little_tippler

I thought it might be interesting to see, in a relatively practical way, what art represents in the lives of each of us. To do this, I have written these questions which we can each answer, and then possibly discuss particular viewpoints that arise in the responses.

1 - Do you like art? Why/Why not?

2 - Does art serve any purpose to you? (can be abstract - e.g. visual pleasure, or objective - e.g. decoration) Why?

3 - Do you make time in your life for art? How?

4 - Tell us about your favourite kind of art or a favourite artist

5 - Do you care if there is art in your life or not? Why?

6 - Where do you go to see art?

7 - Where would you like to see art? Where should art be seen, in your opinion?

8 - How important/significant is art to you?

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1 - I love art. I can't remember a time when it didn't interest me. When I was younger, it would make me dream, about the stories in the paintings, about things going on in my own life, the compositions, the colours, would transport me to other worlds. I soon began making my own drawings, inspired in the art that I'd see, creating the things that I wanted to see happen in the art works.

2 - Art serves many purposes to me. People who say that art serves no purpose are really missing out, IMO. Art brings me mental and visual pleasure. It makes me think about things outside my own world and my daily life. It calms me and excites me. It makes me feel creative and helps rev up my imagination. It makes me think about other people and how they might think. It makes me question the established order of things. It makes me think about things in new and original ways. It can have social and even political effects. Art is a catalyst for change.

3 – I work in an art gallery so I have to make time. I also paint so I make time for it that way too. It’s not a chore. It’s a pleasure and a release. I also make time to see shows by other artists in all sorts of locations, from museums, to art galleries, to foundations, to small bars, parks, to out of the ordinary places such as barns, abandoned warehouses and factories, etc.

4 – My favourite kind of art, as for many teenagers, used to be Surrealist art. The fantastical dream-like quality of the works that appealed to my overflowing imagination of the time let my creativity run wild. Later I began to appreciate all kinds of art, such as expressionism, abstraction in a variety of forms, interactive art, video art, installation art, landart, the list goes on and on. Nowadays my knowledge of art seems so broad that I find it hard to pinpoint something I prefer over another. What I can say is that I can appreciate a work of art through its obvious technical quality, the amount of thought that has gone into it and the effective delivery of the artist’s idea. I tend to like well thought out formal compositions with strong dynamics. Colour I also like but if the work is good the colour won’t matter to me as much. I like contrasts of texture and between bold and delicate. I like tension – it gives certain art works an appearance of being alive. These days I am usually most struck by particularly inventive and original work (since I see so much art every day), usually in the form of an installation or sculpture. I quite like street art too.

5 – I most definitely care if there is art in my life. Without art I’d be a lot less inspired and creative. Art makes me want to know and learn more about many different areas of study, but of course particularly about the arts and how they can be an important part in the sensitive education of a human being. It can also be exciting and get me out of a rut at times.

6 – I will go to wherever there is a show that I think I will like. That can be outdoors or indoors, somewhere conventional or somewhere unique.

7 – I would like to see art in less intimidating, more inviting environments. I would like to see art shown in less conventional ways, in ways that engage the observer far more than you’d usually expect in an art show.

8 – I have no idea where I’d be without art in my life. I’d be someone else entirely. Life would certainly be a lot less creative and colourful, and a lot more intolerant and boring. I couldn't put into words how much art means to me, but it does. I may be silly to feel that way but I can't dissociate it from my existence, and don't want to. It's almost my religion - though I don't believe in religion as a concept for myself.

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Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

spindles

1. I like art, but I'm certainly not hugely passionate about it. I also don't know that much about art or painting, but I do know what I like and that is about where it stops for me.

2. Obviously it serves a decorative purpose, but it also gives other people an insight into your own character when they see the pieces that you use to decorate your own space. I also like things that are functional, and have two big mirrors hung at home that are both framed in Australian timber. They may not be 'art' in the strictest sense (but then there isn't a definition in here, so I can expand on what I think). One is framed in old/recycled fencing timber and the other is red gum. Both are beautiful pieces in their own right and hang in prominent places in my house. Also we have quite an arty photo of the flower in my wife's hair from our wedding day, hung prominently in our house.

3. Not really - apart from looking at things I already have, I guess. I don't purposely seek out galleries to look in.

4. <puts on nerdy hat>I'm a big fan of Fantasy Art, like Jeff Easley (I have a couple of Dungeons and Dragons books that he did cover art for). For examples, see Aumania - Fantasy art - Jeff Easley /takes hat off. Otherwise, I'm mostly drawn to art by the colour, moreso than the subject. I also appreciate photography.

