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Artist Types

2/19/2019

There are two types of artists (of course there are many more commercial artists) but in terms of fine art basically two.

One sits in solitary confinement and explores their inner world as a way to reach the universe. And often if they are persistent and committed will stumble onto magic, the magic of connecting with symbols and thoughts beyond their own that seem to come from an archetypal ether that are available to all who become that focussed and open. They dream and connect with inner worlds that often have connections with all knowledge, way beyond their own culture and upbringing and society.

When I graduated from OCAD and began painting a series of bird women I was totally shocked at what I produced! I have always been an urbanite and never even thought about nature...no one was more surprised than I. I also had never read anything about Indigenous beliefs or was even interested in it. Then one day at MOMA in NY I saw a whole floor of birdwomen sculptures from early Europe. Nothing is totally new or unique it seems.

I think artists are conduits for the universe...and to blame them or curtail them is ridiculous.
Of course there a lot of charlatans who simply piggyback on what others produce....and then maybe we can call that cultural appropriation.

That is the other type of artist, who watches and observes and then produces what is in fashion, without it really being meaningful to them. Like a young woman in Toronto who liked Norval Morrisseau's pretty colours and shapes (so she claimed) and basically reproduced them with her own signature and tried to have a solo exhibit with them in Toronto. They were unrelated to whom she was and the symbols had no significant meaning for her. She was playing at being a thriving artist, without the hard work and hassle of digging into herself and discovering what she had to communicate to the world.

PAINTINGS Need To Give Birth To Contemplation

2/9/2019

Many people are enamoured with technique when looking at a painting, especially when it is an exact copy of a photograph, i.e. photorealism. But really, what is the point of doing exact copies of something a photograph does really well already. As far as I can see none. A painting is special in that it can speak immediately to your heart or gut and you can either love it or hate it, both valid reactions. But something that you can say only intellectually that is well rendered...well it is simply boring and says nothing. Francis Bacon said that the purpose of art is to portray mystery. I agree. A painting needs to make you feel and see something that is intriguing, makes you want to think about it, be disturbed. And also be beautifully done, even if it is only a few strokes on a canvas. Paintings that say it all, including upholstery patterns just don't leave room for your mind to become ignited, to evoke contemplation. Giving birth to contemplation is the real purpose of a painting. Contemplation is not conceptualization.

We Are Moving Towards A New Era of Art As We Move Towards A New Socio-Democracy In Society And Politics

12/23/2018

Did anyone notice that not only is kitsch in style now and consultants are openly telling rich collectors to buy it, the kitschier the better, but also art, even good art is being framed in the kitschiest possible style. If you don't believe me just look at the documentary, "The Price of Everything".

It reminds me a bit of the Rococo era, which was the end of the Baroque period where everything was over the top decorative, dripping in elaborate ornamentation and fanciful curves.

That whole period was associated with the high life of wealthy Aristocracy, especially in France. Towards the end of Rococo, the French people had had enough, and the French Revolution toppled the monarchy and power of the aristocrats. And then, art did what art always does when there is a major social or political shift, it changed as well and left Rococo behind.

Maybe we are at the end of the high life of Industrial Magnates, who replaced the Aristocracy and it will take a social-political revolution to leave the kitschy art behind. The revolution seems to be happening albeit slowly and so far mostly thanks to social media...if FB doesn't limit us further.

I predict that art will once again return to acknowledging beauty and soul (after Rococo came Neo-classisim) once society becomes social-democratic, and the tyrannical Magnates and corrupt Industrials are forced to leave. It might only take bankrupting them and voting out the politicians that support them without a need of arms.

After Minimalism Came Kitschism

12/15/2018

I just finished watching "The price of Everything" on Netflix and I am all the more confirmed that the marketplace has killed art. After impressionism, expression and minimalism came kitschism, because that is what is fashionable now and selling for 75 million...consultants are telling rich people that a piece of art is stupid and meaningless and that is why they should buy it. And they do, for millions. It is all a con game using artists as pawns with no integrity ethics or rules. At the end of the documentary finally the truth is told that history is ruthless and it is very doubtful that the biggest selling artists living now will remain in history books, rather it is more likely they will be cut out. So artists, you have a choice to make, do you want fame and money now or have your art stay in history and be immortal?

