“Great art has dreadful manners. The greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure, and then proceed in short order to re-arrange your reality.” –Simon Schama
I believe this to the depths of my soul. I know it to be true because not only have I felt this when I look at great art, but I experience it while in the process of attempting to create it. If an artist can make me feel that way when I look at a painting, I know their psyche has been re-arranged in the process of creating it.
Although I find exalted joy while I am painting, most of the process is blasphemous torture. I had been fooled into thinking that to paint was to have ones psyche magically transformed into some ether world of angels singing and being at one with the creator. Let me be the first to burst the bubble. While a truly great painter may reach this exaltation at some point in his life, I will bet he had to climb the steps of hell to get there.
Having spent a number of years in this dimension, my experiences have sculpted me into who I am and what I believe to be true. I have hung on to these ideals like precious jewels. In the process of learning to paint, the robbers came, made off with the jewels, and left me with only a ghost of myself. I have gone to the brink of insanity and have thankfully returned with all my appendages. When I wanted to rip my drawing off the wall and run from the room screaming, something reminded me that I chose this path. I asked for it. The universe delivered. And, there I shall remain, in this moment, pushing on.
Follow along. Let’s re-arrange some reality.
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Tags: Art, exaltation, reality, Simon Schama
March 14, 2010 at 6:19 pm |
I could not have thought of it better myself——Soooooooo true—-
sanity is telling yourself that it really isn’ t the whole entire world in that paticular painting. Stop have a couple of pots of coffee let some time go by and if I still want to do my very own wonderful creation I will do so. If not more time needs to go by. … hopefully not much, say a good nights sleep worth. …
March 15, 2010 at 5:24 pm |
Well as you climb out of the depths, remembering that each life experience reflected, is in our soul. The transformation that each artist sends back to the world is an interpretation of each individuals soul represented in the painting subject matter. Let your souls shine and the creations that follow will reflect the different dimensions your life experiences. Each painting reflecting fragments of the world. Maybe even pieces of a giant puzzle, where multiple artist contribute to obtain a more worldly concept. Just a thought…