Painting After Art is Dead

Last time I wrote for myself (and for you, whoever you are) I touched on the word impulse (in the context of my recent project, village impulse). “Village” was very much at the center of the project for myself and the core group of creatives that drove it (and part of why we opened up this project to others outside of that group). The image below of a human-scale exquisite corpse drawing that was in the show (it morphed into something else at one point) includes contributions from at least 8 artists.

The textbook definition of “village” is a small community. If you’re reading this particular blog, you’ve definitely heard someone utter and likely even used the phrase “arts community” yourself. They are often small (arts communities), like a village, so, I guess, they are a village.

A number of things come to mind for me when I think of communities- shared interests, sticking together, aid for each other in times of need*. At least, communities that operate in a healthy way have these attributes. The impulse to find a village is a thing, for those reasons. *If you wanna help out, Orange County Arts Commission has some ways given the recent impacts of Chantal on the Hillsborough community.

Surrealists and Dadaist were drawn into villages in the aftermath of WW II. I can’t imagine how horrific that epoch must have been. For me it stands as an example of one of the truths we try to internalize when practicing the tools and skills in dialectical behavior therapy- I am suffering, and, I am capable of making changes to my circumstances.

This project also has a relationship to Modernism, through Surrealism and Dada. Modernist were proponents of many ideas, a number of which could roughly and collectively be tossed in the bucket I’ll call the universal village. If you’ve visited here before you are not surprised to hear me return to this territory. The similarities of context to this epoch and the Modern era (generally I’ll call it rapid change) merit a reconsideration of the ideas that developed in that time. Both to re-center constructive, empathetic thinking about a holistic view of humanity and our value as individuals and unified collective, and learn from the places where the raw aspirations of the ethos soured and turned against any sort of “universal” mission to unlock human potential and freedom.

Any who, as usual I’m ruminating more than presenting a thesis statement; trying to sort out my own values in words. If any of y’all figure it out just holler. If you like these words share and tell a friend to tell a friend. Be good to your village and nurture it, loves.