Salvador Dali

The work of Salvador Dali is among the most recognized in world. "Persistence of Memory" or "The Melting Clocks" as it is commonly known can be found in a variety of media in nearly every culture. Who can ignore his "Soft Self-Portrait with Fried Bacon", or "Galatea of the Spheres" or "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" or Self-Construction with Boiled Beans"? Looking at these works one could conclude that Dali was either crazy, a genius or randomly placed images together and called it art. Maybe Dali was guilty of all these and hid them behind over-the-top bravado and playfulness. He challenges audiences' perception of the world. The aspect that had intrigued most is the symbolism found in his imagery. I wondered what Dali was really trying to say. His imagery consists of twisted, elongated figures that hold an emotional meaning in my opinion. As I began to read more about Surrealism and Dali I found similarities both on and off the canvas. Dali was close to his mother, shy as a youth and included memories in his paintings. Growing up in a household as the only boy created in me a shyness and comfort with being alone. I grew up close to my grandmother and spent most of my afternoons after school sitting at her feet while she sewed dresses and blouses for my sisters.

The practices of Dali that I've found influential is the use of particular themes in his work. Dali approached dream, time, fear, mortality, desire in his work. He combined images from his surroundings and his imagination to create worlds filled with these themes. These themes create emotional reactions in the viewer and that is something I've always hoped to achieve. Dali challenges our perceptions of how we view reality and has inspired me to do the same.

Dali developed the paranoiac critical method to help construct the realities in his paintings. Simply, This method involves looking at an object until it's shapes are perceived as something other than what it actually is. It is through this method Dali created his double image paintings. Like, Dali, I became passionate about the metaphor and find that the subjects I use are not what the painting is actually about. My desire has been to illustrate the unseen emotions using familiar subjects. One day I hope to be as effective as Dali at this.