I posted this on Alex' blog
Anything human beings do/create can be considered art and is not a function of age or ability.
For some people the second it becomes retail it ceases to be 'art' and becomes product at worst, craft at best, art only when it fails at being a successful commercial item.
For others it seems that nothing is art unless can achieve the broad appeal associated with commercialism.
To borrow a phrase, Art is like pornography, 'I know it when I see it'.
Several years ago I visted with an acquaintance and his wife at their home.
After my acquaintance showed me the extensive work he had done CSICOP debunking UFO's, Yetti, and the Mississippi 12 headed salamander he & his wife, an artist well know in the 'international' and NYC art world and I visited and discussed composition form and shape. I suspect she had designs on taking me on as an apprentice (and more) the and more killed the potential relationship.
At the end of the visit they wanted to be sure I looked at the Miro on the dining room wall that had been given to her by the artist.
My reaction was 'oh'...
It wasn't the 'oh' of awe and apprecitation they had expected, but one of simple recognition.
Like great 'art', there are few great 'artists'.
Everything done by the creator of a great piece of art cannot be considered great art simply by association.
Sometimes art is great because of why it was done, othertimes when it is done, and sometimes simply for what it is.
I can't think of any art that was great because of who did it, other than the fantastic images that get exhibited on refrigerator galleries.
posted by Paul G. @ 6:05 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
I wouldn't say that art is great because of who did it, but some artists are consistently great. The german writer Michael Ende wrote one great children's story after another.
I have been eyeing that 3 volume set of Calvin and Habbes. Certainly not all of his cartoons are great, but Bill Watterson had a pretty sharp sense of irony. :-)
Calvin and Hobbes, I meant. Geez, the a isn't even near the o. I can't even call that a typo!!!
PS Do you ever feel like one of your mental spark plugs is out? Sometimes when I type things wrong, I get that feeling that there is a synaptic breakdown in my brain somewhere.
So far as I can tell Ende only had 7 published books and I'm only familiar with 2 in english so I can't comment but I'm sure there was a lot of cull that didn't make it to market.
Literature is one of those arts where the public usually only gets to see a small fragment of the total body of work and what the public does see is often a collaberation of the artist and the editor(s).
Those piss on [insert logo] stickers have forever spoiled Calvin & Hobbes for me, everything will be forever tainted by the redneck association.
Mental spark plugs out? Yeah, I used to be able to outline and write for hours on end, now I'm lucky to be able to form a cogent paragraph without rewriting it twice.
Forget spelling, spell check erased my spelling skills in the mid eighties. Use it or lose it.
Yeah, and some of the english translations of Michael Ende are enough to put you off Ende, but he's written tons of books in german. Here's some that are available online:
Momo
Der lange Weg nach Santa Cruz
Der Lindwurm und der Schmetterling
Die unendliche Geschichte
Michael Ende Lesebuch
Das Traumfresserchen
Schicksalsgefährten
Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer
Jim Knopf und die Wilde 13
Ophelias Schattentheater
Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch
Filemon Faltenreich
Norbert Nackendick
Die Zauberschule im Wünschelreich
Lirum Larum Willi Warum
Das Jim Knopf Puzzle-Bilderbuch
Die Rüpelschule
Die Geschichte von der Schüssel und vom Löffel
Vom Wunsch aller Wünsche und andere Geschichten
Das kleine Lumpenkasperle
Tranquilla Trampeltreu die beharrliche Schildkröte
Der Teddy und die Tiere
Das Schnurpsenbuch
Lenchens Geheimnis
Die Schattennähmaschine
I should put the ones I don't have on my Froogle wish list. The storyt Lenchens Geheimnis that I translated is absolute genius.
PS You must know a bit of german after being there for a while, eh? Get Lenchens Geheimnis. It's the kid's book I translated. It's hilarious. You'd love it, Paul!!! I promise. Very ironic and creative. It's a bout a little girl who looks up a fairy who gives her magical sugar cubes that shrink her parents in half every time they disobey her. :-) It's hysterical!!!
Ich Sprechen nur kline deutsch.
I could probably puzzle my way through it. Given a day or two emersed in a german speaking environment, I would probably understand it if someone read it out loud.
If it were written in technical or military german I'd probably be able to read it easiest, but I bet it's not in technical, or military.
I was actually fortunate to have not studied German in school because when I went to Germany I got to learn if fresh from a German teacher (I've got a certificate in my files somewhere), what the meant was that I got to learn it with an authentic accent, a real plus when I was out and about on the 'economy' as the Air Force liked to say.
You probably speak it better than I do then. My hungarian accent probably sounds better than my german for that reason, although I understand considerably less of it. Like virtually none. But the virtually none I understand probably sounds swish. :-)
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