artist statement done

i am a collage artist. i cut up other people's pictures and put them where i think they should go in order to make a statement about poverty, politics, religion, people and the ridiculous. i enjoy doing this because i have been able to read about other cultures, religions and ideas of the world we live in.

i have never been formally educated in any art form. i learned this particular brand of art when i was 18 and living in dallas. i met and worked with some amazing artists and musicians who helped pave the way for the path i am on now. so it was in this real life that i learned what art meant to me and what it meant to be a kind of 'artist'.

i also play experimental electronic music and have a long list of shows and appearances over the years in dallas, philly and DC. i have played with crash worship, the dallas philharmonic orchestra (with my didgeridoo), too many DJ's to name, local bands in DC and dallas as well as having my own half hour solo experimental set called 'ms. conception.'

i have finished up reading an interview with the director of stalker, tarkovsky.

he says

'with out the ideal an artist cannot exist. and the ideal we know is unreachable. that's why an artist is a useless entity in a practical sense, he constantly worries about the ideal and the ideal is not a concrete thing. it cannot be utilized in any way. and this in my opinion is the drama of the contemporary society which demands practical applications of the artist. and when you try to use him this way then you break and destroy him like a toy. and nothing is left of him"

he then goes on to ask some questions about art.....the artists condition.

"what is art? what is masterpiece? what is its meaning and condition? what does a work of art express when it is a masterpiece? it expresses a certain greatness of human spirit. it expresses the ideal this spirit is striving for."

there are so many ways to define art. in budapest i saw some amazing street art that allowed me to see a smidge of the underground culture there.

i can't be sure i know how to define art for anyone else but myself and i suppose ultimately this is what art should do for everyone. we all have our own tastes when it comes to things that please our visual minds.

for me it comes down to a feeling....having a feeling of some kind of emotion when i look at art. i personally don't see any value in the blank blue canvas that adorns the wall of the modern art wing at MOMA or at the national gallery in DC or anywhere else in the world.

some people love rothko but i can't stand him.

that's not to say that what rothko does isn't art but for me, it doesn't stimulate my senses. it doesn't "move" me i guess is the word.