Artist’s Statement (a work in progress)

Artist’s Statement (a work in progress)

We are all called upon, from time to time, to take a stand, write a resume, apply for a job with a curriculum vitae etc. We as artists would hope that our art would speak for itself.

For the demands of the here and now, here is my two cents worth.

I first became aware of any “gifts” I may have had around the age of eleven, after we immigrated to Canada from Egypt. The English language was definitely not my forte at that time, and I took refuge in the world of art as a duck takes to water…as an escape from the verbal exigencies of having to learn a new language, and the appraising gaze of my elders. Art for me became a sanctuary where I could be myself with no compunction to cater to the dictates of others.

Art has sustained me as a sanctuary throughout my life, despite the times I have strayed from my garden…it always welcomes me back with open arms and nourishes me as very little else can. In this regard, she is truly a loving muse, not to be slighted or taken for granted.

For my views on the political dimension in art please refer to my essay, The Fascism of Good Taste.

There are two veins which broadly define my artistic expression. The first one I will call, illustrative, and basically means just what it says. I began my study of art by copying other artists, and then, I copied from nature, and finally the human form. After years of rendering the world around me I reached a point where I felt that I could re-create, and re-fashion the world without copying from a model. I discovered that I could do this from the reservoir of information and experience I had gathered and developed, and stopped copying. I found that I had developed the ability to visualize what I wanted to render, without resorting to any object outside my inner frame of reference. This was a very important milestone for me, as it freed me in ways I do not want to belabour here.

This last led me to my final destination which I call, automatism. This automatism is the same as, or similar to the “stream of consciousness” which people like Andre Breton discusses in his Surrealist Manifesto and provided me with another springboard, one which freed me from the constraints of “naturalism.” Automatism allowed the potentiality inherent in the chaotic, to play alongside and with the learned, and orderly, so as to unleash the floodgates of creativity. If this sounds slightly pompous please forgive me. I am merely trying to describe a mechanism which may lead to extraordinary virtuosity and insight, or, banality. The mechanism in itself is no panacea or full proof cornucopia of creativity.

A child’s scribble may be more loaded with integrity than all the classics combined. On the other hand, spurting semen or shit on a canvas may be very outré, or, appropriating other people’s hard labour and tagging some pseudo-intellectual conceptualist post-modernist nonsense, may be considered very avant-garde and fetch millions of dollars…but then I would be accused of envy.

Please check in again for any additions…in the meanwhile, good foraging.

Bogos Kalemkiar, Toronto, March 4, 2011.