PERSONAL
HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY ON ART
Before
I was able to walk or speak there existed always a need
to express and create stemming from within me, and that
is what eventually led me to exactly where I am right
now. Ninety percent of my skill is self trained and I
am vehemently opposed to the institution of art school
which I believe is predominantly bereft of individual
thought and creativity (though would, half-facetiously,
liked to have attended and expelled like some of my heroes
in the art world). Though individual exceptions exist
it was a path which I abhorred the thought of pursuing,
personally. Being mostly German and Czech, my late grandfather,
Walter Luckert, was an artist and German expatriate after
the first World War who worked in a speakeasy during Prohibition
here in America, attended as a spectator at the 1936 Olympics
in Berlin (which Hitler presided over) and later went
on to begin my Mother's family and exhibit his art in
galleries and one-man-shows throughout upstate New York.
Both Grandfathers of mine fought on the America side of
World War II while other distant relatives were both conscripted
by the Nazis with others interned in concentration camps.
Virtually all of my immediate relatives are artistically
inclined so it's a heritage I'm very proud of, if not
making me predestined for an artistic / intellectual disposition.
Both of my parents were completely instrumental of my
artistic inclinations as well, along with perpetual encouragement,
my Mother always taught me from a young age about art
history, culture and the world while my Father supplied
an endless well of paper and art supplies for me to continually
practice.
Throughout
my life constant practice and creation, along with the
study of art, are both what inspired and motivated me
to continually draw. Many artists, poets and writers have
attested that an interval of discordance and great pain
were the inspirations behind some of their greatest works.
Similarly I can attest to the same and believe firmly
that everything happens for a reason and such cathartic
and devastating occurrences are what can both give the
artist inspiration but also the catalyst to take the artist
to the next level of creation which is needed if he is
truly creating out of his heart and Will. It isn't a necessity
to continually depict pain, and quite the contrary, but
instead the artist should use this catharsis as part of
the painful process of personal transformation. There's
something very powerful about being inflicted by such
a catharsis and turning that destructive negativity into
the creation of something beautiful, otherwise it's only
misdirected energy which can have the potential to destroy
the artist rather than be invoked by him; to create using
the energy inflicted as an ultimatum of doing so or being
destroyed by those malignant outside forces.
My
philosophy of art is one which goes hand in hand with
my spiritual beliefs, outlined further below, and if art
is considered by the artist to truly be his calling it
is something inseparable from the other.
In
May 2003 came a two degree graduation with honours from
the local college and throughout either schooling or any
employment my art has been of my own disposition, independently
of any forced creation thereof or the creation enacting
the inspiration of any over me.
As
art is an expression of one's soul and affinities, different
facets of my personality and interests have always been
depicted from emotions, to the cold abstractness of space
to atomic fission. At present however the progression
of my work is heading in a clear and directed path as
a continuation and accretement, both conceptually and
visually, in the vein of my last most recent pieces Self
Portrait as de Sade, Noir Angel with Butterfly
Wings, Love Devouring Itself and L'Age
Noir: The Birth of the Syphilitic Venus & the Death
of Europe. My work has entered a new era and rebirth
with the completion of these pieces and will follow as
an advancement of the classicism of the Renaissance inserted
with the surreal eroticism of Man Ray, Bellmer and de
Sade. Both as a personal preference in the manner of creation
along with a rejection of much of the bromidic fauvist
ideals of the art world today.
WHY
DO YOU WORK IN PENCIL?
All
of my drawings are done completely in graphite drawing
pencil, of various shades and softness. Part of what I'm
interested in is creating with pencil what many artists
seek to create with paints. The black skies and shadows
within my pieces are in fact done completely in pencil,
not charcoals or any other tool.
It
was never necessarily a contrived or pre intentioned decision
to use only pencil but moreso it was a medium which I
had honed for years and decided to continue with. Most
accomplished pieces are done as paintings while many choose
not to pursue use of pencil beyond sketch or illustration
purposes so my use of pencil in very large conceptual
pieces I felt was something a bit unorthodox and a medium
which I wanted to pursue and take to another level beyond
the extent of most artists' use of pencil.
WHOSE
BLOOD DO YOU PAINT IN &
WHY?
