Contemporary Art Blogs - absolutearts.com - "Art & Identity" by Brad Michael Moore

Replies: 10 Comments

on Monday, October 11th, Brad Michael Moore said

Cheryl,
Sounds like we're on parallel paths.
For several years (until 18 months ago) I held down a research coordinator position for a commissioner in a large nearby county. The son of a gun liked to come to work at 6:30 in the morning and head for home by 3:30 (when his wife got home from her position in a local ISD). I went to bed early, got up early (never to my liking) and still had time for my art late in the day - plus I was always awake for sunrises (a plus). Unfortunately, he was a Democrat, and all Democrats in his county were swept out of office in the bushwhacking of Texas elections in 2000 & 2002. Since then, I have just worked on my art (again) and slowly built up to buying a jet ink printer (Epson Stylus Pro 7600 Print Engine with UltraChrome Ink). Before that point, my hours kept going deeper into the night until I was going to bed when most of the rest of the world was getting up. I found it was difficult to do business with the world at large when I was sleeping through most of its workday. Finally, recently, I asked my doctor for a med that would assist me in going to bed at whatever hour I decided and in the short time since, I've been going to bed between 11 and 1 at night and staying down for 8 hours. I still am unable to nap, but since I got into this new groove, I've been completely productive during the majority of my waking hours. I still need up to an hour these days to get all my parts in working order, and about an hour to shut them all down again - that gives me 14 hours a day of mostly usefulness... I was nearing to my waking time when your first email awoke me this morning - I read it and responded and went back to bed for another couple of hours since I stayed up till about 1 last night (sat) CST.

I don't know if you need the adjustment like I did - but I really did and do. I really liked the photo of you and your mother - thanks for sharing that poem and story with me. My mom is still about, but her quality of life is really poor - that's a difficult issue for me. Anyway, now, I’m glad to say still, we pick up friends all along the journey and each leg of it has its purpose. Sweet dreams where and whenever you can harvest them.

Sincerely, Brad Michael Moore

on Monday, October 11th, Cheryl via Brad Michael Moore said

Brad...
It was good to hear from you.

Rereading your article last night (and with your photo of extremities in mind), got me to thinking about what identity means to me - and our connections to others. Then I just let my mind wander, and I began to think about one of the most basic connections we have to another, that of mother and child, our identities in that respect, and a very literal connection... most specifically: our hands. In the back of my mind I keep remembering also, a comment you had written in someone's album at the CM Photography Group. It has stuck with me, for a few reasons.... one was the candidness in which you expressed yourself, and the poignancy I felt as I connected with and related to your thoughts, and the longing I felt in those few words. I believe it was something like..... "I could use some touch therapy." At first glance that would seem unrelated to what I ended up writing.... but remember this was mixed with the other thoughts and feelings I was just letting roll around and happen in my head to see where it would take me, after thinking about your article again. Anyway, touch, identity, connectedness, how we express ourselves based on our identity in our art..... for me, came out like this. I didn't start this evening out thinking I would be writing a loose form of poetry to express myself, and actually I haven't done much of that.... though I write frequently. Anyway, it's interesting where our minds will take us and what feelings come to the surface.... when we just let them. I thought you might be interested to read the results of what you got started. (The photo below (not postable here due to format) was taken by my dad in about 1955... and is of me and my mother. I lost my mom to lung cancer 14 years ago, at the end of this month. Probably another reason my expression came out in this area.... though I didn't think of that aspect until after I was finished writing.)

I'd enjoy hearing from you again, if you think about it and have the time.

Best regards,
Cheryl
---
P.S. Have periods of sleeplessness when things are pressing on my mind and feelings. I can be an awful night owl sometimes because of this tendency. I'm sure it's contributed to at least some of my gray hair over the years! I actually switched gears on some feelings I couldn't seem to shake yesterday, by getting your article out and concentrating on it again... with the thought of finally composing a reply to you. After going back to the site last night, and reading the replies and your responses to them..... thinking about the photo you posted with the article (the same one I just discovered a week ago in your email)... well, that's when I got my mind fully occupied and let go to see what would happen.

After 52 years, and most of those doing some sort of photography and art.... I'm only just beginning to discover how to let go internally and wait for something to come to the surface and then following to see where it will go. Sounds odd, probably. It usually proves to be a good and satisfying experience on many levels.... especially creatively. Perhaps you understand what I'm describing.

