Senior Exhibition II

Senior Exhibition II- John Ahearn & Karly Herron

March 30th- April 9th

Stubnitz Gallery, Downs Hall

Adrian College, Adrian, MI

ARTIST STATEMENT

 

As an extremely observant person, I usually let pessimism get the best of me. While I see a balance of both good and bad in the world, I tend to let myself be overwhelmed by that which is both bad and unlikely to change. I have recently become interested in issues of power, not just in the sense of a social hierarchy of power, but in the kind of power that we have as humans to create, to uncover, to change, and to progress. I find this power that we have to be both extremely beautiful and terrible at the same time.

This seems to be especially true of technology. We build shrines and pedestals, upon which we place many technological objects (cell phones, computers, cameras, iPods). These things present themselves as benign, but are in fact changing the way we live, communicate, and even define ourselves—and not necessarily in a good way. Many of our other contemporary innovations in the field of technology are simultaneously great and terrifying—cloning capabilities, particle physics and the atom bomb come to mind. It seems obvious that, as humans, we have an extremely important role in shaping the future of our world and universe.

As pessimistic as I may be about the direction this universe is headed, I somehow still hold on to a modicum of faith that humanity will triumph over what seems to be an inherent need to do the wrong thing—to control and create things that perhaps shouldn’t be created. I don’t want my art to inspire dread or despair over this condition, but I don’t want to celebrate it either. It is in my work that I hope the viewer will discover a balance of both beauty and discomfort, while perhaps feeling a bit of tension about their own existence.

This beauty and discomfort is echoed in the energized colors present in my paintings. Members of the consumerist-crazed masses may find comfort in the familiarity of the bright colors and recognizable imagery. In The Factory, the manipulation of human DNA is set upon a vibrant, red background, indicative of risky action or warning against possible unpleasant consequences. The visual appeal of the colors draws in the viewer regardless of knowledge or interest in art, and energizes the tension that is present in the painting.

Tension is also present among the moods of certain paintings, which can be seen in the contrast of the ominous The view from my window into the backyard during a nightmare and the more optimistic Man must explore (a fundamental truth to our nature). There is also a certain tension created with the skeleton-hand imagery which, repeated throughout multiple paintings, invokes a sense of questionably moral human practices. The inversion of the power symbol works similarly as a visual metaphor for the manipulation of power and technology.

These interacting elements within my paintings reflect the tension I feel about both existence and participation in our world of technology and progress. I often imagine that, if I were cast as some two-dimensional being and was forced to live inside one of my paintings, I would feel a little of both fear and awe at my bright yet strange, imagery-filled surroundings. I can only hope, as you look at them from afar, that you might find you feel the same way.

 

Karly Herron

March 30th, 2009

All Consequence Aside

 "Throw all consequence aside." -From The Shin's Sea Legs

Throwing "all consequence aside" seems to have become commonplace in our society. I've begun to feel, not even a general acceptance of illicit behaviors, but a sort of pressure to engage in them. And not even just from my peers-- educated individuals who are all about academic studies and promoting our changing times, not really questioning whether these changes are good, appropriate, moral, responsible, etc. People speak about sex as if it's a recreational activity, like teens and early twenty-somethings are not normal if they don't feel comfortable being intimate with strangers. What an oxymoron that is, "intimate strangers." How do people justify this? I don't think I will ever empathize, nor do I care to. I feel the same way about drinking. I indulge occasionally, but each time I feel less and less like a person. What am I doing? I'm not even living life. I'm using a drug to feel good, to feel like I'm worth something in life. I'm also killing my liver and opening the door to some unpleasant decision-making. How do you justify that? You're only young once? One time too many, for me.

Sometimes you throw consequence aside because it's something you really want. Sometimes you don't want to do it but you do it anyway because you're convinced by other people that it's just the way things are, that you can justify it because everyone else is doing it. It's disappointing that all those other people are also doing things like buying indulgences they can't afford, having sex with people they don't love, sitting on millions of dollars while others are homeless and starved, and worrying about the petty interests of their daily lives while the problems of the world swirl around them. But hey, that's just the way things are. Why try and change it? You're not poor. You're not starving. Who cares about anyone else. Who cares about humanity. 

Who cares that we could choose to live in a beautiful world but instead we choose to live in a selfish, destructive one?

