Pure Intradisciplinary : The artist gives to a project in several ways; first and foremost, the creation of a strong artwork. Beyond this he should cross over to another medium to further support the meanings within the artwork---a medium which requires actual human labour and inventiveness---this means a minimal reliance on computers, and a minimal reliance on other people's services. All concept, writing and designing are for the artist to conceive, and some of his physical involvement should also appear within the work.
It is interesting to see how this personal and rounded striving can enrich a work so much further past it's original idea; and how this immersion, like the principle of 'method acting' can foster deeper insights and empathies for the characters.
In a time where entertainments are corporate and ideas are filtered through specialists, I see that a real artist can only distinguish himself in this way.
Applied Classicism is the creation of artistic works that follow the rigorous and rounded discipline seen in ages when art was married to science, humanism, and general exploration. It is made relevant to today's audiences and their issues.
My development to this point:
Growing up--
As a kid I remember contemplating the work of the early renaissance masters. In spirit, I believe that I wasn't the only kid who could identify with the childlike vision of, say, a Fra Angelico.
In these pictures I saw newness, ambition, discipline, and saintly naivete. It was magical to me-----reminding me of my fascination for books when I was just learning to read (we had a collection of beautiful children's books and art books from the 1930's---even the fact that they were all tattered added to their treasure-mystique).
So I read freely--both of stories and of pictures at an age before schools make us read in order to memorize and critique and compete.
I thought to myself how little of this magic exists in art today. It's known that the amateur has been admitted into the artworld--and anything goes....and it seems that discipline was the first thing to go.
In art class I saw an emergence of fancy talkers---as the artwork itself wasn't speaking to anyone.. These artists developed their word skills to the level of a political apologist ---using abstruse language---contriving to fool and intimidate an uncaring audience. I saw this while trying to fathom out the reason for all the contempt that people seem to have for art-makers.
.
When I started university I was bewildered by the insults I received from people that I didn't even know--both within and without the art dpartment..
I remember working one summer alongside an engineering student from my university----every day he would have new putdowns for me--- one day I had a book of Leonardo Da Vinci opened up in front of me. He looked at The Last Supper and said "That artsy moron couldn't even hang that up on a wall without an engineer"----As the rest of us know, Leonardo was an engineer.
I've always felt a kindred spirit with those old Quattrocento and Cinquecento guys ---and I naturally think about what a Leonardo would have done if he were living now. He would see that pure art is being surrounded and undermined by media stimuli that vie to do nothing but remove people from personal contemplation. He would see that artists are typecast as narrow and weak.
For my part, I naturally began to create ambitious compositions with an applied of architecture, anatomy, lighting and deeper psychology.
But it is hard to grab people's notice, these days---
If you create a work that celebrates the divine in the common man, you'll be disappointed when that common man misses it because his nose is in his Gameboy.
A work needs to invite people in...
So I started to create inviting compositions with narrative and rythmn and places for the eye to rest; I made beleivable havens using aerial depth and solid perspective. A good number of people actually stopped to look: they found themselves engaged in that higher, increasingly rarer form of thought called contemplation...and they told me that they felt rewarded. I was glad.
But I admit to wanting more-----I'd like to be as successful as those guys who sing simple little songs while wearing makeup and cowboy boots...
Therefore, a Fra Angelico must merge with a Charles Martel
And the work should invite people by grabbing them by the throat...
A few paintings later I started planning the composition of Memoir Of The Fourth Crusade---knowing that this would be my debut piece.
I needn't explain the depth of this one---but, continuing past the desire to make a beautiful gift for the world, I wanted to touch on other disciplines that are not expected of artists.
I constructed some props and modified a couple of rowboats (as mentioned on a previous page) to resemble the ships in the Memoir painting and started to make a little VHS film in a tentative attempt to explain the painting in an entertaining way. More entertaining than a written dissertation(again, getting away from the fancy rhetoric that makes people hate artists).
Experimental Foray Into What I Call "Pure Intradisciplinary(Applied Classicism)"
I wasn't sure whether this mix of real, (non-computer) media would work for an audience but in the spring of '97 I got a chance to show the smaller No Leaders Only Shepherds painting at a book-launch. The purpose was to celebrate a Kingston writer's new work; the paintings(by 6 Kingston artists) would serve to brighten the walls during the reception.
In a week I made a crazy, disjointed little film with my father's VHS camera---the theme was just an illustration of beating odds with rampant opportunistic thinking. For example, One scene shows a huge local quarry and some figures upon a high cliff are casting all kinds of flotsam down on one figure's head (played by me). My character uses this garbage (balks of wood, plastic barrels, etc.) to construct an armoured raft and proceeds to escape the stagnant valley---I'd never had so much fun in my life--I still watch those working tapes and recall the sheer fun of that 'work'!
So I brought this film to show on a tv screen beneath the painting and rigged a drape to obscure the painting while the film played, and, when released during the music (German heavy metal instrumental....."Destruction" was the name of the band, I recall) the curtain would fall to obscure the tv--thus revealing the painting.
On the night of the reception I met the assembled crowd of writers at one end and goth-kids at the other. My nervous attempts at conversation fell flat and I was already starting to feel silly to have dared to attempt this experiment within someone else's venue and social circle.
When the time for my unveiling came, I swallowed my fear and presented the work.
When it happened, the whole room reacted and then approached the painting----studying it for the rest of the evening. I signed my first autograph that night from someone who said "You're gonna be famous". Thus I felt encouraged by the whole experiment.
If That 4' by 4' painting, with a little film clip and a bedsheet-curtain could basically rock a tough audience's asses off, then imagine the greater Memoir piece with real theatrics...
