This was done in my early 20’s, in a consciously Expressionistic style. The technique was to use charcoal and an eraser to draw something relatively quickly, from the imagination, and out of suggestions I get from non-representational marks I’d first make on the paper…
I’m sharing old work incrementally. This kind of work is clearly out of fashion, officially, but I tend to think that ordinary art audiences like this sort of thing (more than they like my new work, anyway). I also think that most people click “like” without bothering to trouble themselves reading what it’s about. So, they won’t know that I’m sharing this now in order to test the theory that people like emotional, messy art. If they do read this, that’s fine as well. I like emotional, messy art, even if most my new work doesn’t fit into that category at all.
Yesterday I wrote an article about artist, Jonathan Meese. After researching him a bit I pretty much came to the conclusion that he has a fairly distorted view of art, and his art may be so much self-indulgent, sophomoric garbage, with an occassional striking painting. He is, on the other hand, very popular with a lot of people, and after sleeping on this it seemed obvious to me that the simply reason is that his work is emotional. It strives to be intense – if you watch Meese talk for more than 30 seconds it’s obvious that he’s all about passionate intensity – and the sloppy, spontaneous look of his technique helps this while keeping it from being too literal and obviously sentimental.
I did one piece in his style, just to see if I could. I think I pulled it off pretty well, even though I only used the computer, when physical mediums would have been much more convincing. I want to do some more along those lines, and probably using physical mediums, but don’t want to attribute them to Meese, or myself. I think I am going to invent a contemporary German Expressionist alter-ego that is responsible for them. Shhhh. If you read this you are in on it. Everyone else will have to see through it for themselves.
~ Ends
See more of my early work here.
Art & Crit by Eric Wayne 
Eric,
I too like some emotional messy stuff, not messe stuff though. Seems like he’s just trying to be controversial. Not really the point of art in my opinion but who am I to judge. Is he going for a Basquiet/ Twombley mix? He falls way short of the emotion they have. Just being the loudest person in the room doesn’t mean your right. His paintings get your attention but then don’t keep it. I like John Graham and his theory’s on art. I also like that he contradicts himself a lot. His ideas were always changing and that’s a good thing. He changed his opinion on Picasso late in life. I think maybe because for the last 50 years of his life Picasso stopped evolving and stuck with abstraction. You mentioned something about not wanting to have a style. I agree with that as well, I’d rather keep evolving. That probably doesn’t bode well for ever getting recognized though. Can you name an artist who kept reinventing themselves their entire career? Maybe Klee?
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