Mr. MacCruiskeen, I throw down the Art Gauntlet!

[Project Willow]

It's difficult for me not to notice you have a habit now and then, regardless of thread topic, of ending a post with a quip against art or artists, such as this latest one:

PS Yes, I know that astronomy takes place under the beady eye of the military-industrial complex, and is financed by it. But the same applies to literally everything on Earth in 2012, including (and probably especially) art.

If you've ever shared the thought behind your resentment, I must have missed it, so I challenge you now, expound, extrapolate, purge!

It would be nice to have a little buffer against your unspecified scorn, or, well, not as the case may be.

[IanEye]

Mr. MacCartney, Eye throw down with Art Garfunkel!

*


The wonder of it all, Baby!

[undead]

Life without art is not worth living. Art is what makes life worth living. Anti-art sentiment is sour grapes for those who do not see / hear / do enough art in their lives. Anyone can do art. Go draw something on a rock face or building somewhere, you'll feel better.

[Simulist]

Hey, Hitler was a painter!

(He could paint an entire apartment in one afternoon — two coats!)

[Project Willow]

Life without art is not worth living. Art is what makes life worth living. Anti-art sentiment is sour grapes for those who do not see / hear / do enough art in their lives. Anyone can do art. Go draw something on a rock face or building somewhere, you'll feel better.

Now I regret the impression I might have created.

I do believe that Mac is an actor, and I know he enjoys some rather wonderful painting and other works, but this just adds to my curiosity, and now I feel odd speaking about him in third person.

[JackRiddler]

ooh! A throw-down!

Je me attendre a la reponse du mon bon ami Mocksee avec plaisir.

[MacCruiskeen]

Willow, we might well have our lines crossed here. I'll have to get back to you later, though - it might be tomorrow, cos I'm pushed for time here. (I'm busy with something you might call [cough] art [/cough].)

Go draw something on a rock face or building somewhere, you'll feel better.

Ooh, matron!

Anyone can do art.

Really? Oh goody. Is it all right if I just put a hat on a horse?

[undead]

Really? Oh goody. Is it all right if I just put a hat on a horse?

Yes, of course. Btw no snark intended, and didn't mean to bring into question your good taste. I actually agree with a lot of "anti-Art" sentiment, although I believe it is really misdirected annoyance at professional bougie artists.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Really? Oh goody. Is it all right if I just put a hat on a horse?

Glad you didn't claim to have put the hat on the man, since some of us know he has been wearing it (with occassional alterations to reflect the changing nature of traffic cones) for 30-odd years now.

Ironically, or not, that statue's just outside the Gallery of Modern Art. Maybe it has been co-opted into a larger installation piece. The People's Art!

Off-topic - I didn't know this till a couple of days ago, but I really like Kris Kuski's sculptures. Go to this site and click on The Evidence of Tyranny (or any of the others). You can zoom in on the pieces and study the level of detail, and feel awed by it. That's what I've been doing lately: http://kuksi.com/artworks/sculpture/

[Project Willow]

ooh! A throw-down!

*Arms akimbo*
And to you I say,

O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.
Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wilde release from Heavens yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.
The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubt
Verily, I say, 'tis what it's all about.

[Project Willow]

*Sigh*

I only know sound for empty forests. I thrash and scream and wail, but just the dust and air respond because they have no will. My art is perpetually emerging. My loves are all unrequited. My bed is empty, and my feet are not rubbed. My system is not integrated, my largely unaided escape inevitably incomplete.

Does the universe respond to nothing but violation? Is the sweet song of a heart the most powerless thing there ever was?

[barracuda]

^^ Beautiful, in response to which I shall now go forth and paint upon my pictures with renewed abandon.

[Ziggin' and a Zaggin']

Go draw something on a rock face ...

Please, no, not on a rock face. The rock shoud not be de-faced.

[Byrne]

.... under the beady eye of the military-industrial complex, and is financed by it.

Modern art was CIA 'weapon'
Revealed: how the spy agency used unwitting artists such as Pollock and de Kooning in a cultural Cold War
By Frances Stonor Saunders, 22 October 1995

Not all art, though, is financed by the MIC, just crap stuff that we're meant to like.





could'nae help it....

[Project Willow]

^ Yes, I believe most of us are Stoner literate around here. I'd argue that the prominence of the stuff we're supposed to like is as much a result of the vagaries of the market and how elitism specializes it for the great benefit of a few while dumbing down the output of the many, if I had to try to put it in a nut-shell.