The Alchemist 17th century Oil on Canvas by Mattheus van Hellemont
After pondering over
the significance of what I do as a painter and the message my work carries with
its narratives, it becomes interestingly notable the similarities between the
alchemist and the painter. The alchemist obsessive pursuit of transforming lead
into gold serves as a perfect metaphor for creative people living today in a consumerist society that have to come up with new ways of transforming all the rubbish into
something beautiful and significant. In an age where we are constantly
bombarded by mind numbing news and consumer culture propaganda, we are in need
of artists that work as alchemists. These lotus like souls float over the muddy waters of our
consumer driven society and their art blooms like a gleam of hope for a better
future. The artist that becomes aware of the world around him/her can filter,
distill and transform the experiences and information the keeps the masses asleep.
Their art is like a golden bell that wakes up the dormant souls in this world.
Art is indeed a very powerful tool. Just consider for a moment that about
10,000 years ago human civilizations on this planet developed agriculture. Long
before this, about 40,000 years ago we started to paint in caves. That is how
ancient and fundamentally important art is in our society.
Cro-Magnon artists painting Font-de-Gaume, France by Charles R. Knight
Imagine an art class
where you would be required to paint with pure primary colors straight out of
the tube without mixing. How would you create a landscape, a portrait or an
abstract painting using only ultramarine blue, cadmium red or yellow? It can be
done of course but once we create these primary color exercises we start to realize,
how much more advantageous it is to be able to mix any of these colors and create
a much more rich, and varied palette. After all, painting without the knowledge
of mixing and expanding the chromatic spectrum is like learning just a few
words in a new language. We expand our vocabulary and learn to pars and
conjugate once we learn how colors interact and behave with each other. For a
narrative painter, concepts, stories and archetypes are equally important as
colors.
A star shapped color palette arrangement by Patrick McGrath Muñiz
It seems quite natural therefore
to see the painter as an innate alchemist who creates work by association, destruction and construction.. This is someone who is constantly
experimenting with different amalgamations of pigments and media in order to
find the perfect recipe that will produce a gem, a work of art. Not only is the
formal/material process important in order to achieve success, but the content (not just for a narrative painter) is just as important and becomes another
layer added to the color palette. In the content palette one may find a limited
number of archetypes. We may already be familiar with them but it is always
good to refresh our memories be mindful of their existence. They come in many
shapes and forms throughout time and different cultures. They are primary
forces behind the gods, the saints, the heroes and villains we hear about in
all world mythologies, religions and folklore. The different combinations of
these archetypes produces a wide array of possible stories with specific ends
and messages to be derived by the viewer.
Study of archetypes derived from Roman Catholic Iconography by Patrick McGrath Muñiz
Going back to our art
class, I have to ask myself when was the last time I learned how to compose a
story with archetypes in a painting class? If mixing colors was seldom taught
in both my undergrad and graduate painting curricula, I don't ever recall archetypes
being mentioned as counterparts to color when it comes to conceptualization or storytelling.
There can be many reasons for this huge gap in art academia but something
remains crystal clear to me as a keep studying art on my own. The study of
archetypes for an artist (even abstract) is as important as knowing your art
history and as important as knowing how to mix the primary colors. As alchemists, if we strive to create gold (art)
out of the most basic materials, we should also be aware of how to construct
our stories. No matter how abstract they may be, our creations will never
escape or be independent of color, hidden archetypes and our own human history.
Studying archetypal themes in my journal.
In the following blog posts, I'll delve deeper into the understanding and exploration of these building blocks of narrative painting called archetypes. This will be part of the documentation for the development of my next project: A Tarot inspired by human history, social inequality and the environment.
