The gala opening reception will be on Friday October 14th from 7 pm – midnight. There will also be a Halloween Party on Friday. Oct. 28th featuring music and performance by Rosemary’s Billygoat, and much much more . . .
The location is:
Sancho
1549 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
For further Information please contact the gallery owner, Dani Collins via the Sancho Facebook page:
"The Torture Garden"
24" x 30" , Acrylic on Canvas, 2011
“The Torture Garden,” 24″ x 30″ (61 x 76 cm), Acrylic on Canvas, 2011
Woman possesses the cosmic force of an element, an invincible force of destruction, like nature’s. She is, in herself alone, all nature! Being the matrix of life, she is by that very fact the matrix of death – since it is from death that life is perpetually reborn, and since to annihilate death would be to kill life at its only fertile source.
– Octave Mirbeau, The Torture Garden, 1899
This painting derives from an image I named, “Venus”, that I made in Photoshop a couple of years ago:
I started the painting by faithfully copying the image in the photomontage, but after awhile it seemed pedantic to me – I felt that when it was just a copy of the montage that it lacked my personal touch and style, and so I stopped looking at the photo and improvised all the finishing touches. Now, I feel that I have created something that is distinctly mine. I think the ballerina legs may come from a Henri Cartier-Bresson photo, but of this I am not certain – they are mine now!
The title, “Torture Garden”, is of course a tribute to the famous novel which I recently read. It seemed such a fitting title – I could not resist.
David Normal is an artist based out of California who has experimented with animation, design and now focus’s on illustrative oil paintings.
1. Can you talk about your past and what initially drew you to creating?
I am told that I showed a remarkable talent for music as a child and precocious musical accomplishment was expected of me. However, I had a superseding predilection for drawing that began as a toddler. This was strongly encouraged by my parents, yet unlike music studies or school there was no pressure for me to accomplish anything and so it was a natural pastime for me and my skill in art flourished, as musical abilities languished and schoolwork was neglected.
Collage made when I was between the ages of 8 and 10. My father, at that time, was keeping a box of collage material. Much, if not all, of the clips in this collage were from his collection. Also, possibly, I was cutting things out of old issues of Esquire Magazine to which my parents subscribed in the 1970s.
I saw exhibits of Picasso and also the German Expressionists as a small child and can still remember the wonder I felt in seeing such mighty paintings. I had the ability from an early age to focus on one drawing for days on end, and I also tended to define my art endeavors conceptually, and so within my childish “oeuvre” there were paintings that were meant to be touched but not looked at, drawings whose goal was to portray “happy” demons, and sculptures based on the African masks I admired. I copied M.C. Escher, science fiction illustration and boyishly had an obsession with hot rods. I was often bored and frustrated during my childhood and drawing gave me an escape to an engaging place of fantasies. In grade school my peers recognized me as the best “drawer” in the school and that gave me an identity that I did not have otherwise. I have painted, sculpted and made collages since earliest childhood and while I feel that all is rooted in drawing, I cannot say that I “worked my way up” in any kind of linear progression of skill and complexity. I got my first airbrush at age 10. I started doing computer graphics at 13 using “Macpaint” on the very first Macintosh computers. Yet even now at the age of 40, I am striving to hone my skill in the essential practice of drawing.
2. Do you draw strictly from the subconscious thought process?
When I am composing a drawing and I have to think about what I am doing then it is “conscious,” but if it is just spontaneous and there is no thought, that is; if there is no critical analysis, then I would say it is “subconscious.” I am constantly using both modes, however I prefer the spontaneity and richness of the subconscious.
Idea sketch for sculptures (never realized) ca. 1993. The drawing shows spontaneity of visual and verbal processes. I am coming up with ideas in a “stream of conscious” fashion both verbally and visually here.
