[ October 19, 2001: Message edited by: ray hill ]

I cracked up when i saw the photo of the "artist"

hahahahahahaha

good one glenn!

[ October 19, 2001: Message edited by: Mark Fair Signs ]

I am one of those people who just "don't get it" or at least never did till I saw a show on Discovery pondering this very question of yours.

Its easy to appreciate a beautiful painting as art, but it is much harder to grasp (for me anyway) and appreciate a painting that was made by a stark naked women rolling around in paint on the floor.

Yoko Ono had a living display one time where she would sit all day in one position while people came in cut a piece of her clothing off until she was bare to the bone! I dont understand that either.

Not to wory, that very program on Discovery showed that a lot of people just don't understand why it is "art", BUT... they all stop and look, they all stop and wonder, WHICH IS THE SAME THING YOU DO WHEN YOU LOOK AT A BEAUTIFUL PAINTING.

You stop, you stare and you wonder. If its trash on a stool, or a sclupture of David, you stop, you stare and you wonder.

That is what ART is supposed to make you do.
Nobody said you have to like it!

So, this pile of trash made you stop, stare and wonder, then you passed it on to us, right?
So was this "art" effective. Look how many replies you go so far. Yes this pile of trash did just what it was suppose to do....and that is what "art" is supposed to do.

[ October 19, 2001: Message edited by: Dave Draper ]

http://www.sfgate.com/offbeat/buzzcuts14.html

I have painted oils for 40 years and am always amazed to hear how someone with some paints and a canvas thinks a painting is truly fine art. Interestingly, some of the best works are the ones done with very little experience, thus having my forty years gives me no advantage over anyone else's ability to make good art. Finding the persistence to do it for 40 years, though is the challenge. Finding a gallery and the success of actually selling enough work to pay for it all seems to be much more of the challenge than the actual act of making art.

Wanna make art? All you have to do is simply try. It is a very richly rewarding interest in many more ways than in financial gain.

What is great art? What is great beauty? It is the mystery we all chase after whether we are making a line of 2" Helvetica with a computer or a marble statue.

Sometimes I get it. I'd like to always get it but sometimes I don't. I would like to get it a lot. Getting it a lot would be a good thing.

But sometimes I don't get it so I don't get it. Sometimes when I do get it, I was lucky I got it at all because getting it was key to to the whole agenda. I think we should all get it. Get it as much as you are able to get it.

But, alas, some of us don't get it because people around them don't get it and when they aren't getting it then there sure is a good chance you aren't going to get it, either.

It does seem that there is always someone who gets it more than anyone else gets it. Why are they always getting it when we don't get it. Must be the lack getting that college diploma saying that we got it. While they were out getting it, the rest of us were out getting it in our own ways.

So, here's hoping we all get it so we can all get on with getting it. You know, I think I better get it because if I don't get it then's someone out there is really going to get it.

Get it and have a great one!

[ October 20, 2001: Message edited by: Bruce Bowers ]

sorry i don't get it bubba????

I laughed so hard over bruce's comment that i screwed up the vinyl job i was working on...

I sit on the deck out back and see faces in the wood...a little supportive carving and others could see it too, without all the head cockin and wonderin.

I've seen some pretty strange expressions out there, but I realize the artist, saw "something" and appreciated what they saw.

So, I've deduced the art of "getting it" is sharing that vision and appreciating the creation for the message / feeling it gives.

"Emmanuel Asare spotted the pile of full ashtrays, beer bottles, cola tins, coffee cups and sweet wrappings — and thought it was leftovers from a party.

Which is exactly what it was. Hirst “created” the exhibit at a launch party for a showing of his paintings."
-------------
Well, if art is to serve a purpose, then that one certainly served its purpose, which was to imitate trash, and get thrown out. This would be an instance of art imitating life.

I'll have to get back to this one, because I need to read the replies. The folks in this BB tend to know what art is, and do it for a living. We're probably alien to this particular "artist" in that we try to design our work in a way that no one would want to put it out with the trash.

But then, some of us grew up with Abstract Impressionism, Pop Art and the Put-On. For a long time, there was an academic and genteel distinction between crummy, hack "craft," such as signpainting, and "Fine Aht," such as peddling your canvases on the streetcorners of New York. The real distinction, it turns out, is that sign and graphic artists work most every day, and the others mostly don't.

Thanks for raising the Q, Glenn. What is Art? May as well hear from the people who do it.

A pile of trash isn't worth $7000. The IDEA behind the projet is its worth.

Same is true of sign work, you get more money for a sign with a great layout than you do for the same sign with a generic look.

Corporate logos which cost thousands and thousands of dollors to design, and yet some look like the designer too a magic marker and scribbled out the logo.

Now back to that pile of trash exhibit:

This is the first impression which caused wonderment for me: (and maybe this was not the artisit's intent to inspire this thought in me)

When do these items in this display become "ugly"?

The designers who designed the individual packaging are proud of their work, the artists are proud of their pretty lables, the companies that had to manufacture all the containers with complex machinery are proud of these item,
the product manufacture is overjoyed that his product will be protected in these containers and reach consumers, and when these items are in the supermarket sitting on shelves, these very items look DESIREABLE and we buy them.

Then something happens! All of a sudden, these desireable and pretty items give an instance of joy
(such as at a party), then these thing are looked on as an eye sore. They are not pretty anymore to anybody! They are TRASH! What changed?

Human nature is to love something for a fleeting moment, then trash it! All the hard work by hundreds of people spending thousands of development hours for a few seconds of use, then discarded. It also speaks volums how thoughtless people are as to responsible waste managment.

Like I said, this was the instant impression that this art display made me stop and reflect on.
I didn't see it as a pile of trash...there are deeper implications going on.

As I mentioned before, I didn't "get it" about this kind of art until I saw that show on the Discovery Channel asking Glenn's same question:

What is ART? Art is something that makes you stop, stare, and wonder. It generates an emotional reaction of some kind. Doesn't matter if the reaction is good, or bad, positive or negative.

Wanna come over and check out the "art" someone dumped behind my garage on the alleyway? I think you might enjoy it! It was so tastefully arranged with such care. the placement was perfect. It almost looked as though it was thrown out of a car window by someone driving by at a high rate of speed.

Funny, I was just admiring the design of the potato chip packaging. The tampon box was extremely well designed. Great layout and colors. I especially liked the cereal boxes. Boy, there is some excellent work going on there. I can only imagine the machinery that was used to make those containers, too.

It is truly amazing the thoughts that run through your head while cleaning...er... ummm... rearranging the trash... er... ah... art into another "art" receptacle. Yup... that's what I was thinking.

LOL!

(These comments are made totally tongue-in-cheek and should not be taken seriously lest someone's feelings get hurt)

What....you cleaned it up? THAT WAS WORTH $7000 AND YOU COULD HAVE STARTED YOUR OWN GALLERY!

What were you thinking? DUH!

No wonder I am so poor! LOL! It was the used tea bags that should have been the give away, huh? Boy... I could have charged admission, too. If I put it back, do you think anyone would notice? hahahahahahahahaha!

Hey, ain't it great living in the free world? You betcha, big buck!