Pulling a Rothko...

Artist, Pray!

I'm not religious. Not at all. Even worse, I have serious doubts about Religion. There is something about it, that strikes me as being a form of blindness. Believing for the sake of believing. This is abstract for me as “Art for the sake of Art” is.

Still, every now and then, I pull a Rothko. I say RED...meaning, everything that can happen will be Red, nothing but Red. Layer on layer. Untill my brain in numb, untill I'm out of paint. The minute before I start this proces...Red means something. It may mean “Blood” or “Love” or “Live” or “Danger”. Especialy Red, used as a signal-color in everyday live. Orange might mean a Warning, Red is clear and present Danger. STOP. And after passing a view hunderd Stopping Signs in my everyday live, Red is not “free” of its social communication anymore. When ever I use the color, it is smugged with associations. This is where I “ pull a Rothko”. To liberate the color.

In Art, sometimes, these associations and functions of color or composition are blocking the possibilities. For the Artist aswell as the spectator. In a world of extreme visual communications and manipulations non of it seems “FREE” anymore. I do not like to be hyjacked by visual communications. Therefor I pray...Rothko-style. I dive deep into this specific, contaminated aspect of visual communication untill the point that it loses all meaning. I paint my gutts off...

I'm so sorry. It needs to be done. I does not deliver the most original peace of work. It might strike you as a cheap copy of an Art-Hero. I did not intent so. It's just a prayer. It stands as such. In a result of the religious experiment of the man himself. I can relate to that. I can relate to his concept of meditation and “ surch-for-inner-Peace”, witch makes me in a way, a religious disciple (?!) of the man...could it, as being an Anarchist ?!

I don't know, I cant ask him. He's far to dead to ask him. I just know that, every now and then, it works for me. “Pulling a Rotkho” cleans out my expectations about myself, my work, the meaning and the obsession with this thing...Meaning.

For...Things don't always, directly, spontainiously “mean” anything. The world really isn't completely understandable, for nobody. And Art isn't. Faith isn't. Society has a tention to believe in instant Meaning. We live in a world based on Logic and Reason. ( Reason based on Logic).

By “Pulling Rothko's” every now and then... I remind myself of the very strong, though fragile Truth in Live and Art, the “Unknown”. As in the Non-conclusive, the Variable....The goal is to remain open, towards anything, actually.

Free your mind and Art will follow....