The
first time I had ever incorporated blood into a drawing
was a self portrait concept I chose for class in 1998
in which the blood was intended to represent stigmata
wounds. At the time I didn't know that I had actually
hit on something as interesting and unique as it was soon
to turn into but the original methodology was that blood
was the most personal and symbolic medium one could possibly
work with, as it literally comes from the self and literally
from the heart. When I began to delve deeper and into
much more personal expression with my art it was a medium
which followed through and into present day. The blood
used is completely my own as that fact is integral to
its very use, aside from my latest piece L'Age Noir
where the menstrual blood of my fiancee was used with
a mixture of my own as symbolic my love for her and the
themes within. But as art is an expression of the self
the use of blood in my works is to meld the abstract and
physical together, a personal / literal insertion, which
is intended to resonate through the finished piece even
if subconsciously.
GIVEN
THAT YOUR PIECES ARE LARGE, HOW LONG
DO THEY TAKE YOU TO COMPLETE?
Between
3 weeks to several months of work depending on size, involvement
and detail, as well as allotment of time I'm able to devote
to them. My goal is always to detail as much as minutely
as possible so scale and the intricacy of the concept
are always variables. My Self Portrait As de Sade
for example took about four months of work, Love
Devouring Itself took approximately a few weeks and
L'Age Noir took about 13 months to complete,
albeit sidetracked with various happenings such as a month
long trip to Europe,
but it is also by far my largest and most intricately
involved work to date.
WHAT
ARE YOUR SPIRITUAL / RELIGIOUS BELIEFS & HOW
IS THIS INTEGRAL TO YOUR WORKS?
During
childhood exposure to an Eastern Orthodox church largely
compromised of ambivalent, if not hypocritical values
devoid of spirituality, led to several years of atheism
in the late 1990's. Throughout that period however I was
never content with the idea of nothing existing "behind
the veil" of mankind's current understanding of the
metaphysical which only a blind zealot could consider
to be complete. Circa 1999 a lifelong fascination with
the occult led to further study and a greater understanding
of spirituality, independent from the organized convention,
and along with synchronicities in my life which were irrefutably
beyond coincidence an understanding of God, or the concept
which most people refer to as 'God' as a hidden divine
order finally began to become visible, as well as my place
within that order.
Far
from atheistic I would actually consider myself to be
very spiritual but in the sense of working through and
out of the divine while allowing it to flow through oneself
in the enactment of one's True Will. In study of the occult
I've been able to apply certain precepts and facets to
daily existence, which are not as might popularly be believed
to be anything ritualistic or the armchair occultist's
pursuit of memorizing esoteric symbols, but instead the
spirituality referred to can best be defined as the understanding
of enacting my Will and accomplishing all that I can is
the fulfillment my role within the bigger unseen concept,
and through one is integral harmony with the other.
Much of these studies are what has given
insight to have created the writings on my other site
NACHTKABARETT.com
which is dedicated to these pursuits of mine in art history
and the occult.
This
belief is most similarly paralleled to the concept of
Thelema, outlined and practitioned by Aleister Crowley
in The Book of the Law, and though I belong to no organization
I have a firm belief in much of the philosophies coinciding
with The OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis) and that of Freemasonry
as both present a different dimension on the importance
of the accomplishment of one's Will.
I
create my art in this same vein and do so in the manner
of it being my True Will. Though it's fast becoming more
and more popular today, the way I approach my art is in
the metaphorical Alchemical sense of it being The Great
Work or Grand Operation and through its creation one can
transform and better himself. That being, in bettering
or purifying one's own work it's simultaneously a microcosm
of one progressing, accreting knowledge and experience,
thereby reaching a new stage of attainment through the
creation of each piece.
CORAL CASTLE 2006
HOW
DOES YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY FIT IN WITH YOUR ART?
The
short answer is that it's something completely different
but integral in the sense that it's of the mind set I'm
working from and my influences. Along with my other site
NACHTKABARETT.com
my writings within certainly are not one in the same with
my art but they are however my pursuits, studies, interests,
etc which are how the photos fit in. The section is purposely
titled 'PHOTOGRAPHS' as opposed to 'photography' because
I'm first and foremost one who works in fine art,
but photography (or more so photographing) is something
important to me, particularly in documenting interesting
or esoteric locations that are stimulating to me. Purposely
making my photography a sort of "diary" or artist's
scrapbook rather than intentionally delving into the photographic
arts.
For
any other questions or inquiries please do not hesitate
to contact me and I thank you for visiting and enjoying
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