Notifications Pending: 1984 in Kansas?

If you use Facebook you may have noticed some spam-like e-mails in the past couple months or so in your in-box. The subject line is something like 'John Doe You have notifications pending'. Am I the only one that thinks there is something wrong when your social media site is sending you messages akin to what you might see in debt collection notices?


It reeks of a spammy e-mail that should be in the junk folder, right? Notifications pending? It sounds so official and important; urgent even, and of course none of the 'notifications' are urgent at all. I do not like it when companies or institutions or web-sites are trying to lure you in with manipulation, important sounding keywords, aggressive over-marketing disguised as something vital, etc etc. Only to get you to come back and use their site, product, or whatever, more. Facebook sounds desperate and manipulative and a long way from it's original attempt at being trendy.


Maybe I am just over-sensitive because I have been reading,.. err listening to the audio-book of 1984 by George Orwell. I never read it,  unlike some students who had to in high school classes, so it was a first for me, although I knew the basic themes.


It is a fascinating book on at least a few different levels - social science, politics, futurist,.. Getting into the book and then listening to the news for example, I noticed many parallels to things in the story. Things like the struggle between the elites, the middle class and the poor, or the effort to control thought through information manipulation. The latter especially relates to the here and now, the information age. For example celebrities, athletes, politicians, get into Twitter Wars and try to define recent major events with their own 'spin'.


Another recent example is the Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and a high school senior who had visited the capitol and tweeted something negative about the governor. The governor tattled on her to her high school, and she was urged strongly to write an apology letter. Pulling a tweet out of cyberspace from a girl whose major tweet topic was Justin Beiber and making a fuss over it? REALLY? This is what our tax dollars go towards? This is how they spend their time? Trying to coax an 18 year old woman into respecting someone she does not? Scary.  


A reason this is scary to me is because it is akin to another story that is in the headlines recently. It's about a Thailand citizen who received twenty years in prison for sending four sms text messages that were considered insulting to the Queen and the monarchy. The situation is not exactly the same as with the Kansas Governor obviously, but both are situations in which people in power over-reacted to citizens who were communicating privately their opinions about government; in an effort to control those citizens' self expression.


Social media and the internet has allowed information to spread to many parts of the world and allowed quick communication between the people. In many ways these open, international, informational tools and the freedom it brings people is the opposite of 'Big Brother' government in 1984. In the story, the government changes history books, photos, newspaper stories, etc. to suit their own current political needs. Which is not dissimilar to what many current dictatorships try to do by controlling the flow of information in their country with things like pro-government propaganda, internet censorship, even banned phone text phrases, in an attempt to try and control the people from understanding true reality.


So if the book 1984 teaches me anything, it's that keeping information open and free and truthful and available to all the people is a very powerful thing. The ability to freely express one's self is a powerful thing.


As our world jumps every day further into the cyberspace information age, and as the control of that information becomes more of a political and economic issue; I urge us all to always defend the ability for all people to have free and open access to information, and the right to express one's self freely.

Thoughts and History of: Die Brücke

Die Brücke (The Bridge) is a group of German artists who played a major role in the development of the expressionist movement in early 20th century Europe. They sought to create a bridge between old styles like fellow German printmaker Albrecht Durer and a more visceral, free, raw, direct form of personal expression. A metaphorical bridge to a better, more free future both in life and in artistic expression. Their first exhibit was held in 1906.

You can credit this group of artists with inventing the linocut, something I have been getting into doing lately. They also energized interest in the woodcut has a viable expressive medium, and to me this is the most interesting work that they did. The woodcut was used in medieval German culture has a popular way to illustrate a narrative, but Die Brücke artists used the woodcut because they felt (and I agree) that it is a direct, raw, genuine, mode of personal expression.

Karl Schmidt-Rotluff, Two Cats, 1915, Woodcut.

The group was started by four German architecture students; Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, joined later by Otto Mueller, Emile Nolde, and for a short time - Max Pechstei. Some of the influences on these Die Brücke artists were: Edvard Munch, Van Gogh, and Gauguin, all of whom exhibit elements of expressionist use of color and form in their style. But rather than painting only light or the reflection of light like their predecessors the impressionists, they infused their work with emotional expression.

