“ART BUM:
Guide to the Best Places to Die”
is the new graphic novel by Joy Rip. It is
the ghostly story of one desperate artist's graphic blueprint
for dying with the illusion of grace.
Some say conscious life begins without fear,
without pain. Some say conscious life begins with fear, with
pain.
But at whatever point consciousness begins,
fear, pain, fear of pain, fear of death, soon become the hard
limits and ghostly outlines that come to define/dominate our
lives, our vision, our conceptions and perceptions.
We are born. We experience pain. We become
fearful. We experience fear. We learn fear. We are ruled by
fear.
Fear rules all worlds. All the rules that govern
the art world are rules crafted by fear and pain. Order in the
art world, in every conscious world, is crafted not by aesthetics,
but by danger.
Art, desire, the contemplation of the beautiful..
are primal responses to and escapes from the overwhelming ugly
experience of fear & pain threatening to make life undesirable.
The rules governing any human world are rules
crafted by our perceived limitations in the face of fear and
pain. So why not cut to the chase and create a work of art that
simply deals head on with the most obvious pain and limitation
ruling our lives: Our fear of death.