Do you…
…believe that art is truly in the eye of the beholder? That an objective standard is nothing but a farce?
…that good books are the books you enjoy, end of story? Is there a place for a canon?
…think that music can be created from almost any combination of sounds? That if someone calls it a song, it is?
…that anyone with a desire to create is an artist of sorts?
The things of beauty in your life — how did you come to see them that way? What are your highest aesthetic values? Favourite painter? Favourite colour?
Tell me what lights up your world.
June 27th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
One of the most beautiful things to me is the prairie. I love looking out over acres and acres of flat land, growing golden wheat or bright, cheery sunflowers. To me, looking out over the prairie is like looking out over the ocean; it is breathtaking. It makes me feel free – like anything is possible.
I don’t have a favorite color or artist. Just when I decide on one, it changes to something/someone else.
June 27th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
i believe that everyone’s idea of what is art is different.
but that doesn’t make anything less a piece of art than any other thing. art is truly subjective.
some people think rap is art, i think that for most of it, they left the C off the front of the word. but that is one persons opinion.
my favorite sculpter was Bernini. as for the rest, don’t ask me to choose… i could no more choose a favorite star in the heavens.
June 27th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
If you write a story and all the parts work then it’s good whether I like it or not. If you have your character do things that they wouldn’t do just for plot convience (based on the character’s development), hey John Grisham, then you are a hack writer and should be banished to the remainders bin.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I know there are things that I really like that others wouldn’t give two seconds notice to and vice versa. I don’t know art but I know what I like. Very much like wine, it doesn’t matter the vintage or the varietal or the vineyard, if you like it then it’s good, if you don’t then spit it out.
My Dad used to say “that’s not music, that’s noise.” I swore I would never say that but I do. Music is music and we must accept that even if what we hear is cacophony.
I have no favorite painter. I have no talent in that area so anyone who can move me with their brush is good in my mind. I do have a like of Gauguin.
Blue.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:08 am
When I see a pile of “stuff” in the middle of the floor of a major museum which looks like someone just plopped it there, I’m afraid I don’t see art, I see pretense and I think of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. I think there is enough real art out there which needs support without public money going to people who try to bully the world into thinking that what they do is art. If some nitwit private collector wants to hang someone else’s dirty laundry out in their front yard, that’s fine by me. I’m not saying that everything should be roses and cute little kids playing on a beach, but enough is enough.
Noise in and of itself is not music. When some sort of pattern is established, it can become recognizable as such — think Glenn Gould’s “The Idea of North”.
I have a number of favourite painters but I’d have to say the greatest of the lot is Vincent Van Gogh.
Fave colour? Blue…no… green!
June 28th, 2006 at 6:13 am
Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
If there is a canon for literature the books I read are the wrong caliber (get it? hehe) I’ve tried to read “Moby Dick” several times and just can’t get through the first few pages, so I just read whatever moves me.
It takes more than a desire to create to be an artist. Go to San Francisco. Look at the Oakland Bay bridge. It was created by an engineer. Very functional. Travel across the bay to the Golden Gate bridge. Most people find it more pleasing to the eye. Art?
The things of beauty in your life — how did you come to see them that way? The process is so subliminal it would take years of psychoanalysis to uncover.
Aesthetic values: truth, fidelity, courage
Artist: Andrew Wyeth, what he does with light blows me away.
Color: Blue
Lights up my world? The natural surroundings where I live. Family. Some people.
June 28th, 2006 at 7:31 am
I don’t fully understand the artistic impulse, or what “makes” art. I can stare for hours at a Flemish painting. Yet the canvases of Jackson Pollock don’t do a thing for me. Maybe I still respect Jackson Pollock, I don’t know. I respected the artwork of a woman I knew, relative of a longtime friend, who had Down’s syndrome and an IQ in the 30s. Mostly she did not use language at all. Yet she was single-minded in the execution of her artistic vision. She would go to the care facility where she spent her days and take out her supplies each morning and work diligently on her soft sculpture of yarn and objects. She always “knew” when a piece was complete, and set it aside to begin the next one. Her work was “primitive” and “childish,” but also very surprising. There were pieces I loved to look at, as I love to look at sunsets.
June 28th, 2006 at 9:11 am
As an artist, a former gallery owner, an avid reader and a writer, this is too big a topic for me to tackle before I’ve had breakfast. Great questions, but they need great answers. I’ll be back, probably!
I can do this much now: Favorite colors: royal blue, cobalt, periwinkle, deep violet, magenta, dusty rose, cherry red, peach/salmon and emerald green. For starters.