First, the world is okay...does human society need saving? Well...dang...yeah. Right?
If acknowledging we live on a planet that evolved an entire chain of life supporting supposedly big-brained humans at the top of a hierarchy of our own making then....maybe. But, if further acknowledging that the chain of life we see is threatened by the stupidity of wealth-hoarders and power-mongers with waaay more money than brains, yeah… we’re in trouble. If Art can wake people up to THAT, we need more art.
Perception matters. Too many people who are neither in pain or privation ignoring or disdaining those others who are suffering something awful with nary a care to assist demonstrates we’re in trouble. Right? Is it a perception problem here, or an empathy problem? Or both? Is this Art?
What privilege is shown here by me sitting on this winged bench in front of an art gallery in Lafayette, Colorado, where I have delivered art for a show? I can travel. I have supplies and can make art. I have contact with others and have the ability and resources to have my art seen by delivering it to a place miles from home. I have a spouse, with a camera, and access to the internet. I’m old but still respected enough to have resources allowing me to live. I’m living because I have health care and food and shelter (no kids to count on). There’s a lot of privilege here. I know it. I’m grateful for it. I want you to be grateful for your privilege and good fortune, too. Do it. Make Art and Be grateful.
How complicated is perception really? On a scale of my own making it is really complicated. You reading this blog is privilege. You have education and also a computer. Those things are not nothing. What’s this got to do with Art? We need Art back in basic education. Yes, we do!
Don’t poor people make art? Don’t illiterate craftsmen and artisans exist? Where are they? How many do you know, or know of? Some charitable organizations raise money to support themselves and share the funds raised with the artists whose work is sold through the organization. That’s a rarity in itself. You have plenty of artists and craftspeople where you live, I’m sure, and so you don’t have to deal with supply chain issues. Buy local. Support charities when you can, too. Give art as gifts. Tis' the season. Right? It is all Art at some level. Right?
This show themed around Voting rights had everything: fine art, conceptual art, sculpture, quilts, interactive voting soup making, and a conference-style educational piece on the convoluted maze of hoops one much jump through to get a measure on a ballot, etc. etc. Our midterm election had many people pleased with a turnout of about 50%... Fifty Percent? Half the people who could have voted stayed home? And we already have mail-in ballots (thank the legislature!) I can’t stand up for hours on end in voting lines anymore. Frankly, no one should. Stand in line to see Art or the corpse flower bloom once in a life-time, but voting should be easy, a holiday even. It makes no sense to me to suppress the vote. It also makes no sense to me to glue yourself to art or throw soup at it, but politics breed strange bed-fellows. (I never really got that saying until recently because there is a lot of strangeness in protesting around art to get heard.) Hey, climate issues are real, like Florida could become blue when it is overrun by the ocean. So, just sayin'...
I really like public art.
(Leslie? Is there any art you don’t like? Well, no, but that is for another time).
This wall mural is on the exterior wall of the gallery hosting the voting rights show. Vote No Vote is the actual title. Here’s a link to a brief press release about it.
Jusy cut and paste it into your browser thing.
It is good for galleries to promote artists, and it is also good that artists promote the galleries. Win Win. I thank fooLPRoof gallery, and Bell Projects, and The Collective Community Art Center and Red Line and all the rest of them. See it. Buy it. Go stand in line for Art. Get mail-in ballots for your state. Be part of the process. Your life is like a work of art - conceptual, traditional, avante-guarde, surreal... you name it. Be Alive. Be Aware. Be Art. Save Society.
Art in schools should be at every level of K-12 schools. From leaning to color inside the lines in Kindergarten to an academic History of Art course in high school, it is art that is the continuing mode of creating a civilized society. If the truth be told, art is the window and yardstick on how we critique a society whether that is of the ancient Egytians, Greeks, and Romans, or today's New York City subway system's graffiti. That is because art is the quintessential visual outside of what exists inside the human mind and soul. Thus, art is our alpha and omega of the human experience spanning the art found in caves of the earliest humans to the exibition cited…