Estrangement

I developed this series in 2002. There are 12 images in the series, all 21 x 24 inches on Stonehenge paper using chapapote (tar in resin) and oil pastels and spray enamel. I think that the series is strong, and will exhibit it as soon as I determine how I want it to be shown.

The title of the show was originally to be called “Erotica”. Erotic art became a subject of interest.  This series seeks to answer the issue: “What is it about certain kinds of erotic art that makes it good both as art and as something erotic; what are the elements of eroticism in erotic art, particularly good erotic art?” Help, in answering this question was found in an article by Rick Garlikov A Philosophy of Erotic Art. With assistance from Rick I revised the way in which I was to present the show “Erotica”: which under Rick’s suggestion was titled “Estrangement”.

It was apparent that the series of 12 paintings that I exhibited in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico were not meant to be “seductive”…but “is intended to capture or portray a certain experience or mood or feeling.”  According to Garlikov, this then was an artistic challenge:”since so much of “sex is of a tactile and emotional, rather than a visual nature” that “portraying the essential flavor of something successful in a mode that is not where that essence (normally) lies or can be experienced is a distinct achievement.”

I agreed with Philosopher Rick Garilkov when he wrote, “artists can help people share, and realize they share, certain common (wonderful) emotions and experiences. Such sharing can be a good experience in itself. Artists can demonstrate that a certain experience is perhaps a possible and worthy goal to someone who may never have sought it or even thought about it before; in this way art may create new possibilities for someone. Some of these may be of great benefit and value. Capturing an experience in an enduring art medium helps keep that experience alive in memory, and helps us relive the pleasantness and wonder of the experience each time the work of art jogs and brings alive our memory.”

The images shown attempt to capture the mood I was under when I was doing these and Garilkov commented after reviewing the images that; “I don’t think you need to give much explanation or anything unless you just want to. I think the paintings are for the most part clear, but with enough possible ‘enigma’ to make people need to think about them as a series. They make a great series, and, I think, are much better as a series than as a collection of individual paintings. Together they tell a story.”