sidetrack question, is your last name Greek in origin?
Close, Cyprian, but they're basically Greek anyway. I live and suffer in Australia. My father and grandparents were all born in Cyprus though.
Despair certainly does arise from introspection in my case. I should probably consult medical professionals and obtain substances that prevent this from happening, but I can't escape from the notion that you are unable to create Art unless you're miserable.
Cyprian, that's pretty cool. There are quite a few Greek where I live, so I wondered when I saw your name.
You live and suffer in Australia? I don't think I've ever heard an Aussie say that, even the ones I know that live here.
Why is that?
From my experience only, yes, this is quite useful (still is) to the creative process, all that energy in that form. Very useful. That said, something happened that I can't identify, nor describe, nor pinpoint when it occured in my creative journey, that changed the entire process for me so that this is no longer a necessary part of my creative process.
Whoops, I just repeated this point in another reply to you.
I think its because I idolise the Pre-Raphaelites and Edgar Allan Poe. They were pretty dark and miserable types; or perhaps they were realists.
This is one of my favourite pieces of "Art"
A sculptor's wife died. He sculpted this as a form of both grief and immortalising her. It's a fantastic object, and has been appropriated much in western media.
I don't think he'd have been able to make this work if he wasn't miserable.
I'm good with repetition. Sometimes I forget and this makes it stick.
Of course, of course, this makes complete sense, since I see this in your photos. It's been a long time since I studied that kind of work, so I had to do a refresher. One of your photos struck such a note in this regard, but I couldn't recall why until this moment (was bugging me in the back of my mind). Thanks.
That sculpture is quite incredible from one image. Completely captures the essence of grief. I quite like that. I'm taken with the tension in the outstretched arm, among other aspects. How was this made? You're quite right, he'd never capture that kind of life without pouring the energy of his suffering into it.
I have no idea, but the smart ass in me probably wants to say with a chisel :D
It is a very old sculpture.
It looks like a stone carving but I didn't want to make assumptions. I'm wondering what kind of stone. It would be something local to that area possibly. Ever done sculpture, in particular carving?
Yeah, part of my first year of university as an Art Student was "foundation studies". Even if we knew what we wanted to major in (for me it was New Media - a fancy name for computer generated art at the time... and Photography) we had to do a semester where we tried everything.
At the time I cynical and didn't want to, and probably approached with the wrong attitude entirely.
So I did:
Drawing (and life drawing)
Painting
Sculpture
Installation
Clay
Glass (which was a combination of glass blowing, casting, and etching)
New Media (surprise surprise)
and of course, Photography.
AT least I'm pretty sure those were all the displines I was exposed to. For sculpture I combined it with installation. I etched a piece of Perspex with razor blades, scissors, knives and ink, in a way that it would scatter the light in interesting ways.
Then, I projected a sequence of high resolution scans through that perspex. The sound was guitar strings being scratched, distorted and noisy and I got a "distinction". It wasn't a sculpture in the traditional sense, but I made the argument that if clay and marble and other substances are sculpture of the material world, then by displacing waves of air and photons in a controlled environment, I was sculpting with the room itself as the material, and as people moved through it and saw (and heard) the (intentional) manipulations of space that they themselves were "part" of the sculpture.
shudders at the flashbacks
They always seem to put one through the hoop jumping foundation of exposure to everything. Photography was my focus until I met sculpture and was immediately addicted to 3D. It's funny for me to come full circle back to doing photography for itself, rather than using it to document, show, and market sculpture, which will always be my addiction.
Brilliant complex concept. I am entranced reading your description of this. Thank you for sharing this.
Pretty cool that you got to work with glass. Glass and I have never been friends. It likes to hurt me and I like to break it. Aside from that, I love seeing work created by others.
Tagging @strega.azure because I think they'll find the description of my installation interesting. :P