2012-04-29T18:39:50-04:00 lifetype-1.2.10_r6971 http://www.alsbach-art.com/blog/rss.php?blogId=8321&profile=atom Copyright (c) tag:blogs.artspan.com,2012-04-29:33687 2012-04-29T18:39:50-04:00

    Artist/painter = Poet Artist/illustrator = Writer Graphic Designer = Copywriter   “The left is smart enough to understand that the way to change the ...

General     Artist/painter = Poet Artist/illustrator = Writer Graphic Designer = Copywriter   “The left is smart enough to understand that the way to change the political system is through its cultural system.”   Andrew Breitbart   “I wake up every morning thinking; today I’m going to end capitalism. Today I’m going to make a revolution. I go to bed every night disappointed but…I’m back again tomorrow… I think you have to use every thing… a smile on your face, a song in your heart, use humor, use art .”  Bill Ayers       William Harris “Futile Cleaning of that Pesky Human Stain” oil on canvas        Yes, Virginia there are a few artists who are politically conservative, religious, and talented, most of those known to conservatives are illustrators and graphic designers, but there are a few who strive to make Fine Art.  Unlike Santa Clause, they just tend to be completely and utterly ignored by the art world, and sadly, most conservatives. Problem is most of them cannot come out publicly.  Why?  Because conservatives don’t buy much fine art.  Oh, they buy artwork, picked out by an often-liberal consultant, decorator, designer, or maybe something they picked up on vacation…  What I am saying is that conservatives do not buy conservative artists work, at least not often enough to be noticed by most of us, and that is a tragedy.        Writing about the relationship between the Fine Arts and conservatives is a beginners shooting sport for liberals.  They look at it as shooting big fat slow pen raised birds, not hunting wild Quail.  .  The currently popular painter for many conservatives is John McNaughton.  McNaughton is reasonably skilled at illustrating conservative fears.  He just doesn’t clear the first fine art bar for representational fine art, suspension of belief.  Christopher Wright **wrote a critical appraisal of McNaughton’s painting “Obama Burning the Constitution.”  Wright also compared McNaughton to Thomas Kinkade, which I hope is intentionally over the top.  I think that Kinkade’s ‘work’ is Karo Syrup encased advanced black velvet painting (the sort of ‘painting’ you used to see for sale at run down gas stations).  McNaughton deserves better than that, he is a young illustrator of reasonable talent.  His career is still in its early stages, and though he has not reached the pantheon of the great as of yet, it is still possible.        William Harris, 31, is a leading member of the Organization of Politically Conservative Artists.  He makes paintings with one foot in illustration, in that he is telling a story.  His other in fine art, in that his story telling is in a visual haiku form, filled with a subtle irony.  His late uncle the, illustrator Warren Henry, was Williams first and most influential teacher.  Blurring the border between Fine art and illustration has been a trend in the arts for some time. Jerome Witkin, 73, is a well-known & politically somewhat more liberal artist.   In a visual sense Witkin has been tapping the same roots as Harris from the other side of the tree. Harris, like all conservative artists, is not nearly as well known as Witkin.  Williams work sells for a small fraction of what a Witkin demands… Yet, if he were given support by his fellow conservatives, who knows?        Harris, lives in Southfield, Michigan (a Detroit suburb).  He says; “My painting Futile Cleaning portrays individuals covering, cleaning, and blotting out the light that shines upon them. It's based on some artistic aspirations of Ad Reinhardt, who said, " My painting represents the victory of the forces of darkness and peace over the powers of light and evil ." [L et me just repeat that; “My painting represents the victory of the forces of darkness and peace over the powers of light and evil.”  Remind anyone of a twisted & flipped version of Ephesians 6:12? ]  Harris continues; “Reinhardt wanted to eliminate any trace of the human element in his work, as shown in his use of extremely muted color, form, and brushwork. With his intentions and work in mind, my painting sheds light on one way we seek to discard the human element - trying to block out and cover up any light that shines on it.”  The man is turning the abstract painter Ad Reinhart, famed for claiming that he was “making the last paintings anyone could paint” on his head! He is telling a reportedly great and famous artist, in a sophisticated way only another painter can; “Jamb It!”  Yet, does anyone notice?  Is anyone buying Williams work for six figures?  Not yet, but hey the guy is only 31, still young for an artist of serious artistic ambition.        On the painting “Puzzling Reality”, Harris says; “ This painting portrays a puzzle of two people piecing together a puzzle of their own perceptions on art and reality.”  Again, Harris is playing with what we think we think and what we think we know. The transparent reflections, puzzle within a puzzle, a logarithmic spiral composition disguised as the far more simple rule of three (not an easy thing to pull off) turning ever in upon itself, and figures who seem half unreal, game box illustrations coming more to life the further they are from the surface.  An image of Duchamp’s urinal slides on the table…  Ideas buried within complex ideas enough for any liberal conceptual art critic to mull over, but do they mull?  “Well of course not, yuck, he’s conservative!”             William Harris “Puzzling Reality Presupposes a Pieced Perception” oil on canvas.          The principle point here is that with a few exceptions the Fine Arts have consciously and consistently railed against the bourgeois, (the middle and lower middle class ‘kulaks’ meaning: tight-fisted, because they wouldn’t willingly give up all of their grain and starve like good comrades ) railed heartily against them for several decades.   Wealthy and upper middle class conservatives still buy the work of artist well known for this negative attitude.  Bill Koch owns a Fernando Botero sculpture (an artist known for his ‘fatty’ satirical images of ordinary people and some politicians.  Botero’s paintings sell for an average of 500k, no idea what his bronze sculptures go for but it’s safe to say far more.)  Some conservatives play it safe and just buy boring pretty pictures.         Meanwhile there are a few of us, like William Harris, brave enough to openly voice conclusions that differ a great deal from the vast majority of our fellow artists.  In our world openly conservative and openly Christian is the rough equivalent of being a leper in 100 BC.          Will conservatives ever pay the kind of money often paid out for liberal artwork?  -Or- Will they continue to help liberals drive us further underground?  The work of William Harris and other politically conservative artists is out there.  Art history (littered with the stories of artists mostly or completely ignored in their own time) often shows, that some of those ignored will eventually be well known, and their work very valuable.  Art history also ignores many artists who were prominent in their own time, and their work is of little comparable value. The only real question is will we live to see the rise of conservative art, or is it just a foolish contradiction in terms?        And the 500k Botero’s?  Over the next 25 years I suspect that their value will fall off precipitously while gathering dust in the vast storage buildings of major museums.  Curators of the future will come across a Botero and think; “what the heck did they see in this smarmy cynically pretty stuff?  Surely, they knew that for a tiny fraction of what they paid for this they could have bought a William Harris!  Now there was an artist who owned his own damn mind!” The storage door closes and is locked again, as final preparations are made for the museums Harris retrospective, and the crowds that will gather.   Andrew Breitbart understood that it begins with culture, the question for the rest of us is: Do we believe it?  Do we understand what that actually means?  Let’s hope so, otherwise we’re in for another long difficult century.       **LA Times, Christopher Wright article about McNaughton painting. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2012/03/why-a-painting-of-president-obama-with-a-burning-constitution-is-junk.html tag:blogs.artspan.com,2012-04-29:33685 2012-04-29T17:50:16-04:00

