For me, creating art is a magical experience. I named this site An Artist’s Grimoire because a grimoire is a book of magic. My intention is to create posts that reveal how magic and art are interrelated. The logo for the site is a variation of the alchemist’s symbol for the combined elements. The elements are earth, wind, fire, water, and aether (void). When the symbols for these elements are combined, they represent the powers of light and dark as well as the totality of the universe. The actual symbol looks like a Star of David. I selected a design that incorporated a Celtic knot because this particular Celtic knot represents the trinity, as well as symbolizing the interconnectedness of all things. Combined, the two symbols are more powerful and have more depth of meaning.
Blog
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Technological Dark Age
Our society is reductivistic and has reduced images to their simplest meaning. Whether we use LOL or the emoticon representing “Laughing out Loud.” the result is the same; the nuance of language is lost. By the way, “less is more” is one of the main catchphrases of Modernism.
In “1984,” a fictional book, George Orwell wrote about a government that created “Newspeak” which was a controlled language with simplified grammar and restricted vocabulary. Its intent was to control the masses and to have them think less. The reality is that we have done it to ourselves. We are at the brink of a technological dark age in which we have enormous information at our fingertips, but can’t remember anything.
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The Loss of Meaning
I lament the loss of meaning in our society. Ever since the advent of Postmodernism, meaning has been ignored or ridiculed. Since Postmodernism claims that interpretation of artwork is relative, and there is no such thing as universal truth, anyone that tries to find universal meaning or truth in artwork is considered, at best, naive. Unfortunately, this attitude has permeated our entire society and corrupted every organization and institution. Many simply think that even trying to interpret art, or anything else for that matter, isn’t worth the effort; universal meaning doesn’t exist, so why bother. For others, being self-aware enough to develop a personalized interpretation, is beyond their capabilities. Therefore, rather than face their own inadequacies, they have concluded that meaning doesn’t exist, not even for the individual.
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Postmodernism Is a Dead End
We have been in the throws of Postmodernism since the early 70s. Modernism was such a heroic effort, it is a shame that it went out with a whimper. Modern artists tried to express universal truths about art and the nature of painting and sculpture. Postmodernists, on the other hand, reject truth as unattainable. They even view anyone that searches for the truth as naive. Unfortunately, postmodernism merely leads to cynicism.
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Can We Appreciate Art in a Nanosecond?
Due to our Internet browsing habits, we have trained ourselves to judge a website in seconds. If it doesn’t meet our expectations, we hit the back button and return to the search results. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that we actually looked at what was on the page. At best, we glance at the page and scan for keywords and pictures that might interest us. We are actually pretty good at scanning. The difficulty arises when we begin to believe that, in those brief seconds, we have seen everything on the page to understand what the site is actually about. Worse, yet, we delude ourselves into believing that we understand what we saw or read. This attitude has, unfortunately, spilled over into everyday life. Art cannot be appreciated in a nanosecond. Just because we give an artwork a thumbs up or a thumbs down doesn’t mean we have experienced it. We need to linger over it.