New Season and New Sculpture

The Head of Something Unreal, 20" x 15", acrylic on shaped foam, canvas, and epoxy resin with steel armature and steel chain, mounted on wood panel, 2012. (Click on the image for larger view.)
 
It's been a while since I've created any sculptures, but sometimes it comes in waves, just like my cartoons and stop motion videos, where I may not work in that medium for months or years, then something clicks and I immerse myself in it until it runs its course, or season. Certain mediums may be more effective than others in artistic expression. The choice of medium itself provides content in a work of art.

In this piece, the content is something more metaphorical than the simple representation of skull pieces from some strange beast. The artwork is somewhat of a hybrid between representation and abstraction.

I'm not trying to be cryptic about what it is, or what it is supposed to be. And I know that nobody will really understand it or me. In that regard, it makes what I do a bit frustrating. But we as artists create art as a form of communication that cannot be expressed in language. If it could be expressed in language, then there would be no point in creating it, as we could simply resolve to writing it.

There's nothing more to write.

Contemporary Antiquity

The Charge, 24" x 36", oil on canvas, 2011-2012.

Part of the inspiration for this painting was derived from my recent experiences revisiting ancient Greek and Roman sculptures. There is a certain inexplicable quality about the ancient art that every artist strives to replicate. I don't mean that every artist is attempting regurgitate what has already been created, but there is a quality to the ancient art that moves people. It moved the ancients, it moved people five hundred years ago, and it continues to move people today.

The ambiguity as to why these ancient works "move people" may be precisely what makes them so magical. Some have lost limbs and crumbled, only leaving us to imagine what they looked like when first created. Their mysteriousness seems to build as time goes on - a deeper connection to the human soul as society advances.

In a sense, part of the inspiration for this painting was to try to understand the mysterious, timeless quality of the ancient art. I do believe I have failed in coming anywhere near that quality. But that won't deter me from trying again, whether it be in a realistic portrait, landscape, or abstraction.

Thank you for following the paintings, creations, sculpture, drawings, works in progress, Doodle of the Day, and other art by Los Angeles artist Lucas Aardvark :) To see older blog posts click HERE.