    Artist/painter = Poet Artist/illustrator = Writer Graphic Designer = Copywriter   “The left is smart enough to understand that the way to change ...

General     Artist/painter = Poet Artist/illustrator = Writer Graphic Designer = Copywriter   “The left is smart enough to understand that the way to change the political system is through its cultural system.”   Andrew Breitbart   “I wake up every morning thinking; today I’m going to end capitalism. Today I’m going to make a revolution. I go to bed every night disappointed but…I’m back again tomorrow… I think you have to use every thing… a smile on your face, a song in your heart, use humor, use art .”  Bill Ayers       William Harris “Futile Cleaning of that Pesky Human Stain” oil on canvas        Yes, Virginia there are a few artists who are politically conservative, religious, and talented, most of those known to conservatives are illustrators and graphic designers, but there are a few who strive to make Fine Art.  Unlike Santa Clause, they just tend to be completely and utterly ignored by the art world, and sadly, most conservatives. Problem is most of them cannot come out publicly.  Why?  Because conservatives don’t buy much fine art.  Oh, they buy artwork, picked out by an often-liberal consultant, decorator, designer, or maybe something they picked up on vacation…  What I am saying is that conservatives do not buy conservative artists work, at least not often enough to be noticed by most of us, and that is a tragedy.        Writing about the relationship between the Fine Arts and conservatives is a beginners shooting sport for liberals.  They look at it as shooting big fat slow pen raised birds, not hunting wild Quail.  .  The currently popular painter for many conservatives is John McNaughton.  McNaughton is reasonably skilled at illustrating conservative fears.  He just doesn’t clear the first fine art bar for representational fine art, suspension of belief.  Christopher Wright **wrote a critical appraisal of McNaughton’s painting “Obama Burning the Constitution.”  Wright also compared McNaughton to Thomas Kinkade, which I hope is intentionally over the top.  I think that Kinkade’s ‘work’ is Karo Syrup encased advanced black velvet painting (the sort of ‘painting’ you used to see for sale at run down gas stations).  McNaughton deserves better than that, he is a young illustrator of reasonable talent.  His career is still in its early stages, and though he has not reached the pantheon of the great as of yet, it is still possible.        William Harris, 31, is a leading member of the Organization of Politically Conservative Artists.  He makes paintings with one foot in illustration, in that he is telling a story.  His other in fine art, in that his story telling is in a visual haiku form, filled with a subtle irony.  His late uncle the, illustrator Warren Henry, was Williams first and most influential teacher.  Blurring the border between Fine art and illustration has been a trend in the arts for some time. Jerome Witkin, 73, is a well-known & politically somewhat more liberal artist.   In a visual sense Witkin has been tapping the same roots as Harris from the other side of the tree. Harris, like all conservative artists, is not nearly as well known as Witkin.  Williams work sells for a small fraction of what a Witkin demands… Yet, if he were given support by his fellow conservatives, who knows?        Harris, lives in Southfield, Michigan (a Detroit suburb).  He says; “My painting Futile Cleaning portrays individuals covering, cleaning, and blotting out the light that shines upon them. It's based on some artistic aspirations of Ad Reinhardt, who said, " My painting represents the victory of the forces of darkness and peace over the powers of light and evil ." [L et me just repeat that; “My painting represents the victory of the forces of darkness and peace over the powers of light and evil.”  Remind anyone of a twisted & flipped version of Ephesians 6:12? ]  Harris continues; “Reinhardt wanted to eliminate any trace of the human element in his work, as shown in his use of extremely muted color, form, and brushwork. With his intentions and work in mind, my painting sheds light on one way we seek to discard the human element - trying to block out and cover up any light that shines on it.”  The man is turning the abstract painter Ad Reinhart, famed for claiming that he was “making the last paintings anyone could paint” on his head! He is telling a reportedly great and famous artist, in a sophisticated way only another painter can; “Jamb It!”  Yet, does anyone notice?  Is anyone buying Williams work for six figures?  Not yet, but hey the guy is only 31, still young for an artist of serious artistic ambition.        On the painting “Puzzling Reality”, Harris says; “ This painting portrays a puzzle of two people piecing together a puzzle of their own perceptions on art and reality.”  Again, Harris is playing with what we think we think and what we think we know. The transparent reflections, puzzle within a puzzle, a logarithmic spiral composition disguised as the far more simple rule of three (not an easy thing to pull off) turning ever in upon itself, and figures who seem half unreal, game box illustrations coming more to life the further they are from the surface.  An image of Duchamp’s urinal slides on the table…  Ideas buried within complex ideas enough for any liberal conceptual art critic to mull over, but do they mull?  “Well of course not, yuck, he’s conservative!”             William Harris “Puzzling Reality Presupposes a Pieced Perception” oil on canvas.          The principle point here is that with a few exceptions the Fine Arts have consciously and consistently railed against the bourgeois, (the middle and lower middle class ‘kulaks’ meaning: tight-fisted, because they wouldn’t willingly give up all of their grain and starve like good comrades ) railed heartily against them for several decades.   Wealthy and upper middle class conservatives still buy the work of artist well known for this negative attitude.  Bill Koch owns a Fernando Botero sculpture (an artist known for his ‘fatty’ satirical images of ordinary people and some politicians.  Botero’s paintings sell for an average of 500k, no idea what his bronze sculptures go for but it’s safe to say far more.)  Some conservatives play it safe and just buy boring pretty pictures.         Meanwhile there are a few of us, like William Harris, brave enough to openly voice conclusions that differ a great deal from the vast majority of our fellow artists.  In our world openly conservative and openly Christian is the rough equivalent of being a leper in 100 BC.          Will conservatives ever pay the kind of money often paid out for liberal artwork?  -Or- Will they continue to help liberals drive us further underground?  The work of William Harris and other politically conservative artists is out there.  Art history (littered with the stories of artists mostly or completely ignored in their own time) often shows, that some of those ignored will eventually be well known, and their work very valuable.  Art history also ignores many artists who were prominent in their own time, and their work is of little comparable value. The only real question is will we live to see the rise of conservative art, or is it just a foolish contradiction in terms?        And the 500k Botero’s?  Over the next 25 years I suspect that their value will fall off precipitously while gathering dust in the vast storage buildings of major museums.  Curators of the future will come across a Botero and think; “what the heck did they see in this smarmy cynically pretty stuff?  Surely, they knew that for a tiny fraction of what they paid for this they could have bought a William Harris!  Now there was an artist who owned his own damn mind!” The storage door closes and is locked again, as final preparations are made for the museums Harris retrospective, and the crowds that will gather.   Andrew Breitbart understood that it begins with culture, the question for the rest of us is: Do we believe it?  Do we understand what that actually means?  Let’s hope so, otherwise we’re in for another long difficult century.       **LA Times, Christopher Wright article about McNaughton painting. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2012/03/why-a-painting-of-president-obama-with-a-burning-constitution-is-junk.html   tag:blogs.artspan.com,2012-02-27:31770 2012-02-27T13:09:53-05:00

The recent attempt by President Obama and HHS to force Catholics to pay for Abortions, Cotraception, and the Morning after pill, has brought into the open a common experience among serious ...

