What aspect of art would you like to hear about? Please do comment on this blog; it will determine the content of future posts. In the meanwhile……consider this……
There are probably as many opinions as to what constitutes art as there people who exist. Well, actually, I know this is an exaggeration, but you know what I mean.
Are we, or are we not, each and every one of us, artists? Difficult question. All children are artists, most of us agree. Is it because they are not afraid of the media used to make art? So what happens between the, for the most part, artistic child and the adults we become.
Of course many people continue to make art as adults and this is, I think, where the struggle for defining art starts taking place.
Walter Benjamin examines art in the age of easily reproduced images using mechanical production methods; and questions the ‘artistic value’ of frequently reproduced works. Why this apparently cognitive leap, you might well ask.
Before the anecdote, I want to ask you to not get tied up with terminology and semantics, please. This is a method of communication that occurs often the the Downtown Eastside. It is the DTES dialect, if you will.
Well, on Friday, 15 June 2012, I was sitting in the shade in Oppenheimer Park, waiting till the coffee line got shorter, darning a shawl, when Bob came over.
Which Bob?
Painter Bob.
You mean Bob with the blonde hair?
No, no, Big Bob, Indian Bob, long hair, beard….you know.
Oh, right, that Bob.
Yeah, the one who paints those pictures of children with the big ghost eyes.
So the conversation moved from Bob darning his socks and mending his own clothes and my rant about the fashion industry (no worries, won’t get into that here), and the topic became art. And Bob saying that he doesn’t work enough at making art, and he should/has to start being consistent in producing so many pieces a month. And me going, yeah but…..yeah, but.
As he walked away, tossing his coffee cup into the waste bin, over his shoulder he said,
“Art was part of our everyday lives, not something separate.”
On which note we can end. Enjoy the weather, whatever the weather.
Karenza