Page 21 - May 2017 Edition

detail, imago alas imago alas, full
Sky Black, SurrealiSm and StorieS
Flannery O’Connor once said, “To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.”
While our society at large is not medically blind nor strictly visually impaired, there are ways in which we become so accustomed to what we see every day, day in and day out, that we become visually numb. Our eyes scan over so much text and so many images without any of them making more than a dent in our conscious mind, that it takes something out of the ordinary to cause us to stop long enough to consume, digest and search for meaning in what we see. Surrealists attempt to restore our sight, and perhaps even our childlike sense of wonder, by making the familiar appear startling and strange.
Sky Black’s surreal visions are beautiful, but tinged with the exact kinds of unsettling de- tails that can turn a pleasant dream into a nightmare. For instance, as much as most of us appreciate butterflies from afar, the idea of any kind of insect completely covering the body, especially the eyes, ears, mouth and nose, is well within the realm of horror for many. In the artist’s newest series, detailed above [Imago Alas] the butterflies are not just covering the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose of the subject, they appear to be coming out his body, emerg- ing from within. But that creepy feeling of wonder and awe just on the edge of horror and nightmare are part of what make these paintings so effective, evocative and emotive. This one, in particular is so effective in fact that it is difficult to look at it without running a hand across your face to make sure nothing is landing on or bursting out of your skin. The reaction is physical, the effect corporeal.
“I am always drawn to opposites,” Mr. Black said, “and in this case, the strong sense of beauty in the butterflies, color and light are able to mix boldly with an unsettling and slightly tormented posture of a man. This mixture may give the viewer a number of feelings both up- lifting and unsure at the same time. As far as the meaning to me, I think it represents change and that change can be both beautiful and uncomfortable at the same time. This theme is reflected in the title as well. Imago is the final stage of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.”
A recurring theme in Mr. Black’s oeuvre and in surrealism in general, is the sense of human subjects being off-center, wrong-footed, not entirely in control of their surroundings or even their own bodies [In Bloom]. Who hasn’t had a dream where their teeth fall out unexpect- edly, or something erupts from their body Alien-style, or their hands become snakes or they are covered in spiders? Usually these types of images are considered nightmarish because the corruptibility of our physical form is one of our greatest fears. Yet in Mr. Black’s art, these things happen to people who sometimes appear at peace with their changes, with their changeling-ness, with being hybrids of humans and animals. Or calm and lovely animals who have physically merged with trees or sailing ships. In other instances, the human face or beast face on a human body appears to be screaming or roaring in outrage, fear or pain.
Surrealism can be viewed as an attempt to escape or perhaps surpass realism and reality for the lucidity and fluidity of the dream state, seeking to legitimize the importance of the dream state. In the visual representations of surrealism, one physical form often flows into another the way one thought or idea leads to the next. A man can have the head of an ele- phant or a tiger, a boy can have the head of an ostrich that makes him as tall as a man [Mine!].
This is the stuff of dreams. Who is to say our dreams are not real? They occur in time, though time can be warped and altered within the dream. We experience them. We remember them. The thoughts, images, and ideas in dreams come from somewhere. And many of the things that eventually become new innovations and inventions, started off as dreams. Many artists and writers also credit dreams as sources for the ideas that spawn their work.
We all know from our own personal experience with dreams just how quickly a beauti- ful and lucid dream can twist and transform into a nightmare. There are ways in which this story plays out both when we are asleep and when we are awake. The technological advances of the last century are the stuff of futurism and fantasy from the century before.
By Jen turrell
Yet for so many of the actions and progressions of mankind, few could anticipate the true toll these advancements have taken and continue to take on individuals, on the nature that comes into contact with our advancements and on the earth as a whole.
When asked for some background on where the ideas for his paintings start, Mr. Black says, “I like a good story and in a good story there is much room for an interested audience to play with meanings, interpretations, and potential outcomes. This is how I like to approach my work. I enjoy the slight vulnerability that comes from painting pictures that might mean ten different things to ten different viewers.”
This 25-year old artist is very good at getting people to look twice, spend more time and see more, because of the way he takes the familiar and renders it suddenly unfamiliar and other. There are only a couple of examples where the surreal aspect of his art is not apparent at first glance and a viewer is forced to look closer and see the ways in which he has rendered the commonplace in an unusual or unrealistic way. Far more often, the subjects of his paint- ings are in the midst of massive transformation, becoming hybrids of humans and animals, or perhaps their heads are made of flowers or fire.
While Mr. Black attests he rarely begins a painting with any kind of political intent, as a member of his audience for the past 6 years as he’s ascended the Arizona art scene, from cof- fee shop openings to gala shows at arts centers and epic murals through popular alleyways, this writer can’t help but see political messages in his work. My interpretation of his overarch- ing narrative is one of nature fighting back against the insults of man, and of nature finding ways to remind us that ultimately, we are part of her, not held above and apart as we like to imagine. All it takes is a natural disaster, a shark attack or even an airplane crash to remind us that we still exist in this world of hers and are subject to the whims of the wild, no matter how hard we try to beat her down and bend her to our will.
“I honestly can’t think of many times where I purposefully chose to insert underlying po- litical themes but I don’t doubt that some pieces may instigate thoughtfulness in this area. Sometimes, metaphors and meanings will reveal themselves after the painting is done and which were absent when I started the piece. Painting is always an emotional process for me and I find a recurring objective is to attempt to describe human emotion in as many ways as I can. Sometimes it’s a happy beautiful picture, other times it’s unsettling and raw.”
In Surrealism and the Cinema, Michael Gould writes, “Because surrealism makes the mind puzzle and search, it is basically a constructive sensibility, which is bent on tearing down old val- ues and opening up new horizons, and as such, it is a political sensibility.”
Perhaps the man covered in butterflies [Wake] is a logger baron having a dream that might give him pause in his quest for profits through massive deforestation. The painting of busi- ness suits with tiny nuclear explosions for heads [The Men Who Sell the World] could be the nightmare of an energy executive or defense contractor. Another painting of a man in a suit, struggling to remove a tiger’s head from the top of his body [Not Himself] could be a Wolf of Wall Street type when he realizes he can no longer separate himself from the beast he has become.
Art is meant not only to be looked at, but also to make us gaze deeper into ourselves. When looking at the paintings of Sky Black, we are humans gazing inside of humanity, the humanity that is still a part of nature. Inside we see our own astounding collective complex- ity, beauty, tragedy and horror.
Mr. Black’s Giclee Print Show will be cycling through Flagstaff this summer starting at Mountain Oasis in May, Firecreek in June, Criollo in July, Hops on Birch in August, Root Public House in September and Brandy’s in October. You can see his most recent paintings by appointment in his studio by contacting him at sky@skyblackart.com and you can learn more about the man and his art at his website SkyBlackArt.com.
www.thenoise.us | the NOISE arts & news | MAY 2017 • 21