Beauty is in the Eye of The....potholder
Art is a strange thing.
It manifests itself in many ways- music, sculpture, dance, written word, spoken word (or unspoken word, if you happen to be a mime) and I have often wondered why people like certain things and others don't. It's all a matter of personal taste, but I have always found it an interesting point to ponder.
I was lucky enough to attend an art show featuring one of my loveliest friends friends in Brisbane last night. I have always loved his paintings, which is how he came to be one of my friends in the first place, and was not disappointed when I arrived to see some of his featured pieces.
It has been a long gasp between drinks since I had gone to a "showing" of sorts. The last time was in Chicago, when I was invited to witness some alternative art at the Old Town School of Music. I was assured that the artist was "ahead of his time" and a "soon-to-be-sought-after genius".
Needless to say, I was quite excited, I had not met many people who fit into the "soon-to-be-sought-after genius" category.
I squirmed in my seat, anxiously awaiting the artists arrival, and when the lights dimmed and the curtain went up, I peered over the large, bald head in front of me to catch a glimpse.
The "artist-cum-soon-to-be-sought-after-genius" approached the middle of the stage, bowed, sat on a stool, and proceeded to burst balloons….with a saw…….
….for 2 hours and 47 minutes….
As the curtain went down, and I was knocked off balance trying to secure the noose I was tying from the ceiling by the upstanding and applauding crowds, I couldn't help but think to myself "WHY? For the love of God, WHY do you like this?"
It then occurred to me that, for whatever reason, this rabid crowd was wailing and scrambling over their chairs to snatch pieces of red, blue and orange latex strewn around the floor, it was their prerogative to like it.
The same can be said for a pair of Ken Done oven mitts / potholders that my mother (bless her) thought would be suitable for my adventures in the kitchen. I know the man is multimillionaire, long standing Australian icon, and thousands of people love his style…and good for them, if it makes them happy. I just think that with a box of magic markers, I can hand some plain white oven gloves to my one-year old niece..and the result will be the same…only $60.00 cheaper.
But back to last night…..
Apart from my friend's paintings, there were larger-than-life Dobermans made out of steel (for $2000.00 a hound you too can scare off the weekend Jehovah's Witnesses…), little robots made out of headlights, paintings and mosaics comprising of aerosols, pieces of wood gathered from the dump and empty vegemite jars, even an old Fuss ball table with a solitary pipe/player in the middle (not sure if it was the artist's impression of the new team out from Cameroon).
Just a side note too - if you do attend one of these events, try to avoid actually standing "in" the art. I thought I was happily perched on a grassy green step for art viewing. Turns out I was wandering all over someone's $2800.00 Fuzzy-felt recreation of an Aussie BBQ …overflowing ashtrays and stubbie coolers included.
All of these exhibits were fascinating, but, in my opinion, paled in the face of the art that I had come to see in the first place.
I am not an art expert. Is there really any such thing as an "Art Expert"? I don't see how there could be, since art is such an subjective thing. One might be very knowledgeable about Art; when and who painted certain works etc, but to claim to know what is "good" art or not, is utter lunacy.
Jackson Pollock's "Blue Poles" is a great example. I look at this painting, and the first I think of is what I might have for lunch tomorrow. Other so-called "experts" have written pages on the brilliance and percipience of "a lot of splotches". The fact that Pollock sold his work to the Australian Government for AUD1.3 million, says to me that, either Prime Minister McMahon was attending too many of his wife's tea parties, or that the Government thought that perhaps the purchase of a painting would perhaps be a good investment for the country's future (the money earned to later be spent on….Health and Education….say…Art Appreciation classes perhaps?).
To me, good art, be it in the form of books, or paintings, or music, is something that, when I experience it, makes me think. It makes me think of one particular thing, and then, when I return to revisit it, makes me think of something else, or perhaps the same thing, but from a different angle.
I have books that I have read, and re-read until they are dog-eared and their binding is coming apart. The man of the manor often asks me why I keep books that I have already pored through twenty times and my answer is always the same: Because, I found something interesting that did not strike me the first nineteen times.
The words and print do not change every time I re-read a book, just like the notes and lyrics in a favored song do not alter each time I listen to it. So too, the colours and pictures in a painting do not move or change each time I stand quietly and observe. What does change are my thoughts and ideas, and this makes good art, from my perspective. If I read, listen, watch, or experience an art-form over and over, with the results constantly reconstructing , then it is something worth having around me (with the exception of the aforementioned mimes. They are just plain scary-ass)
People like different things and view everything from very different angles, and those who claim to know "good" art, perhaps lack this understanding of human nature. It's what makes us all so deliciously diverse.
Simply put, I don't know much about art, but I know what I like.
So, having said that, I won't tell you to rush out and have a look at my friend's (Glenn Brady) art online , because what I think is brilliant, you may beg to differ…(although you must go and have a look at my friend's art online because it IS brilliant…so go and do it!!!)
