STEVEN’S LOVE OF GEORGES MELIES
A still from one of Georges Melies' films.
Steven Arnold first discovered Méliès in the 1960s on a trip to Europe with students from the San Fransisco Art Institute – he was instantly spellbound. Méliès’ influence on Steven’s work can be seen through Arnold’s use of fantastic dream imagery, his intricate, painted cut-out sets, his skill for floating or flying people and objects, and his use of double exposure, for all of which Méliès laid the groundwork.
Steven Arnold's photographs clearly show signs of his admiration for Georges Melies.
And without him, not only would we have been deprived of Méliès’ amazing cinematic visions, but we may have missed out on some of Steven’s contributions as well.
Watch our video portrait, and see Steven talk about his influences, including Méliès, Dalí, and more HERE.
PRAYER FOR THE CURE
“ Sometimes I’m not sure I like being nailed to the word tableaux, even though it’s the one I myself use most often in referring to these pieces. I also think of them as magical Rorschach tonkas. The word tonka implies a certain usefulness as an object for meditation. I like that. What the hell. Call them tablonkas! Or tongleaux! Whatever they are, I’ve found a great happiness in this form. It uses every part of me.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
LA GRANDE DAME OF THE UNIVERSAL OPERA
- An original, never-before seen etching from the mid-sixties.
“We are just waking up to the new age and the ancient teachings. We can collect, cross-reference and compute these teachings into one ever-changing structure. Finding the forms to communicate our collections is the key.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
LET THEM EAT CAKE
“[My art] starts with Ludwig the Second of Bavaria meeting Woolworths and Barnum and Bailey over dinner with Louis the 14th in drag, then it just spirals out from there. I’m constructing a new mythology from the shards of the universe.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
GESTATION
“I want images to be complicated, not smart, designy little things. I’m bringing back density – pieces that take time to look at.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
HUNGER FOR THE MARVELOUS
“It will be my ability to get each subject, quietly and secretly, to unleash their creative powers, and in so doing, liberate them from their normal inhibitions, and into a state of trust, openness, and creative frenzy.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
DISPLAY
"Dislplay" is a never-before-seen tableaux-vivant.
“[This is] the reinvention of art in America, free of the vices of ambition – insist on yourself.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
INVITATION TO YIN YANG
FUTURESCAPE
Great, extended use of the brain. Powers we can only sense now, will manifest and bring a magnificent age of clarity. The merging of the sexes becomes a force-field of creativity. Utopian satellite planets Food and energy for everyone. An age of humanism more passionate and conscious than we can fathom, If we wake up and listen to the universe.STEVEN ARNOLD
NEW BIRTH OF VENUS
“I want to keep from violating my sincerity, which would be most destructive. I want total purity in my relationships with all of my friends, without draining my creativity. I want to believe in my friends so much that it teaches them to believe in themselves.’
STEVEN ARNOLD
Self Portrait, Oil on canvas, 1974
“Don’t violate your own magic or water it down:
Trust intuitive forces within
Creative Madness must be free to flow
Spirits will guide – relax and recieve
Listen to the voices, emanate clarity
Allow the images to create their own meaning
Listen for Dalai Lama
Ancient wisdom will manifest
Go to your original vision and be true to it
No one can tell you how to create your own world
It is all within you
Follow the shapes and rhythms of nature
Let the film speak of awakening through love
Emit positive energy, compassion.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Steven Drawing Dreams
” My drawings are my own language, voices from my subconscious – autonomic or automatic image writing. I draw directly on the paper with my pen without preconceiving anything – allowing the drawings to make themselves. Often I am surprised and shocked by what appears – sometimes I laugh. These drawings are strictly personal and not intended to entertain anyone. Many of the images come from my dreams. Sometimes when I am drawing, it’s as if forces are working through me, and I am only a medium. I like the results and learn about my other sides… I hang new drawings by my bed and look at them a lot before going to sleep. I find the more I draw, the stranger the drawings become, but also, they get better and better.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Desire for Extravagance
“Less conventional thoughts, breaking into more creative mind, expanding into vast new realms, leading into a whole new struggle-less melting and architecturing -leaving behind doctrines ever so absolute in all forms of expression – soaring up and into unexplored kingdoms.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Theatre of Atlantis
“Travel through Europe in a wagon with a troupe of occult clowns
Wear long black capes navy wigs powder
Iodine falls – rings of coal around the eyes
Red patent leather platforms
Leather jumpsuit with studded gauntlets
Don’t speak for weeks, pretend you can’t hear
Live in drag at age 70
Long chocolate nails ropes of emeralds
Make insane secret unshowable films
Build a secret underground garden
Learn hypnosis cast spells
Expand psychic powers write volumes sculpt
Crude primitive jewelry and diamonds
Live in a vast cave and mural every surface
Sleep in a giant clam
Eat only off silver
Wear insufferable amounts of perfume
Click your tongue hiss and stare
Use fame and fortune to highest zone advantage
Let poverty teach.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Pandora’s Offering
“My Sorceress,
Your devoted servant has been reading: Siddhartha, Journey to the East, Steppenwolf, The Prophet – the madman leaves for his enchanted journey on September third. First Rotterdam and Amsterdam, then London, Paris, and off to the Mediterranean. He has sold flowers on the streets of New York, lunched at the Plaza, made masks and costumes for an off-Broadway play, exhibited drawings in a Sheridan Square gallery, and now this wiser wizard is off into the mist to explore and learn. With him everyday, he carries the memory of his magic sorceress who lives among the flowers and the trees.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Sovereign Right of Self Discovery
“We need forms of expression that are direct and pure without temptations of luxury. In the future, artists will rule and regain their sovereign rights of self discovery. The era of alchemy will return in one swooping cycle…New criteria will smash tired molds, individualism will reign, and mediocrity will melt.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Steven and Sculpture
“To change mediums is re-awakening. I’m so glad that I started [assemblage] sculpture…that’s fairly recent. It’s so great to get your hands dirty and get burns from the glue guns – stuff that doesn’t happen in photography.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
There Is No Seperation
“People don’t organize their lives well as reflected in their homes, lists, and handwriting. I must apply my sense of organization to all phases and levels of my life. At this time it is of prime importance to be centered in every subtle phase of life – in food, clothing, grooming, society structure, philosophy, reason, compassion, sex, etc.
I want to be pure, strong, and honest of intent in every direction.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Self Portrait
“Fantasy is a universal human trait, and art is the principal means of expressing it.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Death of Simplicity
“Isn’t [God] the ultimate artist? Look how the skies have been painted, the mountains formed, and look at the people he made. We’re all just reflections of his great creativity.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
Ascending Angel
“Creativity is the furthest extension of the highest in man – GIVE. Don’t be tied down to daily consciousness. Yoga, dance, creative friends and amorphic change develop inner strength. Force your planets to move!”STEVEN ARNOLD
Bowl of Boys
“Sexuality is a major preoccupation of the mind. It’s natural outlets and rhythms are trapped in grand illusions, and subconscious thought. Identifying and harnessing these thoughts leads to growing out, and into a totally clear and productive poetry of mind/soul love, and a deep confidence in your own abilities.”
STEVEN ARNOLD
