modern myth

About Art

Statement taken from the programme of the Foolish People's Terra Extremitas event in Amsterdam:

"I really don't know how to provide a top-down or general summary of 'what I do' as an artist. It isn't simple evasiveness, but rather because it is a relative unknown. All I know is that when you begin practicing an instrument, or painting, or doing virtually anything, you are conscious of every action, of every misstep. As you continue to work, and the years pass, you become less and less conscious of each of those discrete actions. This is why so many teachers stress the fundamentals, because those building blocks, or personal cliches, slip out of your conscious sphere and become increasingly difficult to re-configure. By the time you reach the point that the work becomes what you are, and you serve as a conduit for it, you are completely in the dark about the truly relevant actions you take to bring it about. What is my process? Do what you do, and put everything you possibly can into it. Sacrifice what needs to be sacrificed, and don't hesitate to cannibalize your most private experiences in the process. Cast it into the world as if you were throwing it into the trash can. And start over again, because chances are, you can do better the next time."

About Myth

Artist statement from gallery showing at Dark Secrets in Philadelphia, PA:

"Since I was a child, I've been fascinated by stories, myths, and art. Over the years, though of course the way I interact with these things has changed, that has remained one constant in what has otherwise been a somewhat unusual, chaotic life. So what's a myth? A myth is a narrative that has certain characteristics- they are works that generally have self-contained worlds, that are informed directly by the authors experience, which can reach back and enrich all of our experience, or give us a new perspective. The use of metaphor takes on a different function than mere literary device- the metaphors are used to reach inside the readers head. It can be in any medium, and take nearly any form."

Excerpt from the Immanence of Myth, a book in early development based on the article published in Disinformation's Generation Hex anthology:

"Mythology isn't just Bulfinch's; far less is it Frazier's Golden Bough. It is the living, breathing story of humanity. Myths deal with the questions we all face in our lives, propose ways of being in the world which put us in accord or conflict with those various common dilemmas, and ultimately structure that world. However, our myths deal with those things that are often left unsaid, or which are difficult if not impossible to approach in any other manner. Thus, in an exploration of the subject, it is almost as if we need to explore all of the connective tissue linking to the heart of myth, without striking at that heart directly. For that heart is at once our own, and also the truly unknowable font of being which supports it. This is the realm of the unquantifiable: that which is felt, glimpsed, experienced, but never fully secured. Nevertheless, the representation of this unknowable, which we call myth, can be tentatively defined and owned through the process of naming.

Cutting to that heart directly and cleanly defining what myth is and is not will not suffice. The function of myth, even possibly its identity, changes based on the granularity of inquiry. In other words, a particular myth, received by an individual, may not serve the same function as that myth's effect upon a society. Myths are also "mirrors of the soul," which can only reveal to us what we already have in ourselves: so what is a message of love and compassion to one can be a distorting call to hatred and bigotry for another. This inquiry is further obfuscated by the fact that culture itself can only be understood by the myths it produces. Concurrently, it is increasingly difficult to speak meaningfully of "myth" without recognizing the function which runs through all contexts, all "level of granularity": myth is the meaning in representation. Words, sentences, and pictures are, on their own, no more a "myth" than the notes written on a staff are music, however all of these are the embodiment, that is, the representation, of experience. Concealed within that representation is all of the meaning that can be drawn from chaos. Myth is, in the final summation, truly a mirror image of our inner beings, for better or worse. We did not create our flesh or bone, nor did we choose the circumstances we were born into. The myths we create, on the other hand, are truly and completely human. Perhaps, at the same time, they are the closest we have to divinity, demonstrating our ability to build worlds from the clay we are given, to infuse it with our own meaning, and to chose what the very nature of the universe will be in our tale.'