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Every Grain Of Sand - Bob Dylan

30/11/2014

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In The Time of My Confession, In the Hour of my Deepest Need

PictureBob Dylan - Concert Flyer Art





"That was an inspired song that came to me. 
I felt like I was just putting down words that were coming from somewhere else, and I just stuck it out."

                                                    Bob Dylan


Please take time to read the lyrics below and contemplate their meaning before listening to the video recording of this song.

Song Lyrics

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed
There’s a dyin’ voice within me reaching out somewhere
Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair

Don’t have the inclination to look back on any mistake
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break
In the fury of the moment I can see the Master’s hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand

Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer
The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay

I gaze into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer’s dream, in the chill of a wintry light
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other times it’s only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/every-grain-sand#ixzz3KPGlhkD8

In every period of culture there are certain points of convergence where inspiring things happen in the arts. Everybody has their own opinion about what they are or when they occurred. I'm convinced that the elements that intersect to create cultural ripples came together in "Every Grain of Sand" by Bob Dylan. 

There are few that disagree with the premise that something great happened when this song was penned by Dylan in 1980. A great way to measure "greatness" is to look at how many others cover or imitate the original. Does it matter if something is great? I believe it does, simply because there is enough mediocrity everywhere but that never takes us to a place of inspiration. More than ever today we need inspiration because we are surrounded by so many tempting yet empty distractions that threaten to quench the imagination and destroy creative excellence!

This video below is a live recording of the song taken from a concert by Bob Dylan in Paris in 1984. In spite of the different approach to playing the song and the audience feedback the core emotional impact of the music and the lyrics remain, as if it didn't matter where or how they were played. This is the mark of great art, it is never divested of its power to provoke and cause wonder! 
 

Throughout Dylan's musical odyssey from the first time he appeared in New York venues back in the 50's he has had his critics and detractors at every stage of his progress as an artist. He always replied when asked, "What else can i do but try to inspire people!" It was always as simple as that but people couldn't and still can't resist looking for something else, as if he had been lying to them or trying to deceive them. 

Dylan has been a mysterious figure because he chooses to shroud himself with a certain level of ambiguity in order to maintain a distance between himself and those that try to lay his life bare. It doesn't matter what people think of him as a person so much, ultimately, what does matter is what has he accomplished in his creative life. Upon close scrutiny, it is clear there are few other artists that come close to what he has done. More than 50 compilations of recorded studio and live music place him in the same category of creative "iconoclast" or "juggernaut" like Frank Zappa or Neil Young. He is one of the few who truly has influenced "generations," not just a generation. 


"Every Grain of Sand" is a timeless, moving, contemporary rock hymn filled with surging, velvety menace yet also a beautiful melancholy and hope that stirs deep emotions, helping us realise we are never alone. It is a cry from the heart of a man searching for truth yet at the same time, understanding the fragility of life and the overarching omniscience and greatness of "God." It is a song that has often moved people to tears not only because of the conviction in the words but the soulful music which tugs at the heart. However the critics may try to own him as their tragic, tortured lost genius, nowhere does Dylan ever deny his belief in a "God" who is in control. 

All through this song Dylan paints a picture of two paths and the torment and temptation of which one to take. It is a song about all of us just as much as it is about him ... it is universal in its message of "choice." The whole song is about life as a journey and the decisions we make along the way and the reminder that there is always a price to pay for the choices we make. In verse four the tender humanity of his lyrics is poignantly expressed; "I gaze into the doorway of temptations angry flame and every time i pass that way i always hear my name." Everyone can identify with this intense human struggle with temptation, to say "no" and to do what is "right" according to "good conscience." 

Dylan has used many biblical passages in this song yet the message isn't accusative, condemning or exclusive but rather a sincere and honest reflection of the human condition with all its complexity, wonder, tragedy and quest for redemption. It is a tender invitation to reflect on who we are and where we are going.  
 
