I drew this in response to assignment 3 for Eric Maisel's Coaching Visual Artists online class.
We were asked to imagine ourselves (artists) as world builders. What kinds of worlds would we build as world builders ...?
The other part of the question was on the issue of desire--and what would we have to do to keep or reignite our passion for a project.
I'm still thinking of my responses, but I wanted to post this drawing up first for inspiration's sake ... The burning of the books represents the alchemical nature of the transformation of knowledge by passion and desire
Enjoy!
3 comments:
I'm in Eric's class, too, so I get the 'world builder' idea and imagery. But the books as fuel image comes across to me as book-burning, which is horrifying, and, for me, linked with supresseion rather than world-buildilng. So the image made me cringe, but got me thinking about images and what they mean in different cultures. Which is much in the news nowadays anyway. The cartoonist as cultural reporter. All interesting.
I'm in Eric's class, too, so I get the 'world builder' idea and imagery. But the books as fuel image comes across to me as book-burning, which is horrifying, and, for me, linked with supresseion rather than world-buildilng. So the image made me cringe, but got me thinking about images and what they mean in different cultures. Which is much in the news nowadays anyway. The cartoonist as cultural reporter. All interesting.
Hi Quinn,
Thanks for your comments. I was quite conscious of this aspect of the images of book-burning when I posted this. Yes, and especially now, with the whole cartoon controversy and all the riots happening due to that.
That was why I added a little caveat emphasizing the alchemical process of burning rather than the literal destructive burning of the books. For me the transformation of creativity and knowledge is the important key here. In this sense, we have to destroy the old form, to create something new.
But I did create this image before the riots, but it does have an uncanny resonance right now with the situation that's unfolding ... it is a little unnerving to see such huge reaction because of some cartoons. And here people say that cartoons are nothing more than a minor, unimportant art form!!!
Perhaps what i want to say is really a protest against the (deadly) literal-mindedness of dogmatism to suppress any form of expression or questioning of authority. And in fact, to me, that's what's happening right now in the world--an example of the horrible effects of entrenched ideology trapping knowledge within the cages and pages of conformity...
These issues are man-made, and not of any divine origin though. And it's just sad what's happening...
Hmmm you've given me more food for thought, and maybe some new ideas for new images ...
Post a Comment