5. Yes, as I can appreciate the huge talent that goes into making beautiful things. Artistically, I am hopeless, so to be able to enjoy the works of others is a blessing.

6. I don't seek it out - it just finds me Seriously - I really just find it by chance.

7. People should be less afraid to buy something to hang on their wall, even if it is just a print they bought in a poster shop. Having said that, I'm happy for people to show art wherever they feel comfortable

8. It is probably a 5/10, though may actually be higher - it is pretty hard to escape, especially if you define art as a broad body of work (not just as painting/drawing).

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who hid my keyboard's PANIC button?

roachboy

1 - Do you like art? Why/Why not?

yes.
the category of art is nebulous, though. sometimes i do installation stuff--that's "sound art"--if i use a piano, it's music. i don't really understand where the boundary is--no-one does really--so it's a matter of self-nomination more than anything else.

either way, while i prefer art more as something to do than as something to go look at, i get an enormous amount from seeing visual pieces, reading and listening...and "art" encompasses everything from painting to installation to text production to music...

2 - Does art serve any purpose to you? (can be abstract - e.g. visual pleasure, or objective - e.g. decoration) Why?

it's mostly a condensed expression of a process of making...so i tend to resist reducing art to a decorative function. i think of art as reprocessing the world, destabilizing meanings (so i am suspicious of, and tend not to like very much, representational art that stays too close to photography--photo realism is not that, curiously)...i suppose that function can be performed while hanging over a fireplace in some aristo-house--but it's better for more people to experience art in spaces that amplify rather than defeat the active characteristics of a piece.

3 - Do you make time in your life for art? How?

it's the main area i devote my time and energy to. whether the results work or not is another question.

4 - Tell us about your favourite kind of art or a favourite artist

i find sound endlessly interesting, and find ways of structuring it that other folk explore (but i may not have explored or know about) to be fascinating. so sound installations tend to be among my favorite forms of "art"---i like lots of artists and don't really think in terms of favorites.

5 - Do you care if there is art in your life or not? Why?

definitely. it inspires thinking.


6 - Where do you go to see art?

museyrooms, galleries, the street...

7 - Where would you like to see art? Where should art be seen, in your opinion?

i don't like museums really but am glad they exist. in an ideal world, art would not be quarantined in that way--but the problems are obvious, starting with conservation.

this all comes from the idea that there really shouldn't be a separation between "art" and the rest of life. art comes out of the every day and feeds back into it--it should be everywhere, i think.

8 - How important/significant is art to you?

well, see above. it's fundamental a way of being that issues into ways of doing. which extends to listening and seeing. it's a way of doing philosophy, of thinking in the world about the world.

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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

mixedmedia

1 - Do you like art? Why/Why not?

I love art. And I couldn't tell you why.

2 - Does art serve any purpose to you? (can be abstract - e.g. visual pleasure, or objective - e.g. decoration) Why?

I don't think of art as serving a purpose - it's too pervasive for me. It does make me feel happy, though...sometimes. Vital, maybe.

3 - Do you make time in your life for art? How?

Again, the idea of art is much too pervavsive for me. I can't not make time for it. I see it (and hear it) everywhere.

4 - Tell us about your favourite kind of art or a favourite artist

I don't have favorites, there are many, many artists whose work I enjoy.

5 - Do you care if there is art in your life or not? Why?

Absolutely. I couldn't tell you why. I just know it.

6 - Where do you go to see art?

I see art everywhere. I think that is what attracts me to photography. Its an attempt to capture it. Usually not successfully, which leads me to believe that appreciation of art is a uniquely human perspective, appreciation. Like an appreciation of music, which I deem to be art, as well.

7 - Where would you like to see art? Where should art be seen, in your opinion?

Again, I see art everywhere. We have very few museums here of interest to me.

8 - How important/significant is art to you?

Very.

I can't answer most of these questions because I don't think of art as a 'thing' to write about. It's like breathing. It's everywhere.

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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

ring

"I don't do art, I am art."

hunnychile

Interesting paraphrase from Salvatore Dali who originally said, "I don't do drugs. I am drugs.

His stuff is always worth the viewing and thought processing that follows. At least IMHO!

YES, I need art to live. I go to all the shows I can and have visited all the best/biggest/most notable galleries in the US and Europe. One never gets their fill when we are artists and art lovers!

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"I need compassion, understanding and chocolate." - NJB

fresnelly

Art is important to me because it helps me experience the world though the eyes of others. The world outside of myself.

I'm not just talking aesthetically, but also emotionally and intellectually.

It would be a very dull and self serving world without it.

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Building an artificial intelligence that appreciates Mozart is easy. Building an A.I. that appreciates a theme restaurant is the real challenge - Kit Roebuck - Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life