Coming Up Short

This painting is wrong. Probably because I didn't know what I was doing when I started it. I always have a vague concept, but it sounds too cliche to say out loud, which I suppose is why I choose painting to express these things rather just writing about it. 

I guess it is supposed to be about a philosophy of life, or searching for one. There are always things to find- ideas, theories, feelings-- but then there is always more to find. There's never an end, a finite discovery. I suppose religious people would disagree with me, but I can't comprehend the kind of faith that they have in what appears to be a random coincidence of good things in the world, embodied in a superior being. I keep repeating this process of searching, not really finding anything concrete, creating more questions than procuring answers, coming up short.

To make this painting right, I would reverse the visual hierarchy, put the faceless people below the figures who are rooting through the pebbles. As it is, it seems to connote the possibility of superior beings in a higher dimension. That's not really how i meant them to be-- I wanted it to represent the myriads of people who seem to float through life without questioning anything, people who think that petty things matter. It doesn't support the meaning, the way the images are organized now.

It's kind of funny-- I don't really talk to my family about what my art specifically means, but I suppose that since I grew up around my dad, it shouldn't be a surprise that some of the things we believe are fundamentally the same. I was reading a forwarded email from my dad today, when someone's "signature" caught my eye. It was a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien: "If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." It's a simple thought, one that I think connects with my belief that we make things too complicated, to power and greed-driven, too numb to the prospect of humanity's best interests. I looked to see who's signature it was; It surprised me to see that it was my dad's. He's never struck me as a big Tolkien fan, and it seemed like a weird quote to choose for one's business email, specifically because big business doesn't really contribute to what Tolkien would consider to be a merry world. This made me smile, made me really happy like I haven't been in a while. I don't have to explain my art to my dad.

He already knows.

A Desperate Lunacy

"To God?-- He loves thee not;--

The god thou serv'st is thine own appetite,

Wherein is fixed the love of Belzebub:

To him I'll build an altar and a church,

And offer lukewarm blood of new-born babes."

From Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

I was searching for sources related to this play when I came across the phrase "a desperate lunacy," used to describe Faustus in his sort of frenzy to gain power. The quote above is Faustus speaking to himself, in what I see as a self-convincing argument that says pretty much anything is worth sacrificing in the face of self-indulgement. Faustus' willingness to give an offering of blood from new-born babes is [besides extremely disturbing] actually very indicative of humanity's inherent powerlessness against their Energy, their lack of self-control. Here, he strikes me as a junkie, in withdrawal from power rather than drugs-- in serving his own appetite he's willing to do anything, no matter how disgusting, to see that he gets what he wants/thinks that he needs.

I had a guest critiquer tell me that he though this painting was about reproduction or sexuality. I can see where it might allude to things like that, especially with the symbols merging together and the bloody babies on the right, though it's not the direction I had in mind. This painting was actually very pivotal for me as an artist; I completely uninhibited myself in terms of everything I tend to want to control; imagery, color, composition. I just did what I thought would feel right. Born of this painting is the negative, or "anti" power symbol, which has become extremely important to me in my lexicon of images. It's not, as the critiquer would suggest, a sexual counterpart, but rather a distortion of what's good, obvious or right. It's an image that represents corruption, a metaphor for bad decisions and lurking evil.

It's strange that I wasn't exactly aware of what I was doing when I painted this. I started with the quote but that's really all I had to go on... I tend to paint first, find meaning after, which makes me feel like I'm always trying to bullshit my way through my work, but I don't truly believe that. I think to some degree, my subconscious knows what I'm doing better than I do. I just can't figure out why, or why I'm letting it happen, or whether it might make my art less meaningful if I'm letting it have too much control over me instead of the other way around.

Potentiality

"Into this wilde Abyss

The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave,

Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,

But all these in their pregnant causes mixed

Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,

Unless the almighty maker them ordain

His dark materials to create more Worlds,

Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend

Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,

Pondering his Voyage..."

From John Milton's Paradise Lost, Book II

Though I don't really believe in Satan as a living entity (demon or otherwise), I do think that it's an acceptable metaphor for the way we as humans live our lives. We are obviously tempted by things that we shouldn't have, and whether we give in to these temptations or not defines who we are or how "good" we are. The more we give in to temptation, the more we are like Satan. I think Satan's journey in Milton's Paradise Lost is not unlike the one we all experience in our lives.

