4.03.2008

Homemade poundcake and fresh strawberries.



Some things, the best things, are simple and don't need alot of hype to make a person believe it is good... it is just good on its own.

As much as I loved the last presentation at my area artist league, I detested tonight's speaker. He was all about self-promotion. "Look what I did," "Look who I know," "here is my resume,"etc. While he obviously was an excellent marketer, the presentation was all about him and not about the art which really turned me off. I almost left half way through the meeting when I remembered my readings from Thich Nhat Hahn.

This artist has an MFA and for the life of me I do not see how in the world that could have happened. There was no structure to the work and is wasn't unstructured on purpose. It looked like outsider art - which isn't bad, in fact I love the primitive qualities of outsider art - however, this guy is supposed to have years of art education and theory. I asked the question about his eraser building up with charcoal and he answered with a hairbrained response: "just goooo with it." What the heck is that? He didn't know his materials, his reasoning, or anything! Yet he is making a living off his art AND he is teaching this line of (insert your own word here) to others.

The focus should be the art, not the artist. The artist should be able to speak about his or her work intellectually and should be able to explain their reasoning and thinking process. Just "going" with it doesn't cut it.

More and more it irks me when people talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. Talking about something doesn't get it done. Nike got it right: Just Do It. Do these people think we can't see through their rouse? Do they think we are dumb enough not to notice? (I would like to insert a political comment here, but have chosen the higher road.)

Just my opinion. So sez me.

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