Taking the plunge…
So i got a new tattoo… or started it at least. I’m sure you might be wondering, “what were you thinking?” well, i guess i wasn’t actually thinking per say, i have always been drawn to Picasso’s “Guernica” and the story buried in the pages of history… i was compelled to get the piece, i guess it kind of picked me. anyhow, so i’ve been getting the question a lot, “whats the story? why this piece?” so i attempted to explain myself to my friend Jordan below. See if you can extrapolate anything that makes sense…if you still can’t seem to ascertain any logic as to why i’d do this to my body, well ill keep working on better answers i guess. tattoos are such a personal and sacred thing to people. me? i get excited by things and love sharing them with people. this is one of those things i guess. why not a story? maybe pick up brushes and pens rather then a needle in my skin? i guess i see this thing, my body as just a shell that merely helps me to get to where i want to go… if i’m going to have fun painting it up along the way, i can express myself artistically and it makes me happy then why not?
ooooh man, i know you don’t want me to go there! ill try to keep it short. aside from being completely unoriginal and having to copy someone else’s art there is a ton of spiritual connections for me to this piece in addition to its significance amongst Pablo Picasso’s collection of works and not to mention on the world stage… to the naked eye its certainly not a beautiful piece but as i find with most engagements, as you dig deeper there is so much to learn from it, and at the core, the message being something extremely beautiful, something i’ve found hard to sum up in words…until i ran into a poem years ago that was actually a response that a poet had to “Guernica” the first time he had seen it. basically it talked about the abundance of beauty in this world and yet throughout our lives we consume ourselves with trying to find it… fill our lives with more beauty…and so often we take so much of it for granted cause its sitting right in front of us… goes into talking about how war, and conflict in general are senseless…death, or rather the passing of things in your life – not to mention life – are inevitable and eminent so embrace it all, and how important it is to live with intention and passion so as to sum it all into something beautiful in the end, whenever that may be. That is basically how i interpreted it at least….
aside from that, the painting, related works and the concept has kind of touched my life sporadically over the years in a number of ways…while traveling in europe it had reappeared again, and thats when i decided to put it into ink. Honestly, finally doing it feels so good. i know A LOT of people wont get it but thats cool, its not for them but i will certainly look forward to sharing what excites me about it.
anyhow, if you’re still needing a few more minutes away from work, here is a good synapse on the actual conflict that led the Spanish Govertment to commission pablo picasso to paint this famous painting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(painting)
