Artistic License

Morning Light

Sometimes the image is all about light, shape, color and too much detail detracts from what I want to 'say' in the image. When I get one of those images I reach into my plugin toolbox and pull out Topaz's Simplifier. I have been using it for years. It started life as BUZZ Simplifier and was put out by a British company whose name I can't recall at the moment. That company went belly up and for a while, I couldn't get updates then Topaz stepped in with their version.

Simplifier groups pixels of similar tone & hue and averages them into clumps. The number of pixels averaged (and thus the size of the clumps of color) is controlled with a slider that goes from very small clumps to almost a posterized image. The original BUZZ filter would go so far that it averaged the entire image but there really isn't much use for that and if you want to I think there is a built-in tool in PS that will do that. The default setting on Topaz's version is higher (bigger clumps) than I usually want and I can't recall ever going higher than the default.

The result is an image that looks a lot like a painting because it does pretty much what painters (except for photorealistic painters) do. I like the effect on some images. I have occasionally been told in the past that I shouldn't call these photographs anymore because they don't 'look photographic'. I don't really care if others prefer to think of them in other terms. I make "images" that I like, that express what I want to express about the subject and render them by whatever means best expresses what I want to show the world. To me, they are still photographs. You may refer to them any way you wish. The terms aren't important, the image is what is important. Here is a group of recent creations using both the camera and the computer. I hope you enjoy them visually and don't get hung up in what to call them.

"OPEN"

"Hay Tedder"

Gold over Gold

"Be Mine"

Click on an image to see it larger. Prints are available. Email me telling me what you want (image/size/your location etc.) and I will reply with a price quote that includes shipping. Please respect my copyright and do not repost any part of this blog elsewhere without my express permission.

Looking Out VS Looking In

Over a month and no posts. I've been wrestling with my thoughts on the state of photography, in particular, my photography. Looking at what's on the web I feel kind of 'out of step' but at the same time I have no desire to be 'in step'.

I just finished reading Disappearing Witness: Change in Twentieth-Century American Photography by Gretchen Garner. It is an art history book which is not my usual reading matter. I read enough art history in college to last me for a lifetime. Art history is mostly dry boring stuff and there is a certain amount of that in this volume, recitation of lists of photographers and how they fit into this or that genre. But this volume attracted my attention because its premise is something I had noticed myself.

One aspect of aging, of having been around for a long time, is that you gain a perspective that younger people don't have. In a sense it's like you learned to drive at night, able to see only what your headlights could illuminate and gradually the sun comes up and then you can see all this stuff that was hidden in the darkness. The stuff immediately around you, which was all you could see in the dark, takes on a whole new context once the sun comes up. I learned and began my practice of photography in the latter end of what Ms. Garner refers to as the "witness" mode of photography, the practice of looking out at the world, connecting with it on a psychic and emotional level, and making images that attempt to convey that connection to the viewer. That largely remains my mode of expression to this day.

Somewhere in the sixties or seventies the focus of art photographers took a major turn inward. It manifested in photographs that were less about the subject in front of the camera and more about the inner life of the photographer. Images became staged performances that were recorded on film and later digitally to illustrate an idea the photographer had. Such photographs had existed for some time previously of course but most were commercial illustrations for advertising or magazines, images made by photographers under the direction of art directors or editors. In the latter '70s and onward however it became the major trend of fine art photography.

I have observed this trend even among photography enthusiasts who don't aspire to "fine art" status but are moving in this direction as well. I don't know if it is the influence of Photoshop with its infinite control or a response the art world but I see ever more constructed as opposed to observed images as time goes on, images that are less about the subject matter and more about the photographer.

Perhaps I'm just being "stuck" in my past but I'm not sure that this trend is a good thing. Yes, we need to look inward, Eastern religions with their emphasis on meditation have been doing this for millennia but always as a ground for relating outward to the rest of creation or seeing ourselves in what we see. It is my belief that is what "witness" photographers were trying to do.  Whatever the trend my photography will continue to look outward, to engage the larger world.

The photo is of a tree on the corner of Rt 56 and Garfield Rd outside Potsdam, NY. It caught my eye as I was driving into town one day and I stopped to photograph it with my cell phone which was the "best" camera (the one I had with me). It has been modified in Photoshop to accentuate the mood.

Thinking About Art

Recently I watched “The Monuments Men”, a movie that I recommend although this isn’t a review. This is more of a mulling or pondering of the rationale the main characters used for their mission in light of how the world has changed since WWII.