It seems as if this song is the "period," the punctuation for Dylan that brings a certain period of spiritual exploration to a close. Many of the secular pundits hated his Christian or "Born Again" phase seeing it as an anomaly detracting from his previous commercial achievements but i see it as the honest spiritual quest of a man who has always asked the big questions about life. It hasn't just been about money or fame for Dylan but rather a quest to "know." He is "chameleon-like" and often obtuse and provocative but maybe this is a pretence, a defensive move to shield a life constantly in the limelight and under intense scrutiny. In retrospect it is possible to trace the various phases of innovation that his art has gone through and that is how it should be. For any artist to continue doing the same thing without innovation is artistic "death!" 

Dylan seemed to return to his Jewish "roots" after his apparent tryst with "Christianity" but he has always used religious symbols and imagery in his poetry. It is hard to know where Dylan is at today and due to a thought provoking yet frank interview he gave with CBS not long ago, (click here to watch) it seems as if he made a deal with the "devil" and is still performing regularly in order to keep to the terms of the "bargain" made. Yet, regardless of how things appear on the surface, it is as Dylan says, "the press doesn't judge me, God is the judge" and that is a fact. No matter how you attempt to explain his influence on the 20th and now 21st Century culture, he is a "force of nature."   
Bob Dylan is an extraordinary and enigmatic poet who often said he didn't know where his songs came from, it just happened like magic! Whether this is true or not we are left with an incredible musical and literary legacy that few have not been touched by, in some way, shape or form over the last five decades. 

I've been inspired by Dylan for a long time but "Every Grain of Sand" will always hold a special place in my life and in particular the beautifully haunting harmonica solo on the original studio recording. No-one does it quite like Bob!
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Wolfgang Laib's Organic Eternal

25/11/2014

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Ephemeral Fields Of Pollen

The artist makes this statement about his motivation:

"The pollen pieces look like yellow paintings,” he said, “but it’s much, much more. It’s not a yellow pigment, which is very important for me. It’s the potential beginning of millions of plants. It’s the semen for the plants. And this I was interested in. It has an appearance, maybe, like a painting, but the sun is not a round ball. It’s much, much more. The sky is not a blue painting. For me, these things were somehow very important. I would have stayed as a doctor, if art was only about this color or that color." 

Laib's first pollen piece was created in 1977 and he has made many of these over the last 36 years. It could be said that these have become a mainstay of his artistic program and are now installed in museums all around the world. The artist uses different types of pollen such as dandelion and hazelnut, harvested manually from plants near his home in Hochdorf, Germany. These are collected with even more difficulty and patience required than it takes to actually  install them in a museum space which is also considerable. 

It is clear from a study of Laib's ascetic art that he is more akin in thought and actions to a Zen monk and the gathering and installation of pollen projects has become a meditative practice for him. It appears that these have become inseparable and enable him to not only demonstrate in a constructed visual manner but also to live out in his practice the cycles found in nature. This is not surprising as he has devoted much time to learning Asian philosophies and languages in which these principles are firmly embedded.  

PictureHazelnut Pollen - 2003 - Wolfgang Laib
What always amazes me as i study history is the freedom that any artist has today to realize their own vision. This wasn't always so. The art world as we know it today was practically non existent even 60 years ago. The systems of galleries and museums now feed into each other in an interwoven fashion on a global scale whether for good or bad. One thing is for sure, this system won't be going away while there is such easy money to be made by big business and art is big business! 

If my tone is edged with a bit of cynicism then it's only because of what i see as the escalating politicization of the art world by large corporations. What is positive about the system though, is the space that can be opened up for dialogue about many kinds of art. In particular an eccentric or peculiar art like that of Wolfgang Laib, a German artist who makes grand statements out of plant "pollen" and wax among other organic materials. Prior to the sixties, i doubt whether there would have been much possibility for an artist like Laib to do what he does in such a public arena. His work could be categorized or linked to the "land" or "environmental" art that we have become reasonably familiar with today through the art of James Turrell, Robert Smithson, Andrew Goldsworthy and Richard Long amongst others. 

