When a Common Coyote Becomes Extra-Ordinary

Among the comments I received yesterday to my blogs, there was one that caught my attention. It was by “Unknown”, a common incognito seeking viewer behaviour, who commented on my last posting. 

The message read:

Unknown has left a new comment on your post "Psychodiagnostik – What Rorschach Did Not Anticipate in 1921":

                         Taking art to its origins of the cave paintings using a different medium?

Hmm. My first reaction was that of delight – this viewer decided that my painting and collage was “art”. Great. Then I wondered “is cave painting art or anthropological discovery?”

Not sure, but upon reflection, I feel comfortable with the following: I am a published author of books, essays, poetry, and photography. My sculpture and painting have been in exhibits, and I am learned taxidermy as a curiosity. All my artistic penchants are visceral and self taught. I have learned to capture and represent reality through different media.

But I am trained as a scientist and eventually it is the love of simplicity and minimalism that guides my outlook. Somehow “Rackham’s Razor” has never let me go…!

So, being self taught and pursuing minimalism to describe and explain, one needs experimentation.

For me, one area of such artistic vagabondage has been the fantastic. I like to mix materials, stories and visual modes of expression. Of course, the fantastic is also inspired by the un-common, which means that an extinct Woolly Mammoth is more interesting to that artist than a present day elephant.

And this is perhaps where I concur with Unknown:  the cave painting metaphor holds when I create new forms with existing creatures. Just like the cave paintings show many animals that are now extinct.

Is this going back to the origins of painting by using the natural tools and media for expression?

If it is, I take it as a delightful compliment and one that rings true to many of my experimentation.

The photos are about one such experimentation that I did not pursue further (but I learned a new technique from it). It is the partial face of a coyote covering the upper skull of a peccary.  It sure is not a species that ever existed, but the visual effect of this cross-species collage helps my coffee table to also be a conversation table!

November 2, 2018

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018