Anti-Utopian

Featured image: Bouquet for Mom

My work is anti-utopian – and at the same time, utopian. How can that be? Easy, my own personal outlook on life is utopian and hopeful, which is how I understand the word utopian. An online dictionary defines utopianism as: the belief in or pursuit of a state in which everything is perfect. My own personal outlook on life is also based on reality and reason and often times this is not idealistic nor unrealistic even though I may wish otherwise.

My work often portrays hope. But, work also portrays reality with that hope, which isn’t always a blissful scene. My work speaks to reality and is filled with visual commentary about social hierarchies, divisions and chaos which I understand as anti-utopian. My work portrays how an individual lives blissfully in reality and reason.

It’s confusing. The bottom line for me as both a utopian and anti-utopian’s outlook on life is reality and it’s healthy. I feel we are being unrealistic if we overload our lives with unrealistic utopianism or unrealistic anti-utopianism.