Politics The recent attempt by President Obama and HHS to force Catholics to pay for Abortions, Cotraception, and the Morning after pill, has brought into the open a common experience among serious Catholic and Christian Fundamentalist artists.  Many choose to follow the example of Andy Warhol and keep their Faith private, in some cases completely secret. A few of us have chosen to be open and honest about our faith knowing our careers will be stunted by the open bigotry, the disdain and outright hatred towards Catholics and Fundametalist Christians of nearly every person within the Art World.     What is the Art World you may ask?  The Art World in generally accepted artspeak refers to the Major & most minor Museums, major and most minor Art Galleries , major and most minor Universities, Art Magazines such as Artforum & Art in America the National Endowment for the Arts, and most State run Art Endowments.  Sadly if you are a minority and are religious it is tacitly treated as simply quaint, as if; "you people just haven't been able to fully adjust to the modern world... yet."  If you are white and religious, well you; " just gotta be stupid and/or willfully ignorant..." that one always cracks me up.   So, for years we have painted when we could and worked to make a living, outcasts from the art world, and often ignored by our brother and sister artists.  With few exceptions we live alone in the Art Desert, the modern American version of the reclusive monk in a cave, or if you like; the fool on the hill. Within the week following President Obama's HHS DICTATE Feb. 10th 2012:  I have been called/told; "Catholics are misogynists, a bigot, an idiot, stupid, a bastard, an asshole, dumbass, a clansman" it gets worse!  I have been told: "you should all move to Texas, you should leave the country, shut up, your mere existence is offensive , you hsould have to pay more taxes, you are all going to hell, all priests are rapists, nuns are fools, nuns are priest's whores, Bishops are Mobsters..." well you get the idea.  Some of this has come from people I have known for over 30 years, some, complete strangers.  You know the funny thing is that in private, heck within arms reach, no one has ever had the nerve to say such things to me in my entire adult life (I'm 54).   Except for that girl on the subway stairs in NYC in 1979. Of course she was wasted... so I let it go.  But on the internet, just like on the highway all safe & snug in a little car going 70 miles an hour, everyone has courage.  Face to face, in private, with no witnesses... courage is much harder to find... now ain't it. tag:blogs.artspan.com,2012-02-27:32142 2012-02-27T05:51:16-05:00

A Prayerful Protest of Religious Oppression by the Obama administration : Friday 3-3-12 every confirmed Catholic, whether at work, home, driving, playing, or at school is asked to ...

