The Fine Art and Design Blog of Darren Daz Cox

Oil paint on canvas, 24 by 36 inches.

This one was a random sketch with grease pencil directly on the canvas. I had a completely different painting planned out but I’ve found that when I trust my subconcious to work at it’s own pace, the end result is more satisfying.

I added a purply blue oil glaze over the sketch and because grease pencil disolves in paint thinner, the sketch started to melt away and give areas of shadow. The purple/blue paint has separated in some areas and you can see green in areas but this is just the first layer!

Other layers will finish the shadows and then I’ll add the highlights and then the color glazes, giving the painting a totally deep and atmospheric look similar to the way Leonardo Da Vinci used oil paints!

I love the work of Leonardo and Bob Ross for that matter but the idea of working from the background to the foreground isn’t that important to me, I do want the illusion of depth, but not the type of depth you see when you look out your window onto happy trees, but the fake depth you experience in dreams.

The composition will have a dynamic beam of gold coming out of a turbulant sky illuminating the figure that represents us all, consider the girl a spokesmodel for the viewer rather than a representation of a particular person or a ‘fertility goddess’.

The foreground complexity leading towards the circle in the upper left corner will be an organic ‘more is more’  motif to show the material substance we often believe is the only reality while the clouds will represent potential reality.

The alien looking creature sitting looking down is the representation of how we have personalized spirituality, consider him a spokemodel for ‘name brand’ celebrity spiritual leaders. I make no judgement on who you pray to, just that you might feel the need to think that you are somehow separate from the divine, less significant than the universe and merely reacting to this material world rather than creating it as you go. It’s a whole different paradigm when you dream though isn’t it!

The circle at the top will be gold like the beam, indicating that inspiration is divinely sent and as a motif, an homage to my classical tradition ancestors who depicted the divine with gold halos. I do not wish to invent a new style of art as if the art of the past was somehow irrelevant or stale, it isn’t. I do wish to find my own style within the genre though.

The circle at the bottom will be a vignette, perhaps a cat frolicing in the grass on a sunny day, as we should never lose sight of the simple pleasures as appreciating those moments is basically the meaning of life. Inspire, be inspired and appreciate, as Dannion Brinkley says, is the meaning of life in a nutshell, and he should have a little insight considering how many times he’s died and come back!

My friend ‘Diva’ Dave Omega was amused that some of my tattoos are upside down (because they are for me to look at rather than to be decoration for others to look at) but art is for the artist first I believe, and while this canvas will be finished eventually and perhaps decorate a wall somewhere, the magic is in the process as this is not planned out and having not sold a single canvas in my 20 years since i started college as an art student, I do not cater to the whims of anyone but myself. I am the client, I am the Medici who is giving free reign to creative potential I have faith is inside me. The best musicians, like Dave, write songs for themselves first and then share them with us if we are lucky!

My friend Karina asked me where I was with my art these days as I’ve grown and modified my feelings about it.

To me, art isn’t a contest with other artists, it’s an individual endeavor that you can share with others. The second you think that it has a monetary value then you set limitations and will pursue and settle for money as the reward, problem is, if you’re an artist to begin with  then you really won’t be satisfied by just having money be the end result of your work so money is a pointless goal. Most artists just want money so they can do their art in comfort rather than sit on a big pile of it unless they have some gold fetish or something.

You don’t really need the feedback of your peers either as you run the risk of ending up like van Gogh and Gauguin, two great artists that didn’t want to accept the other ones motivations and the point is to make great art not make your fellow artists sing kumbaya around the camp fire.

comments are pointless as people mostly comment for themselves not for you, popularity can be bought with time and money but those friends are fickle and it’s pointless to pursue fame as it doesn’t last.

you might be making art as a way to showcase your skills, build your personal character, to compensate for percieved flaws in other areas or to capitalize on being different to begin with (and thats probably the mechanism the universe has created to encourage creative behavior, as if you were so happy and fullfilled by regular life you’d probably not be so passionate about the arts to begin with). but art is more than some darwinian compensation for not being a hunter or child bearer as we can be all those things and artists too, so if you do art because you need an identity thats cool but if you dont enjoy the creative process, only the results, then you are missing the full experience I feel.

