I have really become interested in David Shrigley’s approach to art.
He recognises that he is not good at drawing. Yet he expresses so much from his very simple line drawings.
As much as I feel I can draw, I have also felt that most of my life I was wrapped up in wanting it to be perfect.
When I’m sketching out now I love to use stick men drawings.
Before I came across Shrigley in the summer holidays I had started to draw out what ever was on my mind in a simple fashion.
I came across his art work when researching death in art. His sculpture of a taxidermy dog holding a sign saying ‘I am dead’ could be seen as bad taste. But it conveys a message beautifully with humour.
Knowning that the dog once was alive, but is now gone. The image is left behind of what once was.
Scientifically death can be rationalised but the implications of others deaths hilights ones own mortality. Many mythologies have been created often through religion to explain death. People are comforted with ideas of an afterlife and reincarnation.
I explored and tried to beleive such theories in my past. Believing more recently as a p-theist ( check the god delusion) in source energy, the idea that we are all god or source, infinite energy.
Somewhere some how I came to a realisation that we are all f*cked. That death is final. I can’t know that, But the idea ( an idea about it is all I can have) of the finality of death has made me appreciate living a hell of a lot more. Even if I’m in pain or don’t feel great, I still think it’s incredible to experience being alive. In that way life is better.