The artist job is to frame reality, like a picture-frame frames a painting. all we can aim for, at best all we can hope for is to not distract from the inherent beauty of the subject. because by being nothing more then a frame it is also a reduction: both limiting and limited. the purpose of the frame is to communicate but the communication by being expressed kills the potential of what could have been said. a painting is given form by exclusion. by excluding things it creates for itself a identity. by saying here i am we create a negative space of saying what we are not. we as artist exclude from our work the things we don't like or identify with and so create a world that is not as rich with potential as the one we live in. at worst this creates propaganda: using media, be it literature or water-colors, to impose a frame on the viewer instead of allowing them the opportunity to add to the work some of the things we have chipped away. in co-production the meaning of a moment is created, as parents daydreaming about what their unborn child might be like. or as a fan given communicating with his favorite creator about what his/her work means to him/her. in this way the work of art creates life, sacrificing itself on this judgment with the understanding that it came so that we may have life and may have it more abundantly.
propaganda is arts strange cousin. more a fan of taking away from the conversation then adding to it. the purpose of propaganda is to impose a idea rather then create one. propaganda is designed to end the conversation rather then add too it. in this world commercials like wolves in sheep clothing try to sell us things we don't want or need with the understanding that if they could they would take away our very choice if they had their say. the job of the artist is to create life. the job of propaganda is to turn us into slaves of a idea so that they can take away from us all that they want. art is dogmatically anti dogma. propaganda is every other dogma but that. arts dogma is the endless hallway of aurora lights that is connected to the doors of every other dogma. as artist we frame these other dogmas in a way that leaves the viewer with a key, and escape root. so that they don't stare into the sun till they go blind. the death of art is convictions and sadly we all must have at least one. this is why are convictions is founded on the desire of new avenues and flavors. propaganda is all about eating unsweetened rice with a glass of warm water for all eternity. i apologize i am trying to avoid abstraction but i believe it is my calling. so i will end this with a anecdote. my niece is a fan of the walking dead. and she was trying to express her fascination of zombies with me and after we talked for awhile she drew me a picture of one. and yes it was different from how i would draw it but i preferred hers because it allowed me a gateway into a world that was exclusive to her in that moment. art is life that gives life. propaganda is anti art and it takes it. and though we may live in the age of propaganda we can frame (at this juncture) anything as we want. also the painting in this blog are by and in order of top/1 Matthew Ritchie. middle/2 Zak Smith. and the one just below these words/3 is by Clive Barker.
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