Not for Sale

Ha! So there!

2008-07-19T16:18:00.003-04:00

Personally I love the public indoor smoking ban that Ohio passed in 2006, but I can see how it was a concern for bar and restaurant owners. Good news is that plenty of people still go out to eat and drink, including smokers! Surprise! Oh, oh now wait, I probably could have guessed that... An article published by Cincinnati.com talks about how there are just as many establishments with liquor licences, and that actually about a 100 more have opened statewide just since this past December. Ha, so there- quit yer bitching, bar owners!

I don't want your lovin', your money will do

2008-07-16T16:41:00.005-04:00

Currently reading The Book Borrower by Alice Mattison. No review thus far since I'm only on page 18, but I found a particular line to be interesting on page 7. "Her mother hadn't said the right things; or was dead; or had never existed, so that Ruben had to be made by committee from glossy scraps of magazine ads." It struck me because it's a colorful analogy so I lingered on it for a moment. But I'm also reading this book called The Overspent American by Juliet B. Schor mentions a study that was done that shows that parents who spend less time with their children will buy them more gifts, compared to parents who are with their children more often, who spend less money on them. It's got like a billion other interesting stories and facts in it about how Westerners have enslaved themselves to money and material goods, I highly recommend it.

Anyways, back to the committee of magazines ads forming a person. Imagine the message that spending money instead of time must send a child. Consider where their primary education is coming from if not parents. In all cases, children {and adults alike} learn from a variety of resources. But what if a parent/loving guardian isn't around or doesn't care to combat all the misinformation? Kids end up learning all sorts of nastiness, and maybe someone else like a teacher, pastor, or friend might clue them in, maybe they figure it out on their own the hard way, or maybe they don't. Maybe the child grows up equating love with money spent! Later, various media outlets teaches them that sex also equals love, that nothing is good enough and next thing you know you've got a generation of perpetually-unsatisfied, materialistic whores! So spend your time loving and teaching your children before they turn into degenerate patchwork quilts of debt-ridden STD's!

Did I forget to take my Effexor today?

Starsucks

2008-07-13T14:12:00.005-04:00

Been away for a bit, sorry to my loyal readers. Teehee, I think I have about 3 friends and 2 relatives who read my blog, but I appreciate you 5 people. Anyways, so you've probably heard Starbucks is planning to close about 600 of their 16000 stores. Thank God, maybe now there will only be 2 on every major city block, shopping mall and airport, huh? Whatever. Obviously they oversaturated the market, charge stupid-high prices for mediocre-at-best product, and shamelessly misuse the Italian language in attempt to lend their products false credibility. It's good to see that the Starbucks obsession is slowing.

I must imagine that coffee is a bit of a tricky business. On one hand, the profit margin for a product that is 98% water seems like it would be huge. Aaand it doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to impress a customer-base used to Maxwell House and Folgers, but on the other hand, in order to serve quality product the beans must be both fresh and imported from 1/2 way around the world. Yeah that might cut into profits a bit. Ugh... and as much as I hate to mention it, this is especially true considering the increasing price of petro based fuel.

But anyways, if I could teach the world 3 things, it would be to always look in the mirror before you leave your house in the morning, God is great, and don't keep good coffee in the freezer! I don't care where you keep the Folgers, it's going to taste like Guatemalan dirt wherever you put it, but good coffee goes in a cool, dry, dark, airtight place. Amen and pass the Raw Sugar.

I'm so there

2008-06-25T22:58:00.002-04:00

I'm totally doing it. I wonder what weapons I should take...?

How We Read Online

2008-06-22T15:33:00.001-04:00

Randomly came across this article on Slate.com about how we read information online...

It talks about how we're more likely to read short, listed items and will skip longer paragraphs or pages where we have to scroll. It also mentions how in the early days of internet when pages took a long time to load, we were more likely to stick to a fewer number of pages and hunt around for whatever information we were seeking- but now that we've gone high speed, we skip around quickly seeking out the "right" site. And apparently, we like pages that have lots of links because it seems authoritative. Hmmm. I'll keep that in mind.

Anyways, just thought I would share. Check out the article to read more.

high tech treasure hunting

2008-06-21T22:11:00.004-04:00

Treasure hunting seems like something you give up on at about the same time you let go of your imaginary friend, but geocaching is an outdoor game that lets us adults back in on the fun. It's sounds pretty simple, which is oftentimes the key to a good time {ahem, cornhole anyone?} Basically you use a GPS system to help you hide or seek "caches," usually a small waterproof container holding a logbook and a "treasure" of some sort. The hider puts the cache's coordinates online for others to find, and all the seeker is asked to do is leave another prize behind of similar or higher value for the next person to find. Caches can be hidden anywhere and have been known to have been stashed on the side of rocky cliffs and even underwater- part of the fun! Treasures can be anything from money, to a book, jewelry, antiques, maps, cds, pictures, tools, a game, etc. Geocaching sounds like it could be very entertaining, a good way to get out and about, and I imagine has developed quite a community about it. I want to try!

An Introduction to Geocaching by Team Tiki

Now you see me...

2008-06-21T20:53:00.006-04:00

While doing some research for a sculpture project, I came across a new-to-me 44 yr old Dutch artist named Desiree Palmen. Her art involves a sort of urban camouflage and is a commentary on the increasing amount of public surveillance supposedly done for safety/security purposes. She paints handmade cotton suits with incredible detail that allow the wearer {either herself, or a model} to blend in with their surroundings when viewed from the perspective of the nearest surveillance camera. The scene is then photographed and filmed, then put on display. She said "I'd like people to consider what it means to let the government control our daily lives... When we are controlled we hand over our individual responsibilities to the state. I wanted to make a suit for the non-criminal citizen whose house is being watched 24 hours by street surveillance cameras. I'm also responding to a wish to disappear." I can't begin to imagine how painstaking her work must be!

interior camouflage - for artist in studio during open house, 135 x 100cm, ed 5, 2004

What keeps Graceland in business?

