What is Behind the Mask?

Have you ever wondered about ‘masks?’  I have to change the Blog article for this week because I have been struck by some fascinating intrigue.  I have been commissioned to do some regular work by a new Client and am looking forward to it (details in a future Blog article J ).  As I went through my Portfolio demonstrating some of my works, my Client said, “Ah, stop!  That picture is amazing.....yet you must take it away from me because it...it frightens me!”  “I haven’t told you its price yet,” I joked as I tried to make light of the fears oozing out of my Client.

Loved it, but didn’t want to look at it.  Now that is a different sort of review! 

The original Commissioner for ‘The Ball Mask,’ was to help a Psychologist in therapeutic counselling.  The Psychologist would point to the painting, gauge a reaction, and then explain that people ‘wear’ masks.  Some for good and some for bad.  It was the ‘masks’ that were preventing the person from living a fulfilling life that the depth psychologist aimed to uncover and skilfully discard.

I believe that everyone goes through ‘mask stripping,’ in their lifetime.  It is a part of moving from one experience to another.  A putting off of an old phase as one enters a new phase.  Some masks come at you like a revelation.  OMG factor written all over them.  Some turn up and are easy to put down.  A little bit like a Halloween mask at Easter time.  Or even Easter eggs at Hanukkah?  This sounds bizarre, but i do come from a mixture of backgrounds that intertwines with different religious beliefs and demands a response and ‘image’ for each one! 

Just look at Society.  The western world ‘demands’ a mask and even forces one on you.  Whether it is the Sports Personality of the Year, or Oscar winner.  Or the recent elected politician.  The accountant and the lawyer.  The policeman and the convicted burglar.  The masks and tags that society gives pushes us away from being free from identity but losing ourselves into some form of identity, but only for a while.  Take a look at the retired accountant.  What is that person now?  Are they glad?  Are they free?  What about the A Lister celebrity that becomes Z Lister?  What about the bishop that wants to be newsreader?  Or the rabbi that wants to be a rock star? 

Everyone has to search their inner person, or soul or spirit as some people put it.  Pablo Picasso said that, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." 

There is ‘light’ in the ‘darkness’ and ambience of ’the Ball mask.’  You will see there are no eyes in face of the mask.  The person’s face has no eyes when it peers through the mask.  The darkness is the person who does not know their masks.  The light is the revelation.  Yet it shines like the most precious gold.  Worth everything, yet it holds the person to the bondage of never really being free.  The precious, priceless, finest Canadian Golden Maple Leafs and Krugerrands, glue the mask in place.  Yet get some light behind it and the mask turns into fool’s gold!

There are feasts of thoughts and journeys to be found in ‘The Ball Mask,’ and I hope you gaze at the picture long enough to go on your own journey with it.  J

Peace and Love

Dean James x

www.deanjamesart.co.uk

Portrait Intimacy: 'Red Hat' by Dean James

A question I often get asked by photographers is “why paint?” What can a painting “do” that a photograph doesn’t “do”? These series of questions are designed to help you understand what a painting can “do” that a photograph doesn’t “do”. The series of questions that arise are all about careful observation. Every question can be used to help you make choices when you paint, or view a painting.

I start this blog about one of my paintings called ‘Red Hat.’  It is available to buy in my eStore.  Here is a digital version of it:

                                                       'Red Hat,' by Dean James

Takako is a model from Japan.  I caught up with her after the 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami disaster that shook the whole world, not only the Japanese nation.  Takako is a very interesting model.  Very sophisticated.

What i did was a photo shoot and then after the photoshoot, look through the images and use them as a reference.

The days are gone where the model used to ‘live’ with the Artist until they drove each other nuts, even to the point of the likes of van Gogh dismembering bodily parts. 

What struck me about the image I printed off and put next to my easel was the way Takako is holding her shoulder.  It struck me as though, even though the pose was about ‘hand-to-shoulder’ routine stuff, this was different.

It wasn’t until after I had sketched the model, gained her approval, and then started to paint that a deep longing for the relief and help for the future of the Japanese people overtook me in my painting.

I found the paint brush strokes picking up colours that not only reflected her ‘hat’ but showed a leaking onto the rest of her.  It was a case of ‘hats off’ to Takako merging with ‘hats blown off’ by a terrible stormy disaster.

I couldn’t help but express myself and could hear the cry of the lost as I painted each stroke.  I wept as I painted this.  Yet the colours turn subtle, and the tears turn to one of hope for the future, and a joy on the rebuilding and turn towards a stronger, new foundation, albeit, in a stormy zone of unpredictable oceanic and crust activities, hostile to any man’s new technological devices of survival. 

Japan will rebuild herself and be strong again.  Takako’s hat is red.  The future is bright. 

Peace and Love

Dean James x

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." (Degas)

Iconic Marilyn Monroe Meditation

This was a bizarre meditation!  Just as I had finished my first round of meditations, I had a vigorous work out and then went to my ‘wind down after exercise’ meditation zone.  Just as I was on the level, I saw her!  I saw a portrait of Marilyn Monroe that I had sketched.  So here it is!  I couldn’t  ‘chill’ again until I had painted it. 

Hope you like it J

I drew Marilyn Monroe in single sweep lines.  I was trying to capture her vibrancy and style in single, quick strokes.  I painted the image from memory, so this really is how I see her, although it is not like the flash I saw of her in my mind’s eye.  It would be impossible to paint that image because it was an image of light from another world, or perhaps just deep in my subconscious mind?

Marilyn Monroe remains a major legendary icon.  I have put this Sketch in my eStore, www.deanjamesart.co.uk for you to own too, if you wish.  Just so you don’t get distracted from your meditations.  Perhaps you will be inspired instead J

Peace and Love

Dean James x

Launch of new eStore!

Woweeeee! I am totally new to blogging and totally new to eCommerce.  I have just launched a brand new eStore: http://www.deanjamesart.co.uk/ and I am aiming to make my Art more accessible.

I want to use this blog to talk about Art, what inspires me, and some of the thought processes that go on to make my Art what it is.

I am looking forward to mixing and sharing with people who love Art.  This is not just appreciators of Art but does include other Artists too.

This is the beginning of the journey.  It bit like when I stare at a new canvass and actually am going to it spontaneously!  I do not know what I am going to paint on it but know I am going to splash that canvass with an expression of something.

This should be fun.......

Peace and Love
Dean James x