Psychopathology of Wants and Needs – Pop surrealism painting by Canadian Artist Stephen Gibb, 36″ x 24″, oil on panel, 2022

This painting started off a few light years away from where it ended up. The original concept was to do something around the theme of “bliss”, examining the things that bring us to this occasionally visited state of mind.

I envisioned a head absorbing the things around it, which would have been things that evoke the state of bliss in people. The head became a skull, full of holes because it just seemed like a cool idea. I think sometimes the things that people seek to attain their blissful state can also be deadly and I liked the “ultimate conclusion” commentary by including the skull, acknowledging it as the final destination of bliss and of life.

Everything I came up with just seemed lame after that. So, I thought I’d explore the foundations of why we seek bliss. It occurred to me that maybe there was something in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that could give some insight into the concept.

This is where I abandoned the whole bliss theme.

Instead, I focused on representations of “needs” in my typical left-field approach, bubblegum surrealism style. A trivialized representation of food (sustenance) became a pie, which I doubled back on, posing the pie in the act of replicating himself…rolling out some dough for a crust. Reproduction is on the lower level on Maslow’s hierarchy and is represented by the pie and the gooey union of the two lolly pops, who produce offspring at the point of their sticky embrace. The progeny then takes an ironic bite out of the parent in an act of defiance and rebellion — the normal function of a teenager (LOL). At the far right a figure looks at his fingers as they produce offspring, which appear to just be fodder for the crow standing nearby (the circle of life).

The figure on the far right also represents clothing, shelter, property, security, which are lower, basic requirements according to Maslow.

The sleeping potato symbolizes, sleep, air and water — also basic needs, in spite of the absurdity of the situation.

As we move upward the needs become more abstract and less material. The two lollies could represent love, intimacy, family and connection, whereas the green lolly’s floating-away crown touches on the area Maslow characterized as “esteem”, the realm of status, recognition and self-esteem, things I think our society puts too much stock in. As well we put absurd value on wants versus needs and a title was suggested to me — The Psychopathology of Need and Wants.

At the right side of the mountain is Sisyphus as an ape, pushing a large brain up the incline, symbolizing evolution, strength and the struggle to raise the “required needs” to the pinnacle of the hierarchy, which is represented by the pyramid man at the top, radiating out to embrace everything in his “blissful” state of self-actualization. - Artist Stephen Gibb, Nov., 2022

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The Aimless Meander: The creative process involved in composing Dr. Daydream Prescribes Aggressive Psychotherapy

Meditating on the concept of daydreaming conjures all kinds of stereotypes, mostly those perpetuated by pop culture and the associated canon of symbols established by TV, music, movies, and comics. A reclined child staring into the clouds and seeing shapes appear is the standard cliche, which I wanted to avoid.

Dr. Daydream Prescribes Aggressive Psychotherapy — Stephen Gibb, 36″ x 24″, oil on panel, 2022

When I decided to explore the concept of daydreams for a painting I began with the idea of a figure in a daydream state, emersed physically, into the stuff that daydreams are made of.
My initial figure took shape as an old man, eyes closed, lost in his imagination, represented by an eyeball floating in liquid, where his brain should have been.

Line work for the painting “Dr. Daydream Prescribes Aggressive Psychotherapy” by Stephen Gibb, 2002

Dr. Daydream

I christened him Dr. Daydream and I set about imagining his world. I envisioned a guide leading Dr. Daydream through his dream, which could be none other than his own brain. Astride his brain a jovial Humpty Dumpty takes his hand to help him navigate the bizarre landscape. Humpty steers the brain but is oblivious of his duty since he looks backwards instead of at the road ahead. This represents the meandering uncertainty of where a daydream will lead us. The journey is an adventure without destination.

From Dark to Light

I wanted Dr. Daydream moving away from the darkness and into the bright future ahead. This is kind of illustrating an escapist view of daydreaming. Rather than dealing with the foreboding darkness, his attention is directed away at the bright colours and the large happy face that dominates the right side above him. Mr. Moonlight looks down with sorrowful eyes as the Doctor moves away from the darkness of the woods and wilderness behind him.

Time Doesn’t Fly, it Floats Away

Dr. Daydream was wearing a wristwatch, but it has detached and is floating away. In a dream state, time has no domain over the dreamer…

Title Just Isn’t Cutting it

Things from here out started to get more and more associative and detached from the pure notion of daydreaming. I decided to expand the title to encompass the broadening scope of the content. Dr. Daydream Prescribes Aggressive Psychotherapy works better, and now adds more width for tangential exploration. The vast realm of psychology can now be conjured, and my diversions of whimsy can be excused away.

Walking is A Time-Space Activity

Dr. Daydream steps forward and his most recent footstep is ghosted by a bare foot stepping in sticky goo. My thought here was to represent a movement through time and the bare, primitive foot being a step back in evolution, contrasted with the present-time foot.

Protective Headgear Recommended for All

I like to insert interlocutors into the foreground of my paintings—seemingly detached observers helping the viewer link with the overwhelming weirdness going on behind. Enter Helmet Head.
Helmet Head is more concerned with the wondrous object in his grasp but helps add to the general mystery of the overall image.

Idea Thief

OK, sometimes I rehash an idea that I’ve used before and by that action, I become my own idea thief. Helmet Head has a socket in his dome, from which a slimy creep removes a lightbulb. Symbolism borrowed from cartoons and comics, probably dating back to Edison. I said I wanted to avoid symbolic cliches, but here is an exception.