2008-06-18T12:24:00.003-04:00

When I was in high school, I worked at McDonald's for a number of years. I assure you, that job was misery incarnate. Hey hey though nothing provides motivation to move on like misery, though. And I've got some great memories. One of my favorites was the time an entire tour bus of Elvis impersonators from Canada stopped in for lunch on their way to Graceland. Most of them appeared but a comedic charicature of Elvis at best, but they were having a great time and were a fun bunch of people.
I just finished Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself to Live, a delightfully postmodern book who's thesis asks why "the greatest career move any musician can make is to stop breathing." Through the course of the book, he tells his story of experiences visiting various musicians' places of untimely demise. His work is peppered with interesting pop culture factoids, anecdotes, and queries. One that stuck out to me:
"the main thing I dislike about Elvis Presley is the idea of Elvis Presley, and that idea is what keeps Graceland in business. Its the religiosity of garbage culture; it validates the import of tabloid aesthetics, and it makes our society look stupid... For some reason, there is a stunning number of Americans who desperately want celebrity royalty and cultural dogma, and that's all Graceland is. Oh... and karaoke. There was also some karaoke."

Well, evidently it's not just Americans, but Canadians, too. I'm pretty sure the British are the same as well- perhaps it's Western culture as a whole.

Na na na na na na na na BAT BOY!

2008-06-14T07:23:00.000-04:00

I remember when I was young, my grandparents used to always have several of the little tabloid newpapers like Weekly World News (self proclaimed as "The World's Only Reliable Newspaper") sitting around their house. Even though I knew their stories were fake, I loved to read them and if you think about it, it makes sense that the fantastical nature of such publications would appeal to a child.

Anyhow, I saw a picture of the legendary Batboy today and was wondering how such an image would have been generated back at the time his "story" was published. Consider how long ago that was (I looked it up, he 1st appeared in '92)- did they have Photoshop back then? I imagine they might have something somewhat more rudimentary that probably cost tons of money. Isn't it funny/scary that even in a modern day society people purchase and sometimes actually believe what was written in these types of newspapers?!?

The rich get richer and the poor get- children!*

2008-06-13T00:06:00.008-04:00

I still haven't decided who I want to vote for yet, I wanted to wait until the Democratic candidate was decided before I paid much attention. Now that we're down to Obama and McCain, I'm ready to get down to brass tacks and check out the candidates positions on the major issues- and as much as we're all complaining about gas prices, I'm pretty sure there's more important things we as voters should be checking into.

According to Michael Scherer, Washington correspondent on the election for Time Magazine, the reputable and non-partisan Tax Policy Center has done a preliminary evaluation of the Obama and McCain tax plans. What struck me most interesting about their report was the difference in who the candidates proposed plans would benefit.

"The two candidates' plans would have sharply different distributional effects. Senator McCain's tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes, almost all of whom would receive large tax cuts that would, on average, raise their after-tax incomes by more than twice the average for all households. . . In marked contrast, Senator Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers and would increase taxes on high-income taxpayers. The largest tax cuts, as a share of income, would go to those at the bottom of the income distribution, while taxpayers with the highest income would see their taxes rise."

Hmm, should the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? I'm pretty sure this has been the way things always have been between Republicans and Democrats- but it still smacks to read it in print. It's pretty clear who's going to get my support on this issue- and I'd like to think it's not just because Obama's plan would be advantageous for me. *from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Image source: New York Times

WWTWD?

2008-06-09T15:56:00.006-04:00

She's got a slamming body, and she's a decent actress, but what's up with Scarlett Johannson's most recent career move? {an album of Tom Waits covers} I've only heard the song from the above video, called Falling Down. It's not altogether unpleasing, but it's not exactly impressive either. Okay, okay- it's mediocre at best. Doesn't she make enough money acting? Perhaps interesting, but certainly not memorable. Why do celebrities insist on messing with their good thing? Jared Leto is the only celebrity I can recall in recent memory who actually pulled it off.

Jordan Catalano is so dreamy!

This just in- while looking for a pic of Leto from the My So Called Life days, I found a recent one of he and Johannson together- according to People magazine they've been "spending a lot of time together, and kissing a lot." Perhaps he is her inspiration/to blame?

*Image source: People.com

Girls rule, boys drool

2008-06-09T00:18:00.005-04:00

Okay, haven't posted any "frustrated with life" entries in a while so I guess it's about that time...

Most everyone knows how that biologically speaking, girls begin to mature before boys. The other day I was lamenting about how most men my age still seem immature- not in the biological sense, but in regards to how they view themselves in sight of the rest of their lives. It seems to me that every guy I date my age is just clueless as to where they are in their life and where they might want to go- hey yo, the almighty quarter-life crisis. We women experience it, too, but it seems to me that yall boys struggle with it a bit more- or maybe it's not even a struggle for you, it's just the way it is, plain and simple. Anywho, my {female} friend tells me that the gap from us beginning to mature earlier actually still hasn't closed, and that at this point of our life, sometimes it actually gets bigger! Could this be true?! Is there logic in this universe that might explain why still the only two men I feel I can trust in this life are my fathers, heavenly and earthly?

*Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

In your face! Now consider this

2008-06-05T20:00:00.006-04:00

Gustave Courbet, L'Origine du Monde, 1866, Musee d'Orsay*

Tanja Ostojic, L'origine du monde, 2002

Courbet's work was part of the Realist movement and questions society's moral values. What do you think Ms. Ostojic could be getting at? (It may {or may not} be helpful to know that she is Serbian, and the circle of stars is the emblem for the European Union)

Read more at the Musee d'Orsay and/or ARTMargins.

Self-Extinguishing Cigarettes

2008-06-03T18:34:00.003-04:00

Life is Beautiful, Peter Max, 1971

poster issued by the American Cancer Society

Alright so undoubtedly I'm behind the times, but while watching a newstory about a housefire the other day, I learned that there is such thing as a self-extinguishing cigarette that puts itself if not actively puffed on. Hello- genius! Apparently falling asleep while smoking is the top cause of fire deaths in the US. But the reduced ignition propensity (RIP) cigarettes are only available in some states such as New York, where the RIP version of cigarettes are actually the only kind sold now. The Harvard School of Public Health did a study comparing physical properties of these cigarettes with normal ones and found that on average, only about 10% of them completed a full burn, compared to 99.8% of the normal ones. Also, the introduction of the new RIP cigarettes appeared to have no effect on sales over a six month period. So the question is- why aren't more states following suit with the mandated switch to the safer cigarette design? And if the industry isn't going to suffer a loss of sales, why aren't these products being made more widely available?!? And so what if sales are reduced- the tobacco industry knowingly sells a product that kills people!

