You were there were you? What makes you think she got “mouthy”? Nothing in the story suggested that.
Yes it is. At some point you need to do the intelligent thing though. Is showing a piece of art raelly worth being punched in the face. There is no dishonour in being a “coward” when the only person affected is you and your family.
She shut down her entire gallery. Yes, not showing that particular art would have been one choice of mine, but is her entire gallery that artwork?
I think the problem, Epimetheus, is that she didn’t feel safe showing up for work (or, as the article mentions, having her kids there). That doesn’t change right away regardless of what she does with that one piece of art.
Tell you what. You do something about your Arab muslim terrorist buddies, and we will clean up our violent art critic friends.
Deal?
Aldebaran, that’s just fucking obnoxious. You repeatedly use the actions of an individual or a small group to slam Americans as a whole. If anybody else did the same with Muslims, you would be up in arms about the fascistic bigotry of it all; but when you do it you apparently think you’re making a very important political point. You’re not. Stop it. Sometimes I think you’re on a crusade - one might even say a jihad :rolleyes: - to eliminate even the remotest chance that anyone will take anything you say seriously.
Yes, and that is why I made my comment(s).
I’m not clear on this: did she shut down the gallery for good, or just until she can get a different exhibit in there? Packing it all in to go farm peanuts or something would be an over-reaction, but closing it down for a couple weeks until you can get the controversial artwork out and install a bunch of Thomas Kinkaide prints would be fairly reasonable. (Of course, if she really does get Thomas Kinkaide prints, I might have to go punch her in the face, but that’s a seperate issue.)
I don’t see anything wrong with creating art with the goal of provoking emotions in the viewer. I wouldn’t see that goal as a cry for " attention", either. One of my best friends is a dedicated artist and when she makes pieces, she is not meant to be the centre of attention, the art piece is. She couldn’t care less about fame. When she gets to talk to people who have enjoyed her pieces, she chooses to talk about the art and what emotions it evokes in the viewer, not about herself.
I would be interested to know how you know the emotions you feel upon seeing the pieces really belong to the artists.
This question makes no sense no matter how it’s parsed. If you did, in fact, state that the Iraqis needed to be freed before Bush mentioned it, then that clearly proves that you don’t just support Bush to be supporting him. It negates the very point Sperry is trying to prove.
On the other hand, if you never said it before “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” that doesn’t prove anything either. There are millions upon millions of statements, thoughts, and ideas I’ve never expressed merely because it’s not on my mind to say it. If, before 2002, I never once said to myself “Iraqi citizens need freedom” that doesn’t mean they don’t.
I’m not arguing for or against the truth of the statement. I am, however, blaming Sperry for condemning the ignorant for the crime of being ignorant.
Brutus and Marley23 have it right. What the fuck were you smoking when you posted that tripe, Aldebaran?
I think you might be getting a bit confused between the stereotype and the reality there Alderbaran. There are many countries that glorify the military. Australia and New Zealand are both incredibly patriotic countries. I don’t think America’s patriotism is excessive, they just have a different (more visible) way of expressing it compared to some other countries.
I actually know (not on a personal level) the artist of one of my pieces. He’s an inmate in the prison in which my husband works. He’s a convicted child molester, and my husband was his councillor for two years.
The painting is at first very innocuous. It’s of two little girls across a stream from a beautiful Victorian house. If you just looked at it for a moment, you probably would say it’s pretty, and forget it in the next, like a Kincaid. You wouldn’t notice the small details which say so much about the artist.
That beautiful house starts to become menacing if you look at it for a while, forboding, but somehow it draws you to it. The two little girls stare towards it: you cannot see their faces, but their posture seems almost like they suddenly heard something, or something drew their eyes to the house. After a while, you may notice that there’s no way to cross the stream to the house.
The artist could not draw the faces of the little girls, in a way, unable to face his victims. He is that house-- charming and seemingly safe at first glance, but something dark within. The stream represents that which he can never “cross” again: his desires for children.
I never knew the source of this painting until I expressed to my husband what it conveyed to me.
That is what I mean.
Another inmate painting is entitled Two Pack Shoe. And that’s what it is: two packs of rolled Tops cigarettes (the inmate brand, sold at the commisary) and a Nike tennis shoe. The shoe is significant because shoes and tobacco are so highly valued in prison: the shoes are probably the most expensive item that the inmate owns, and tobacco is the currency of prison. It is one of the most poigniant pictures of inmate life I have ever seen. Looking at it, one can feel the emptiness of the inmate’s life, see what he has been reduced to by his mistakes-- that these two items, things that are somewhat insignificant “on the outside” have attained such importance in his life.
Some pieces speak more clearly than words ever can. One example that I call to mind with which everyone is familiar is Picasso’s Geurnica. Looking at it, I feel his outrage and horror at the terrors war brings.
Wow, art from inmates, that’s pretty heavy.
I originally found it odd that your post described fixating on the artist and not the art itself, but now I understand; these particular pieces are like those made in art therapy; when you know who painted them, it changes the meaning. They aren’t like “stand-alones” that are made by people who make themselves secondary to their work (as you could argue most “mainstream artists” do). They’re more akin to performance art where the facts of who made the piece is as integral to “getting it” as the elements used in the piece itself.
Sorry it took so long to respond, but yes I would agree with your statements. The only thing is that these inmates did not, IMHO, attempt to convey their inner souls. It just came out in their artwork and it was only explained by knowing the background of the artist, although an attentive viewer would notice the key elements that are contained in the work. It was an integral part of who they are and that gives such tremendous power to their works. They are truly pieces of art and I guess that is what I was getting at. If I over-generalized, I apologize, because I never meant to deface any true artist. My assertion was solely that shock and art should not be considered one in the same.
He seems to have developed a case of amerophobia.
I have been told by other European friends that patriotism does seem to be emphasized more in the United States than in most European countries. The violent actions of the man in the gallery are the antithesis of what I felt patriotic about when I was growing up – freedom of expression, freedom from oppression.
Before the war, I saw a “patriot” use a flag on a pole to bash a peace demonstrator over the head. He may have thought that he was patriotic, but what he did was very unAmerica in principle. And many of us believe that our allegiance is not to the flag or even to this country.
I don’t glorify the military; I am a pacifist. But I honor courage and sacrifice and I’m moved by it.
There are millions and millions of other Americans like me.
But I am very, very worried. I had no idea that such a large portion of United States citizens would defend those who excuse or even authorize torture. But the majority of Americans are very concerned about it.
If you will notice, most posters at SD find this situation intolerable. Surely you have taken note of the out-spoken majority.
Pax.