Stating the Obvious

"Sometimes the obvious needs to be spoken out loud to rejuvenate the dying souls of the herd."

The Meaning of Life

I am very afraid of bees and wasps because I was stung badly as a child when my father, brother and I happend upon a huge nest.

Last week at the pool there were several bees flying into the pool and stinging people. I learned later that the apartment complex hired someone to tear down a bee nest and that there were some angry bees looking for their home, and I equated it with how the Indians must have felt (and any other indiginous peoples) when they were murdered, raped and deprived of their homeland - angry and stinging like a bee.

So today I went swimming in the pool and saw a drowning bee. I put it on a leaf after much apprehension that it would fly back and sting me. I thought about it a lot, as I often think too much, and about how I should not discriminate just because it may fly back and sting me.

I watched it as it regained its composure and started to move around a bit. Then it suddenly turned over on its back and died.

The Meaning of Life

I am very afraid of bees and wasps because I was stung badly as a child when my father, brother and I happened upon a huge nest.

Last week at the pool there were several bees flying into the pool and stinging people. I learned later that the apartment complex hired someone to tear down a bee nest and that there were some angry bees looking for their home, and I equated it with how the Indians must have felt (and any other indiginous peoples) when they were murdered, raped and deprived of their homeland - angry and stinging like a bee.

So today I went swimming in the pool and saw a drowning bee. I put it on a leaf after much apprehension that it would fly back and sting me. I thought about it a lot, as I often think too much, and about how I should not discriminate just because it may fly back and sting me.

I watched it as it regained its composure and started to move around a bit. Then it suddenly turned over on its back and died.

Speculation

It's all speculation anyway. Whether there is a heaven or a hell...whether we should eat only meat or plants...whether there are other realities that exist simultaneously with ours...whether global warming will kill off humans thereby making the planet more hospitable to less hostile creatures (or more hostile creatures)...whether anything at all can be taken at face value...it's all speculation anyway.

ArtSlant comment by Diane Leon

Dear Virginia, I read your statement on The Mind of the Artist and looked at your profile. I love your work because it is definitely not part of the herd. Your art is unique. Glad you now have the strength to call yourself and artist and live according to your own dreams, goals and feelings. I think being an artist and living true to yourself makes you whole. It is the driving force in my life and thank God I have never considered myself a part of the herd in a way that it made me feel restricted or not myself. Life is too short and the one thing I have learned all my life is to be true to myself, surround myself with people who understand and nurture what I do and always make the time for my work. I have seen so many students create and a few years after they graduate no longer do their art with the passion they originally had. Those are the people who have joined the herd. Creating is not about being the next 'art star' or making a ton of money. It must be something you need to do or else you don't feel complete. Virginia, are you still working in art therapy? I have been teaching at NYU since 1995 and hold a full time job at NYU as an administrator. I do what has to be done at the day job, but my office looks like a gallery and I still paint 4 nights a week and all weekend. I refuse to have outside forces ruin what is so important to me. Stick to what you love and your own holistic ideas. It's your life and you are responsible for the happiness you can attain. Go for it. diane

Artist's Statement

I do art partly for my own therapy because my unconscious mind is insisting that I try to capture that which cannot be interpreted by the brain onto wood or canvas. Each piece starts out with a frantic little sketch that is burned into my minds view (the third eye).

For all the art that I do, I cannot say any of it has been done with a preconceived notion. I do not trust my brain to make wise decisions - only my mind...the unconscious. My brain ruins everything...says the wrong things, makes the wrong decisions, makes the wrong interpretations. My mind (as all humans) is connected to something greater and more intelligent.

My brain is jealous of my mind. My brain tries to create the same pure, intelligent scenario on canvas as my unconscious mind but it cannot. So I do not paint portraits or anything else which our brains interpret in this reality - they bore my mind to tears.

I do have a portfolio of life drawings and reality drawings somewhere in my brother's house in West Virginia. The Maryland Institute, College of Art taught me realism but mostly creative, intelligent art. The The School of the Art Institute of Chicago gave me that raw, direct edge, I think. Sometimes there's a little folk in my art from my West Virginia upbringing. London taught me subtle humor and a little sophistication, though I would have done well to live there a little longer.

I think the unconscious mind and the brain are much like oil and water - existing in the same reality but their physical properties incompatible.

I struggle to understand that which cannot be understood.

Scapegoat or Martyr

Scapegoat or Martyr....that is the question.

Whether tis nobler to be a free thinker and be resented by the herd, thereby becoming the receptacle for all their insecurities and darkness; or to be a dead free thinker, thereby a hero/heroine to the same herd.