Collecting Pollen - Wolfgang Laib
Pollen Installation - Barcelona - Wolfgang Laib
Pollen From Hazelnut - MOMA - 2013 - Wolfgang Laib
__From various blog comments i have read about Laib, it is apparent that a lot of people don't consider his work to be art. Some have even vilified him about his "rice" installations pointing out the starving people in the world but that's an issue for another time. Even decades after the postmodern period when art categories were collapsed into each other via "Conceptual" art and visual technologies and the capital markets turned art into "high brow" entertainment, people somehow still insist on a personal and subjective distinction of what art is or should be according to the traditional European model. 

The fact is, you can't have it both ways! There's no going back; Pandora's box was prised open by Marcel Duchamp and his "urinal," ending art as a "play of visual ideas in the hand crafted" object. We are now in the age of art as, "ideas playing with the idea of art in the machine made," even without an object, unless "software" is an object for you! Ideas are now considered art without the necessity of an object and this has overturned the old handmade paradigm. At the bare minimum, Wolfgang Laib has reconnected the "natural" and represented it as visually "present" natural objects choreographed by hand minus technology. This makes him an original artist/thinker in every sense of the word!!

Laib is opening up new vistas for the technologically down-trodden common man by trying to offer a connection back to the joy and profundity of nature. There are some who appreciate what he's doing but many who look for a few seconds and spontaneously start thinking about somewhere else they need to be. It's just too hard and hey, it doesn't look like Pop art so it mustn't be serious, right? At first glance we could make the mistake of pigeon-holing Laib and his art as eccentric, offbeat or out of touch with what is "trending" now. 

This is the problem with the "public" who for the most part won't take the time to learn about something that doesn't provide them with the immediate "thrill" of novelty. The service that Laib renders to all is the opportunity to break the "spell" of the "technological matrix" we increasingly find ourselves in and "see" for a moment "who we are" and "where we are" in relation to the natural environment at this time in history. Maybe people are frightened of what they might see.  It's easier to "avoid" than "confront."  
There's no doubt about it, Laib's pollen art is a bit difficult because of the intentions behind it. The finished pollen field doesn't hold forth like a "Pollock" painting even though they're both created horizontally on the the floor. There's no paint or dripping, no noise or action and no athletic posturing around the perimeter of the piece as it takes shape. The confusing part for most viewers is that it's lying on the ground like a sculpture and not hanging vertically on the wall where paintings should be, right? Then there's the artists' intention for the work which is to create a pollen "field" indoors rather than a pollen "painting" using pollen as paint material. 

Laib says:


"You could think that a meadow or a forest is the opposite of the gallery space here, but I feel this is something very good. The meadow is a natural environment. But when I collect the pollen and bring it into the gallery and make just a square with pollen, it's intensified and abstracted. It’s a very intense experience in a very abstract environment, totally different from the natural environment of the meadow. You will see this pollen in a square field in this artificial light. It is not about a meadow and nature, it’s about the pollen itself." 

So, the artists' intention is to reify the life force of plants in concentrated visual form on the floor of museums where urban people are challenged to reconsider "nature" in condensed form. The simple fact that it looks like and acts like a painting is good enough for me. The pollen fields are "constructed" meticulously with "material" and the finished piece is a finely nuanced "composition." Mud as paint, clay as paint, minerals as paint, plants as paint and pollen as paint; seems like a logical extension to me! 
Wolfgang Laib's intentions for his art are very close to many other artists. He also is interested in the nature of existence and what makes everything "tick." His post painterly obsession with all things "organic" and in particular, "pollen" is no reason to exclude him from the club. Art is meant to take us away to another place beyond ourselves and engagement with Laib's art does this if we're willing to spend the time required to do so.

Laib says again: 


"I was fascinated with what pollen is in itself. Pollen has incredible colours, which you never could paint, but it is not a pigment and its colour is only one quality out of many, like a hand has a colour, or blood is red but it is not a red liquid, and milk is white, but it is not a white liquid. It is the difference between a blue pigment and the sky."

