Hair=>Cut=>Peace

Hair=>Cut=>Peace was a performance I undertook from approximately 7:42-8:18 pm in Patrick John Mills sculpture garden on July 7th, 2011. I have been processing the events of that performance ever since that night.

My intention for the piece was to remain silent throughout. I love to talk and am very expressive, I did speak on two occasions and when reviewing footage from that night I can see my body language was very telling as was the body language of everyone who participated.

Some people, as they cut my long blond hair, were gentle. Others were disgusted. Still others were aggressive. Everyone whispered something to me as they brought the scissors down. It was a humbling experience.

Towards the end of the performance things began to shift. Someone procured a pair of craft store pinking shears to hack away at my hair, an unassuming looking man cut a bald patch in the front of my head, people were losing interest and not approaching me. And that is what I love about performance art--the unpredictability of it and the intrinsic role of the audience.

After the unassuming man cut the front part of my hair bald, the mood instantly changed. I will never forget the gasp the audience gave out at that moment. I felt a huge range of emotions throughout the performance, everything from embarrassment to empowerment.

It’s taken me a while to process this experience and I haven’t been fully able to yet. I attribute this to; having a very busy summer--working, going swimming and out of town every so often and doing other art shows (I brought Creation Congregation to Big Art Party at Patrick’s at the end of July and I have a garbage art installation up at Orange during the month of August) and the intense nature of the piece.

I’ve since had my hair cut by my old friend Tony at The Clip Joint, his barber shop on Ogilvy Road. I have decided to grow out that front bald patch for peace.

The hair is still wrapped up in the green piece of fabric I sat on during the performance in a plastic bag in a cupboard in my sunroom. I hope to use the hair in mask making.

Gratefulness

Woke this morn to Robert Genn's Twice-Weekly Letter, The Painter's Keys, and he is talking about art and gratefulness. Here's a bit of what he says: 

...taking our materials into our hands, we begin to move along a higher path. Rising to serve, we raise both our quality and our self-worth. To feel the clay between the fingers, the brush in the hand or the sound of music plucked, blown or struck, is to move toward the grace of gratefulness. Life is a privilege, and those of us who choose the path of creativity, may just be the most privileged of all.

We all have our unique motivations.

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And really, when it comes right down to it, we sleep to wake and we greet the day, each in our own special way. As artists, we lead by example and by the work we create. Can there be any better way to live one's life? 

You can read his entire letter here: 

http://painterskeys.com/

ARTIST P.GREENE: War what is war

ARTIST P.GREENE: War what is war: "War
What is war,
It is the worlds aggressive
reaction, the embodiment of man, yes the embodiment
of man, yes the embodiment of man's agg..."

Inspiration

Comeau inspires me to discuss how my art came about

Some inspiration comes from creative flow, a muse, if you will, while some comes from perspiration, as in sitting or standing at the easel and bloody well doing it.

When I was a writer, every computer screen with nothing on it was as it used to be when writers sat in front of blank sheets of paper and their hearts would shrivel as they berated and at times, begged themselves to produce.

What this keyboard with an axe embedded it it says is that I am happy to not be a writer. It's a "take that" piece. 

And this is exactly what I do. I take the lowly keyboard, tool of my former trade as a columnist with a Canwest daily, and I deface, defeat and humiliate one or more, pretty well on a daily basis.

They are called Quirky B's for the QWERTY designation of our North American and most European boards. B for board, of course.

Using a popular object, the iconic keyboard millions of people use daily, and reinventing it using wit, whimsy and a fair dose of clever,  the result is something that appeals to people who may respond with humour, quizzical thought or with a simple ooooo.

My art is Pop Art and is defined by the works of Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenberg and others.

We live in a world where art is served up in many guises and Pop Art is but one of them.

A question most people
ask what is Art, well here
is what has been playing
in my head over & over
again, who really decides!
Well if you know the answer, then tell us Artists what you think is truely Art?
Us Artists would really like to know, for we of noble spirited Artists feel need to create...
Moreover we need to eat, Im not trying to pull the starving artists card, it is just the facks.
We all need to eat.....