Right In My Wheelhouse

 

1878 Oyster Gatherers of Cancale, John Singer-Sargent

  John M’s photographs of the art show he participated in got me to thinking about art as I have known it, and what I believe to be true about making and assessing art pieces.

It also makes me think of Tom Petty’s song For Real. I’ll try to explain why it reminds me of that song. In the song Tom says he couldn’t help it, he had to do it, he was compelled. Not in those words. He was serious about his music and lyrics. He wasn’t kidding around, trying to crank out product. He was trying to touch the people emotionally and for real.

I think there might be two major groups of “artists.” Some of them I have met took art classes because they thought art sounded “easy” and that it might be a good way to turn out some paintings or something and make a few bucks or gain some notoriety or fame. You can see this stuff all over the world. It looks like it was “easy” and it’s boring because there is no application, no thought, it’s a fake.

Good art is hard. It might look easy in a way. Maybe the brushstrokes are loose and fluid. But by God those brushstrokes, those fluid brushstrokes have been earned by years of doing it wrong and then better and better, over and over until they are right. Think of Singer-Sargent.

It takes tears sometimes.

The trouble is, there are sliding scales. That’s why at the infamous occasion when I was asked a question in class I said, “it’s all relative.” It’s hard to explain taste, is it not?

The question of what is good art is subjective as hell. It depends on who is looking. But I think that if the observer is also a serious person they will respond to good work in a way that they will not to stuff that kind of looks like art, but is weak and derivative. It’s like “hey I saw a guy do this or that, I can do that too!” No ideas or thought of their own. Design is not a game!

When I was very young and very judgmental, I used to laugh at paintings in county fair displays and such. You know the stuff. Naive and clunky flower paintings or dog pictures or stiff and awkward landscapes.

I’m sorry now. It’s a good thing no one paid any attention to the rude girl at the show. I learned to shut up and let them alone. It was not good art, but it was OK that the people painted their paintings and were pleased with them. Taste isn’t the highest virtue on earth. Maybe kindness is more important.

So, where do I land at the end of this little observation?

I guess it depends on what the artist’s goals are. It depends on their heart too.

One painter, or sculptor, takes it as a serious avocation, another is just having fun maybe and that’s alright too.

But sometimes people are pretending to take it seriously and they are just cranking it out. It’s not easy like that. Maybe they should be laughed at instead of the little old ladies at the county fair!