Monday, March 3, 2008

On Drawing shit...

mmmmm
I haven't had a good blog topic in a while.
So here is ...what I perceive to be one, I hope you take something from it.

Its on the topic of "what is art?"

I see design every day
in and out
out and in
class to class
I walk around and posters clutter my view
packaging literally...smacks me in the face.

But I'm tired of it
I'm tired of
STACKED
ALL CAPS
typography
in either Helvetica, Futura or Univers
I'm tired of...of...

Artists and designers today often remind me of...cards:
one moment shuffled one way and then another,
but the cards remain the same.
So you can move type around,
but where's the Character?
We regurgitate the old folks...
Chermayeff, Bass, Sagmeister, Scher...on and on...
but...their work can Never be duplicated
we can look to their style, but that is theirs...
it has to do with the context withwhich it was created
and frankly...
its not nearly as applicable today as we would think.

That's slightly beside the point.
What I want to get at is for everyone else out there
who has been
scared
or unmotivated
or starving
to tap into their own artistic abilities....

Some of the first forms of art,
and art for a looong time (into the 1800s...)
were all about regurgitating what you see
make things look as Real as possible
They sat in studios and drew anatomical
people and...figures as real as could be...
Which at one point was...creative
However, eventually the critics weren't impressed.
Because, anyone could practice day in and day out
and make a portrait appear to be life-like...after enough time and effort.

But compositions
the implementation of imagination
of different perspectives
new creatures
new abstractions and concepts and meanings
...its all what you feel.
If you're doing a still life of...a box
sure everyone can see a box and eventually draw it...
but what sort of life and emotion do you give that box?
Does it contort and turn into the monster of your dreams?
Or end up with wildflowers growing in it?
It doesn't Really matter...even if it Does look like the box you see in front of you,
do your brush strokes imply something?
A quickness? Detail orientation?

Next time you feel like you need to "do" art
or "be" an artist...
If I could say anything,
I would say that you would be the Best artist
by painting what's in you
I don't believe it matters if every single painting
you paint the SAME box
over and over and over again
Nature doesn't give everything to everyone
but something to each of us
and through that someThing, we can make an infinite
amount of interpretations,
as can the viewer.
This, I believe is what is important...
So draw on, friends.
draw on.

2 comments:

Cycle Ninja said...

Funny, when you were ranting about all caps, I couldn't help but think of Bike World's email advertisements. They drive me nuts.

BassetRancher said...

Sweet post! Makes me want to get off my butt and finish some of my projects and get painting again!