ARTIST STATEMENT

By CC Faulkner

I have been asked to generate an artist statement. What is it exactly? I would think it is explaining where I stand in society, what my beliefs are, how do I want people to view me and my art.  So the question arises, what do I consider art, an oil painting, a visual on paper, a visual on a computer screen or can it be a thought or process? Scarier, is the question, what do you view as art?  Is it everything we can and cannot see?  It is the eye of an artist who designed the chair you are now sitting on.  It is the walls that now surround you; it is the song that makes you feel.  It is what makes you happy or sad. An artist is a person that evokes an emotion purposefully.  As an artist do I want to make someone angry, happy or leave the viewer with a question?

To understand what I do as an artist is not as simple as following a single thought process to highlight a particular area of concern.  Like any human, some days I am happy and some angry and there are many questions that still need to be answered. Humanity is in question.  Are we as the people of earth so caught up in the small space of our mind as to forget that we need to sit up and take note, that if we lose sight of what matters, there is very little point in the future of mankind.  Who knows, nobody, at the end of the day, life like humanity is as uncertain as the dinosaurs found out. All we can do is, to make someone’s day better today.

Now that you know what side of the fence I sit on, and, if you missed it, I stand for what is good and uplifting.  When you stand and watch your children take their first breath, the realization that in the single breath we must not take anything for granted no matter how small.  The revelation is after that first breath the child cries, its first experience of pain and shock. In everything that is good there is a bit of bad. This is the way of man.  As a human, all you want to do is take the child and hold it close and make things better.      

There would be three distinct parts to what makes up humanity in my mind.  These would describe why and what drives me as an artist. It is what is beautiful. What is atrocious and horrific and what I can do to make things better.  To begin with what is beautiful?  There are many universal images that would be regarded as beautiful. To sit and relax in a beautiful garden in full bloom, to stand on a mountain and watch the sun rise.  It is my children laughing and having fun. No matter who you are, there are universal images that makes one feel good.

Then, there are the acts of people that anger me. It is the person that acts in an extreme manner that effects people in a negative fashion.  I t is people that think they can bulldoze someone’s house just because they can justify it according to a political ideal.  Life is full of contradictions; pedophiles will say they do it because they love the child.  A sociopath will harm because they like it. A suicide bomber will blow themselves up because of a belief. Churches have destroyed whole civilizations because of greed and faith. 

Today, I will feel like writing, tomorrow I may feel like doing a whole bunch of digital paintings of beggars standing drunk in the street.  The next day I may feel like exercising my mind with trying to create clean energy or work on an idea to protect the human body from microwaves.  It is as important to exercise the mind as it is to paint a picture.  A well exercised mind can always paint a picture whether you are a fine artist or corporate director.  To think of the future is only as good as long as we protect what we have now.

To capture a moment in time whether it be a landscape or person is one aspect of my art.  These images are based on what makes me happy and positive.  The other aspect of my art is to delve into the negative and pose questions that make us contemplate our humanity.  The third aspect will be through large record breaking images and artworks that will highlight a certain area of concern.  As an artist, thinker, inventor and writer my task in life is to make a future that entertains, informs and makes things better for all earth.  This is the time for all of us to consider that earth is only a single piece of rock floating in space.  A single man in China can affect a multitude of people in the rest of the world.  A single rock in space can affect the universe we live in.  Either we want war or we want peace.  What future do we want to leave the children of earth?

Biography

CC Faulkner is an Anglo African, born 1967 in Johannesburg, South Africa.  He chose to remain as a self taught or as some would like to say “outside” artist.  Born to be an artist, CC Faulkner’s drive and ambition is to create.

1989 – Joined the BAWART movement that explored the tension between opposites.

1990 – BAWART group Exhibition Grahamstown Art Festival

1991 – Various commissions from SADF

1991 – Modern Rock Art Show – Magaliesberg

1992 – First published with Bubble Dragons in a national magazine 2 -21

1993 – One man show – Midlite Gallery, The Stars

1993 – Group show Midlite Gallery

1994 – Largest painting on canvas (18m x 12m) to highlight the plight of children.

1995 – 2005  Various commissions and sales to galleries.     

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