I came across Paul Shoemaker's Artist Statement. Still can't believe how good and truthful it is, I had to share..
"There is power in drawing a single line. The moment someone chooses to create something, be it a piece of visual art, a poem, a song or even a single, solitary line, all creativity is a testament to the human condition. The sheer act of expressing a thought is defined by its own creation. Created all alone and in secret, a piece of art can be unseen for ages, but the decisive act to create a work at all, labels it with a life—a beginning and someday an end.
The meaning of art is different for everyone even the creator. The multiple circumstantial elements, that are complex, intuitive, and subversive, can ultimately never be fully explained by a historian, a viewer, or even by the artist. Therefore, the unacknowledged exchanges found in creative expression become unimaginably exponential. That is what makes such expression, particularly visual expression, so incredibly important. Art acknowledges our existence and the things we create take on their own existence beyond any control.
Today, the challenge of making art is an international challenge. With technology and information inherently imbedded within our global society, the question of the individual versus the world comes to the forefront. We are forced to recognize both the identity of self and the world’s identity. What is sustainable in our material condition? And what is the physiological status (progressive or degenerative) of our universal existence?
I create because I cannot attempt to answer everything or anything. It is merely an attempt. It is based on the thought that the Idea is sacred. Art was liberated with what was deemed “Modern” from strictly aesthetic confines. In my opinion, creation today is formatted to the aesthetic of the mind combined back into the aesthetic of the eye.
So now what?
There is too much cynicism. The negativity of our time is overwhelming. Has technology and media developed us to become too good for anything sentimental? Our minds are constantly overloaded with information, much more so than a couple decades ago. The power of expression is an instrument that acknowledges the potential in life. In living.
The exchange of words, of time, and of ideas becomes my premise. History is not stagnant, old, or antiquated. History is alive, thrashing, and spills into each of my footsteps on the sidewalk. History is tactile and fluid. I become haunted by history and the future, combined into a physical and mental challenge.
Why do I create? Because a line has to be drawn."
