Ideas for painting…….
Kilkenny born artist Graham Carew
The trouble or problem in being an artist today is that there are no more new ideas, all things have been tried. We are rehashing the same old messages, trying to flog the same old dead horse.
As people, who we are, where we come, from our social economic backgrounds, religious beliefs, shape who we are and predominate inmost cases, our way of thinking, This runs against the grain in being an artist, Almost, all of us want to shape the world, leave our mark, we all want to be original, a one off, to have original ideas, influence the world around us and even shape the future generations to come ,
And when you are an artist you tend to suffer from ideas of grandeur that we have a God given right to shape to preach to future generations, We all have kept College work ,or are loathe to throw out early pieces from our career, as they will no doubt be important in future years in teaching students of art……. Obviously they will hang in museums or indeed the museum that has been called after us. “The Big Important Museum of Graham”. His early years, Blue period etc.
Where artists suffer, I see is that in different codes, music, fashion, its acceptable to do cover versions, regurgitate work the same old message from early periods with a twist obviously, whilst in art, there is pressure to try something different. To be different even though no matter what we try, the message is the same as previous generations.
This is not an attack or a swipe at these codes just a series of thoughts of when a man of a certain age ponders his mortality where he wants to go in his life, is he content to produce certain type of work or attempt to create inspirational work. In my own case I tend to be figurative based and inspired by my surroundings, events in my life ,music etc……….Yet I’m also acutely Aware of previous artists who have come before me ,I can’t help but be inspired by Diego Garcia’s political murals and , Max Beckmann and Francis Bacon. Renaissance masters, their use of perspective ,their use of pencil and line …… and yet when I’m in the midst of processing thoughts, creating work, I see bits from other work other artists that inspire me, Ill take a piece from Basquiat , from Nick Cave’s lyrics ,Beethoven, from a tree outside, a fly on the wall ,mundane things and great things. A Patrick Kavanagh quote here, So here in lies the problem as a viewer you see a painting of a series of rambling images together, or an image of a son and father on a boat and you think how quaint, or that doesn’t really go well above my fireplace where as I see a relationship between my father and me, all father and son’s relationships my own awe of being a father……………… Who gets to call it art, who gets to say that one’s thoughts or lofty eyebrows deserve more attention, who gets to say that one way of spending your life is better than an other, that to expose people to this “bad fireplace art” I mean we all listen to music, we all have thoughts, where we contemplate our navel, where we wonder O lord why me….. We all have peculiar habits. I personally have a few, several I’m quite proud of…..
Look at religion and the gradual decrease in Europe of organised religion how it is now better to find one’s own path to God to look at spiritualism and it’s different forms And the rise of the life coach, self religion ,self help course. Is it not the same basis? (all good in their own way and have their uses)… but is it not all the same message marketed differently in a different box?…Even the difference of religions, are peculiarities caused by man rather than Divined based…..We are all peculiarities, based on our surroundings, on where we are on this particular day, in this particular period of history and if one person gets listened to more then someone else more fool you…… So where does this lie with my art? I hear you ask. Why have I spent the last minute reading this spurge of thoughts (which I thank you?) As an artist I wonder who am I to preach to explore my thoughts express them on to you the viewer. As an artist I can only strive to produce work that inspires me that maybe captures a time period and I have come to realise to accept that even though I might look different, act different, that I’m cut from the same cloth as my father, that I’m comfortable in these shoes, that I want to be a part of my environment, a part of my generation, pay my dues to my ancestors, that my steps is their steps… My art is ok to go through traditional phases I’ll do a series of nudes and no it’s not cutting edge, or sexy, its just a step on my way to becoming a master, (self depreciation/appreciation is a strength/trait of mine). As we become influenced or acceptable of someone’s work we find out their influences and go back along the time scale to the start of their career to see where they became influenced. A lot of life is who you know ,who you don’t .You engineer your luck, in life its who you know not what you know and unfortunately it’s the same in art also, we all know people who are truly inspirational who should be top of the pile but for one reason or not is not. Or you hear of people who come to the fore after their untimely demise. Mic Christopher ,Jeff Buckley, Elliot Smyth are examples that come to mind in the music field and in the art world one’s reputation can rise or dive due to a gallery or critics personal opinion or even in most cases you are not appreciated till after you have moved on from this earth………..(how fair is that like)
But I will say one thing which I’m coming to realise is that we are here only in one shape in or from at this period of history, why not try to leave the world in one piece, better than we found it, why not change the way that we inherit the previous generations ‘shit and leave it worse for our kids…
Recently my family and I made a big move away from what we know. Ireland to Istanbul, a completely different culture, different religion, different everything and I’m surprised how my kids took to the change so well and how I myself took to the challenge of learning a new language which I’m ok at …… but it shows that we never lose the capability to learn new things or experience new things so here is my one piece of lecturing to you never be afraid to try learn new things…….
Email: info@grahamcarew.com