Wah? Explain thyself!

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"If songs were lines in a conversation
the situation would be fine" ~Nick Drake

I guess being in a train crash would be something to write about though eh? Nothin' like a little premature grey hair and post-tramatic stress disorder to roughen up the poetic voice, eh? haha.

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There were crashes and injuries!

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Not me. I want to ride the stink'n trains.

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"If songs were lines in a conversation
the situation would be fine" ~Nick Drake

I'm glad you didn't have time to ride the trains recently.

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[press play and hum along to the silence]

Well, I won't be able to make it to the museum this weekend... and likely not next weekend either... then it's finals and I certainly won't be going then. Of the three options I submitted, the elevator seems like the only feasible one (because, if I get bored, I can just leave). The idea of the trian is definitely about staying in one place, yet always being in (horizantal) motion. I guess the elevator is the vertical version of that, only the movement is intermittent. I supposse though, really, the entire thing is an excuse to sit down and write/listen to music/draw for an extended period of time. The draw of the elevator (at least the elevator in my dorm) is that it doesn't get a ton of traffic (or maybe it does, and that will be what I observe? Hmm...) Alternately, I could hang out in a stairwell. Hmm...

That description you linked me to was only moderately helpful... Well... actually, the article wasn't that helpful at all, but the pictures (the very tiny ones at the top) were sort of helpful for context... sort of.


Sure, I'll teach you how to develop and print, but each lab is different so I may not be much help other than general guidance. I'll bring my film camera with me during Christmas break.

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"If songs were lines in a conversation
the situation would be fine" ~Nick Drake

I found it useful to not really breeze through, but work through quickly/efficiently. Dart from painting to painting, giving a quick study to each, and being sure to view them both from accross the room and up close to see technique. Then I spend a long time looking at the ones that really interest me. I found my notepad useful to write down the names of works, but I simply mulled them over internally since I would spend too much time writing everything down I thought of. Also, if they allow photography, using a camera to document favorite pieces is a good idea. You'll probably remember the details better as well from getting into shooter mode. Try holding the camera very still a 1/60th, ~f/2.8, with iso 800. Lighting may of course be different there. Your meter will lie to you about paintings with unusual or dramatic lighting, and blow out the shadows, so just use your head instead.

I like the idea of riding the train, and I don't think it would be sheerly ecentric if you got a lot out of it, either in poetry or insight or simply a powerful experience/memory. The elevator, however, might be a stretch. I think it would make an excellent metaphor, yes, a very good video art piece showing an up and down trip to nowhere, but I'm not sure if it would be as stimulating an experience as the train, let alone the museum. I believe you recorded them in proper order: the museum is (hopefully) a sure bet for some sort of insight or experience, the train experience could be either unexceptional, perhaps boring, or truly revelatory, or somewhere in between. The elevator ride, on the other hand, would (fittingly) probably never elevate beyond mediocre. Perhaps it could slide sideways to the realm of uncomfortable when you are asked questions that you don't have a good answer for, or are asking yourself. Or I may be getting the wrong impression entirely!

I'm not a fan of pop art, and I don't consider what I saw at the museum pop art, with the possible exception of a piece or two. Except they seemed to have an actual message. This description basically shows nothing, and told me little, but perhaps you'll get more out of it. [link] I wouldn't call much of what I saw aesthetically pleasing, exactly. More like aesthetically mind blowing, or perhaps even sensual (definitions 1&2 only )

alright, I'm gonna wrap this up and sleep (hopefully).
I'll try to save the pics.

um hey whoo got distracted again. say can you teach me how to develp pictures and print when you are here? I have a needs to do it. aright? aright.

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Your description of your experience at LACMA is making me want to go to the Art Institute of Chicago this weekend. I'm thinking of bringing a notepad and just ruminating in the building for a while, soaking up a few works instead of breezing by most of them. An alternative plan is buying a Weekend Pass train ticket and riding the train into and out of Chicago all day and write poems on the train. I've also had a similar thought of sitting in the elevator of my dorm all day. (with obvious breaks for food and bathroom) Is that being eccentric for eccentricity's sake? Or is it a valid way to spend the day?