One thing that I find really interesting (and frustrating) is that the definition between right and wrong is never clear. Sometimes it's not even a matter of consciously choosing the right thing; sometimes the right thing seems obvious, and sometimes the wrong thing seems obviously right. Why shouldn't we explore medicine, time and space, become masters of the universe, and have more control over these things? If there is a God, then this is clearly the wrong thing, not for us to control. But even if there isn't a God.. what's the point? We are only here for a short period of time, and our universe will eventually collapse.  What scares me most is that, if we eventually harness all the power of our world and hyperspace, who will control it? No one should be trusted with that kind of power. Especially not humans. 

We are heading into a wild abyss. We don't know what's in it, and what's more, we don't know why or if we should. Just as Satan moved to create his own world outside of God's, our modern scientists are moving into dimensions and discorveries that may change our perception of the world we live in, our perception of purpose. The scariest thought I can imagine is that we might be able to prove that our existence is meaningless, a random act of chance and coincidence. What if our brains just manufacture feelings, if love doesn't mean as much as we think it does. Our world is damaged enough as it is.. do we really want to know that life is meaningless? or can we be content to stay where we are, and live and die with some amount of hope left? 

Society doesn't sacrifice Progression for ethics

"How easy it would have been not to make the knife if they'd seen the consequences. A world of teeming plenty, of prosperity and peace-- and still they wanted more."

From Philip Pullman's Subtle Knife-- 'Lantern Slides'

It seems like much of the popular literature these days deals with ethical issues, mostly temptation and how, as humans, we find it hard to do the right thing. A character is always faced with a difficult choice and, whatever path the author creates for that character to follow says something about the author's view on humanity.

Throughout the Harry Potter series, for instance,  Dumbledore is frequently amazed at Harry's ability to choose what is right versus what is easy. Dumbledore, who once gave in to power and greed resulting in disastrous consequences for him and his family, sees in Harry an inherent goodness and selflessness that, in the end of the book, allows Harry to save the wizarding and muggle worlds from Lord Voldemort. How unfortunate that Christians were so fast to condemn the Harry Potter books when they were really a sort of parallel of the ultimate sacrifice Christ made for mankind. In Harry's victory, J.K. Rowling shows that she believes in the goodness of mankind, that as humans, we have the ability to choose what is right.

I believe in this ability as well, but I also believe that it's very rare for people to act on that ability. Most people are unable to fight Energy with Reason, even if there is a conscious effort to do so. I would argue that in some cases, it's even harder to ignore Energy when you know it's something you shouldn't do-- the allure of "what could be" is too great.

The problem with giving in to Energy is the guilt that follows in consciousness that you're doing something wrong. 

In Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, the character Edward lives with this kind of guilt. Edward isn't exactly a human, but embodies a lot of human characteristics-- as he pleads of Bella [after getting dangerously close to her in book 1]: "Would you understand what I meant if I say I'm only human?" [1] At the beginning of his relationship with Bella, Edward truly believes there is a chance he may kill her if he can't control the Energy that thirsts for her blood. The knowledge that he should stay away from her is clouded by the fact that he's obsessively in love with her. He makes an attempt at Reason by trying to stay away; he tells Bella that he is "thinking about right and wrong," [2] and severs their relationship before she can gather herself to object. His attempt fails miserably, nearly resulting in both of their deaths. Edward tables his fears about Bella's safety and returns to be with her, which is romantic but also extremely problematic. As Edward recognizes, it's selfish of him to want Bella, to want to be with her as a human or a vampire, because he believes both may be dangerous to her morality. He tortures himself with this knowledge, but refuses to leave Bella again. While both parties get the "happily ever after," it's still unsettling that it's a result of giving in to Energy rather than using Reason (although one can hardly make an argument that "love" is a bad Energy). It seems that Stephenie Meyer is in the William Blake camp of accepting human fault, almost celebrating it. 

