Quote of the day: Carl Jung

"Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purpose through him. As a human being he may have moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist he is 'man' in a higher sense— he is 'collective man' — one who carries and shapes the unconscious, psychic forms of mankind."

"We are so captivated by and entangled in our subjective consciousness that we have forgotten the age-old fact that God speaks chiefly through dreams and visions."

- Carl Jung

Quote of the day: Federico Fellini

"I don't believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there's one thing that's dangerous for an artist, it's precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it."

- Federico Fellini

Hot Gruel For You!

"Hot Gruel For You"
Digitally re-vamped sketchbook page, 2009.

"The Psychedelic Adventures of Danny DeVito's Stunt Double "
Digitally re-vamped sketchbook page, 2009.
(a collaborative drawing between me and Jeanne)

My goal in life is basically twofold: one day, I hope to make something so awesome that people won't even be able to fucking believe it. I mean so totally and completely bad-ass that nobody can ignore it, and everybody will love it and want to have sex with it. People will just be going about, minding their own business, when suddenly they'll see it, and it will stop them in their tracks! They'll collapse then and there, right on the street, quivering in the fetal position because it will completely blow their minds!
Oh sure, there'll eventually be a backlash against it - but the pungent opinions of all of the nay-sayers will only pique the curiosity of others even more! The raging debate over its artistic worth will ascertain that plenty of people will be talking about it for many years to come. All publicity is good publicity.
As for me I'll be laughing: "ha ha ha!" Every evening, I will wallow naked in the filthy money that my creation has made for me. I'll light a cigar with a $100 bill and blow smoke in the face of my biographer as I dictate the story of my amazing life to him. "Oh sure, I was down on my luck for a while," I will say, "But I didn't realize at the time that not getting strapped down with some stupid day job was the best thing that could have happened to my career. I mean really, how could I have thought of something like this if I were sweating my balls off in a Chuck E Cheese costume, serving sub par pizza to ungrateful brats every day?"
My other great ambition, which will take place because of the unbelievable success of the first, is to digitally encode the consciousnesses of me, Jeanne, and Daisy so that they can be uploaded into indestructible android bodies after we die. We will even be able to merge into one super android, and a little robot Daisy will be able to "eject" from our chest, just like Soundwave from Transformers.
We'll say, "Daisy! Eject! Operation: defecation" And she'll shit on whoever we want her to (and yes, it has been proven that feces can be artificially created- look up "The Cloaca" if you don't believe me). Then and there, all mysteries of existence will be solved. We will all move on to immortal android bodies, colonize outer space, and lock arms and sing Queen's "We are the champions" in one big, jubilant celebration.

Quote of the day: Penn Jillette

"Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not? But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision."

- Penn Jillette

Two For Tuesday!

"We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth."

- John F. Kennedy

"Art is making something out of nothing and selling it."

- Frank Zappa

Quote of the day: Eugene Delacroix

"Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything."

- Eugene Delacroix

Quote of the day: Marshall McLuhan

"The artist is the only person; his antennae pick up these messages before anybody. So he is always thought of as being way ahead of his time because he lives in the present."

"The dominant technologies of one age become the games and pastimes of a later age. In the twentieth century the number of past times that are simultaneously available is so vast as to create cultural anarchy. When all the cultures of the world are simultaneously present, the work of the artist in the elucidation of form takes on new scope and new urgency. Most men are pushed into the artist role. The artist cannot dispense with the principle of doubleness and interplay since this kind of hendiadys-dialogue is essential to the very structure of consciousness, awareness, and autonomy." (From Cliche to Archetype, 1970)

"Advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century."

- Marshall McLuhan

Quote of the day: Leo Tolstoy

"Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one consciously, by means of certain external symbols, conveys to others the feelings one has experienced, whereby people so infected by these feelings, also experience them."

"In order to correctly define art, it is necessary, first of all, to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure and consider it as one of the conditions of human life. ...Reflecting on it in this way, we cannot fail to observe that art is one of the means of effective communication between people."

- Leo Tolstoy from 'What is Art?"

Quote of the day: Oscar Wilde

"We can forgive a man for making a useful thing, as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless."

- Oscar Wilde

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Nobody knows what the future has in store for us, but we are certainly on the cusp of great change. Over the next few years we will see a different America. I will be a bit more optimistic than usual and say that it will be better than what we experienced over the last eight years.
This nation is stirring, waking from a nightmare and coming to its senses. For this beautiful moment, people have come together. People seem to care again. A better world might manifest, and it might not, but right now there is potential.
I know that only two or three people are going to read this post, but this is really meant for all of America, and even for all of the world: remember how this feels. Remember how it feels to want change and to make it happen. For so long, we chose pessimism and mistrust over optimism and the common good. For this shining moment that has the potential to be undone. Remember how this feels.

"Went To Church Where The Blinking Light Was"

Digital collage, 2008

Observations

2009 sketchbook pages
Greasy gray graphite

I don't get out much. Especially not with the sketchbook, which is shameful because that's what people who draw should do, right?
Now that it's a new year, and resolutions are to be made, I promised myself that I would be more artistically active in 2009. That means not only drawing everyday, but making more drawings based on observation, not just silly doodles from my head.
If you look at my output from 2008, it's really pretty pathetic. I only made three paintings, and they were all 9"x12" in size. This habit needs to change. 2009 will be a year of many more paintings of respectable size and content.
No more cartoon lines. No more goofy characters. I want my work to get as far away from "low brow" as it possibly can. I will keep the fusion of dry and wet media, and I will keep the weird textural elements, but everything else will change.
This year, I'm going to do something with my life and with my work. I'm on a path. My five year plan is to marry Jeanne, get an MFA, and devote myself to painting once more. I can and I will accomplish this.

Numero Uno!

"The Reign of Ash"
Digital collage, 2008

"Before the Horse"
Digital collage, 2008.

First day of 2009, first post! Nothing to say but happy new year, and may it be a good one for everybody!