there is also the idea in art that you are making things that will change the world in a butterfly affect, like Pollock making art into something that anyone can do (not that he intended to or cared) but that might have unintended results such as Yoko Ono going from being a popular big fish in a small pond to being considered un-cool and probably a poser in the very feild of art she helped create, which would suck, as no matter what she does now it will always seem like shes cashing on on her fame and money rather than making art for arts sake, even if she is literally making art for arts sake, it doesn’t make it fun if people think you are a fake, and there is a ‘universal mind’ like Jung said, what people are thinking and saying about you and your work really does have a physiological effect.

For example there have been tests done with sensors on peoples skin etc and the ‘are your ears burning’ old-wives tale was proven to have scientific validity, the same way you prove it to yourself everyday by staring at someone at random and they look back, knowing, if only subconciously. that you were looking at them even if you were behind them and their eyes never saw you looking. Scientists have theorised that’s why ex-stars end up being substance abusers and generally erratic because once they fall from popularity there is a physical withdrawl effect. So be careful if you seek fame as you might end up as a one hit wonder, type-cast by a one shot thing you long ago moved on from or just a miserable wreck when the spotlight is off you, not out of ego but from forces that science hasn’t even explained fully yet, but forces we know are true.

so what does that leave? and here’s where I am with art. I do art for one person, or contiguous group, at a time. Consider the new-age/ancient religion concept of ‘there is only one of us here’. We are all the same person, we just think we are separate individuals and thus if you make one person feel special by catering the project to their personal taste the ‘butterfly effect’ on the world is far more positive than just doing art for whomever discovers it first. If that’s too hard to wrap your brain around, just look at the zero point feild from quantum physics and understand that we are ‘entagled’ whether we want to believe it or not but we are literally all at two places at once, the place where you are now and the same exact point in the quantum feild. (this incidentally is a solid answer for how ESP works).

Expect all the fame and ego-stroking and possibly rewards that you art deserves,but from the tiny target audience, not the world in general. Often giving a reward makes the art even more precious for it’s audience and the artist should be gracious and only ask for what is reasonable. If you do a painting for a friend expect the friend to treasure it more than one they might have bought at an art gallery, if they do not like the art then that is the feedback you need to improve, a friend will take the time to give an honest appraisal rather than fake approval.

In the big picture, any art done with the best intentions, such as painting something pretty for your friends room, is perfect art. Sometimes, that art grows and spreads joy to the rest of the world like the spirals in a sunflower!

Here’s an idea that requires a small group of friends and two PCs with microphones and speakers. Expect this project to last several hours.

Set the PCs up in opposite areas near where you will be sitting, set the first PC to record all the conversations in the room and play a podcast on the other PC. Then talk amongst yourselves as you listen to the podcast. After 30 minutes (keep track of the time) turn off the podcast on PC#2 and start recording the room as you simultaniously stop recording on PC#1 and play back the audio you just recorded.

Now talk amongst yourselves while you listen to your friends and yourself talking over the podcast, after 30 minutes stop recording on PC#2 and playback what you just recorded as you press record on PC#1. Repeat the process every half hour, talking over the previous 30 minutes conversation.

The more layers of conversations you are hearing simultaniously the weirder things will get, well, it was pretty trippy when my friends and I first  tried this back in 1989.

We didn’t have PCs but we had two cassette decks and here’s the unedited recording of the final tape. Warning, this MP3 is for entertainment purposes only and in no way represents the people on the recording as they are today, fine upstanding citizens! Any references to things illegal and immoral are for historical reference and reflection and are not suggestions!

The Purple Mind Fungus Experiment recorded in 1989.