Politics A Prayerful Protest of Religious Oppression by the Obama administration : Friday 3-3-12 every confirmed Catholic, whether at work, home, driving, playing, or at school is asked to pull over and stop at 10am, taking 15 minutes to say the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. On Friday 3-9-12, again at 10am, every confirmed Catholic is asked to pull over and stop, taking 30 minutes to say the Sorrowful & Joyful Mysteries (2 Rosaries). On Friday 3-16-12 every confirmed Catholic is asked to pull over and stop again at 10:00am taking 45 minutes to say the Sorrowful, Joyful & Glorious Mysteries (3 Rosaries) taking 45 minutes. On Friday 3-23-12 again at 10:00am every confirmed Catholic is asked to pull over and stop taking an hour to say The Sorrowful, Joyful, Glorious, and Luminous Mysteries (four Rosaries). Catholics performing absolutely critical tasks, emergency services, critical patient care, Police and Firemen in the midst of duty are asked to postpone until the nearest available time, and then prayerfully participate. Each following Friday until the HHS decision is rescinded in full we must add 15 minutes more to our prayers, and another Rosary to our protest for however long it takes to remove this assault upon our First Amendment rights. -Why 10:00am? - To remember that it was on the 10th day of February when the HHS Mandate was announced. Why Friday? We seek to join our small sacrifice to the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  When, outside the walls of the Holy City of Jerusalem on Good Friday, he was crucified and died. -Can Non-Catholics participate?  Well of course, we humbly beg you to help us, to pray with us and for us.  We are one big family, all children of the one true God, God the Father of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of David, of St. Peter and of St. Paul.  Non-Catholic participants are asked to pull over, stop and pray that our common Lord and God will intercede and help turn our country and the world towards true Religious freedom. Friday 3-3-2012 for 15 minutes, Friday 3-9-2012 for 30 minutes, Friday 3-16 2012 for 45 minutes and Friday 3-23-2012 for one hour, then adding 15 minutes each Friday at 10:00 am until this mandate is rescinded.   -76% of the American People believe in God.  God in his own good time has never allowed, God will not long allow a government, a people to exist who persist in the killing of innocents.  There is no good reason for us to tacitly accept the HHS decision.  It is impossible for us to be forced to pay for the sacrificial murder of innocents.  There is no reasonable argument for this decision. Our choice is stark:  Either we allow the First Amendment to be rescinded de facto by an unconstitutional dictate, or we firmly stand up and say absolutely NOT! - We the people who prayerfully protest ask all Catholics, all Christians, all Jews: to pray for our country, to regularly attend religious services, to repent for not working hard enough to defeat the culture of death.  We must return to our spiritual home and repent for allowing the tacit acceptance of the murderous sacrifice of children, and the constant beat upon the drums of the culture of death to creep into our daily lives, however slight. -May these days of Friday Prayer be the beginning of that repentance, and the birth of a new spirit of humbly refusing to accept laws that attempt to assert human control over God’s natural order.   -There are 77 million self identified Catholics in the United States of America, 26% of the US population.  Are we going to allow our Faith to be destroyed by a political maneuver for the re-election of a few politicians and the profits of those complicit in the sacrifice of children to their ego? -There are approximately; 17,782 Catholic Parishes, 573 Catholic hospitals, 244 Catholic Colleges & Univ., 5,774 Catholic elementary schools, 1,206 Catholic Secondary Schools, 1,600 Catholic charitable institutions (National + Local), countless Catholic owned private businesses.  Without Catholics the United States simply cannot function.   May these days of Friday Prayer be the beginning of that repentance, and the birth of a new spirit of humbly refusing to accept laws that attempt to assert human control over God’s natural order.   In the coming spring many of us will clean our gardens and flowerbeds, farmers will begin the process of preparing for a new season of growth.  The first and often unpleasant step is pulling the weeds.   In the gardeners spirit; -We humbly ask Vice President Biden, Cathleen Sebelius, Nancy Pelosi, and every other Catholic politician who supports the HHS mandate to publicly repent, or publicly leave the Catholic Church.  -We humbly ask that Sister Carol Keehan, Sister Talone, Father Nairn, and every other Catholic member of the administration of Catholic Health Services plus every Catholic religious who has publicly or tacitly supported the HHS mandate at any stage of ‘compromise’ to publicly repent, or publicly leave the Catholic Church. -We humbly ask that regarding CHA; every payment, every charitable gift, every gift in kind received by the Daughters of Charity from or because of CHA since Feb. 10 th 2012 should either be returned, refunded, or placed in escrow until the Catholic Bishops and the Holy Father decides the best use of those monies.  -We humbly ask the Holy See to investigate the Daughters of Charity and Catholic Health Services to be certain that no monies are spent or received that have any relation to abortion, and that all monies previously used to willfully end a pregnancy be used as a form of reparations for the sins of the Daughters of Charity and CHA, or as the Holy See advises. -We humbly ask the Daughters of Charity to prayerfully rethink and expunge from their charter all wording that, at its roots springs from socialist liberation theology (i.e. Social Justice).  History the relentless teacher of unpleasant truth has taught us that justice for all is good, and that social justice inevitably leads to the oppression of the many by the few.  Social Justice is often used as a facile form of rationalization, as a subtle form of persuasion for the ‘”greater good” in the beginning, but inevitably it becomes an overt form of oppression and is dictatorial. -We Catholics are expected by our government to open wide and allow this ruling to be shoved down our throats.  Oh they know we will whine about it.  Catholics are known for a whining sort of acceptance of whatever our government decides is best. -Therefore the Obama administration and the Daughters of Charity (a horribly exemplary use of doublespeak) have every reason to expect us to kick up a fuss.  They are confident that in a little time we will bend to their will, just like we've always done in the past.  They don't think we are sheep, they think we are cattle.   -In church there are no Democrats, there are no Republicans, there are no Independents, and there are no Libertarians, there are only faithful Catholics and unfaithful Catholics, faithful Christians and unfaithful Christians.  This is a time for choosing to stand, or choosing to bend, the middle ground has been boldly taken by the enemies of Religious Liberty.  It is up to us to restore that Liberty enshrined in the Constitution. tag:blogs.artspan.com,2012-02-23:32037 2012-02-23T08:11:48-05:00

As of 2010 just  in the United States: 77 million Catholics 18,992 Catholic parishes (Churches) 573 Catholic Hospitals 6,511 Catholic Elementary Schools 1,354 ...

General As of 2010 just  in the United States: 77 million Catholics 18,992 Catholic parishes (Churches) 573 Catholic Hospitals 6,511 Catholic Elementary Schools 1,354 Catholic High Schools 231 Catholic Colleges/Universities 1,600 Charitable Institutions We feed 6.5 million poor and/or homeless people annually via soup kitchens, cafeterias etc. Shelter 201,653 people Transitional housing for 27,000 people Permamnent Housing for 44,000 people Housing aid for 186,000 people 255 legal support agencies for immigrants 135 National & hundreds of local Catholic lay organizations provide billions of dollars in other direct charitable aid (Knights of Columbus, St. Vincent DePaul, Knights of Peter Claver, Ladies Auxillary...) NOTE:  Outside of the USA: The Catholic Church is the largest Charitable orgainization in the world, we feed, clothe, heal, shelter, & educate more people than any other organization in the world and more that most countries.  There are over 1,200,000,000 Catholics in the world. And now our President and his disciples wish to destroy our religious liberty, to reduce us to synchophants, to bend us to his will.  They will destroy themselves upon our Rock if they persist.  We will not consent to murder the innocent.  We have survived for 2,000 years and we will outlast the rule of this new 'progressive' socialist movement.  It is a mere bump along our road, but a cliff within theirs.   tag:blogs.artspan.com,2012-02-11:31792 2012-02-11T08:53:29-05:00

