Yes, I sussed that... Thanks. I shouldn't perhaps have written such a curt retort - it's kind of you / people in general to leave comments of any sort. But imagine yourself in this scenario, if you will :

Let's suppose you've spent hours, days even, creating your latest piece of artwork / music / creative expression of some sort... and you've put something of yourself into it, to give it substance, because that's what you do with every piece, because - if it's not a commercial commission (and sometimes even if it is) that's the point of doing such things... innit?

This piece (like most of the others) is multi layered... and I'm not just talking PSD layers... y'know? You've poured Heart & Soul into it. On some levels it expresses purely personal stuff, that would only makes sense to you & those close to you... (and, if - as in this case - the work aludes in part to actual ppl & events those ppl who were there at that time/ place). On other levels it's universal, or rather it seeks to explore & express the dichotomies of Human Existance - so it's relevant to many other ppl, maybe even everyone.

Oh, and finally lets suppose this peice expresses / explores / whatevers tragic events & existential angsts - of a personal and/or universal nature.

So.... metaphotricaly speaking you've just drawn & written a message in your own lifeblood, put it in a virtual bottle & thrown it into the Ocean of the Internet *splash... bob bob bob*

Time passes....

Then lets imagine someone happens by, fishes it out of the Ocean & glances briefly at this blood stained bit of Heart & Soul and remarks : "Hmmm, very nice" as if it were nought but a piece of eyecandy, a bit of vaguely entertaining throwaway fluff to be consumed & discarded.

How would you feel / react, I wonder, in such a scenario?


BTW, I underlined "drawn & written" above because I make little or no distinction in my work between words & images (the 'deviation' & the 'artists comment' in this case). To paraphrase the eloquent way Cocteau once put it : it's a matter of tying & untying a continuous line - I tie the line up to conjure words or untie it to conjure images. OK, so technicaly maybe it's stretching the anology a bit to apply that to digital-based art... but the principal is exactly the same, as far as I'm concerned. So the words aren't, as you put it, 'comments I've added to an image', stuff that's been tacked on... it's an intergral part of the Piece. In my other online galleries / actual hard copy portfolio that word part is usually missing - only here on DA does my work appear in it's complete form.

I have been accused of (amongst many other things!)being Obscure. It may be rather fashinable in Dark Culture circles to be obscure, but generaly that is not my intent. On some levels I do veil things, but generally my work is not particularly obscure... it's usually more a case of the viewer looking at it in a superficial, speed-surf stylii. Anyone of reasonable intelligence who bothers to take a little time to look with open eyes, & consider with an open mind, should find some / most of the veils lifting.

I make zero apology for my work requiring a little time / effort to connect with (a mere fraction of the time I put in to creating it, I might add!). One of the underlying themes / concepts of most of what I do is a reaction against & hi-lighting of Socio-Economic Norms that detract from the individuals right to Freedom, Expression & Evolution, and further the aims of fat-cat politico control-freak Illumanati types... the classic example being Consumer Culture, with it's emphasis on Conveniance over Content, Fluff over Substance. The technology & sociology of the Net can all too easily lead to us being sucked into Superficiality, to viewing images or sounds like disposable Consumer products. It's possible, to skim surf thru a thousand images in an hour... but as a consequence we can end up forgeting how to pause & connect with any of those images.

To me, cutting thru the crap that the mainstream feeds us & connecting with what's Real (whether it's physicaly real, or real only in an imaginative or virtual sense is inconsequental) is what being an Artist is about.

It's what being Alt is really about.

It about Fuck the System - Be Yourself

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Quod me nutrit me destruit...