The question is, what are we speaking about when we consider the concept "Upbeat NeoPop?"

We have traveled a great distance since the emergence of Pop Art in the late 1950's and 1960's. A rich and exiting journey through Neo -Romanticism in Britain and Abstract Expression in America led the way to the early days of Pop. We now exist in the epoch of NeoPop.

It began with the reinterpreting of previous conceptions that related to Pop Art. Links between certain antecedent and existing styles were and are being forged. We have been hurled up onto a new plateau of knowledge and understanding where we are beginning to experience a new kind of communication. Our pioneer days are over and exciting new concepts are part of our being. For example 'Superflat' introduced to us by Takashi Murakami in Japan, Romero Britto a NeoPop heavy weight in America, Jeff Koons' new brand of Pop fusing fun and fantasy in his series 'Easy fun-Ethereal' engage us in our celebration.

"Upbeat NeoPop" is a concept being proposed by Rae Heint, and due to its connotations is drawing attention from young scholars in Australia. It is Upbeat because it is cheerful and optimistic. Mankind has always been infested with images, and many of them, unimaginative, aggressive and even irritating. We must stop and question? Do we like it? Is this where we want to be? Where are we going? We come to a fundamental question in our existence. Where have we come from? Where are we now? And where are we going? As artists we must be able to answer. Our global society, our multicultural way of life is brightly coloured and cheerful. Just look around us.

Mark making ideas involved in the construction of the work, relate to antecedent styles that began back in the1960's. Here in Upbeat NeoPop, symbols, hard edge, a considerable degree of unmixed colour, and decorativeness are valued. Paintings are three dimensional. Popular culture changes, it moves forward, therefore our knowledge of the significance of symbols follows.

Symbols are used to create an ideal world. It is a safe environment where we can experiment and play. We leave behind our early signs, some of which were almost consumable. (soup cans for example. Symbols that relate to the corporate world and convenience stores.) Our intent has changed. Figurative images, and in particular, figures that are products of popular culture, introduces the eccentric element of playfulness. Images from the animal kingdom remain important. They remind us of another existence that parallels that of human life. Sometimes they are signifiers pointing the way to stories. They bring us into contact with personal mythologies; they may spring from the reality of past events (history for example), past personal experience (the creators subconscious), or perhaps from no specific place at all (places or event not as yet understood by mankind). Mark making is an artists way of traveling and the resulting picture is a metaphor for the experience. Here we exist in a place between reality and illusion. It is a place from which we can move forward, continuously shedding the prisons of our own creation, in the same way as a lizard sheds it's skin and moves on, into a fresh new season.

Decorative mark making is in keeping with the idea of an ideal world; perhaps one that parallels childhood. Elements of decorativeness remind us of our ability for creative play; the kind of play known to children who live in a world without fear. Here things are not yet fixed, paths are still open; new concepts can be grasped and understood.

Hard edge and immaculate design remain central in the proposed concept, being baptised at the 'Red Lips Studio' in South Australia. The work is now three dimensional, a progression from the 'Warholians'. The style is busy and tight, the idea being to create an illusion of pressure on the symbols and a tension at the edges of the work. If a work is framed, the frame should be an integral part of the work, as this creates a further tension on the edges. The construction of the image remains important, however we are now more concerned about the architecture of perceptual values than the mere construction of an image. The rhythm of the past is still felt but it is upbeat and emotive. It is a vision that is multifaceted existing in a world where creativity can never die, as it is not observed as a linear experience.

Colour is life. It is a mystery that the human mind has attempted to understand throughout millennia, and still remains a mystery. Not only are we dependent on it, but deeply affected by our perception of it. When our landscape is without colour we perceive it as dead, and when our paintings lack colour they appear lifeless. Bright lively colours that link us to convenience stores and the corporate world are fun and are yet another connection to our ancestors' concepts of what pop was about. The canvas's explode visually before the viewer, pleasing the senses, causing one to look, more than this to look again, and to look beyond. This heightening of feeling is achieved, with a harmony of colour, space, texture and decorative, mark making The viewer is carried beyond physical experience, searching and seeking a state of spirit.

Ideas relating to compositional process, concerned with conceptions of complexity date back to the discoveries and teaching of Jasper Johns. ("At every point in nature there is something to see. My work contains similar possibilities for the changing focus of the eye. “Generally I am opposed to painting which is concerned with conception of simplicity. Everything looks very busy to me". Jasper Johns (Sixteen Americans: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1959.) Now we attempt to paint mystery itself, and mystery is complex. It is the antithesis of a flat two dimensional world, created in an un magical kingdom for the commercial domain. It is for artists an experience in uncertainty. There is confusion and disorder as the choices involved in making a work of art are infinite. Change is an inevitable part of life, and we struggle to develop an emotional condition that enables us to cope as we continue to progress in our art. Out of chaos disorder and uncertainty, always new ideas and solutions spontaneously arise, and provide mankind with a new way to proceed.

Paintings are signifiers that bring us into contact with ideas and stories; here we are again linked to our past, but these stories are also an important link to others. We are connected to those around us; people in other lands; as many of our tales are universal. In our now global civilisation more than ever before we seek common ground; a means of communication. A painter's world of symbols provides us with a safe place to play. Here we can create a world of optimism and hope; a guide as to where we wish to go. A wish must arrive before travel is possible. The central figure in this suite of paintings is "Princess NeoPop" as displayed in the March edition of Art and Australia magazine in Australia. She is quintessentially Australian; a multicultural young woman, wandering along in life, always in a garden of sonorous colour. A playful storyteller, connecting and linking transcendental values; always in the present, but with a futuristic glance that considers an infinity of possibilities, existing in a world where humans experience, mystery magic, adventure and an uncertainty that is central to our experience of life. She is a product of popular culture, the antitheses of anything known, and therefore removes the viewer from the known.

"joie de vivre: permeates the work, and is expressed in a figurative and compositional process emphasising such positive values, as love, joy and curiosity. The whole experience is heightened, by blending different schools of thought into one. It involves a process of thinking where ideas are connected intuitively rather than by a particular logic. All this then places the viewer in a position where it is possible to perceive a place that is a sharp contrast to the cynical and aggressive world in which many of us live.

This is the world of "Upbeat NeoPop".

Rae Heint 2003