EMOTIONAL SURVIVALISM - A creative philosophy and practice

As an academic, I spent much of my time challenging the notion of labels, principally those that led to discrimination or exclusion. However, this was more about resisting ascription, not about the positive imbibement of a label. Now, as an artist, I am really searching for a label that fits. 

There are hundreds of options available. When I was young and desperate to become an artist, I was very firmly a realist. The purpose of art seemed very clear to me; it was about representing things faithfully in a naturalistic way. Artists like Van Gogh appeared to me unskilled and even slightly deranged. I left art behind as a young man – for various reasons – and in so doing I was reified in time as a realist. 

Coming back to art much later, I realised something deeply important – I was a realist previously because I was wedded to perfection. If I could faithfully reproduce what I was looking at, then I could avoid criticism. No-one could argue with perfection. However, I was never interested in hyper-realism. It always seemed unreal somehow, producing art that is not consistent with the human gaze. In that sense I believe impressionism to be better reflective of how we see the world.

Once I returned to art, some key things happened. The first of these was I began to paint. Before, I only used pencils and ink because they were all I could afford. Painting revolutionised how I went about producing art. The second thing, related to the first, was my use of colour. I began to experiment with it. Rather than slavishly trying to replicate the colours I saw; I began to exaggerate and expand certain colours. They were there, but I inverted their prominence. A fleck of yellow or red became the whole. This was a profound departure for me. I began to really see the work of modern and contemporary painters: Van Gogh, Frida and Cezanne in particular.

Someone on social media described me as a Fauvist. Certainly, that would account for my radical use of colour, and I do believe that emotion is central to my approach to art. But I do not paint in flat lines and block colours. A semblance of realism remains in my art. I do paint more abstract pictures, but they are occasional and reflective of moments in time, rather than a core feature of my approach. While I greatly admire Matisse and Fauvism, it does not influence me beyond its bold and emotive use of colour.

I first described myself as an expressionist. The vivid use of colour and the focus on expressing emotions seemed to fit very well, and it also retains a closer attachment to realism. Further, there exists a branch of expressionism known as emotional expressionism. The emphasis here is on eliciting an emotional response from the viewer. Surely that best represents how I work and what I am trying to achieve when I draw and paint? I thought so initially, but now I am positive that it does not. Why? Because thinking very clearly about my motivations leads me to reject the central tenets of emotional expressionism.

Aside from the use of colour, two things drive me to produce art. Firstly, it is about survival. I paint to keep myself alive. It provides me with purpose and drive. I am constantly trying to create works that define reality as I experience it. The colours, as I said before, are always there, they just do not represent fully what I see. Vibrancy and darkness both convey the dimensions of my survival.

The other element of my philosophy relates to emotions. To be perfectly honest, I am not painting to elicit emotional responses from an audience. I am expressing how I feel in any given moment. As someone with bipolar disorder, this frequently means outlining either joy or despair. Thus, Joy and despair are fundamental to my art. Although I obviously hope that my work will find an audience, they are not my principal focus. I mostly assume that my work will remain unseen, therefore I do not paint to evoke emotions, merely to convey my own emotional inner world.

From this I derive the notion of Emotional Survivalism, which has several key components:

1. Art is about life. It is genuinely a survival strategy

2. Emotional Survivalism connects to the notion of the Hero's Journey as articulated by Joseph Campbell. It follows the path of Separation, Initiation and Return.

3. The bold use of colour is designed to express emotional extremes. However, the colours suggest themselves in the process. Nothing is planned, it emerges.

4. The emotions conveyed are not about the audience, they are about the artist

5. Realism remains at the heart of the approach. It is not about distorting reality, merely exaggerating certain key elements of it

6. It is broadly, though not entirely, figurative in nature. And in being figurative it is often figurative. At times likeness is imperative and at other times, expression is more crucial than actual representation.

7. The political context is a key component of the artist’s emotional world. More than that, it is a progressive approach to art and life.

8. The process is not precise, it relies on the eye, not on techniques such as grids or sketching outlines. Everything is painted from the first line to the last.

9. Another feature of the process is holism. The imprecision of the approach extends to the notion of lines and outlines. The form blends with the whole, which is in recognition of the connectivity of everything. This also means that the background of a painting always features in the subject.

10. Nothing is ever planned. Paintings emerge in exactly the same way that the colours emerge. It is entirely organic.

11. The immediacy of Emotional Survivalism means that you cannot take months over artworks. The artist moves with the mood, creating constantly, often working on two or more pieces at a time. 

12. Scrap art is important.  Art on recycled art represents the recognition that we are destroying this planet, and the finite nature of all things

13. It also embraces living art - art created on useable items. This again reflects the reality that art is not infinite and that beauty should be ubiquitous

14. Recognition of the debt owed to the great artists is key. Tribute pieces should be in the style not simple replications

15. It isn't strictly necessary to be self-taught, but it is important to find your own way. Learning from others is wonderful, being defined by them is not. In fact, it is vital to convey the world as the artist sees it. Ultimately, the entire purpose of art is to share the artists' reality.

At this stage, this is my philosophy of art. I will refine it as I progress. I hope that it makes sense, and that others might profit from my reflections.