Wolfgang Laib's concerns are all "artists" concerns, only the material and presentation differ. 

Laib is an inspiration to me not only for the set of unique ideas he is working with and the physical realization of them but the length of time that he has persisted with them. To keep the faith with one's own convictions and stay the course for almost 40 years and to develop an art practice that embodies repetition, ritual, process and strong adherence to contemplation in the face of art world trends, requires a unique and singular focus. 

This kind of singular artistic vision is needed more than ever in a time of social and cultural homogenization when people are becoming increasingly more desensitized and disconnected from the world of real "values" and each other! 
Download  this file for more information on Wolfgang Laib.
wolfgang_laib.pdf
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"Mise En Abyme" In Painting

14/11/2014

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Windows, Mirrors and Painterly Construction
PictureBritish Coat of Arms - 1816 -1837
If you have never heard of the term "Mise En Abyme," pronounced, 'miz an abim,' then you are probably one of many and shouldn't be too surprised. The term comes from French "heraldic" terminology and simply means to "place into an abyss." This in turn translates simply as, "put in the centre" of something and in particular a "coat of arms." An example of this "placing" is illustrated below in this British coat of arms showing the outline of the total shape echoed again in a smaller version in the centre of the design with an added crown. This phrase is simply a good jumping off point to have a closer look at what has become a fairly common but highly effective device used in modern art. 

Compartmentalizing a composition with discreet areas recessed into the surface where a motif is repeated, is a strategy that was in use more than 1500 hundred years ago but has become more common in contemporary art. This kind of strategy requires a certain way of looking and a particular kind of thinking. Most paintings are constructed around a particular motif or subject such as a flower or landscape etc which is constituted as a unified "whole." Some paintings are created as a field where the whole surface is unified by a dominant color or pattern or both without any distinctly recognizable motif. To divide the surface up into discrete areas in order to draw attention to a particular symbol or shape by repeating it and then augmenting that by use of its adjoining areas, is another kind of approach used often in abstraction. Mise en abyme is a way then, of making an intervention in the composition and emphasizing its critical components to the viewer.  
      

An early example of mise en abyme is shown below in this image of a mosaic from the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul from 537 AD. Here you can see the city of Istanbul and the Hagia Sophia itself being presented as offerings/gifts to Mary who is also part of the very same picture found in the Hagia Sophia. What we don't know is, if the artisan who created this mosaic did it with full intent and understanding or incidentally as a play of compositional balance. The meaning is certainly not lost on those who understand and can read the symbols. 

Another great example is "Las Meninas" painted by Diego Velazquez in 1656 where he very skillfully divides up the picture into at least four separate areas that echo the outer shape of the canvas. The rear of the large canvas can be seen with the artist standing in front of it and looking forward directly at the viewer. Then there is the strong shape of the pictures at the back of the room hanging on the wall. On the same wall it is just possible to make out what looks like a portrait or maybe a mirror reflection of the King and Queen. Finally there is the figure illuminated in the doorway at the back of the room. This is a wonderful early modern study of squares or rectangles within a square/rectangle and remains one of the cleverest paintings ever devised playing with perception and a tremendous awareness about and confidence in what the artist is doing. There are many interpretations of this picture but i'm primarily interested in the use of the square echo throughout the painting. 

One of the greatest Modern artists to exploit mise en abyme in his paintings is Rene Magritte. His work "Representation" from 1937 is really simple but a very clever painting. The nude torso echoes the shape of the frame in such a tight relationship that they become one and the same to complete the illusion. The female torso so completely fills the frame as to seem to come bulging out into our space as if through a portal in time. There is no room for the eye to get past or beyond the torso stuffed into the frame; no rest from the advancing image as it surges into view. There is a certain strange mix of menace and anticipation when viewing this painting. Here the idea of the "insert" or "motif" is so central, so immediate, it totally envelopes the viewer in suspense. This effect is only possible because of the frame sympathizing totally with the human form.

