Artists And Obsessions

 

 I like to watch a show on the History channel called "Ancient Aliens."  I don't really buy into it mind you, but it's entertaining, and occasionally they have things that make you go hmmm...and give me pause to ponder them.  I like to ponder things.  It leads to theories and understanding.

Tonight the episode was about Leonardo da Vinci.  The poor guy, I feel rather bad for him.  Ever since Dan Brown pulled him out for fiction purposes he has gotten a lot of press.  Much of it tabloid worthy.  

In this episode they posited the theory that Leo had been in contact with aliens, and that's how he came up with many of his ideas.  I think that's utter nonsense.  Of course Leo was a genius and for some reason people cannot accept genius for just that.  They tend to sometimes think there has to be another explanation simply because they don't understand how it works.  It's not so hard to predict how things will be made in the future.  Back in the early 80's I was working at Sears in the audio-visual department as they called it then, when laser discs and the Sony Walkman first came out.  I remember saying to another girl that I worked with that some day we would have smaller devices that didn't require any tapes or discs because we would be able to put the music directly onto it.  25 years later we have iPods.  How did I know?  I have no idea, it just came to me.

While I would never presume to put myself in the same category as Leonardo, I can relate to him in many ways.  He was an artist who was interested in science, and so am I.   He was so obsessed with understanding the workings of the human body that he risked imprisonment and even death to dissect corpses, which was illegal at the time, simply to see muscles and skeletons and how they work.  I can understand this obsession fully. I have no interest in how the body works because that's main stream info now.  But my obsession is to understand the mind.  I have a burning desire to understand why people do what they do because sometimes their behavior simply mystifies me.  In fact I can become so caught up in trying to understand someone's motivation for something, that my friends think I am interested in the given person in a different way.  It's very difficult to explain your burning need to understand something you don't even really care about, and/or fascination with mindless things to those who don't share your fascination.

I have all sorts of odd little curiosities about things, and that can often crop up in my work.  I am obsessed with wings.  I don't know why, I have no desire to fly.  I simply find them incredibly interesting and slightly romantic.  I am also fascinated and captivated by safety pins.  Again I have no idea why.  I use them a lot.  You have to admit, they are brilliant in such a simple way.  With this latest bear (shown above) I wanted to give her hinged wings and the best way to do that was to use safety pins.  I think it's cute and functional.  *Shrugs*

Another thing they touched on was his obsession with his painting of the Mona Lisa.  They suggested that he carried it around for the rest of his life because it contained a hidden message of some sort.  Perhaps...he was known for that.  But I think there are several other possible explanations.  Either he was obsessed with the woman who posed for the painting in some way and since he couldn't study her directly he chose to do it through his work, or he was dissatisfied with the painting.  When I make a piece (I am not comparing a teddy bear to the Mona Lisa, but hey art is art) and I am dissatisfied with it, I will keep it around for a while to study it and figure out what I feel I did wrong.  It's probably nothing, but that's the way it works.  My last possible theory is simply that he liked it.  I keep things I like sometimes.  Artists do that, they get to keep some of their work when they really like it.  Sometimes inspiration comes from ourselves.  It's no great mystery.

The last thing the show touched on was that people tend to idolize and even worship genius.  If this is true, I haven't witnessed it in my own life.  In fact people tend to either get annoyed or be afraid of me for it.  I think Leo dealt with much of the same while he was alive.  Perhaps people only idolize genius posthumously? That will never happen to me, because I keep my theories mainly to myself, so I don't make those types of contributions to the world and very few people actually know about my being a genius.

When it comes to obsession, we tend to view that as a negative thing.  And yet...we are all obsessed with knowing or learning something.  We all have our odd little fascinations.  The difference is, when they are yours they don't seem odd.  So my friends, what fascinates you?  Do you know why?  Do others find it odd, when you don't?

I guess the Mad Hatter said it best; "We're all mad here!"  It's true of course, we all have our things that appear crazy to someone else, but they too have their own brand of crazy. As you will remember, the Hatter was obsessed with why a raven was like a writing desk! 

All Roads Lead Back To A Self Portrait

Some years ago I saw a thing on TV where a lab was running a test on some new facial recognition software.  They scanned in the Mona Lisa and the self portrait Leonardo Da Vinci did of himself.  Much to their surprise it returned with a really high percentage match.  They then deduced that the Mona Lisa was actually a self portrait as well.

When I saw this, I had a good laugh.  I don't think it's a self portrait, but I do think that if they compared any of his other portraits they would get the same results. 

One of the earliest lessons I learned as a fledgling artist all those years ago, was that everything we create is a self portrait.  It doesn't matter what you make or how far outside your comfort zone you go.  It will look like you in some way.  Now in the case of a portrait or sculpture it's easily discernible.

In other types of items it may not immediately jump out at the observer.  In fact it may not even resemble you physically, but it will resemble some part of your nature or personality if it doesn't resemble your face or body shape.  It's hardest to identify in your own work.  I suppose that's because we are too close to it. 

Every once in a while I get a glimpse of it in my own work.  I can see it in a bear if it stands just so or looks at me in a certain way while photographing it.  I can't quite ever put my finger on what it is that resembles me, I just know it does.  Maybe you can see it?

The one place I do see it is in my computer work.  I have been working on a new layout for my website again.  I decided I wanted to go back to that vintage feel, but I wanted to make something very different.  What I have been working on looks completely different than any of the last updates and yet...it's frustratingly the same.  You probably wouldn't notice it, but I do.  I want to go outside my box and make something fun and different from me, and I can't do it.

Normally I am a proponent of continuity.  I think it's terribly important.  Afterall we spend a large part of our early artistic lives trying to develop our own identifiable style.  The irony is, we can't really get away from it....we had it all along, all we can do is fine tune and perfect it.

Maybe I will just add a comfy sofa and some throw pillows inside my box...I am going to be here for the rest of my creative days...regardless how much I think I am changing things up.