ART = What?

It is almost 3 AM. Snow was forecast, but instead, a sloppy rain, the hint of winter coming.

Slowly.

I spent the holiday in California. On a beach, by a pool, in the arms of my love. The first such holiday without my children, who are becoming adults and making their own decisions. The first without a turkey, the cranberry/orange relish I make with Grand Mariner. I spent it dancing to bad 80's music, laughing, thinking little. Reading a great deal. I have been awake for 23 hours (mostly) between planes and airports, rushing deadlines and the wayward acts of a child I hope will soon become a man. I am avoiding ART. I am creating something new. I am redefining, for myself and those who know me, what it means to be an artist. A woman in love. A mother. A member of the world.

Art (dictionary definition): 1. the production or expression of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

What does this mean? I was looking for the etymological significance of the word. Words are usually pretty tricky. I didn't find anything. Latin. Ars. Skill, Art. Not much help as I focus on my current creation of, of all things, a shopping center instead of a sculpture, painting, or even a blog.

Turnbull, about Fitzgerald, said something about a life being a work of art. Implying (maybe even stating) that Fitzgerald's life was somehow more relevant, more profound, than his literature and I am thinking tonight about my last post, Dead or Alive, about living and breath and above all, personal responsibility, non-situational ethics, the pain involved with doing nothing and the pain involved with doing too much. I am thinking about pain, about happiness, about the irrevocable, brutal intertwining of both and how I am never content. I am thinking about what is new. Can we truly reject the pursuit of power, or the pious ablution of that pursuit through an homage to fear?

Another definition. I love this.

Human: Originally spelled Humane. Humane has been restricted in its use since 1700 and takes into account only the nobler aspects of man. Whereas Human, in its current and original forms, speaks to the whole spectrum from weak and pathetic to benevolence, compassion, and refinement. Don't you love it? Keep the word, restrict the meaning.

As artists, it is our job to be "fully human." Fully alive. Suffering. Wise. Creative. Flaky. Insightful. Substance Users. Substance Abusers. Aloof. Leftist. Against God. Talking to God (s) and/or muses. Chroniclers. Mystics. Psychics. Insane. Sexual. Deviant. Passionate. Intolerable. Good god, what we are tasked with! And god help us if we truly take it into the world. Make the world our canvas, our raw metal on the ground -- bringing order from chaos, breath into a day, creating something new (a shopping center, a baby, a garden, what have you?) with the palette at our finger tips and the possibilities in our hearts. This would be better written in the morning. Tonight, in the dark, with sloppy rain falling almost wetly in my desert, it seems that Dionysus will have his way.

ART gets sacrificed, at least tonight, for LIFE.

Changes

In September, my love and I visited Italy, France and Spain for the first time. It was incredible, empowering, transforming. For the first time in my life, I did not feel intimidated by the weight of history. Instead, I felt a part of history, at the cutting edge of it, and most importantly, I felt relevant to my time. It was thrilling.

The trip helped me to solidify some feelings I have had about my life. As a result, I am making some changes. I have decided to get off the road for awhile, let my galleries to most of the selling, and create some time to do all the things I have been wanting to do but never have the time to explore. I am ready to experiment more in different media. I just finished two paintings that I love. I'll post them as soon as I can get some decent photographs of them but I am anxious to do more. They combine acrylics on canvas with steel frame and I am so excited about their potential.

In addition, I am finally going to put some energy toward all the people out there who are looking for sculpting tips and advice. I just finished the redesign of my web site, http://www.destinyallison.com/, and have included a section called, "Sculpture How To." In this section, sculptors will find my ebook, "The Language of Sculpture," regular sculpture tips, and a sculpture critique opportunity for those of you who want a one-on-one critique of your work. In this way, I can offer the help people are looking for and keep my metal sculpture blog relevant to my creative process and intellectual pursuits. I hope you will take a look at the new site and new section and let me know what you think.

