n spite of how much I enjoy working with all the subjects I have mentioned so far, my main ambition , right from the start, was to paint "Pictures." In Rembrandt�s time, these were called "History Pictures;" even though the subject might be imaginative and nothing at all to do with history. Anyway, I always wanted to paint pictures, which would incorporate all the subjects I ever worked on separately, the nude, still-life and so on. But I became so involved with these separate subjects it was many years before my mind was able to start envisioning actual compositions that put them all together. The first time was in a painting titled "The Hookah," which incorporated the portrait, landscape still-life and drapery. I did that in 1985. The next time wasn�t until years later, when I painted "Bathsheba," which incorporates the portrait, the nude, still-life and an interior...oh, and drapery too. After that, life took over once again and it was really a long time before I painted any Compositions again. But when I did, they started pouring out, my imagination seemed to be set on fire, very excitingly as it was the first time that happened, and I had waited for it my whole artistic life. I painted a series called "Love and Marriage," using my two mannequins, Mr. and Mrs. Frank, as models. I loved doing these, and they proved so popular they were all sold within a few weeks. Regrettable in a way, I would have liked to keep one out of the series, as I usually try to do with any series, especially the one called "The Broken Marriage," which was my favourite. Anyway, I did those (all shown in my book "A.Christian") in 1986; again, nothing came to me in the way of inspiration (of pictures, i.e. paintings that tell a story) for several more years.
When I was living in Bali, I had a very strong instinct that told me my work would soon go through a very major change. I had absolutely no idea what this meant, or what kind of change, it was just a feeling, but an overwhelming one. In fact, so convinced was I that I would not be working with my individual subjects for very much longer that I evolved "The Door-Frame" as a means to paying tribute to those subjects, and saying goodbye to them. I worked on those Door- Frames for about three years, seven in all. Imagine my feelings when I had run out of subjects to pay tribute to and say goodbye to, but nothing came along to replace them! It was a very strange period, a period of waiting. I didn�t stop painting of course, I could no more do that than fly, but my heart wasn�t in it as it had always been before, there was this feeling of something missing.
Finally, at the end of 1994, in December it was, thanks partly to Marian, now my wife but at that time just a very close friend, and partly to the work of Hieronymous Bosch, the underrated inventor of Surrealism, I suddenly had a "Vision" that has kept me busy ever since. I have "Pictures" spilling out of me at such a speed I can hardly keep up with them. (Briefly, on the subject of Bosch - Success in art - public recognition and enough money to be able to work freely - is not due to how marvellous the work of some artist might be, or how beautiful; it is due entirely to hype, and the creating of fads and fashions by groups of people who earn their living from doing just that. They mostly work in large groups, and if they "agree" on something, it can happen all the faster. Never has it been more like that than now, in this age of mass communication, the media, and now this brilliant machine, the computer, which can reach almost everyone. Due to this possibility of vast publicity, that never existed until perhaps the beginning of the twentieth century, it became more up to the players than the game, as to what and who might be a success. Well, no one possessed the genius for turning the spotlight on himself more than Salvador Dali, it was his very oxygen to receive publicity, he couldn�t breathe without it, in my opinion caring far more about being on the front pages than he cared about his work, much of which I find somewhat less than great. In his insatiable hunger for publicity, Dali managed to become synonymous with the very word "Surrealism," eclipsing the founder and greatest Master of the genre, Hieronymous Bosch, of whom surprising numbers of people have never heard, whilst they certainly know the name of Dali, he - and the group of people who "arrange" this sort of thing, made sure of that. Anyway, my own work, which is never inspired by Dali - well, except on the one occasion that I created a work around his singular masterpiece, Christ of St. John of the Cross - but is often inspired by Bosch.
Writing the above caused something to be brought to my attention which I feel I must also mention here, namely the genius of the computer, and it�s ability to reach countless people. I believe in People Power, the ability of people gathering together becoming an invincible force. Therefore it is nothing short of a miracle to me that this "machine" has been invented, as I actually believe that in reaching vast numbers of people, good artists will have a far greater chance of being recognized than when they are dependant on an elite, who have all sorts of perverse reasons behind their choices of what will become fashionable, and what won�t, and the media available to them as their tool for achieving this. This will soon be history, and I welcome the day. I for one love the idea of putting my work out to the people and letting them - you! - decide whether to recognize me or not. And as you decide, the leeches that have hung on to Art all these years will drop by the wayside. That, for me, is progress.)
Well, sorry about that, but I do feel rather passionately about every aspect of Art, it is after all my life. But going back to the subject of Composition, from the end of 1994, I had all sorts of ideas teeming through my mind, and to this day I am deeply involved with painting "Pictures" than with anything else. Part of this is due to my feeling that I have stories to tell - in pictures - and partly it is due to my loving to see all those subjects that have been my life-blood mixed up together on one canvas. It truly thrills me, as it does to find the way of mixing them up that I feel will be the most harmonious - and fun - to look at. I definitely believe that Art should be fun, the thought behind my "Old Master Erotix" series...and just about everything I am painting today.
