connections		Chapter 1
Chapter Zero Introduction Chapter Two Warhol, Van Gogh and the Myth Business Chapter Three Connections Published by The Studios of Patrick Otis Cox	Developing your Ideas, Writing and Art by Patrick Otis Cox One hundred years ago Paul Cézanne’s paintings, like today’s graffiti artists, rebelled against the established. The act of painting graffiti on private property is illegal and this defiance is what makes a can of spray paint valuable. Paul Cézanne with his fragmented brush strokes, which are valued for creating tension between reality and invention of colors in our minds. These loosely placed strokes and odd color choices have been arranged to create chaos. Cézanne evolved the art form to state, “The world is not right, my life is disjointed”. These strokes, with unreal color, create both movement and anxiety. Life is a bitch! After a stressful day of fighting in the concrete jungle, my mind is just as fragmented and it is easy to relate to Cézanne’s work. The strength to grab life by the balls and create with no limitations is not a dream, but a reality you have to work toward. The forces that state, in live or die terms, that you must pursue a safe course for your life are only right if you listen to them. If you yield, you will loose the spark that could be your salvation from a civilized torturous existence. There is a strange beauty in a work that combines passion, excitement and confusion. Vincent Van Gogh after two years in Paris moved to the south of France to find truth. He painted himself as a Japanese Peasant. “I have aimed at the character of a simple monk worshiping Buddha”. His work reaches out and smacks you in the face with brilliant color and dynamic brush work, that strikes a nerve, and also conveys the conflict that life is. We all have these ill conflicting feelings and his work lays it on the table like a crack head selling her diseased body. These emotions are timeless. I put this challenge to you! What are your real feelings? Can you show these to the world? What medium will you use to communicate your humanity?