The Unconscious

            Though the idea of the unconscious has been around for thousands of years, it was not commonly understood as an honest revelation of inner desires and/or demons until the time of Freud toward the end of the 19^th century. This idea had a profound impact on art. Dream content and analysis began to manifest artistically in an unprecedented manor after the emergence of Freud’s studies of the unconscious. Surrealist art was founded upon the premises of Freudian psychology and Marxist economics, and often echoed much earlier Romantic ideas of mental anguish and hidden psychological truths.  After WWII the surrealist movement began to diminish, making way for more socially practical artistic endeavors.  However, the power within use of subliminal content stuck around, not in efforts to lead the world to a brighter tomorrow, but to sell products to the people of today.

            I have always adored the work of the surrealists, particularly the work of Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte, because of their ability to recreate a dreamlike scene as if it were truly happening in front of our own eyes. To delve into the unconscious is a daring move for any artist to make, but often times those efforts create especially intriguing work because of the drastically differing interpretations such works are capable of generating. Personally I tend to gravitate towards a surrealist approach to depiction of conscious reality in my own work. The conscious is a comfortable and trustworthy hook upon which I can hang my artists cap without question. The exploration of my own unconscious could get messy, to say the least.