Art is my Anti-Valentine

Well, it's that day again. I've written about it before, but because it happens every year it tends to resurface on you regardless of the amount of loathsome words that are put down. Every time it rolls it's never the same. Some years end up being more tolderable than others. Sometimes it's fun to use it as an excuse to be cynical and express a plethora of contempt unto the world. Other years you can't really bring yourself to acknowledge it at all - it's like Santa or the Easter Bunny. "If I don't believe," you tell yourself, "then it doesn't exist any more!" But it rears its ugly head again three-hundred and sixty-five days down the line, and you get to choose how you'll face it again. Perhaps you'll wear cynicism like that odd hat in the closet, or wrap yourself up in a thick and dusty winter jacket of depression.

This time around I'm trying a different approach. I really... Envy all the artists out there who can take a theme and turn it into something visibly disturbing or creepy. They make pieces that you just can't tear your gaze away from, like that horrible car accident you drive past on the way to work in the morning. As you putter around my sketch galleries you'll notice that it's all relatively tame and boring stuff. Objects, landscapes, etc. A general lack of style or meaning. So this February I wanted to make an honest effort to take a sense of restless discomfort and make something... Creepy. I gave myself the opportunity to indulge in a darker and morbid train of thought, and use it to make something strange. And so I have. If all goes according to plan, you'll feel something. The tiniest tinge of a shiver? A mild repulsion? Who knows. If you find yourself coming back because you need just one more quick glance, and it makes your train of thought feel like it's grinding gears... Then mission accomplished.





Of course, all this is rather tame compared to what real artists are capable of, but it's something I wanted to try doing. I had a theme and some motivation... So why not?

Like I said, each year Valentine's Day is different. Some are better, some are worse, and this 14th is definitely not one of the more tolerable ones. You'd figure that after twenty-two consecutive years it'd be old hat by now. But it isn't.
-Cril

Here's the hitch - our horse is leaving
Don't miss your boat - it's leaving now
And as you go I will spread my wings
Yes I will call this home

Well I have no time to justify to you
Fool you're blind, move aside for me

All I can say to you my new neighbor
Is you must move on or I will bury you

Now as I rest my feet by this fire
Those hands once warmed here
Well I have retired them
I can breathe my own air
And I can sleep more soundly
Upon these poor souls
I'll build heaven and call it home
'Cause you're all dead now

And I live with my justice
And I live with my greedy need
And I live with no mercy
And I live with my frenzied feeding
And I live with my hatred
And I live with my jealousy
And I live with the notion
That I don't need anyone but me

Don't drink the water
Don't drink the water
There's blood in the water
Don't drink the water

Don't drink the water
Don't drink the water
There's blood in the water
Don't drink the water

Dave Matthews Band - Don't Drink the Water (Live)