For those who aren’t familiar with the movie the plot (based on real life) involves a group of art specialists who set out to save the art that has been stolen by the Nazis in their advance through Europe. They volunteer to serve in a special unit to find, identify and retrieve great works of art as the Germans retreat after D-Day. The rationale for the mission is that the art represents the culture of the invaded countries and if it is lost or destroyed it will mean the destruction of the culture. As the lead character puts it, people can be killed but new generations will be born and the culture lives on through the art, thus it is important to preserve the art.

As the Germans gathered up the art in their retreat they stored it in mines and it takes the protagonists some time to learn where it is. The rest of the army is too busy fighting to provide more than minimal assistance and pays little attention when the Monuments Men do succeed. The only discovery they make that gets attention is a cache of gold in one of the mines. That gets everyone’s attention including the media. Over the course of their self assigned mission the Monuments Men save and return millions of pieces of art, paintings, sculpture, etc. In the process they lost two of their unit plus two members of the team from allied forces. In the final scenes, Frank Stokes, the leader of the unit is reviewing the mission for his superiors and is asked “Was it worth it?”. He responds that it was.

After the movie I wondered about his premise in terms of the modern world. In prewar Europe I can see where it could be argued that the art and architecture was the embodiment of the culture in which it existed. In today’s global society I’m not sure that still applies. Yes, there are remnants of that old culture but it is rapidly fading and art is more an expression of the individual artist than of the culture and values of the society in which the artist works. Would any art curator today risk life and limb to salvage Damien Hirst’s pickled shark on the pretext that it represented our culture? Or how about Raffaello D’Andrea’s robotic chair? I wonder.

Rainy Days

We've been getting a lot of rain lately. It's at the point where the next person who tells me 'we need it' will get the response "no, we don't". I've been working on some images from several weeks ago using Lightroom, Photoshop and PostWorkShop 3. The Clivia above is the latest. I have modified it using the Topaz filter set and PostWorkShop in layers to create the texture. The original photo was made in our livingroom. The plant sits on a stand in front of a west window which was the only light source.

Our local Arts Council is having rainy days lately with their budget falling far short of expenses, a combination of increased costs and cutbacks in support from patrons. The county has stopped contributing at all and other sources of support have cut back severely. We're at the point where we may have to close our shop in Potsdam if we can't raise more money. To that end we are seeking donors, new members, setting up special events, whatever we can to make a buck.

The Council has a website at http://www.slcartscouncil.org/ . As you can see on the site the council does a lot of things in and for the community. As Beka, our director says "It is the arts that make us civilized". The council provides an outlet for local artists and craftworkers but also classes and other events and entertainment. If you are a resident of St. Lawrence county we would appreciate a donation or becoming a member which will also get you the newsletter of all the Council's doings. You can donate or join through the "Support Us" link on the website. If you don't live here but would like to donate/join anyway, we'd love to have your support.

Van Gogh Exhibit

We went up to Ottawa today to see the Van Gogh exhibit that continues through Sept. 3rd. I saw the announcement when it went up in May and vowed to go but just now got around to it. Van Gogh is among my favorite artists, not the top but right up there. I couldn't help, while standing in line to get tickets and then to see the work, but think about his struggles. He sold only two paintings in his lifetime, and those sold for a pittance. He survived because his brother supported him.

The exhibit was excellent and I recommend it if you can manage to go. Ottawa is only two hours North of me and is the closest large city to where I live. I really ought to make an effort to get up there more often. Unfortunately the "open border" between the US and Canada isn't as open these days but if you have all your papers it's still manageable. I do miss the way it used to be though with lighter handed officialdom and no guns.

The photo is one of a handful I made with a Canon G11. Art galleries aren't fond of people taking photographs so I didn't take the 7D. It has been manipulated in Lightroom, Photoshop and Postworkshop.

Another View

Another of the photos I made yesterday of Mossy Cascade falls, a detail of the center section. The clouds were moving fast and I managed to catch a moment when the sunlight was on the center.  Canon 7D again (the only camera I took yesterday) and the 18-135mm EFS lens.

Kirk Tuck posted a link on his blog today that is worth watching even at an hour and 20 minutes http://vimeo.com/34608191 . I may have to watch it a second time. There are some interesting observations and thoughts about the state of art today and where it is going in the future.

A 'Mountain Afternoon'

When I go on a photo excursion to the Adirondacks it is usually a day trip starting in the morning and coming home after dark but yesterday I went for the afternoon and evening. There was an opening at BluSeed Studios that I wanted to attend because my brother's daughter has some work in the show.

