Inspiration

There is no doubt that when I am happiest is when I am most inspired.

If I reflect on what inspires me the most it's when people have complete enthusiasm for life. It's so easy to get stuck in fear, or to start to trudge through life as if it were a grim obligation. There are times when life tastes sour. Things can seem difficult and heavy. I'm inspired by people who have the awareness that they make their own reality, the people who laugh at any inhibitions and make the life they want to live appear before them with unwavering confidence. These people know the secret, that reality is a collective dream, and we have a hand in it.

The artists that inspire me the most are not necessarily the best artists, but the ones who on top of creating great objects of beauty lived to their fullest and explored all interests as deeply as they dared, unburdened by fear.

And the most inspired periods of my life have been when I've been able to taste some of this freedom for my own, in which I spent every moment eager for the next, and when all things felt possible. Through some stroke of luck I HAVE been able to break through the barriers that inevitably possess us, and to dance with the infinite in all its possibilities. But they reemerge...

The Hand That Holds the Brush is God Holding God

The Hand that Holds the Brush, is God Holding God. 

I've spent many sleepless nights

in front of my easel

back wretched,

body screaming,

vision blurred,

and lines wobbly.

I savor those precious moments.


Is not the brush that strikes canvas

the hand of God that strikes

Her own woven face?

Each dab of paint,

a drop from the eyes of the Infinite?


As each color is laid to substrate,

the Universe celebrates this small act of Unity.

The hand that holds the brush,

is God holding God.

Thoughts on Originality

by Mr. Brainwash. Derivative? Original?

"Originality: Don't worry about your originality. You could not get rid of it even if you wanted to. It will stick to you and show you up for better or worse in spite of all you or anyone else can do." - Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

Originality. Style. These are buzz topics within the world of art. In the contemporary art world the role of the artist is no longer about making pictures alone (or perhaps not even making pictures at all - depending on your definition of art.) Artists are now obligated to reinvent the wheel each go. It is something that has consumed myself and countless other aspiring artists. Are my works derivative? Does my artwork reveal too much of my influences? Does it fully look like me?

I think to some degree all artists feel that their artwork may very well be more of an extension of their own being than a byproduct of their labor. It's easy to get trapped in the game of equating the quality of your artwork with self-worth in general. And so in the same way the question of originality boils down to the same fundamental root. The question of finding a style is really the same as finding one's self, and maturing fully into one's being, in general. This takes time. People need time to grow into their somebodyness in the same way that artists need time to nurture their own vision.

On reflection of the obsession with personal style, however, we can see that it's really only a post-modern problem and it's one that is existential in nature. Artists of the past were more concerned with the central motive of their artwork than they were originality of style. The focus was beauty, not novelty. Artists of ancient Egypt, for example, made artwork undeviating from a strict visual canon for hundreds of years.

And is it a spiritual ideal worth aspiring for? The root of suffering, in the context of Eastern spirituality, is a result of our identification with ego, which is to say our identification with the illusion that we exist separately and operate independently from the whole cosmos. The idea of self vs other is the root of all conflict, fear, and violence and the essence of all eastern spiritual practice is to reduce our affiliations with things that separate our identity from the whole. In doing so we may reach a state of clear consciousness, where we are not grasping onto I, Me, or Mine but are still within the flow of reality that pulsates within and without all things simultaneously.

Style is not a consideration of the religious artwork of the East. For example, Buddhist Thangka paintings are based on centuries old traditions of imagery. The composition of these paintings are mathematical and hold strict to an established canon that hasn't deviated in form for hundreds of years. (Though there is some variation in Thangka painting depending on the country of origin.) These artworks are also often created in collaboration by a number of monks who work selflessly towards the completion of the image. The focus is on the inspiring power of the imagery alone, and not on who made it.

Would a sunset no longer be beautiful because it doesn't have it's own style?

The striving to create a visual style that is MY style, one that separates the artist from the rest of the artworld, is essentially a game of ego. And it is an irony that creating a individual and self-distinct style is a central focus in the world of visionary art, where artists claim to be illustrating experiences of dissolving into the selfless whole of all being. In any case, it is impossible to deviate from the works of others too greatly, because every artist has their own unique set of sensibilities, habits, and practices and the only way to truly copy an artist would be to become them entirely with their full range of past experiences intact. As the great 20th century art teacher Robert Henri stated, no matter how hard you try to get rid of it, as long as you have a self identity it's going to be visible in the creation of your artwork.