Using pen and ink I spontaneously express visions from the subconscious with great rapidity. I feel the need to develop them into more formal compositions in more demanding media (mostly oil paint these days). It is in this process of formal development that much critical thinking takes place. Symbols and shapes are arranged and evaluated and often much that is new is developed, but it is a much more conscious effort than the initial improvisation of the idea sketch. As a painting develops I begin to have a sense of it’s subject and to some extent, it’s meaning. These realizations limit the free play of the subconscious mind. So, generally speaking, it is a process of bringing something from the subconscious into the conscious.
3. How do you choose characters, subject matter and particular objects to go into a painting?
“Chemical Imbalance”, Oil on Panel, 18.5″ x 21″ (47 x 53.3 cm), 2010
I don’t really choose my subject matter – it seems rather to choose me! I find that certain symbols and themes reoccur and I feel that I am making variations on a theme as I explore it. In this sense I am not unlike a music composer who develops and elaborates a theme through a series of movements in a symphony or songs in an album. There are symbolic and thematic interconnections between my paintings and I like to encourage these.
“Cognitive Libertines”, Oil on Panel, 20 x 25 cm, 2008.
For instance, in “Cognitive Libertines” the central figure is sitting on a stump, and in “The Human Tree” a tree is being cut down and will soon be a stump – a thematic connection is there and while the former painting was painted earlier perhaps it is actually a later chapter in the same story.
“The Human Tree”, Oil on Panel, 64.1 x 55.8 cm (25.2″ x 22″), 2010
Sometimes in the process of painting I myself am the one that is “stumped” in so much as I
cannot think of what to put in a certain character’s hands. In “Chemical Imbalance” I was
at a loss for what to put in the x-ray in the right female figure’s hand. At that time there
was a cheese grater that someone had hung in a tree on the road to my house and my wife
and I always thought it was so strange to see that cheese grater there.
Detail from “Chemical Imbalance” showing the “Interdimensional Cheese Grater.”
It seemed so like a universal non-sequitur – and since I wanted something ersatz I chose to put a cheese grater in the x-ray. I made it an optical illusion, a sort of “interdimensional cheese grater” and as such a faint allusion to Escher’s lithograph, “Belvedere”. Interestingly, it was after completing this painting that I discovered that I was lactose intolerant and so much of my own not insubstantial “chemical imbalance” was deriving from cheese. So, while I was consciously trying to contrive an absurdity, unconsciously I was sending myself a clear message, i.e.; that cheese was the source of much of my poor health. Yet that is a very personal thing, and I would be surprised if many people concluded, “Oh! The painter must have been sick of eating cheese!”
4. If there were an ideal way to present your work, what would it be?
“Illuminations” installation at Burning Man Center Camp 2010
I have long been interested in displaying my images on a translucent substrate through which light could filter and thereby illuminate the work. Originally this was an interest in painting on silk and producing paintings that were essentially dyed through the fabric. However the aesthetic that I favor does not lend itself to unsized silk painting (i.e.; batik painting, or French silk painting), rather the tight detail work is best realized in oil or acrylic. Eventually that led to printing my images on back-lit media (sign maker’s material) and affixing them to edge-lit acrylic sheets. This is my current mode of display, one that I call “Illumination.” My current series of oils are in fact entitled, “The Illuminations” and all of them are being reproduced as these glowing, self-lit pieces. What I like about presenting my work in this way is that I can hang the work in the middle of the room. In this way the work takes on a kind of sculptural presence – “2.5D” (if you will). Further, the work illuminates itself, and there is no need for any auxilliary light in the gallery. Finally, this method of display breaks up the standard gallery routine where paintings are on the walls and people are in the middle talking with each other. In an exhibit of the “Illuminations” the glowing, central presence of the work dominates attention and there is an oddly sacred atmosphere.
5. How important is process to you? It seems that process plays a major role in generating art: from the birth of the idea, to the making and then the final product.