We apologize for taking so long to find you, our unmarked van was stuck in traffic. The guys in white have your favorite fitted jacket, you know the one with the nice long wraparound straps ...

General We apologize for taking so long to find you, our unmarked van was stuck in traffic. The guys in white have your favorite fitted jacket, you know the one with the nice long wraparound straps that you liked so well. Your room has been fixed up just how you like it too!  We have even added new softer padding in the walls. If you can just hang on a few more minutes we will be there and get you all fixed up. We know you can't wait for the new version of Thorazine we have created just for you, its a wonderful ride into the land of Nod. Oh, and here we are... just a tiny stick, Ahhh there now, isn't that just so much better... Yes, we knew that you would be oh so very happy. Now lets just slip your arms into your jacket... there that's a good little sheep... yes, yes, easy now... watch your little head on the door. That's a good sheep. Easy now, we just have to fasten this cool new Goth seat belt, yes it's a chain but, its a very cool chain, all shiny, kinda Punk, Emo, Goth, with a little Hells Angels styling sprinkled on top, it's the latest fashion, your so hip. Yes, now isn't that better. Now don't you worry, we have a surprise for you!.. Yes we do. We are going to pick up a couple of your friends along the way to keep you company. Yes that's their chains rattling in the back, they are going to get nice jackets too!  Isn't that wonderful? Now you just lay your head back and relax... Everything is gonna be just fine, you will never have to worry about another thing, ever again.  We are going to take care of you, no more bills, no more annoying phone calls, no more work, you never have to do another thing. Oh, and all of those people that got on your nerves, you don't ever have to worry about them again either. Yes, we have trains loaded with them going Far, Far away so you they won't ever bother you again. Isn't that wonderful? Yes, yes now, you are very sleepy, your eyes are tired, your head is heavy, so sleepy... sleep... sleep... "Damn finally! Turn here Joe, yes dangit! Right here. The sheeps best friend lives just around the corner, there, that one with the kid in the driveway." Floyd Alsbach tag:blogs.artspan.com,2012-01-22:31326 2012-01-22T00:31:01-05:00

The Crisis of Photography gave us countless innovations within the visual arts; some might argue that Modern painting is the oft-forgotten twin born from the pressures created by ...

