What is Passion in Art - Does Desire Elude or Even Scare You?

"What is Passion in Art - Does Desire Elude or Even Scare You?"

Passion in art, do you know it? Do you long to melt into the colors of red and dance with the latest voice expressing desire? Does it penetrate your very being, till you feel you can barely breathe? Do you feel restless and think that you will never 'get there'?

I know what passion means to me, and I find the very word abused and over used.

I decided to do a search on passion art. I wanted to see what passion means to other artists, maybe fulfill my need for going through a gallery. I typed said text in on google and saw image after image of nothingness. I became bored after the 5th page of square after square, of work that presented what others had decided to label as passion.

So what is it?

Why does it elude so many?

Maybe you do in fact feel blood rushing to your head at the sight of a still life. I can only express the fact that I have been searching for passion for art, all my life, it is the very core of my work, yet I know, I will never obtain its secrets.

I guess I am on a soapbox for passion.

The dictionary describes passion as a strong and barely controllable emotion; a state or outburst of emotion; intense sexual love; intense desire or enthusiasm for something.

More over used words: intense; emotion; desire.

Somehow I just don't think those emotions can be stirred up, within anyone's being, while viewing a bowl of fruit.

There is a real dichotomy with art. Some want to understand it; ask it to give them more; enlighten them towards some electric realization of cosmic fortitude.

And some people seek it out to place above their couch, match its color; stay in its place never asking anything but calmness ... with no questions asked.

Of course there are some questions people are prompted to ask if they are in love with those little cottages, light coming from the windows with a path leading to peaceful spots of a tired mind. People ask themselves, (and I am supposing here) "What do you think the people in that little cottage are having for dinner? Or is it a family like mine or wish I had?" Memories and nostalgia are stirred in some people, I am guessing. Is that passion though? I concede, maybe to some, but not one single bit to me.

I met a man who told me that he only likes poems that rhyme. Humm, I thought... limericks then? How mind bending. I am suggesting that if you feel that way, that a poem is not a poem unless it rhymes, or a painting is only blessed if it matches your couch, that you challenge your mind to hope for more.

Every single painting or sculpture, every poem or story I create, makes me feel uncomfortable and discontent. If you are an artist, or a lover of art, I believe you want that. It is passion reaching back at you, taunting you, to feel heights you have not yet reached.

While sex can and often does include passion, or at least we hope it does! I am not writing about sex per say, I am suggesting that passion, in its rawest form, should not be misconstrued as something that does not elude to something more. It should compete with ideas already set in your mind and cause you a sense of abandonment of your own being, if not for a moment.

Passion is emotion that is ready to explode and there is no resting place in sight. I want that! I want every stroke on canvas to exhume that. If you are a love of art or an artist of any genre at all, you should want that too. To find a resting place in art is to find boredom in the end. Can you soften your mood with art? Can you mend your own wounds while painting a vase of flowers? Of course you can. But, seek out passion, know it, embrace that elusive treasure. It will not cause you to feel 'comfortable', no, but it shouldn't, that is not its definition. Will you ever get there? I would answer no as well.. it is just barely out of reach, so kehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifep reaching!

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
copyright 2008

By the way... past the passion, lol... click the title at the top and see my house that is for sale. It is now 275K which was really the correct price!

Aloha, Kathy

The image is of my painting "Primal Block Party 1" 12x12 of canvas blocks of 3x3x2's. Contact Monkdogz Urban Art in NY, who represent me, if you are interested in buying it.

http://www.monkdogz.com

My work is being exhibited now in "Zepher", and International art show.

"Fantasy Art Warrior Women Who Dwell on Animated Faery Pictures & a Lusty Library"

"Fantasy Art Warrior Women Who Dwell on Animated Faery Pictures & Lusty a Library"

I see fantasy art warrior women
goddess art surrounds me
and so...
paintings of women
gothic art
and a lusty library at times
are blended inside my closet
creating animated faery pictures
inside my mind.
Modulated strokes
that invade an angels beating heart
find their way onto empty canvases.
Most times they are not my own
or is that they always are?
I forget or refuse to admit at times.