The people you are hearing include Freddy (the guy who says "but you were there!" all the time), Myself (the guy who says ‘man’ too many times), Jane (who left half an hour before this recording was made), Diamond Dave and then later, Lynn and Vik come in and we explain to them what we’re doing.  It starts off a little slow but then gets pretty funny!

~* all art and audio by Darren Daz Cox - mutant artist*~

Richard Florida was on Coast To Coast Am with George Noori last night and it was a great show as usual. He wrote a book defining the ‘creative class’, those people who change the paradigms in whatever field they end up in. He had another phrase to define a subset of people, those who are “open to experience” as opposed to introverts, extroverts etc. These people, as defined by Richard Florida, are the ones who build things in their garages and dress as they please rather than dressing to fit it. As cool as that sounds they are also the people who tend to not get hired and to be considered strange. I am the poster child of the "open to experience" class of people haha!

Coincidentally (or rather synchronously) the day before I heard the show with Richard Florida my "open to experience" bio on my About me page was chosen by a random surfer as "The best About me page on the internet".  I know, I know, it’s not a ‘real’ award but it was given out of the kindness of my new friend’s heart and proves what Richard Florida was saying, the creative class, especially those who fall into the "open to experience" catagory are the ones who can’t help but create something cool when they are given the time and space to express themselves.

Go B Zine, it’s my new take on the old fashioned idea of a xeroxed DIY (do it yourself) zine sent via old fashioned snail mail.  The idea I had was that people will read the zine when they are in the right place, stuck in traffic, on the toilet, in a waiting room, on the beach, somewhere where they aren’t bombarded by instant messages and email, and hey, I know I can’t compete with Dr. Horrible on the net but I can reach you in your home mail box. Since I’m not selling anything and the content is original, most people won’t deny themselves the joy of getting something for free, you have to be a real grouch to not want your stack of bills and credit card offers polluted with a home made art zine!

There is a quantum physics part to the zine experiment too. My intent is to send a wave of creative energy and inspiration into the world and because the readers are the ‘observer’ that energy will ‘collapse the wave’ - change from potential to actual.

While some of you know a few of the recipients, none of you know all of them, so the potential for seemingly random serendipity/synchronicity exists. The moment two of you zine readers ‘accidentally’ bump into each other will be the moment I consider this a total success! We are all connected, quantum physics proves this and therefore, as unlikely as it sounds, GO B Zine readers will been drawn together because of my intent. Muhahaha then I’ll take over the world! nah, I’ll have another project by then but one day you’ll remember I said it here first!

~** all art and plans of world domination by Darren Daz Cox <- creative strategist and mutant **~

 oh and join me on Chris Brogan’s new Social Networking and Marketing Event discussion site Project Dogfood (when you do what you tell others to do you are allegorically eating your own dogfood to see if it is good!)

This started as an abstract oil painting of a forest, I photographed the canvas and then mirrored the image in Photoshop until it became fractilized.

Suddenly I started seeing animals, woodland animals and swamp animals which lead to me realize that my subconscious did exactly what I asked it to do the other day when i was walking on the street looking at the reflections in the puddles.

I asked my mind to find a way to capture that magic of seeing the world reflected in the puddle, and these colors are exactly what i saw in that puddle, the trees the sky the shadows, wow! Tripping myself out is part of the magic of fine art.

A few hours ago this canvas was just another canvas i wasn’t sure what to do with, it felt that a good start of something but not done, now, after taking the chance to photograph it and bring it into Photoshop it manifested into a completed thought.

"Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things." Edgar Degas

I can see a bear, a deer, an alligator, a spider, plants etc and to me, this is proof that you should trust your subconscious to work for you, consider it a computer where you have to program it. I’m sure that this idea of asking your subconscious to do something is easier to see with somethings than with others but i swear this is a real phenomenon.

We are far greater, far more brilliant than we allow ourselves to believe, and we can tap into that brilliance if we can find techniques to bypass our inhibiting factors.  Meditation helps us tap into the spiritual side of things and it seems that if you trust your mind to create art and ask it to guide your hand then the art you asked for appears!

Below, the current stage in the Green Egg painting!