The Art Sangha

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the evening with my dear friend and fellow visionary artist Randal Roberts at his studio in Oakland, CA. Aside from being one of my favorite psychedelic painters, Randal qualifies as one of my favorite human beings in general and is always an inspiring companion to hold space with.

Randal continued work on one of his trademark paisley paintings, this one a commission for a friend, and I applied the first layer of oil paint on a new self portrait that I am working on.

Randal at the canvas

I'm trying to use the classical method of indirect flemish oil painting, utilizing new techniques and skills I have been learning in my part time classes at the Sadie Valeri Atelier in San Francisco. This is the first layer of many, and the first underpainting in a succession of three. It is an application of Burnt Umber only, and is called open grisaille. I am trying to be considerate of each separate feature of the face (making sure the nose holds genuine form as a nose when scrutinized, for example) whilst maintaining consistency and control of the values of the whole image. My vision for this particular self portrait is to create something that is rooted in classical aesthetic while remaining subtly psychedelic. The painting is 11x14, slightly smaller than life size.

I greatly enjoy the company of other artists in my studio, or to join others in theirs. Through this I have not only nurtured great friendships but have also learned much about art and the individual routines and practices of each artist. It has been a solution to a question I have often pondered, which is how can I achieve the level of skill I want as an artist, and still have a social life? 

There is no doubt that nearly all of the greatest artists I admire are as skilled as they are because they live the life of a reclusive hermit, and create art constantly. It's a reflection of the pop-psychology concept of the ten thousand hours rule. You need to put in thousands of hours of practice in order to become master of any discipline. But for someone like myself who loves people, and wants to balance my discipline in art with healthy relationships, the prospect of spending days, weeks, or months on end without any social contact is not appealing. 

And so I introduce the Art Sangha. In this way artists can get together, hang out, and make art. It keeps each of us focused on our task of making art, we learn from each other, and inspire each other with our company. 

Here's a picture of me painting with Emma Watkinson in the Wizard's Tower at the Goddess Temple in Boulder Creek, CA, the incredible home retreat of visionary artist Penny Slinger, widow of philosopher and writer Christopher Hills. 

I have also made art in the homes and studios of many different artists as I've traveled, and it teaches you to consolidate your resources to bare essentials and to channel creativity in any environment. Live painting is another phenomenon that negates the stereotype of the artist as hermit, but that is a topic for another article at a later date. 

If anyone has any thoughts about being an artist while maintaining a healthy social life, I would love to hear it. Comment below. 

Love,

Jake Kobrin

http://www.kobrinart.com/

https://facebook.com/jkobrinart 

Digital RMX - Exploring Digital Media

A while ago I had the idea of utilizing digital media for remixing existing artwork, much the same way as digital music producers create entirely new compositions using elements of existing songs. I wrote to some of my friends and favorite artists to ask if I could use their paintings to try the idea. Many of them said yes and sent me high resolution versions of their paintings.

This week I finally had some time to play around with the idea, and I decided to start by remixing a beautiful painting by the very talented visionary artist Amanda Sage titled Orphic Awakening.

Orphic Awakening by Amanda Sage

This painting is very multi-layered and has many elements that exist over different dimensions of the artwork so it was a little bit difficult to cleanly isolate parts of the painting that I could remix. I decided to instead think about what parts of the paintings could make a good repetitive pattern or texture that I could use in the creation of a new image.

I started by cutting out parts of the image in Adobe Photoshop and then using selective tools in Corel Painter to create a number of usable patterns and textures. These are the new tools I created from Amanda's painting. 

I decided on a simple composition of a profile of a female face just to play around with the new tools I created and to explore their potential. I worked on this image for about 5 hours in Corel Painter 12. I wouldn't consider this a finished artwork but rather an exploration of the new concept of digitally remixing existing artworks. The idea was to create something completely new and unlike the original while using elements of the original artwork. 

