I’m sitting here burning my lips on some really hot coffee, and I’m confident that you want to know this.
I’m thinking about the internet’s social network sites, and art, and realizing that they serve the same function for me.
They both address the same question I crave to have answered.
This is the reason I care about art – This is the burning, ultimate question I have always had, and passionately seek to have answered …
… what’s it like being you??
I think solving this mystery is the pot of gold that stalkers are after, this is what great poets manage to give you in little tantalizing bits, this is what mimes are doing too, I suppose, though I wish they would stop it already.
The big difference between permanent art, and social network yakking and performance art is that “permanent” art is capable of being communion with all generations after the art is created. This is way cool to think about. Your art will be broadcasting its statement to people long after you, the creator, are gone!
So my personal definition of “art” is that it is something that speaks to everyone, for all generations after it is made, about who you are as a unique creature on the planet. This definition of art conveniently includes my Windstone pieces, which are technically schlock, according to fine art collectors… Not by my definition though. Even though Windstones are produced en-mass, and sold and traded like baseball cards, They are still truly my personal statement about who I am as a person. I feel comfortable on the shelf. I do have a large rump. Those dragon’s eyes are actually me checking out your living quarters. Gad , don’t you ever make your bed??
Maya’s sculptures are right up there with Michelangelo’s David in my book.
https://www.windstoneeditions.com/shop/journeystones/
So, you as an artist; what does your art say about you to all generations to come?
This is the most succinct, right on thing I’ve read in a long time.
I give it two thumbs up and perhaps a toe!
Actually, no, I never make my bed. The cats are always in it and they act completely abused if I push them off to make it. When I change the sheets that’s a whole different thing – Spock, my black and white Cornish rex, thinks it’s a game just for him. Loads of fun – it just takes awhile!
Now, that’s some tasty food for thought.
“Fine art” collectors might consider my work schlock as well, even though it’s not mass produced. My sculptures are mostly fantasy creatures, sometimes with a “cuteness” factor, and they don’t overtly say anything of profound social importance. But they do indeed say something about me, about what moves me. If one were to listen closely, one might hear them say that I am fascinated by the whole and the minutiae of Nature, that I am in awe of the created order (and the apparent chaos), and the Hand behind it. By sculpting these creatures that don’t exist in Nature, I am participating in the creation of new things, and I get to feel a tiny hint of what the Creator of the universe must feel. “This didn’t exist before, and now it does!”
That, to me, is magical. I hope that it comes through, at least in some small part, at least to some few people, when they see my work.
~~Eirewolf~~
I usually DO make my bed, how’d you know I missed it today??
That was an intruiging read. It kinda goes with the quote I keep on my Elfwood page “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. –Henry Ward Beecher, 1887” For me it’s sharing what I love most, but I guess that’s almost the same thing, in a way.
That was very interesting reading, I think you are right there about wanting to know what it is like being another person. I think it is what excites us about other art.
I know for my own art, it is devided. I have my idea art, the ideas that are apart of me but are mostly curiosities and fun…and then i have what i call Diary art. Instead of writing journals…which i failed at miserably, I try to embody feelings and emotions into art that i do.
It is fun to look at some one elses art and see who they are through thier art.
My art says, Melody, you think too much.
I’ve always been encouraged to draw my dragons. When my work is stolen or abused, I am…in a way still attached to that artwork.I’ve noticed it may be similar to what the Navajoe believe. Everything their artists create is a part of them, or a part of their soul. So yes, I try to paint what is in my heart and soul, to show what I am, at my basic level.
Recently, I was told that my art, and all fantsy work, is not considered “ART.” I look to Todd Lockwood as a rolemodel at times, and so when the assignment came up to copy the Old Masters, I wanted to choose him. Needless to say, there was a huge arguement between the teacher and I. Later in that same class for my final, I did a series of three dragon paintings. All are considered “illustration” which to my teacher, at the time, is not “ART.” Quite a dibilitating blow to my pyche.
I make my bed…most of the time >_>;
After reading your post, it really has made me think. What will happen to my art after I’m just dust? Will I be remembered? Will my life’s work be in a basement somewhere? I need to get to work and pour out my soul while I still have time here on Earth ^^;
I hope, my dragons will show the lighter, calmer side of them to the next generations to come. How very magical they can be…
<3 Nakase
the power a teacher can have over a student… the underlying point I am also making here, is that you and I have as much right to our own definitions of art as any hallowed university or museum. Opinions are for everyone. It is just a matter of how hard you are willing to to work to persuade people that your definition is as worthy as theirs. (and if a teacher says stuff like that, they probably are not thinking for themselves, just parroting what they were taught by someone else who didn’t think! I THINK that your teacher was making the common mistake of judging content by the form it is in. )
I’ve never been accused of that before.
There are different kinds of art.. most commercial art to me seems hollow, pretty but empty of soul. Or it is full of the same statement …again and again… sort of like a prayer wheel…
I have never seen anything of yours that isn’t packed full of your personality!
I like to say I finger paint with the stuff between my ears.
Its ok, you do usually make your bed. You were in a hurry.
Your art is full of your personality.. I relate to it because it is so like mine, in that you send it out into the world as little ambassadors of yourself, to give people a glimpse of the inner workings of your head and soul. Your art is full of your spirit!
Oh I know , making a bed with cat lumps takes so much longer. Why do they love being buried under blankets so much? You’d think it would freak them out. Cats are so weird.
I would like to see a picture of that.
rofl. thank you. I certianly have lots of wierd personality to put into it.
See? I knew this! Your art says it loud and clear!
That I’m doing my best to enjoy life in wanting to perfect portraying these feelings I love when coming across something inspiring in my observations and drive my hand holding the brush to replicate visually. Your PYO’s to me are a medium to which I can replicate the inspiring feelings I get seeing the color of a series of animals or landscape or another artwork with that third dimension of sculpture and celebrate the awe inspiring shapes and textures you’ve given them.
And yes, even a messy bed is inspiring in how fabric folds and casts shadows…but I do make it now and then. (You must have secret cameras in those eyes ’cause all my Windstones face my bed! The thought is kind of disturbing actually…now I’m getting paranoid. 😮 )
Surely your dragon eyes have observed the sleeping felines intertwined with the covers on the warm waterbed. I pull up the quilts around them, but unless the bed is totally unoccupied, it never gets fully made. That’s kind of what it’s like being ME.
I rescue things; I fix things; I restore things; I make beautiful things whole again, and sometimes I transform them into other things, and that is my Art. I am always working with and around something that already exists. I had never thought about it as Art before, but bottle raising kittens, or mice, is an art form too.
Yes, those cat lumps are a problem. I also think that a person’s living environment is definitely an art form, though they may not always realize it. It is probably the most telling and close to the soul art form there is! Unmade bed as art… works for me!