IDEAISM AS AN ART STYLE

 

Ideaism (Id*e*ism) The Idea of an object as art

Ideaism is a style of art based on the "idea" on which the art is founded. For example, say you've decided to use a children's plastic horse in your composition. Most artists would go about creating art based on what the horse is doing. The sun shining down, a field surrounding, The horses mane shimmering in the sun. 

But Idea-ism means focusing on the idea of the horse and what it can become in the composition. The rest of the composition happens organically. It may be created similar to the description above, but the focus is on what the horse is not the surrounding details. What do you want to do with the horse? Snap off its legs? Expand its belly until its bloated? Change the color to green? What you do with the horse dictates where the whole composition may go.

So compare this to other styles. Lets take "realism" and "surrealism". Again most artists would focus on the overall composition in one of these styles. A brown horse running on a sunny day would be realism. A blue horse upside down on a sunny day, would be surrealism. But the idea of what the horse represents disregards all other styles. The horse develops organically from your imagination because that is the idea you wish to represent. It may look surreal when you are done, but it is NOT the style you are trying to represent. Its always about the horse. 

In the example at the top of the page the focus was on the face. This came from a broken statue which I saved all the pieces from. When I began, I had no idea that he would eventually represent Bacchus. But all the other details came from the idea of that face. Everything added a detail at a time. It was not until I was nearing the end of the creation that Bacchus emerged. 

I can't stress enough that you must leave all preconceived notions behind and focus only on the central idea you began with. You must prepare your mind to be as blank as the canvas you began with. At this point you are allowing your subconscious to steer the ship. 

Last year I began work on the Micro-verse project where I match art to short verses. 

Hard pavement
Sounds of cars
Arguments in the dark
Bite of lice
Scurry of rat
Heavy feet passing
Never a safe moment
Always a yearning
Fights around me
Smells of vomit and piss
Cold, so very cold

The key to micro-verse is similar to the key to Ideaism. When you finish the art piece, the verse must be created immediately upon finishing the art. This is to allow your subconscious to steer the ship. 

This is completely counter intuitive. Most artists begin with a preconceived notion of the finished piece of art. They want the finished art to match as closely as possible to what they see in their minds eye as the finished art. They get frustrated because the final art rarely matches how they originally pictured it.

Its complex and tough, retraining your artists eye to focus only on one thing. But its possible to do. Most of you won't ever attempt this, but for the few that might try it don't get discouraged it will take time.