Sunday, July 19, 2009

a statement

"Art is a legalized form of insanity, and I do it very well."

Stanley Marsh

Art is a word that makes most people tune out and it's almost always better not to use it. I guess that this is due to various cultural forces acting to separate people based on illusory class boundaries, but for better or worse, art has become a symbol of the schism between haves and have nots. Thankfully, meaningful and engaging art is returning to the public sphere, freeing itself from galleries requiring a master's degree or higher to put any context to their contents. I'm interested in creating work that contains levels of content, in public/visible space, while allowing an aesthetic entry point to those who may feel excluded by the many onanistic works of conceptual art of the recent decades.

Art is an act of peace, a representation of a society in balance that is committed to increasing the health and welfare of the global organism. I want to engage in this peaceful warfare as a way to assert the value of the culture we have spent so much time, energy and life to build. It is a testament to those passed who labored on behalf of future generations, allowing us to live in a better world.

With all that dramatic hyperbole out of the way, the real reason I do this is because it's better than having a job. It is a way to combine a variety of interesting areas of thought together. It allows the opportunity to remain curious about the world and avoid the routine that plagues modern man. Everyone's life clock is ticking fast, and I have never seen the point in doing anything under such rigid time constraints that isn't meaningful.