Little Giants

Postmodern

littlegiants — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:35:16 +0000

There are several aspects of art that I have been considering. The first is the propagation of the modernist experiment by the application of the applied arts as it serves industry and economy and the second are the dying aspects of artistic experimentation within the postmodern avant guard. I use the term of dying in that the postmodern is being leveled by its inequity of utility as it applies to the building of capital either through labor or through knowledge. What I find is that radical experimentation is at a crossing point in which it finds itself closed within the walls of hyper-capitalism and hyper realities. All artistic services are moving through a one way avenue of prepaid minutes and the prefabrication of language games as they reach the term of their expression. All aesthetic input must be de-emancipated as it wallows in the nihilistic milk of simulacra, the spunk and lubricant of our vile, what is called popular and what is called culture. I see an inequity of any attempt to put forth the effort at comprehending radical artistic experimentation, and not rather, than its actual output which is legion and yet seems to have a null effect. Radical experimentation as it relates to political action also suffers in turn, as political action becomes de-pluralized and therefore isolated. In this way it seems, that the yokes of mysticisms are festering within what is considered to be a rational scientific consciousness with opinion polls describing Americans as increasingly believing that the Earth is only a few thousand years old and that the alteration of scientific curriculum bows its woebegone head to the interests of religious fascists. In one sense then, the future itself is ending and not just history. So it seems that each, modern and its post, in turn cancel one another out until we are left with noting but the mechanics of production and consumption for its sake instead of art for arts sake. Perhaps this is the end of the future of what we know of culture, and if so we better hurry up and come up with new terms of the expression of cultures language games or we will face not only an aesthetic crisis but a social and political one, if we are not at it’s foot already.

Old and New

littlegiants — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:45:38 +0000

An older image, but it is descriptive

Cultrual Animal

littlegiants — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:55:30 +0000

This image is derived from the fact that as a society we are engaged in a multiplicity of social experiments where the human soul is under attack. Without realizing it we are unwilling guinea pigs in a covertly progressive liberal conservative mix of digital simulacra and biologically altered hyper realities whose sole purpose is to seek total control over not only our basic human decision process, but the way in which we perceive our most basic human connections. Despite our laws and assertions of democratic grandeur this illegal experiment slides forward at a terrible velocity.

Non-representative

littlegiants — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:25:48 +0000

These paintings come from an entirely different kind of space. They are free from their immediate representational constraints and I wanted them to operate in that way. As far as being successful paintings I believe that they are only mildly so, in that they achieved a kind of disconnect from the world of things, of the world of form, and are self contained. In terms of writing about the paintings it is very often the case that artists do not know what they are doing, not necessarily. So that is a type of excuse in writing about these paintings. I find in that having an intellectual way out is useful for me as well as those who can contemplate the paintings in a full way.

Abstractions

littlegiants — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:56:03 +0000

The black bird paintings are the same as these in terms of feeling, I believe that one can see the similarities. There is a distillation here with these abstractions, a holding down of the idea or the feeling tone of the theme of a kind of denigration. These are better paintings for several reasons. They are not tied to a particular form in this would that has an infinite amount of associations. They exhibit an emotional space in a better way.

Black Birds or Crows?

littlegiants — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:29:35 +0000

These paintings come from a personal space where my belief in the institution of the American family have been denigrated by our cultural addictions.

A little giant is back

littlegiants — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:51:28 +0000

I have decided to re-express myself and post my current and past works of aesthetic debasement and achievement to this space. This past winter I created a series of watercolor paintings based upon a family of crows. I tend to avoid figurative work but in this case I was looking for something a bit cathartic. As far as understanding abstract art I have a number of thoughts on the matter. Personal reflection is necessary when understanding abstract art. Abstraction conveys meaning directly without the reliance upon what is readily known. It side steps our epistemological addictions and debases the lord of form which is itself entirely deceptive. The form in abstract painting then can become something aside from pretty little things. A viewer is asked, challenged even, to work to fit abstract form into his or her limited set of schema without the aid of his direct knowledge. The emotional and spiritual impulses that a viewer of abstract art arrives at is based upon their personal experience, their cultural conditioning, and their will to seek meaning. It is the will to meaning that abstraction seeks.