Met by an ocean of fairies
warriors
lost loves
saints?
Wet sirens pulling down to the bottom
of a lonely sea
innocence
taking the wind of sailors
below the waves that ripple ore.
I hold them in my one free hand.
I then let them go
like breathing
lest they leave me in spirit
without blinking.

I color their breaths with my tongue
stroke their hair with my indulgence
stand by their pain
because it is mine own.
I share their longings
before they erode
hold out for miracles that dwell on unaware surfaces
of our fragile atonement.

I capture them there...
these monsters down the hallway
after a neglected song.
These tunes
these memories
blinded at times
no longer dancing
they have no shoes.
I cry for them
and mine own self as well.
What a pathetic eulogy
painted in as well
muted in color.
I will be sure to mark this uncovered grave.

I am a painter of beautiful women
I see them in the moon
and in the vacancy left behind in the morning.
I paint women
because I am one
not because I lust for their touch
because I lust for their understanding
and thus
the understanding my own being.

Faults that fail on my own expectations
of myself
of who I think I might become
or who I think I am now or past the vail.
My triumphs...
ohh I seek them
to uphold any sense of survival.
As I realize my judgments
met by the beaconing of my calls
I stand and meet the precipice
that reaches beyond the space I thought I could attain.

The rain melts on my skin
the calluses that do indeed erode me
cause me to walk beyond the suffering
as if it never existed.

I wretch
I reject their vision.

I creep down low to the ground
as I humbly meet the maker of my own being.
I form myself
and yet I allow room for myself
to understand that there is indeed more to me
than what I have yet known to be.
There is indeed an outside of me
and there is as well a beyond me.
I wretch at the thought that I might miss it all
because I fall and feel too many times.
I have failed to see that I have wings.

Pray for me.

I strip off my clothes
revel in my frailties
beautiful women in competition
succumb to them
expecting people to notice
interrupted songs without structure
that only I could understand.
And yet...
mirror in hand
I cover me with band aids
lest I go unnoticed by my critical onlookers
looking only for bound hands
and a bloody mouth.

I paint goddess art of beautiful women
sculpt whimsical angels into their souls
animated faery pictures
fantasy art warrior women
and write about mermaids I meet along the way.

21 March 2008
Kathy Ostman-Magnusen

Check out my new work at Vog:

http://kathyostman-magnusen.vox.com/profile/

Monkdogz Urban Art Gallery - New York City - 212-216-0030

New York Art Scene:




Art by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
Title: "Primal l"
60x75 oil on canvas


http://www.squidoo.com/newyorkartgalleries/
http://monkdogz.com
http://monkdogz.com/chelseagallery/artistart/Magnusen/artist_magnusen.htm


http://www.kathysart.com



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ART NEWS:

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Statement about the series, "Primal":

About my Self Portraits:

The "Primal Series", of a woman, me, not in her teens or even her 20's, is something that addresses issues important to a lot of women. Am I sexy? Am I pretty? Am I confident in who I am? Am I free to explore ideas, once hidden? So many questions answered for my own self and hopefully for other women of any age.

I am not going to disappear just because I am not in my 20's or 30's or 40's.. wow. That is the way it has felt at times. Strange.

Mental notes of understanding who we are under the veil of who we hoped we would be as women or who we think we lost, are embraced by me within the cloak of all women.

Exploring that sexual side; embracing my own desires and trying to not just understand them but find out what they are! So many feeling for various reasons are pushed down and made incidental because society has claimed they should feel uncomfortable.

Finding any sense of rawness seems crazy past 40. But why? That is what I think I am finally concluding. As a lot of women get older they tend to feel themselves disappear. I am one. I see though through this whole series that I am working on, digging inside myself to find that essence of sexiness that is woman; hearing tiny cries from those emotions hid from my own self and letting them see the light of day is luscious! Its not about being defined by others as being sexy, letting others decide my fate in how I feel about myself.. its about ME accepting who I really am and having the confidence to bring it all out on canvas. To not only see it but embrace and shine in it.