Dead or alive

I am thinking tonight about Charles Bukowski, Janice Joplin, freedom. Freedom to write, to sing, to walk away. Bukowski said, "An intellectual is a man who says a simple thing in a difficult way. An artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way." A friend said recently that art exists on three levels. The first is when you're learning your media, your techniques, your tools. The second is when you have bonded with your media and are focused on design, composition, etc. Most art is at these two levels. But basically, these levels are like dead bodies. You can dissect them, examine and classify them, use them as examples. You can even rearrange the parts to create something new because it doesn't matter. They're dead.

The third level is when the work comes alive. It breathes. Then none of it matters. It could be severely disabled, or radically beautiful, or unbelievably intelligent and its all the same. It is what it is. It is alive. At this stage, technique, composition, everything goes out the window because, finally, all these things are irrelevant.

This is a great way to look at it-- a complicated thing said in a simple way. Either its dead or its breathing. Which of course throws a great deal of my ranting out the window. Dead or alive. Pretty simple.

But here's the thing. In this world of sterile, condescending museums, decorators and fabric swatches, the inevitable exclamation of "Oh, these are beautiful. I love these. They're my colors exactly," and intellectuals who wouldn't know a new idea if it smacked them across the nose, does it matter? My kids love Zombies. Even the thought of them gives me nightmares. Don't you have to be alive to recognize life?

Years ago, some friends and I would wander up Canyon Road in Santa Fe. We would get to the top and drink several margaritas so we could be sober enough to walk back down. We talked about creating Baa (Bad Art Association). We would have little stickers of black sheep and every time we saw a work that was terrible, or an environment that killed good art, we would tag it. No explanation. No justification. Just Baa. Like sheep. But then, finally, we didn't have the guts. We decided it wouldn't be fair to all the artists who were trying their best. We wouldn't want to undermine their creativity.

Then, Friday this week, at an opening of particularly good work, I talked with a gallery owner/artist about the show, the business, about work that breathes. We talked about the economy and its affect on the business, and how all the hangers on (artists and galleries), all the ones who jumped on the band wagon, are going to fall by the wayside and only what is good will survive. He talked about February this year and how he never wants to get that close to the edge again. Said where he came from (Cuba, I think) every day was February, 2009 and if you weren't good, "I mean really good," you didn't make it.

OK. Bukowski. Bobby McGee. Breathe.

Time....

Time gets away from me and as it slips, so do I. A running battle between will and the inevitable but my will seems to slip as fast as the hours. It could be enough sometimes (I think) just to tend my gardens. But that, like most of what I wish for, is fancy, not tethered in earth, not something which can be grown, harvested, consumed.

Other things:
The full cover and 4 page spread in Sunshine Artist Magazine was awesome but I keep forgetting to show it to people or order more copies.

Direct Metal Sculpture (for the persons out there seeking definition) is when one works to manipulate metal into sculptural form without benifit of casting. Fabriction, forging, and assemblage all qualify.

There is little more satisfying than harvesting your own vegetables.

A plasma cutter and a pipe can wreak havok on the blessings of a metal brake.

Everyone says how much they love the color of my patinas. Everyone also says they would like to see more color.

I am ready, again, to do something new.

I wish I could go to Africa and talk to the rape victims.

I would be afraid of the soldiers.

I am often afraid.

What is it that people are looking for when they google "Sculpture Blog?"

At what age to children really become adults? And how does one manage to recognize it and react appropriately when it happens?

Ah, for the cool of the woods, a really good book, enough time to do nothing.....

To be self-contained...

Complexity

Home today with the beginnings of a cold, I finished a book called "The Age of the Unthinkable," by Joshua Cooper Ramo. It dealt with complexity, old ways of thinking, and the absolutely improbable declaration that contending with, and managing our world today must fall first (and possibly permanently) into the hands of revolutionary individuals. It advocated distribution of power, resilience as opposed to dominance, and the imperative to create a world in which individual creativity on a global scale is not only permitted, it is essential. Most importantly, I thought, it talked about how our world is dependent on our relationships, not on our objectives. I was particularly intrigued by Ramo's allusions to Chinese philosophy and culture as a model through which we might be able to revolutionize our own ways of seeing and thinking. I have been exploring similar paths in my work. I too am wondering if we took the time to focus on our environment instead of our objective, we might see or understand more. What are the layers of experience and relationships that give rise to our respective identities, knowledge and beliefs? How does our cultural disposition to act hinder or help our relationships? In short, I am looking at the layers and the currents of my experience as more important than what I think I know. This photo of "To Understand...." is my most recent attempt to express these ideas.