Conceptualism

12/14/2018

Conceptualism is still alive and well except on screen now instead of paper and canvas ...a theme that is talked about with little regard for the quality of the visuals themselves. The theme maybe important but if presented in an uninteresting manner loses its impact. And you have to present written contexts next to the visuals to know what is going on. Even in this latest AGO show the larger photos on metal were shit...simply badly done...and the portraits were not enhanced by all that glitter. Kitschy. I liked the theme but found the art ho-hum, except for maybe one image...the video was also boring, albeit meant to shock...the previous show at AGO, by Rebecca Belmore had much more depth and quality of artistic merit. It was brilliant...there was a video that actually spoke about reality and moved you..not conceptualism...you understood it without having to go and read about it. You felt it.

The industrial age has killed art...

12/13/2018

Have you ever noticed that when you are an artist, you like to talk about how everybody has their own vocation and that you were meant to be an artist, especially if you have family money to rely on......and if you are a garbage collector you talk about survival in this shitty world...and you are sure that you were really meant to be an artist....so the first opportunity you have at piling paint on a page...you are inspired tp pursue the career of an artist instead and if you are a good business man/woman, you might actually eke a living, especially if you happen to be digitally savvy...you don't even need to know how to draw or paint or design or think or anything else in the art profession..., just squish some pixels in a program on the computer.

Galleries now often don't want to show paintings and drawings as being passe and only contemporary art which means hanging used stockings on a stick (installation) or presenting a boring video in a loop. Did you notice that the more boring the photo the larger in size as if size were to compensate for actually saying something or beauty.

Mixed media is the new catch phrase....again usually meaning a few brush strokes on a photo, large of course!

The Turner Prize 2018 was given to a woman who made a "film" on a I Phone, meaning she overlapped some images and recorded some trite thoughts on top about herself of course...blah blah blah....this is the largest prize an artist can get...there are a lot of brilliant movies ...this in comparison is really mickey mouse.

A truly great painting, that is alive (as Van Gogh said a painting should be) that effects you would have been more worthy to receive such a prize...me thinks.

Art As A Cure For Your Ills - And artists are often NOT healthy at all!

12/9/2018

Play in the mud when it is raining you will have the same effect as expressive painting...

All of life can be creative...people ought to be taught to live creatively, to wash dishes creatively....that is the problem people have been led to believe that only art is creativity...art is a profession, a vocation, like medicine...which can also be creative. Because of this confusion between art and creativity the arts are rapidly disappearing as a legitimate profession and are inundated with kitsch...by daubsters.

Doctors will soon be prescribing art, music, acting...Such BS...

Art is a profession, not a cure all...or drug. When looking at good art, listening to good music, watching good acting you are transported and maybe healed of some emotional malady...but making everybody do art who is not meant to be an artist will simply create what is happening now...kitsch...and kill the artistic professions.
Maybe artists should practice medicine.

In Art of Living Programs the emphasis is on learning mindfulness, stress free techniques and meditation. Which will make you a creative individual in any profession...it is a way of being in the world. Doing a lot of art can also change you over a long period of time, if you are immersed in it daily. And you are disciplined! But most people find it too boring and strenuous to meditate regularly. It is the boredom in fact that gives you break throughs in the meditative process and changes you. It is the only way to get out of your egos for awhile.

However most hobbyists do art maybe once a week if lucky and then focus on the production end of it, so it really does not effect their life in any significant way. And then they quickly want to expose it and sell it to their friends to be affirmed. The art usually communicates nothing significant, like finger painting and can feel good in the moment. And you don't have to go to school for 4 years.