Like here (North of the Park) there was little snow, more than we have but a fraction of what one would expect in the ADKs in February. The sky was totally clear making for very strong light that was good for photographing Whiteface and I spent some time photographing on Norman's Ridge. The farm fields up there were mostly bare but the snow on Whiteface's summit made it stand out nicely and the low winter sun made for good shadows that reveal the shape of the mountain slopes.

The show was very good. A cell phone photo of Rachel Bullard's portion of the show is below, a series of paper works incorporating drawn images and thread suspended in thin wood frames by threads. There was a watercolor of a buck with camouflage coloring and improbably large antlers. Presumably his antlers are so big because his coloring kept hunters from seeing him so he has outlived his cohorts. I missed getting that artist's name. I was also quite taken by the work of Krystal Stowe who uses stain (and paint?) to make drawings on Luan plywood that incorporate the grain of the wood into the drawing. There is lots more to see. If you will be in the Saranac Lake area in the next 3 weeks I recommend going to see the show.

Works on paper by Rachel Bullard

at BluSeed Studios, 24 Cedar St., Saranac Lake, NY

A Comment about Comments and What is Art (Yet Again)

I've been reading Kirk Tuck's blog, The Visual Science Lab. As a working photographer Kirk always has something informative to say but lately he has shut off comments so I can't respond directly to his thoughts. I gather from what he says in his posts that he got tired (irritated/upset/PO'd) at some of the rude and abusive comments to his posts so he just turned off comments for the remainder of the year in order to be in a better mood for the holidays.

I can't say I blame him. My little blog doesn't seem to attract that sort of comment (it attracts few comments at all). The closest I've come is a reader suggesting that I don't know what I'm talking about. That's fine. It's his opinion and he is entitled to it. I've been photographing for well over a half century and spend considerable effort trying to be accurate. I firmly believe that in the case in point I am right but I'm open to someone demonstrating to me that I'm wrong. I moderate the comments on this blog, meaning I get them in an email before they get posted and they only get posted if I approve them. I approved his.

My standard for approval is that they are not abusive and/or blatant self promotion. I've been fortunate not to get any abusive comments but occasionally I get a "Great photo. You should see my site" followed by a link to another site which when I follow it takes me to a site selling something, a low class form of network marketing, frequently not even related to photography or anything else discussed here. Word to the wise: If you submit a pseudo compliment as a ploy to get a link to your site, it will be trashed, not posted, not even the compliment part. Further I only post links to other photographers sites if I believe their work has something to offer my readers. I welcome (civil) discussion and I am not above accepting flattery admiration if it isn't a cover for commercialism. Call me elitist, but hey, it's my blog.

And now on to the subject of "Art" (again).

Kirk brought up the subject of what makes a photograph art in one recent post and while I don't entirely disagree I feel he is taking too hard a line in coming out against "applied effects". Those who have followed my blog are aware that I do apply effects to some images so they may feel I'm just being defensive and maybe they are right. There have been times I have expressed some misgivings here about the relatively limited controls in some of the effects I used. On the other hand I do believe that some photos benefit from more than just a 'straight' treatment in order to tell their story.

Take the two photos in this post. They are both phone photos, shot with an app called Pencil Camera. Both are very simple images that would most likely be overlooked in a instant if not for the "random manipulation" of the phone app and the border I painted in Photoshop.  Sometimes it is necessary to add some drama or at least a different way of seeing a common subject to get the audience to look at it long enough to see what you are trying to show them. I see it as being like the writer or poet who approaches the ordinary from a very different perspective, using words in an unusual way to help the reader see beyond the superficial.

As I noted I am occasionally bothered by the relative randomness that Kirk refers to, algorithms written into software by anonymous engineers whose code is applied to your photo. It is random, or at least appears so, but I note that it is different in every image, apparently responding on some level to the subject matter. It is true that I am not the one controlling it but is total control the appropriate measure of art?

Traditional Japanese potters would not agree to that. Some of their most highly prized Raku and wood fired pottery is the result of what can only be called fortunate kiln accidents, flames touching the pot in just the right place creating patterns hoped for but unplanned by the potter, a collaboration between the fire and the potter. In Western art too there is the example of accident accepted as art, most notably in the paintings of Jackson Pollock who (it is said) "learned to trust gravity" in creating his paintings. There are those who question his standing in the art world (I would be among them) but the fact remains that art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. As one who has made Raku and has a couple of pieces that I can claim only partial credit for, the remainder being the product of smoke and fire that I could not precisely control, I have to accept that randomness in the application of technique can in fact result in art. Not always of course. But then I can't guarantee "art" even when everything is fully under my control. Nor do I know anyone who can.

