Yin and Yang — Or Bing and Bang?

I don’t know about you, but I often feel smarter at the beginning of the week than I do by the end. All things considered, life and beyond is easier to think about on a sunny Monday morning.

Earlier I responded to a comment on my creepy Sunday Evening Art Gallery Halloween blog from my friend Michelle Lee, saying it’s weird how spooky and unusual sits side by side with breathtaking and unusual.

What a brilliant and witty response!

But I digress.

Although it is neither witty nor brilliant, it is true. The world of Art encompasses an extremely wide variety of imagery and products. For every lovely Claude Monet painting there is a haunting Anton Semenov. For every sparkling glass art piece by Věra Lišková there is its counterpart in the strange and impractical ceramics of Katerina Kamprani.

Each style takes planning, dedication and a creative flair. Artists are artists because they can (for a moment) ride the dragon of individuality up above the clouds — or below in the pits of hell — and come back to tell the story.

My friend  at gwenniesgardenworld asked if I liked horror, especially with a lineup such as yesterday’s. I replied that I am more interested in the art side of horror.  I hate blood and gore and do not watch those kind of movies. A little psychological horror is okay. But I am fascinated by good horror art. The details, the emotions it evokes. 

And I think that’s true of all of us.

There is a lot of emotional art coming from black and horrible places in the soul. The experiences are broken, sad, lost moments in life. Yet the artist has been able to capture that pain and angst and put it into canvas or ceramics and share their emotions. 

Look at William Utermohlen‘s drawings as he slips into dementia. Or Zinovii Shenderovich Tolkatchev and his sketchings from a German concentration camp. They break my heart. 

Yet they are art, as sure as Auguste Rodin‘s sculptures or Chris Campbell‘s fun shoes.  Even in art worlds like music there is a big difference between Johann Strauss II‘s The Blue Danube Waltz and Will Smith‘s Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.

That’s why I enjoy exploring unique and unusual art. They may not be the most common  or popular art pieces ever created, but they do showcase the amazing way the human mind works — and has worked for centuries.

If you have any artists you enjoy that create that sense of awe and fascination and maybe even give you goosebumps, let me know. I have a whole portfolio of artists I’ve yet to showcase, and there’s always room for friends in the folder.

Happy Monday!