21/11/18
So, in college this past fortnight, we've been given the task of writing/creating our own art manifestos. And for me this has been a miserable task. Because apparently I don't think like an artist should. I've never really thought about what my art's purpose is, and the more I think about it, the less I really know. Because for one, there isn't a political theme to any of it, much to my tutors' dismay. They keep trying to squeeze some sort of political edge out of my work and failing. Because, man, it's just guinea pigs. I draw guinea pigs. I draw rats. I draw hamsters. I draw them driving around in silly little cars while wearing silly little outfits. Because I want to. That's all. It isn't very complicated, but hey, if it works, it works!
While trying to come up with my own manifesto, I've been reading about other manifestos. And I will be honest and say that I disliked the majority of them. They especially started losing it beginning in the 60s.
Though saying that, I did enjoy reading the excerpt from 'The Chelsea Hotel Manifesto' on wikipedia;
"Once, in 1946, while still an adolescent, I was to sign my name on the other side of the sky during a fantastic "realistico-imaginary" journey. That day, as I lay stretched upon the beach of Nice, I began to feel hatred for birds which flew back and forth across my blue, cloudless sky, because they tried to bore holes in my greatest and most beautiful work.
Birds must be eliminated."
Mood.
I'm more on about the bizarre, pretentious nonsense. The SCUM Manifesto was 100% written by a crazy person. Absolutely insane. And not really anything to do with art, although ""art can be anything"".
Call me uneducated all you like, I'm still not going to enjoy watching someone shoot paint out of their genitals. It's just not for me, man.
Another more modern art manifesto which caught my attention was 'A Cyborg Manifesto' written in 1985. It was written by a woman called Donna Haraway who "advocates the development of cyborgs ("cybernetic organisms") as the way forward for a post-gender society". Which is all you really need to know about it.
One fear which I developed while reading this stuff is that I'm going to end up like them. Terrifying. Smearing paint on my face and vomiting word salad at anyone who walksby. A terrible thought about a terrible future.My manifesto right now is a list of 6 words. Because I can't bring myself to write anymore. I'm drawing the rest of it. I've written more here than I have in my workbook so far.
The 6 words are as follows:
These are 6 things I'd like to see in my future work. Personality both in the characters and the art style. Expression meaning I want the characters to be readable, I want to be able to draw more subtle expressions more successfully. Movement as in thecharacters should look like they're moving all the time, like living creatures do. It helps with keeping the pose looking natural. Texture is a simple one, chairs are a different texture from carpets. Detail both in how much detail I add to characters but also to scenes as a whole, I'd like to have more little bits for people to look at in final pieces. And lastly, variety. Because I need to draw more than just guinea pigs.
Or Penelope. Or Seb. Oof..
I don't really feel like this is a manifesto at all, but I just don't feel very strongly about that sort of thing. And I do have passion for drawing and creating in general, but I don't particularly want to get very personal in college. I shall remain an enigma to these people. They will know nothing about me. Muahahaha!
Here, have a concrete, successful manifesto: "Draw good."
-Capy