“Creative Process,” is very important to me but documentation of my creative process is not (currently) a part of my end product. There is a trend – particularly in academic circles – for documentation/discussion of the process of creating art, particularly those aspects that are philosophical, to be a part of the art product presented to the public. This preoccupation with “process” has turned many artists’ focus away from their craft, and towards something that seems more like philosophy than art. I am an artist first, and my work is made to stand by itself without any explanation of the process that yielded it. I think the word “process” has become a secular surrogate for the word “inspiration”, and I approve of this change of vocabulary because I think it indicates that creativity is not some thunderbolt from Jove, rather it is a natural power of the human mind wherein high achievement is accessible to anyone willing to undergo the “process”. Yet, to direct the public attention away from the art itself and towards an exegesis of the artist’s inner machinations seems to me a digression into shop talk at the least and indulgently narcissistic at worst.However, documenting my process could become important in the future when I engage in more systematic explorations of consciousness for the purpose of deriving artistic inspiration. I plan to build a flotation tank and then do experiments in altered states of consciousness through sensory deprivation and psychoactive drugs (such as Salvinorin, Dextromethorphan, Hyoscyamine, as well as sundry phenethylamine and tryptamine derivatives ). I will render the visions and experiences in drawings and paintings. This process would require careful documentation of the consciousness experiments and the artwork would, in a sense, be documentation of these experiences. In such a scenario documentation of the process might be an important part of exhibiting the work, but even then I would strive to have the work speak for itself and not be dependent on an auxiliary treatise for it’s appreciation.
6. Would you like to incorporate sound or media such as film into your work?
Front Side of Flyer for “St. Valentine’s Midnight Masquerade Debauch”, 1997 happening I produced with Kim Jordan, Rex Mundi, and all the cream of the then crop of San Francisco underground provocateurs, bon vivants, goliards, beatniks, and other wayward dilettantes. Original drawing executed in scratchboard.
I’ve never been satisfied with painting alone. I’ve had extensive forays into 3D animation, performance art, documentary film making,sculpture, and more over the years. Definitely it is a current goal to make use of my skills in computer graphics as an adjunct and support for my painting practice. I envision a studio that integrates “traditional” (hand made) art and CG Art techniques into an efficient work flow where the two disciplines support one another to yield a more powerful product. In fact, as soon as I am done with this interview I am going to get to work designing and building my new studio with the capabilities I have described above.
At some point – hopefully soon – I will finish my documentary film, “Loose Spirits,” that is about spirit possession ceremonies in folk religion in South East Asia. I have over 70 hours of footage – some of it quite remarkable – that needs to be edited.Already I have two short animated films to my credit, “The Bicycle Ride,” and “Pyramid.” I may do more animation in the future if the right situation arises, but for now I am focused on painting.
7. I read that there was a large gap in your career in which you quit painting all together for a number of years and then came back to it. Do you think that time helped or hindered your career? What made you stop painting?
“Schism”, Acrylic on Canvas + Collage, 16″ x 20″ (40.6 x 50.8 cm), 1994.
One of the last pieces I made before giving up.
Most certainly the long “fallow period” has been a hindrance to my worldly career as a painter, since had I continued steadfastly from my youth to the present day presumably I would have built up a reputation and a following for my work by now.
