Leeyon Romany
Live to create, die to be great.
The Birth of Influentialism
After finishing " The Escape" in the middle of the night, I laid down for some relaxation on the couch and turned on the TV. The only light in the room was coming from the TV. As I looked at the painting on more time, I suddenly saw a big duck in the middle of the painting that seems to be swimming in the moonlight. It was so amazing that I jumped up from the couch and turned on the light. But no matter how I tried it was very difficult to see the same image again. After trying all sorts of things I finally found the image of the duck again and never lost it since then.
Later I found that the best conditions to see this duck was in a faint lighting (moonlight, sunrise, TV light, sunset) while looking at it from the right side of the painting. So far about one in three people I show the painting to can see the duck.
But I saw a lot more, and all these conditions that seemed to be “influencing” what it was I was looking at, made me call the style “Influentialism”.
Now I realize that it's the nature of creativity itself, I had captured on canvas. The smaller grid-elements (objects) are constantly combining with each other to form bigger objects. Viewers are not just experiencing my creativity; they are experiencing the nature of creativity, which, of course, is also a part of them. This nature is very important in our daily lives; all our classification systems are based around it. So, whether you’re talking about Particles, Atoms, Molecules, DNA strands, Neurons, transistors, Planets or Galaxies, “the Small hold the Large”.
Leeyon Romany
The Influentialism Theory
Now I feel like I need to prune some of these branches to preserve energy and to better the trees efficiency. For this reason I've decided to wait with publication until all of my ideas crystallize, or even better, “prunelize”, into a solid theory.
For now I’ll only write about the Influentialism Art Movement, that highlights only two aspects of the theory: "THE SMALL HOLD THE LARGE" and "CREATIVITY". I hope soon to present a short version of the theory on this website.
Leeyon Romany
Influentialism Art Movement
Influentialism Art Movement is Creativity
I AM = Creativity
I AM Creativity
Even though the influentialism art movement is a part of the influentialism theory, to accept the movement doesn’t necessarily mean to accept the theory. Some influentialists will only associate themselves with the art movement.
"I AM Creativity" are the words spoken out by influentialists to signify their relationship with the influentialism art movement. So to say “I am creativity” is to be fully aware of one’s creativity. In fact, we cannot reach our full creative capacity if we’re not “CREATIVITY SELF AWARE”.
To become an influentialist is to love and embrace the concept of “the mind that can reach creativity self awareness”. All influentialists will become CSA, if they pursue it passionately enough. Not letting certain believe systems and thought processes rust their brain, is an important fuel for this pursuit. Some will achieve CSA faster than others, but all influentialists will achieve it!
Let me first give a few definitions before I continue:
I AM: the Influentialism Art Movement, concerned with two aspects of the influentialism theory: “the small hold the large” and “creativity”.
The small hold the large: the concept that everything in the universe is made up of smaller things. This leads to the notion that nothing is 100% new, because all objects (creations) are born out of smaller objects which themselves are born out of even smaller objects etc. This also means that all objects are therefore connected to each other in some way.
Creativity: the ability to combine objects into new objects.
Creativity Self Awareness or CSA: a state where one feels connected to all that can create and all that is created. One reaches this state by a sudden combining of all conscious and unconscious mental states; rational, spiritual, logical, emotional, dreams etc. into an overwhelming awareness of duality: ones ability to combine objects into new objects and ones disability to disconnect new objects from older objects.
Influta: an influta is an element (object) that changes our perception of an art piece (light, mood, colours etc).
Object: for the “I AM” that produces influentialistic art pieces (paintings, sculptures, poems, literature, music, buildings, etc.) an object is a physical or abstract entity which exists within an art piece and can be combined by our sensation and/or intellect with other objects in that art piece, to create a new object.
Value: lightness or darkness of a color
The Influentialist
The easiest way to pursue and achieve your CSA, is by creating art; the reason is very simple, art can express all the mental states you can find yourself in. This means that you’re not bound to my influentialistic style of art; any art form/style will do, as long as you understand and work with the concepts: “the small hold the Large” and “creativity”.