Mosaic - Hagia Sophia - 537 - Istanbul - Turkey
Las Meninas - Ca. 1656 - Diego Velazquez
Representation - 1937 - Rene Magritte
Mirror Room - 2013 - Yayoi Kusama
Untitled - 2013 - Anish Kapoor
Public Space/Two Audiences - 1976 - Dan Graham
Maybe this pictorial strategy has been exploited in "Surrealism" and "Pop" art more than any other. I'm speaking here of the use of mirrors (see image gallery above) where the reflected subject is endlessly reproduced into infinity. This trick optical effect has been exploited commercially "ad nauseam" by many artists because it is intriguing visually but serves often as a gimmick by which to wow the viewer and snare the buyer. Mirrors are at once fun and understood easily as most people are familiar with the carnival sideshow and the "house of mirrors" where many go to be entertained by having their bodies stretched and contorted. Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has used mirrors to great effect in her "infinity" installations for many decades. Some other artists who exploit mirrors for different purposes are Jeppe Hein, Dan Graham, Robert Morris, Anish Kapoor and Robert Smithson. 

As intriguing as "mirror art" may be, i'm more interested in the "recessed" image as "contrast" in the composition, not endless multiple reflections of an original subject acting as critique for "presence/absence" or location of the "subject." In the gallery below i've provided three images that demonstrate the use of shape(s) within the art object that reflect or echo the outer edge of it. The first, 'Untitled" by Karl Holmquist, a Swedish artist, uses the simplicity of a checkerboard pattern to emphasize the diamond shape of the object. The black and beige diamonds conspire through repetition to not only create an illusion of depth but draw our attention to the very "edginess" of the edge. 

The middle image is "Black Square" by Kasimir Malevich, possibly the most well known and important abstract work of art. The central black square was meant to express "pure" feeling surrounded by the white "void." The black form echoing the white surround echoing the edge or border of the work is about as close as you can get to the "sublime" theoretically if not experientially! For the time in history that this was created it was absolutely "new" and totally baffled viewers who had never witnessed anything like it before. It is the negation of everything and yet the ratification of everything in the same visual "instant."

The last image is an encaustic work of mine "Untitled 160907" from 2007 that demonstrates again the echoing of the outer perimeter by the use of interior regression of the same shape into the appearance of perceptual infinity. Each square or outline of a square serves to emphasize or heighten the "squareness" of the art object. Repetition becomes important in the attempt to create visual profundity out of simplicity. 
Untitled - 2013 - Karl Holmquist
Black Square - 1915 - Kasimir Malevich
Untitled 160907 - 2007 - William M Boot
PictureComposition 2 in Red , Blue and Yellow - 1930 - Piet Mondrian
One artist that was using mise en abyme to extraordinary effect was the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. Unfortunately, his work has been exploited shamelessly since his death and can be seen plastered over commercial products everywhere. This is just one more example where profundity has been reduced to the banal through business. Mondrian spent a lifetime working his way through theoretical issues to arrive at his personal philosophy of life and art based on "Theosophical" principles only to have it reduced down to trite pop confection. He had to simplify his art using simple shapes, lines and colors in an attempt to fully realize visually the "spiritual" in the plastic arts. He was a "Utopian" and believed that all things would eventually be realized in a final "Hegelian" blaze of "pure spirit." His use of simple shapes within the composition of his paintings mirrored the edge of the work but also his attempts to get to the "essence" underlying reality. His use of the square, diamond and rectangle has had a revolutionary effect on Modern art. Mondrians use of shapes and in particular the "square," as windows within a window is a perfect demonstration of the completion of an idea or perceptual strategy using the grid; a far remove from the use of mise en abyme in the mosaic from the Hagia Sophia more than 1500 years ago, or is it?  

