An Imaginative Eye (indeed)

Apparently the inner adolescent has gotten free rein to express some ideas lately, so here's a couple of surrealism styled pieces that have been put together using 'childish' media...

First, there was *this* one, using a box of oil pastels on A4 sized black paper:

And this next piece was done using some brightly coloured 'dual tip marker pens' on A3 cartridge paper:

Was actually *fun* exploring the colours and shapes both - layering the colours across each other, considering which shapes went where, and how to express something 'beyond words'. 

It's not that I have a particular idea in mind when I start these more 'abstract' pieces - I'm just exploring an intuited concept - and translating the impressions into something relatable?

Well worth the effort 😉

Existential Dread - a new genre for the post-pandemic world?

I’m coining the genre ‘Existential Dread’ - not sure if it’s a thing, but it’s a narrative concept. It’s rather dark and spooky like indie/emo, and it’s not likely to inspire positivity, just a vague sense of unease… therefore dread.

I’ve kind of mixed in a range of different artistic and philosophical subtypes, and it’s using both intuited knowing and depth psychology analysis.

I figure it’s a way of discussing the dark shadow underneath the conscious society, but in a subtle and hopefully disarming way.

Not sure how long before I get bored with it and go off on a different train of thought entirely; but I kind of like how I can blend genres and themes to elicit a subconscious response from both the reader and their own shadow.

So, as such, my proto theory is that it will get the reader’s shadow to know that it’s been seen. Much like the courier in the dream?

At the very least, it’s a way of running a thought experiment on myself, seeing if I can apply what I’ve figured out in a way that helps me to run the cultural scenarios that I can see going on in society that aren’t really being objectively examined by anyone else, really…

So, rather than just sitting on the sidelines being triggered by the stupidity and ignorance out there and turning into a raving conspiracy theorist or cynical cyborg, I don’t have to wait for a dream to incidentally occur?

I can see how people are just responding to their monkey brain elements, and even rat brain in the current decade. Rather than internalizing the various existential threats as paranoia, anxiety or fatalism etc, it’s a way of testing the narrative of the different scenarios, at least the human sociocultural tropes.

I plan to stay alive for a few decades yet, so may as well find the dark humor inherent in the irony of no longer giving up on humanity in general?

Graphite on Gesso Grafting

I can tell when a piece of art is likely going to turn out well, when each stage is effectively a finished piece in its own right 😄

^Hmm… at least some progress?

The tricky part is how to get the sketch done without smudging it on the chalky gesso surface 😉

The next part is likely to be how to get the base shapes in *without* the graphite bleeding through 😕

(At least I’m satisfied that I’ve got the initial layout right; roughly double the size of the A4 black and white print out?)

Righto. Initial foray back into doing art successfully initiated 😇

It’s kind of good that the ‘technical drawing’ skills from my early secondary schooling in the mid 1980s actually helps me with structural drawings 😊

It’s all in there, just waiting for opportunities to be applied 😂

Hopefully by adding the water now, I can pare back the graphite bleeding through later?

Next, I need to consider how to at least satisfactorily paint the image in my head as I go 😜

*muscle memory tiiiiime*💪

The painting wasn’t working out as well as I'd initially hoped, once I started adding the watercolour paint 'washes'… 

😓 So I'm going to 'shelf' it for the time being... 🐱‍💻