Friendly Pixels a new series, I am developing came about from my need to create some order out of the world’s present chaos; the tendency towards totalitarianism; a dismaying lack of respect for the feminine in every aspect of life, including the arts, where a majority of graduates from art college are women and not even a tenth of them are being shown in galleries or museums.
And last, but not least, a bridge from the expulsive art with no thought behind it, like the new “spin art”, created by throwing paint on a moving canvas and spinning it around, to something not totally regressively traditional. The spin fad is not unlike perhaps the roulette table, pointing to our present penchant for gambling, leaving everything to chance rather than thinking about how and what to create and what does it communicate and doing some work on ourselves in the process.
Our intellectualism is dying even in academia circles. Some part-time professors are having to top up their salaries with sex work.
Also I am rebelling somewhat from the push towards digital arts, art that is factory polished and lacking in an intuitive hand-made feel. Thus the pixels, except mine are friendlier I feel, because art done by hand is still more alive and capable of expressing emotions.
My most recent work, “Mettle” is about the feminine needing to have strength or backbone grit in our times, which does not necessarily mean brittle rigidity but more the willowy bendable softness and flexibility of a willow tree that bends with the wind but does not break.
The saying that having balls is being tough is wrong, balls are in fact very fragile, as man’s violent strength will easily crumble under fire. The vagina, the feminine however, can take a pounding as they say. Surrender isn’t about being passive, it is about being open, to life to intuition to the Muse. It is not an ego vomit on canvas. It takes practice and skill to be open to that. It takes some order.