Stan Sudol:


Artist Statement
From the moment man bellowed his first audible yawp, and proclaimed that he was a salient being, he became obsessed with being noticed and being remembered. Scratching figures at the edge of primordial seashore, he watched his creation disappear with every unrelenting and merciless tide. Carving prey into the bark of deciduous trees was for a time a welcome reminder of plentiful hunting lands, but growth swallowed past triumphs. Man became transfixed with permanence, his need to dominate even after his body fertilized the land he once inhabited. Simple lines were no longer enough to state his purpose, composition replaced primal force. Art was born out of man’s desire to be thought of long after he could be remembered, and only sustainable materials could now be employed. Be it the French caves, or edifices of marble, good creation always takes up residence in the most enduring of human temples...our minds.

We paint today unknowingly haunted by images that formed our adolescent minds. How many an hour has been spent in front of a lonely easel, frustration our only companion, crying to the heavens..”it doesn’t look like what I can see in my minds eye!” How did that predetermined image arrive on our cerebellum cineplex in the first place, carved by recall. A shade of blue that’s not quite Picasso-esque, a line that Miro would disregard, a composition that Ernst would vomit at...all images seared into a subconscious canvas that we are all hell bent on emulating. And this is the evolution of art, artists adapting to new eras and surroundings, still of the same fiber as the species that came before us. Not on the shoulders of giants, but lining up next to them. So when man’s dominance over the earth is at its end, and a new creature pronounces itself master, it will know “mankind was here”, from tree-dweller to self involved destroyer of worlds we never gave up on creating and preserving culture. We pick up tools and create to be remembered, not as an individual artists but as the creature that we are. Mankind is a lot of things, good and bad, but worthy of remembrance. Keep resuscitating culture, its all we have.

 
 
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contact: s@guggart.com
website: gugaart.com

     
 © 2008 Newark Arts Council