It is inaccurate to say that I quit “all together”. Throughout the 14 years from 1994 when I quit at the age of 24, until 2008 when I resumed at the age of 38, I was always engaged in making visual art. What happened was that I quit pursuing painting with the single minded devotion that is required for developing a serious body of work. I have always had a plethora of creative interests I could not simply settle on painting, but needed to explore and try different things.I should add that the original reason for quitting painting was a crisis of faith. In February of 1993 I was assaulted with a pistol. I could have died, however, upon having the .22 pistol shoved in my face I spontaneously and automatically made a prayer and said, “Please Lord, Don’t let me go – I have paintings to make!” The bullet passed through my deltoid muscle, and grazed my neck. Only soft tissue was pierced and so I survived remarkably unscathed. Even though I had always been an agnostic by nature and had certainly not come from a religious family, it was hard for me not to feel compelled by what seemed an act of divine intervention, a miracle, in response to a prayer. I was moved to become a more spiritual person and I also felt that my purpose as an artist had been divinely ordained. As I recuperated from the gunshot wound I turned my attention to painting with great zeal, and yet I found that the world did not care about my paintings. I was too sensitive to weather any rejection whatsoever and I felt that heaven had rescued me and tacitly blessed my purpose, only to turn it’s back upon me and leave me to fend for myself. It seemed to me a betrayal, for if I had been spared from death for the purpose of making paintings should not heaven also provide for my material wants? These questions haunted me and increasingly I felt that God had betrayed me, or that it was all a coincidence and there is no “God”, and that in either event why should I continue painting when there was no reward for it and so little in the world to encourage me to continue.
When I resumed painting it was because I felt that I had a covenant to fulfill in exchange for my life and that time was passing but I was not upholding my end of the bargain. In 2008 my right shoulder – the same shoulder that had been shot and never fully healed – gave out due to excessive amounts of computer animation. This infirmity was a not too subtle reminder that I need to accomplish my paintings. Now I am stronger than I was in former times and I have the resilience to continue working no matter what suffering of the body or anguish of spirit may bedevil me.
Rough Cut from “Loose Spirits” – Vegetarian Festival sequence Part A
“Loose Spirits” is the title of a documentary film (in progress!) about spirit possession rituals in South East Asia. Footage was shot in 2002 – 2004 in Myanmar, Thailand, and Bali. It documents practices within the animist cult of “Nat Pwe” that exists alongside Buddhism in Myanmar, the infamous “Vegetarian Festival” that is an exaggerated holdover of Taoist folk rituals held annually in Southern Thailand, and also shows classic trance rituals of Hindu Bali performed at the time of the “Bali Bombing”. The film intends to be a comparison of cultures and religions, modernity and tradition, as well as a celebration of the rich and strange pageantry of spirit possession.
In this film I will advance the thesis that spirit possession is an expression of “living myths”, that is to say mythical symbols that are concentrated with such potent power that they have the ability to come to life in the trance medium’s mind and body. Exploring the mythology that informs the rituals I will show how compelling symbols endure to provide modern societies with an effective means of healing, exorcism, self-expression, and celebration through these symbols of divine power.
Rough Cut from “Loose Spirits” – Vegetarian Festival sequence Part B
Rough Cut from “Loose Spirits” – Vegetarian Festival sequence Part C
“Loose Spirits” is the title of a documentary film (in progress!) about spirit possession rituals in South East Asia. Footage was shot in 2002 – 2004 in Myanmar, Thailand, and Bali. It documents practices within the animist cult of “Nat Pwe” that exists alongside Buddhism in Myanmar, the infamous “Vegetarian Festival” that is an exaggerated holdover of Taoist folk rituals held annually in Southern Thailand, and also shows classic trance rituals of Hindu Bali performed at the time of the “Bali Bombing”. The film intends to be a comparison of cultures and religions, modernity and tradition, as well as a celebration of the rich and strange pageantry of spirit possession.
In this film I will advance the thesis that spirit possession is an expression of “living myths”, that is to say mythical symbols that are concentrated with such potent power that they have the ability to come to life in the trance medium’s mind and body. Exploring the mythology that informs the rituals I will show how compelling symbols endure to provide modern societies with an effective means of healing, exorcism, self-expression, and celebration through these symbols of divine power.
“Series I” prints are made by the artist, the signed and numbered prints are limited to 100.
The print area of “Gallow’s Humor” measures 12″ h x 14.8 v” (30.5 x 37.5 cm). The original painting was executed in oil upon a panel and measures 14.5″ x 17.75″ (36.5 x 45.25 cm). The print is 83% of the original size.