I was with my mother when she died, in fact spent the last 10 days of her life with her in the hospital. I remember vividly almost everything... and the intense impression I had that as each day passed our world narrowed from that hospital room till the last few days and hours, it seemed our world had shrunk to only a few feet....then inches. Just the two of us, holding hands, nose to nose, talking sometimes, mostly just our presence with each other.... always touching..... stroking her head or arms. Each time I reached out and held her hand, I remember how she threaded her fingers through mine, and then curled her ring finger around the top of mine.... much as I did with my own children... sort of to keep their hands safe... one little extra measure of physical love. Much as she must have done with me as a child.... though I don't remember it.

I know I started out the time in the hospital, calling her Mom as I had for years.... and by the last few days, I was calling her Mommy again... without even realizing when the words had shifted. When she was gone, I was struck with the lasting and overall impression of how very much like a birth.... death is. Especially when experienced with a significant loved one to be with us, touch us, share as much of it with us as they can. I was very grateful for the opportunity to be with her when she left her life, since she had been the one there with me, when I entered my life. It seemed so natural and important that I do so..... though terribly sad, of course. Glad to know you still think of us back at CM sometimes. Feel free to post my reply, and I don't mind if you leave my name with it. Had I written to you directly there, I would have added my name. I am flattered you'd want to post it. Thanks.

It was a pleasant surprise to find your reply this morning.

Take care,
Cheryl

“Hands”

My mother's,
mine....

A moment of joy
viewed thru tears
sweat
intense effort
in an
overhead mirror
a timeless moment
the doctor declares
it's a GIRL
and
I'm placed into
my mother's waiting hands
where she cradles
and strokes
counts
fingers and toes
and
holds my hands
in hers
for the very
first time

A moment of sadness
viewed thru tears
heartache
intense effort
face to face
a moment when time stops
the doctor
quietly
declares
she's no longer here
I cradle and stroke
kiss fingers
that have
held and loved me
and
hold her hands
in mine
for the very
last time

can 10/10/04

on Thursday, September 23rd, Brad Michael Moore said

***
My responses here fall on top of those who I am responded to in this Blog. Its a bit confusing... I suggest you go to the very bottom of this string ,and then work your ways back up by reading what others have said first before you read my responses... Thanks - Brad
(Note: Maybe if additions were added to the bottom of these strings - it would be easier for readers to follow... - bmm
***

on Thursday, September 23rd, Brad Michael Moore said

Kathryn,
Thanks for such a heartfelt response… It's a beautifully considered piece, filled with light and meaning that add to the substance of my knowledge and bares humbleness to my own nakedness. You ask: "Donna Haraway suggests that representations - whether they are scientific theories, or artistic productions - are not so much transparent reflections, but rather "refractions" of experience. As a photographer, I wonder if this distinction is suggestive to you..."
---
Yes, definitely, if we look at the question more generally. Even the simplest landscape may not be a transparent reflection unless the image taker is only snap shooting without using care, perspective, and experience and focus. What I see, before I experience it soulfully, is what I would label transparent reflections – Not just theroy or reproduction - our safety, moving about in our everyday world depends, lterally, on these visualscapes. If I consider them for something more than my simple survival, then I will use their elements which then become reaction to refractions of my experience, assisting me in capturing any spectral aspect I pursue. Let's take the image I attached to this blog as an example of the question; reflection/refraction. I believe the sum of that image is a refraction of many experience funneled into it's imagery. While I ended up presenting the image ‘straight up,’ it still began as a product of refractions on other levels. Skills were developed from years of accumulated experience, a concept to the arrangement of the subject's limbs was made that would allow them to grow through a ‘MultiPlexing’ process, long practiced and well considered over, prior to the shoot itself. (see page 123 on my website here) Then, there's the relationship aspect. I knew one model and not the other - who replaced someone else I was familiar with. I knew what I wanted and could expect based on the experience of one of these young people I worked with. I had the experience of trust with one and she had an element of trust with the other – a chain of trust existed between we three. They were patient with my eccentric requests, and I was cognizant to the limits of their energies towards the effort. I wanted to begin with extremities - it could have been anyone's - for this implementation. If I had used boy’s bodies in the same way – the result would have been much the same (although the viewer may differ on this statement) - since people often look for connotations and the motive for using female versus male, here, might be a point of the viewer's consternation. When I carry forth again, in this series, I will be working with bared trunks and torsos which will require an even a heavier reliance on the refractions of my experiences. Finding adults (male and female), at ease with their bodies being posed in the nude, is sometimes a crap shoot. I will need a studio versus the outdoors (likely) and I will need to pay the participants. Finding the right subjects who will fling themselves for money, or for the art of it, will be a most daunting task for me, here (where I live). I will need to travel again to where people are. Thanks again, Kathryn, for your insights. I hope this response didn’t dilute Haraway’s point. - Brad

