"a riotous multimedia pop inflected explosion of unlikely juxtapositions..."
Caviglia's Cabinet of Curiosities
"Afterlife" hyper-psych art by Michael J Bowman, 48" x 54" on paper, 2011.
The HyperPsych artist suffers from a psychological need to mark the paper. This obsessive-compulsive behaviour of constantly needing to mark the paper, results from an anxiety disorder. The anxiety is produced by the fact that the individual realizes he is not Picasso. The anxiety produced by this realization is mitigated by marking the paper.
Michael comments on his materials and methods. "I make drawings and paintings. I work predominantly on paper and found paper, secondarily on canvas or wood. My primary method is to mark the surface with pencils, color sticks, magic markers, paint pens, oil pastels and acrylic paints. Occasionally I resort to collage. I am interested in unusual, often dissonant, visual combinations which result from hyper-psychic free association, pop vandalism, pure psychic automatism, abstract expressionism, altered states of consciousness and primitivism. I am interested in how these activities create visual chaos within my pictorial space."
types of hyperpsych mark making
(no particular order or hierarchy)
- pure automatic scribble, smear, splash, smudge, stab
- automatic doodle
- automatic cartoon
- automatic cartoon with text
- tracing and/or rub transfer
- sight copy
- automatic embellishment
- overmarking, obscuring, obliteration and erasure
- destruction and recombination
- introduction of, and alteration of, found material
- analog and digital reproduction of, and exhibition of, completed artifact
The primary method is to mark the surface with pencils, color sticks, markers, texters, paint pens, oil pastels, acrylic paints, and paste-on collage (from both found materials and destroyed drawings and paintings)
The hyperpsych activities create visual chaos within the pictorial space, as the hyperpsych marks are built up in large overlapping quantities, during which time, organic designs formed by the chaos are explored, embellished, altered, obscured, and possibly obliterated or erased altogether.
These dissonant, chaotic combinations, which result from hyperpsych free association, are asemic. Any meaning derived from viewing the hyperpsych work is created in the mind of the viewer.
There is no external directive. Every hyperpsych mark is the result of an obsessive-compulsive need to mark the paper, or to alter and embellish found materials.
types of hyperpsych pictures
1. simple... comprised of a few automatic marks, such as scribbles, smears, splashes or smudges
2. simple... comprised of an automatic doodle, such as cartoon, character, text, filigree or patterning
3. simple... comprised of a found page or image, altered with marks and/or text
4. complex... comprised of a series of marks, resulting in the appearance of a visage, object or landscape
5. complex... comprised of a series of marks, resulting in an abstract field of visual chaos
6. complex... comprised of a series of marks, resulting in the appearance of a satirical, symbolist composition
7. complex... comprised of a collage of found material and destroyed paintings and drawings, resulting in the appearance of an incredibly dense and elaborate "hodge-podge" or "crazy quilt" effect
© Michael J Bowman - All Rights Reserved
