“Half Animal and Half Symbolic.” 24” x 9” RA-4 direct color photography and acrylic on paper.
Half Animal and Half Symbolic
Based on Becker's theories, I'm excited to share my latest artwork, "Half Animal and Half Symbolic." This is a unique blend of direct positive color photography and acrylic painting. Measuring 24" x 9". The image takes you on a visual journey through the contrast and harmony between representational and non-representational art—or biological and symbolic.
The left side features a photograph of a tattooed arm holding golden-yellow dead grass, highlighting intricate tattoos (look close) against a dark background. The right side is an abstract painting with dynamic textures and warm, vibrant tones that evoke movement and intensity. Inspired by themes of existential struggles (death anxiety and terror management theory) via Ernest Becker.
The photograph is a RA-4 Color Reversal Direct Positive print. The abstract painting is acrylic on paper. It's abstractly mimicking the tattoos in the painting. It's a bit of cubism and color theory mixed up in mortality.
“The essence of man is really his paradoxical nature, the fact that he is half animal and half symbolic.”
Background image: SPC 4 Quinn Jacobson (aka Jake) locks in on a target 175 meters downrange with an M203 grenade launcher mounted on an M16 rifle.
The Studio Q Show LIVE! September 21, 2024 at 1000 MST
Greetings!
I hope you can join me on Saturday for a conversation about war and violence in our culture. This is episode six of Conversations with Solomon.
Some questions to ponder after watching the video:
What aspects of the video did you find the most engaging or thought-provoking?
Do you believe that war and violence are inevitable aspects of human existence?
If you agree, what reasons support this belief?
How might the themes of violence and war in our culture be expressed or transformed into artistic creations?
Can you give any examples of artists using war and violence as a topic in their art?
I wanted to have this conversation a couple of weeks ago. It's so timely; I think we should look at the idea of war and violence as a jumping-off point for creating art. This is a topic that hits close to home for me. For those that have served in the military, these ideas can alleviate some of the trauma and stress from serving. I'll share some personal insight (my military time) and how Becker had a similar experience in the Army after WW2 liberating the death camps of Europe. Ernest Becker served in the infantry as well.
If you can, spend some time with this; take some notes and wrestle with the questions I asked (above) or your own. It's 40 minutes long, but worth every minute.
Conversations With Solomon: War and Violence
The links to the show on Saturday:
Stream Yard: https://streamyard.com/tvn88jifd2
You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/live/AG2mKG-VrP0?si=Rar2IUvz-shViVLW
I hope you have a wonderful week, and I hope to see you Saturday!
The Studio Q Show LIVE! August 17, 2024 at 1000 MST
Greetings!
I hope you can join me this Saturday for a discussion with Jeff Greenberg, PhD, co-author of The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life.
Jeff will spend the hour with us talking about how our knowledge of death influences our day-to-day living and behavior. We'll tackle what it means to be a creative person in light of our finitude (or impending death). What does creating art do for artists viewed through the lens of terror management? How does it differ from a non-creative person? Are there any advantages or disadvantages to being a creative type when it comes to death anxiety or existential terror? And what's the best way for people to understand and grasp these theories and their implications?
Saturday, August 17, 2024 at 0900 PST, 1000 MST, 1100 CST, 1200 EST, and 1800 CET
Stream Yard (LIVE): https://streamyard.com/pemntyfpd6
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/DmRTUrC8kFY?si=ZJa3lrGAraBwUDCx
The Studio Q Show LIVE! August 10, 2024 at 1000 MST
Join Quinn to discuss Sheldon Solomon's video on bigotry, “Conversations with Solomon.” How can we use this for making art? What inspiration does this provide for creative and expressive work? Moreover, how is this connected the fear of mortality?
“Because cultural conceptions of reality keep a lid on mortal dread, acknowledging the legitimacy of beliefs contrary to our own unleashes the very terror those beliefs serve to quell. So we must parry the threat by derogating and dehumanizing those with alternative views of life, by forcing them to adopt our beliefs and co-opting aspects of their cultures into our own, or by obliterating them entirely.”
― Sheldon Solomon, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life
The Studio Q Show LIVE! August 3, 2024 at 1000 MST
Join Quinn on Saturday, August 3, 2024, for an hour and explore the relationship between creative and non-creative people and how they cope with mortality. Quinn will cover some of Ernest Becker's thoughts on Otto Rank's breakdown of how artists manage their anxiety about death.
Stream Yard: https://streamyard.com/rdy5fe8ipy
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/FPPpLUQFz7U?si=uJZIftVEZFMVHzHs
The Studio Q Show LIVE! July 27, 2024 at 1000 MST Part 3
THE CREATIVE ANIMAL??
This week, Quinn will continue the series on The Creative Mind and Mortality, Part 3."This will address artist's unique perspectives on why they create art and the struggles they face in light of existential dread or mortality.
What does it mean to have a "creative practice"?
How does creating art help with the fear of death?
Do creative people process existential terror differently? If so, how?
Ernest Becker's "The Denial of Death" and Otto Rank's book "Art and Artist."
Stream Yard (LIVE): https://streamyard.com/jc28hrjyd2
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/VeLDm2Xv2K0?si=nUy1SRxfR75J481P
“Existential Dread No. 5,” 8” x 10” acrylic and charcoal on paper.
