what do you see....

The question is not what you look at but what you see.....

Against my principles and better judgement, i joined an Art Group. well, that is to say, i joined a local art group that is filled with blue haired ladies fond of watercolor landscapes and probably do believe Thomas Kincaid is the master of light. i wrote a letter to the local newspaper about a recent push for public art in my beach town. the mayor had appointed an ART TASK FORCE which i found quite comical. the article, written in earnest, could only have been funnier if it were delivered, line by line, by the cast of The Office.....

anyway, i got an email response from a very dynamic woman who is the task force chair and founder of said ArT GrOuP.....and that, my friends, is why i'm joining. now, don't go reading into any of that. i know it sounds provocative to say i joined because of a woman. she's not that kind of woman....but dynamic, indeed. she's from Israel and sort of funky, hippy, chic in a kibbutz cool kinda way. there is something very appealing in the way she speaks as well. what i find however, is she's so frightened of offending anyone that the tone of the group is luke warm. yesterday i showed her a photo of the pier i had altered and she said it looked like a vagina and therefore somehow inappropriate for the group show. wha? huh?

first of all, since she has said that, i like the piece that so much more and secondly, since when is art about appropriateness? which brings me to the other thing i noticed about this group. they are old. all of them. no one younger than 40 at least. that leads me to think they are all rather stuck in their ways. the only mentoring i see is a program called "hands on art" in the local middle and highschools which they play only the part of authority. why some of these kids are not invited to be a member of the group is beyond me. my guess is they would find issue with most anything outside the polite circle of what i call the "auxiliary ladies". these are the ladies that host wine and cheese parties and cut the crusts off their little finger sandwiches and have daughters with eating disorders and what not.

and then there's me. the smart ass.

for me...Art is about individual expression and what can ever be wrong about that? it's all good. nothing chaps my hide more that those that would force on you the label of good vs bad when it comes to expression. art, like music, is a personal preference. we all go to what sings to us...what appeals to our greater sense of self and ultimately, answers to something deeper than what is visible to the eye.

i have my own art salon....the BAD ART salon. what we do is get together and make art out of every possible hideous thing and the point is to be BAD...very BAD...embrace what the emperor's new clothes. it's not as easy as it sounds because we all have that inner critic that wants to be good and right and correct in the politic sense. it is what keeps most people from ever attempting to create art in the first place. no one wants to be called BAD. fuck 'em, i say. be as bad as you want because the expression of self is so worth it.

why, it's the very reason i started this blog.....