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Replace fear with curiosity !
36"x48" Mixed media on canvas
"What I am made of?"

About Art

Below is an exempt of an article by a neuroscience! student Josh Siegle

Works of art are like people. They can lift you up, teach you valuable lessons, and inspire you in your daily life—but only if you're willing to invest some time getting to know them.

The problem with many museum-goers is that they expect to find instant gratification. They're searching for paintings that awe them with their beauty or their wit; if they don't like something right away, they can forget about it and move on. This is the wrong approach. Just as with human relationships, engaging with a work of art should never be a one-way street. A great work of art is not a runway model, there for you to ogle from afar. A great work of art is not a street performer, there to entertain you in exchange for the contents of your coin purse. Judging a work of art without taking the time to learn about its history, its motivations, and its aspirations is every bit as superficial as judging a person by their appearance alone.

Importance of art

The necessity of maintaining art in our daily lives was clearly stated best by Leo Tolstoy - The activity of art is... as important as the activity of language itself, and as universal. By words one transmits thoughts to another, by means of art, one transmits feelings.

What is the most interesting abstract art work. (Just an opinion)

  

Art is alive when it first crashes on the art scene when critics and art world don't quite know how to respond to it.

J. M. W. Turner's Rain, Stream and Speed (1844)

Turner was exiled by the academy in 1838. This is one of his earliest attempts to capture his era and experience in a new style. One could make an argument that the above painting is one of the first impressionistic works. The hues and the technique of applying paint had to be rethought. This painting was a game changer. 

Beauty

“Beauty will save the world” - this famous as it is mysterious Prince Myshkin quote from Fiodor Dostoevsky’s human-psyche-deep-diving record holding “The Idiot” stayed with me my entire life as the single greatest idealistic metaphor of all times. The more we travel a remarkable journey of a mind-bogglingly changing world, the more I start taking it at face value. Yes, BEAUTY quite literally is a force capable of altering the disastrous and self-destructive course of a militant consumer civilization on the loose. Whether it “will” or will not largely depends on our actions as servants of this cause – BEAUTY.
 from Novorealism by Alex Steele

About collage

"Masters of collage". From Picasso to Rauschenberg

26/11/2005 - 26/02/2006

In the fall of 1912, using only scissors and cheap commercial papers glued to their drawings, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso invented collage and forever altered the way in which art was made and received. Artists throughout Europe and the United States immediately recognized the new medium’s far-reaching potential. In Italy, the Futurists, advocates of World War I, used collage to capture the fury of battle and celebrate the dynamic pace of city life. In Germany and Switzerland, the war brought disillusion and the birth of the Dada movement. The Berlin Dadaists George Grosz, Johannes Baader, and Hannah Höch conceived of photomontage as a medium of protest against the existing social and political order. In the new Soviet nation, on the other hand, artists Liubov Popova, Gustav Klutsis, Lazar El Lissitzky, Alexandr Rodchenko, Nikolai Sidelnikov, and Solomon Telingater used collage and photomontage to celebrate the progressive goals of the new nation.

In contrast to these earlier movements, Surrealism, founded in Paris in 1924, drew upon the unconscious as the essential source of art and life. Max Ernst, René Magritte, and Joan Miró collaged together random images to create a new visual poetry drawn from the hidden recesses of the mind. Following World War II, European artists Jean Dubuffet, Antoni Tàpies, and Joseph Beuys worked with rudimentary materials that reflected the grim reality of a devastated Europe. Inspired by the Surrealists, Americans Joseph Cornell, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, and Jackson Pollock sought new directions in art based on the unconscious. For each of these artists, cutting, tearing, pasting, and layering materials enhanced the sense of improvisation and freedom of execution that were crucial to their creative process. In the mid- to late-1950s, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns redirected the viewer’s attention from the psyche of the painter to the everyday world using vernacular subjects to question the meaning of art and its relationship to the culture that spawned it. For them, as indeed for all of the artists who work in the medium, collage has been the means by which they could best convey the unorthodox in art and life.

What is age?

Today I thought  about age. 40 was a magic number in my life. I woke up in the morning and had that totally new feeling.I do not have to rush anymore, do not care about looking better tomorrow,feeling better tomorrow, making something important tomorrow. It dawn on me that all that counts is today. I remember the feeling that life is so short when I was young, I had so many plans it was no time to look at the flower for the whole 3 min.Life was full of important dreams and talks. How would staring at the plant would help changing the world? Now at 40 I felt that priorities change the order. Looking and absorbing tiny things gave me a feeling of different speed of life,kind of living in parallel world,being in 2 places at the same time. One is short days full of endless over-comings and another one with all time in the world where every minute is eternal and mighty.

Does an artist need an image?

