What Are You Some Kinda Neurotic Devil Worshipping Daisy Painter?

Awhile back I had gone on a date with a woman and prior to meeting face to face I'd given her the link to my website. Somewhere during the date she said to me ''So, is that how you see your life, as an eternal nightmare? Is that why you named your site that?"

I disagreed with that notion, and told her that the name of the site was chosen because it fits my themes and creatures. It is after all a Horror art site.

I find it annoying that people can presume that simply because I work in a chosen genre that I'm some how depressed or an angry man or a devil worshiper. As if no sane person would ever create such work. If I painted nude men would they presume I was gay? Or little children and puppies would that make me a pedophile in their eyes. Ludicrousness.

None of that could be further from the truth.

My Artwork has always been about escapism and exploration of the unknown and bizarre.
A world of my own where I have complete control and the liberty to explore any idea. Where no one can tell me I'm wrong or doing it incorrectly. It's not a place to psychoanalyze my childhood or bitch about failed relationships. Anger plays no part in my work. When I create I am happy.

I understand the work that I do is outside the mainstream. That not everyone 'gets' Horror in general or my work specifically. However I would hope that if someone actually bothers to look at the work for what it is they'll see that it has no bearing on my psychology. Instead they see that it is the product of a unique imagination.

My Art is unsettling perhaps but I am not unsettled.

I paint monsters, but am not one.

In the end her comment didn't offend so much as surprise since it came from someone that's educated and supposedly cultured. Though perhaps it shouldn't have surprised me since my work has never really fit in the academic world, even when I was a part of it.

I am fine with that fact.

I suppose all artists no matter their genre or field has to deal with this at some time. Even van Gogh got static for painting the common working man rather then ballerinas or catherdals. de Kooning for his abstract expressionisms and the cliche of ''my kid could do that...''

It is something I've dealt with before, and don't dwell upon. Yet when it comes from someone that you are personally acquainted with then it does strike a nerve.

Perhaps it is better to cause people to feel unsettled about the artist rather then to create work that is bland and banal. Work that puts the viewer into the mental doldrums rather then wondering how long the artist has been an escapee.