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Entry: gripped Thursday, October 28, 2004

Don't mind me with my nose stuck in a book. I've been absorbed with Epileptic by David B.. More about David B is here and here. Drawn from obsession, with imagination, from honest experience, I keep pausing the story so I won't get to the end. I'm scrambling back to earlier pages to see an image again.

More here about Epileptic and more soon when I pit my book and my paintbrush down, this has been a productive week where the hours I'm not working are spent mostly working, processing ideas and putting together pieces to make some art and start up some trouble.

Take care,

Rachael

7 comments


	moose stepper November 5, 2004 08:37 AM PST Lesscial is now a bedear because of you. If she becomes a deadear because of this I will come after you. She could have been a walker, but no, you had to give her a thumping heart attack! I hope you are proud of yourself. Now I have to get more Meds from the home because of you. Quit spewing the liberal terrorist dogma, you pompous, self-involved, desolated, anal-retentive, over bloated, jack ass. Go and look at the PS written by my dear friend on the first post to this thread. Intellect that you bitch!! It is no wonder Kerry lost my sweet democratic vote to Bush! When you grow up maybe you will learn that the work is never phony! I’ll doubt that you will understand that. (If you can read go read the “Mirror and Lamp” by Abrams!) Why don’t you go get in a car and express you self. Beatress Very Coldbitch (This is as honest as it gets!)


	Elise November 4, 2004 04:39 PM PST Your dear friend with epilepsy has one opinion on the matter. I happen to have a dear friend with epilepsy as well and she found the book "Epileptic” to be incredibly moving. She said that the images spoke to her, she also said: "Not everyone is an artist so we have to rely on those who are to create meaningful expressions of our plight for us. It doesn’t’ matter to me if the artist has it or not as long as they are sincere. And just because someone has epilepsy doesn’t mean they necessarily understand what I’m going through either, the disease is different for everyone". I personally create images based on other people’s experiences on a regular basis and I would definitely not call the work “phony”. I have worked collaboratively with writers (mostly poets) for years. I do paintings based on their poems and they create poems based on my images. When we exhibit we display the written and visual works together. You can then see how the interpretations vary from artist to artist and poet to poet. It is through these exercises in shared experience that we generate true understanding of others.


	moose stepper November 4, 2004 10:50 AM PST An artist who forms an expression of being without experience is a phony. I asked my dear friend, who is an epileptic artist if a non-epileptic could provide an artistic view of being epileptic. He said no. Any artist who attempts to form an expression of being epileptic without being epileptic is a phony. Beatress Coldbitch (Don't be a phony and be honest in your art.)


	Elise November 1, 2004 12:27 AM PST "Since when did it become appropriate for artists to graphically beastify a condition that they never experienced?" Anyone who has grown up with a family member afflicted with a chronic or debilitating illness has experienced it. Believe me! Also, artists have historically explored themes and conditions they never actually experienced first hand: the horrors of war, rape, famine, social injustice etc. If artists were restricted in their subject matter to only their own direct experiences, half of the world's masterpieces would not even exist. Everyone should feel free to explore the themes that move them; it is our prerogative as the audience to choose whether or not to read/view/purchase, or agree with them.


	Barbara October 31, 2004 05:01 PM PST I think an artist has to do her best to see life from many points of view, from negative to positive, and that we simply do the best we can, hopefully with a compassionate attitude. Of course no one who doesn't have a particular condition or problem can fully understand it, but taking the time to explore what others experience is certainly superior to ignoring them altogether. There is also the old adage that every problem has a silver lining. Tradegies befall us all, and if we're wise we seek the refining portions of our pain, and learn what we can from them.


	frog stepper October 30, 2004 11:06 AM PDT To a dear and wonder creative child of the world, Rachael; I hope that you do not take Beatress too seriously. At the home she is most of the times quite understandably bitter. See, she lost her husband over Germany. He was a commander of an elite bomber group. While being escorted by a young experimental French fighter group in which they where flying the new mustang fighters a three squadron German fighter group attacked. They seem to come out of no where. Well, needless to say, the inexperience French turned and ran. On that day, 18 bombers and all their crews where lost, including her husband. It has, since that day been the official stand that no such French squadron every existed. She has never heard from her husband since and continually holds a grudge against the French. I often see her in her room weeping over a picture of her missing husband. To Beatress if he is just missing then their is still hope. Best Wishes, Lesscial Moody (I truly love this honest art talk!)


	moose stepper October 29, 2004 01:17 PM PDT My dear, long-time and beloved-epileptic friend, who is a well respected author, artist and world traveler, has convinced me that this book should be flushed. Since when did it become appropriate for artists to graphically beastify a condition that they never experienced? Just because David’s brother supposedly has epilepsy does in no way entitle the author to express an experience of being epileptic. It’s shameful that they put this book in the children’s cartoon section of the library. How dare this slimy author make a profit off of his weakened brother’s condition!! You and this wak-job, so called artist should find more garbage to call art. Oh, wait a minute you can go to Agnes Scott College and get as much garbage as you want there. Signed, Beatress Coldbitch (I love this honest art talk.) P.S. If you really want to know what it's like to have a seizure, don't read about it; get in your car with your seat belt unhooked and drive into a telephone pole at 80 mph so that your head will go through the windshield and then may be you'll be fortunate enough to actually experience the condition.

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