Below is an interesting essay on the use and meaning of mise en abyme in Medieval art by Stuart Whatling of the Courtald Institute of Art.

mise-en-abyme.pdf
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I have been greatly inspired by many artists that have employed mise en abyme compositional strategies to tremendous effect in their work. It enables an apparent dividing up of the surface while at the same time allowing a unified appearance. This push/pull tension is an excellent device to work with, opening up all sorts of opportunities to test new compositions. This appearance of unity makes interesting "serial" works possible, which resonate their similarities when exhibited together in a group. Recessing and reflecting images within an image is an excellent way of building visual complexity and multiple levels of meaning within an artwork.  

Below is a YouTube video spoof of dynamic mise en abyme.


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Frank Zappa

8/11/2014

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Remembering Frank Zappa: Musical Voyageur and Independent Mind
Picture
Chances are, if you're reading this and were born after 1990 you're probably wondering who Frank Zappa is. Unfortunately, in 1993 at the relatively young age of 52 he died, cutting short what had been an incredibly productive musical life. Frank Zappa is described by his peers as nothing short of a "genius" and an "iconoclast" in every way. It is possible that time will show him to be maybe the most creative force in "contemporary" American music. Zappa was a "polymath" in every respect and essentially taught himself everything he knew. It is difficult to understand how such a gifted man could arise from relatively humble beginnings from an ethnically diverse household in the desert back blocks of California. Included in the list of talents ascribed to him are musician, bandleader, songwriter, composer, recording engineer, record producer, and film director among others. Zappa wasn't just an exceptional artist he was in many ways a "force of nature." He is gone but not forgotten and is slowly being accorded the recognition and status, that he never quite received in his lifetime. 

The following video interview is particularly telling of his sharp intellect and acerbic wit but also disdain for the music industry, formula thinking and what he considered to be stupidity. 

Frank Zappa's musical tour de force spanned more than thirty years beginning with his introduction to percussion at the age of twelve when he obtained his own snare drum. From the outset though it was apparent that Frank was treading his own path. He developed his own eclectic taste for music and began to seek out diverse personal sounds that resonated with his sensibility.
 
He stated, "Since I didn't have any kind of formal training, it didn't make any difference to me if I was listening to Lightnin' Slim, or a vocal group called the Jewels ... , or Webern, or Varèse, or Stravinsky. To me it was all good music." 

By his late teens he was involved in a school band 'The Blackouts" at Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster CA and had become friends with Don Vliet aka "Captain Beefheart" who attended the same school. They were to remain in contact and work with each other on and off until the day Zappa died. Frank's musical influences ranged widely from Modern Symphonic through to Modern Jazz, R&B, Doo Wop and Rock incorporating such artists as Edgar Varese, Igor Stravinsky, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, 'Howlin' Wolf and Clarence 'Gatemouth" Brown amongst many others. Zappa went his own way following the sounds he heard inside, determined to realize his own vision in music.

Time and time again when interviewed, Zappa would reiterate his personal philosophy about American life and society and how he thought it should be. He remained an outspoken rebel and a "thorn" in the side of the establishment and in particular the marriage of big business, religion and government. He saw this mix as being the enemy and a danger to free thinking society. Frank really was a kind of "voice in the wilderness" warning against what he saw as increasing government control by the military industrial establishment and the development of what he called a "fascist theocracy." When corporations like MGM, Warner, CBS and Mercury or individuals attempted to usurp control over his music, he would fight back in court or seek out alternative routes around the obstacles in his path. He was a role model, leader and trend setter who although well known, remained on the fringes of the mainstream music establishment. This doesn't mean he wasn't recognized, on the contrary, he was held in high regard by professionals in many different music genres during his life.

The three albums in the gallery below are considered by many to be significant achievements in his career but with so many records to choose from it becomes a personal choice based on taste. Listen to a few and find your own favorites!
Freak Out - 1966
Hot Rats - 1969
Joe's Garage - 1979
Frank Zappa was known for his perfectionism and demanded the best from his band members. His meticulous attention to detail drove the constant innovation from live performance to recording session.
 
David Walley his biographer wrote, "The whole structure of his music is unified, not neatly divided by dates or time sequences and it is all building into a composite". 

