Art

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Hawg73 said:
Every kid loves to draw or paint etc.,

Maybe not every kid, but the vast majority. They love trying to put the world they see on paper so it can end up on a refrigerator or wherever. Kids tend to be in touch with the creative process because their minds are open. It makes them feel great when somebody tells them how great their artwork is. Then, somewhere down the road, somebody comes along and points at what they've done and laughs at it and the kid doesn't want to do art anymore. It continues on like that throughout their life because somebody made them feel bad about themselves and it is the rare individual who doesn't care what anybody thinks and listens to their own inner voice as they go down the path of their life.

I was sort of in-between and didn't hit the self-conscious wall until I was in my early 20's. I made an attempt at going to Mass College of Art night school when I was working days for the phone company in Boston and have seldom felt more out of place than that hellhole. Most of the students there were full-timers who tended to dress in black and act depressed all the time and every time I opened my mouth it was "one of these things is not like the other". One wannabe punk snickered derisively at something I said and his sad group of friends did the same. I got in his face when class was over and the guy was shocked that I would call him out like that. Stunned. I'd never been around people like him and the rest. I had zero formal training and struggled to keep up, but it was the strangled silence of the place that drove me away and very little that I learned stuck. It sucked the life out of my desire to do any art for a long time because I temporarily forgot to give a shit about what anybody else thinks.

Anyway, my point is that a paper plate with macaroni glued onto it sprayed gold is art to a parent. Dogs playing poker is art. M.C. Escher black light posters are as well.

The moral of this post is to never listen to the people dressed in black looking to laugh at somebody so they temporarily feel better about their own sad existence. Art is what you and you alone like to see or appreciate and don't let anybody tell you any different.
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My college major/minor was Art, photography, and Art History. Never did any full-time gigs, but I still get a job here and there or sell my own stuff on occasion.

I remember how one upperclassman, who thought he was the next Mapplethorpe or Ansel Adams, used to attempt to belittle me by calling me 'Snapshot', because I enjoyed taking photos of the ceramics students' work throughout the process of throwing, trimming, glazing, and firing. The process fascinated me.

The art department planned a gallery opening which featured the ceramics students, and the Dean asked if I would like to display my photos to show the stages involved in the final pieces. I was in the darkroom printing photos within minutes of accepting her offer. I had about 20 8X10 B&W of my photos sprinkled about the exhibit, and was pretty damn proud of my freshman self. Got lots of compliments from some insanely talented students who were very psyched for me.

Then along came the above-mentioned upperclassman, and when he realized who the photographer was who basically pulled off a solo photo display amidst the ceramics exhibit, he choked on his Charcuterie.
 
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Beaglebay said:
My college major/minor was Art, photography, and Art History. Never did any full-time gigs, but I still get a job here and there or sell my own stuff on occasion.

I remember how one upperclassman, who thought he was the next Mapplethorpe or Ansel Adams, used to attempt to belittle me by calling me 'Snapshot', because I enjoyed taking photos of the ceramics students' work throughout the process of throwing, trimming, glazing, and firing. The process fascinated me.

The art department planned a gallery opening which featured the ceramics students, and the Dean asked if I would like to display my photos to show the stages involved in the final pieces. I was in the darkroom printing photos within minutes of accepting her offer. I had about 20 8X10 B&W of my photos sprinkled about the exhibit, and was pretty damn proud of my freshman self. Got lots of compliments from some insanely talented students who were very psyched for me.

Then along came the above-mentioned upperclassman, and when he realized who the photographer was who basically pulled off a solo art display amidst the ceramics exhibit, he choked on his Charcuterie.
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Great story.

I took photography at my private school, with my uncles old Keystone camera,l but mid-way through the semester I discovered weed and showed up to my final with 4 of the 30 mounted photos I was supposed to bring. They were good. But I was such a dumbass. LOL
 
Hawg73 said:
This is what is known as a "barn quilt" which is a barn decoration popular in some rural parts of the country
where they make them 8 feet square. Mine is 4X4. I did it for a sewing/quilt shop that had a sign that couldn't
really be read from the busy road and a lot of sewing folks unfamiliar with the place would drive right by it.
It's a combination of woodworking and art and made the drab exterior of the building much more easily identifiable from the street.
It turned out to work as a sort of landmark for people. It also made me 600 bucks. The owner told me one woman stops and stares at it
for a while every time she comes in and claims that it seems to move, but rumor has it that she's on pills.

So, it'll never hang in the Louvre, but I had to come up with the concept, worked the colors out and made it to last outdoors
and not blow off the building in high wind. Close enough to call it art.


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That is beautiful, Hawgie! Takes the same skill as setting a compass rose in a floor. As Babalu would say, "Tre.Men.Dous."
 
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This from a dear friend and spiritual political and philosophical ally that I met through my parents. She is just one amazing woman. Country girl with an eidetic memory that has testified before congress on property rights issues without the single use of a note.

She works with different mediums, watercolors, oils, and amazing damn photography.

Here's a watercolor as she was learning to do glass. Wow.


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Her work on her amazingly big and burly logger historian husband's 1930's Stewart coming across the covered bridge near their house. God I love NH and the incredible people in my life.




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Watercolors are very unforgiving; anyone who can master them has my utmost respect and admiration. Both examples of her work are excellent.
 
Beaglebay said:
Watercolors are very unforgiving; anyone who can master them has my utmost respect and admiration. Both examples of her work are excellent.
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She is just incredible in so many ways.
 
Thanks for the flashbacks to the Rorschach test when I was in a psychiatric hospital for substance use when I was 15, BSF. LOL :)
 
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