To the Artists

My friend Betsy forwarded me Eric Rhoads newsletter, Coffee with Eric and his blog post, Doing Your Soul Work.  I just LOVED this quote!

Public Domain bird graphic from The Graphics Fairy.  Feel free to use!  :-)

I'm reminded of the story of John Rzeznik of Goo Goo Dolls telling the story of writing Name.  They were a punk band, traveling around in a van and he was approaching 30 and thinking about getting a "real job," and maybe going back to college. Or plumbing school, because apparently he's really good at plumbing, which back in the 80's would not have wowed me, but now I just think, "Oooooh, bathroom remodel!"  :-)  But I squirreled. Anyway, he was having that what-should-I-do-with-my-life? conundrum and sat down on the sofa, and wrote Name, which was their first song on the radio and the rest is rock-n-roll history. 

Here's a clip of him telling the story, but this video is too adorable not to show:

And how could we not include Seth Godin on a conversation about art?  :-)

What Is Art?

This started off with me slapping up a quick photo of a purple sunrise for artist Gisele Grenier. She is a WONDERFUL art teacher who recently posed the question "Is paint pouring really art?" on one of her videos. It reminded me of when I was living on the Chesapeake Bay & I went to an art show of landscapes from local artists. I was with my neighbor, who was a mortgage banker, who told me with great authority that one particular sunrise painting had "too much purple" in it and it would be better with less purple. She was not an artist and had never studied art. Her whole opinion was based on her idea that it wasn't realistic and therefore wasn't good. Also, it wasn't "realistic" because she had never seen a purple sunrise like that before. I had!  

Here's an orangey one for the Autumn season!

I think when hearing criticism or getting personal feedback for your art, it's good to consider the source: 

Is this person an artist?

Does s/he have experience of art history?

Is there an understanding of the basic elements of what constitutes art?

Even professional critics disagree!  I certainly would never aspire to buy Piero Manzoni's "art" which consists of allegedly tinning up his own literal crap!  ($300,000?!)

[And then I squirreled & thought about what Mum would say if she heard about this guy]

But someone values that as art. See? It's like that old saying: 

"One person's junk is another person's JUNK JOURNAL."  (Haha)

Art is a subjective experience. It can't be measured like math; there is no ONE answer. To me, art is beauty. It's what feeds my soul. What is beauty?  That's subjective, too!

And I'll leave you with some more beauty; one of the first sunrises from my current backyard:

More purple!