I want reach deeper and find all the things about my own sexuality that have always been mine to know. I want to understand the passion I long to paint and comprehend what those emotions are.

Passion has a sense of violence about it, it is strong and it survives aggression. I don't want to paint passive art.. I want feel the obsession of lust inside its raw and primal pursuit. Within passion one finds a boldness full of enticing ambitions to grasp on to, that piece of your heart that presses you to go past the mark of a bystander, that spot you may have been told to stay put on.

It is not possible to feel apathetic when standing next to passion. I don't paint landscapes to hang above someone's couch, paintings meant to be a resting place for the mind? I want to paint feelings that one cannot dismiss. I hope to stir up feelings that overwhelm within the viewer as well as myself. It is not my goal to feel nothing but a sunny day or peacefulness, shiny trinkets that rest on walls that can be walked away from. I want to paint women who feel something. I paint myself as I define it and revel in the fact that I am made whole by my own journey of introspection.

I want to paint strength, sexuality, pain, power, a force of intensity, emotional qualities that generate a reaction. I don't want to paint the sky, I want to paint the dominance of the wind that caused it to be felt on ones skin, in the form of a woman. I pick up my brush or clay between my fingers and consider a certain belligerence, an attitude of confidence that meets the power I need to form an energy outside myself and I welcome it in. I paint or sculpt until I hear them breathing and their breath becomes my own.

I paint myself as I try to define the energy that is indeed my own sexuality but also all women whether they accept that part of themselves or not.



Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
free art gifts
http://www.kathysart.com

Monkdogz Urban Art; New York's Finest Gallery on Squidoo

New York Art Scene:




Art by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
Title: "Primal l"
60x75 oil on canvas


http://www.squidoo.com/newyorkartgalleries/
http://monkdogz.com
http://monkdogz.com/chelseagallery/artistart/Magnusen/artist_magnusen.htm


http://www.kathysart.com



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A Lusty Library of Art - Female Form Photography - High Fashion Statements

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I paint fashion
keep a lusty library for reference
Red on my pallet
and intimate glamour photography
is pinned up on my walls.
Soft, fresh, lime green leaves
trees that speak of miracles
I am just as unique.
That's what I say when I feel lonely.

Romantic ways to propose
new dances in the air
new paintings I gather material for.

I keep a lusty library
female form photography
high fashion
women of confidence
women of intrigue
a goddess post on canvas planned.

Modern talking studio
my goals meet the day
speak back to me.
I take photos
intimate glamour photography
I always have.

Tell the others of their salvation
I am still looking for mine.
I kept it in an envelope once
inside a book
it must still be here somewhere?
Just a story to hold on to
when the lights go dim.

I am not really who I seem to be
nor are you I would suspect.
All those romantic ways to propose
tainted with selfish outcomes.
You want to own
or possess?

I groom my fallen tales well
never far from reach.
I take photographs before their recovery.
Mark the date and time.
Pay attention
lest you dine on similar skulls.
they seem to sing in the night
no matter the music is performed too late.
I'll blend the colors in later
modulate their meanings
Not to worry
you'll scarcely recognize yourself.

I will forever gather my images
female form photography
wild women hopefully
uninhibited fashion
I will file them
refer to them
and paint lime green leaves
to cover their dreams.

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
01 September 2007

ABOUT Kathy Ostman-Magnusen



I paint and sculpt female fantasy art. I dream of beautiful women on canvas and art of exotic women.



I have illustrated for Hay House Inc.,"Women Who Do Too Much" CARDS, taken from Anne Wilson Schaef's book. I also illustrated for Neil Davidson, who was considered for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing, and several other publications. My paintings are collected worldwide.



Giclee canvas art work, greeting cards & posters are available for sale on my website:



http://www.kathysart.com



Sign up for my mailing list FREE ART GIFTS: Drawings of whimsical angel pictures, legends of mermaids & fairies in art. Tiny angels & mermaids for shrink art, or coloring pages. Also a "Letter From the Tooth Fairy". Ya just never know when you might need one!



I am represented by Monkdogz Urban Art, New York, NY.



http://www.monkdogz.com




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"Passages"36x48 oil on canvas