Surrealism > noun: an avant-garde 20th-century movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images

When I took art history back in the golden days of college, I was given a chance to see art change in so many different ways from the very beginning of our existence.  Artists always seemed to go through a new period and style of art, evolving from the last artistic movement or coming up with a completely new and dramatic art style.

Surrealism grew out of the first World War our of Paris.  It was used as for expression of revolutionary movements at that time and used elements of shock, surprise and various juxtapositions of images. The use of surrealism in many different art forms affected not only the art world its self, but political and philosophical ways of thinking.  For further boring art history reading, google surrealism.  I dare you!

When I worked on my 365 project 3 years ago, about a 1/3 of the way through, I realized I was incorporating a good deal of surrealistic-type images into my photography.  As I have said before, I hate to use heavily photoshopped images and when I would create any manipulation type images, I would keep it simple and plan the photography, so that very little needed to be done in post production.

As for the meaning behind the images?  Not everything an artist creates has to have meaning.  Sometimes it is a meaning only the artist understands.  Perhaps the artist wants the viewer to find their own meaning.  Personally, when I create certain surrealistic-type images, I go for the "wow" factor.  The more crazy, creepy or just plain weird, the better for me.

In most cases, the point of creating fantastic images is to test the limits of skill and creativity.  The mantra is usually, "What crazy crap can I come up with today?"  Back in high school, I created what I thought were real true pieces of surrealistic craziness.  A mesh of juxtapositioned images that had no business being together in the same image, some pieces did tell a story or have some sort of meaning and some were just plain weird. (I will have to do a follow up to this blog and post examples of my old work when I dig it up from a CD.)

It is most definitely true when you hear about artists going through phases in their artwork.  At this moment when I look back through my 365 project, as well as my current 52 weeks project, I notice how my pictures go through various styles and emotions.  Right now, my style is out in nature and capturing the reality of my world in the world.  Maybe I need to jump back into the weird reality of surrealism.  I will make it my goal in the second half of my 52 weeks.

~Rachel