I made this goal for myself a while back telling myself that I would sketch at least one drawing a day. At first I was pretty good about achieving that goal, sketching a lot of t-shirt design, and tattoo design type art. However, I think I got bored with those themes, since I slowly stopped sketching each day like I told myself to. So recently I decided since I have always been interested in using people as art subjects, that I'd practice portraits instead.
At this point in time, I am not interested in perfection(I'm hoping that just comes with practice, and that the art will get better as I keep doing more). I feel like if I become obsessed with perfection I would never feel like any piece was complete, and eventually I'd get bored working on the same piece for too long. One of the greatest things that I learned while taking an expressionistic drawing course was the idea of believing you are a great artist now. There are some artists that technically have surpassed the masters, but since they spent so much of their time practicing "perfecting" their technique, they haven't accomplished much except the art of replication. If you have an idea, express it now even if it looks like "shit." Art isn't beautiful because of how it looks physically, it is beautiful in that it owns the power to evoke emotions. So get shit crackin' people.
For my first blog entry, I posted a sketch I did of Jesus Christ, and Chris Motionless as Jesus Christ. Why did I want to do a sketch of Jesus freaking Christ? After watching the "Immaculate Misconception" video by Motionless In White where the theme of the video was to parallel how their band and other members of society who don't fit social norms face the same criticism and struggles as Christ did, I was inspired to draw Christ. I'm not a follower of Jesus Christ, and I have never drawn anything of Christ before, so it was a fun subject to draw. I also decided to sketch a video still of Chris Motionless as he played Christ in the video because he looks bloody, scary, and freaking awesome.
As I drew these sketches, I was thinking about how creepy and scary Jesus always looks in regards to art work of his crucifixion and death. I wonder what little kids think when they see this half naked, frail, bloody man, bolted, bleeding, and dying on a cross? It's pretty disturbing imagery. Then I had a flashback about how when I was a kid, I had found a cross pendant at my cousin's house(they were Catholic, I was buddhist). I held it up to get a closer look, accidentally dropped it, it landed on the tile floor, and literally broke in half. I was like "oh crap," and was too scared to say anything so I hid the broken cross in a cache of a toy desk. I don't know why I was scared; maybe because I broke it, it was jewelry, it wasn't mine, and it was a freaking cross of Jesus freaking Christ. Jesus probably hated me at that moment ha; perhaps it was symbolic for the exact moment that I lived a life that would be separate from Christ.
The sketch I did of Jesus Christ was inspired by the statue "Dead Christ" by Gregorio Fernandez. Check it out on any image search engine.
Again, the other image was inspired by Motionless In White's "Immaculate Misconception" video. Check it out on YouTube here.
The video description includes a message from Chris Motionless which I am going to copy and paste onto here because I agree with what he says regarding religion, people, and hypocrisy.
"The main idea and main concern of mine was to basically parallel the 2 time periods of our band and all the open minded people in the world's present day life and the time period of Jesus' life and show how similar they are. I wanted to highlight the hypocrisy and hold a mirror up to all the self righteous, Holier-than-thou people and show them how full of shit they are. We have our own beliefs and we aren't afraid to speak out about them, We are not satanists, We have a positive message towards finding self-worth and inner peace, We don't discriminate against ANYONE regardless of the way they look, their faith, sexuality, or race, and believe it or not, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Jesus Christ. Yet despite all these very moral and positive vibes, we are still constantly ripped apart for being who we are. Sounds really similar to what happened to the man the people that criticize us put all their faith in. The difference between myself and Jesus is that he was trying to convince people to believe in him and a higher power (God) to find salvation... Whereas *I'M* trying to convince people to believe in themselves. God does not control your life, YOU do.
My band and Myself are 100% completely aware that NOT ALL Christians or followers of any religion are close minded and do the things they do in this video. I've met SO many awesome people in my travels that are Christians etc.. and regardless of whether they like Motionless In White or not, they still know how to keep an open mind and be respectful. I don't want anyone watching this video to feel like they should be angry towards every person of any faith, or that we are attacking their faith directly. The song is very plainly written about the people who abuse Gods name by using it to profit or cause harm to others emotionally or physically, but it's even more importantly written as a call to arms to ANY person in this world to come stand together to fight the ignorance that halts the progression of mankind. Hate me for that, I fucking dare you."
I'm going to conclude this post with a personal experience relating to Chris' message. I remember going to bible study once with my friends, and having a horrible experience. I was going there open minded about hearing the messages of the bible, and as support for my friends, but this preacher was turning me off. "If you're not a follower of God, what's wrong with you?" He basically was telling me I was wrong, stupid, and going to hell for not believing and following God or viewing and living as he did. I think a more appropriate, and effective way to preach would have been "If you don't know Jesus, you can get to know him." Every one has a right to practice their own religion, so I don't understand why this S.O.B found he had the right to put me or other non-followers down for thinking, and living differently. It just shows how close minded, insensitive, and judgmental some religious followers, and people in general can be. I personally don't follow any one religion, I pick and choose what I like about a certain message and try to apply it into my life. Every one needs to shape and follow their own path.
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