"Water Walk" by John Cage

2008-05-31T23:12:00.004-04:00

I first heard of musician John Cage in a class about art and music since 1945, he was introduced at nearly the beginning of the class right along with visual artist Marcel Duchamp- if that might give you any sort of idea what type of musician he is. I dont really remember much about the 1st piece I heard other than it sounded like a bunch of random sounds, not even "music." But I guess that was Cage's point- pushing the envelope of what was considered music just like ol' Duchamp sticking that urinal in an art museum and forcing people to consider visual art differently. The 2nd Cage piece was called 4'33". The instructor started the recording and we heard nothing. We waited and waited, assuming there was something wrong with the sound equipment. Eventually people started quietly chatting and moving about, and by the end of the song, most everyone was doing something else than listening entirely, and the class was all out loud. Hey, what do you know- all of our sounds were actually what Cage intended to be the song. Yeah, okay- hold the phone: that's pretty lame. I get it- he did it first, but really is that art? People love to judge art based on things such as this, whether it's original, pleasant to take in, understandable, etc.

Here's an original recording of him performing on a 1960's game show called "I've Got a Secret." It's funny that this sort of performance must have been considered complete quackery at the time, but the host is genuinely cordial towards Cage, although acknowledging that the audience is probably going to laugh- which they do. The audience must be wondering, "Is this guy for real?" Even though they laughed, I think they were much more polite than what today's tv audience might be.

Guillame Apollinaire (1880-1918) "On the Subject in Modern Painting"

2008-05-28T13:23:00.001-04:00

Apollinaire was a French poet, writer, and one of a few art critics credited with coining the word "surrealism." In this essay, he describes cubism as a pure art free from the distractions of subject, a step on the way to complete abstraction. Cubists like Pablo Picasso and George Braque, primary artists of the movement, liked to break up, analyze, and reassemble objects in their work. Personally, I've always thought it was kind of lame, but at the time it was innovative. Kind of how we feel about impressionism now, whoopee- you painted what you SAW, good job- no small potatoes back in the day. Anyways, I like how Apollinaire describes cubism, this one sentence really does a good job of describing it for me: "A Picasso studies an object the way a surgeon disects a corpse."

Violin and Checkerboard, Juan Gris, 1913, oil on canvas

Memorial Day

2008-05-26T11:41:00.002-04:00

"These heroes are dead. They died for liberty - they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, and the embracing vines. They sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of storm, each in the windowless Place of Rest. Earth may run red with other wars - they are at peace. In the midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death. I have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead: cheers for the living; tears for the dead."

~Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)

I'm not the most patriotic person. I have to question a lot of things our country does, both internally and internationally- but I do enjoy the freedoms it has allowed me and I must say that I dearly appreciate those in the armed forces who serve and protect, especially those who end up giving their lives to do so. May God bless our soldiers worldwide and deliver them home safely.

Sodom and Gomorrah

2008-05-25T13:12:00.004-04:00

Guess I'm running the blog a little lite due to the wonderful weather accompanying the holiday weekend. You should be outside too, so I'll keep my post short so as not to distract you from natural glory going on outside. Here's a video by SuperDeluxe Comedy with an interesting take on the Sodom and Gomorrah story from Genesis 18 & 19, and although perhaps a bit blasphemous, not altogether inaccurate. Enjoy, then go outside!

Repenting Made Easy

2008-05-24T14:00:00.003-04:00

Okay, so I got this off a classmate's blog, but I had to share it. Try chatting with God, it comes up with some pretty witty responses sometimes.

an interesting one:
"Me: what do you like to do for fun?
God:I like Random natural disasters..."

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1934) Programme of Die Brucke

2008-05-22T15:30:00.002-04:00

Die Brucke, or "The Bridge," is a faction of avant-garde German Expressionists founded in 1905. They printed a sort of manifesto on a program that accompanied their exhibition the following year. I couldn't help but notice how the sentiments in their programme seemed to ring true to youthful revolutionaries throughout history, and even today.

Blick auf Davos, 1925

"With faith in progress and in a new generation of creators and spectators we call together all youth. As youth, we carry the future and want to create for ourselves freedom of life and of movement against the long established order forces. Everyone who reproduces that which drives him to creation with directness and authenticity belongs to us."

Doesn't it just sing of youthful optimism? It kind of reminds me of an arts-specialty high school graduation speech. And although a bit of a stretch, it also reminds me of a passage from David Bowie's Changes off of Hunky Dory, 1971:
"And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're going through"

Maybe that's moreso disaffected youth, actually...

Matisse was a Beast!

2008-05-21T21:48:00.008-04:00

"The chief function of color should be to serve expression as well as possible. I put down my tones without a preconceived plan." Looking at the below painting, I have no trouble understanding why the movement within which Matisse worked was called Fauvism, which means "wild beast." I also have no trouble believing that he put down color without a plan!

Woman with a Hat, 1905. Oil on canvas.*

"It is necessary that the various marks I use be balanced so that they do not destroy each other... the relationship between the tones must be such that it will sustain... I am forced to intrepret nature and submit to it the spirit of the picture. From the relationship I have found in all the tones there must result a living harmony of colors, a harmony analogous to a musical composition." I suppose I can see a sort of balance in Woman with a Hat, but I can't imagine what a piece of music inspired by it might sound like. I think there might be a snarfplat solo, though. {You know, the seaweed stuffed pipe the seagull "plays" in Little Mermaid.} I can see the balance and harmony idea represented in a work he creates 3 years later- maybe he just needed some more practice.

Harmony in Red, 1908. Oil on canvas.*

*Image source: Wikipedia

PS: Happy World Biodiversity Day!

Stewards of the Earth

2008-05-20T15:39:00.005-04:00

Speaking of drilling in the Arctic and using up the Earth's entire reserve of oil, thought I would throw some biblical perspective in here for fun. Many times I've heard the argument that God gave man dominion over the earth so we can rule and subdue it {Gen 1: 26-28}, but I don't feel like he's necessarily giving us license to simply exploit it as we please. The earth is an incredible gift that God made by his own hand, I'm feel that He had intended that we would use the earth as we need it, and not simply use it up without regard for its precious nature. I've also heard others say that they aren't worried about the longevity of the earth's resources because they think Jesus will return before it becomes an issue, but there's no way for us to know this. We are to be stewards of the earth, and we should take care of it not only for ourselves, but our future generations, and all the lil birds n bees n kittens.

For your consideration

2008-05-18T23:41:00.008-04:00

Fredrick Leighton, Flaming June, 1895

5/16/08 Time Magazine Quote of the Day

2008-05-18T18:01:00.004-04:00

"We will raise production when the market justifies it."
-Ali Al-Naimi
Saudi Arabia's minister of petroleum and mineral resources, after the country rebuffed President Bush's request to immediately pump more oil to lower record prices.

