Beginnings of new years mark change. As with every year 2012 will be a time for evolution. 3 of the greatest artists and thinkers in history have reminded me of the best things you can achieve as an artist. Progression, fearlessness, and vision.
Towards the end of last year I saw the Picasso exhibition, while he is not my favorite painter, this exhibition blew my mind, even after seeing all of Picasso Museums in Europe.....I've only just come to appreciate the extraordinary range this man had, and how completely open he was to all of his ideas. To see how quickly, and confidently his works were constructed, is crazy. No fussing, no finessing just solid raw creativity. Some of my paintings just happen quickly, instinctively, these are the best by far, and others that I labor over, manage to turn the corner, ,and then there's the others that never make it, no matter how hard I try. Can't polish a turd as my brother in law would say! Sure Picasso had a few turds too, every artist does, but his were done with just the same confidence as a great piece! No wiping back, no laboring, nothing. You can almost hear the internal dialogue if this painting is coming out shit it's my shit, and my shit doesn't stink!
The other thing that has woken me up is watching the recent doco on Jean Micheal Basquiat. When I started painting I watched the movie 5 times. He is one of my favorite painters ever. Alongside with Keith Harring he is the father of the street art movement today,What natural genius. For the people that don't understand why he's a genius, and there's people that don't, genius is creating something entirely original, and then being compelled to create and let that vision evolve where ever it needs to go......untamed. As opposed to someone who can say draw proficiently well, but like everyone else.
Just after I saw the Picasso exhibition I saw a Doco on Bill Hicks one of America's greatest Comedians, and more than just a comedian he was a philosopher. Way ahead of his time for his anti corporation, anti war ideas he became more famous in Europe than he did in his own country. Sticking up one of his quotes in my studio has taken away any of the pre exhibition nerves that I usually have before I have a solo exhibition such as I'm about to with "Jungle love" "Don't be afraid, Don't ever worry, because it's just a ride" That's right normally right now I'd be going in for heart surgery, or breathing through a brown paper bag.....not this time. To know that I've done all I can is liberating.
These three men have had such a huge effect on me right now, because I'm at the point where as an artist I have different things that I want to say. I've done a lot of diverse things since I started as an artist, painted a series of myself in the shower, paintings of graffiti on walls, I painted the 6m sq space that I lived in with an ex boyfriend and turned it into a collaborative installation, as well as painting a suit for a magazine shoot, but most people would recognize my reclining nudes and women in bikinis which started to attain notoriety about 2 years ago.
As an artist people begin to label you, which always seemed stupid to me,"You're a figurative painter", or you're a "landscape painter". These are dictated by the market, or dealers who are defining you to their buyers. lately I've heard Sexy, sensual, not that there's anything wrong with that, it is obviously a part of myself that I have enjoyed expressing, As a person, as an artist I'm multi faceted and there's different things I'd also like to express this year, but first things first.........It's been a solid year of painting exhibitions and it's almost time for a holiday to reinvigorate, stop to smell the roses and appreciate all the good things that have happened in my life last year. It's been an amazing journey.
My final thought, the thought that sums up the courage, and vision of Picasso, Jean Micheal Basquiat, and Bill Hicks and where 2012 will take me is this:
"It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture, It's because we dare not venture that things are difficult" Roman philosopher mid century AD
