Art or Not?

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Seems like all I do these days is think?! My mind runs over with thoughts and things that I want to say - reactions to things I see that make me think and want to write what I feel. Time is the enemy though! I never seem to have time to write. This morning, I'm forcing myself to sit here...

I'm watching 'Ovation Tv's ' "Art or Not?" and it's causing some revelations? in my mind - such as;
I've always tried to fit in with the popular culture of the time and I've always failed. Does that make me an 'individual' or just a failure at 'fitting-in'?

Art, such a big part of my world these days - I don't fit in. I like to put wildlife 'art' out there and things that are recognizable. All of my 'peers' it seems these days are focusing on what I've always considered controversial and rebellious... I don't feel that it's art to put macaroni on a board with other ephemera and try to create a "message" - no matter the message, but the more controversial the better it seems... I don't know what these people are thinking - it's popular to think that if we talk in a jumble and create something that supposedly makes us "think" that that's art.
I guess my work is not art in this respect. I don't have a "message" to put out there by putting a deer in a mountain scene. I just want to give the viewer something beautiful to look at and hopefully appreciate. These "Rayman" type dolls that seem to be spreading everywhere aren't art to me - my 8 year son can and does put out stuff like that. And, still, the only one that probably appreciates what HE does is he adoring mother! lol I keep telling him, if you make that kind of stuff you'll probably go far in that people now are more apt to buy such "crap" as that as they are something I do. It's "popular" and very "collegiant" to buy something based on abstract, "message" or thought-provoking work than something you don't have to go to college to appreciate.

I'll never be part of the "now" culture - I went to college and took Art - I left - I can't see the value in Gauguin , or Picasso, or in old Black & White movies. I think the tattoo artists are amazing. I just got a drawing of what I'll be getting - the typical Phoenix, rising from the flames would have been okay, but this guy is amazing! It's beautiful and speaks to me - it will remind me that even though I've been thru so much, I'm still rising from the pain and ashes of my old life, growing to be a much more beautiful person. So much goes into that one skin painting for me. As it does for most people that get one... Now, that is art to me - it does make me think, but most of all, it is beautiful to look at. As an "artist", I have another view - that of what it takes to create such a piece. I can look at it aesthetically or technically... it will always mean something to me - it's not for someone else, just me....
There's an English woman putting bread, fried eggs, and other crap on a table - it's gallery worthy... why? Have WE made it this way. It used to be unpopular and outsider art - now it's the norm... Does that make me and what I do now the outsider? Unique, special, or boring...

Why do we feel that we must have to THINK of the alternative meaning of an object and "what the artist was trying to SAY"? Why can't we just have art to appreciate? In my attempts to be like the popular culture I've failed. Does that mean that what I do, or others like me, is not art? Because it's not making a "statement"? I don't want the person looking at my pieces to feel that they have to "relate" to me... I don't believe that my work has to "say" something to be viewed as art - does that make me less of an artist, or less "creative"?

There, that's my ramblings for today - now I'm going to get to work. Hopefully my stupid mindless ramblings will shut off long enough for me to "create" something "meaningful"! lol