I am not the only one who loves being inspired by Radiohead in this stupid world. Anyway, out there many people also do many things inspired by the band. One of them is Steve Garside. Living in Manchester, an artist, designer, published poet and writer; a new lovely friend I met through waste-central, the social media site for Radiohead fans. He painted a painting titled Where I End And You Begin (the title is the same as the Radiohead song title off the Hail To Thief album), as seen on the gallery of his website http://stevegarside.co.uk/gallery10.html.
I was curious why Steve Garside used the Radiohead song title for his painting title. He said “The use of the Radiohead title is twofold. First; because I was listening to it – I painted that while listening to the track over and over, I usually listen to one track while I paint or write. I find it helps to submerge into the ‘character’ of creating. And the second, because I think that the words provide a metaphorical dimension to the work. A statement perhaps of where those in the picture find themselves in the aspect of the painting”. Now I know the reasons.
At first, I was only interested in the title without understanding what the painting means (you know, I am not an artist and know less about painting) before I asked and he explained. I’ve seen the painting many times while was trying to figure it out. I could only see two characters in it, (The main character is a man reaching out his hand, the other is a long-haired woman laying down on the right bottom part of the painting) before he said “there are three in the painting and also you the viewer”. I tried to find the another character which is “invisible” at first and then I found it! A man whose face appears on the left bottom part of the canvas. “It’s only a partial face”, Steve explained.
“The painting is a story”, he said. These words I’ve never heard before and I didn’t know what he meant; so he explained, “I think most paintings express emotion and if they don’t then perhaps they are not paintings”. Well, I started to understand his statement, but then I asked him another question – what kind of emotions express in this painting? He answered me with the same question, “It should be me asking your question,’ he said, “What emotion does it provide you with?” Well, I see emotions on the faces and hands. Through the title and the painting itself, I see something contrary occurs. It’s like someone starts to do something and the others have just finished; someone want act in some way, and the others don’t. Steve explained, “I get mixed opinions, some people see pain, some don’t”.
If the painting is a story, it must have themes and motifs, and I don’t want to make mistakes interpreting them. In this context, Steve explained, “There are socio-political and philosophical dimensions to the work, after all it is a statement about how i see western life, the separation of ourselves within the system we live within. This in itself, is not such a new observation, Marx for example had much to say about this kind of thing. My view though is more from a spiritual perspective; the sense of loss of the self due to the way life is sold to us – it removes a sense of self and replaces it with the concept that we are all individuals; for me there is no ‘I’ in ‘individual in this context”.
Inspiring Radiohead. It’s amazing how a fan created beautiful artwork while listening one of their tracks on repeat. The track helped him submerge into the ‘character’ of creating. I love anything related to Radiohead and this one too.
This one is one of the articles of www.Radioheaddict.com
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