Nicolas Slonimsky the composer and musicologist after working with Frank stated, "I admire everything Frank does, because he practically created the new musical millennium. He does beautiful, beautiful work ... It has been my luck to have lived to see the emergence of this totally new type of music." 

Zappa was constantly attempting to push the boundaries of music just to see where the limit was. Many musicians who couldn't meet Zappa's exacting requirements came and went during the auditions. He always ensured he was playing and performing with the most skilled and innovative instrumentalists.

In his attempt to reach and define musical limits Zappa wrote a notorious piece of music called "Black Page" which contained short dense passages and complex rhythmic structures challenging what was humanly possible to play. This search for the limits was typical of a man who never tired of inventing and exploring. He often said that he never repeated any of his performances and that they were all different, "unique" and this was why people came to see him play; the material was never the same. For Zappa, the whole purpose of playing "live" was to see what he could invent spontaneously in a given space of time. He couldn't fathom the boredom of doing the same thing over and over like most professional musicians did.
Frank Zappa has 62 albums to his credit and another 37 produced by his family posthumously making a total of 99 albums available for all to enjoy. This prolific output is the result of a musician who never stopped working and maybe because he sensed his time was short. Accolades came thick and fast from far and wide after his death. Music world personalities such as Jeff Buckley, Paul McCartney and Brian Eno as well as groups like Primus, System of a Down, Clawfinger and Black Sabbath among many others all attribute inspiration from his music. 

Zappa also produced a film called "Baby Snakes," was an actor or voice artist on various TV shows and was even asked by the Czech government to serve as consultant for trade, cultural matters and tourism in 1990 at the end of the Cold War. During 1976 and 78 he was guest, host and musical act on Saturday Night Live on NBC. He also appeared in the US senate to give testimony against the PMRC who were attempting to bring in new censorship laws. The science establishment have honored him naming 8 newly discovered organisms after him. 

Frank Zappa has been an inspiration to me ever since i first heard "Overnight Sensation" way back in 1974. As a young traveller i was impressed by this strange kind of music with it's offbeat satirical humor. I sensed the importance of what Zappa was doing although i was too young to articulate it at that time. All these years later and long after his passing i more fully realize what a giant he was but like so many before him was not really recognized because he didn't conform to the mold of commercial pop culture being thrust on the masses. 

Like him or leave him, Frank Zappa was an innovative "genius" in his field who is still impacting contemporary culture, decades after his passing. I believe he and his music will be re-discovered by a younger generation and experience a resurgence in popularity. Whether or not you agree with his personal views on social behavior, politics, education or religion there is no denying his accomplishments in music!

There is a lot of Frank Zappa's material on the web to peruse free so please take the time to learn about his significant contributions to art and culture! 
Check out this interesting YouTube video set interviewing Frank Zappa.

Frank Zappa Exposing the Illuminati Parts 1 and 2

http://youtu.be/JshARrVS_Q4

http://youtu.be/VYjjEv4HBXk
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Painting Abstract Realities

2/11/2014

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From Concrete to Abstract and Back Again

PicturePainting 05 - 1963 - John McCracken
What causes artists to copy or mimic their environment or conversely make strange worlds out of what is unseen? Much has been written about why different artists have created art in the manner in which they have done over the course of history. It is hard to dispute the archaeological evidence that art was originally created as an integral part of the worship of a deity or deities for many primitive or pre modern people groups and this should not be ignored. 

When the making of art was separated from its sacred function by industrial societies and "free" artists, we saw the rise of secular thinking and different understandings of what art is and what its function should be. With spiritual societies we see art depicting unseen abstract entities and concepts usually within a framework of mythologies. With the advent of secularism and the decline of the church in the West we witness the attempt to avoid the abstract with strict adherence to the "real" or what is seen! The advance of technology and the separation from nature and the land witnesses a return to abstraction in the 20th century as artists begin to yearn for a return to a more fundamental life with deeper meaning. 

