The Heartbreak of Post Modernism

Last Saturday, I went to the local museum of contemporary art here in town, for a show on biomorphic forms in sculpture. This is right up my alley, if I had to choose one tidy phrase to describe my own sculpture, it could be that. As far as I can tell, the Kunsthaus Graz is generally regarded as a fine example of contemporary art exhibition - lots of group shows on interesting themes, a center just for Austrian photography, emphasis on mixed media and integration of electronic arts exhibits, and so on. Well curated, well documented (pamphlets and artist statements and all that). Presumably this means they are experts in their field, and when I go there I am visiting a shrine to St. Luke, holy ground, consecrated to the higher realms of capital-A-Art.

So.... why is it that every goddamn time I go to an exhibit of contemporary art, I come out angry? Am I not achieving the necessary enlightenment? Am I really so ignorant of what makes art good, in the sense of being worthy of my regard?

There's an argument that suggests that modern art is egalitarian. It's there for everyone, and so by extension, we can see that it's not there for ME (that would be elitism, you see). But I don't buy that. I am part of everyone, and if I am continually repelled by what's selected as an example of Art... there may be something amiss in the selection criteria.

One thing that really baffles me is that I can't for the life of me figure out what the selection criteria are. The selection isn't necessarily about quality of craftsmanship. It's not obviously about Concept. They have themes, so there's a vague sense of unity, but surely they don't simple accept the first 30 artists who have a good story about how their work connects to the appointed theme? Or maybe that IS the case.

Maybe I should just start submitting things to museums when they open calls for shows. I am persistently plagued by the belief that this is more about who you know than what you've got to show, but I could be fooling myself. Maybe I should sew breasts on a bath towel and start shopping it around to contemporary galleries, as Louise Bourgeous has apparently done.

Unfinished Business

The hiatus here has been long and unwarranted, but I figured it was better to stress about not creating, than about not blogging about not creating. In any event, I finally got back in the saddle about 2 months ago, and have been trying to learn a bit of oil technique. Having just come off watercolors, it's been challenging, to say the least. However, I'm starting to get a better feel for it. Still not sure this is the right medium for me (in fact, pretty sure it's not) but it can be somewhat satisfying nonetheless.

Perhaps the hardest thing for me is the long open time of the paint. I've got all these unfinished paintings around. Some are, truthfully, unstarted. Don't be fooled by how much paint is already on the canvas. It might be good for me to have to look at my unfinished work every day, though. Although I'd like to have a studio space separate from my living space, I also like to live in the work. This is not an office job.

I'm posting these unfinished images without comment, without editing, and in some cases, apparently without even focusing the camera. When the things are complete, I'll get more pictures. Please feel free to comment, all feedback is welcome, even if it's the basic like/don't like reaction.

Every post needs a title, or I can't find the comments later!

Warning: Brilliance Ahead!

There's a feature on the news here about Kehinde Wiley. The paintings speak for themselves, and the link just takes you to a Google search. It's f'ing brilliant. Just go look.

Still not dead, still no mojo.

But, nonetheless, check Nick Veasey, xray art photographer.

Holy crap that's cool.

I'm not dead, but I play one on TV.

Until I get my mojo back, please enjoy these HDR pictures of graffiti.

ABUZEEDO

Easily Amused.

I'm going to go take some pictures of things I've done this week RIGHT NOW, but for the time being, and because I'll want to review it later myself, I give you The FBI Art Crimes Web Site where you can read about what's been stolen from where and when. They say art crimes is a $300 billion annual losses for the law abiding world. I think if I'd known about this when I was going though career counseling in high school, I would've wanted to do that for a living.

The real down side of art theft, of course, is the movies about art theft, which are almost always trashy vehicles for people in the Top 10 Sexiest lists to make out in exotic places. (After the Sunset, Entrapment, Ocean's Twelve, and Bean*.) And, you know, if that's what art crimes is all about, than I guess I'm OK with being in the FBI team that works on that.

* Really, I just wanted to know if you are paying attention. Although the thing with the turkey was memorable, it wasn't in the same league as seeing Pierce Brosnan lick Salma Hayek's navel.

Further

Not as excited about this one as I would like to be, but it might be growing on me. I will give it time to ripen, but I'm not going to run out and get it framed just yet.

Thanks to some excellent advice, you can see my "extra white" paper now at least looks like it might be "at all white." (Not to be confused with "hussy white.") Still not a great photograph, but better. And I expect yet better in the future.

Which reminds me... I have spent a little quality time with my camera in the last couple of days. I confess, I've kind of been treating it like a flashlight... it's a handy electric device that I need to use sometimes, and I try to keep the battery fresh, and I can work the buttons without any thought. BUT! I've been shooting auto. Auto focus, sure, 'cause I have problems with that (eye-based problems) but also letting the camera work out the exposures and all that. And that's just lazy. Pure laziness, on my part. I can admit this.

So, I dug up the manual, learned the last 3 things I needed to know, in order to own the manual settings, and shot a few "rolls." As in, literally, I treated it like I was shooting film. 12, 24, 36 exposures of this kind or that (B&W, color, different speeds, etc) to get back in the swing of working the aperture and shutter settings. Sure, I took a lot of crap pictures, but then I eventually evened out, and can take the picture I want much, much faster and easier than trying to coax the full-auto modes to give me what I want. Hell, it was faster and easier than getting those same shots would've been on an old school SLR (non digital), even not counting developing & printing..

It amazes me sometimes how being lazy can actually make me do more work. Besides that, I bought the camera I have specifically because it has some features I really wanted in a digital--it's compact, it allows 100% manual control, it can shoot silently, and it's fairly powerful (considering the size). So there's really no excuse to treat it like a flashlight.