have been now through the links you sent me on one of my blogs, xenolinguistics. would love to have more communication on these languages, their origins, uses, possibilities. the drawings with their dynamism, inside-outside forms and reversals, and their interactions–”nouns” and “verbs” being reunited in action and interaction. see also the merging of separate entities, a kind of fluid beingness, the dance of melding and separating.

thanks so much.

diana

K

In order to comment coherently on this, I’ll hafta quote you, and the people you quote. You first brought me up short with this one:

“Impressionism is a word which describes a momentous mutation in Western art history…”

The word “mutation” here made clear to me what you were going for, and somehow lifted the cloud that sort of made the advent of Impressionism a mystery to me. “Mutation” suggests an organic and natural event, rather than one dictated by socio-political reactions to historically “acceptable” images. It made me re-look at the images referenced in your piece for what they communicate ahistorically, more personally and transcendentally interpersonal. I don’t know – maybe “allpersonal” is the term I’m trying to coin? Which leads me to that beautiful bit about

“Aboriginal forms of artistic expression remain as they had always been: sacred acts upholding the social network of the tribe” and also the “one Shipibo woman who told me their designs were not “officially taught.” She described it as being part of their collective, shared experience…” If this is so, and if your project is to express our shared experience as a tribe on a larger, global community level (and maybe off the globe? Henrrrrrrrrry?) then it really is a success. Everyone who I’ve seen have an experience with “Actual Contact” reacts to the images as something they’ve already known, or almost as something they feel they’ve seen before. Even Dave, our resident image-snob. This attitude toward art not as just self-expression but as whole expression is very freeing. I’ve been thinking about this a lot in regards to writing lately.

I was also struck by the paradox of anonymity/fame that grafitti artists…what’s the word? “Enjoy”, maybe? Which makes the “Actual Contact” project sort of like grafitti without the destruction of property.

Finally, I was drawn to the quote from Marie Louise von Franz. In regards to Anthropos, I tend to jump straight to Janus, since I always think the “clean-shaven” face was meant to be female. But I think that’s too limiting – with an archetype like Janus, you’re still stuck in binary. I’m going to hafta chew on this Anthropos thing for a while – probably something good to talk about w/you over sushi.

So glad I finally read this!

Your own work seems familiar, as if I’ve seen these shapes interacting — somewhere — maybe in dreams. And I, too, hope you can find a way to make them move. What an incredible experience that would be!

Now to Google, to find out who and what Lee Bontecou is (or was).

Blessings

This is inspiring stuff. I’m intrigued how you wrote that your mind concentrate on the physical”busy work” of controlling the pen and line and allows the heart creative spirit to take over and express itself. I’ve so often see this demonstrated in psychic arts — giving the physical body, I.E. conscious mind a menial task (for example controlled remote viewing), freeing the subconscious to achieve or create marvels.

So often, art is a conscious mind representation of nature or the environment, where allowing the spirit to just speak with an image has the raw communicative power that appeals to something deep within us, perhaps it is indeed your subconscious communicating to our subconscious in a way that transcends other forms of langauge….

What has struck me here, is that within each of the art forms, with their widely differing eras and styles, it is a language of nature that speaks through our human experience and expression.

Carl Jung writes in “Man and His Symbols” “What we call a symbol is a term, a name, or even a picture that may be familiar in daily life, yet that possesses specific connotations in addition to its conventional and obvious meaning. It implies something vague, unknown, or hidden from us…. As the mind explores the symbol, it is led to ideas that lie beyond the grasp of reason”

I think your artwork resonates as an intuitive language, but I also love its playfullness, and ancient yet future suggested symbolism.

In my tradition (I am Welsh) it is Celtic Art that provides a mythic language of nature and psyche. It is intriguing to see contemporary art connected with the ancient – even if we live in cities rather than the heart of the forests – artists continue to yearn to touch and express the rhythms of the mystical element of life, even through our unconscious. From nature’s intrinsic patterning from DNA to star systems, through grafitti art or the handprints of the cave painters, all is connected. Its very cool.

Thanks for giving this art history summation through this perspective. Jen

… oh, what the hell… I’ll just shoot it on over to him now.

Thanks for sharing, Jason, your revealing look inside the soul of an artist.

And for the record, I also agree about the gender-neutral position, as art seems to take on a more meaningful and long-lasting effect… the more interpretation is allowed.

Our make-up as feminine or masculine is not so clear-cut. And the best art allows for much interpretation… in a seamless “narrative” of sensation… not so dependent on wordplay.

It’s for this reason I can appreciate something about the commonplace or the deep-and-complex – and everything in between.

Art doesn’t have to be characterized by wimpy or nebulous qualities in order to inspire it either. It’s just that in a universe where the highest forms of free expression exist… gender-specificity seems often irrelevant.

Language and its role in communication – by comparison to other art forms – is vastly overrated. To my mind it indeed does separate us from each other… and the natural world from whence we evolved.

Why?

Because language causes us to constantly sort things out and dissect them in ways which creates division – like consternation and conflict – beginning in our own heads.

Art (including the best of language arts, BTW) allows us to be who we are… and brings out the best aspects of who… and what we are… to become.

Only you’ve said it better!

great to see your art up, and coming. Though, I ‘d like to argue that there are many forms of communication. Moreover, I doubt that the cultural languages have exhausted there usefulness to matters of the heart. language is an evolution, and a recycling. Viewing your work is a language in itself. What civilization would you call it?
Kudos on the anonymity.