Just wondering what is going to qualify as justification... I know gas prices always go up in the summer and during election season, and evidently it's got something to do with China becoming a more active player in the global market- but at what point does it end? How much will we pay for gas before we finally stop bitching and start changing our lifestyle? Screw the Saudis, and screw President Bush's plan to dig up Alaska, things have to change. It doesn't make sense to me to think short term. Sure we can increase our oil supply by drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, besides, if we destroy the native caribou/muskoxen/wolverine/grizzly/walrus/polar bear/whale habitat now, we won't have to worry about global warming getting to them later! I feel like we might as well focus on decreasing demand as much as possible now and put alternative energy research on the fast track. I'm sure the issues are much more complicated than I know, but my wallet is empty and I want to better understand why.

* Image/Quote Source: Time Magazine

Judgment

2008-05-17T16:23:00.008-04:00

Yesterday I partook in an interesting discussion of sorts about judgment. It was helpful to break down what the act of judgment really is- basically a comparison & contrast between 1 thing/person you know and 1 you don't in order to better assimilate them into your conceptual framework. Sounds fairly harmless, but oftentimes we turn this comparison into a value judgment about a person even based on totally superficial and meaningless criteria. Yeah, I do this pretty frequently without even consciously realizing it and it's pretty appalling. We make judgments based on small bits of information, and on what basis? Being hypocritical is completely unavoidable, that's not even really my concern per se, but we're all human beings! Meaning- we're all imperfect, none of us have any right to judge others, nor do we have the capacity for such a thing! As we're having this conversation, I realize how often I judge and focus on differences but never do I stop and consider that if nothing else, we're all people! I know that seems so obvious, perhaps why it is so often overlooked. God, I'm such a friggin' hippie sometimes... consider Romans 3:23: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Even if you're not Christian, you have to recognize the truth in that statement- none of us are blameless, we're really all the same{in this regard}.

Adam & Eve {aka The 1st/Last Perfect People}, Thomas Cranach, 1526, oil on panel

Charles Baudelaire (1821-67) from The Painter of Modern Life*

2008-05-14T19:21:00.008-04:00

Baudelaire was an influential 19th century poet and critic who hung out with the likes of artists such as Eugene Delacroix and Edouard Manet. The Painter of the Modern Life talks about the timelessness versus circumstantiality of beauty, and the worldly childishness of the genius artist. He observes "The child sees everything in a state of newness; he is always drunk... But genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recovered at will- a childhood now equipped for self-expression with manhood's capacities and a power of analysis which enables it to order the mass of raw material which it has involuntarily accumulated." Is this not genius? Think of how children always say the funniest things: seeing the world through fresh eyes allows them to examine it without the restraint of pre-conceived notions. The goal of an artist is often times to create a work through similar vision- depicting things in a fresh way so that the viewer can consider it with that same freedom and excitement.

*The Painter of Modern Life and other Essays, London: Phaidon, 1964.

Sylvia Plath Reads Lady Lazarus

2008-05-13T16:01:00.004-04:00

(This is the video mentioned in the last post)

Sylvia Plath wrote childrens books?!?

2008-05-12T20:49:00.007-04:00

Sylvia Plath was another one of those crazy tragic and vastly talented artists like van Gogh or Frida Kahlo. She wrote The Bell Jar, but is mostly known for her confessional poetry and, strangely, for the fact that she committed suicide. She herself says in The Bell Jar, "If neurotic is wanting 2 mutually exclusive things at one and the same time then I'm neurotic as hell." I was reading about her today and learned that she also penned 4 childrens books. Ha ha I would really like to see one of them, for I just can't imagine what such a sad woman might write for kids. Check out the video of her reading her poem "Lady Lazarus" in the next entry.

An excerpt:
I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby

That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.

Ash, ash ---
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there----

A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.

Still on my soap box

2008-05-10T12:34:00.004-04:00

Throughout history women have struggled to have their work recognized, whether they be visual artists, writers, etc. Blah blah blah they had to work under pseudonyms blah weren’t permitted in schools blah blah and as of 2001 were still paid only 74.3% of what men made!* This wage difference gets blamed on lots of things- like women aren’t as competitive (they aren’t raised to be, it’s “unfeminine”), or that they gravitate towards lower paying jobs (i.e. being a nurse vs. a doctor). That really only proves the degree to which gender differences are encultured. Yeah, yeah, everyone knows this, same thing with racism- but sometimes we fail to see the degree to which these injustices still exist. Artist collaborative Guerrilla Girls, Inc. ran a billboard and bus advertisement campaign in 1989 in New York City that displayed the statistic that less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art section of the Metropolitan Museum were women, while 85% of the nudes were female. 15 years later in 2004, they did a recount and the below image shows what they found. WTF world, come on!

*Statistic source: Womens Media

Look at the women doing nice, womanly things.

2008-05-09T11:54:00.011-04:00

Berthe Morisot, The Cradle, (1872), oil on canvas

Mary Cassatt, Cup of Tea, (1880), oil on canvas

One of the things that concerns me when others view my art is that it might be taken as feminist. Sound irrational? Nope, happens all the time. Women have fought long and hard to be equal in the world, and while I agree that we are in fact different from men in many a way, why so often is my gender made an issue in my work? I remember showing my work to an instructor once, and they referred me to check out an artist based on the fact that our work was similar: black and white photography, nude, movement, feminist… FEMINIST?!? Just because I am a woman doesn’t mean my work is about that! It was about ME, my emotions and experiences as a human being, that’s it.

Guerrilla Girls Inc., Advantages, 1989

So when studying impressionist art, one comes across the work of Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt- some of the first females to appear in European art history. Yay- women can do things besides make babies and pies! Ha ha but don’t you go thinking that they would get to paint something other than those things. A majority of their art captures the world to which they were relegated. Having broken into the boys’ game, it’s not surprising that Cassatt would later take part in the women’s suffrage movement. (It is somewhat noteworthy that both Morisot and Cassatt’s families were quite well-to-do, or one could expect the women would never have been afforded the opportunities they were.)

What would you do?

