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Blane De St. Croix was an interesting artists lecture that I attending last Tuesday. He is a sculptor and drawer. His works have to do with social issues in nature. For instance, he made an extremely large sculptor of the border fence between the United States and Mexico. He usually does a ton of research for each other his projects, and although he was told he couldn’t do research for this fence project he did. When he went to document to fence for recreation he tried to speak to anyone he could about it to get their opinions. Despite whatever view he might have had, he heard both sides of the story. I felt like his drawings were extremely outstanding. They were done so in such a way that parts of the drawings actually looked like photographs. I thought that they were great, although he kind of seems to view his drawings as a side project or something that he uses in the progress of his sculptures.
He spent a lot of time talking about a project he did in West Virginia about the coal mining industry and what it is doing to our beautiful mountains. I was personally interested in this because much of my family comes from Virginia and Tennessee where coal mining is also popular. My grandfather used to be a coal miner, but he was from the era when they still did it underground. Blaine spoke about coal mining that literally takes the tops of mountains right off. It is very sad. His sculptor of the upside down mountain was great.
Everything he makes, he makes exactly as it looks in real life, only miniature. He has an extraordinary eye for detail. Although it was not as funny or entertaining as the last artists lecture I went to, I enjoyed it equally because he was very sincere and passionate.
The chapter, “The Art of Maximizing Your Time,” was much more beneficial to me than the chapter I read previously (although it is actually after this one in the book). I had already been contemplating what was in common with the works I had done this semester in concepts. And although not all of my works have this in common, I feel that at this moment what makes my art special or what it is about I guess is me, in a way. I use art as a way of exploring personal issues I have, but I won’t get into that now, because I shall save that for my artist statement. This chapter not only confirmed how I felt about my own works, but it was also inspiring. It told of several artists who put everything that had into their art, which makes it all the more powerful. Sadly, this chapter did remind of the old idea that artists only become famous and/or popular after they die. All of the artists talked about in this chapter died fairly early on, way before someone should have to depart. To think that I may have to lose everything and also die before anyone takes my art seriously is a little sad, but I also know that that is not always the case, therefore I have hope. I am not sure that I entirely understand the title of the chapter or what the author meant by it. I mean he spoke of an artist who pretty much wasted away working on one painting practically her entire life and losing everything important because of this. I don’t know if one would argue that this artist really maximized her time. Although because of the way she let herself go in this painting, it made her famous (mainly after she died of course). And now people would argue that that painting is a masterpiece, so maybe she did make good use of her time because many people and artists never make a masterpiece ever.
What benefit was this to read? The title of the chapter is, “The Art of Finding Yourself When You’re Lost,” but I think the author gets lost in the details. I felt as though he would run off on unimportant tangents or throw in unneeded quotes. Not to mention there is only 1 small paragraph that actually addresses the title, i.e. how to find yourself, which, by the way, is odd advice. So, basically, if I am lost and need to find myself, in terms of creativity, I need to eat the same thing all the time and wear the same clothes day in and day out. Basically, I have to take out any choice or freedom I have, in order to have a good idea. Or put more elegantly, I must take away the unimportant distractions of daily life, in order to have the mental fortitude to create masterpieces. It is logically, but that does not make it good advice. It is unlikely that I will ever, purposely follow this advice, because it is a bit unfeasible. Not to mention the author puts all greatness on the photographer for working great under crazy circumstances, however there is more to the equation than just that. For instance, there is a great story behind these pictures. Anything that powerful and emotional will create a strong response. I personally would have rather seen the photographs more personal of the crew, getting into their mental state, but that is just my personal opinion. I do not feel like this chapter helped me in creating my artist statement at all.
The chapter, “The Art of Making Art without Lifting a Finger,” was a very interesting read. I must say that it was successful at modifying my views. It is all about life as art or art in other forms besides objects. It starts off talking about an artist named Ray Johnson, killed himself as his final art piece. This of course, did not sit right with me. I mean the guy took his own life and called it art. I think that is taking art too far, for sure. My initial reactions did change after continuing to read however. I was persuaded to see why it could be called art and also maybe a little bit as to why he would do it (based off of speculation from friends who actually really did not even know him). So I give kudos to the author for that. However, it still seems incredibly wrong to view someone’s death as art. Art is something that people enjoy, even if it is ugly or scary, we like it for whatever our reasons may be. To find pleasure out of this man killing himself seems wrong. I mean he thought a body floating in the water was beautiful, but if a person sees someone dead floating in the water they don’t stop and pause and say, “that is the most beautiful thing I ever saw,” they freak out. People don’t even reflect back on it and say that. So, although I understand the point, I think that is too extreme.
I also loved the dada movement that the author brings up when talking about Duchamp. Many people hate that Duchamp took a urine, signed it, and called it art. But I thought it was brilliant. He was making a statement, along with other dada artists of that time. There is a difference between a real artist who is making a statement and a fake artist who only does shocking things to get rich and famous. I felt like some of the artists that the author speaks of were some of the fake artists.
I also found the end half about Yoko Ono very interesting. I did not know much about her, besides that she married one of the Beatles and supposedly broke them up. I found her work to be very interesting. The way that she removed herself from the work seemed different to me than other artists who did like Warhol. It led me down a cognitional path of the meaning behind one removing themselves from their work. An artist who has something to say about feeling unimportant or forgot, maybe a bad childhood, etc could use a similar idea of removing themselves from the work because of those reasons and it could be very powerful. I also loved the idea of her piece called “cut piece” which was making a statement about feminism before feminism was really a concept. But the image of people cutting off her clothes as she lays there is very powerful.
Overall, I was happy that I read this because I felt like I learned interesting things. But more so, I felt like it expanding my mind as an artist. It gave me new ideas and changed some older ones to some degree.
