Posts from ‘May, 2004’

We’ve all heard the criticisms: “People paint abstracts because they can’t draw,” and “My four year old could have done that.” I even heard the art-nazi host of Oregon Art Beat, K C Cowan, make the former statement and she should know better than this! Of course, the fact that she hosts a show about art doesn’t mean she knows jack about art, does it? No, it’s just public television. Obviously she has no understanding of abstraction whatsoever, and that is truly pathetic.

I am not exclusively an abstract painter, but my abstract work is far and away the most difficult and challenging of my painting projects. Creating the exact work of my vision can be frustrating in the extreme, and anyone who says that I must do these difficult works because I can’t draw is an idiot – or at least knows nothing of my body of work.

Drawing is an entirely separate skill; what is required for abstraction is a new way of thinking. As for the halfwit who might say their kid could do it, I say, bring it on! People make statements like this can’t produce, because while anyone including your no-talent kid can slather some color on paper, it still doesn’t meet the criteria of good art until it is arranged and juxtaposed so as to produce an appropriate mind effect.

Now this is the key: If – and only if -abstraction is done very well, we have in abstract painting the purest and truest interface between visual arts and human consciousness. It is the bleeding-edge of art and science melded together. Most people don’t understand this: They may assume that if they don’t understand a work of art, there must be something wrong with it. But my knowledge of the workings of the human mind has led me to envision the interactive nature of visual input in the form of matrices of colors and shapes, with the brain – and thus human consciousness. You see, it isn’t what the painting “represents” that is important – unlike impressionism -but what it does.

Up until now, you didn’t know how or why abstract art occasionally induced strong emotional reactions. You may have dismissed this effect because you didn’t understand it. Now you are beginning to see the truth: Good abstract art forces the brain to create new neural pathways to try to fathom the unfathomable. To brain wave patterns emerge. The colors, the lines, and the patterns – all from seemingly beyond the world as it is understood – cause the activation of new neural pathways by the millions.

This is the fourth generation of art theory: a schema of intuitive action and juxtapositions of concrete patterns in a holistic approach resulting in a convergence of brain science and art – of architectures and spatial relationships with neurons and dopamine. It isn’t just art, it is mind programming. And that is what makes abstract art the most powerful force that the creative mind can unleash.

This is my unique discovery, unheard of in the world of art OR psychology — until now. When you hear this information someday from some inflated ego with a sheepskin diploma who tries to tell you he just figured this out, you’ll know from whence this information really came.

You can find further in-depth discussions about abstraction and my new theory elsewhere on this site, starting with the Abstract Paintings page.

THIS …is art.

– Chriss Pagani

Is God The Angry Dad, The Person In Charge, or the Drug of the Masses? The answer to that question leads us to the greatest threat to human civilization and to our personal safety. The greatest threat the world has ever seen.

The story is old, and the arguments are well-worn.  The difference we see today is not about some prophecy or vision but about the fact that technology now allows utter annihilation of humanity at the hands of those whose fanaticism cries-out for such destruction.

Most of Christianity throughout its history has taken the view that God is the kind of like the big giant “Person In Charge” (the PIC) – He made everything and if you screw it up you’ll have to answer to Him.

From time to time, however, there has arisen a much more ancient, much more carnal view of God; that of the Angry Dad. The Angry Dad God is really pissed off over a great many things and regularly sends punishments upon the earth such as hurricanes and earthquakes and wars as a result of his anger.

Angry Dad God is appeased only through the shedding of innocent blood. This is the view of the new Dominionist fundamentalist Christians such as Pat Robertson, Rick Warren  and Jerry Falwell. Or more accurately, it is the message they preach and teach, regardless of what they actually believe.

In addition, we have the enlightened view of God as the comforter  in times of trouble. Marx put this idea more callously when he referred to religion as the opiate of the masses. Nevertheless, belief in God gives us a sense of higher purpose and greater meaning that extends beyond our mortal lives – and this is a very valuable contribution.

Interestingly, religion has almost an identical affect on the human body as opium or heroin. It causes the release of brain chemicals that induce a sense of well being and even fight pain. Religion’s ability to soothe and heal hearts in troubling times is well known. This is the part of religion that has served humanity so well for thousands of years.

At the same time, the Angry Dad version of religion has arisen and degenerated into killing sprees and human sacrifice cults. This is the very danger we face today.

