Quite often the point of surrealism is to show a strange, disturbing point of view.

Anyone can take what they see and draw/paint/sculpt/film a version of it, to varying levels of success, of course. Most argue that good art not only reflects, it also gives the viewer a new way of looking at the subject. That is the very basic way that I look at surrealism.

GD brought up Magritte - here's my favorite one of his, titled The Kiss:



I saw this in person and was blown away by the idea of it. It fills my head with meanings. I think of it as showing that outward acts of affection don't mean everything, that many relationships have invisible boundaries, that a kiss is a kiss no matter who the kissers are...there are many ways to look at it. (I have never looked up the "official" interpretations and I intend not to.) A drawing of two normal people kissing would never have this impact on anyone.

You'd be doing yourself a disservice if you discarded this opportunity to try something new and instead made a joke of it. As someone who was not raised on art, never did much formal study, and now loves the more challenging aspects of it, I think everyone should give surrealism a real shot. There are many different artists, many different ways to enter it, and I can practically guarantee that there is some artist somewhere that can provide a good connection for you.

I would say a strange OR disturbing point of view because I don't find surrealism to be all disturbing. Strange is a term that i think can easily be applied to most of it. I find a lot of surrealist work very beautiful - like a strange yet calming dream. That's the connection with the unconscious that surrealism is making. I think some of us have more violent dreams than others - dreams that probably come out of our sub-conscious.

To add in a Disney element - beyond the obvious Disney/Dali Destino collaboration - Thru the Mirror is wonderfully surrealist and it could be argued that The Scorcer's Apprentice has elements of surrealism.

Add 'Pink Elephants On Parade' from Dumbo, 'Heffalumps and Woozles' from Winnie The Pooh and the Blustery Day, pretty much all of Alice In Wonderland, big chunks of The Three Caballeros and Saludos Amigos.

A discussion of modern surrealism is not complete without mention of Haruki Murakami. He's a Japanese novelist, many of us on the board have mentioned his books a lot (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase, Kafka on te Shore). Very accessible writing that definitely epitomizes surrealism. On the American side, Kurt Vonnegut definitely makes use of a surrealist elements in his writing.

If Dali intrigues you, in layman's language, I would define his surrealism as where reality meets the unlimited boundaries of dreams.

Kind of like where something happens in a dream that you know is impossible in real life yet there you are in a dream reality where it does, indeed, exist.

Sometimes, I wake screaming in the night,
With the overwhelming desire to staple my eyes and mouth shut
To block out the sound of the walls as my house tumble dries my tears

Not surrealism, but some really good drugs. Sorry I'm of no assistance here.

I'm superior to you, for you have not accepted the value of my art.

:)

Wow. I re-read your post to make sure I didn't miss it. Apparently that paragraph was firmly in my blind spot.

Isn't surrealism that wonderful place where the sidewalk ends?