power objects -- user manual

Back on april 14 this year we discussed power objects, ‘power objects -- modern methods,’ about how artists taking on their role as community shaman had found new ways to apply ancient principles, imbuing inanimate objects with potency, charging them up like renewable batteries. Didn’t say much about how to use your power object, that’s personal and subjective, but general do’s and don’ts apply.

Buying a piece of original art for decoration is an extravagant choice really. To acquire the nugget formed in the crucible of another person’s life experience, just to add a little red, to maintain a theme, is rich indeed, like insisting your socks be hand-woven by a princess. Every image ever recorded, protected or not, is available on the net for a one-off, and you can have it billboard size if you want. Why bother with, and why pay for original art if you’re just going for a ‘certain look?’

More likely would be to buy original art for social affirmation, the way it’s sometimes sold. This is squishy territory, anticipating what the neighbors will think when you have them over for drinks, the boss, the in-laws. In effect this line of thinking nullifies individual opinion, an abdication really, and gives gallery personnel the green light to tout just about anything on hand. On the up side, people who also buy their art this way will recognize the pointlessness of your expenditures, connection made.

Best would be to purchase significant art at some personal sacrifice, giving up something else just to own it, justified because of the difference it’s going to make in the quality of life from here on out. Obviously wealthier folks have to stretch a little further. Let me explain. Original art has qualities other stuff doesn’t, and you can get all mystical about it or stick to facts, comes out the same. Let’s do facts. First of all, this thing, being made by hand, is rare, and becoming rarer, people 3-D printing chess pieces while they’re making toast. That in itself has value and it only gets better with age. There’s also consciousness. 

If it looks like a pot of flowers, a sunset, anything like your uncle bob you can pretty well bet it wasn’t the artist’s first try, even the second. The image you’re seeing is witness to long practice and a stubborn insistence on communication, sharing their vision, since it’s so much easier to gain acceptance doing abstract/accidental these days. In this respect this object exhibits an extra dimension, the accumulated effort and intention of years behind it, constructing a dense and manifold image, as well as a testimonial to the interests and character of the mind that made it. This level of perception isn’t the least mystical, but a basic human attribute located in a seldom visited sector of every citizen’s personal bandwidth. Access is gained by looking at all original art with interest. This lights up the circuits, the way just knowing a lot won’t and doesn’t. After a certain amount of looking some piece of art will wind up in your home, a mystical advantage, it turns out, in a computer logical universe.