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KCD
visit www.theworkofart.net
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Monday, January 5, 2015
Happy New Year! A Bit of Food For Thought
This article comes from The Atlantic by William Deresiewicz who recently wrote Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. The book covered a lot of what is going on in Ivy League schools in particular, but also in education in general. Deresiewicz spent about 25 years teaching in elite academia: Columbia. Harvard, etc. Nice gigs.
Here in this essay, he talks about the commercialization of art and the transformation of the artist as a singular, perhaps visionary genius into an entrepreneur, with all the trappings that implies in our modern (or post-modern, whatever that means) world, that must tangle with the logic (or lack thereof) of the market. He contends that artists in the 18th and 19th and even to some degree the 20th centuries have been sheltered from the vagaries of the market by a variety of structures, and that now in the 21st century, with those structures undergoing seismic shifts, a lot of the old models and paradigms may not apply anymore as it reduces down to how an artist gets paid. Fascinating read. Here's the link.
Also, a bit of catching up. Obviously, posting has dragged to a snail's definition of speed. Lots going on in my off-line, actual life. The holidays were, by turns quiet and chaotic with family and contemplation vying for equal time. A recent birthday has made me more acutely aware of how precious life is and why it's important not to waste it offering what is sacred to dogs. Yesterday Stuart Scott of ESPN died after a seven-year bout with cancer. He was only 49. Closer to home, my neighbor is receiving hospice at his home following a brain tumor that was diagnosed a year and a half ago. The end is near for him. We've been neighbors for 16 years. I watched his children grow up.
It's pretty real when someone near your own age is dying. It makes you affirm life and it makes you affirm your life. And it makes you want to hold on for as long as possible and make it count for something, and to make what you do count for something. Be something more than excellent sheep.
Rest in Peace Stuart Scott. We were not ready for you to leave us.
More Later
KCD
www.theworkofart.net
Here in this essay, he talks about the commercialization of art and the transformation of the artist as a singular, perhaps visionary genius into an entrepreneur, with all the trappings that implies in our modern (or post-modern, whatever that means) world, that must tangle with the logic (or lack thereof) of the market. He contends that artists in the 18th and 19th and even to some degree the 20th centuries have been sheltered from the vagaries of the market by a variety of structures, and that now in the 21st century, with those structures undergoing seismic shifts, a lot of the old models and paradigms may not apply anymore as it reduces down to how an artist gets paid. Fascinating read. Here's the link.
Also, a bit of catching up. Obviously, posting has dragged to a snail's definition of speed. Lots going on in my off-line, actual life. The holidays were, by turns quiet and chaotic with family and contemplation vying for equal time. A recent birthday has made me more acutely aware of how precious life is and why it's important not to waste it offering what is sacred to dogs. Yesterday Stuart Scott of ESPN died after a seven-year bout with cancer. He was only 49. Closer to home, my neighbor is receiving hospice at his home following a brain tumor that was diagnosed a year and a half ago. The end is near for him. We've been neighbors for 16 years. I watched his children grow up.
It's pretty real when someone near your own age is dying. It makes you affirm life and it makes you affirm your life. And it makes you want to hold on for as long as possible and make it count for something, and to make what you do count for something. Be something more than excellent sheep.
Rest in Peace Stuart Scott. We were not ready for you to leave us.
More Later
KCD
www.theworkofart.net
Thursday, October 9, 2014
At Last! New "Maladjusted"!
We're just going to let this one breathe on its own folks, and just say that if you ever see a sign like the one at the top (and perhaps agree with it!), you might well have had too much at dinner.
Drive safely. Please.
More Later
KCD
Visit www.theworkofart.net
More Later
KCD
Visit www.theworkofart.net
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Art History Lesson: How Making Art Got a Bad Name, Part One
On a site called "New Advent", I found the most comprehensive, exhaustive (by which I mean exhausting), full throated insanity that I've ever read by a 2nd Century (AD) scholar named Tertullian.
Can't imagine he was much fun to be around.
Without getting into the scholarly aspect of his work, which reads like a pronouncement from a court (apparently the guy was a lawyer), Tertullian basically saw idolatry as the principal sin, and he saw it everywhere, infecting every aspect of society, but most particularly in the arts. He saw the arts, "artifice" as he called it, as essentially the means to give form, shape and service to idols, false gods. Idols, he imagines, must have idolmakers, and the "artificers of idols" should be, in his worldview, condemned to the flames of Hell.
Along with idols, he condemned "similitudes", likenesses of anything in the earth or in heaven or in the water. Pretty much the stuff of landscape paintings and still lifes with the requisite bowls of fruit, or ocean scenes. In Tertullian's analysis, those who made art for a living were in league with idolaters, and served demons.
