In Pursuit of Emotional Art

July 19, 2024

   The early bird gets the shot.

An early 5:30 am photo over Ratcliff Ridge

   I read somewhere that any art created without emotion is not art. I was a little mystified and frankly, worried, by this concept and decided to do some serous reflection on it.

   Most of the time—and this is going back more than 45 years—I have been on deadline so any drawing, or scratchboard or painting I have done in that time period had to go to press in X amount of time. And X stands for an eXtremely short amount of time! If I had to peg my dominant emotion while creating art during that time I would put it as stressful, or tense, as in—I want to get it right! This better be good! Oh, crap, this isn't turning out like I had hoped it would! I am such a loser, why didn't I continue my career as a rear chain-man on a survey crew?!

   And so, to be brutally honest, here are my dominant emotions while working on the vast majority of my art over the past half century:

• stressful and concerned

Mixed with a dash of

• apprehension and dread

   And with a nagging voice in my head that says, over and over, Who in the hell told you that you could be an artist?

   So, on the website Draw How You Feel, their challenge is "draw a picture of how you feel." Okay, that is a novel idea. Let's take a short look back on a few examples of my past efforts and the emotion I was feeling at the time I did them:

Daily Whip Out: "Outback Cop Backs Up"

   Yes, I was feeling dark and dangerous when I did this. If I had to peg it as an emotion I would say angry. Or, angry-fearful. Or, perhaps angry-cocky-fearful.

Daily Whip Out: "Punk-stalgic"

   Not sure why but this guy reminds me of Tom Petty which always makes me feel nostalgic for a simpler and more angry, but pure, punk time. Sad and woeful. Not suicidal, but close.

Is There Such A Thing As Angry Positive?
   I am often referred to in my family as the positive guy. Hmmmm. What does that look like? Let's give it a whirl.


Daily Whip Out: "Women With Attitude"

   These are fun to do, snippets of expression and glancing attitude. Not perfect, but what is?


Daily Whip Out: "Happy Go Lucky"

   The irony in this one is that I was attempting to illustrate the idea that in Arizona in the summertime people with their windows down have the right-of-way, because it's clear they don't have AC in their cars and you can bet that they are a tad short tempered. This was a hoot to do and I laughed out loud several times while doing it because, if you have ever been behind the wheel of an auto in Phoenix in July without air-conditioning you can totally relate. So, even though the drawing represents out of control anger, I actually felt giddy doing it.
   And speaking of which, big fat sugarloaf sombreros make me extremely happy, so that results in this:


Daily Whip Out: "Pure Hat Happiness"

Daily Whip Out: "Giddy Orgasmic"

   Is it possible to have an orgasm when you create art? I never have, but I have come close. If I can fire off a broadside at another Arizona town on the lower Colorado River who paid an advertising agency $100,000 to come up with a positive slogan for Yuma and then I did a whole bunch, like the one above, for free, well, that is very close to being orgasmic, and, or, in this case "Giddy Orgasmic!"



Daily Whip Out: "Lazy Successful"

   His eyes are way off, but this has a super lazy vibe that I love. So the emotion here is no pressure fun. He's floating in limbo and so was I. So sue me.

   Does any of this add up to great art, or, great success? Not really, but it does make me happy to revisit some of my artwork over the years and take stock of my emotions as I did them.

   That said, what really gives me joy is to see my grandson in the Triple B Art Studio doing artwork and having fun with me. Weston did this whip out while I was writing this blog.

Daily Weston Whip Out: "The Pineapple Man"

   

   Plus, both Weston, Uno and I agree with Georgia:

"Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing."
—Georia O'Keeffe