Tonight's 'THE' night. Part uno of a show that has been a year in the making-The Heaven and Hell show at the Hive.
I am in hell of course;)
Be prepared to have your reality altered as you vie with the glitzy denizens of LAs dark underbelly, and stare at the bloody revelations lining the alabaster walls, composed entirely from the viscera of former C listers and the symbols of some dark order.
Marvel at the sonic howlings of an atavistic Shamen, getting down with the dead souls he has conjured using fire, brimstone and the clanking of ribcages, hit with a femur.
Drink the black elixir of dark enchantment, said to be a cocktail of juices, drawn from well known celebrities as they lay in a detox fever at a rehab clinic.
Actually, I'm lying-none of those things are going to happen,what you will see instead are some of the best works of my life, composed from real blood,sweat, tears and oil paint, whilst listening to some great happening music and drinking a cold beer.
So break yourself from your catatonic reverie, put down your Blackberries and your Ipads, and experience some real world art, in one of the best venues in LA, support living artists and see what keeps me awake at nights.
No artist alive, savors the prospect of what is value hiking art posthumously.
It's a reprehensible practice-one which probably came most famously to the fore when Van Gogh's Irises sold for $53.9 million in 1987-almost a hundred years after his death.
The stereotype was truly caste from that moment-that of the artist suffering madness and destitution throughout life, until the dead bones lay ready to be picked by auction houses like so many vultures descending.
From great suffering comes great art is truly one of the biggest, most tragic misnomers that has seeped into the social consiousness...the romantic notion of the artists garret. Except...there is nothing pure in poverty.
Of course,one mustn't villify Denmark's most famous son for his wretched tale, doubtless had he enjoyed the patronage he sought so tenaciously throughout his lifetime, then he may have lived to a long and productive old age.
Art as a form is a vital entity, constantly evolving through its endless paradigm shifts of social and cultural change, often informing the latter. It's presience and ubiquity is the foundation of culture, and it flourishes and replenishes itself because of the effervescence and passions of new and fresh living talent that invigorate it.
At a time when the economy is looking down the barrel of a double dip recession, its more important than ever that living artists are not marginalised by lack of patronage and resources, and made redundant by investment brokeradges and collectors of antiquity. Art may have a rich history, but it needs a rich future, and so many artist's I know live below the poverty line.
To that end, I've been wanting to produce a logo for sometime, that myself and other artists could utilize,to best express that. This then is the Support Living Artist's Foundation.
So please use the logo on your websites, on your art auctions, as signatures-link to this page , make patrons aware and let modern, living art become currency again.
Support Living Artist's.
