Wednesday, April 05, 2006

100th Post!

As I write my 100th posting on A New Art Movement blog, I wonder if anything has been accomplished, in these past five months, towards the objective of establishing the groundwork of a viable movement.

The first few posts hinted at my desire to start a “new school of art” harkening back to the Black Mountain College days. I’m very interested in the concept of a “school of art” that could maintain consistency in philosophy without the stranglehold of barriers such as subject and style. However, I am equally inspired by the ideas of the “Beat Movement” of the 1950’s and stated some of my interpretations for utilizing the former “Beat Movement” into a viable second-coming in the art world – so it may be that only time will tell where we all end-up in this contemporary art blender.

I’ve received a number of e-mails regarding my recently stated re-emersion into figurative works. Rest assured, I am not abandoning my interpretations of the landscape or the philosophical bent to my works. I am simply utilizing “the process” to create a way of incorporating life-size figures, the landscape and literature into a unique yet interconnected vision via my scrolls. I already have four scrolls in the works. Forever the lover of good references, I have arranged the positions of my live models based on old figure drawings by Gustave Klimt as templates. That said - all four scrolls feature landscapes as well. For the literature influences look no further than the very brief Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra (commonly called the Heart Sutra) mixed with a bit of 21st Century self-reflective religious investigation.

I believe the world runs on clichés and it is very likely that people have forever repeated the statement: “these are exciting times we live in”. It has only recently occurred to me that every moment has the possibility for excitement if we chose to make it so… it is typically the obvious that we most take for granted. - DN

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I too dream of a new art movement - I am a painter also, and I envision a combined Bauhaus, Arts and Crafts Movement, Weiner Werkstatte, Black Mountain School, and maybe a little of "The Farm" in Tennessee. A place that a young person who found school focused on the ideas of teaching to the tests unbearable could come and apprentice, Artists and Craftspeople would have the responsibility to spend a few hours teaching and a few hours in service to the community, and any sale in the galleries would be partly shared by the community. The rest of their time was for their own work. A percentage of earned money would go toward the artist's own savings, but there would be everything from a pension/retirement fund to free housing, utilities (solar? wind?)and studio space and materials, as well as food and the other needs of existance. An intentional community for the future of art needs to exist in support of the artists themselves, and when all needs are met, a new movement can arise.