Joan Miro, The Naive

Ode to Miro, The Naive  C.T. Rasmuss, oil (July 4, 2013).

                 
I recently came across an interesting art book titled, Naive Art by Nathalia Brodskaia; what caught my attention was the painting cover, Myself, Portrait Landscape by French Painter, Henri Rousseau.  After finishing an exciting chapter I, it's my understanding that Rousseau's the 1st/main icon of Naive Art Movement.

Myself, Portrait Landscape  Henri Rousseau, oil (1890).

As I began to read chapter II, I was surprised to see it start with Miro as the focus, but I shouldn't really; given his style and goals in his art, "to assassinate painting", where he set out to create a new set of archetypes, etc.  Here's where a definition of Naive Painting helps:

Naive Art-is a classification of art that is often characterized by a childlike simplicity in its subject matter and technique.

Femme III  Joan Miro, oil (1965).

If we replace 'childlike' with the widely accepted term, Atavism - the tendency to revert to ancestral type; we now include works even more familiar artists such as Picasso or Matisse, who were greatly influenced by African & Eastern artifacts/primal art, respectively.

               

Nude with Towel  Pablo Picasso, oil (1907).

Girl with Green Eyes  Henri Matisse, oil (1908).

Now back to Rousseau, who exhibited periodically with the Impressionists from 1884-1910, it made me think of Gauguin, then I thought of his statement: to Van Gogh: "try to capture your sunflowers by memory".  Given the statement by Gauguin and Miro's work presented in my art book....I closed it and tried Atavism -

Miro style, but yes!! in my own language:)

Origin of Life: Can Science and The Spiritual Coincidet?

                                                     10 States of Being,  C.T. Rasmuss ceramic (2009).

This is a group of sculptures, where my aim was to invent new forms and constructs from scratch(clay), my reference point from which I derived this idea, was from the great philosopher, Aristotle & Surrealist, Joan Miro.  It also serves as a narrative for my theory on:

"Extraterrestrial life vs. the Spiritual"

 I feel that they both argue the origin of life, but from from opposite ends of an 'unrealized' spectrum.  I was originally introduced to Aristotle's 'Physic's' thanks to Dr. Anton, while attending art school at the University of South Florida.

His class actually helped me realize that the sciences can strengthen my faith in God, and strengthen me as an artist.  You can follow this link and learn many years worth of knowledge in just a few moments...it may just change your life, it did mine!!

http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/physics.htm

Joan Miro inspired Ceramic Piece; by C.T. Rasmuss

Like many great artists Miro invented his own language, but individually he created a new species characterized by their many geometric forms, through his style of automatic drawing; My piece: Basic Survival, pays tribute to this by means of automatic sculpting with clay, into similar geometric shapes of my own creative style.

A link to a good Joan Miro site, enjoy!: http://joanmiro.com/style-of-joan-miro/