In some of the influentialistic styles I use a framework (grid) of black lines. The lines represent “time” and “space”. Between the black lines, or within the boundaries of time and space exists all kinds of objects (different colours, shapes, textures etc). These objects can combine with other objects to create new objects (the duck in “the escape”). It’s basically a window for creativity to happen.
Light is a very important aspect of the styles. Some colours blend together in certain lights; so value is essential in some influentialistic styles. When creating my paintings I used different colours and shades of sunglasses to achieve a good mix of different values (comparable to a monochrome filter). I can already envision an influentialistic gallery where light is a changing factor; but I’m probably running ahead of things.
An influentialist must think before every creation: “my pursuit to become CSA must give others the opportunity to pursue their own CSA”.
I’ve always wanted to teach people what creativity is; to show them how great creativity is. Now I know that instead of teaching or showing people what creativity is, “better let them experience it”. That should be the mindset of every influentialist!
The viewer
As the viewer of an influentialistic art piece you too can become CSA. This is because influentialists devote their lives to become CSA by making great influentialistic art; “Their CSA can set yours free”.
So you too can become an influentialist and pursue your CSA. You don’t need to “physically” create art yourself. A great influentialistic art piece can make you experience your own creativity almost just as intense as if you where the original creator of the art piece.
While looking at an influentialistic art piece, influtas are very important; where you stand when you’re looking at the art piece, how close you are to the art piece, the lighting, your mood, your relationship with a higher being, stress, thoughts running through your mind etc.
All of this will influence what it is you see.
Here are some techniques to better experience an influentialistic painting:
1) Focus on one or more colours in the painting until your perception changes
2) Focus on one or more objects and then slowly adding more objects next to it
4) Focus on a part of the painting
5) Let the lines guide your eyes
6) Pinch your eyes when looking at the painting
7) Turning your head while focusing on the painting
8) Look at the painting from different positions, left, right, up, down, close and far
9) Turn the painting around (not in a museum)
10) Change the lighting around the painting or use sunglasses (no lighters in front of the painting please)
11) Experience the painting in different mental states
Art in general
WHAT MAKES GREAT ART?
“GREAT ART HAS THE ABILITY TO CHANGE PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION OF THEMSELVES AND THEIR SURROUNDINGS”.
ALL GREAT ART!
This means that some art do not possess this quality. In fact I would say “most art”. I call that type of art “AESTHETIC-ART”.
Great art can have two effects on the viewers (audience), a state of surprise or a state of shock. Aesthetic-art has only one effect on the viewers, a state of recognition. This recognition can lead some people to say that aesthetics art is great, but in my definition of the word “great” I’m not referring to the aesthetics of the art but rather to its ability to change perception.
So:
"great art changes our perception of beauty while aesthetic-art makes us recognize beauty".
For example, even with all the media in this world today and all the knowledge that we have acquired, a person that first lays eyes on a Picasso painting will still go through the same perception changing experience people went through when the painting was originally presented (the same counts for great literature, music, movies etc.)
When it comes to recognizing beauty, people seem to have a build in preference for balance. We have always associated balance with beauty. But there are of course many other personal reasons why people recognize beauty in art.
I believe that the more art we are exposed to, the more beauty we can perceive within ourselves and our surroundings. For us to become more complete as creative beings should be one of our main goals in life and that is exactly where ART can take us to.
“Live to create, die to be great”
Creativity is not something that should be kept hidden from yourself or others. It’s something that needs to be passed on in great rituals to the next generation. Your own child, a neighbour or a stranger who learns about your creativity, might change the course of the planet for the better. That stranger can one day develop a cure for cancer! It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, once you’re pursuing your CSA you can inspire a scientist, simply because of the way you sell your flowers on the street corner. Your creative energy will be past on to the next generation. Just don’t create out of selfishness, create out of love and respect for those who will come after you. Your reward? Eternal life!
Live to create, die to be great,
I, an influentialist once said.
