Bakerstreet

I’ve been mulling over all the talk about the Yale Art Project. As an artist I was asked if I thought it was ‘art’. Having only read about it and not seen it, I can’t really say. I do know that art is more of a personal opinion then anything. Just because you don’t like the sound doesn’t mean it’s not music, saying that something isn’t art is the same.

Some painters use watercolors, some acrylic, and some even blood. Does the medium change the fact of whether it is art or not? Art is sometimes controversial. Nude photos, drawings and statues always have some that will call it pornographic and smutty. Abstract art is called weird, strange and garbage. Picasso, Pollock, Dali and others created works that were strange and subject to interpretation.

Performance Art is another gray area, it’s not the same as say, a painting, it’s more like acting or theatre with a more abstract tone. What I usually find is that performance art is used more for social or political rants that may or may not matter to the viewer. The problem is that while I compare performance art with acting and theatre, actors have to be good at acting (or have good looks and/or big tits!), the same is not true of performance artists, anyone can just ‘create’ a performance.

So what about the Yale art? Not having seen the work, I’m not even sure what kind of art it is. I have heard it is artwork, performance art and just a publicity stunt. As performance art, it doesn’t make sense, she is not menstruating at the gallery, as I’ve heard, the art is already done, and I’m not sure what statement she is trying to make. As artwork, having known lots of artistic types, I’ve seen them use all matter of medium to create their art, paint, mud, garbage, and yes, even blood, if it is what they think is the right medium, then I see nothing wrong with it. Of course in this case, I don’t think that people are upset that she is using blood so much as how she is getting it and what the blood may contain.

Going on what I have heard about it, in my opinion this just seems to be a way to draw attention and get those 15 minutes of fame. Most of the artists I know create because they have to, it is what they do. They may use their art to make money, but most don’t care much about getting rich and famous or in the news. The money they make is used too live on. None really care to make it big so much, sure they may sometimes think of hitting it big, but doesn’t everyone? I hope to film a movie and I am working toward that end.  My goal is only to make the movie, if I manage to make some of my money back (or hit it big) then that will be bonus. One of the screenplays I have written could be considered sick, pornographic, twisted and controversial, but that is not the reason I wrote it. The art is what artist most cares about.

As one who likes to draw, paint and photograph nudes, dead things and other strange subjects, can I truly pass judgement on another artist work that I haven’t seen? While I don’t share it, I understand peoples anger at her choice of medium, I believe that is exactly the reason she choose it, to create a controversy more then to create art.

This is surely a sign of the apocalypse!

Is anyone actually willing to pay to see this? This would not be nostalgia, more likely self-hatred. Please, anyone willing to go to this, save the money and use it on therapy to resolve those issues. If you are willing to watch a bunch of middle-aged men lip sync while dancing to some homosexual choreography, you’re a woman that needs help. If you’re a guy, just kill yourself now.

I’m sure someone will point out that I’ve been going see ’80s bands in concert, the Go-Gos, Heart, Huey Lewis, Styx and so on. There’s some major differences though. First, the bands I have seen can actually sing, second, they PLAY INSTRUMENTS! They are actually a band, not just teenage girl vagina moisturizers that can’t really sing and who’s only instruments are between their legs. Now that they are older, the teen girl part is gone.

Since they don’t actually sing in concert, all you are really paying for is to watch them dance. Hell, just send them money and save yourself the bleeding ears. Are they not one of the reasons that some states require the disclaimer ‘some parts of the show have been prerecorded‘ on tickets to concerts if they have any prerecorded singing (or even sounds prerecorded). Even their studio stuff is mostly altered to sound good (i use the term ‘good’ loosely)!

Update: Sorry Amanda!

Charlton Heston has died.

Tomorrow starts my vacation, I was going to go to Photoshop World but couldn’t get the funds together so no PSW for me, come back next year! I have a lot of things I want to do but I’ll end up doing hardly any of them as is the norm.

I want to do some creative things so hopefully I get the chance. I would like to do some photography, some painting, and maybe even some writing. I will have my daughter who is on spring break, so that may hinder what I can do as I would rather enjoy being with her. She does like being artistic so maybe we can work on something together.

I also have an airbrush project I want to work on, but I’ve never done airbrush work before so hopefully it turns out. I need to get paint tonight to get some practice with the airbrush.

Interestingly, The latest version of WordPress (2.5) seems to work again and doesn’t fuck up the formatting on my post, at least I think, the preview looks fine but I haven’t hit publish just yet. If that is the case, maybe I’ll be blogging more as the reason I haven’t been is that it was a pain in the ass to get the post to look right. I would usually have to post with Firefox or Opera to get it to look good.