Time for a new arts movement?

It surprises and angers me that the art establishment places so much value on the meaningless manipulation of material as if the application of media in new or different ways can, by itself render the media into art. New does not always equal innovation, and innovation by itself does not equal art. Art is the emotional and intellectual expression, and subsequent personal revelation, of individual experience. The focus has moved from developing depth and honesty in individual expression, to celebrating innovations in material and technique that seek simply to shock, disturb or confound the viewers without taking them further into themselves or their world.

Throughout history, artists have manipulated media in response to their need to express more fully and with more depth that which they needed to communicate. Generally techniques and material innovation derived from the artistic process of self-exploration. It didn’t happen the other way around. Consequently, innovation does not necessarily equate to good art and just because one can make something doesn’t necessarily mean one should. What is cool is seldom profound and technology can not substitute for authentic human expression.

Unfortunately, this emphasis on new media and techniques has replaced the emphasis on content and in the process, we have lost our value for the aesthetic which, while we have tended to relate the word to beauty alone, also means perception. For me, art is that which gives voice to things in ourselves we do not know. It expands our consciousness. It resonates deep within us and soothes us through the honesty with which it reveals the world around us, our common experiences, and the value of our individual journeys even as it validates our yearnings, desires, hopes and dreams.

Art should never just be a commentary or a political statement. In the same breath, art should never be merely sentiment or raw emotion. Instead, art should create a dialog through which both the emotional and intellectual response to experience is revealed. In that instant of expression, all we know of an object, a subject, or an abstraction of them -- the individual, the historical, the present moment – is translucent, revealed to us through the vulnerability and courage of an artist who is willing to be fully honest. Then, as viewers, we can discover that in anger there is both love and fear, that hope comes from loss and is only sustained through determination and self-actualization, that our memories weave the fabric of our present, and that every one thing we thought we had defined has myriad parts yet to be discovered.

It is time for a new arts movement; time for artists to collectively define the direction we take in the 21st century. It is time to focus on those works which embody authenticity of expression over material manipulation, depth over observation, beauty (which does not mean pretty) over disturbing, clarity and insight over shock and confusion. Our continued willingness to support works whose meanings exist only through the interpretation of curators (whose jobs depend on the fact that the works require interpretation) condemns us. For if, as a culture, our highest accolades are reserved for those who seek to shock, destroy, and manipulate as they deny the breadth of our experience, then all our culture can aspire toward is more of the same.

Instead, we must inspire the art establishment to value once more that which is both perceptive and beautiful, regardless of media or subject matter. For too long we have lived under the umbrella of our recent history. There is no truth to the conviction that bad work sells and good work gets hung in museums. It is time to eradicate the myth of the starving genius and the wealthy sell out. It is time to lay to rest the notion that if you can’t understand something, then it must be good. Finally, it is time to help our world heal through works and exhibitions that value human endeavor over human despair. Each of the major movements leading up to and through the 20th century were created by just a handful of committed artists. Can we not do the same? Truly, if we lead won’t the world follow?

Conceptual art revisited

I can't get the conceptual stuff out of my head. Having posted my rant against it, I am compelled to actually do it. I found myself thinking that I sound like the mother at the art show exclaiming, "My 4 year old could do that," and realized that before I can reject I have to experience. Having said that, I spent most of the weekend clearing a new studio space to do some exploration. If there is truth to the premise, one should be able to get to the same place regardless of the starting point. If I go in first with my mind, can I meet the emotion? So, two studios now and wondering where to find the time....