Does Art Matter Any More?

New Work.  "Trip To The Beach"  20x60 Mixed Water Media  A Unique Original.

Does Art Matter Any More?

The foundations that I have and that I work with when I create a work of art are always challenging me.  For example, the notion of all art being subjective - as an expressionist I used to live and die by that notion. But, lately I have noticed that the foundations that I was taught many years ago don't work for me anymore.  I ask myself why,  I build from my history and values to try and figure out if art matters any more or not.

The notion of expressionism has changed for me. The word was once linked to independence and individualism.  But individualism and the struggle by others to capture my soul and my uniqueness and formulate it into their notion of selfness and subjectively have altered the notion of individualism as unique to individualism as anything goes - in particular the arts.

So, I ask, "Does art matter any more?  Is art a relationship of power with others or is it something that transcends these relationships, is universal (color blind so to speak) and natural?"

For me, expressionism has become my uniqueness and my ability to do what comes naturally. I have my eternal hope and I search for transcendence beyond the powers that try and subjugate my uniqueness.

The grids that are appearing in my work represent this search and represent subjectivity.

I saw the rainbows and I danced with them

“I saw the rainbows in my studio and I danced with them.”

When I paint, my aim is not to try reconcile the conflict between chaos and order – to soften the hard edges of disorder and find a harmonious center or whole and then to soften the hard edges of disorder or make everything monochromatic. I believe that life is not that way. We become disillusioned when we try to make it something other than what it really is.  Life is bumpy and playful. It can be a marvelous ride if we don’t try and make it something that it is not.  When I look outside and watch the wind blow the tops of the trees, I ask myself,  "How in the world could I capture that movement, that dance without destroying its beauty?" 

My aim when I create is to honor the movement, the wind and the differences in it.  These differences, this otherness like the wind is unique, individual and independent. Yet, at the same time, it is part of a whole - a whole where not all things fit together like a jig saw puzzle, But, it is where everything fits because uniqueness and individuality are respected and honored. They are an "otherness," a difference that exists in chaos.

I deeply respect and see this uniqueness and individuality.  I respect and look for the independence that it can create for it is where I believe a freedom exists. Freedom should båe unfamiliar and abstracted like the wind.  This abstraction, this unfamiliarity connects and expands for me. As I begin a painting, I am extremely comfortable with it and how it moves and struggles and plays during the whole process of creating. I don’t try and catch it. Just like the trees, I try to dance with it and move with it. This unfamiliarity allows me to explore. It allows for me to have my own struggle. For me, I find the struggle extremely genuine and very authentic. I find sheer pleasure and erotic ecstasy in creating when I dance with the wind. I see the cards that I have been dealt and I play them when I can, and try to fold them when I can’t dance with the wind.

“I saw the rainbows in my studio and I danced with them.”

"Three Pears"

My new work, "Three Pears,"   30x40 watercolor on 300# arches

"Fish In The Reef"

"Fish In The Reef" was juried into the "Rockies National Watercolor Exhibition that is being held March 1-April 2, 2016 at the Western Colorado Center for the Arts.  What a wonderful time to be in the Rockies.  But, then being in the Rockies is always a wonderful, anytime.

Park Bench

"Park Bench"

She came everyday

listening

to the sweet song

the blue birds

sang.

She came everyday

watched

blue birds dance.

Tiny sky blue wings

waltzing with the

wind.

The park bench is

empty these days.

The blue birds

still

serenade and

dance

with the wind.

She knows it is

time to return.

To dance

with the

wind.

- Christine Alfery