Artistic Statement It is my belief that we have passed the crossroads of our time. I believe we crossed it in the 1970s. At that time, anything was possible. We could have become more thrifty, more conservative with the earth's resources, more pro-active in our daily life. The 1980s were the watershed moment that predicted the future of our generation. It was the Me Decade and it showed once and for all that I comes before We for most people. This gave way to the apathy that defined Generation X. So here we stand, past the point of no return. We are consumers because that's what we've been trained to be. We are mannequins with charge cards. There has always been pressure to be in the in crowd while growing up, but I don't think it's ever been this acute. As factions of the youth group have become more aggressive and reactionary, there has been a distinct shift in the climate of growing up in America. It is pushed on the children that they must choose their future from an early age. It is hidden in the context of "You must get into honors classes now or you can't join them later". People are choosing their future vocation at a time when they can't even decide what television shows to watch. And the game is rigged. Low income families produce future low income families. Written off as unimportant by society, minorities (which comprise the bulk of low income families) are pushed into their own role. Whereas the middle class child will assume they are going to college and getting a career, the poor student finds that they are shut out of college. That their school is not equipped to train them well enough to reach college. And both instances make me sick. The poor being relegated to the dust bin and ending up in the service industry or, if they're lucky, learning a technological trade (like auto repair). I can't say that this is true up and down the line, but it seems to be the majority. There are, of course, exceptions, but the rule seems to hold. The poor are trained to believe they don't deserve better than what their circumstances have provided them and a lot of them never try to rise above it. Alternately, the middle class are molded to be consumers. Rats in a maze, punching numbers and ruling over the poor. As Orwell famously pointed out, the middle class incites the lower class to rebellion against the upper class and then disavow any association with the poor so they can become the new upper class. But something strange has happened. Due to the molding of consumerism, America has effectively created permanent classes. The rich will go on to be masters of industry and live luxuriously, the middle class are content to take the paycheck and spend it on new computers and cars, and the lower class is shut out of the system entirely. And with the emergence of political correctness, there is now a sense that we are all equal because we no longer are allowed to view others with hate. This supposed equality reinforces the class structure while hiding the seething unhappiness that most people feel. There is an emptiness here. It is a class war under the subterfuge of a race war. It has become a culture of fear and shopping. The news shows us who to be afraid of (the blacks, the hispanic, anyone that's not white or, if they are white, then the poor) and then cuts to commercials to show us what to buy. When people begin believing that the right stereo system will make their life complete, there is a great let down when their life is not drastically improved. It becomes a cycle of searching for the elusive magic element that will cure us of existential discontent. And then there's the state of the country. The damage caused when factories close in America because the stockholders can make a few dollars more by manufacturing in El Salvador. As Michael Moore documented in the groundbreaking Roger and Me, globalization has produced a startling wealth addiction. I believe it is this wealth addiction that is destroying our culture. You will find that the average person doesn't hate the rich as much as they want to be them. When you've been bred to follow money, the unspoken insistence that you must provide for yourself and your family, you find that wealth is at the top of most people's desires. While wealth is grand and useful and would greatly improve your life, I believe we should be looking for other things. True love, understanding, tolerance, and knowledge. I believe art can be a useful part of finding all these things. I am an artist because of this reason. The intent in my artwork is to document my personal world and the world that surrounds me. It is meant to entertain but it is also meant to teach and pose questions. I may do it through satire or humor, I may do it through chilling honesty. I create fiction to reach a deeper understanding of who we are as people. It is my goal to make others realize there is more to life than the pursuit of wealth. At all times we should be reconciling our involvement with the world with our own personal needs. I have a job that pays pretty well. I enjoy it about as much as I can. I am still attempting to make a living off my artwork. But I will always create art. I do it because I love it and I want to propagate my feelings to anyone interested. It strikes me as odd that for the majority of the people in this country that a choice must be made: Do something you love or earn a lot of money. People are mostly choosing to earn the most money. And as I've said, this will not make you happier. I am struck by something Chuck Palahniuk once said. He related that after the success of Fight Club, he doesn't have to worry about money anymore. But that's irrelevant because he's so contented with his place in life that he doesn't need to