...I am a self proclaimed artist. My art education is my life experience. It took me 30 years to call myself an artist. no institution or person can give me this title. It just came to me. I have decided. Unlike doctors or engineers, they need some kind of certificate to be official. I did not. that’s one of the things that excites me about art.
Art is my bridge so that I can go as close as I can get to freedom. Problem is that our system is in an all-out war to control everything. They want my art in a gallery which is confined so that they can measure and institionalize it. For me once you hang an artwork in a gallery it becomes 50% less art. The other 50% are showbiz and politics. So if I hang my art in a gallery, at least I know.
‘Freedom’ is a manipulated word just like the word ‘god.’ They promised freedom to captivate our minds. To have control. ‘God’ and ‘freedom’ go hand in hand in hustling our minds so that they can fulfill their interests. Once you think you’re free, you will defend it with your life and even kill for it. But in actuality, nobody and no one is free. Nobody is free in a school or a 9 to 5 job. All corners of our lives have rules so how can anybody be free?
Maybe we should name it ‘freedom lite.’ As in miller lite or budlite. But that cannot be because the word free is absolute. No ifs and buts. Unless you check the meaning in an American dictionary. It will say what they want you to believe about the word. They defined it according to their desires and made it ‘official.’ How can Christopher Columbus discover this land when there are already people here when he came? They fed this to the people… everybody believed and no one questioned it.
My point is that life is full of deceptions so it is important to be awake. It is full of junk that is dangerous and this is what I want to say in my art. My art is the truth between the lies they speak. I want people who look at my art to know that I know. You don’t have to accept it. It’s just my way of expressing myself about the truth. They may say it’s not art, it’s politics… because they cannot realize that art itself is politics because they are burried too deep in their dogmas.
They were made to believe that art should be cubist, expressionist, impressionist… all the isms. Being accepted in a gallery is a game of politics. Going to art school is part of the political game. It doesn’t mean that if you have a masters degree in art that you are a superior artist. Art cannot be measured. Art degrees were just instilled in the mind and all people who feel the truth knows it. It is the person who must decide. Our life experience is way more important.
I like what Andy Warhol said. He said that while the museums and critics are deciding what you created was real art or not, make more art.
If we follow the critics, nothing will change. Everything will be redundant because their criticisms were mostly based in existing knowledge.
Everybody can be an artist. Engineers and doctors can be artists. The thing I think is that you have to master your craft before you can produce art. Once you know, no priest or any high minister can decide for you. I said ‘once you KNOW’ instead of ‘achieved’ because knowing is awakening. You may achieve everything but still remain ignorant. knowing is truth.
amen.
ngayon ko lang napansin na wala akong sinabi tungkol sa pagkapinoy ko but my art speaks for itself. alam kong di ko nabigyan ng hustisya ang mga trabaho ko sa speech na ito. bwisit! ang hirap gumawa ng speech! there's no way i can describe my art thru words. masyado nang madaming pasikot-sikot. pwede ba mag-inuman na lang tayo?
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