Ed Blackburn

From some comments sent to a friend who was asking me why I was using a "luxury" car in the piece below, and whether the piece was about being able to escape. Honest question I thought.

Guess escape could be a factor I told him (tho prob getting in rather unconsciously if so), then went on to observe that literal meanings were always floating around when putting recognizable images together but that I was looking to get past those restraints and find a way to allow these images to speak more for themselves, with less preconceived definitions. To allow the visual into play. And surely a good challenge it is these days when pure information is riding very high and tennis shoes look like computers.

I think the car for instance feels like energy and force in the situation, with its movement and red color, then coming to be more directly about the drama of light breaking through a stormy sky, which is echoed in the background of the Picasso self-portrait. This finally coming to the higher drama of art meeting the challenge of discovering pictorial structure that can bring visual meaning and inspiration. Cut to the chase, Ace. Find me some flying food.

The multi-purposes inherent in art's job description have one bottom line . . . that of bringing light. Anything less runs distant second and out of money. The determining question is…can you see beyond what you already knew? Or the short version . . . "Can you see it?"

This type experience always brings insight, effectiveness and peace, whether in the midst of a pandemic, some other multi-leveled challenge, or just a regular day. When you go there, art is always at home. What a blessing, eh?

Editor's hint: Random is the most visible mark you can make.

Ed Blackburn lives and works in Fort Worth, Texas.