i can tell you as an artist, sometimes all we think about is marketing, merchandising, competing, deadlines, applications, displays, selling, trying to make a living... when you create in this mind set it can kill the very essence of what makes art art... a lucky few come naturally to a style that people can't get enough of and their needs merge seamlessly. others have a patron supporting them removing that financial burden. the rest of us have day jobs and use what time we have left over to create whatever it is we're moved to make, helping to keep the art pure and unsullied by commercial appeal. for the true artist art is often a compulsion, that drive to express and bring to reality some strange vision. this is the soul of living breathing art. keep art alive. buy art. and make what you feel.
this keeps it more interesting for everyone- viewers, creators, all.
I've had a long running fascination with gargoyles: when I was young I watched the animated cartoon series on television and as an adult I've taken photos of "carved grotesques" (as they are also known--which totally fits the idea of my block prints perfectly!) wherever I have had the fortune to find them. While I knew the function of most gargoyles (serving, in addition to mere ornamentation, as a downspout for rain water to keep buildings from damage) I only recently read of the practice of using anthropomorphized creatures on buildings (especially churches) to assist in converting Pagans to Christianity... because in medieval times creatures had been attributed various mystical powers... and so these creatures were carved and have adorned public spaces for years, even centuries... and now I come along to continue the legacy in my small way, conveying my own perspective on them. As I'm coming to realize, these themes we use as artists are deep rooted and repeat without our always being aware of it. I guess I am still that grade schooler loving the dark mystery of watchful sentries hovering above...