Whenever you hear about some mom drowning her kids or a father that shoots his family, there is always one common thread: All of these people – every last one of them, were fanatically religious and believed in the Angry Dad God, the God of fundamentalist Christianity and Islam. They killed because of sin, because of demon possession. They killed because their Angry Dad God demanded it.

Today we have cynical power-seekers like Pat Robertson, Rick Warren, Jerry Falwell, John Hagee, Tim LaHaye and James Dobson using the Angry Dad-God model for their own purposes. And I have warned you that this can and will degenerate into a killing and or a human sacrifice cult unless true Christians rise up as one to stop these people. This warning must be taken with the utmost seriousness or we are all doomed.

Don’t believe me?

In the 15th century the Black Death hit Europe. Most of us understand germs today but we still have an element in our society that looks for a sign from God for everything that happens. So it should come as no surprise that many looked at the Plague and concluded that it must be caused by sin. The Pat Robertsons and Rick Warrens of that day quickly concluded that God was angry because the Christian world had become tolerant of the “murderers of Christ” – that is, (in their view) the Jews.

In central Europe, thousands upon thousands of Jews were burned alive to try to appease the Angry Dad God. But as the years passed, the plague continued even though Jews were getting harder to find.

So they moved on to flaggelation. People whipped themselves bloody in order to appease Angry Dad God.

But still the Plague continued.

Eventually the Plague died out. Western civilization was actually saved by a creature that was declared the enemy of man and a friend of Satan: the ordinary house cat.  An earlier Pope had declared that cats were the minions of Satan and so people had killed them every chance they got – often by horrible cruel torture. As housecats became rare, rats flourished… then they spread the plague. It was only when so many humans had died that they lost track of their cat-killing ways that they house cat made a comeback and started wiping out the rats – saving Europeans from extinction.

The lessons of the futility of cruelty and blaming, however, seem lost. Today, the same ilk continues to try to set up straw man victims for us to blame for every natural disaster that occurs.

Depending on whom you listen to, hurricane Katrina was caused by God’s anger over A) abortion or B) the fact that we “tolerate” gay people.

I’ve always wondered what it means when someone like Falwell or Dobson refers to our “tolerance” of homosexuality as the reason for their Angry Dad God’s anger. What would appease this Angry Dad? Do we need to kill all the homosexuals? Will that mean there will be no more hurricanes or terrorist attacks?

Let me take you back to 1900. In that year, the city of Galveston was virtually annihilated by a hurricane. It caused the biggest loss of life in US history – far bigger than Katrina. Over 6,000 people were killed immediately, with more dying of disease in the aftermath. Among the dead were over 90 small children living at a Christian orphanage in Galveston.

The wiping out of Galveston is still the biggest natural disaster in US history. I ask YOU, Pat Robertson, I ask YOU, James Dobson: What horrific sins were committed by those orphans to warrant the wrath of your Angry Dad God, hmm? What was the great sin of the city of Galveston in 1900 that it had to be wiped off the map? Can’t you tell me? You have every confidence in the world to tell me what “sin” caused Katrina or 9/11 – why can’t you answer this simple question?

You purport to speak for God all the time, you sit on television and tell the world that 9/11 happened because of gay people and civil libertarians; you tell us all that someone had a stroke because he didn’t do what God wants; you inform the world that hurricanes are caused by abortion – so answer the question! Or will you only help “save America” if I send money?

Tell me, why was God angry with the orphans at the Christian orphanage? Don’t tell me you can’t answer it or that God’s will in inscrutable. You have no problem coming up with an “answer” when it serves your personal agenda.

By the way, Galveston was rebuilt and this time the city put up a sea wall to try to minimize damage from future hurricanes. A similar sized storm struck Galveston in 1915 but this time there was minimal damage. I guess THEY were just less sinful, huh?

A rational person might suggest that the sea wall really helped. But Warren, Robertson, Falwell, Dobson and their followers are stuck with trying to claim that the 1915 city was somehow less sinful and their orphans were more worthy of life than those who lived in 1900.

Are you starting to see the true threat of these monsters yet?

Time is growing short, not because it is the end of the world but because the Dark Ages Part II is close at hand. Human civilization will crumble if we let these false prophets take over our land.

Don’t let this warning go unheeded. Spread the word. The life you save may be your own.