Tom Noonan - Digital Prints |
|
 |
 |
"Yojimbo" (after Kurosawa) |
Ronin 3 |
|
 |
Ronin 5 (after the "Dying Gaul") |
"Empire Not Liberty" |
Being a Tibetan Buddhist, I take quite naturally to the theme of exile. Being of Celtic heritage, I take umbrage at the notion of an imposed, “correct” aesthetic from whoever happens to be holding those slippery & intoxicating reins of power. (Tibet and Northern Ireland are the last vestiges of colonialism in the world). As the Rinpoche Chogyam Trungpa—who, confronted in this country with what he called the “savage [and hungry ghost bloated] underbellies of barbarian arrogance,” found humor in the condescension and disparagement by terming himself “merely a stray dog”—once said, “Creating a work of art is not a harmless thing. It is always a powerful medium. Art is extraordinarily powerful and important. It challenges people’s lives. So here are two choices: either you create black magic to turn people’s heads, or you create some kind of basic sanity…” Having worked in the Manhattan media world, with its sorcerer’s tricks of selling shit inna box, my work strives, instead, towards the turning of chaos into basic sanity. Much of my recent work involves exporting stills from my digital video montages and working them up in Photoshop. ( My short film Empire Not Liberty, five “pieces of work” after Shakespeare, was recently featured in the T-10 Festival at downtown Oakland ’s 21 Grand). To me that allows a moment to be crystallized in a past and present context—i.e., implying action instead of a still[born] “life.” approach. I suppose the storytelling aspect of art appeals to me because I began as a writer, studying under the late, great heavyweight John Gardner at SUNY Binghamton’s MFA program. |
|
Some of my short stories can be seen at: http://www.geocities.com/big_rudra/indexWEBframes.html Some of my poetry from “Have Buddha, Will Travel,” ©2004, 2006, Tom Noonan & Maria Espinosa (agent), is at: |
|