General The Crisis of Photography gave us countless innovations within the visual arts; some might argue that Modern painting is the oft-forgotten twin born from the pressures created by photography.  There was a time, way back in the 1970’s & 80’s when photography was a hard won skill. It took a great deal of time, effort and practice to learn the craft.  Now cameras are everywhere and in everything, photography is literally child’s play.  A child can take a pic, and a grandparent can order an oil painting online made from it, take a series of photographs and get a 3-D ‘sculpture’ in the mail.  Heck, buy the hardware and sculpture is as easy as the click of a button.  Being a painter or sculptor will soon be as minor an accomplishment as being a photographer has become, unless we as artists act now to change it.    I am not advocating the outlaw of technology. And for clarity I am no more impressed by Neo-Neo-Neo-Classicism as I am by Neo-Neo-Neo-Dada. What I am proposing is something far more radical, something that is anathema to most of art history for the last 50 years.  I propose that we embrace a term that’s been avoided among fine artists for decades (though still embraced by some illustrators and the Neo-Neo-Impressionist “en Plein Air” painters).  That term, the anathema, and dare I say it, oh yes I think I do, that term, that mindset, that paradigm, is skill.  Yes!  I said it, oh horror of thrilling horrors! I said the dread word, skill! Skill, Skill!!!  YeeHA!!! No not the superficial skill of faithful rendering, of slick photorealism (with the aid of technology photorealism is advanced paint by numbers for grownups).  The skill to condense, to interpret, to sift, to refine, to directly speak with the tools of the arts is what is required. The celebration of the tracks left by the individual artists hand as it works are what makes an artists work unique and lastingly powerful.   We as artists must raise our expectations of each other, of art criticism, and of art historians.  Over the last 40 years or so we have allowed the adolescent delight for sticking a thumb in the public's eye to become an aesthetic.  The mantra of the recognizable brand-like style writ as large as humanly possible is the mark of the Art World Serf, the captured, the co-opted, it has become a constant cliché. We as artists have collectively sacrificed the creative craft of making, cut it's throat at the Altar of Novelty in the church of Fame, let it bleed out into the media’s Rhyton, watch as the gallery Shamans mix in the wine, then happily or unhappily we all drink the blood.  Then we wait and hope, or pay for the High Priest-Critic’s blessing.  Once is kinda’ funny under the right circumstances (DADA), twice can be humorous (POP), the third time is just plain stupid.   Contemporary Art, the YBA's, their country cousins here in the US, Serrano, Koons et. al. have been reading from the DADA/POP script trying to give it a new edge.  They revel in their shallowness, their lack of talent, their lack of imagination, their lack of skill.  They pose as chess players when everyone with any actual depth of experience and intellect sees the truth, for them a decent game of checkers would be a challenge.   The re-modernist chord struck by the Stuckists is a good start.  If the Fine Arts are to survive we need more artists who actually have some talent and a compelling need to make.  We need artists who have persevered in the effort to refine their ability and vision despite a lack of recognition, or fiscal success.  We need gray headed true believers, not comedians who claim that sarcasm is the equivalent of irony.  We need artists who have some level of real intellectual ability, who actually continue to study, to read, to think into their middle and later years.  Those who have proven they are willing to walk without a path, alone, rather than to compromise. The constant crop of young MFA’s in their tens of thousands all striving to make their mark is just one beginning of a harsh, decades long winnowing process, not the end.  We need artists who aren't afraid to visually think out loud, with skill and thoughtfulness, not artists who have just thought of a ‘new’ way to scream.  If the visual arts are to survive this century we need artists who are willing to fail, who even when they fail, the failure is not a grandiose gesture, a spectacle, but rather a humble attempt to try, to learn, to keep at it despite all evidence to the contrary.  We need painters who can actually paint, sculptors who can actually sculpt.  Without Artist/Alchemists who use the incredible array of new tools given us by the innovations of the last 150 years, who blend those tools into the mix with the left us by the Old Masters, and then learn to play their own riffs with the result, we are doomed.  We have been given a fabulous array of instruments; the time for smashing them into smithereens or making the instrument itself the message is over.  The time for actually being able to play the darn thing has begun. Floyd Alsbach tag:blogs.artspan.com,2012-01-13:31142 2012-01-13T02:50:23-05:00

The Alien Jane Goodall and The Artists Creed:  #1 The Fundamental elements of art are perennial.        Imagine yourself an Alien Jane Goodall, ...

