12: The Painter

12: The Painter
Originally uploaded by art progress

Here is my philosophy on art. I won't be offended if you find yourself co-opting it at some point or if you think it's backwards and out of line.

The art that I appreciate the most is art that doesn't suggest any obvious reference points. Art that stands out on its own. To me, art is at its best when it's art that a) says something or is literally about something, and b) comes from the artist’s own frame of reference and is not directly ripped off, or even largely influenced by anything but itself.

Through this formula I can philosophically describe why I think The Ramones were so brilliant, but why generations of copycat ’77 punk bands are not. The reason is that their frame of reference has already been created for them. Potential greatness is only found outside of other frames of reference and inside of your own.


My favourite painter is Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. He was brazen, defiant, and dangerous to the established painting world of his day. To me what sets Caravaggio apart from his peers is his ability to break with the common wisdom that prescribed elevated portrayals of man and objects. He lowered his subjects and with it injected the dirty stink of realism into his work. His was a revolution that ran counter to the great wave of status-quo. Caravaggio would have been a great painter had he stuck to his day’s conventional path, but I find him a great artist because he charted his own path and became his own frame of reference.

This is my twelfth painting. It's called The Painter and it's a self portrait.

12: The Painter. Oil on canvas. Blake Betteride 2007.