on Thursday, September 23rd, Brad Michael Moore said

===
Elisa,
What a wonderful response! This is what I hope others may do as well when I picked this piece to blog. You touched on so many interesting points. Especially on how you see your faith and meds and their effect upon your road. I agree with your take on folk art - people sometimes take their education too seriously in their art - making it fit soo perfectly into a pre-construct of parameters set by other's ideas more than their own. It is a challenge to do such things - if not a lukewarm one in any case - then again, there are those artists who fit on the train of art history very well - look at Cindy Sherman's earlier works - how perfectly timed they came along to reach the band wagon. And I mean, we have such an elaborate system supporting and preserving the art of artists and that must be considered. I am half-educated – I went to school (20 years into my photography career), to study sculpture. I didn’t find much of what I was looking for. Some techniques were discovered that allowed a few of my own preconceptions to reach maturity. I also learned to debate, and the fact, no matter how bad or uncollectible you art may be, at least in school, you’ll get a good grade if you can debate it’s affiliations to art history and/or the relationships of the materials to the artist’s vision. I imagine teachers everywhere hope you can move on from that point to meet other standards in your art besides the debatable issues to others more engaging the soul of art’s viewers.
Your opinion about the med issue was very thought provoking to me - well considered and honest. It has calmed me just seeing the words flow over the subject... You spoke about how poems of yours became your demons on paper which you felt wouldn't benefit anyone else to read them. However, Elisa, you have made a number of points here I think would be a benefit to others in the context of this string. I feel points you touched upon over faith and art are as engaging themselves as my questions that spawned them. – Sincerely, Brad
===

on Thursday, September 23rd, Brad Michael Moore said

Walt, Thanks for such a quick response – you must be coffee drinker ;-) .
---
You said, “As I mentioned on the forum, I believe the problem of identity is one of the first real issues of import that a young artist must resolve. After that, she can, and, I'll extend that statement a bit further, should speak to the larger aggregate audience or risk becoming divisive.”
---
I see more young artists being divisive than older ones. And its interesting to distinguish if they’re aim is at everyone or just a segment of our population’s psychic. I’m more curious towards those who focus upon where their wrath is being released – especially if they have a message readable to the rest of us. - Brad
===

on Thursday, September 23rd, TheeTFD said

Ms. Keller, your remark about transcendence and rise above is real to me. For me it's all about genetic acsention. Connecting with a female is fine until you create a human soul that's inferior to either of the creators. There's nothing worse than to walk this earth for a lifetime with the ignorance of carnal sins written on your face! There's nothing wrong with being a bachelor. But one must not be envious of the fornicators.

on Wednesday, September 22nd, Kathryn Keller said

Dear Brad,

Thanks for sending your latest thoughts on artistic production and authority. On the one hand, I feel trapped and deadened by the incessant insistence upon identity politics. Your art can never be a simple reflection of yourself because Brad’s identity is constantly in flux. You might summarize your identity; you are a 50-something white heterosexual American male professional artist, sculptor and photographer who lives most of the time with non human creatures in a rural setting on a family farm in Texas. That string of tags is suggestive, but it is never enough for me to know Brad. In fact, no matter how much description and categorization I enumerate, I will never fully know Brad, who is always in flux and never complete.

In fact, Brad himself might carry with him a fairly consistent collection of stories about who he is and he might reiterate those stories to himself many many times, thinking that his identity is constant and fully known, at least to himself.
However, each time you tell your story, Brad, each time you tell me who you are, each time you encounter the material of your experience and work with it, each time you reproduce your vision into a different media, your relationship to the story is transformed. For me, each iteration is a transformation and that alteration is the holiest aspect of artistic production. If your identity is in flux and never fully formed or finished, how then can your art be a simple “reflection” of your story or history or position?