buy anything. Consider it a form of enlightenment. He's found that just doing the job you love means more than all the money in the world. I have discovered who I am and intend to share that with people. It gives others courage to be themselves when they see an example. I am truly my own person, open and honest (often brutally honest) and there will be no compromise of who I am. I hope to inspire others to do the same because the feeling really is amazing. I have broken free from the indoctrination of consumerism. I buy only things that truly enrich my life. There is never a moment when I feel unfulfilled by my purchases. I have backed off the fire and brimstone of radical anti-consumerism, but I still hold in my heart a belief that the right sofa will not make you happy. There is a deeper sickness in our culture and until we've acknowledged that and faced it, this vicious cycle will continue. We must break down the fear system that's been implemented to pit us against each other, just as competition in the workplace pits employees against each other. And with outsourcing a reality, the competition is more fierce than ever. Companies are literally firing their employees for making them record profits each year. Surely this is not right. Surely there should be compensation for a job well done rather than a punishment. It comes back, once again, to the overriding wealth addiction. This has to be stopped. They have infiltrated our government, using their dirty money to buy the votes necessary to keep the addiction going. It's money well spent. We are not doing enough to fight them. And I don't blame anyone for this. Life in America is complicated enough without taking into account the need for political action. As technology has made our life easier, we've become more complacent. We need to take action once again. We all need to get involved. Politicians may be beholden to the wealthy elite but the one thing they still fear is the angry majority. Take part in protests, sign petitions, write your Congressional representatives to give them your viewpoint. These are steps that anyone can do and it could help enormously. Anything less is resigning yourself to a continued race to the bottom. In my artwork, I examine both political hegemony and cultural soul sickness. I often relate it to my own life in part of a larger message. For in one person lays the world. Each person is shaped by their environment. Thus inner city minorities will speak in the street parlance, suburban kids will cruise the strip with their friends on a Friday night because everyone else does, and the wealthy elite will be on reality tv shows to prove that money doesn't buy intelligence. I find so many facets of our culture absurd but try not to hold disdain for the people that are slaves to pop culture. It is ignorance pure and simple. People don't look for more than the new John Grisham because it can be scary getting into things you don't know. Ignorance causes hesitation and fear. People are content to follow trends because there is safety in numbers. Acceptance by society legitamizes things. To not take part in this acceptance is to set off alarms. A contrary opinion is one thing but a total disavowal of the whole apparatus signals relegation to the ranks of freakdom. I am a freak. I am abnormal. I am unique where others are compliantly conformist. I just hope that my unique personality translates into my artwork. The art world has been defined for over a thousand years by not just the talented but by the outsider. Those rare moments where the outsider has been celebrated by the mainstream has fostered disorientation in most of the artists. Society does eventually come around to outsider art. The pioneers in the field are reserved for cult status while the mainstream-friendly artist twenty years down the line gets applauded for breaking the style. These artists may very well be great artists that did not sell out. Always keep that in mind. There is more of a cultural shift than an artistic one. I am an artist. I am an outsider artist. I will not claim to be a pioneer. I do believe my artwork is good but I'm equally convinced that I will never sell a million books. I am comfortable with that. My entire purpose in my artwork is to entertain while provoking thought. It does not matter if you agree with me. It doesn't matter to me if you think my art is complete shit. I create art for myself and hope that others find something special in it. I am not Kafka, demanding my work be destroyed after I die. I am commited to spreading my work as far as I can, to as many people as I can. The goal is to make people realize there is more to life than what they've been trained to believe, pursue, and revel in. I do not begrudge the people that never break from this lifestyle, I feel pity for them. There is a whole universe of amazing things out there and I think it is more important than a football game or getting the kids to soccer practice on time. But that's just my feeling on the subject. I think my artwork conveys this view. As I've spent years pouring myself into this website, I think you will notice improvements over the timespan documented. In addition to executing my ideas more skillfully, I believe my intentions have changed. I am now much more interested in humanity. At the start of this site, I was essentially attracted to the puzzle of human interaction with technology, the dehumanizing effects of modern life. While these themes often make reappearences in my work, now I am more interested in how people interact. I'm interested in how people fail each other and surprise each other. How evil can flourish. These are the things I am examining closely now in my work. Influences Blake Schwarzenbach |