BS: Define 'art'

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: M.Ted
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 10:49 PM

All art is self-explanatory.

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Amos
Date: 17 Dec 08 - 11:29 PM

The art I am thinking of--say, for example, a de Kooning or a Picasso--does not require explanation, unless it is being used as a discussion piece, which may not be its original intent. Abstract expressionism was not generated, I am sure, to be explained. I think M. Ted has his finger on the truth in his 10:49 post.

All the explanation in the world is derivative and is a different subject.

Mona Lisa has been explained as many times as the Cubists have, I expect--yet it does not make her any more enigmatic or lovely in execution.

One reason why some art tends to generate a lot of explanatory talk is because it generates unfamiliar thoughts and feelings. An alternative is to be still in its presence and discover what those feelings are and may mean to you. But not everyone has the temerity to stand and face the unknown that way, so they talk a great deal about it instead. I think of it as a kind of herd instinct in homo sapiens, who vary widely in their degree of courage and discernment and ability to self-reflect.

A.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 08:21 AM

Instead of 'defining' art, on a blog...go do your music...and creative writing. Let those who envy that gift, decide if it is art or not....and frankly, who cares? You have dreamers, and interpreters of dreams...the interpreters of dreams interpret, for that is as close as they can get, to actually experiencing the dream...and sometimes, they'll even PAY to hide their inabilities!

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 09:19 AM

to Dave Oesterreich

just a bit of artistic word play


A _unny sound and/or smell + F = funny and FART

One _iece of a whole + P = piece and PART

wheeled mode for _arrying stuff + C = carrying and CART

maybe a _aste or pas_ry or harlo_ + T = taste, pastry, harlot and TART

Crom_ell had 'em + W = Cromwell and WARTS

Ammunition for Cupi_ + D = Cupid and DART

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Amos
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 09:31 AM

My love she speaks like silence
Without ideals or violence
She doesn't have to say she's faithful
Yet she's true like ice like fire

People carry roses
And make promises by the hours
My love she laughs like the flowers
Valentines can't buy her

In the dime stores and bus stations
People talk of situations
Read books repeat quotations
Draw conclusions on the wall

Some speak of the future
My love she speaks softly
She knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all

The cloak and dagger dangles
Madams light the candles
In ceremonies of the horsemen
Even the pawn must hold a grudge

Statues made of matchsticks
Crumble into one another
My love winks she does not bother
She knows too much to argue or to judge

The bridge at midnight trembles
The country doctor rambles
Banker's nieces seek perfection
Expecting all the gifts that wisemen bring

The wind howls like a hammer
The night blows rainy
My love she's like some raven
At my window with a broken wing

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: John Hardly
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 11:52 AM

My fart he speaks like silence
His smell holds all the violence
He doesn't have to say he's there
Yet he, like, totally ruins the air

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 02:10 PM

JUDGING ART

The Prosecution

Art has no conscience
It is not alive
Only a reflection of soul
A cracked mirror, fragmented, distorted
by another's perception

The Defence

Art is conscience
It does live
Truly breathes, consumes
changes and grows
is gratefully absorbed, accepted
by another's emptiness

The Verdict

Poetry is for the meek
Music for the dispirited
Literature the hungry
Art lonely

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 02:35 PM

He lives in Albuquerque NM

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 07:54 PM

Keep 'em coming!!

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: LilyFestre
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 08:01 PM

For me, art is something that strikes something within me. It doesn't have to be some classically designed sculpture or painting...if it makes my heart happy or makes me pause to admire the beauty or if it tickles my brain into pondering something for a bit, it's art.

Michelle :)

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 09:19 PM

"Art" is an archaic second person (singular and plural) conjugation of the irregular English verb "to be".

Example: Wherefore art thou, Romeo?

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Amos
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 10:50 PM

BeeDub:

If yer gonna act like a scholar, omit the comma. The question is "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" as opposed to being Clayton or Marcello or some such goofy name. The word "wherefore" has never meant "whereabouts" and has always meant "Why" even in good Queen Bess' day.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: GUEST,Guest from sanity
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 11:23 PM

Amos, ..You're starting to impress me! Liked you poem..is it yours?

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: John Hardly
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 07:03 AM

Sure, you like Amos' poem and completely ignore my masterful re-write. Philistine.

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Stu
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 07:16 AM

Ars longa, vita brevis.

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: frogprince
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 09:49 AM

That's Latin for, "your arse will last longer if you stuff vitamins in your briefs"...

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 06:20 PM

Well, I have to congratulate him for perhaps(not sure, yet) Having an original idea....Your turn!

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Ed T
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 07:33 PM

This is interesting
"Three near-invisible drawings discovered on back of Da Vinci masterpiece"



http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article5365300.ece

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Alice
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 10:02 PM

well, here is an example of performance art

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 08:08 AM

Art is something that is made for no reason at all except to be appreciated for itself.

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 09:04 AM

I was once called before the high priests of the Jesuit Order and questioned rather extensively regarding my work, my ideologies and my future intentions. When they asked me to define love, I stopped.

After a long pause in which I had felt a surge of emotions from anger, fear and suspicion, I told them my definition would be meaningless to them but rather it was for them to discover the meaning, definition and practice of love in their own lives.
There was a bit more give and take after that as well as some blatherings of my own about St. Thomas Aquinas and the quasi inquision was over.




I would have to define 'art' in the same context as I did 'love' 38 years ago.









PS: In case anyone is curious about what happened next:
The Jesuit Order decided the following year that my work as a secular clinical hypnotist needed a Godly alternative in the community so they set up an office similar to mine with one of their own in charge. Afterall the age of "New Age" alternatives was begining to get a full head of steam. The person they put in charge of this project was very straight forward about the project funded by the church. He came to visit a couple times with hypnosis questions and advice of his own.
The last time I saw him he asked how I felt about the competition I now faced in the community and I was rather flip when I told him that it was a matter caring, I don't care and it doesn't matter.
There was little in the new age philosphies I found credible except for the concept of Gaia. I soon left the field and began the quest to grow a family.

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 09:34 AM

Didn't Matisse say something along the lines that to define art is to do it great harm or injustice?

Defining art limits, maybe even destroys the spirit of art. That spirit being the artist's rendering of an idea or collection of ideas in a evocative or provocative form and the recipient's personal interpretation of / self-application to the art experience.

Humph! So much for my highchair philosophy. Shutting up now.

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: MaineDog
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 09:57 AM

My mother always used to say of art she didn't like, "Oh, that's not art, its just gross!"
ergo,
Art is anything that grosses out your mother.
MD

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Charmion
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 11:05 AM

Art is what I like. Anything I don't like (or at least find intriguing) is just junk. Ask any critic; once you strip away the fancy-schmancy jargon about brushwork and challenging the verities, that's what they'll tell you.

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Amos
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 11:57 AM

GfS;

No, not mione-- I thought it would be well known enough not to need attribution. It is a Bob Dylan song, "Love Minus Zero/No Limit". I thought injecting it would elevate the dialogue from the tedious to the purely experiential.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 11:48 PM

ME !!

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 01:14 AM

Amos, oh,...jeez! Was about to applaud your writing skills..and silly me. I used to do a lot of Dylan....years ago....!

Subject: RE: BS: Define 'art'
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 04:34 AM

Pure art is what any one individual appreciates as such....... but then you have 'commercial art' the stuff that they (whoever they are) buy for thousands.. or millions as an investment because they know so many others want it....... the big question is... why do the others want it? Is it because they appreciate it or because they want to invest?? Beats me!!!!