I Believe! Hallelujah, I BELIEVE!

I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical.

-Arthur C. Clarke

Good people, today, in a stroke of fate, I read an email from a friend telling me to follow a certain link. That link led me to an astrological profile.  Now, if you know me, you know I was already kind of intrigued by the idea of astrology to begin with…. or at least amused!  But, good God, the addiction has been reawakened!  Re-inspired!  In the past 10 minutes I have learned more about myself than I had ever wanted to….  It is the funniest most surreal thing, and oh so strange! 

Below are some links to astrology sites, I dare you to follow them!  DOUBLE DARE!  Let me know if they give you any insight!  I say hey, you say hey..  I know a naysayer would argue that all astrology writers do is find something everyone can vaguely relate to, but I kid you not, I glanced at the profiles for others signs, and they are absolutely NOT me! But when I read my own, it is god damn eery!  I’d be very interested in seeing what the “success rate” is.

My favorite line is, “for them, everything about life is Big with a capital B”… Hells yes!

Do I believe in destiny?  I think i do.  People like to say, “oh if destiny exists, why do anything? Why don’t I just sit around and do absolutely nothing?”  And to this I say –  try.  Just try.

http://www.novia.net/~aaronk/ast/leo.html

http://www.astrology.com.au/12signs/leo.asp

http://www.ncbuy.com/entertainment/astrology/leo-about.html

http://www.eastrolog.com/astrology-zodiac/leo.php

  

Urinal.

The artist himself may not think he is religious, but if he is sincere his sincerity in itself is religion. - Emily Carr

It interests me that throughout history where religion has been, art also has always necessarily followed (whether it be Russian propaganda films, Byzantine icons, or the Sistine Chapel).  I am not a religious person, in the sense that I do not subscribe to any one conventional “religious” system, but strangely, I would still consider myself “religious.”  That is, I have strong beliefs… even if I am not always fully aware of them; I have conviction, even if I am not always sure how to act.  Emily Carr wrote that “the artist himself may not think he is religious, but if he is sincere his sincerity in itself is religion,” and I relate strongly to that.  Religion is not in a word or a symbol, a painting or a speech, it lives always in one’s own beliefs.

What concerned me most while working on this piece was that very question of belief.  I am at a point in my life where conviction seems a tricky, fickle thing – but an absolutely necessary thing nonetheless.

Just recently, during a media history screening, a film called “Armageddon” was shown.  I found it strange how so many people left, and of the few who did remain, many of them did so only to laugh derogatively at the movie.  I can understand this, I too felt an almost instant sense of…. superiority.  But why?  When judgment comes so easy, it is usually a sign that ignorance is near.  If it is wrong for a “common” person to quickly pass something off as “artsy,” how is it right to pass of another as “commercial?”  Perhaps it is a question of semantics, perhaps not, but I honestly feel that their is worth to be had, knowledge to be learned, in everything, regardless of intent.  An open mind is acceptance, it is strange that in an art school there seems to be so little of it.

“Bad art is always more tragically beautiful than good art because it documents human failure.”

I understand that the backlash is against certain conventions, and blind, ideologically irresponsible decisions (made in the film)…. but, I think, what people fail to recognize is that very reaction is itself convention.  We are spurred by a collective unity.  In this way, “art” is no less a mindless system of thought than, say, Religion or Commercialism, Consumerism or Communism (the “bad” kind).  Like these things, art too seems to have a system of almost taboo arbitrary codes; ways we should think, talk, look, act. What I strive to remember is that this collective identity of “art” has, in fact, absolutely nothing to do with art – Being an “artist” has always been after the fact.

There seems to be a misconceived notion that conviction, belief, and confidence require solidity and foundation… while they ARE a necessary foundation, they should not borrow the connotations of that word.  Belief should never be nailed to the ground, conviction never cemented, rather, they should be in constant negotiation.  Uncertainty is the Mother of all things beautiful and pure. Belief, conviction, confidence – these are things that should be founded on an ocean of constant change.  When judgment is passed without question, judgment should be brought to trial. 

In my piece, formalistically, all in all, there are 10 religions referenced (Christianity [Holy Cross], Judaism [Magden David], Sikhism [Sword, Dagger and Shield], Taoism [Tai-Chi, Yin-Yang], Buddhism [The Dhammachakka], Hinduism [OM], Islam [Crescent and Star], Indigenous Religions [The Quartered Circle], Confucianism [The Trigram], and Jainism [The Swastik Chakra], centered around an outline of Michel Duchamp’s, “Fountain.”  Below is an idea for where I would like to put it and how it would look (though I would be open to other suggestions.)  The only thing I am concerned about is whether the detail within the circle is too fine…. in which case I could take away one of the duplicates and enlarge it (though that would omit Toaism…)… I’ve attached the alternative as well.