He also saw the teaching of literature as somehow giving praise or acknowledgement to idols and a form of idol worship. Tertullian saw secular education of any sort as a kind of idolatry or at least a path to it. This man was by any measure, a zealot. His writing has a thunderous quality to it, as if attempting to call down the fires of God's wrath upon the unrepentant.
Now lest you think this guy was just a 2nd century crackpot, it should be noted that he was an influence on no less a person than St. Augustine, and what he hath wrought upon the land is well documented. Tertullian was never canonized by the early Catholic Church. Augustine was. Which suggests to me at least that Augustine went further into madness than his predecessor did, if that's even possible.
So if you have any questions about where the thinking originated that these days leads to reflexive cuts in art and music programs in schools or what causes politicians to wax rhapsodic about eliminating funding for things like the Corporation For Public Broadcasting or the National Endowment for the Arts, it started with this guy and people like him. Like St. Augustine, whom we'll cover in Part Two of this cautionary art history lesson.
More Later,
KCD
P.S. Apologies for having been away so long. Project work and family obligations have kept me from posting. But I'm back, and there'll be all new "Maladjusted" for those of you who've been looking, in addition to the usual musings.
On the other hand, maybe Tertullian had a point.
Can't imagine he was much fun to be around.
Without getting into the scholarly aspect of his work, which reads like a pronouncement from a court (apparently the guy was a lawyer), Tertullian basically saw idolatry as the principal sin, and he saw it everywhere, infecting every aspect of society, but most particularly in the arts. He saw the arts, "artifice" as he called it, as essentially the means to give form, shape and service to idols, false gods. Idols, he imagines, must have idolmakers, and the "artificers of idols" should be, in his worldview, condemned to the flames of Hell.
Along with idols, he condemned "similitudes", likenesses of anything in the earth or in heaven or in the water. Pretty much the stuff of landscape paintings and still lifes with the requisite bowls of fruit, or ocean scenes. In Tertullian's analysis, those who made art for a living were in league with idolaters, and served demons.
He also saw the teaching of literature as somehow giving praise or acknowledgement to idols and a form of idol worship. Tertullian saw secular education of any sort as a kind of idolatry or at least a path to it. This man was by any measure, a zealot. His writing has a thunderous quality to it, as if attempting to call down the fires of God's wrath upon the unrepentant.
Now lest you think this guy was just a 2nd century crackpot, it should be noted that he was an influence on no less a person than St. Augustine, and what he hath wrought upon the land is well documented. Tertullian was never canonized by the early Catholic Church. Augustine was. Which suggests to me at least that Augustine went further into madness than his predecessor did, if that's even possible.
So if you have any questions about where the thinking originated that these days leads to reflexive cuts in art and music programs in schools or what causes politicians to wax rhapsodic about eliminating funding for things like the Corporation For Public Broadcasting or the National Endowment for the Arts, it started with this guy and people like him. Like St. Augustine, whom we'll cover in Part Two of this cautionary art history lesson.
More Later,
KCD
P.S. Apologies for having been away so long. Project work and family obligations have kept me from posting. But I'm back, and there'll be all new "Maladjusted" for those of you who've been looking, in addition to the usual musings.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Robin Williams Is Dead
I cannot believe I just wrote the above title. He was here and now he is gone. At 12 PM PDT Monday, he was found dead in his home in Tiburon, CA, an apparent suicide. The possibility of a suicide is what makes this all the more ominous and sad. A man who made us all laugh for decades and displayed such unbelievable comic genius and immense range was also battling a darkness that finally got the better of him yesterday. That he had wrestled addictions into submission for 20 plus years is well documented. But early in the 2000s, he relapsed, and in 2006 sought treatment. I'd forgotten that he'd had heart surgery in 2009. Just this past spring, he ended his run on "The Crazy Ones" on TV. The show, despite Williams' usual schizophrenic riffing, never quite caught on and was cancelled. Another vehicle that could not contain his over the top style.
Somewhere around that time, I'd heard he was selling his mansion because he couldn't afford to keep it up or something. I think the asking price was $6.5 million. So if anyone has that burning a hole in his pocket...
I remember thinking, "Oh, are things getting bad for Robin Williams?" The depression aspect of his persona never really registered with me. In fact, it never even occurred to me that he was battling that. Or that depression is a far more powerful and elusive illness than I'd imagined. Earlier today I mused that I understood it. I may have been mistaken. Everyone has sad moments, everyone gets discouraged sometimes. What Robin battled was more than that. It never occurred to me that this was also fuel for his mad genius. I guess things were getting bad for him. Despite working almost incessantly, that siren song came calling again.
