A question sometimes asked about art and artists is ‘Does art always have to have a purpose?’ Modern art begs this question because the art found in art galleries and museums is confusing and absurd. There’s also the history of ‘art for art’s sake; most advocated by Abbott McNeal Whistler, who makes art for its … Read more
Something I’ve noticed in my struggle with anxiety was seeing how much this overthinking or anxiety was a part of my life. Looking more broadly I can see how much overthinking has become part of our society. Bombarding us with information the world has driven us into our minds; it’s a head-driven life we live now. In … Read more
What is Art? Some ask this philosophical question after Duchamp’s famous upturned toilet. The Modern Art that’s popular today, what gets in the galleries and museums, is often more likely to be conceptual or abstract. But the problem with such art, as Tom Wolfe points out in his essay The Painted Word, is the ambiguity. The artist’s statement … Read more
Sometimes the art I create is too stiff to formal; I prefer a looser expressive style of art, with marks that move across the page. The art you see here is, therefore, a failure. It’s good in some aspects, proportions, and form, but the marks don’t feel expressive; I get no feeling or emotion from … Read more
The Buddhist idea of Non-Self or Anatman seems far too foreign to bother much with, a fancy term for an idea we are too busy to have. Whilst Non-Self can be a profound experience discovered through meditation, what’s important is all of us can experience a little of what it’s like in our daily lives. … Read more
One of my goals in art is to draw the figure, which means learning how to draw and paint the nude. Later I might go into clothing or drapery, but it starts with the naked form. This subject interests me because, on the one hand, it’s one of the most challenging skills to master; any … Read more