Mark Sheeky Artworks

Expressionist and Impressionist Surrealism

Normally I do not consider myself a surrealist because my images so not come solely from my subconscious. I think most, if not all, surrealist artist painters fall into this category, and, after consideration, I came to the conclusion that surrealist art is often misunderstood because it is two genres not one.

Surrealism was born primarily as a literary genre where automatic or "stream of consciousness" writing makes expression of the subconscious easy. Automatic writing is an example of expressionist surrealism because the mind of the writer is expressed. By my definition, impressionist surrealism is different and intends to influence the mind of the observer, and it is this latter sub-genre that accomodates most famous "surrealist" painters.

Images are more complex than writing, and it is clear that many surrealist painters merely manipulate visual "ideas" to represent something, instead of reflecting their own subconscious.

Most people think of the word surreal to mean strange, not understanding that one strange object might be surreal and another not. Whether impressionist or expressionist, a surreal idea or information flash must be written in "brain code", it should be a message in a language understood by parts of the brain that lie beyond the conscious mind. There are many strange ideas that might be described by ignoramuses as surreal that are not surreal. A surreal idea must contain information. A surreal message must be present to be communicated to the brain directly. Thinking up strange ideas with the conscious mind is not surrealism.

The painting of dreams or dream imagery is an ideal example of expressionist surrealism. In practise this is nearly impossible for normal people as perfect visual recall of a dream image, recall accurate enough to be copied, cannot be acheived. Often a copy can be made that may correctly represent the original soul of the image.

Perhaps the best way to expose the subconscious is the use of suggestive imagery. Pseudo-random shapes, ink blots, swirls, tea leaves, or other patterns that seem to look like something to the artist are manipulated to reveal the images within. This is clearly different from the creation of a new image and may or may not include the realities explored by dream imagery or the creation of new images. Personally, I do not believe in randomness, or than anything truly random can exist in the universe and more than infinity can. Thus it is a point of speculation whether images from so-called random patterns are really there by accident or by intention by some higher pseudometaphysical mathematical entity.

In expressionist surrealism, an image must come from the subconscious without control, and such images, when perfect, would reflect the state of mind of the artist at the time. Such images may or may not be interesting; it all depends on how interesting the artist is as a person. As artworks that communicate ideas such imagery is not always useful.

Art should have a theme and idea, and not eternally reflect the ambling mind of an artist. To communicate an idea effectively is best done by transliterating the art into imagery that the subconscious of the viewer can understand. This is not representation of the artists' subconscious but the creation of something for the viewers subconscious. As an artist, this is my intent, and it is my definition of impressionist surrealism.

It should be stressed once more, than this is not thinking up ideas. As with any surrealism, the code is in the subconscious and should not involve the conscious mind.

To accomplish the creation of impressionist images two methods can be used. Firstly, fragments of the expressed mind. Fragments of dreams and visions, assembled images to make a collage of emotions and the subconscious. Essentially this is how almost all paintings regarded as surrealist are made, excluding the automatic and shape manipulations of the expressionist surrealists.

The method I consider ideal however involves a degree of mental control and meditation. Begin with silence, relaxation and darkness. Like a vision quest, the idea behind the artwork should be phrased in brain code for ones mind to comprehend, then the emotion of the artwork felt. Time passes without thiking. If the time is right, an image will suddenly jump into the brain in one instant flash, a flash so quick that it seems that it is not possible to capture, yet it remains and in that flash the emotion, idea and even movement, smells and all other sensory data exist. Such an image is the essence of brain code and the surrealist ideal. It is such vision flashes that defined the word surrealism because they contain more information than the one or two senses that reality can simultaneously act on.