starr

Art is no man’s country is where I say art has no ruler. There are things you can learn about but, the laws of art are very vague. The first clue that a artist doesn’t know anything is when they try to define someone’s art other than their own art. If someone tells you some ism or movement is what you should be doing, you should leave and forget that person exist. Somebody told me at a party that I was part of a lost generation and I didn’t even bother to remember that person’s name. Labels are your biggest pitfall. You mostly likely will be that old bastard keeping kid’s balls that fall in your yard. If you don’t label people, then you mostly likely won’t go down the path of ignorance, racism, homophobia, and other forms of hate. You can say Jeff Koons has the money, Banksy has the streets, Abramovic is the most well know performance artist, Dali is the most popular, and so on, but that really shouldn’t do much for your art. Knowing other artist is to know what has been done, how it has been done, and maybe when and where. There was student in my Intro To Painting class years ago in art school that brought in a painting of shoes that were half feet and half shoes. The professor asked why he had copied Magritte. The student knew nothing of the painting he was copying. He was young and I believe he had just started doing art in high school. I look at a lot of art. I spend as much time looking at art as making art. Personally, I have stopped worrying about if my art is as original as it can be. I want to know how it feels to make something myself. When someone says that my art seems to vary a lot or looks like more than one person made it, that makes me happy. Those comments are validation that I avoided a label or repetitive formula to make my art. This includes style, I see artist that has a style and think that is a visual label. A person evolves and changes through life, hopefully, some may not. People that learn and become something new get to experience more in life. When I was in art school was the first time I worked in a restaurant. A relatively nice restaurant that served both American and Italian food. I found through that experience that cooking could be rewarding. If you follow certain rules, some of the time, you can get something wonderful to eat. About 10 years ago, I sort of got tired of cooking, I just wanted food to be there when I needed it. I would cook a lot of stuff that just required a oven and time. Then I read a article or two about how much energy it takes to make meat. After that, maybe a year later, I met someone that was vegan. I then discovered that there was a fun new game to play. Cooking vegan meant I had now a smaller palette of ingredients but I could still attempt the same dishes. Making a good cream sauce without cream maybe next to impossible but it is fun to try. It is that experience of trying something out that makes you learn. It is not the experience of making money, people gasp, and ladies swoon that I am after. Not that that does not happen by side effect occasionally. I am not vegan or vegetarian by the way, I just like to dabble and keep my mind open. I eat a lot less meat than the average American, but it doesn’t take much trying to do that. In closing I would like to say art is what you make it. You don’t even have to take on the label of artist. A person should not have to wear any label that is not of his own choice. To label a person is to pass a judgment on who they are and to begin stereotyping someone.