Last night

I gotta make art.


The thing I forget with my art is that I have the ability and OPPORTUNITY to say things.
Though what I DO have is the history of making art for only the sake of making art. Not many people do that, as Joe Murray (creator of Rocko's Modern Life) once said:

"Unlike other countries, America seems to place little value on artistic expression for merely arts sake."

I didn't paint to say anything.

But I need to start making art and SAY things with it. EXPRESS myself with it. Not just express the love of making art, but express what I think, what I feel, what I know, what I don't know. It doesn't need to be deep.

Then again, some of my old work that wasn't made with a conceptual approach has more meaning than anything I've made while TRYING to say something.

I once borrowed a film camera in 2007 and personally developed the photos, those pictures mean more than nearly all of the ones I ever took in my photo class. And those were were supposed to be conceptual.

I gotta forget the word "conceptual", I gotta focus on "expressing". Here's an artist statement I wrote a while ago, not for anything, not official. But here it is:

"I want my art to document the experience of things. An experience can last a microsecond or a lifetime. An experience is made of thoughts, sights, sounds, tastes, memories, and more. It can be emotional or banal. It can be high and low at once. While I cannot describe someone else's experience of something I know I can depict my own. I don't believe this isolates the viewer by any means. When someone sees a depiction of an experience of mine, they may recognize themselves in my work, for everyone experiences things. I enjoy the thought of depicting an experience because I can portray as little or as much of it as I want. I can pick the sight of an experience, or the smell, or both. The list goes on. My experiences are spiritual, physical, mental, and varied. I am unlimited."

I think the statement as a piece of writing needs work, but there's the idea. Anywho.

Last night I was finally ready to paint but I couldn't find my portfolio bag with my canvases etc.
Apparently I didn't bring it home.
I gotta make my friend a painting and I refuse to do it at school.
BUT I have SOME canvases here. I have some paint. I don't think I have palette paper... but I can use paper plates!

But I wrote a lot today!
And plan to write more.
"Kellye's Chair" is up to 36 pages.

EDIT: Up to 51 pages =)

Weeee.

~BEn