Great,
not for the glory of my being,
not for the glory of my pursuit,
not for the glory of my awareness,
but for the glory I received,
for yielding those who will come after me,
that, what was given to me.
Now I can say,
without a sense of selfishness,
I AM CREATIVITY!
Leeyon Romany, 2007
The Respected Celebrity
If you live for fame,
you will die in shame.
If you live to create,
you will die to be great!
Leeyon Romany, 2008
The Evolution of Influentialism
When I started painting “the escape”, it wasn’t my intention for it to result into a series of paintings and other art works.
I remember going through one of my notebooks from a few years before in order to find an idea for the painting. I found a grid style drawing that looked challenging. Above the drawing I read the words op-art. Apparently when I drew it I was inspired by optical art. This is not strange since before drawing the escape the artist that had inspired me most was M.C. Escher.
Because it’s hard for me to maintain focus when producing the same concepts over and over again, by the 5th painting I already had created 3 influentialistic styles: “influentialism”, “symbolic influentialism” and “analytic influentialism” (Laetitia had created “expressive influentialism” during the same time).
After painting “The Birds Nest”, I took some time off to analyze other paintings. I still can’t believe it now, but this was the first time I developed an interest in Picasso. Prior to this period, I couldn’t name or even visualize a painting of the art genius. This has changed of course. Now he’s not only one of my favorites, he is the inspiration of two influentialistic styles: “analytic influentialism” and “synthetic influentialism”.
It was one painting in particular that made me rethink influentialism, “portrait of Ambroise Vollard” (1910). After dissecting every line, color, value, depth etc. I wondered if I could make an influentialistic style portrait.
In my first attempt I created " The Face of Creativity" (The Face of analytic influentialism).
.jpg)
With influentialism I started with random lines and then "searched" within those lines for objects to create. With analytic influentialism I started by first analyzing a physical object (my face); then drawing the lines in key places; and then searching for objects to create.
So were influentialism starts from imagination and tends to be more intuitive, analytic influentialism starts with a link to objects in the natural world. Searching for objects to create is extremely challenging. For instance, when painting the face of creativity it would sometimes take me half an hour to paint one object. One specific object took me a record three weeks of observing "the face" before I painted the object red. But this is the addictive nature of creating an influentialistic art piece, every object counts!
Expressive influentialism basically means letting go. Even though the concept is the same, the goal is achieved with pure emotions. It’s about letting the painting guide you where it wants to go. Since I must be in control all the time and I’m always searching for balance, I could have never created Expressive Influentialism. Lines are less important, color and form is everything. But the concepts “the small hold the large” and creativity, still are the basis of the expressive influentialistic painting.
Last but not least: the painting “doing time”.
With this painting I wanted to show more clearly the connection between op-art and influentialism. I now see influentialism as an evolutionary branch of optical art (visually not conceptually). I created “doing time” after studying op-artists like, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley; but also by studying the “gestalt effect”.
Influentialism will continue to evolve. Right now I'm developing ideas for sound-, photographic- and video influentialism. The ideas are endless! I truly hope I can inspire other artists to rethink why and how they create art.
I AM is more then just another art movement, it's a life style, a choice; the objective: "Creativity Self Awareness".
Leeyon Romany
The Future of Influentialism
Influentialism is well suited for the 21st century. All our expectations of what the 21st century is going to be like are present in both the philosophical theory as in the Influentialism Art Movement (I AM). As we will move further and further into the 21st century, new discoveries will be made by studying and understanding “the small” and how they connect or combine with each other to hold the large.
“In the 20th century we learned to open up our minds and appreciate creativity. In the 21st century we need to become creativity.”
Multiple challenges lie ahead for our planet and its inhabitants. We need to transform into the true creative beings that we are, to overcome these challenges. We need to become creativity self aware. It’s within all of us. And then, when we are CSA, it’s our inescapable existential truth to want to pass it on to the next generation; so lets just do it: “INFLUENTIALISM HOLDS THE FUTURE”.
Leeyon Romany, 05-11-2007