2008-05-06T14:49:00.007-04:00

Remember those WWJD bracelets? Yeah, everyone had one of those right- the Judeo-Christian presence must have been really strong. Then there were the yellow ribbon magnets stuck on the back of every car in America after 9-11. We really drew together to support our troops/firefighters/police in our time of sorrow to show those terrorists, didn't we?! Ha yeah some things shouldn't be involved in fads- like faith or patriotism. Either you are or you aren't pretty much- there's no room for fair weather fans with stuff like that. {btw-GO BUCKS!} I have to wonder what my reaction would be if a gun was held to my head and I were asked about my spirituality. All I can say is that this Cassie chick will be rewarded greatly for her sacrifice. 1 Peter 3:15 says: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” Nobody likes an extremist- regardless of their beliefs. I rarely see yellow ribbons anymore, autism is the hot new cause- maybe you should donate to that, instead.

* Image Source: SupportOurRibbon

Cassie by Flyleaf

2008-05-05T17:03:00.009-04:00

The song Cassie was written by the female-fronted alternative metal band Flyleaf about a girl who was killed in the Columbine shootings. She was asked if she believed in God, then shot for saying yes. It's pretty tragic, but awesome that she was able to stand up for her beliefs despite the consequences. Here's an excerpt if you want, you can listen to the song in it's entirety for free at Lastfm.com

The question asked in order
To save her life or take it
The answer no to avoid death
The answer yes would make it
Make it

Do you believe in God
Written on the bullet
Say yes to pull the trigger
Do you believe in God
Written on the bullet
And Cassie pulled the trigger

All heads are bowed in silence
To remember her last sentence
She answered him knowing what would happen
Her last words still hanging in the air
In the air

Whether or not the band is a "Christian band" is highly debated, several of their songs I've heard do have religious undertones- but it's not exactly praise & worship tunes they're putting out either. Lead singer Lacey Mosley doesn't necessarily believe that makes Flyleaf a Christian band. "We all share the same faith. And so when we deal with the whole 'Christian band thing,' we kind of think about something P.O.D.says, like, 'If you're a Christian, it affects everything in your life. So if you're a plumber, does that make you a Christian plumber?' "* Hiiiya- how about them apples! On one hand I can empathize, but after a while I get sick of how sensitive people are about religion. Just because someone talks about it in your presence doesn't mean it's being forced on you.

*Quote source: MTV.com

Francesca Woodman rocks in socks, i mean, naked.

2008-04-30T20:56:00.004-04:00

On Being an Angel, 1977. untitled, 1979.

So Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain all died at age 27. Coincidence? Probably not, we already established that most good artists are nuts, plus living hard and fast as the abovementioned did tends to lead to death fast, too. And I don’t know about hard and fast, but I’ve read that van Gogh liked to hit the sauce, as well. Plus, after he was already committed to an asylum, he ate paint chips- that couldn’t have helped. My favorite artist, Francesca Woodman, committed suicide at age 22. That means that she was already freaking bomb ass artist and jumped out of a window by the age I am now. And I ask: What are we doing with our lives?!? This makes me feel so feisty, like I should be doing something great- but I’m going to sit here and type a blog entry. And then I’m going to go work out. And then I’m going to study. And then I’m going to sleep. And then I’m probably going to do the same shit I do every other day. Hoo-rah. Maybe it's time to call it a day, huh?

untitled, 1976. untitled, 1977-8.

* Image sources: Wikipedia

Do whatcha do

2008-04-30T20:22:00.002-04:00

This is why artists do crazy stuff like cut off their ear and ask a prostitute to hold it for safe keeping… Another excerpt from a letter van Gogh wrote to his brother:

“I still have not expressed it well. Tell Serret that I should be desperate if my figures were right, tell him I don’t know want them to be academically correct, tell him that I mean that when one photographs a digger, he would certainly not be digging. Tell him that I adore the figures of Michelangelo, even though the legs are rather too long- the hips and buttocks too wide. Tell him that that is why in my eyes Millet and Lhermitte are the true painters, because they paint things not as they are, traced in a dry analytical way, but as they, Millet, Lhermitte, Michelangelo, feel them.”*

Jean-Francois Millet, Woman with a Rake, 1856-7, oil on canvas

Jesus Lord, have you ever seen someone so desperate to express and defend themselves? His letters are just full of this sort of explaining! Creating art is this constant process of examining reality, translating it to a work, reviewing what has been done, considering the vision produced for and opinion of the viewer, revising- all while trying to be true to oneself! I consider how consuming I have felt artmaking to be- it takes over your mind, time, everything. First you start out to make sculpture and next thing you know you've updated your tetanus booster for the next 10 years, you haven’t slept more than 4 hours a night in the past week, all you’ve eaten is peanut butter and jelly on stale bread for the past 3 days, you’re covered in unidentifiable crud of various inorganic origins, your friends have long since given up on calling you, and not only are you now talking to yourself but suddenly you’ve started answering back as well. This is what it means to put all of your heart and talent into something. Something we could probably all stand to do a little more often.

*Ysseling, Hester. De brieven van Vincent van Gogh, The Hague: SDU Uitgeverij, 1990.
** Image source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Letters to his Brother Theo*

2008-04-30T19:07:00.008-04:00

So I just recently found out that van Gogh only painted for 10 years before he committed suicide. 10 years of painting & drawing and he’s one of history’s most renowned artists! {granted he was an art dealer earlier in life, but he was also a preacher and you didn't see him becoming a prophet!} I don’t know, I mean yeah 10 years is a long time overall, but what do most people accomplish in that kind of time? I know that art isn’t just a practice, but that talent is a big part of it, too. What could we accomplish if we just set ourselves to it with all of our heart and talent like that? Seriously. What would I have accomplished in college if I hadn’t let anxiety hold me back the past couple years? It doesn’t really matter, what’s about to be past is just that, but it’s interesting to think about what we could do if we just DID it. Most of the time it comes down to just that after all, having a goal, and actively pursuing it with the entirety of our being. I think therein lies the key, the entirety part.

Wheatfield with Cypresses, 1889. oil on canvas.**

Just as an aside, I had the opportunity to see this painting in person,

and it's so much more incredible in reality than this image presents it.

Listen to what van Gogh writes to his brother: “I think so often that the peasants are a world in themselves, in many respects so much better than the civilized world. Not in all respects, because what do they know about art and other such things?” Part of me thinks damn Vince is condescending, but part of me remembers exclaiming a few entries ago how I can’t imagine life without art, so… Go figure. Artists tend to be a bit pretentious anyways. But how often do I think “Oh, if only life were simpler!” I have some friends who have visited Cambodia and have talked of such things- how the people there have so little, but seem so happy. Do we even have a choice to simplify things? To some degree, but it would be difficult to function normally in American society. Who cares though, if it meant being more content with life? I feel like I’m back at the life choices thing- I am the one who hides inside fear, I am the one who subscribes to all the useless garbage American middle-class society offers me. Who’s at fault when we turn around and look at the state of our lives? WE ARE. How do we make the changes? Where do I begin? Sometimes I feel like I've not learned a thing since I was 16...

