I recently went to an artist’s reception with a friend who is not an artist or craftsperson and afterwards he asked me over a beer if I had read the artist statement on the wall outside the gallery’s entrance. I said that I hadn’t and he expressed his view that it sounded like a bunch of mumbo jumbo and didn’t make any sense. I tried to explain to him that most of these statement end up sounding similarly because of a series of factors. The main one being that visual artists are not necessarily writers. Also, some people do not dwell on explanations for the things they make. I mentioned some other things but this was pretty unsatisfactory for him which led to the question of why are people writing them or why are they required to write them. I certainly do not want to enter this fray here as debates about artist statements online seems ongoing with the debate raging and covering the continuum from there’s no need and they’re absurd to they are absolutely necessary, etc. I only mention this because it reminded me of my long forgotten solution to this problem which I employed for the artist statement that accompanied my BFA exhibition. Since I used this successfully back in 1982, I figured I’d offer it up for anyone who may be struggling with writing an effective statement. Basically I plagiarized Earth Wind and Fire song lyrics. Fortunately for me, the temporary gallery director where my BFA show was exhibited was unfamiliar with the Earth Wind and Fire “lexicon”. So here’s a youtube of the song which wordpress won’t let me embed…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9GOkGu8qCs
The song is titled “All About Love” and if you think you might be inclined to use it as I did it is well worth the listen… just skip to the 3 minutes 10 seconds mark on the video. If you’re not that interested or simply don’t have the time, here’s post the pertinent quote that I lifted:
Now, I want you to stop whatever you’re doing.
Just stop.
Cause I’m gonna rap to you for a moment.
You know, they say there’s beauty
In the eyes of the beholder.
Which I say is not the fact.
’cause you are as beautiful as your
Thoughts, right on?
You know, for instance, we study all
Kinds of sciences, astrology, mysticism,
world religion, so forth you dig.
And like coming from a hip place, all these things help
Because it gives you an inside your inner self
Have mercy!
Now, there’s an outer self we got to deal with
The one that likes to go to parties,
One that likes to dress up, be cool
And look pretty, on ego-trips and all this.
Hey y’all, I’m trying to tell you,
You gotta love you. and learn all the beautiful things around you,
Trees and birds. and if there ain’t no beauty,
You got to make some beauty. Have mercy!
Listen to me, y’all!
So there ya go… problem solved right? In other news, we are in the midst of a week long polar horcrux. There’s a coating of ice on everything which is beautiful…
Here’s my poor little bent cedar…
The electricity went out two nights ago but fortunately it was only for 5 or 6 hours. Strangely enough, right in the midst of the polar horcrux, we had a 65 degree day on Saturday which seemed like a good reason to take the dog to the park. I figured it would be muddy but had no idea how muddy. Sunglasses had fun, happier than a pig in shite…
Also, my 5 year anniversary of the blog has occurred. Here’s the obligatory shots of Sofia from my second post ever through to a current one to show how much difference 5 years can make.
Whilst on the subject of the bug, here’s what has become a typical example of her homework. Can you get the correct answer? (hint: Hamin’s going to have a long and difficult life)…
This is not an isolated example. A couple weeks ago she had homework about fractions with the numerator and denominator labelled only they had the upper number labelled denominator and the lower one labelled numerator. And don’t get me started on the reading comprehension homework. The little stories seem to have been written by 3rd graders instead of educators. Finally, I went out to IUS last week to see some work by David Katz. If you get a hankerin’, head over to his website here. Here’s a shot with Mr. Katz present…
Here’s one with the man, Brian Harper, sporting his Jeremiah Johnson beard…
Apparently these yellow metal-looking parts of the piece were made in advance and the webs between were made with simple wet clay. I have to say that I was kinda blown away at these because I simply assumed (even though I was right next to them) that they were made of steel. I also thought that they worked well as stand alone pieces…
That’s all for now.
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