its weird this whole ' being an artist ' thing , and I honestly have to confess that I don't fully understand it myself ??!, what does it even mean ??
quite often I consider that the tendency for self expression is a genuine pointless endeavour , almost as pointless an endeavour as any menial , nonsensical artbitrary use of time ...
of course its undeniable when you look at a little historical hindsight , that this premise has not always been the case !!
I suppose that most people think of the romanticized painter at the easel in some hidden dusty attick space , and of course this impression does hold some truth , but a fractional margin to say the least !! some people would go so far as to imagine the ' master craftsmen ', stating that ' art' cant be defined by mere medium, and that ' artistry ' in any given medium and through any chosen means, if executed with particular skill and / or flare , can all be classified as ' art '
so an artist would be an individual expressing proficiency or excellence in technique through any medium .... perhaps ??
... but why would an individual want to express anything ?? let alone ' proficiency ' in any technique ?? for something as base and arbitrary as commercial gain ? ..... perhaps !!??
I suppose in this weird and warped version of the Darwinian principle of ' survival of the fittest ' that we have brand stamped all over this strange model of capitalism that currently adhere to . surly everyone should want to be an ' artist ' to become 'proficient, to enhance their , or at least stand a chance of enhancing their commercial gains, to enhance their capitalist position in the socio hierarchies that we currently inhabit ??!!
perhaps ?? !!
Why then is it , that some humans express the tendency and others do not ?? ( although actally I should say that I absolutely agree with Picasso's notion that ' everyone is an artist as a child , but conditioning cheats some of the impulse ' that is until some tier of society fucks them up !
... and why has all of the best and most expressive and time enduring works of ' Art ' come from
- by and large anyway - working class people .... but I digress !!
Personally after a great deal of consideration I think that I would have to conclude . that being an ' artist ' doesn't really have much to to with the rendering ..... but the initial activity , before rendering can even begin ..... the observation, an ' Artist ' is someone that ' see's the world ' !! not through any rose tints or privileged perspectives or even the filters of other peoples overbearing points of view ... they have often bucked trends ... and in many cases set of whole new ones in doing so
so these loonies, visionaries and enlightened individuals as hindsight likes to label them ( personally I think that we are all just people ... generally until you put one in a tie ,,, this seems to exaggerate the asshole characteristics of your standard human regardless of creative aptitude ) have always tended to stay on the peripheral fringe of their more mainstream contemporaries, and from a unique position of isolation and observation .... they render their findings !! through words or images or 3 dimensional manifestations the conclusions and notable mentionables of these observations through music , writing , images , fabrications , designs and constructions .
I think that's what makes ' Art '... Good ' Art ' . its Raw and intriguing and powerful, its its absolute brutality - indeed many have conjectured that art holds a mirror up to society , and quite often and in many ways offers insight into a given ridiculousness of that society , of its doctrines , habits and inhabitants! ... it breaks boundaries and at its best ... it can change minds ( the old adage of a picture speaks a thousand words and all that )
That's the Brilliance of it , that's the Value of it !!! and that is vitally important in every and any society !!
To Turn Raw Materials ... the very rough and crude materials of this strange and cruel world into something beautiful or useful , or even both, through personal ingenuity, tenacity, broken hearts, hungry bellies and broken bones ... and even political oppressions !! almost any given stimuli .... but first there must always be the stimuli.
In these current and starnge days of ours, we are all supposed to be networking ( I don't really know how it happened but I liken it to the ' company prospectus ' of the 1980's and 90's ... even if the company os on the verge of going bust .... send out a glossy image and maybe we can dupe some fools into buying more shares )
but unfortunately this has led to an unbridled rise of assholes , lackeys , sycophants , nepotisms, and their minions running the world .... no one wants to ' upset ' anyone ( and no not because everyone is a ' snowflake 'or whatever ) but because it might be detrimental to some ' insider opportunity ' some business angel .... some advantage ... some job opportunity or promotion ..... well I say FUCK THAT !!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !!
of course its nice to feel 'popular ' to be 'liked' .... I mean just look at the maniacal fanaticism in our modern ' social media ' its a form of social ratification of course !... but I think we have turned it into something inherently problematic ... these days we have to pander to, even be nice to these assholes.... because they have lied and manipulated that kind of prospective image into something quite influential .... we have handed over all the cards to thieves and charlatans , because before they start publicly eating our young , they had the slogan , the prospectus , the easily invested in brand and half a million followers .... now I would just like to point out that jesus had like 12 followers and look what happened there .... and he might not have even existed in the first place ??!!! ...
I might have figured out why Merlin and robin hood were living in the woods , or why the ancient 'academia' was out on the hills beyond the city limits of Athens .... and how Venice began as a REFUGEE CAMP IN A PREVIOUSLY UNINHABITED SWAMP !!!
Because every now and again humanity just goes nuts ( this is a notion I have postulated over before I:e '' if every one began to simultaneously loose their mind ... how would we know ?? '' ) History is full of examples of this ... the destruction of the Mesoamerican tribes .....the Salem witch trails ... the massacre of the American Indians .....Slavery!!..... the rise of the third Reich .... Israel and Palestine .... the Tory Party !! ..... weapons of mass destruction !! ..... the ' housing ladder ' .... I even read an incident of a documented time in Germany when an entire province seemed to have simultaneously started dancing , for no apparent reason ... for rather an extended period of time , the thing about most of these incidents were isolated by remote geographies and societal factions ... of course these days we all live in a digitally connected, easily accessed and influenced society !!! ... so as and when and if one of these little episodes occurs .... what is its pandemic potential .... the mob / the democratic consensus !! the very dangerous collective !!
so at times like this , you need a loony artist to come wandering out of the woods to trade a spell or tonic or insight ... take a wide eyed look at the majority drowning in gin or eating their own young and to quite clearly ask .... ' what the fuck are you people doing .... I leave you alone for a little while so I can get some work done , and I come back and you are literally taking photos of your breakfast.... using a pilfered oil with a heavy blood content for your jolly holidays ..... paying 30 or even a hundred years worth of labour for somewhere to live ...... or voting for some tory that wants to sacrifice your young so the gods might bestow a more productive crop cycle ..... what the bloody hell do you think you are doing ????
''Tory - Saurus Blues # III''
Original handsculpted bass relief wall art by Cornish / Italian artist that occasionally lives in Amsterdam ( in political exile in these weird times )
no resin / no casts / no outsoucing / no child labour / 100%handmade 0%corporate
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