Here we go again. Most of you will know me from my detailed drawings for beer labels, posters, backdrops and other things. Some of you will know me from my woodblock prints. But paintings are not something I used to do. I am not a painting artist and a free spirit with comments on society and ideas about life and how to improve the world. A teacher at art school once told me that an artist should have a positive message to the world or something people can relate to. Also, I don't like art culture in general.
But then I've got medication for anxiety and found a bit more peace in my day to day life. Yes, My day to day life, not my artwork. So let me show you what I started on a big piece of wood.
It is a work in progress. Many, many more creatures will be added. A view from Hell. A pig mask on the whore who keeps the souls from burning while the fox with a torch bound at his tail keeps the fire going. Souls who are eating the feces from fake heroes and Holy figures to be close as possible to them. Music is screaming the worst things for the Bosch Owl (the Devil). The whore is pouring the false Cornucopia, filled with rotting flesh. Much more will be added. Don't believe the false heroes and keep your eyes open for betrayal. Greed and an easy life is not what makes our lives pretty. So, do I have an idea of what to tell people after all? Maybe. But this is more of a thing that keeps me busy and I am telling my idea with symbolism I know and developed. Most of you will not be able to read everything and that is okay. Outsider artists do not tell their stories to be read or liked by others either. They tell their stories in a visual way because it is stuck in their heads and it needs to be put on something.
The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke by Richard Dadd is not painted to be liked or understood by others. But it is a huge inspiration to me. He was a troubled soul but a great painter. You can feel his paranoid ideas, confusion and chaos and I can only think about how he was working on this painting. Taking the feelings or ideas of that moment and putting it in this piece. Tomorrow he could work on another part and add something new because there was something else that kept him busy. There is a lot he had to tell in this work of art but I know he did not paint it for others. And that is what is happening on my big piece of wood. Find a place for the story, idea or feeling and put it there. Maybe it is not beautiful or something you would like in your living room. But that is not why it is going to be finished one day anyway.