This is what I came up with:

You can see the patterning in the background as well as the textures on the skin. The hair is also made up of elements from Amanda's painting. The color scheme was also influenced by the original painting. While creating this image I was also thinking about composing the image along the golden section, and controlling the saturation of the colors, as well as the value contrast, to areas that I wanted to stand out the most.

I consider this first painting only a test and exploration of what can be achieved by digitally remixing artworks. I'm looking forward to creating a more involved remix of Amanda Sage's Orphic Awakening as well as other artworks from some of my favorite artists.

Jake Kobrin
http://www.kobrinart.com/
https://facebook.com/jkobrinart

The Ink's Run Dry

The Ink's Run Dry
By Jake Kobrin. August 2012

The ink’s run dry,
I fear.
And all the lead’s been shattered
in their dusty boxes.
Even the colored tubes,
my wasted fortunes,
have gone belly up
in their smelly coffins.

She just won’t come out to play anymore.
She left me blank,
left me in a staring contest,
with begrugged, neglected canvases.

Sometimes they shout at me,
taunting me,
trying to provoke me,
make me lose my cool.
Sometimes they give me the silent treatment,
turn their gessoed faces to the wall,
pretend they don’t see me.

Some day she’ll be back.
Sneak up on me in the middle of the night,
give me a good little jolt.
And before you know it,
the paint’ll run slick on their bald woven faces,
just like before.

Why You Should Support Your Favorite Artists

Why You Should Support Your Favorite Artists 
by Jake Kobrin 

When one embarks upon the path of becoming an artist, they know that they weigh the difficulties of supporting themselves against the passion for making art. To artists this isn’t a question even worth indulging. To give up making art would be for many the near equivalent of ceasing to exist. Painters don’t paint because they want to, they paint because they HAVE to.

But unfortunately the realities of the world, specifically the need for resources, often limit artists regardless of how strong their dedication and fruitful their potential. Artists need to make money to survive, and often the art alone doesn’t cut it. Artists may receive an outpour of support from a thousand people on facebook and yet not receive a single cent for their labor. And making art is hard. Not only does it often require hundreds of hours of dedicated focus to realize a vision, but there are few other occupations that routinely call the self worth of the professional into question. But with each artwork, the artist is stripping themselves bare and opening up to the criticism of something that may feel more like a part of themselves than something they made. Making art is hard work, money can be dangerously hard to come by, and the lack of success can drive the artist into a discouraged or depressed state.

And so many quit. Or many get another job. But the problem with the “day job” scenario is that people become shackled to the other job, becoming far too dependant on it for their well being, and they may end up never being able to realize their full potential as artists. Many others engage in grey area or straight up illegal ways of making money because it can be an easy way to make a buck. But the same risk falls for that as well. Artists get lazy when they can make an easy living doing something illegal, and they may abandon their art altogether due to financial security of their other occupation. And besides, it can be spiritually corrupting.

So for people like myself, who DON’T have a day job and don’t want to get one, it can be really challenging to cope with the difficulties of pursuing art as a full time career. Money can be sparse, and it can be discouraging to realize that you haven’t made a dime in a whole month. But to have to abandon the artwork for another career would be heresy, regardless of how difficult it becomes. Art is my entire life. I dedicate every waking moment to the practice and study (and shameless geekery) of making art. And I don’t only do it for myself.

Art is important. Art shapes culture. Art inspires. The artist holds in their hands the power to shape the imagination and perspective of the viewer. One can take refuge in its beauty, or a painting could provide a revelation that the viewer has been searching tirelessly for. Art shows not tells, it can communicate to the viewer in deeper ways than words ever could. Art provides an essential record of our world cultures, and can unlock archetypes and messages buried deep in our species’ collective unconscious.

We love art, and know inherently the value it holds to our society. That’s why I’m asking for your support. I speak on behalf of the entire art community when I ask for you to PLEASE support the artists you admire. To watch artists stop making art because they can’t support themselves would be too great of a tragedy. As much as a share or a like is appreciated, also consider buying a print, or even buying an original. If you own an original artwork you own something can NEVER be reproduced, and may exist in your family for generations and generations. Art is magical, and a tiny image on a glowing screen can never take away the energetic impact of a painting in your home. Art is worth supporting.