I am launching the first three sessions of my live art 'canvas killer' project: CANVAS KILL LIVE. The poster above is going to be the press photo I begin passing around to advertise the first three live painting performances on webcam February 2009, on the 14th, 21st and 28th. The success of these first three shows will determine if I do more shows on a regular basis.
The genesis for this idea comes from a disregard and dislike for bad art (especially my own), and the idea that bad art should be destroyed. The funny thing is, based on this philosophy, Dada and minimalist movements, Van Gogh, abstract art, pop art, and basically every other genre of fine art would never has survived its own age. Almost all radical art, or revolutionary art concept, is considered bad during its time. This is not to say that there aren't 500 bad artists to every 1 good one in the course of history; however it is possible that if I am one of the good ones, I may be destroying the very art that could in the future (probably after I am dead) make me famous. Unless a viewer, or collector buys the work before it is destroyed. The act of buying the work then gives the work value and all of a sudden I would quickly question whether my paintings are radical enough. It is the ultimate struggle between success now, or fame later. The act of creating on the internet is a ploy to connect my old fashion traditional artwork to the technology of today.
I find that in the art world today (2009), it is too easy to categorize everything into neat little slots: traditional art/acrylic painting on canvas/abstract/figural/midwestern/expressionistic influence etc etc. Art should never be so easily defined, and as soon as it is, then art is not advancing fast enough. Art should always be thinking and experimenting things far beyond what people can categorize and label. I am always struggling to do this with my own art. The painting itself needs to be a performance, and the creations' life as a painting needs to be uncertain. Paintings should be mortal things, and destroyed when it has little or no value (or less value than its price tag). The photograph can record its place in history as the temporary state of completion, before its eventual state of destruction. The corpse of a bad painting may turn out to be more beautiful than the painting began, or perhaps more horrific and therefore more interesting. Juxtaposing an adopted (sold) painting with that of a sibling that has been destroyed evokes a sad and powerful message of futility, and pinpoints the dangers of our own perceptions of worth. It is this determination of worth that allows for the non desirable to be destroyed.
The price tag of death.....
The official page and web cam can be found on the CANVAS KILL LIVE website.
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