Surrealism Part 01: Surrealism vs. Abstraction

There was a reason I posted the photos from children's artwork right after the Fallen video. 

Children have the tendency to not censor themselves while creating.  As we get older, even though we gain practical skills, practice, and knowledge of how to express ourselves, we also have acquired, shame, fear, and insecurity which affects our work and molds it into what it "should be."

Artists of all kinds will realize this at some point and either embrace it or fight against it.

SURREAL vs. ABSTRACT

A lot of people confuse surrealism with abstraction but they are very different.  [Note:  I could start a war of semantics here because all art movements have a dozen interpretations, but give me a little leeway to make my point without writing a dissertation.]

Abstraction is generally where you completely throw out all form or structure:

(example of an abstract painting by Jackson Pollack)

Surrealism is when you drop the idea of what "should be" and, instead, present a non-filtered presentation.

"Sur" means above.  "Surreality" is essentially "above reality."  The most common mistake made when artists approach the concept of surreality is that their intention is really to just be weird and completely forget that surrealism is not the abandonment of structure, that is abstraction.  It is also not farce (a overboard style of theater).   Surreality is an unfiltered version of reality.

I will continue this another day...