A Phallic Rocket Becomes a Knife

In rough sketches I positioned a rocket in the sky above the good Doctor’s head, leaving a trail that swirled around his head, between his legs and to its beginnings, somewhere over and beyond the trees. As things progressed in the sketch, I decided to turn the rocket into a knife, a more aggressive phallus, and have it sail between his legs in a psychosexual trajectory but embed it into his brain. I’ll let you do your own psychoanalysis of this. A certain F word may help.

The Red Balloon

Another symbol of floating along…the balloon is a reference to the aimless meander of daydreaming. In this case the balloon drifts through the air and makes it impossible for a caretaker to keep Dr. Daydream’s head corked. His essence is released in a psychedelic burst of colour…setting the stage for the multicoloured right-hand side of the painting.

Building Out the Composition with Unencumbered Impulses

The basic image was composed pretty much as it was chronologically described above. At this point there was some need for smaller details and compositional elements to be added for balance and interest. The Brain crawls along the ground but is distracted by a skull with the cap removed and examines the contents as he pours it out. This could easily represent psychotherapy. The symbol for the Greek letter Psi is added to the knife, which is also widely understood as a symbol for psychology. Clouds form from stars and hearts in a cheesy reference to seeing shapes (Pareidolia) where they don’t really exist. A spaceship bears witness to the events below, representing a naïve or innocent bystander. Dr. Daydream’s left hand is grounded by a tap root, symbolizing the roots of everything with nature. He also wears an interesting signet ring of no real importance but will keep viewers challenging themselves to formulate a meaning. Human nature demands meaning from the things in its environment, however, there is no direct line to interpreting the painting “correctly”. Some symbolism may come easily to the viewer and the meaning may be more commonly held than others. The true joy is identifying things through your own idiosyncratic filters and biases and deriving your own meaning. My paintings give you permission to explore yourself by mulling over the images.

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“There Are Fake Diamonds In My Shit” , Stephen Gibb, 36″ x 24″, oil on panel, 2019

Lowbrow pop surrealism

…just what exactly is this mishmash of cultural references and art keywords. Well, that pretty much says it all. To reach the audience who wants to delve into the realm of lowbrow pop surrealism, you have to be able to tickle the algorithms and register within the criteria of online search queries. Using the right keywords that lead to content that hopefully fits the intentions of the searcher, the web can direct you to familiar paths or blindside you with unexpected discovery.

That’s what I am tying to do with this post. No one ever labeled their artwork as “lowbrow pop surrealism” but the two blended genres have lived side by side for so long now they have almost become synonymous.
And how else will you discover my painting “There Are Fake Diamonds In My Shit” without a little Internet magic?

Now to break it down…

Definition of lowbrow : of, relating to, or suitable for a person with little taste or intellectual interest .
Well that’s a little blunt. From an artistic perspective here’s what Wikipedia has to say about “lowbrow art”: Lowbrow, or lowbrow art, describes an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. It is a populist art movement with its cultural roots in underground comix, punk music, tiki culture, and hot-rod cultures of the street.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowbrow_(art_movement)

Ok, to me, this even seems a little too specific and maybe even a little exclusive. For one thing it failed to mention the ubiquitous prevalence of “Margaret Keane-style” knock-off girls with big dewy eyes and blank expressions. And, yes, maybe I could square peg myself into the round hole of “underground comix” (my sketches do look a little like Robert Crumb drawings) but let’s just say there are many artist like me who have taken lowbrow sensibilities and run with them in their own directions.

And now we come to surrealism.
Definition of surrealism: a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature, which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.

Wait, what? Irrational? Are you trying to say my paintings are irrational? Unconscious? I don’t even believe in the unconscious mind, except the autonomic nervous system that keeps me alive while I’m thinking of something else or sleeping. Damn, I just forgot to breathe for a second there…

Oh shit, I guess I didn’t read the entire Wikipedia definition of lowbrow….”It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art often has a sense of humor – sometimes the humor is gleeful, sometimes impish, and sometimes it is a sarcastic comment.”

BINGO!

BTW humor is spelled H-U-M-O-U-R…

Which leads us the painting in question. “There Are Fake Diamonds In My Shit” is essentially a commentary on commerce, using idioms of money and extending my obsessive commentary on consumerism to a nauseating degree of blather.
Since we consume we must excrete and as consumers there is always waste (the black cloud of smoke, the shit). The predominate figure of the “fool and his money” has a giant $-shaped colon on his back. The colon is consuming “bread” (colloquial term for money) and is shitting on money (dirty money). Money is also “burning a hole in his pocket”. There is money laundering; money is the root of all evil, blood money, moneybag, money pit, money growing on a tree and money to burn. Rounding things out are the cabbage, anther term for money and Ben Franklin, the figure on a US $100 bill.

I need to mention lowbrow pop surrealism one more time to boost the keyword frequency.
And now you know how and why you ended up here.

“Circus of Delusion”—Stephen Gibb, 36″ x 24″, 2020

Don’t Poop On My Party!—Stephen Gibb, 324″ x 24″, oil on panel, 2020

The Sacred and Profane—Stephen Gibb, 36″ x 24″, oil on panel, 2020

If someone discovers my art based on a “crazy art” query, so be it. I can be the “crazy artist”.

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