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Is it Art?
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6/7/2006
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Art is what anyone wants to call art, and that is precisely why most art sucks. The most common argument to this completely solid line of logic is, "But it's a form of expressing onesself through creativity." To which I respond, "That still doesn't mean it's art. I sing my balls off in the shower to express myself creatively, but that doesn't make it something I expect people to pay for or even respect."
Art, regardless of the popular definition, is defined as creative expression executed with some degree of skill. Skill is what is most often missing in what is commonly known as art. I'm speaking mostly of visual arts, because when it comes to things like dancing and singing, it is always obvious when someone sucks at it, and people like Simon Cowell are not afraid to say so. When you call out a stupid waste of canvas painting, however, everyone acts like you just kicked a retard.
"What the hell happened here? Did a robot barf?"
"Dusty! It's FOLK ART."
"Folk art? Is "folk" the ancient Celtic word for "Shitty"? All I'm seeing is what looks like the guts of a microwave oven glued to a tire and painted green."
If you are the kind of person who doesn't like everything you are supposed to like, you know exactly what I am talking about. If you have been to any of the eleventeen festivals around Atlanta in the past six weeks, you know from whence came the inspiration for this little bit of rantology. The mere fact that no one else has done it does not art make.
Most people want to express themselves in some way. Unfortunately, only a tiny percentage of people wait until they have the skill sufficient to express themselves effectively. For instance, Monet could very easily have been another crappy impressionist, but he worked for most of his life to perfect it, and actually changed the world in some way. No one is going to remember the guy who perfected hot gluing pringles to a turd, because that is creativity without skill and the world does not need smelly chips or salty turds.
I swear I am making a point, so shut up.
Look around you at things that are not considered art in the general sense. Have you ever seen someone who can do something -anything- so well that you can't stop watching? I work with a guy who eats a hot pocket for luch every day. I have worked there almost six years and I have never seen the guy eat anything else. He cuts the hot pocket the same way every day- twice down the center lengthwise, and four times across. I bet if you weighed the pieces they wouldn't vary by more than a couple of milligrams between them. That's how good this guy is at cutting a hot pocket. He's good at other stuff too, but he could be on the wheaties box for hot pocket cutting. In a weird way, it is art. In another weird way, I am insane for even noticing.
Same with the guy I saw at the show who paints reflective surfaces in watercolor. Watercolor is a bitch in some ways, but this cat makes it sing. I stood with my nose about four inches from one of his paintings trying to decode brush strokes and figure out how he did it. He has worked for years to find his style, and only then did it become art. Before that, it was what my own work is- practice.
I have sat in the cockpit with my dad and watched him fly a plane. The guy can aviate like nothing I have ever seen. I'll make everybody on board puke with my interpretive approach style, but pops just brings it in like the control surfaces are attached directly to his brain. He also probably has a lot more missed approaches than I have had time to rack up, but it was all practice. After 40 years of flying, it is art.
Skill is what creates an artist- never the other way around; and the artist sometimes eventually starts creating art. The intermediate stuff is necessary, but should probably be kept in the garage until the artist is famous (or dead), because only then will it demand a price. When it really becomes art, you don't have to tell anybody you are an artist, either. They'll know.
 Dusty
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posted by Dusty at 8:06 AM |
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14 Comments:
On a side note, I've seen how you put your parents on a pedestal in past entries. That's a rare thing. There are no two finer people on this earth then either of my parents - at least in my eyes. I've seen how some of my friends or co-workers have basically pushed their parents away almost as if they are no longer needed in their life. Disapointing.
Keep writing the "art".
Excuse the rampant all-caps, but oh, man, you have no idea how long I've been waiting to hear someone else say that. As a student of art history, I'm subjected at the beginning every semester to yet another self-important professor's lecture on how we're supposed to whole-heartedly (nay, eagerly!) accept a urinal mounted on a pedestal as art. Your post was a breath of fresh air for me. If ever I end up teaching art history (a definite possibility), I'll skip the lecture and just pass out copies of your rant instead.
And yes, Monet was amazing. He's one of my favorites, in fact.
don't get me wrong, I totally agree with your post, but to add to the definition... where stops being practice in the case of people like Picasso.
robot barf
pringles to a turd
If I get fired today for getting busted spending too much time on the Internet, it's because I laughed too loudly at these three phrases. Consider "robot barf" stolen.
Meet me in da cluuuub
It's goin' doooown
Meet me in da maaaall
It's goin' doooown
Meet me in da cluuuub
It's goin' doooown
Either way guarantee it's goin' down!
Genious, baby! GENIOUS!!!
Now, back to our regularly programmed lack of sarcasm.
Also, that guy that Kathleen was talking about? I think his name was Andy Warhol...
Monet did not create of define impressionism -- his cataracts did.
The degree to which impressionism was "elevated" was nothing more than a medical mistake. When his cataracts were at his worst, his paintings looked like someone barfed on the canvas. YEt they are on par with his "Water Lilies"?
Gah ...
Just more evidence that people mistake quality by skill and the name of the artist. Isn't it possible that even the best artist sometimes achieves just crap instad of genius?
Hopefully you don't mind me blogging you, as well as posting in a dao yahoo group? If so, let me know and I'll delete.
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