Mother Pelican
A Journal of Solidarity and Sustainability

Vol. 16, No. 9, September 2020 Luis T. Gutiérrez, Editor

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A Visual Artist's Perspective on Reimagining a New Social Order James Sparks September 2020 Order, Disorder, Reorder ~ Source: Center for Action and Contemplation Studio artists who still work on stretched canvas are generally absorbed by the challenge to create order from the overwhelming complexity and chaos of the visual world around them whether inspired from pure imagination or direct stimulation from nature. The creative process is always a losing proposition and rarely, if ever, goes as planned. This failure is a crucial part of the process and insulates the artist from lapsing into formulaic and decorative solutions. The creative struggle parallels nicely with similar attempts to gloss over the complexities of cultural norms that cry out for much needed change such as outdated attitudes toward patriarchal, racial, and social inequities. I might add that artists are like rabbis, priests, mullahs, and corporate tycoons; all share a distaste for being stereotyped and there can be no monolithic label in any discipline. But as a unique mammal that accidently blundered into language acquisition with it's eventual demands to label every facet of the world and place them into categories and to assign an ethical merit system as well, it is no surprise that an educated progressive would adopt a label biased toward democratic socialism. With it's stress on social issues that on face value seem so obvious, such as the empowerment of women, admitting the obvious short comings of a male dominated culture in religion and politics, and the urgency of radical environmental solutions to global warming, poverty and income disparity, systemic racism, systemic corruption, the lists goes on and on and is depressingly familiar. Democratic socialism is one viable option. But what might be seen as over stepping some sacred boundaries and for some Mother Pelican contributors a polite rebuke, I attribute the persistence of these age old afflictions to a very culpable villain, organized religion; the so called monotheistic faiths that until very recently were instrumental in perpetrating many of the evils that enlightened free thinkers have been bemoaning for centuries. But we can go back to merely 1940 and read about Bertram Russell being denied a professorship at City University of New York by religious zealots that would make the Galileo trial seem tame by comparison. Even more painful is to listen to Billy Graham pontificate to William Buckley on Firing Line about the literal origin of man's fall from grace with the very real sin of Adam and Eve to explain the moral dilemma of the upheavals of 1968! But this born again preacher to presidents assures a skeptical Buckley (a good Catholic) that Christ will return for a thousand year rule. There is a resurgence of this delusional and toxic thinking in 2020 because, well, it is easy and comforting to evade the much more demanding challenge to become an active warrior for radical social change. Not just religious pacifism, but self absorbed indifference is still the paradigm. The appeals to liberated revolution such as the important Black Lives Matter movement, and radical rethinking of health care and mental health issues as important as they are, are still far from producing an enduring wide spread social awakening. In a lighter note, Paul M. Churchland in his concise and entertaining book, Matter and Consciousness, imagines a new twist on the hidden dangers of implementing a new, more mature social order for a sustainable future with what he calls Eliminative Materialism. This theory implies that all our current mental models of a kinder, gentler, more humane world order will be eliminated by an improved, more refined ontology that supplants current thinking with a more scientific and accurate updated version, perhaps based on advanced computer modeling or advances in A.I. Our present ‘'common sense'' framework of what social progress should look like is simply a "misrepresentation" that eventually will be seen as primitive. There is some validity to this theory as it was never questioned that a "caloric" was an expanding fluid that caused heat in bodies and "phlogiston" instantiated rust in metal and burnt ash in wood. Witches were obviously real as well as demonic possession as one could confirm what one actually sees. Copernicus paid heavily for his dangerous theory that the earth moved around a stationary sun contrary to Church dogma. Or more recently, it was almost unthinkable in the 1950's, even as a thought experiment, that women could be veterinarians, fighter pilots, surgeons, or corporate executives, let alone members of Congress or the Senate. In 2020 it is simply a maturing of our species. On a note of parody, Eliminative Materialism itself would ultimately prove to be a dated misnomer as it too becomes subject to it's own theory of mutation. To conclude, the problem an artist faces is borne of a limited feedback loop from a narrow constituency of educated peers who can debate the nuance and aesthetics of visual problems that always suggest that a better, more resolved painting is just around the corner. This is also a dilemma for the impassioned social reformer in any context from religious to secular; that there is also a limited feedback loop in that rarely do the intellectuals and social innovators alter the world views of an apathetic, intellectually lazy majority, who value, indeed cling to the comforts of finding scapegoats to ridicule. This is an age old challenge and it's resolution always seems as if within reach to each new generation. But there is also comfort in that we are not created in any image, but are the educated byproducts of a hopeful monster, natural selection, and this fact alone is comforting. ABOUT THE AUTHOR James Sparks is Adjunct Professor of Fine Arts at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, New York, teaching critical thinking skills in Drawing, Photography, and Introductions to Art History. His focus is on the interdisciplinary applications of the creative process as it relates to cognitive philosophy, psychology, linguistics, religion, and politics. He holds a BFA in Painting from Washington University in St.Louis, and a MFA in Painting from the University of Southern California. |Back to Title| LINK TO THE CURRENT ISSUE          LINK TO THE HOME PAGE

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