General The Alien Jane Goodall and The Artists Creed:  #1 The Fundamental elements of art are perennial.        Imagine yourself an Alien Jane Goodall, sent from Alpha Centauri.  You came in order to study human beings, and have made yourself invisible to us in order to avoid changing our behavior as you observe. (The law of Cause and effect still applies, so you would want to minimize your effect upon us and visa versa.)  The development of your species and civilization would be very different from ours.  This vast difference would in fact be so great that it would afford you certain objectivity from which to observe us, that we could not achieve observing ourselves.          One of the human habits you might find most interesting is our insistence upon making things, not just functional things but special, what we would call beautiful in fact.  You might watch us repeatedly remake even the most functional tools, hypothesizing that this is done in order to improve their visual and functional appeal.  You would observe that we place great value upon certain objects.  Some ancient, some brand new.  We build large expensive structures, wherein we maintain and care for these objects at great expense, time and effort.  You would observe us often making pilgrimages to view these objects, taking our children to see them repeatedly.   You notice that among adults it becomes ever less common to make these pilgrimages.  You might hypothesize that it is some sort of right of passage to go to these places and that once the process is complete, it is no longer necessary to attend.  Perhaps you think these places as a sort of indoctrination center, where we are introduced into the special rights of each civilization.  The buildings and objects may have a kind of spiritual or religious function.  Several of these buildings are in every major city and many smaller towns, all housing ‘special’ objects from various places and peoples on the planet.  Yet, there seems to be some basic characteristics in common among all of these objects that our observer would see as fundamental.        The first great invention of humanity may actually have been adopted from our lost brethren the Neanderthals.  This invention, far more significant than any other, is the simple, humble, ubiquitous line.  In every time and in every place where there have been modern humans there has been the line.  It has existed in many of the current manifestations for as long as there has been the written word, approximately 5200 years.  Long before that, we drew lines making crude maps of the paths of Mammoths in the snow while planning our attacks.  We drew lines upon our faces, and on the outside of our dwellings.  We made lines when we fashioned ever more straight spears and arrows.  We made lines when we fashioned their points fine, strong and sharp.  We marked out our territory by imagining lines that connected distant hills and a meadow edge.  Lines are our first and greatest invention, though taken for granted by us, to you our Alien observer this simple tool might be quite remarkable, after all a completely alien being could have developed completely different adaptations.          You as our observer would note that given the significance of the line (from your point of view) human visual arts have not really changed significantly over the last 35,000 years.  (Upon his visit to see the caves at Lascaux in 1940 Picasso said; “We have invented nothing.”) Civilizations have grown up and fallen, been reduced to rubble and used as the foundation of the next.  This cycle has occurred many times. On the continent of Africa, the birthplace of modern humans, we still do not know the exact number of civilizations that have risen and fallen since we first ventured north. The difference between the painting on the walls of Roman homes 2,000 years ago and the painting of other eras is only slight from her point of view.  A variation of emphasis within the elements marks the great superficial differences we see.  The changes in the technology of paint and support, in the manufacture of brushes, canvas, panel or wall also show in the finished product.  When we walk through a museum, we might see very different paintings in each room, yet the fundamental elements are all there.        If we were to observe a painter beginning work on a fresco in ancient Rome, and another starting a painting in the middle ages, we would find the beginning remarkably similar to those used by most painters today.  Due to modern technology, paint is a great deal less expensive than it was then, so today a painter can choose to skip the preliminary drawing phase if they like.  In all three works, line, shape, value, texture & color begin the process of making a visual image. When finished all human beings will comprehend on some level, the three images though the context is completely different.  In this way the visual arts, like music, is a form of communication independent of verbal language, ethnicity, custom, age, race, and nationality.  It reaches beyond our momentary place in human time, and the boundaries we make for ourselves called civilization.    There may be nothing new under the sun, but the novelty of a new individuals experience of life from their own personal ordinary life, can be extraordinary in its ability to remind us of our deepest selves, to touch that secret part of us that is ‘me’ and ‘you.’ Work that can recall in us what actually is and is not significant in life, setting that most ancient and most common key into the lock and opening us to the timeless language within The Arts.   NOTES: -The elements of visual art and design are; Line, value, shape, texture, color, rhythm, harmony, variety, balance, contrast, movement, proportion, and form.  -Perennial as in continuing without interruption and/or constantly reoccurring.             tag:blogs.artspan.com,2012-01-11:31098 2012-01-11T05:26:06-05:00