Existential Dread No. 5
There is something that I find both intriguing and fascinating about non-objective abstracts. Yesterday, I posted my representational abstract, “The Ballad of Curtis Loew,” based on a song and memory. This is a painting I did today based on an idea from within me—nothing representational or based on anything physical, at least when I started the painting. I’ll let the viewer decide what they see or feel in reference to the title. I have to say, I do love the underpainting on this. It gives the piece a lot of depth. It looks really nice in real life.
In the context of evolution, human existential crises may arise from our heightened cognitive abilities and self-awareness. As humans developed intricate thinking processes and self-reflective capacities, an increased awareness of mortality, the quest for meaning, and contemplation of one's existence became more pronounced. While an existential crisis isn't necessarily a flaw, it can be viewed as a consequence of our advanced cognitive functions. It might function as a mechanism for individuals to scrutinize and assess their position in the world, fostering personal growth and the formulation of coping strategies. In this regard, it can be perceived as a beneficial function that motivates individuals to explore purpose and meaning in their lives.
Ernest Becker said, “What does it mean to be a self-conscious animal? The idea is ludicrous if it is not monstrous. It means to know that one is food for worms. This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, a consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning for life and self-expression, and with all this yet to die. It seems like a hoax, which is why one type of cultural man rebels openly against the idea of God. What kind of deity would crate such complex and fancy worm food?” (The Denial of Death)
“Dead Foxtail and My History on My Arm,” 10” x 10” (25,4 x 25,4 cm) RA-4 Reversal Direct Color Print August 12, 2023
This was an exciting image for me to make. Jeanne helped me do it (she did a great job). I wasn’t going to do any “human” photographs for this project. However, I’ve lived these stories and felt that a self-portrait might be a powerful addition to the work, I’m over-the-moon about this print. You’ll see a version of it in the book, for sure.
The Human Flight from Death: The Driving Force of Civilization
In the Shadow of Sun Mountain: The Psychology of Othering and the Origins of Evil}
The people who follow my writing here know that the concept of my project and book is based on Ernest Becker’s theories of death anxiety and the denial of death. Additionally, Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski—the creators of terror management theory (TMT) and authors of "The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life"—have had a significant influence on it.
My objective is to describe or explain these theories in relation to the genocide, removal, and general marginalization of the Tabeguache-Ute (known today as Uncompahgre-Ute) indigenous people. I live on their land in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, U.S.A.
I'm using art to accompany the theories. And I'm also exploring my own dilemma of coming to terms with death. This work is multifaceted, but the main objective is to communicate WHY these kinds of things happen in the world, past and present. Moreover, there are reasons why they will never stop happening.
Death: It’s a difficult topic to talk about, and we’ve evolved to repress and deny it. We've had to psychologically repress this knowledge; if we weren't able to, we would be paralyzed with anxiety and dread. We use culture to do this. All kinds of pursuits help us distract ourselves from thinking about our impeding death, which could happen at any time for any reason, unknown to us. This has a lot more implications than we realize. I recently read an article by John Gray on Substack.com. He is clear, concise, and hits all of the points of both Becker and The Worm at the Core psychologists, Solomon et al.
He wrote:
“An idea of an afterlife emerged along with human beings.
Around 115,000 years ago, graves were being fashioned containing animal bones, flowers, medicinal herbs, and valuables such as ibex horns. By 35,000–40,000 years ago, complete survival kits—food, clothing, and tools—were being placed in graves throughout the world. Humankind is the death-defined animal.
As humans became more self-aware, the denial of death became more insistent. For the American cultural anthropologist and psychoanalytical theorist Ernest Becker (1924–74), the human flight from death has been the driving force of civilization. Fear of death is also the source of the ego, which humans build in order to shield themselves from helpless awareness of their passage through time to extinction.
More than most, Becker’s life was formed by encounters with death. At the age of eighteen, he joined the army and served in an infantry battalion that liberated a Nazi extermination camp.
When he was dying of cancer in hospital in December 1973, he told a visitor, the philosopher Sam Keen: ‘You are catching me in extremis. This is a test of everything I’ve written about death. And I’ve got a chance to show how one dies.’
Becker’s theories were set out in The Denial of Death (1973), for which he received a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1974, and developed further in Escape from Evil, which appeared two years after his death.” (John Gray)
“Granite & Quartz Rock, Dead Foxtail, and Purple Thistles,” 10” x 10” (25,4 x 25,4 cm) Reversal Direct Color Print August 12, 2023
“Seeded Mullein and Antlers” May 16, 2023, 10” x 10” (25,4 x 25.4 cm) (Made in camera, no negative) RA-4 Reversal Color Direct Print
Cracks in the Shields
"The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life"
Chapter 10: Cracks in the Shields (Mental Health and Terror Management Theory)
- SCHIZOPHRENIA: DEATH DEFIED
- PHOBIAS AND OBSESSIONS: DEATH DISPLACED
- POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER: THE SHIELD SHATTERED
- DEPRESSION: DEATH VISIBLE
- SUICIDE: DEATH ENACTED
- ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUGS: DEATH DIFFUSED
- MENDING THE CRACKS IN THE SHIELDS
This is a reading of the book "The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life" by Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski. Quinn will read a chapter every week and then have a discussion about it. This book, along with "The Denial of Death" by Ernest Becker, is the basis for Quinn's (photographic) book, "In the Shadow of Sun Mountain: The Psychology of Othering and the Genesis of Evil."
When: Saturday, May 20, 2023, at 1000 MST
Where: My YouTube channel and Stream Yard
YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/CEHh0Kr51NI
Stream Yard: https://streamyard.com/5cmyj3e4a4
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