In the end I think art is what happens when the 'artist' (if we may be so bold or pretentious to call ourselves such), the subject matter and the medium (whatever it is) come together in a fortuitous way that can be helped, but not assured, by long practice. At best it can increase the odds.

With that I wish one and all a happy holiday (Christmas, Hanukka, Solstice, Kwanza, or whatever you choose to celebrate) and the hope for a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Blowin' in the Wind

On Wednesday I went to the Paul Smith's VIC again. It getting to be a habit. As a walk in the woods and photo location it is convenient at about 45 minutes away and with lots of trails and variety. I added more photos to my Flickr photostream, photos of Cotton Grass and a variety of fungus.

At the back of the Heron Marsh, on the Forest Ecology Trail, there is a boardwalk crossing a large bog with lots of grass and the occasional small Tamarac or other plant. The wind was gusting across the bog periodically making wave patterns in the grasses that reminded me of the flow of water so I made a series of images in which I tried to capture the waves. I used a slow shutter speed (1/10th sec.) to blur the movement and framed to contrast the moving grasses with the non-moving Tamarac. The photo above is the best of the batch. I will be watching in the future for other opportunities make similar images of wind motion.

A New Series of Images

One of my less admirable qualities is that I get distracted easily. I tend to wander off on new projects and ideas before completing existing ones. I've been described as having "too many irons in the fire". I added another iron last night.

The new "iron" is the result of a couple of things. I watched a webinar that Rick Sammon did for Topaz on "Awakening the Artist Within" using some of Topaz' filters. I didn't care  much for some of images he created (Sorry Rick. Nothing personal. Just a matter of taste) but some of the things he did to them must have simmered in the back of my head. Later I was using Stumble Upon to look at some art sites and found some abstract paintings by Sabine Spiesser that reminded me of some rock pattern photos I made last summer. I wondered what would happen if I applied some of Rick's filter ideas to those patterns and I was off and running (figuratively speaking). I applied two separate presets (tinkered with them both), added the circle with a copy>paste>invert>change blend mode sequence and came up with the above. I did several more but this was the first and the one I like best so far.

Why We Do It

I spent 2-3 hours yesterday with my potter/photographer friend Ron. I'm planning to offer my services to fellow artists/crafts folk photographing them and their work for their promotional materials etc. and I needed some samples of what I can do. Ron agreed to be my victim. Of course we spent a lot of time talking about the trials of marketing our wares and Ron told me the following story (parable).

Three craftsmen went to a bar for a beer after the close of a fair they just exhibited at and they were commiserating over the difficulties of making a living in crafts. After a bit another man came over to them and said "I've been listening to you and I'd like to make you an offer. I'm extremely rich. I'll give you each a million dollars if you tell me what you will do with it." That sounded pretty good and they all agreed. The first craftsman said "I'll quit this business, buy a farm down in Virginia and raise horses". The second said "I'm quitting too. I'll invest the money and live off the interest as I travel around the world". The third thought a bit and said "You know... I actually like what I'm doing. I complain about it, but I even like doing the fairs. I think I'll just keep doing it until the million dollars runs out."

We create the things we do because it is who and what we are. If anyone wants to offer me a million, I promise to keep doing until the million (and I) are all used up. :-)

Photo: Canon 7D, Live View mode (camera inches from the window that  main light source), 1/25th sec. @ f/6.3.

A Time to Look Back & Ahead

It was 53º in the North Country today. Our January thaw arrived before January did. The beaver pond that I walk past for my daily exercise has standing water and slush over the ice and the river is losing much of its ice. Walking is good for thinking.

I’ve been reading “Occam’s Razor” by Bill Jay. Bill has long been my favorite commentator on the state of photography and our son bought me a copy of his out-of-print book for Christmas, a series of essays. It is classic Bill Jay. He cuts to the chase and tells it like he sees it. The essay I read this morning was “Professors and Professionals” in which he describes the divide between academic art photographers, “a lazy dilettante, playing with inconsequential, irrelevant and largely superficial ideas...” and commercial photographers, “who, because of lack of intelligence, moral scruples or willful ignorance of the medium’s history and aesthetic issues, have compromised with commerce...”. His descriptions go on and explain the problems I have experienced trying to cross that divide.