*Ysseling, Hester. De brieven van Vincent van Gogh, The Hague: SDU Uitgeverij, 1990.
** Image source: Impessionist Art Gallery

Karl Marx (1818-1883) & Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) on Historical Materialism*

2008-04-29T17:00:00.006-04:00

Back to Realism... Turns out I really enjoyed reading and commenting on the Romantic texts more than these- which is somewhat strange because I consider myself pretty pragmatic. Realist theory just seems unpleasant. And reality can be unpleasant, but it's just as often quite incredible in a positive way. I've given up talking about the main points, because they don't always line up with what I find to be actually interesting. Here goes
"Hitherto men have constantly made up for themselves false conceptions about themselves, about what they are and what they ought to be. They have arranged their relationships according to their ideas of God, of normal man, etc. The phantoms of their brains have got out of their hands."
I understand this to be talking about how we construct our identities. We fool ourselves about who we are because we're too busy considering what others might view us as. This reminds me of the sociological concept developed in 1902 called the "looking glass self" which states that a person views him/herself through others' perceptions in society and in turn gains identity- but apparently we get it skewed. In reality, we probably spend more time worrying about what people think of us than the amount of actual time any number of people think about us- after all, their all too busy thinking about themselves as well. Why don't we all just get our heads out of our respective asses and focus our energy on actual interraction or productivity?!
*Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe, Moscow 1932.

Way Down the Line

2008-04-28T21:11:00.005-04:00

A friend of mine {thx Chad} suggested that the lyrics to a song by The Offspring called Way Down the Line were somewhat similar the the P.Lark poem in my last entry and I really found it to be true. It's funny how the same thing can be said in a such a variety of ways, yet retain the same general meaning- whether it be an analogy in literature or punk rock lyrics. I guess I did liken Revelation 3:16 into "piss or get of the pot," so to a degree, I've already made this point, but still...

Nothing changes cause it's all the same
The world you get's the one you give away
It all just happens again
Way down the line
There is a chain that's never broken
You know the story it's sad but true
An angry man gets drunk and beats his kids
The same old way his drunken father did
What comes around well it goes around
Nothing changes cause it's all the same
The world you get's the one you give away
It all just happens again
Way down the line

At 17 Shannon is pregnant
As young as her mom when she had her
Her kid is never gonna have a dad
The same old way that Shannon never had
What comes around well it goes around
Nothing changes cause it's all the same
The world you get's the one you give away
It all just happens againWay down the line
And all the things you learn when you're a kid
You'll fuck up just like your parents did
It all just happens again
Way down the line

And welfare moms have kids on welfare
And fat parents they have fat kids too
You know it's never gonna end
The same old cycle's gonna start again
What comes around well it goes around

Maybe I'm just overly optimistic due to my youth, but I refuse to believe that people are chained to this cycle. If you recognize the problem exists, then work it out within yourself before you have children. Granted, "working it out" will probably be pretty difficult and take a long time- to prevent others from suffering as you have should be worth it. God knows I've got a lot of issues of my own to work out.

This Be the Verse

2008-04-24T21:32:00.003-04:00

At the age of 16, I was the typical self-absorbed teenager. I had all these quotes artfully written on note cards and tacked up on a bulletin board in my room. On of them was part of a poem called This Be the Verse by Philip Larkin:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

I thought it was pretty funny- my dad, however, did not. He flipped the note card over and wrote some sarcastic comment about my youth. Understandable. In looking for this quote to post as part of this entry, I found that it was actually the first stanza of a poem. The rest follows.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.

Parents Damage Children?!?

2008-04-24T17:37:00.002-04:00

In spite of my academic obligations I occasionally get to read something just for pure enjoyment. Today I started The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. This old man dies and consequently finds that in heaven you meet 5 people from your life who you have vastly affected {whether you knew it in life or not} and 1 by 1 they teach you what the meaning of your life was based on the incidences you had with them. I’m about halfway through; it’s pretty good so far. The last thing I read: “All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of the handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair.” Well never mind that parents pass on quite pleasant attributes as well, huh. Hey Mom- thanks for teaching me to be well-rounded and giving me bootylicious DNA. Pops- thanks for teaching me to not always take things at face value and the importance of reliability.

Nonetheless, it reminds me of how much responsibility it takes to raise a child. (As a future educator, it boggles my mind that teachers get paid so little considering all that we expect from them and entrust to them.) Some of my friends have children now and it’s interesting to see how it has changed them, or somewhat regrettably, not changed them. At any rate, it’s just as easy to pass along bad habits as it is good; children in their own right are incredible little people. Parents do the best they can to teach their children well {cue the CSN&Y}but if the parents are dipshits, their best efforts most likely turn out yet another generation of dipshits. How do you learn to be a parent but from your own experiences?

* Albom, Mitch D. The Five People you Meet in Heaven. Hyperion, 2003

Spirituality vs. Technology

2008-04-23T20:28:00.008-04:00

So Comte says the theological is fictitious, later tries to convince us that sociology is a pure science?! In my opinion there's no way this world exists without any supernatural elements. I know I'm Christian, but I can stretch my mind to empathize with plenty of other world views, but not one that's strictly scientific. Last year I took an education class where we studied the 2 main forms of education: spirituality and technology. We discussed how basically technology destroys spirituality and forever perpetuates its own development- sounds evil, eh? But without theology there is no good or bad, right or wrong... Science seems cold and methodical without theology to explain its existence.

