Tom Hubbard's Digital                          and Photo Images

My work has a strong resemblance to Paleolithic cave art. I know, I’m using a computer but, I feel akin to these early humans scratching on walls. The Paleolithic period covered approximately 30,000 years. What we call civilization is about 10,000 years old. Modern commercial/industrial times are only a few hundred years old. Our bodies and psyches have adapted to this modern environment but, a great part of us resides in Paleolithic times. Humans were Paleolithic people longer than they have been anything else. Modern humans are recent.

My art appeals to this Paleolithic sensibility in us. When we suspend the modern thought pattern we live with, my art appeals. I come to this conclusion from watching the public at galleries and art shows. My art appeals most strongly to two classes of people, adults with some art orientation and, most surprising to me, a cross section of young people centering around nine years old.

By “art orientation,” I mean an appreciation of art beyond mass media. Mass media concentrates on art expression that moves or sound that blasts. Art orientation teaches you to appreciate something that is quiet and static, inviting a deep introspection. The art orientated and young are my home demographics, the people who stop, look and chat, and sometimes buy. I can see it in their eyes and hands as they flip through bins of prints. Their Paleolithic sensibility is thrilled at what they see. They often express it. I’ve abbreviated the most frequent comment. I call it Complementary Comment on My Color or, CCMC. CCMC comes every time anyone spends more than 60 seconds looking at my prints.

This was the common orientation for most human moments until a few years ago. Our psyche demands this reflection/introspection and, our bodies rebel if it’s absent. Medication works but, it’s like using a sledge hammer crack a peanut.

The appreciation of young people is understandable. They haven’t been fully orientated to the demands of our culture, which appreciates and rewards doing, not reflection. 

Young people and the art orientated appreciate color. Color sensitivity was first a physical survival skill, later transformed into a psychic survival skill. Our North American culture sees excessive color as a symptom of naiveté. It’s evident in our love of the clown. Clowns ignore this cultural restriction, fulfilling our fantasy.

I live in the modern world so, I have a classic marketing problem. People want my product but, they don’t know it.