Was that 60's Californian art considered Pop Art? Or is it totally different? I like some Pop Art, but most of it is rather vapid, in my opinion. I appreciate a lot of Andy Warhol's work for it's place in art history, but how much of an emotional reaction can I get from an illustration of a Campbell's Soup Can screen print? Which begs the question, is art required to elicit an emotional response to it? Where does satirical art fit in then, when it's aim is to draw out an intellectual response? Does art even need to be aesthetically pleasing? (My opinion is that it does, but I say that with the distinction between beauty and aesthetics. A work of art doesn't need to be beautiful to be aesthetically pleasing)

Silly boy, those links are identical. I read the one about Robert Irwin. I loved his quotations, I thought they were brilliant. I don't necessarily stick by him completely with everything he said, but I like here his viewpoint quite a bit. If that was the one you read in the Times, save that so I can look at all the pictures. They are a must for me.

Wow. It took me a while to figure out what you meant by "stress-balled", but when I finally did, it really made me smile. I'm sure whoever is using you as a stress ball is much relieved. Oh yipes, tis 11:00 and I have some poetry to read. Feel free to call if you want. I'm actually contemplating staying up late to draw/muse/write tonight.

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"If songs were lines in a conversation
the situation would be fine" ~Nick Drake

You expressed very nicely the thoughts I hadn't quite formulated yet. I think this whole train of thought/experience might have been triggered by a certain portion of my trip to LACMA. Specifically, the California (60's art) exhibit, which I almost didn't go to, thinking my general collection ticket would not apply. Some of the pieces did not move me whatsoever. I thought I "got" them, but there wasn't much there, lots of pieces to make an insiginificant form, much to-do about nothing much. (With the exception of a fearsome cross built from the relics of suburbia, which appeared as interesting decorative form from a distance but became a scene from a gothic painting up close.) Later on the exhibit featured pure color/essence/impression pieces. The most vivid still in memory was a large fiberglass beam leaning against the wall, wider and taller than a man, albiet thinner. It was red. It was very red. The brightest most red thing I'd ever seen. The Red of reds. When I stood directly in front of it so that it filled my view my vision seemed to flicker. Astonishing.
And then there was The Space which challenged my understandings of space, vision, impressions, and art, but that's a story for later. Or at least after I eat dinner.

This morning I read this article. [link]
I found it moderately challenging but also very affirming of the sort of things I've been thinking about recently. Sorry that you can't see the pictures with it, I could possibly scan but that's not really the most important part of the article (relative to our discussion).

I also read this one just now as I was searching for the other article online: [link]
I'm not sure quite what I think about it, other than to conclude that material/medium must be rather important if it can (in cases) stand on its own. I think taking minimalism as far as this fellow did is kind of extreme, but

distraction and stress! I might call you later to vent about/ask for advice on majors 'n classes 'n life 'n stuff. I is so stress-balled

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I agree. I think a lot of the art on DeviantArt is an appreciation of cool, rather than substance or form. (It's like popular music!) Yes, it takes a lot of time and work to achieve the skill level to be able to produce that object of cool, but I can't help but note the shallowness of it all. I think my favorite works of art elicit an emotion from me, rather than present an embodiment (often an over-exaggerated and hyperbolic presentation) of an emotion.

Oh, I totally see what those painters are saying about overworking an image. I think that, in part, is why I'm experimenting with minimalism. It's kind the aspect of not overworking the painting put to an extreme. What is necessary to express a figure, an idea, a form? In a way, it's a very poetic form of art. Compacting your means to express the maximum amount using the fewest resources. We'll see how that pans out for me. Have you been able to do any actual painting?

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"If songs were lines in a conversation
the situation would be fine" ~Nick Drake

I'm noticing that the popular artists on dev have a fairly high level of technical skill, albiet frequently only developed in one particular genre or mode, and rarely any sort of true ("true"?) (subversive?) message (I'm questioning my own definition of a true message now). What I mean to say is they tend to focus on surface/impression. Meaning becomes derived emotion, or a sense of "wow".

On another, semi-related thought, I noticed an interesting line of thought woven through the opinions of the authors and professional artists featured in the books I've been reading. Almost all of them, at some point, speak of the danger of "overworking" a painting. They claim that an artist must learn the point at which to stop adding detail so the painting does not loose, in essence, its soul. (Which is derived from the intentions and methods of the individual painter.) Well hmm I've been distracted since I wrote that last sentence, so ta ta for now!

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I think I want it to be of a general higher quality. I want it to be interesting to people who don't know me (which would probably include numerous entire rewrites and personal divulging rather than just fixing a sentence or two).

--
"If songs were lines in a conversation
the situation would be fine" ~Nick Drake

oh my! That sounds like a lot of work. Actually, they seem quite solid already, so the hard part will probably be finding actual problems.