We Need Wise Spiritual Guides

12/5/2018

I watched a bit of a Netflix original called "Discovery". It is about a scientist who helps people through machinery to have an experience of life after death, what he calls consciousness that does not die after our bodies do.
So everybody gets a taste of nirvana and what do they do? Immediately want to commit suicide to get there.
That is the problem with scientists they have great analytical skills but no wisdom. He figured people want happiness and he would show them how to get it.

But if that scientist was a religious person with true experience of the mystical he would know that suicide might get you to a totally different place than he imagined...there are ethical and moral issues and also the issue of meaning in life. Why are we here suffering. He did not bother to think of that.

Obviously we are not meant to be just happy in this lifetime, we are meant to learn and grow and through time if we successfully accomplish our life goals we will be awarded with afterlife bliss.

We can not only rely on science, we need to also have spiritual values and as it turns out we need some kind of guidance from people in the know, wise mystical people.

I watched a video by Lady Gaga who supposedly sat next to the Dalai Lama, without allowing him to speak, and espoused simplistic cliche about life. Amazing what an ego these hollywood types have. If she was in the least bit aware, she would have been awed by his presence and engaged this brilliant and holy man (yes, holy, because he did the work that got him there) in answering life's questions. What has she accomplished in her entertainers life besides taking off her clothes? Not much I would think...but she sees herself as a saviour of humanities soul...hahahahaha
Unfortunately science and hollywood are not enough to guide us to the next level of existence...we need real guides.

Toronto Art Now

11/8/2018

I have been to a few art shows in Toronto, not many...but I must say that beside Rebecca Belmore's at AGO and Edward Burtynky's I have seen nothing but milk-toast. It seems that artists here feel guilty if their painting actually has some quality of a good painting in terms of succulent paint, great colours something to communicate. They take special pains to show the viewer that he/she was not really trying to paint. It is a kind of jaded approach to art. The Gladstone show had a title for it, "Why the F*ck Do I Paint"...and honestly after seeing maybe a couple of reasonably painted works I honestly can answer that I don't know why they bother..

And yet I am pretty sure if they put some enthusiasm and life into their work, and lost the cynical attitude, they would probably all be pretty good artists.

FLOWER CHILDREN

11/6/2018

WE HAVE ACTUALLY COME NOT VERY FAR FROM BEING CAVE-MEN DESPITE ALL THE MARVELS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY!

WE THE FLOWER CHILDREN OF THE SIXTIES, THE ONES WHO TALKED A LOT ABOUT LOVE NOT WAR, WHAT DID WE REALLY MEAN? DID WE REALLY MEAN LOVE AS IN COMPASSION OR SEX AND ORGIES? WE TAUGHT OUR CHILDREN TO RAPE AND PILLAGE THE EARTH. WE TAUGHT THAT ME COMES FIRST COUNTRY, COMMUNITY LAST. WE CREATED THE CAPITALISTIC SELF-ABSORBED FREEDOM-LOVING MESS THAT EXISTS. WE USED FREEDOM TO MEAN DO WHAT YOU LIKE, VOMIT WHERE YOU WILL WITH NO REGARD FOR THE OTHER! AND IF NO ONE FINDS OUT, CHEAT, ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR. MORALITY WAS THROWN OUT THE WINDOW IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM. AND OUR WORLD NOW SHOWS WHERE THAT PHILOSOPHY LEADS. TO CHAOS DEVASTATION, EXPLOITATION, LACK OF RESPECT, LACK OF COMMUNITY, COUNTRY, LACK OF RULES IN ANY PROFESSION, ESPECIALLY ART, IT IS ALL JUST A BIG GAME WHERE THE WINNER TAKES ALL!

EVEN IF WE WERE NOW TO SURVIVE THE DEVASTATION OF NATURE, WITHOUT ACHIEVING BACKBONE AND MORALS AND RULES TO LIVE BY, WE WON'T SURVIVE. THINKING YOU ARE A SPIRITUAL PERSON ON YOUR OWN WON'T HELP, UNLESS WE ARE WILLING TO CURTAIL OUR INDIVIDUAL FREEDOMS FOR THE GREATER GOOD.