About The Artist

As well as being a fine artist, I am also a digital artist, photographer, satirist, essayist, and poet, each under a different name. There are reasons for this, but they’re not germane to my story here. You will find links below which will let you explore the other aspects of my creative endeavors. I strive to create art which resonates as well as appeals, which adds color, beauty and joy to life, and perhaps brings a smile to someone’s day. I hope my art makes you think, smile, laugh, or cry, that it touches you viscerally, reaching your mind, body, and spirit. I strive to produce the best of which I am capable. However, like life, I believe our best work cannot be sterile, crisp, clean, devoid of vitality, but necessarily will be difficult, uncomfortable at times, and viewed most honestly warts and all. As Mark Twain put it, or I remember it, “of course truth is stranger than fiction, fiction has to make sense.” This, too, is true of art. I come to painting, to art, late in life by some standards, but like Athena leaping full grown from Zeus’s forehead; I have come armed for the fray and apply myself with a will. As a Wikipedia entry has it, “Athena is goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill. Athena is also a shrewd companion of heroes and is the goddess of heroic endeavors.” This as a description of a creative life in our modern world is well suited to our reality. Honest creation, creation from the heart, spirit and mind, no matter what our age or the age of man, requires courage, inspiration, strength, strategy, art, craft and skill. In this time where callous greed, corrupt self-interest, & unmitigated contempt for humanity and our planet, Earth, appear rampant, pursuing art is a hero’s journey. It is a just battle and we who have undertaken this quest need to cultivate bravery, humility, strength, and whatever help, support, or inspiration the universe presents or provides. Violence proliferates, the climate degenerates, and our hopes appear to evaporate. Artists, the creative among us in all fields, not just what is by tradition referred to as art, challenge us to examine our follies and admit our imperfections through their continual striving to express the best of themselves. But they also challenge us by direct confrontation, holding mirrors to our perfidy, sometimes simply by presenting something so honest, so striking, beautiful and true that we must acknowledge our weaknesses and seek our higher selves. We may smile or nod, laugh or cry, or show no indication we have been changed, but we remember love, hope and laughter and we understand that every living being shares these same emotions. We see something so incredible in itself, so obviously art, that we are struck to our core with its blinding beauty and transformative power, even if the surface appears hideous or causes pain, fear and sadness. After we have seen it, experienced it in whatever form it takes, we will be forever changed, unable to live as we did previously. This is what I strive to create. And, however short I may fall of my goal, I will gird up my loins and always bring the best of myself to my art. http://brent-harris.fineartamerica.com http://philipbrentdigitalart.com http://philip-brent.fineartamerica.com http://thepensmight.com/2013/02/09/2/