On the other hand, to me the dream of transcendence, the claim that one can “rise above” personal and cultural history perpetuates a dishonest habit of mind. It is a sleight of hand, which traditionally centers white men into positions of social, economic and educational privilege as the authors of reality. Feminist philosophers have productively challenged the fantasy of invisible authority, the dream of a “view from nowhere.” Feminist and antiracist philosophers and science historians have demonstrated the intellectual and artistic austerity of this western habit which diminishes the conversation and minimizes the contact points, authorizing a small group of people in dominant positions to speak authoritatively for all. Aside from the violence of that discursive habit, it is too austere to satisfy travelers who are hungry for connection, who sense the richness and variety of the world. Of course, our personal and collective histories inform our choices and help us to frame what we see. I think recognizing this is a loving way to commune and converse. It is when we pretend that the view comes from nowhere that the framing devices become constrictive and destructive. But because we are positioned in complex and constantly shifting ways, there is no transparent correspondence either.

The connection is the most important thing. If you want to speak and be heard by many, than you will do so. People who have never been to a desert still can appreciate the profundity of Georgia O’Keefe’s paintings. My heart soars when I see a Rembrandt or an O’Keefe because there is passion there. There is discipline and technique and intention and love. It’s “juicy,” you know? But if we demanded that art strive for that traditional “view form nowhere,” Rembrandt would be a classic and O’Keefe would not ever be displayed because her sensuality is quite intentionally feminine. Today, in many circles, they both are seen as “classics.” It is worth looking again and pondering what that means. It is worth examining the variance in their respective framing devices so that we can try to “see” the process of seeing. If you compare those two examples, I think you would have to concede that habits of looking are historically specific. The specificity is interesting and telling. But what exactly does it tell us? Certainly a lot, but I think we might debate at length before we could agree about exactly what we have learned from the exercise.

In considering this example, it is fair to quibble about the whiteness of who is considered a classic. So let’s look at a different approach, say, the story painter, Jacob Lawrence. Because of his narrative style, most critics would quickly notice how specifically positioned his work is. This is interesting, I think, since he is one of the first Blacks who managed to make a decent living in this country as a visual artist and he almost always paints from a vantage point that is specified. His paintings frame concrete aspects of American history to do with the legacies of racism and slavery and violence and resistance. He presents located content – slave insurrection, Black migration, the Harlem Renaissance, Hiroshima. He insists upon the specific history and material weight of his subjects’ bodies. He paints bodies in transit, bodies at work, bodies in pain, bodies at play, bodies in love.

I think it is fascinating to compare his sense of physicality to the Dutch masters. I am not European OR Black but I can appreciate both approaches. I can not say that either Rembrandt or Lawrence is superior to the other. They both paint with purpose and passion and grandeur. This is to say, they paint with love and appreciation for the bodies that present themselves and the stories of the people who inhabit those bodies. As a feminist, that is my criteria. It is the relationship that matters to me. We might concede that the artist’s relationship to the subject is very interesting in each example. Significantly, it is very very different from one example to the other. Again, what does that tell us about how we see and how specifically located our ability to see really is?

I like the metaphor offered by science historian, Donna Haraway. While she is very sympathetic to the claim that our personal and collective identities are always already in flux, she also acknowledges that some stories are better than others and the differences “matters”. (Pun intended.) Discerning the matter of the difference is a feminist project that is important to me. Donna suggests that representations - whether they are scientific theories or artistic productions – are not so much transparent reflections, but rather “refractions” of experience. As a photographer, I wonder if this distinction is suggestive to you.

I still come back to the idea that I learned from reading about approaches to pedagogy in the Diana preschool in Reggio Emilia, Italy. At the Diana School, they say that each representational attempt transforms the artist. It is the relationship of the artist to the material that is important. And the transformation.

I think of my favorite author, the science fiction writer, Octavia Butler. Her protagonist in the Parable series invents a religion that acknowledges Change is Life. Life is Change.

And my other refrain is about love. Connection. I think that one reason the 60s and 70s keep coming back in popular culture and fashion is because these were decades when the discourse was about love.

“What the world needs now, is love sweet love…….”

on Wednesday, September 22nd, Elisa B. said

I really enjoyed your commentary, Brad. I also loved the photo.

I think the reason I'm always drawn to folk art is that these are people unaffected by teachers who are telling them who they are and how to express it. Their art is then a direct expression from the heart. I don't think you should have to think about art too hard. You can perfect your technique or be meticulous in your craft, but you shouldn't borrow someone else's persona.

---
You asked: “Should we strive over what peaks our curiosity or over what relieves our concerns?”
---

Yes, both, depending on your personality. Thanks the point of art and why it serves society so well.

