Art works because each of us feels alone, and art is the way back to a friendlier place. Nothing is much friendlier than sharing a deeply held truth about yourself with others, even if it’s only you and the artist. Thoughtful people look for and sometimes find themselves in art. Maybe they find the art they would have made if they’d just given up their career and devoted themselves to art for decades, or maybe they feel connection, an empathy for a piece – they don’t know why. Now if someone else, maybe a total stranger, seems to like the same piece, chances are better than average they’ll have other things in common – a fondness for ethnic food, a tendency to drive too fast, a preference for city life, even though they may not speak. Whatever it is they’re responding to can’t be talked about directly. That’s because words can’t follow everywhere pictures can go – it's the reason we have art around.
Also see "The More Things Change, The More Art Remains True." Published in Business Lexington, December 24, 2010: http://www.bizlex.com/Articles-c-2010-12-20-96436.113117-The-more-things-change-the-more-art-remains-true.html
Friday, December 17, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
published in Bizlex
It’s been a while since I blogged. For one thing I had an article published in Business Lexington, a mashup of two previous posts called “Putting Creativity on the Payroll”, suggesting that CEO’s put an artist on the payroll just to be an artist, and one on buying from local artists, "Art Destinations Need Patrons Who Prize Hometown Art". (See links below.) The intent is to foster an indigenous movement which supports working artists and recognizes their contribution as members of a progressive and humane community.
I think art movements begin with awakening audiences, not with genius artists, and why not here and now is my question. We look around to find ourselves in a desert, miles and miles of seamless walls and nothing but decorator prints and couch paintings. Information and exposure is all the water we need.
The way we were……….
Essentially I think there are artists everywhere, and the variable factor is audience, which has been suppressed by both commercial and academic interests. The business side wants to narrow and control the product producing artificial scarcity, while the state-supported side wants to avoid the scrutiny of just about everybody while getting paid. They both promote an exclusionary art which justifies itself through a consensus of self-interests, and each affects a manner aloof and condescending toward the general public. This isn’t the time to argue with them, and prove them wrong -- it’s time to do something else.
http://www.bizlex.com/Articles-c-2010-10-14-95608.113117-Putting-creativity-on-the-payroll.html
www.bizlex.com/Articles-c-2010-11-24-96181.113117-Art-destinations-need-patrons-who-prize-hometown-art.html
I think art movements begin with awakening audiences, not with genius artists, and why not here and now is my question. We look around to find ourselves in a desert, miles and miles of seamless walls and nothing but decorator prints and couch paintings. Information and exposure is all the water we need.
The way we were……….
Essentially I think there are artists everywhere, and the variable factor is audience, which has been suppressed by both commercial and academic interests. The business side wants to narrow and control the product producing artificial scarcity, while the state-supported side wants to avoid the scrutiny of just about everybody while getting paid. They both promote an exclusionary art which justifies itself through a consensus of self-interests, and each affects a manner aloof and condescending toward the general public. This isn’t the time to argue with them, and prove them wrong -- it’s time to do something else.
http://www.bizlex.com/Articles-c-2010-10-14-95608.113117-Putting-creativity-on-the-payroll.html
www.bizlex.com/Articles-c-2010-11-24-96181.113117-Art-destinations-need-patrons-who-prize-hometown-art.html
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