Hi all!

Welcome to the pilot article for a new section on my blog. I’ve got a lot of thoughts rattling around in my massive head (that’s not hyperbole. You ask anyone, it’s massive — physically that is) thoughts which have nothing to do with art or art related topics so… I’ve created this new section on my blog for rants and other articles which are non-art related.

Now, there may be a few topics in here that I discuss which might be described as inflammatory or that might be designated as a little controversial and I may, from time to time, use some strong language that one might consider to be ‘adult’. Be forewarned. If you are easily frightened, have a heart condition, are not 18 years of age or have the I.Q. of a grapefruit (not to put down grapefruits. I have nothing but the utmost respect for them) then perhaps this section of my blog is not for you. If you’re an intrepid explorer, have a curiousity like mine which is now piqued or are just up late, drunk on the computer and have nothing better to do, then please read on.

I consider myself to be more than just an artist. I’m also a sociologist. Cath is too. I think we’d consider ourselves to be avid people watchers. We’re fascinated with the society outside our windows and we’re always analyzing it, breaking it down trying to understand how the insanity that is the modern world hasn’t led the way to full scale anarchy. Give it time.

Although I’ve never formally studied sociology, I find my curiosity drawn to humans and human systems and today I saw something that I thought was noteworthy.

Cath and I went out to see the new Roland Emmerich film 2012 tonight. It was actually quite good. I’ve read a few reviews of the movie and they weren’t glowing but after having seen the movie both Cath and I thought it was very well put together. If you get the chance to see it on the silver screen, do so. It’s the type of movie that will lose a lot of it’s impact when it hits your television.

While we were waiting for the movie to start we watched as the theatre filled up quickly. It was a smaller theatre and therefore there weren’t a lot of seats. We were sitting in the upper section of seats. The lower section of seats (where you have to crane your neck upwards to enjoy the film, if you can from that angle) was still empty.

As it is with people who are strangers, when they enter a common seating area they generally won’t sit directly beside each other. They’ll at least leave one seat between themselves and the next patron. This happens everywhere. On city buses and the subway, at movie theatres, even in public bathrooms. You know what I mean. Why stand hip to hip with another man at the urinals getting a birds-eye view of his junk when you can stand comfortably at another urinal, abashed perhaps but separate from this other relief driven stranger? Go ahead stand hip to hip with him if you like. One of two things will happen. You’ll walk away ashamed at the minute stature of you penis or you’ll walk away questioning your sexuality – again.

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Cath and I recently watched the movie The Midnight Meat Train. The story was written by Clive Barker and originally appeared in the Books of Blood. Outside of being a writer, he is also an accomplished painter. On the DVD for the movie was a little vignette about Clive and his artwork. As the film crew toured around his home looking at all his work, you’d swear that he lives in a storage space, not a house.

He had hundreds of four foot by four foot canvases stashed everywhere!They were in his studio, stacked in the spare bedroom, leaning in the hallways — he even had what seemed to be a lean-to built onto the side of his home that housed a hundred more. The man is prolific!

I found it quite amusing to hear Clive chatter while cycling through some of his old canvases predicting whether or not they could possibly be revisited and reworked or whether they’d never see the light of day.

As an artist chances are you’ve done a lot of work too; God knows I have. You’ve probably worked in a variety of mediums and a variety of styles and you probably have copious amounts of old work laying around your studio or your home. We all do. That just seems to be the way of things. Personally there isn’t a spare piece of wallspace in my apartment anymore.

I could easily stage a one man show with all the artwork that I’ve got hanging around. In fact, some friends of mine have pushed me in that direction, their thinking being that any show is better than no show at all. It’s not a bad idea — it’s a terrible one, and here’s why.

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When I was a younger artist, I was hell bent on acheiving professional success. Even then I knew that making a living at being an artist was what I wanted to do. I would spend my summers running my landscaping business and then, in the evenings or on weekends I would be in our old horse barn, painting, sometimes a little, more often late into the evening.

With this kind of work ethic I was able to produce quite a bit of artwork while I was away from University. It allowed me to be part of a two man show in my third year and gave me a solo thesis show at the end of my degree.

At the time I was working in a more expressionistic style, sometimes employing patching trowels and other hardware implements to bring my work to life. This gave me a lot of work, paintings of various styles that I realized I could shop around if I felt so inclined and that’s exactly what I did — but poorly.

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Realism. Necessary or not? Good question. I’ve often pondered this question myself having tried many styles of artwork throughout my life. Now that I’ve embraced realistic form and lighting in my artwork,  I often question whether or not I made the right decision.

When visual art first came on the scene, one of its primary functions was to record persons, places, things and events that were going on at the time. Lack of education was rampant. People relied on pictures to help them understand their world. The current King had his portrait painted. Stories from religious texts were brought to life. The latest land war was commemorated in oils.

Photography didn’t exist yet. Interpretation by an artist was the only way to keep a record of what was going on. In this regard, Realism could only help the cause and, if you know your art history, you’ll see how artwork progresses basically from pictographs to the beautifully fleshed out, fully formed masterpieces of the high renaissance. This was not an accident.

For years High Realism dominated the world of Art. Chances are, if you couldn’t produce artwork in a realistic fashion, it didn’t get taken seriously and was probably never seen. In fact, this penchant for Realism is what turned artists away from it around the turn of the 20th century.

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On Thursday, July 23rd, Cath and I were invited out to the IX Gallery here in Toronto to attend the opening of a new art exhibition entitled “Big” which featured the work of Jack Butler, Erin Fitzsimmons, Kate Martin, Joshua Roy and Todd Lawson. The very general theme of the show was to exhibit artworks that were large in scale. Painting, photography and mixed media were all represented in the exhibition and subject matter varied from artist to artist.

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