It is my view that purists on both sides are peering into the shallow end of the pool while certain that they are seeing into the deep. Here is the thing: If there is a God, the Creator of ...

General It is my view that purists on both sides are peering into the shallow end of the pool while certain that they are seeing into the deep. Here is the thing: If there is a God, the Creator of the Universe, then He created time and space when He said; “Let there be light.” Therefore He is unbounded by even the most advanced physics as we understand it today, or He doesn't exist at all. Evolution is His Creative process unfolding before us, or as little as we are capable of comprehending. Why does He use a process? Because He is God and that’s how He chose to do it (as best we can tell at this time.) However, given that He is outside of TIME & SPACE, odds are things aren’t linear at all, we just prefer to imagine it that way because we are too stupid to imagine the level of complexity actually involved. -Atheist underestimate HUMANITY in general and vastly overestimate themselves.  Existentialists are the masters of this version of underestimation, the captains of the ships upon which fools sail. -CREATIONAL PURISTS (the world is only 6.5 thousand years old) underestimate GOD and the depth of The Word He gave us.  Wich is a terrible sin, possibly the worst sin, which makes them captains in another fleet heading off of the same cliff. EXAMPLE: How would you explain advanced physics, the flexibilty of time and space, and the fact of BILLIONS of years to illiterate sheep herders SEVERAL thousand years ago? Looks to me like Genesis does a pretty darn good job under the circumstances.  BTW don't think that story telling them was similar in any way to what it is today.  Stories that were passed down through the generations were memorized from early childhood. The penalty for adding to or taking away was a rather severe form of death. Atheists and many religious ignore a fundamental tenant of Advanced Science and Theology, the law of cause and effect; “Everything has a cause, therefore everything has an affect.” It’s really a quite simple either/or if you think about it. NOTE:  1.  "And Eli said: I did not call you, go back to sleep." tag:blogs.artspan.com,2011-09-13:24141 2011-09-13T05:47:47-04:00

When Keynes wrote economies were far less complex.  Money was simple (either precious metals or paper money representing precious metals) and the world was far less interwoven. For his ...

General When Keynes wrote economies were far less complex.  Money was simple (either precious metals or paper money representing precious metals) and the world was far less interwoven. For his time some of Keynes ideas made perfect sense, and SOME of them did work. Now; with ever more dense layers of complexity, an interdependent global economy, complex i.e., more or less symbolic money and the lack of depth in inventory of all kinds (except those dollar coins at the treasury) the ideas of Keynes are quaint. Sort of like science before Einstein (or Newton) and science after Einstein. This is what even some prominent economists, even the Nobel economist Paul Krugman doesn't comprehend.  Applying Keynes theory to our present day economy is like trying to retain the paradigm of Copernicus (a circular solar system) while attempting space travel. It just ain't-a-gonna work son!   As an artist observer, the events of the last four years have become a sad exercise in surrealist theatre retro-redux.