It manifests itself in many ways- music, sculpture, dance, written word, spoken word (or unspoken word, if you happen to be a mime) and I have often wondered why people like certain things and others don't. It's all a matter of personal taste, but I have always found it an interesting point to ponder.
I was lucky enough to attend an art show featuring one of my loveliest friends friends in Brisbane last night. I have always loved his paintings, which is how he came to be one of my friends in the first place, and was not disappointed when I arrived to see some of his featured pieces.
It has been a long gasp between drinks since I had gone to a "showing" of sorts. The last time was in Chicago, when I was invited to witness some alternative art at the Old Town School of Music. I was assured that the artist was "ahead of his time" and a "soon-to-be-sought-after genius".
Needless to say, I was quite excited, I had not met many people who fit into the "soon-to-be-sought-after genius" category.
I squirmed in my seat, anxiously awaiting the artists arrival, and when the lights dimmed and the curtain went up, I peered over the large, bald head in front of me to catch a glimpse.
The "artist-cum-soon-to-be-sought-after-genius" approached the middle of the stage, bowed, sat on a stool, and proceeded to burst balloons….with a saw…….
….for 2 hours and 47 minutes….
As the curtain went down, and I was knocked off balance trying to secure the noose I was tying from the ceiling by the upstanding and applauding crowds, I couldn't help but think to myself "WHY? For the love of God, WHY do you like this?"
It then occurred to me that, for whatever reason, this rabid crowd was wailing and scrambling over their chairs to snatch pieces of red, blue and orange latex strewn around the floor, it was their prerogative to like it.
The same can be said for a pair of Ken Done oven mitts / potholders that my mother (bless her) thought would be suitable for my adventures in the kitchen. I know the man is multimillionaire, long standing Australian icon, and thousands of people love his style…and good for them, if it makes them happy. I just think that with a box of magic markers, I can hand some plain white oven gloves to my one-year old niece..and the result will be the same…only $60.00 cheaper.
But back to last night…..
Apart from my friend's paintings, there were larger-than-life Dobermans made out of steel (for $2000.00 a hound you too can scare off the weekend Jehovah's Witnesses…), little robots made out of headlights, paintings and mosaics comprising of aerosols, pieces of wood gathered from the dump and empty vegemite jars, even an old Fuss ball table with a solitary pipe/player in the middle (not sure if it was the artist's impression of the new team out from Cameroon).
Just a side note too - if you do attend one of these events, try to avoid actually standing "in" the art. I thought I was happily perched on a grassy green step for art viewing. Turns out I was wandering all over someone's $2800.00 Fuzzy-felt recreation of an Aussie BBQ …overflowing ashtrays and stubbie coolers included.
All of these exhibits were fascinating, but, in my opinion, paled in the face of the art that I had come to see in the first place.
I am not an art expert. Is there really any such thing as an "Art Expert"? I don't see how there could be, since art is such an subjective thing. One might be very knowledgeable about Art; when and who painted certain works etc, but to claim to know what is "good" art or not, is utter lunacy.
Jackson Pollock's "Blue Poles" is a great example. I look at this painting, and the first I think of is what I might have for lunch tomorrow. Other so-called "experts" have written pages on the brilliance and percipience of "a lot of splotches". The fact that Pollock sold his work to the Australian Government for AUD1.3 million, says to me that, either Prime Minister McMahon was attending too many of his wife's tea parties, or that the Government thought that perhaps the purchase of a painting would perhaps be a good investment for the country's future (the money earned to later be spent on….Health and Education….say…Art Appreciation classes perhaps?).
To me, good art, be it in the form of books, or paintings, or music, is something that, when I experience it, makes me think. It makes me think of one particular thing, and then, when I return to revisit it, makes me think of something else, or perhaps the same thing, but from a different angle.
I have books that I have read, and re-read until they are dog-eared and their binding is coming apart. The man of the manor often asks me why I keep books that I have already pored through twenty times and my answer is always the same: Because, I found something interesting that did not strike me the first nineteen times.
The words and print do not change every time I re-read a book, just like the notes and lyrics in a favored song do not alter each time I listen to it. So too, the colours and pictures in a painting do not move or change each time I stand quietly and observe. What does change are my thoughts and ideas, and this makes good art, from my perspective. If I read, listen, watch, or experience an art-form over and over, with the results constantly reconstructing , then it is something worth having around me (with the exception of the aforementioned mimes. They are just plain scary-ass)
People like different things and view everything from very different angles, and those who claim to know "good" art, perhaps lack this understanding of human nature. It's what makes us all so deliciously diverse.
Simply put, I don't know much about art, but I know what I like.
So, having said that, I won't tell you to rush out and have a look at my friend's (Glenn Brady) art online , because what I think is brilliant, you may beg to differ…(although you must go and have a look at my friend's art online because it IS brilliant…so go and do it!!!)
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