Sacrifice
Acrylic on hardboard 14" x 14"
Themes in art are often about the 'human condition': how we understand ourselves, our feeble attempts to relate to each other and to our environment. Many artists however also use "carriers". I can't explain this better than to say for me that means a 'local activity' such as war, family, journeys. (Artists and critics often call these 'themes' but I see them a bit differently). These carriers are useful because a piece of art is a concrete thing, a 'focussed' thing. And because we are driven in our lives to 'do' things - go on journeys, make war, make peace, have families and so on.
I find the underlying themes easier to deal with than the carriers, which always give me trouble. I like how some artists relate to something another artist has done (Hughie o'Donoghue with Van Gogh or Picasso with Velasquez) or relate to something that happened in the news - o'Donoghue's 'Diver' series or in their own family - his father's war memoirs. These kind of things pull you back into the real world but then allow you to reflect on the human condition. Does this make sense or am I rambling?
ps. I need to put a halo on the dog - now what is that saying??
posted by Sheila Vaughan at 10:01 AM
9 Comments:
I think most dogs should have halos. So that's just me. It's sad that if we talk about anything in more than 140 characters today we fear we're rambling. I love both the painting and the discussion, and I know what you mean. Gorgeous painting.
XO Barbara
I think your ramblings make absolute sense, Sheila. You bring up concepts regarding what artists "say," and how they say whatever, that I often think about myself. I have very personal thoughts about the futility of war and politics, especially as it is not done not too well these days in the U.S., but, for me personally, my art is not the vehicle via which I express those feelings. I'm quite simply in love with painting nature, my fellow man and woman, and hope that in so doing I, too, make valid statements about the human condition, and our relationship to the world in which we (try to) live. It's 3:30 a.m. as I write this. so perhaps I'm also doing a bit of rambling, when I should be sleeping. Ramble on, I say.
...and oh yes; love this painting, with all its verticals and diagonals and especially where you placed the doggie.
Very powerful message, on many levels.
Barbara - yes what you say is right. It is sad to feel we may be irritating people if we go on at length. Thanks so much for your contribution.
Bill, you raise an important issue. Of course, artists, like any of us, can have strong social and political views but it doesn't have to come out in their work so directly and after all just painting what we see around us "through our eyes" (because nothing is objectively seen) that is a comment on the human condition. I think we have to be careful about being "pompous" about these things. And if I'm not rambling I'm darn sure you aren't. Thanks for that Bill and for your kind words about the painting.
Sheila, as far as I'm concerned, it's your blog, and you can say anything you want to. Use your words, your art, your blood, your sweat and tears. All of what you are means something worth expressing.
The pairing feels sad and lonely. Keyword: feels.
Well done.
Sam thanks for commenting. I think the pairing is just symbolic of our feeble attempts to relate - man to man; man to animal (animal to animal have it more sorted than we do). As to sacrifice, I find lots of women do sacrifice things and are regarded as "good people" but often their is a slight simmering resentment within. So many reluctant "sacrificees". As to the dog and the halo (which I have still to put on) dogs sacrifice too for us - to protect us, to care for us. They give up their freedom for us by and large. Great creatures as you well know. I wish you could observe the dogs in Addis Ababa - such dignity.
What a wonderful and powerful painting. I love it.
Jala, good to get your feedback. There is something magnetising for me about painting from inside my head - inside out really.
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