An Exploration of Intimacy

People of fundamentally selfish.   

This is the natural state of a human being.  Children have to be taught to share to get along;  Although, most children learn quickly.   Unfortunately, Nature has a way of overpowering intellect and social skills.  We live in a world dominated by group think.  The masses are what generate wealth and influence, sometimes more than staples and resources.  Large cities, mechanization, and plenty of stuff; but, our world is anything but natural.  Cities house people and water in amounts that cannot be healthy.  

What is the position of painting, specifically painting, in a world of mass production. 

Paintings are not a group effort, neither in creation or experience.   They are the visual equivalent of a conversation, only without the control of words.  What is seen by someone may not be what the artist sees in his completed painting.  A crowd of people staring at a painting could, and probably does, have completely different reactions.  Or, none at all.  There is enough mass produced art to cause it to fade into the environment.  A crowd of people happens at  museums and hotdog stands alike.

Based on my observations:  What successful artists have in common is, they create a world in which the painting and viewer are the only inhabitants.  An exploration of intimacy, of something that is mine alone.

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