Artists in the House

After almost three years of work on my last series of paintings I find it really difficult to switch gears and start the ball rolling on new projects.  While I was working on the Genomics I had ideas all the time.  I duly wrote them down in my notebooks or sketchbooks like a good little artist. 

But now when I go back and look at these ideas I think, "haven't I already done this?"  So, I have decided to venture forth in several different directions at once.  This could be a really bad idea as I like to work in a very linear method.  Three different sets of work.  One on canvas, one digital and one photographic.

At first I thought opening a MySpace account would be a waste of time.  I thought there would be a lot of "friend" seekers and blog-mongers all over and very little in the way of a creative and artistic community.  Luckily I have been proven wrong.  It requires a little digging, a little searching...  but once you find one or two visual artists, you start finding more. 

I'm an art snob.  I'll be the first to admit it.  I won't show my work in festivals.  I won't hang my work in a restaurant or coffee house.  I realize there are a hundred places where I could show my work, but I choose not to.  Why?...  Because fine art should be in a gallery.  It should be in the right environment.  When Marcel Duchamp presented his "ready-mades" in Paris, what made them fine art?  The fact that they were in a gallery.  Nowadays you can still see the shovels and wine bottle racks he bought at the hardware store on display in the National Art Museum.  They still have the price tags from the hardware store on them. 

Looking at art is only half of the work.  How we look at it is almost just as important.  Just as I wouldn't use fine china and silver flatware at McDonald's, I wouldn't want my art hanging in a smoky bar.  Then it's not fine art anymore, it's disco decor.

After being on MySpace for awhile, I'm thinking maybe I have it wrong.  There's a LOT of artists there.  Some fantastic, some weird, some really dark spooky stuff.  The entire spectrum.  It's opening my eyes up to a lot of things.  I had no idea "graffiti art" was so prolific.  I've never used spray paint except for the odd touch up here and there, or a small effect on a canvas.  But seeing the work that some of these guys do...  it's making me look at those spray cans in a new light. 

And design people...  wow.  Really cool stuff.  If you've seen my work, I like it neat and clean, filled with colors and images that pop.  I guess I always thought using a computer was a cheat.  So I'm starting to rethink that idea too. 

Most of the artists and people I "meet" on MySpace, I never write to.  I never tell them how much it means to have a small part of their work affect my artistic sensibilities.  After all...  there isn't an artistic community on MySpace...  is there.

So, thanks.  It might have been a photo of Budweiser beers cans, a spray painted futuristic vehicle,  a woman with a dragon painted on her back, or even the colors you used.  I'm keeping an eye out.  Seems like there may be more there than I thought.