Inspiration and Desire

Since graduating from University (well at least completing the course) there have been many practical obstcles that have prevented me from remaining in the constants of planning, researching and indeed creating my own artistic responses. Through learning new mediums of creativity such as Photoshop, creating a website for the first time, and of course being part of the age old wage slavery, time has been non existant for the simple idea of being creative.

Hopefully though, from now, I can begin to devote more time to my practice, and try and find the inspiration and knowledge to explore new avenues of expression in terms of subject matter: if not in medium. For the past 2 years, I have been researching the events of the Holocaust, and trying to gather as much information as I can on this subject. Reading texts by Filip Muller (see not 1) about working in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, and Primo Levi's (see note 2) account of his time at the same camp, you begin to understand some of the daily challenges faced by prisoners. Through films and documentaries, you begin to understand some other little facts visually (although not taking films as a gospel realistic image of life in a camp). After all of this, I am trying to synthesise this material into something, anything that puts my own impression of this event...with such a difficult subject matter though, how does one go about this?

'Portrait of Stefan Antoniak' after Francisek Jazwieki (2011)

I have a few ideas of things to do so far, and I plan to continue exploring the idea and how best to represent this. It will more than like involve drawing, and could also look at issues of erasure, memory/knowledge and propaganda. To me, I think it is important to understand these events, even if history of this event may not seem relevant to many, history informs the future, both in art and everything else.

[1] Filip Muller- Eyewitness Auschwitz- Three Years in the Gas Chambers (1979)
[2] Primo Levi- If This Is A Man/The Truce (1979)