This migration between what is "seen" and "unseen" is no accident as artists in the process of making, attune themselves to deeper, inner realities and feelings. These "feelings" can only be expressed by the idiosyncratic use of colour, line, texture and form. Here i would postulate that if there is no other reality than what can be seen, tasted or felt in the here and now then the "process" of "making" becomes vital to "being." This is echoed in the words of Barnett Newman when he said "we are making it out of ourselves," in other words, the outer cathedrals of worship aren't valid anymore so we are constructing "inner secular cathedrals" in order to find a new way or purpose in art and life. The making of art then becomes an attempt to make something new out of the "self." This is a major leap from previous artists who for the most part painted representations of mythological characters, stories from the Bible or genre scenes and portraits. The exception here is probably Islamic culture where figuration was forbidden and was replaced with intricate pattern systems particularly in and on mosques.

Picture
Who's Afraid Of Red, Yellow and Blue 4 - 1969-70 - Barnett Newman
PictureCurrent - 1964 - Bridget Riley
So what happens when an artist makes art and in particular abstract art? How does any artist proceed with the "making" from start to finish? One of my favourite books, "Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of The Worlds Most Creative People" by Robert S and Michele M Root-Bernstein details thirteen ways that creative people learn and utilise in their attempts to find/create new ideas or inventions. Whether the intention is towards the sacred or secular, from the outset, most creative people work through stages of understanding/knowing from imitation to innovation, gradually employing more and more of these thinking strategies. Recognising and skilfully applying observation, imaging, abstraction, recognition of patterns, formation of patterns, analogies, body thinking, empathy, dimensional thinking, modelling, play, transformation and synthesis, enables the artist to see the unseen and discover novel solutions to problems. Understanding the relationships or connections between concrete and abstract ideas or things is a prerequisite to invention. Those who take the time to learn these connections and apply the thirteen tools will find new possibilities in whatever field they may be working in.

PictureBlack Iris - 1906 - Georgia O'Keefe
The see-saw swing between the concrete and the abstract can be witnessed in various forms across time as artists struggled to find their own voice. The thirteen tools have facilitated that creative to-ing and fro-ing, empowering artists to reach heights of excellence in creative expression. Painter Bridget Riley describes her paintings as “intimate dialogue(s) between my total being and the visual agents which constitute the medium … I have tried to realize visual and emotional energies simultaneously from the medium. My paintings are, of course, concerned with generating visual sensations, but certainly not to the exclusion of emotion. One of my aims is that these two responses shall be experienced as one and the same." Riley has an intimate grasp of these thinking strategies and uses them to achieve her aims of bringing visual sensation and emotions together in the viewer's mind.

Georgia O’Keeffe wrote, “I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at - not copy it.” She understood that through careful observation in order to get close to what she was trying to paint she had to re-invent what she saw and that would result in a "translation" of her subject not a copy of it. Her work skirted close to the edges of abstraction as she developed her own painting "voice." 


Even the poet E. E. Cummings, wrote, “the artist, is not a man who describes but a man who FEELS.” He was quick to dismiss the idea that writers are just wordsmiths manipulating syntax and grammar. The feeling of the artist hunts for an avenue of expression via the mind using the creative thinking tools. The process might go either way, concrete to abstract or vice versa. The important thing is that the artist is able to bring into the world new "things" that open up new "perspectives" whether by poem, painting or other means through often very "abstract" feelings.

What is the future of abstraction? Abstract art has been mainstream now for over 100 years and is accepted by larger and more diverse audiences than ever. There are still detractors who attempt to marginalise art that requires thought but the public is increasingly more aware that abstraction is the difficult but necessary twin of figurative art. For me, abstraction is the key to an open horizon because this kind of thinking underpins the "obvious" or what is easily "seen." 

I'm inspired by artists that find their way through the maze of creative possibilities and then go on to do amazing things in the field of abstraction. Whether dealing from a sacred or secular viewpoint abstract thinking opens up a plethora of creative possibilities!  
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