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The egregious sin was not responding to a well-thought out comment.

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"You laugh because I'm different. I laugh because you're all the same."

Oh yes, I loathe that. Unfortunately, I know I've been the perpetrator of that egregious sin.

I don't think it rubs me quite the same way it does you, but honestly, I don't spend a lot of time looking through the photographers who are popular on DeviantArt (maybe I should?). I definitely see what you mean about rehashing the same tired content and style over and over again.

There's a lot of crap on DeviantArt. Considering that the majority of people that frequent it have very little actual artistic sensibility, it's not surprising.

Oh man... the 4 AM hasn't let go of me... My body doesn't like that I stayed up all night.

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"You laugh because I'm different. I laugh because you're all the same."

thanks

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Life is just that... LIFE. Don't push it. It will come to you.
Be careful what you wish for.
Sometimes it is all about the details and not the center piece.

No problem, I enjoy your work. (even the Parcels)

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"You laugh because I'm different. I laugh because you're all the same."

Oh, thankyou. I was really worried about the quality for a while. I'm probably going to enlist you in the revising stage. When I've finished the 17 essays, I'm going to go back and revise them... then I'll send them to you to look over, and possibly some other people and hopefully I'll get feedback to make something I really like.

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"You laugh because I'm different. I laugh because you're all the same."

Don't you hate how no one replies to your comment replies? It's like once they say their thing, they're done, and don't expect or know how to reply to an intelligent response.

On an unrelated note, I always feel a little awkward when I don't like one of the popular/celebrated deviantart photographers. But really, I think half or more of the trends on this site are utter crap, and in those popular genres the same lame, overwrought, ridiculous themes get trotted out by every hot photographer. But then I find someone who is guilty of this sort of melodrama, but is not just pretty good at it, but maybe the best. In his gallery every shot is perfectly lit and post processed nicely and have wonderful compositions and razer focus (but that's not actually hard at all considering they seem to all be shot at something ridiculous like f/14). And yet it's all hyper-real and utterly false, emotion for the sake of it and not for any real sense of it. No understanding, just shouting. And while it's novel for about 1 page and a half of gallery space, when the same shots and style get retread for 35 pages it gets old fast. Why would you shoot what is essentially the same exact photograph, interchange model, interchange mood: happy/sad/fearful/angry/violent/suicidal and insert splashy visual effect and/or fluids, the same shot, thousands upon thousands of times over.

I won't name any names, but I found 11 photos I really really liked out of 899 in the gallery. Those 11 you can find in my favorites. And if you find the source, I think the worst excesses are on pages 3&7, but there are plenty on every page.

Tell me what you think. Does it rub you the wrong way as much as me, or am I really the only one who thinks some (much) of it might be rubbish?

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And they're actually really interesting AND well written. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but whenever I try to write a straight-up introspective journal the writing deteriorates or morphs really fast.

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Thanks for your comment and visit

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Life is just that... LIFE. Don't push it. It will come to you.
Be careful what you wish for.
Sometimes it is all about the details and not the center piece.

Ha. For once, I do not fail.

^_^


Oh, and as far as commenting goes, don't feel obligated to. It's nice to see one, once in a while, but I don't expect you, or anyone else to pay that much attention to them. (that's quite a different philosophic approach I've taken to these posts)

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"You laugh because I'm different. I laugh because you're all the same."

Wow, you actually really are journaling here. I hope this doesn't sound harsh but I kind of expected no further entries to appear. I'll have to pop back here again when I have something to say about them; right now I'm nutrient deprived and light-headed.

I on the other hand, have
"Return from DevHiatus?
Journal Entry: Thu Sep 27, 2007, 1:44 AM" failed utterly here, but that's ok, I'm moving in new directions that I think have more potential.

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It's not so much that I don't have time to do anything properly... more like I don't have time to do everything properly... recently, I've been sacrificing the visual arts for developing my poetic and musical skills.

I started a collage-ish project last night though, so I hope that aspect of me starts resurfacing again.


Do you think you could make Cigarette a print? I'd like that one for my room.

[link]

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"You laugh because I'm different. I laugh because you're all the same."

I like your style, it's a genre I've been wanting to try, but haven't gotten around to it.

I really enjoyed the Art of Flirting, I'd like to get it as a Print... but you don't have any prints on your page. So, I was thinking of printing it myself on some good quality paper, I thought I'd ask you for permission first though.

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"You laugh because I'm different. I laugh because you're all the same."