I know it's going to sound dumb, but a really great read for both technerds and the technology illiterate is Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman. It talks about the history of technology and how it affects our culture in a way that's easy to understand and intellectually stimulating. Postman proposes the idea that instead of technology serving us as we assume, it actually ends up monopolizing us. Consider how you feel when you realize you've forgotten your cell phone somewhere, or when your computer won't work. Panic! What are you going to do without it?!? Postman describes:

"Technopoly is a state of culture. It is also a state of mind. It consists in the deificaiton of technology, which means that the culture seeks its authorization in technology, finds its satisfactions in technology, and takes its orders from technology. This requires the development of a new kind of social order, and of necessity leads to the rapid dissolution of much that is associated with traditional beliefs. Those who feel most comfortable in Technopoly are those who are convinced that technical progress is humanity's superhuman achievement and the instrument by which our most profound dilemmas may be solved. They also believe that information is an unmixed blessing, which through its continued and uncontrolled production and dissemination offers increased freedom, creativity, and peace of mind. The fact that information does none of these things -- but quite the opposite -- seems to change few opinions, for unwavering beliefs are an inevitable product of the structure of Technopoly. In particular, Technopoly flourishes when the defenses against information break down. "

*Postman, Neil. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, New York, Vintage Books, p. 71.
** Image source: Gopher Madness Blog

Auguste Comte (1798-1857) ‘The Nature & Importance of the Positive Philosophy’*

2008-04-23T12:31:00.012-04:00

Moving from Romanticism to Realism...Comte is considered the father of sociology as we know it and his “positive philosophy” was hugely influential on 19th century thought. His writing is highly philosophical- I found it to be one of those things I struggled to make myself read for an extended period of time, and upon finishing not a whole lot of it stuck in my brain. Although I’m going to keep it short, a few things were interesting and worth sharing.

He postulates that everything we as humans know go through 3 theoretical conditions: “the Theological, or fictitious; the Metaphysical, or abstract; and the Scientific, or positive.” The theological seeks the “first and final,” or origin and purpose of all things, and supposes all phenomena to be attributable to the supernatural. Okay makes enough sense. The scientific gives up the search for these things and simply studies their laws- the concrete and measurable. Boring! The metaphysical is a transition between the 2. Ow. Brain hurts.

*The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte, London: John Chapman, 1853.

Advice

2008-04-22T07:04:00.007-04:00

If you do the same thing you've always done, you'll get the same things you've always gotten.

Seems easy when you put it like that

2008-04-21T21:52:00.001-04:00

More thoughts on beauty. Philippians 4:6-8 is one of my favorite passages from the bible. The apostle Paul is writing a letter advising the newly converted people of Phillipi. Check it out:

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Que?! Alright I like 6 & 7 because its uber comforting, but 8 is really what i find interesting. Basically it’s saying to focus your mind on the good stuff. Sounds pretty basic when put like that, but it’s pretty powerful to read the full version. It’s so freaking positive, it’s like nothing else would ever make sense to spend time on. Which is mostly true. Don’t worry, be bitter, dwell in the bad or wrong- negative negative negative. Paul is a genius.

potAto : potato :: tomAto : ?

2008-04-21T21:48:00.003-04:00

This one’s for the gentlemen - mostly the ones my age who still haven't gotten a clue... {Maybe I'll do one for the ladies later, but don't feel bad gals- this one's not especially intellectual. Plus it's for our benefit anyways} To tell a woman that she’s beautiful- incredibly complimentary. To be told that I am cute- somewhat complimentary, somewhat condescending. Wouldn’t give me too much of a warm feeling unless it were coming from my grandpa. This one can be hit and miss- usually received positively though. If you tell a woman she’s pretty…. Eh that’s dangerously vague, I’m talking borderline mediocre. It’s kind of like “nice.” Things like dresses and flowers are pretty. Context can hugely affect how this one goes over. Probably the most misused descriptor would be sexy. Don’t feel bad men, women misunderstand the word all too often as well. I would say it’s best to reserve this word for when you really know a woman has made the specific attempt to be sexy. Well, some ladies like to hear it all the time cuz they think Playboy is the height of female achievement – but since it’s not we can go ahead and assume those women are misguided in more than just this particular arena. Oh and I almost forgot gorgeous. It’s pretty strong, make sure you truly mean it or fake it really well if you say it. Moral of the story- most complimentary/easiest = beautiful. Be careful with the rest.

*Image Source, potato: FreeFoto, tomato: Pretty By Nature

Creative expression or Selfish indulgence?

2008-04-21T21:44:00.004-04:00

I mentioned previously how at times beauty is strictly in the eye of the beholder. Why is our culture so obsessed with the visual? Everything has to be aesthetically pleasing. Like why does toilet paper have patterns on it when you’re just going to cover it in filth? I want that job- Anastasia: drawer of toilet paper designs. Seriously, what a freaking waste of time, effort, money… Gericault said “The arts have never been a primal necessity, but are rather the fruits of abundance, ripening when more elementary needs are satisfied, When man no longer wants for his basic needs…” I love art, but what the hell?!? I feel like creative design is what separates us from God’s other creations, but we have got to ask ourselves at what point it just becomes selfish indulgence. Indeed. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there with much less understanding and appreciation of art than myself who would argue that in fact most of it is wasteful. Notice I condescendingly included “understanding”- I can’t for the life of me imagine what dislike of art would be like. Man I sound like a snob. Day is done.

*Image Source: 3 Quarks Daily Blog

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) from Notebooks*

2008-04-21T15:58:00.012-04:00

La Grande Odalisque. 1814. Oil on canvas**

Ingres’ writing is essentially about the timelessness of beauty. He says that “Everything has been done, everything has been discovered.” Well my friend I have bad news about the past 200 or so years… Could Ingres have imagined that a black man and white woman would be fighting to be leader of the world’s most powerful country- and that they would both have thousands if not millions of supporters? And what about Dippin’ Dots©?- no way he could wrap his 19^th century brain around those.

As he continues, his ideas begin to make more sense to me, however: “Does nature change, do the light and air change, have the passions of the human heart changed since the time of Homer?” and “Shall we, by means of patience or of better eyeglasses, perceive in nature any new outlines, any new color, a new kind of modeling?” Perceptions of beauty to a degree may change- to the Victorians a chubby and pasty woman was beautiful, but in the early 90s supermodel Kate Moss was considered the pinnacle of female beauty. But when will the shades of crimson, peach and gold of the sun setting in a western sky dotted with cirrus clouds ever cease to be beautiful to behold? Short of the apocalypse, I would think never.

*Sa vie, ses travaux, sa doctrine, a’epres notes; manuscript et les letters du maitre, Paris: Henri Pion, 1870.
** Image source: Wikipedia

Macadamia, Pistachio, Pecan

2008-04-21T15:56:00.002-04:00

I’ve been working on this theory for a few years that basically states that Everyone is crazy, and those who are happiest are those who can be comfortable owning it. “Normal” seems like a fallacy, a fall back created so we can be at ease when we don’t know what else to do. Oh it’s all so philosophical and relative. Thinking about it really makes me feel pretty crazy. Eeek, I see where this is going. Same place as where defining art might go. Survey says: absolutely nowhere for now.

Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) on Romanticism*

2008-04-21T15:46:00.010-04:00

Liberty Leading the People (28 July 1830). 1830. Oil on canvas.**

Delacroix is another one of those hippy Romanticists and I must say that I find the ramblings of his journal to be rather gross fluff. Gross in the kitties and butterflies sense, just too squishy and emotional for me. Nonetheless, it contains a few good quips. The first one is a quote from Dufresne, “what made a man unusual was a way utterly peculiar to himself of seeing things.” Delacroix expounds by explaining that genius comes from imagination. Sounds to me like crazy people are perfect artists then, no? Van Gogh may be our proof {the crazy mofo known for cutting off his ear was been purported to have suffered a variety of ailments from bipolar to advanced syphilis} . Most any art student can tell you that at times their work makes them crazy. But what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Does an artist gravitate towards creation as an attempt to gain understanding from viewers? Or does slaving away trying to express an idea to perfection drive one to temporary insanity? Maybe my anxiety can help me create better art since it makes me feel pretty nucking futs sometimes!

I can’t say that I even understand all of Delacroix’s written mental meanderings… What did he mean by “You have only to appear with your manly and simple vigour, and you will please with a pleasure that is pure and absolute”?! I sent this quote to my long-distance boyfriend in a text and told him it reminded me of him. Sounds a little dirty, doesn’t it? {Sorry mom} Perhaps even better I find “if I am not quivering like a snake in the hands of a Pythoness, I am cold…” Ah ha ha ha haa! Yeah, Delacroix, me too. Speaking of correlation between artists and peculiarity…

*The Journal of Eugène Delaeroix, London: Jonathon Cape, 1938.
**Image source: Photobucket

Meatyochre

2008-04-21T15:38:00.006-04:00

It seems to me like there is something intrinsically negative about being mediocre. It’s a fun word to say, it slides of the tongue like… I don’t know- but try saying it and you’ll see. mē'dē-ō'kər. Dictionary.com says it’s an adjective that means of “only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate,” or “rather poor or inferior.” Sounds like something of which I want no part. The Christian bible agrees. In Revelation 3:16, John writes “because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” This passage is regarding the reader’s faith in Christ, a là “I don’t want half-ass faith! Either you believe I am the son of God and will follow me, or you don’t and won’t!” My mother would likely translate that as “Piss or get off the pot.”

So we don’t want schools pumping out students automatons, I don’t want to live my life bound by my anxiety, and I’ve decided to hurry up, graduate, and take responsibility for my life finally because I feel I’ve been mediocre for way too long. Let me out of this incubator called college life! I know I’ve created it to be the way it is, but the times they must be changing.

Still riding the Raft of Medusa

2008-04-21T09:14:00.004-04:00

Still riding the Raft of Medusa I come across another interesting quote by Gericault: “although obstacles and difficulties frighten mediocre men, they are the necessary food of genius.” ~from etude biographique et critique, Paris: Didier et Cie, 1868

My life has 2 driving forces: fear and joy. It took me awhile to figure it out, but fear and anxiety are synonymous. I discovered about a year and a half ago that I have what I self-diagnosed to be hereditary anxiety. That means I inherited the tendency to be afraid of damn near everything, probably attributable to both DNA and how I was raised. I’ve been trying to dismantle my anxiety issues every since discovering them, but I must say it’s been no easy task. I talked to friends who’ve been diagnosed, consulted family and other friends close to me, changed the way I take my birth control, prayed constantly, started taking medication, saw a free counselor through the university, switched medications, saw an actual psychologist for like 6 months, gave up, screwed up, and started again so many times… I’ve realized that anxiety is my cross to bear and finally accepted it’s not going to go away- it’ll get better, it’ll get worse. My challenge is to continually give it up to God, to refuse to be mediocre, and to be true my passions. Not that I think I’ll ever be a genius, but these are the things that will grow me as a person.

Can art be taught?

2008-04-21T09:12:00.001-04:00

“David, clearly the most important artist working in France today… owes the success which has brought him to the attention of the whole world to nothing but his own genius. He owes nothing to any school; on the contrary, the influence of a school might have been extremely detrimental to his talent” ~Gericault, etude biographique et critique, Paris: Didier et Cie, 1868

This quote brings me back the question “Can art be taught?” Drawing, color theory, proportion, principles of design can all be taught- but can you teach someone to create “art”? Highly debatable indeed, I take the easy way out and answer both yes and no. Oh god, oh god, oh god – this question simply BEGS that we define art. Another day.

PBS has a series called Art:21 that has an interesting archived discussion called Can Art be Taught?

If you're really interested, James Elkins has written a book on this topic called Why Art Cannot Be Taught: A Handbook for Art Students. My friend gave it to me as a gift- at first I was appalled that she had bought me a book whose title so boldly stated that my life's calling was bullshit, but it's actually quite interesting.

Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) on Genius and Academies*

2008-04-21T08:58:00.006-04:00

The Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819. Oil on canvas. 490 x 720 cm.**

Gericault was a painter out of the Romantic movement- in my opinion a rather hippy-esque phase in art where everyone was all “do what you want, nature is beautiful.” Yeah Gericault, pass that dutch. In this writing he postulates that education is good, but the Academies of the day were too stifling to create truly talented artists, and that good art comes from genius.

Education is good. Being the process which makes us human, yeah I’ll buy that. Geri boy says, “Education broadens the mind, expands its capacities, and illuminates the goal one strives to attain” Sounds like the words of an educated mind, eh? At any rate I do believe that education opens doors and allows one to live more freely. My major is art education so we better hope I’ve got some reasoning behind that choice.

Schools are too stifling- word. Lets teach every student in America the same stuff the same way, checking our progress as a system with a standardized test. Fuck yeah- all men are created equal so lets raise a nation of automatons! “all they have done is create thousands of mediocre artists,” Gericault states. After 12 grades and 5 years of college {4 active, 1 mostly reserve}, I feel that as much as I love the precious words, theories, and formulas I’ve been learning, it’s about time for my life’s education. Living life, getting smart and being a talented artist require a lot more than what a school can provide. Experience, ya dig? For me it’s time to turn to life’s classroom.

* etude biographique et critique, Paris: Didier et Cie, 1868

**Picture taken from Photobucket