The above painting was inspired by Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series and the quote underneath the painting at the beginning of this post. The knife in question is a knife created by men of overreaching intelligence; it is able to cut through any material, including the barriers that separate parallel worlds. The consequences for creating "windows" between the worlds are catastrophic, creating beings called "specters" not unlike the soul-sucking dementors from Harry Potter. The protagonists, Lyra and Will, are forced to choose between their love for each other and the well-being of humanity. Though it hurts both of them, they ultimately choose  what's best for humanity. Throughout the series, Lyra is likened to Eve-- the only difference is that Lyra doesn't give in to temptation. Philip Pullman believes that humans give in to Energy, but also that goodness comes from humanity in the absence of God.

The problems in this series arise from people giving in to Energy, like power, greed and an excess of knowledge. The creators of the knife wanted power. In that quest for power, they created an object that had unforeseeable consequences. In the end, Will destroys the knife so that it can no longer hurt or corrupt anyone; my point is that temptation is always there and, like the quote suggests, people will always want more. The creators of the knife lived in a world that was beautiful and idyllic-- but they made the knife anyway, unsatisfied with what they had.

That seems to be the definition of (at least American) society. We want more of everything, regardless of the consequences "more" might bring. Society doesn't sacrifice Progression for ethics.

We need to think about the implications of our actions; we can't just hurl ourselves into a world where we create problems that we can't fix.  Part of the problem is that we don't necessarily ignore potential consequences, but rather, the thought never crosses our minds. As humans, we should be better than that. We should be responsible for everything we do, instead of relying on some higher power to pick us up and dust us off like children who never knew any better.

[1] Twilight, p.263

[2] New Moon, p.50

Progression: The triumph of Energy

"Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell."

From William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Recently the thought occurred to me that I don't believe in the existence of Evil. Even more recently (about five seconds ago) it occurred to me that this is probably because Evil is something that I don't fully understand. I'm not Evil, therefore I don't believe it exists. I never really believed that there was some sort of Evil force or demon in the world that encouraged people to make bad decisions- it's just something that, as humans, we seem to be inherently good at. 

I suppose I believe in what Blake terms "Energy" as the driving force behind people's actions. This Energy might be what makes us Evil ("active springing from energy"), and we fall prey to this Energy when we fail to make use of Reason. The legs in this painting, which originated in an earlier work, are representative of giving in to this Energy. They originally alluded to something resembling an illicit affair or new and risky experiences, and now appear often in my work to represent the ignorance of Reason and the triumph of Energy.

I think people give up too easily on Reason. Roe vs. Wade, torture, and the death penalty aside, I think we all have a general understanding of what is right and what is wrong, and I think it's a problem when people consciously choose the things that they know are wrong for them. Especially when it's done again and again, and even more especially when religion says Jesus will forgive them forty-seven times and they decide to go full steam ahead to round forty-eight.

At the end of Blake's Marriage, the angel in the poem decides to become a devil which, to me, suggests not that giving in to our Energy is more fun, but that giving in to our Energy isn't a bad thing; it's just a part of being human. I feel like the general attitude of the Christian society is that we should accept our faults, celebrate them even, in recognition that we will never live up to the perfection that is reserved only for God.

I don't want to celebrate being human. I don't think perfection is possible, but I don't understand why more people don't strive to be better regardless. People don't live with any guilt because if no one is perfect, why should you feel guilty if you're not perfect either? 

I feel guilty all the time. And it's not just because of the mistakes that I make-- I can live with the consequences. As I said, I don't identify with Evil and I've never done anything that I really regret. But When I make a bad decision, it's the knowledge that I chose it, that I could have done the right thing but didn't, that eats away at me. I don't want to keep giving in to Energy because it's easier than using Reason. I don't want someone to forgive me, I just want to do the right thing.

I have extremely mixed feelings when it comes to Progression. Progression stems from good things like Reason and Love, but Progression most often stems from Energies like selfishness and greed. Progression in technology, Progression in business, Progression in knowledge; it seems to be taking us in places that are simultaneously helpful and dangerous. Walmart is cheap and helps out people who are struggling financially, but also hurts the US job market and supposedly doesn't live up to moral labor practices. Stem cell research is getting us closer to a cure for horrible diseases, but is a little too close to 'playing God.' What if we get to the point where babies are created in test tubes, genetic makeup selected by parents down to the fingerprint. Isn't that "God's" job? Do we really want ultimate power in the hands of humans, who are constantly relying on the Energy that leads them down the path of corruption and destruction?