May 1st,2010

I really don't have superiority complex, I really love most art as long as it is well done. I like abstract expressionism, Leipzig school, impressionism, pointilism, realism, surrealism, fantasy, fauvism, primitive, classical, you name it..I have looked at it and enjoyed it. As long as it is good. I like some installations, some avant garde..as long as it is good..not just my idea of good..but well composed, executed, meaningful, quirky but honest..whatever..I am pretty easy. Kind of like I rarely see a dog I don't like, a horse I don't like,,..until I get to know them and even then I find something to like. Probably the only thing I don't like a lot of is photography, and ugly babies..but even then I will look for redeeming qualities! In other words..I am easily amused, easy to please and forgiving of much..I am harder on myself and my art than I ever am on others..so with that said and pounded into the ground..
What happened at the art museum spring salon?
Out of 1024 entries,214 made it in and many were works that are put in because the artist has achieved master artist status due to winning awards in at least 2 previous salons.That took up several spots and some were not the best representatives of those artists work..because they are well known regionally and their stuff is everywhere and easily recognizable.
I didn't make it in..but it was my first time entered in that show..but 2 people I know personally did make it in the first time, one of the jurors was one who has juried 3 different competitions I have entered and she just plain doesn't like my stuff..but what does she like? I could tell her picks because the other juror, classically trained went with the more conservative ideas..the room with the installation, abstracts and avant garde stuff was such a mishmash. Some excellent paintings..including my friend's painting which was put in a corner out of the way..tsk,tsk. And some really bewildering things, not well done, or executed. What is it about some art? If it is really shoddily put together and given a quirky or pithy title then it means something?
In the other rooms there were paintings that were fairly figurative and representational..so what was up with the messy sheep painting of 2 sheep poorly executed..now my sheep looked far better but if you are going to limit sheep paintings there was a beautiful one of a sheep shearer and a sheep left in the basement rejects that was fabulous! Why hang the painting that a 5 year old could have done better? Now I know that sounds bad..certainly artists hate to hear..my 5 yr. old could have done that when some redneck looks at a Jackson Pollack..but we all know a 5 yr. old or a 20 yr. old couldn't do what Jackson did. But in this case..if you put my sheep painting, the sheep shearer painting and this awful accepted painting well the choice would have been the shearer if the one juror or mine if you like a more modern look..
Still..sometimes I think if I were to staple garbage to a wall I would be feted as the next big thing..but I would be snickering behind my hands because I would have pulled one over on the powers that be.
I sometimes look at art that is considered to be the newest rage, the start of a new movement and feel like I just haven't been let in on the joke! Does this sound like what people over the centuries have said when a new art movement came into being? I guess so. I actually like looking at some of this new art..I like the wit, the simpleness, the statements, but I don't always understand it..and that my friends, seems to be the major criteria..If a curator, or juror says this is the new thing, and you don't get it..then you are an idiot uneducated buffoon and not too with it! Are some of these artists purposely doing art that alienates? That makes people feel stupid because they can't figure out what it is? Is there purpose in the execution of oddness and jokiness? Is it the artist that is playing the joke? or the curator?
Frankly..my art borders on the weird and wild but I can't make myself play a joke on the collective viewer..I would rather be simple with no agenda..which is probably why I might never make it!
Here is the Saint Sheep that didn't get in, and the two white wolves that didn't get in, you see I can't be pidgeonholed into a style or type and maybe I have confused the jurors..ahhh this game can be played from both sides!!!