Trying you establish my art carrier I was wondering of how much of personal image of the artist effects the viewer,or is it important at all. Is being the regular person with everyday routine and dividing your time between the art and family is damaging oppose an image of bohemian eccentric artist that allows him(her)self to be above it all. There is an article i found in Fine Art News blog.
This article is by Brian Sherwin,
 "for example, many fans of Frida Kahlo note that knowledge of her personal life impacts how they view her art. The same can be said-- for better or worse-- concerning Pablo Picasso and knowledge of the volatile relationships he had. On that note, those who enjoy Mark Rothko's paintings often know details of the hardships he endured-- would people experience strong emotion before his paintings if they were not aware of his struggles and suicide? With that in mind, should art speak for itself-- or can the voice of art, so to speak, be strengthened or weakened by details of the personal life of the artist behind the artwork?
 I can recall a project that I was involved with while taking a college level  psychology class that explored this issue. We showed a group of people images of art without saying who the artist behind the artwork was. I recall that we had to make sure that the people involved did not recognize the artist's work. The two artists that stick out in memory happened to be Adolf Hitler and John Lennon-- two names that need no introduction for very different reasons. The goal was simply to see how people reacted with their art criticism after finding out who created the art. 
Those who observed Adolf Hitler’s artwork before knowing he was behind the creation of those images were impressed by it-- noting a strong sense of architecture and space. Those who observed John Lennon’s artwork before knowing he was behind the creation of those images were not very impressed at all-- most asking if they were drawings by a child
After showing the work and documenting the views that everyone had we revealed the artists name in connection to the examples of images shown. We then followed up on the study a week later. At that point when Adolf Hitler’s artwork was shown people tended to mock it and mention how it was technically flawed and mediocre as a whole-- completely opposite of what they had said before. When John Lennon’s artwork was shown again people tended to suggest that his works displayed a strong use of line and mastery of gesture drawing-- Lennon went from being viewed as a ‘bad artist‘ to being viewed as highly creative just because his name-- and thus all that is attributed to it-- was revealed.  Those who forgot the names of the artists after a week tended to stick with their original statement-- and criticism-- concerning the images. 
It leaves me to wonder if the power of art is found in the personality and life choices-- both that of the artist and of the viewer-- or within the image itself. Perhaps it is a meshing of both? Consider this food for thought."

Interesting article from PROF ZEKI'S MUSINGS blog

Desire, sexual misconduct and deactivation of cortical areas

It must not be assumed that people who are brilliant in their work, rational in their thinking, caring in their attitude and sympathetic to others in their daily life are necessarily acting “out of character” when confronted with strong desires.

There are situations, and powerful sexual desire is almost certainly one of them, when a person is no longer in control of his or her actions. I say “almost certainly” for I have not seen the results of any experiments on this topic. But there have been papers on the cerebral activity that accompanies intense feelings of love as well as sexual activity. These have shown that, in addition to cortical areas that are active during these experiences, the two states, and especially the latter, lead to de-activation of large parts of the cortex.

Included in the de-activated areas are those which are traditionally thought to be important for judgment. Hence, this cortical de-activation may provide the reason for why we “take leave of our senses” in these conditions and sometimes behave in ways which are injurious to ourselves and others, as well as being incomprehensible and “out of character”.

One consequence is that we are less judgmental about those we love; another consequence is that we are also less judgmental about ourselves, our actions and even our future. Put more briefly, the first and highest priority is satisfy the desire.

How else to account for why great and honourable men and women have risked their future in trying to satisfy their desire, often through behaviour that is incomprehensible and “out of character”?

It is also important to note, as a reflection of brain specializations, that this lapse in judgment is not universal. One who takes "leaves of his senses" in matters of love or desire may be quite rational in judgment of mathematical or historical or scientific problems. In other words, it is not the faculty of judgment that is lost but only judgment in certain domains.

Whenever the world is mesmerized by the downfall of one man through a momentary lapse of judgment, we might do well to recall that in situations of love and desire, we may not be in control of our actions, or be in only minimal control of our actions because of the de-activation of our cortex. Consequently, we should not be too quick to pass a moral judgment.

"Good Morning, Darling" oil ,mixed media,collage.16x16 $300

Lately I feel strangely aware of life, if you know what I mean. Strong ,pulsating energy goes through my body, it is different from  excitement and at the same time it is the closest description that comes to mind. It is like i do not need glasses any more and my senses are heightened. I go through the day with a thought:" Thank you, G..d , for letting me live"

Believing in yourself.

The is a thought that well expressed.
" Piccasso was a terrible colorist. Turner couldn’t paint human beings worth a damn. Saul Steinberg’s formal drafting skills were appalling. TS Eliot had a full-time day job. Henry Miller was a wildly uneven writer. Bob Dylan can’t sing or play guitar.

Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain.
Nobody can tell you if what you’re doing is good, meaningful or worthwhile. The more compelling the path, the more lonely it is."

 Nobody has it all, it is about individuality and acceptance.I think it relates to anybody who is defending there own identity. What is interesting is that we have to overcome the desire, the need to be accepted.we asking to be embraced and understood now.... while all of us knows of delayed gratification. why oh why?

Mr. John Collier notes from the book "The Art of Portrait Painting" about John Singer Sargent

Cultivate an ever-continuous power of observation. Wherever you are, be always ready to make slight notes of postures, groups and incidents. Store up in the mind without ceasing a continuous stream of observations from which to make selections later. Above all things get abroad, see the sunlight, and everything that is to be seen, the power of selection will follow. Be continually making mental notes, make them again and again, test what you remember by sketches until you have got them fixed. Do not be backward at using every device and making every experiment that ingenuity can devise, in order to attain that sense of completeness which nature so beautifully provides, always bearing in mind the limitations of the materials in which you work.