One of the themes of the group was an outcry against the excesses of bourgeois society. German philosopher Frederich Nietzsche (1844 -1900) was also very critical of bourgeois society and was an obvious influence here. The Die Brucke artists set up studios on the outskirts of Dresden in a working class neighborhood, their aim was to separate themselves from modern society and free themselves from the trappings of a culture that disconnects one from a more vitalized, direct, and personal way of expression. They preferred a more liberal and bohemian lifestyle than the rigid, often strict institutions of early 20th century Germany could provide. This quote is from the Die Brücke manifesto; which Ernst Kirchner carved into wood in 1905:

'Putting our faith in a new generation of creators and art lovers, we call upon all youth to unite. And being youth, the bearers of the future, we want to wrest from the comfortably established older generation freedom to live and move. Anyone who directly and honestly reproduces that force which impels him to create belongs to us.'

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Bathers Throwing Reeds, 1910.

Their work with woodcuts is the reason that this group of artists intrigue me so much, I have experimented with woodcuts myself and have always found woodcut prints fascinating for some reason. I like the angular lines, the minimalist color usage, the experimental and random aspect of the process. On one hand the carving can be laborious and careful, but then random in the sense that you can't predict every time what you will see or happen when you remove the inked paper from your block. I don't know if the fact that my family heritage is Czech has any influence on my artistic style, but I suspect that it does. Maybe that's why I like German Expressionism and identify it in my work; it has elements of that style - the same kind of heavy lines, figurative elements, facial expressions, a raw-direct, earthy kind of spiritual realism, rather than spiritual idealism like some of the romantic or earlier expressionist work.

Painting As a Process of Discovery

The process of creating art can be viewed as a kind of therapy, a release, a celebration, meditation, reflection, exploration; among many more things. The last one; creative process has exploration is what is most interesting to me. Non-objective expression especially is for me a vehicle into the unconscious, the self, a deeper reality, a process of experimenting and discovery and a tool for enlightenment. Exactly what Dada artist Max Ernst expressed in this quote:

"Painting is not for me either decorative amusement, or the plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation." - Max Ernst

I make the mistake of forgetting this idea on a regular basis. One would think it would be easy to maintain this aspect when painting and drawing, but it is not so easy for me. The best moments are of course when I am in the moment, creating. Giving life to something completely new, something vibrant, expressive, unique; lost in that moment of expression.

The farther I can get lost in it, the more truly expressive the work can become. But reaching that point requires letting go all of those things that can keep me from getting to the ideas that Ernst expresses in the preceding quote. I mean avoiding things like too much repetition or too much concern with the final product. The latter happens to me a lot when I am working on a painting or drawing. I start with just a free kind of attitude of having fun just putting paint to canvas or ink to paper and I am really liking what I am doing. Then the more I think I like it the more concerned I am with what I am doing, and the less creative the piece ends up being.

At the core, the process of creation is absolutely what Ernst said, "....it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation." This is what gives me inspiration anyways, not settling for anything and always risking a lot every piece every time. Yah, I have more than a few unsuccessful pieces, but I also create lines, shapes, images and texture that really are visually exciting to me that I had to experiment to create. I guess it is that never-ending pursuit and process of discovery that attracts me so much to painting and drawing.

Georges Seurat on Originality

I like the following quote from Georges Seurat especially because of the last phrase, "...the vision peculiar to each artist." So simple yet so true.

"Originality depends only on the character of the drawing and the vision peculiar to each artist."

- Georges Seurat

A French painter, Seurat is from the neo-impressionism movement, and is most known for his pointillism style of painting, (an amazing-looking style of impressionism using dots). He studied color theories his whole life; experimenting with different ways of representing form, and definitely had a unique and original vision.

I took guitar lessons for a short while once and my teacher told me that anybody can repetitiously learn to play scales really fast and that may sound awesome to some people, (as he easily demonstrated). But the real challenge is to develop a style that, when anyone hears just a bit of it, they instantly know that it's your work. I rarely play guitar anymore but I never forgot that lesson he taught me that day, and It's a good example of what I think Seurat is saying in the above quote.

