Viewers that meet me often ask “Where do your ideas come from?” I reply that despite how surreal the final paintings might be, the majority of my ideas come as a result of direct observation of the real world. As i go through my daily routines , I will notice something in my immediate environment that , for reasons i don’t always understand, will inspire a “flight of fantasy” , an imagined narrative that moves from the concrete to the surreal plane and is the beginning of a new painting. When this happens i’m happy, it feels like a “gift from the gods”.
I just had this experience again yesterday. I was painting by my studio window in the late afternoon, which is directly opposite an old cemetery (lancaster cemetery). I happened to look across the street just in time to see an older woman holding a little flag up high and leading a group of about 30 people at a very brisk pace through some elaborate maze of her own design around dozens of tombstones.. She moved so quickly that she was always way ahead of her slower flock (lots of older people). and they strung out behind her in a long line…I’ll show you the fantasy this inspired when the painting is finished, but let me just say it will have more to do with the dead buried there then the living. In this photo you can see the lady with the flag far right (black shorts, red t), and her flock lagging behind on the left. As best as i can figure out must have been a tour group…
This way of observing my world is why I like to call myself a Magical Realist rather than a Surrealist, my images are rooted in the ordinary “real” world rather than what appears to be an alien plane (where much of the first generation surrealism appears to take place, think dali) . From what i have seen of art history, this “real world surrealism” seems to be a very feminine genre. Thinking of my favorite surrealists frida, leanora carrington, remedios varos, Dorothea Tanning . I also find it no accident that much of Magical Realism seems to have originated from spanish speaking countries, as santana said, “spanish is the loving tongue”. To me this reflects what I have noticed myself ; that the metaphysical coexists more closely and is more accepted in latin cultures than it is here in the states .
