afterthought: imagine lighter,   multi-colored fabric really billowing in the wind to create dynamic forms, the objects themselves more effectively interacting with the environment to open an authentic dialogue about art and  nature.  The installation could have been a visual feast instead of possessing all the sensuality of a spent condom drooping on a bedpost in the morning.

So in this fetid soup of multiple distractions we call contemporary culture what is this all important message the world needs to hear?  It starts with an admonition to shut up and pay attention.  Turn off the shit box, get your ass off the couch, shut off the computer and hang up the cell phone.  Try to muster an attention span greater then a chimpanzee for short while and Look.  I’m simply asking you to look, to take some time to look, not think, but to look (thinking comes later).  Try this: Choose a single painting that appeals to you in some fundamental way (the colors are pretty, the images are appealing, the paint smells good or bad, etc).  Now see if you can let pure perception rule for at least 15 minutes by simply looking at this single work of art.  But do so without thinking or judging; just try to absorb everything you see.  After 15 minutes run a reality check on your senses and emotions. Are you stimulated or repulsed by what you see or do you feel nothing?  Would you come back to this painting for another sustained look? Was time affected? Did it seem like you were looking for about 15 minutes or longer or shorter? 

In this little exercise I offer a small gateway into art appreciation because it really begins (and continues) with the fundamental act of viewing which leads to perceiving which is everything to visual art.  Thinking, judging and creativity all come into play eventually but more as a matter of experience (and yes, some creativity is required to perceive art).

If you can’t do this simple exercise then read no further  you’re all done here.

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Visual art has a curious and unique relationship to time when compared to other art forms.  Watching any performance from movies to television commercials or sustained reading of anything imposes a linear progression through time.  The narrative begins, progresses and ends typically in a logical sequence.  Logic is not required; you can begin in the middle of book and jump all around but no matter how you approach it, for these art forms the chronological experience remains a clean line from start to finish.  By its nature visual art throws everything at you in a single shot.  Look at a painting and it looks back at you with a large open stare that imparts the totality of its expression. You never loose your place, there are no gaps if you leave and return, there is nothing to rewind. Of course no one is immune to the sequential imposition of time on living.  It’s just that visual art imposes no dependencies upon it as do other art forms.

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