Darren Daz Cox, now in Pekin Illinois!
why do we ask why anyway?
Are murals art? This was a question posed in an art forum and obviously the answer is yes but why would someone even pose that question?
Many of mankind’s most treasured artworks are murals..
Michelangelo’s "Last Judgement", Raphael’s "Galatea", Leonardo’s "Last Supper" and Botticelli’s "St. Augustine", Gozzoli’s "Procession of the Magi" the Byzantine church murals. *takes a breath*
The very history of mankind is seen through the murals of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks (yup, they had murals too, look for the tombs at Vergina ), the Dunhuang Grottoes in China, the Roman villas, the cave paintings in Lascaux, Thomas Hart Benton and Diego Rivera’s work, all beyond priceless art and all of it mere paint on walls that a mere human being put there.
Where’s Giotto when you need him! He was the early Renaissance master who ‘officially’ took mural painting out of the dark ages by demanding his work be considered more than mere craftsmanship!
Being proud of what you do is not a sin, this concept of being humble about your art is just cultural conditioning. Let me clarify what I’m saying here with an example taken from our most basic questions, why are we here? why do I ask why?
Cultural conditioning gives us two acceptable answers to those questions, one, the scientific theory that we are just random chance protein molecules (grow-mate-die) or the religious view where someone else has already figured it all out (follow the rules or else). But that’s not the whole truth.
Truth is what art is all about. Oh sure you can strap a paintbrush to an elephants tail and make ‘art’ or make a propaganda poster with your skewed opinion of reality on it but it’s still truth, it reflects light to your eyes and you are allowed, by your innate free will to either like it or dismiss it, all you have to do is look at it and decide for yourself. When others decide for you what truth is and you just accept their opinion, you live in denial of the whole truth.
You might be nodding your head and thinking that you, the free thinker, are not a slave to cultural conditioning but we all have our boundaries. What makes you free is to see how the boundaries can be crossed, to know that ‘nothing is impossible’.
When Piero Manzoni canned his faeces it was a continuation of his artistic exploration into uniqueness which, when looked at from the intended angle (it wasn’t a joke), empowers all of us. A can of his shit (it was labelled ‘artist’s shit’ btw) sold for $61000 at the prestigious Tate Gallery in London. In a related by shit-as-art theme, I just watched a documentary of GG Allin for 3$ on demand via my cable tv, the best part is when GG muses that if he hadn’t had followed his dream of being a punk rock star he’d probably have killed someone (and been in jail his whole life).
I just saw on my local news a story about a small tent city of homeless men who a judge will decide wether to force them to move (from public land) or not. They refused all attempts at help! the ungrateful beasts! and did you know that homeless men have "been known to fight and drink alcohol *pause* at parties". Good lord, who is less sane? GG Allin or the tv bimbo who litterally said that? Isn’t "sports" basicly condoning fighting and alcohol? If the impending bird flu pandemic happens and society sinks into anarchy like tv news teases us with – who do you think will survive? the pampered twits who read the news or those rugged homeless men?
I know I’m rambling now but just know that you are important, you are not just a random DNA connection seeking to perpetuate itself like a virus nor are you some wretched puppet waiting for the religious master to activate you and you sure as hell don’t have to accept that what you do to express yourself isn’t valid.
So do your art without giving a shit what others think. Spray paint a mural to express yourself, spray paint the local tv station to show your disgust at their glorifcation of violence and it’s alcohol soaked fans but zero empathy for alcohol soaked violent homeless people. Take a dump on a tv sports casters bed and call it art hell, no one is reading this except a data mining robot for an evil corporation, and you, hairy armpit girl, my one reader *sob* I love you!
Originally posted 2008-01-08 07:32:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Buzz This Post 
Delicious 
Digg This Post 
Facebook 
MySpace 
Ping This Post 
Reddit This Post 
Stumble This Post
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
<checks pits> Hey, wait a minute!!
It’s kind of interesting — our social crowd includes quite a few artists. Me, I’m more crafty; I scrapbook & quilt and do housewifey stuff like that, but it makes me happy. A few years ago, I was very taken by some jewelry that a friend was making out of letter tiles from old Scrabble games. She made these bracelets — they had to be six-letter words; 5 letters were too short and 7 letters were too long. She had a few stock words, but I bought about a dozen of the bracelets for female folks on my Christmas list and customized the words. I put a lot of thought into them for each person.
The wife of one of our artist friends had been having a tough time finding her own path. The usual McJobs. She had just started doing beadwork– jewelry and frames– and they were good. Really good. And they made her happy. She started going to craft fairs and such. The bracelet I chose for her was the word A*R*T*I*S*T.
Really, she was flabbergasted. She didn’t think of herself that way. But she is.
It’s a word with power.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
There’s a nice article about ‘magical thinking’ in the April 2008 Psychology Today that explores that power. That’s something (you can tell) I have been really exploring, hell, it’s something I haven’t stopped exploring since i learned it as a child, but now I don’t feel as silly about it.
When you combine such magic with quantum physics it starts to make even more sense. The deeper you look at reality, looking at the bits that make up the bits that make up smallest parts of atoms, those bits become more potential than real. At our level they seem immutable but that’s only because we believe it to be so…
June 9th, 2009 at 5:53 am
So funny about the can of shit! Reiterating that who knows what art will be popular at any given time.
Well said in so many directions and so many ways, Daz. I am having a difficult time getting my artwork to be accepted and am constantly battling with the urge to conform somehow to make people happy. I haven’t yet even done a portrait in rebellion of painting “something that someone wants to see”.
My current exhibit at CityLoftArt LLC in the Miami Design District shocks me because this curator from Germany has the audacity to hang my unconventional paintings in his very nice, elegant, designer store. I’m not sure how it all happened, but I never envisioned being in a designer store; which goes to show ya’ that ya’ never know who will relate to your art.
One time a schizophrenic outpatient purchased a small drawing from me at an outdoor festival on Espinola Way, Miami Beach, because she was obsessed with it. She bought it back later, cursing at me, telling me that it frightened her and didn’t even want her money back. At first I was pissed off but then I realized that at least the drawing invoked emotion in her (it reminded her of her mother). Albeit I hope it didn’t send her sliding further down the mentally unstable slope and back to inpatient status.
My last exhibit in San Francisco, called “Corrections”, was in a huge gallery/warehouse/theatre…the theme was concerning “what we would do to correct the things that are not right with the world..sorta kinda thing…” When I left the opening, there were some homeless men outside, cooking and sharing dinner and someones said, “Is this real or is it in conjunction with the theme of the opening.” It was an ah ha moment and those moments of irony kick me in the ass and remind me that I make art for a reason, and that reason will come to light when the time is right – not if I rush it or try to impose it on galleries or people who are not ready.
It’s so difficult to stick to your soul and even more difficult to encapsulate all your profound and complicated thoughts onto a canvas. But that one moment that someone gets it – it doesn’t matter if they are curator for the Tate or a homeless person – meaningful is important in all venues of the population! Hell, my cat looks at my paintings more than some of the people closest to me and I appreciate it!
July 20th, 2010 at 11:21 am
hey, Love the Post, I have been following your blog for a while now, and I have to agree with alot of what you have to say. and I thank you for being supportive and willing to take the time to share your opinions