“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12
As we navigate our way through the broken glass of life, are we able to stop and see beauty, creativity and opportunity in the most un-likely locations? South Stockton, California – in the minds of most people – is the epitome of throw away society. When the world throws us away we need to seize the opportunity and take advantage of our creative potential to recycle ourselves.
the outsider artist
Neo-expressionism is a style of modern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s and dominated the art market until the mid-1980s. Related to American Lyrical Abstraction of the 60s and 70s, Bay Area Figurative School of the 50s and 60s, the continuation of Abstract Expressionism, New Image Painting and precedents in Pop painting, it developed as a reaction against the conceptual art and minimal art of the 1970s. Neo-expressionists returned to portraying recognizable objects, such as the human body (although sometimes in an abstract manner), in a rough and violently emotional way using vivid colors and banal color harmonies.
Robert Colescott, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Anselm Kiefer to name a few prominent in the Neo-expressionist movement were some of my teachers and influences at the San Francisco Art Institute. By definition I am a Neo-expressionist artist. Does this new definition change anything? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Is suddenly realizing you’re a neo-expressionist like finding out we are Bi-polar, Obsessive Compulsive, Dyslexic or have some other disorder that makes us not OK. A lot of the best Artists might not have fit into the mainstream idea of what‘s OK.
Why do we have to label everything anyway?
Well I guess it does help people to understand the common thread and it helps us to realize that we are part of a voice of many and not just alone in our journey to realizing that not OK with some is fine with me.
Artist: Joseph Osborne
Title: Kwanzaa #2
Image Size: 5′X 7′inch art print
Great Pre-view Sample For The Giclee Custom Edition
“I am not a black artist, I am an artist”.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Was Jean – Michel Basquiat the messenger of the sacred and profane?
Black Identities in American Art an exhibition at Yale University Art Gallery
presents an opportunity to contemplate the question that seemed to plaque Jean – Michel Basquiat regarding Art and Black identities in American Art. With our American history in skin color being a object of oppression we are compelled to ask, can any artist of color exist in America, as Jean – Michel was quoted as saying, “I am not a black artist, I am an artist“. Can one be one without the other? Some might say, why is this a question of relevance? Well the truth is it isn’t, however in America one can’t have skin color like Jean – Michel and not be Black Identified. What is Black Identified? I would venture to say, an identity linked to a history of American Black Slavery. With that said, Jean – Michel could have identified more with the universal soul of the sacred. Or was he just high on some combination of drugs that takes one to a place of profane illusion? Our questions could go on and on, however the fact is Jean – Michel’s massive body of Art works is compelling to say the least.
Most often, the mention of Jean – Michel’s name compels us to contemplate the word – tragedy. Is it tragedy that accompanies greatness in Art or greatness in Art that accompanies tragedy. Either way most would not want to go to a tragic level for the sake of being great. However, how is it that so many of our great Artist are paired with what we most often think of as tragedy. Is it the tragedy that aides their mystique? Is it the tragedy that drives up the prices?
