Dec 5, 2011

Krampus Day: Putting the Darkness Back into Joy!

Krampus, coming for the children.
Contemporary culture really loves to make everything about happiness and cheer. It's just easier to jump to the head of the feels-good line!

This week the Tim Holmes Studio is hosting a antidote to that temptation.  Duende  is an art exhibit-installation-performance (more details here) to honor the dark time of year. I take my cue from Krampus (view more of my photos), who is honored today. He's the fearsome, hairy Austrian figure who visits children, accompanying St. Nickolaus, whose day is tomorrow.

Duende is an art term, but it's not easy to describe. It's not a style or subject or period, but more like an attitude in which art is created: in the shadow of death. The awareness of the darkness is what gives meaning and depth to life. The Duende show gives a multi-media taste of these depths for all the senses.

Joy or happiness or success is cheap and flaccid if it is unaccompanied by darkness. This art event points out the sublime beauty of the dark side of life.

The show is one night only, Thurs, Dec. 8 at the Tim Holmes Studio 446 N. Hoback, Helena, 6:30 curtain. $8 a head. Call 406-442-4233.

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Tim Holmes Studio

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Helena, MT, United States
My inspiration has migrated from traditional materials to working with the field of the psyche as if it were a theater. Many of my recent ideas and inspirations have to do with relationships and how we inhabit the earth and our unique slot in the story of evolution. I wish to use art– or whatever it is I do now– to move the evolution of humanity forward into an increasingly responsive, inclusive and sustainable culture. As globalization flattens peoples into capitalist monoculture I hope to use my art to celebrate historical cultural differences and imagine how we can co-create a rich future together.