I do have an opinion of antidepressants. On one hand you see that depression has fed the world of art for so long. How many great artists have completed their art under the influence of manic depressive or psychotic body chemistry? Faulty chemistry has not only affected their ability to get other jobs or led them to the need to create, but it has probably caused childhood abuse, poverty, illness and sleep deprivation in their lives. This cycle gives them a palette of psychological fears, anger and alienation that are the basis for a lifetime of art. Sadly, most have their life cut short by illness, drug use, suicide...

Madness and depression is a two-edged sword. As a Christian, I feel that our development in life is more important than our art. After living with inherited chemical depression for years, I got drugs that made me realize life was worth living. With drugs I was able to feel joy the first time. I believe God wanted that for me. However, I stopped feeling the need to write long, therapeutic poems. Yes, I still believe the poems were very good. But good for who? They are my demons on paper. I don't think it will benefit anyone else to read them.

I feel this way about so many of the things written today. Creative art is the best therapy of all - outside of a good Christian counselor or friend - until you can work out the demons or get the medication you need (which in my case was needed).. I do think, however, that there are many people who are encouraged by agents (for commissions) to subject the rest of the world to their anguish, sadness, vitriol and invective. And who does it benefit, heal or honor? How often will an agent or friend get an artist the help he/she needs if it means putting an end to their art? Beethoven's symphonies and Vincent van Gogh's art still have social value, but written and verbal art is often as unmistakably destructive as an Al Qaeda beheading to our eyes and ears.

This is the choice I faced when medicating myself. At first I missed the creative urges and late night writing binges. I didn't know myself. I thought I was selling myself short. But I see it now as a destructive indulgence. And as a writer, a teacher and a mother, I feel that creativity is there even after sanity is established in your mind. And anyone who doesn't encourage another person to chose sanity over certain expressions of art has selfish motives.

That said, I am concerned with the accelerated use of anti-depressants in children because it shows two things: 1) what I suspect is our bodies' reaction to a proliferation of foreign substances in our food and air and 2) the fact that parents aren't spending enough time with their kids that they can really assess their condition and led them to a proper diagnosis of their problems. How effective is a doctor that sees your child - for the amount of time today's insurance benefits allow - at determining what's wrong with the child? They must rely on the parent help them to weigh matters of genetics, age, hormones, sleep patterns, family situation, diet, and exercise regimen to see if pills can help, what kind and for how long. Face it adolescence is hard. You shouldn't medicate someone out of dealing with normal stress and developing a stronger character. It's like the increased use of Ritalin in kids. Too often busy parents wanted to medicate the kid to fit the parents' schedule. Now their may be a tendency for parents to medicate a teen for the parent's benefit. I mean, doesn't everyone want to show off a peppy cheerleader or football player in the Christmas letter?

Studies have show great results in using art outlets to allow a child or teen to express and work out their problems. But it only works when someone sees the art and thus the child's needs. And then acts on it. Simply doing art is often not enough. And in public school, it's rare when an art teacher is led to, or capable of, or allowed to speak to a child about their life. Will the parents? Will the parents even see the artwork?

This is what worries me.

My mom saw my poetry. She loved it. Wanted me to get it published. But she also had depression. I really think that's what created the aneurysms that killed her. (Most people that suffer brain aneurysms suffer depression also. So she really wasn't in a position to help. And perhaps that's where many of these other medicated children are – in homes of medicated parents?

When you think about it, art always does end up reflecting current culture - the pure, the poseur, the mad, the legal or illegally medicated. And always will.

Elisa B.

on Wednesday, September 22nd, walter king said

Brad, It is a particularly important can of worms.And you've addressed it powerfully and eloquently. While it is important that we become aware of the way our society affects the minorities within it (and those minorities make up more and more a diverse majority) at the same time, as a rather articulate friend of mine always reminds me "the root of the word diverse is to divide-- and how can division ever bring the people together?" As I mentioned on the forum I believe the problem of identity is one of the first real issues of import that a young artist must resolve. After that she can, and I'll extend that statement a bit further, should speak to the larger aggragate audience or risk becoming divisive. It is what the Rev. Martin Luther King did so well. That is to point out the affects of racism then propose solutions that allow those of diverse mini cultures to be embraced within the whole society. I hope your blog does open the can of worms and generate a lot of consideration.

Walt

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09/22/2004: "Art & Identity"