He'd checked into rehab as recently as last month. And then, just like that, on Monday, he was gone.
Robin Williams
born 1951
died just yesterday in 2014 at a robust 63 years old.
Gone too soon.
We were not ready for you to leave us. But leave us you did.
After the shock and the denial, we may be angry. Then we will truly feel the magnitude of the loss. And it may be quite some time before we accept that you're no longer with us.
More Later
KCD
Visit www.theworkofart.com
Somewhere around that time, I'd heard he was selling his mansion because he couldn't afford to keep it up or something. I think the asking price was $6.5 million. So if anyone has that burning a hole in his pocket...
I remember thinking, "Oh, are things getting bad for Robin Williams?" The depression aspect of his persona never really registered with me. In fact, it never even occurred to me that he was battling that. Or that depression is a far more powerful and elusive illness than I'd imagined. Earlier today I mused that I understood it. I may have been mistaken. Everyone has sad moments, everyone gets discouraged sometimes. What Robin battled was more than that. It never occurred to me that this was also fuel for his mad genius. I guess things were getting bad for him. Despite working almost incessantly, that siren song came calling again.
He'd checked into rehab as recently as last month. And then, just like that, on Monday, he was gone.
Robin Williams
born 1951
died just yesterday in 2014 at a robust 63 years old.
Gone too soon.
We were not ready for you to leave us. But leave us you did.
After the shock and the denial, we may be angry. Then we will truly feel the magnitude of the loss. And it may be quite some time before we accept that you're no longer with us.
More Later
KCD
Visit www.theworkofart.com
Friday, August 8, 2014
In Between Doses of "Maladjusted"
This was shared with me by a good friend, although his version was about a minute shorter. It fits into the Maladjusted category of Stupid Human Tricks. Or, as I like to call it, "bescreweded-ness". And no, that's NOT A WORD. I made it up. Don't go looking for it.
I'm not adding anything to mention that this is by no means high art. It won't rewire your brain (but then, neither will hearing "Happy" 10 million times; of course I could be wrong.) or make your unborn zygote smarter. But you might find yourself laughing pretty hard.
I just curate this stuff, folks. Enjoy.
Actually, "Happy" is a catchy little tune. Just not sure I want that particular neural pathway forged in my brain.
More later
KCD
Visit www.theworkofart.net
I'm not adding anything to mention that this is by no means high art. It won't rewire your brain (but then, neither will hearing "Happy" 10 million times; of course I could be wrong.) or make your unborn zygote smarter. But you might find yourself laughing pretty hard.
I just curate this stuff, folks. Enjoy.
Actually, "Happy" is a catchy little tune. Just not sure I want that particular neural pathway forged in my brain.
More later
KCD
Visit www.theworkofart.net
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Maladjusted Update
For those of you waiting for the next step in this particular Maladjusted entry, it's called "Leatherface In Med School". In it we imagine what Jed Sawyer, a.k.a. Leatherface might do if he decided to turn his very particular set of skills to a noble purpose. We try to imagine what the reaction might be from his fellow students or the administration of the school that chose to take him on, that saw his unique and singular talent. Yes, I'm well aware that school exists exactly nowhere but in my tormented imagination. But who knows? According to legend, the previous President of the United States managed to get through 4 years at Yale University with a "C" average and then got into Harvard. The former Vice President dropped out of Yale. So stranger things have happened.
Anyway, for your edification, I present the progress notes below:
Now some of you might say, "Hey that doesn't look like any chain saw I ever saw." You would be correct. On the other hand, this whole scenario exists in a place we've never been to. So let's indulge that for a moment and suggest that this is a specially made chain saw designed to fit in a lab setting. See, you have to imagine how Mr. Sawyer sees this. Of course, not everyone will share his distinctive, albeit peculiar vision.
I'm betting the medical device industry might take exception, for one.
More Later
KCD
Visit www.theworkofart.net
Anyway, for your edification, I present the progress notes below:
Now some of you might say, "Hey that doesn't look like any chain saw I ever saw." You would be correct. On the other hand, this whole scenario exists in a place we've never been to. So let's indulge that for a moment and suggest that this is a specially made chain saw designed to fit in a lab setting. See, you have to imagine how Mr. Sawyer sees this. Of course, not everyone will share his distinctive, albeit peculiar vision.
I'm betting the medical device industry might take exception, for one.
More Later
KCD
Visit www.theworkofart.net
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