Everything hasn't been done because there is always new days, new people, new ideas. I believe each of us has in them a vast potential for uniquely individual creativity, expressible in an infinite number of ways. This idea, simple but powerful; is part of the reason I am an artist. I find joy in the search for the expression of my soul. A fingerprint of the soul if you will, is what I am after and what each of us has the potential to express. Every method for expressing this is equally valid, the real value being the particular vision of each person.

Forest at Pontaubert, 1881, Georges Seurat.

Modigliani's "Caryatid"

This painting of Amedeo Modigliani's must be the 'Rome's feverish sweetness', that he speaks of here, in this quote from him:

"Rome is not outside me, but inside me. Her feverish sweetness, her tragic countryside, her own beauty and harmony, all these are mine, for my thought and my work."

-Amedeo Modigliani (1884 -1920)

Caryatid, Modigliani, 1913- 14.

I like this quote because it speaks to me and my creative process. Whether it is writing my prose/poetry (which I won't offend you with by sharing my poems here) or drawing and painting; my environment and thoughts about it influence my work. Even with deliberate attempts to not create anything and not to represent life or a specific thing; my experiences, thoughts, and emotions of my current state or of the past few weeks or whatever, comes through in the work. That is also related to part of my goals in creating work, that is to deliberately reach for something deep inside my mind and the human psyche and bring it forth into expression.

Mark Rothko on His Paintings

One of my all time favorite painters is Mark Rothko. Probably one of the most misunderstood 20th century painters, his life is fascinating. He preferred cheap Chinese takeout to gourmet restaurants, and once turned down a multi-million dollar commission from Seagram's. After completing the works and visiting the location where the paintings were to hang, he decided he didn't want his work to be viewed by stuffy, greedy, business executives. I think he makes an important distinction in each of the two following quotes concerning the perception of his work:

"I’m not an abstractionist. I’m not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on."

"The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions.. the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them. And if you say you are moved only by their color relationships then you miss the point."

-Mark Rothko (1903 -1970)

He is not concerned with the relationships of the colors in his work, but of the relationship of the work to himself and the viewer, and the emotional response. Someday I would love to see some of his larger work in person.

The Freedom of Expression

I like the following quote from Einstein because it represents the tip of the iceberg of what is a very large subject:

"Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population."

-Albert Einstein

For example, separation of church and state is one of the greatest things about America, and the ability to worship or not worship in any way that one wants to, is exactly the kind of place I want to live in. Another great idea is what a lot of cities and states have now; a 1% for art program, which require 1% of the money spent on certain public construction projects, be matched with money spent on art projects. The world would be a grey and dull place without art, imagine if there was no dancing, music, movies, television, sculpture, art; the list is endless. Even and especially ideas that are considered distasteful and shocking to some, must still be allowed to exist. To have otherwise is inviting mindless and domineering thought control. A truly free society must never give in to tradition for the sake of conformity.

There is always that question, "what is art?" For me, the answer is another question - "what is not art?" Art can be anything, the way the light catches and reflects from a window, that classic idea of the leaf swirling in the wind, etc. From a deeply personal symbolic language, to a representation of your lover or favorite haunt, to creating something completely new from nothing, to a child's intuitive interpretation of the world. Me personally, I don't think everything has been done already and can prove it with my artwork.

Martha Graham on Expression

This following quote from Martha Graham is so true; the unique expression that is you should be expressed, and this is a main theme here at Modern Art Quotes.

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

-Martha Graham

Fortunately for me I believe in myself and my work; (EdsArtWorkshop.com). I feel like I have been blessed with creative thinking and expression, something that is essential to my happiness and my life. This reminds me of one of my favorite poems of all time: Skid Row Wine by Jack Kerouac, here are two lines from it:

"To know that nothing matters after all...",

"...to know it young and be a poet"

Hopefully If everything goes well, I will be able to paint and create mostly full time for many many years to come. Well I can dream anyways,...right? And that is my dream, to be able to have a full studio with lots of space and quiet surroundings, where I can spend all day for weeks on end painting and drawing. An ecologically built barn in the woods somewhere, that would be nice; now if I can just get my girlfriend to go along with it.