I started photography at age 13, was largely self taught until high school when I enrolled in NYI’s correspondence course (still available today) followed by the ill-fated Famous Photographers course. After joining the Army I both attended and later taught in the Signal Center & School of still photography at Ft. Monmouth, NJ. Of course all that was based on commercial photography but I had an artistic bent and (perhaps naively) saw no reason that I could not apply my commercial photography skills to ‘personal work’ that could be considered to be art. After all Ansel Adams was doing that.

In art school after getting out of the Army I had my first encounter with the divide that Bill Jay described in his essay. Because I had changed my major I lost some credits and became aware that I needed to make up at least 6 semester hours in order to graduate as planned. The dean of students suggested that I get one of the professors to agree to grant me some credit based on my prior life experience and I thought that my photography background would be just the ticket so I approached the photography professor (there was only one) to ask what I would need to present for him to consider it. I hadn’t taken any photo courses from this fellow since I had already been through three schools and taught in one. He took one look at my work and informed me that I didn’t know as much about photography as his first semester students. Puzzled I asked what I was doing wrong and he said “Your work isn’t esoteric enough”.

Needless to say, since I wasn’t trying to be esoteric, I didn’t get the necessary credits to graduate from him. I did get them but that is another story. As a commercially trained photographer I was trying to clearly communicate with my photographs, not hide my meaning. Some time later I saw some of his photos in a faculty exhibit, blurred images of snowplows plowing snow in a blizzard printed in shades of grey, roughly zones 3-6, no blacks and no whites (Ansel would not have approved). They were in a gallery and were considered “ART” but had one of our students in the Army school where I taught turned in images with technical quality like that for their assignments we’d have flunked him out and sent him to infantry school instead. Therein lies the divide. Neither of us was seeing photography in the other’s terms.

In this weblog I have dealt the question “is it art?” several times, most recently in October, and I still have trouble with that divide. Bill Jay said that for his part he didn’t think that photography was art. He apparently didn’t think it was lesser or lower than art but simply a different animal. The real problem however isn’t how we define art, rather it is the gap that the two mindsets create. I finished my degree in Fine Art (ceramics, not photography) and, as this blog attests, I have continued photography. All this is the long way of saying that my New Year’s resolution is to continue to try to wrestle with the gap. That and lots of making photographs and I wish you all a happy and productive 2011.

What Is "Art"?

Michael Johnson on The On-line Photographer has been grappling with the conundrum of what makes a photograph art as opposed to just craft. I've been pondering the difference for years and dealt with it rather snarkily (a coined word?) in a post back in August of 2008. I periodically get caught up in an effort to define art only (like the Aug. 2008 post) to give up in disgust because the term is used so loosely that the word has no fixed meaning. It does however have strong personal importance to people who take their creative work seriously as a measure of their achievement and they (we) occasionally agonize over whether what we are doing really 'measures up' to the level of art as opposed to 'mere craft'.

There are of course people who don't agonize over it. Andy Warhol is quoted as saying "art is what we can get away with". There are also those who contend that if an artist says it is art, it is. Think urinals and snow shovels or for that matter, pickled sharks. And then there are the art historians who designate things as art whose creators likely had no pretensions or even notions of Art. The photographs of E. J. Bellocq come to mind or for that matter many pre-modern painters, sculptors, and other creatives who produced their work before the contemporary notion of "artist" had even come into being. DaVinci in his letters to nobles when applying for work described a list of things he could do, the last of which was that he could paint pictures. The descriptive "artist" was nowhere on that list. Never the less today, we have art and artists and thus feel compelled to define what that means even if we cannot agree on what it means. Perhaps the best we can do is what Mike did on TOP and come up with a personal definition.

I begin by relaying what I attempt to do. The word attempt is important because I never fully succeed. I am a photographer and describe myself as what I call a visual omnivore. I have been advised by folks in the business of advising artists on how to advance their careers that I should stick to one subject matter but I can't do that. I look around at the world and see things that excite me visually and I feel compelled to photograph them in a way that allows me to share that excitement with others.  I am primarily a landscape photographer but I also photograph cars, buildings, anything in which the light reveals something special to me. I could say it is all about light but even that would not get to the heart of it.

I believe that everything in the universe is connected on a subtle level. There are moments in which the creative person senses connection with "the other" in a profound way that cannot be put into words and only with difficulty into a visual expression. Mike Johnson talks in his definition about genius and the notion that we all have genius. I think the difference between those we commonly refer to as being a genius and the rest of us is not just their ability to see or to comprehend things that are profound but to communicate their insights to the rest of us. To me art is communication of an experience of connection, a communion with the subject which goes beyond its objective existence, and the translation of that experience into a new object through which others may share the experience.

Unfortunately we artists cannot, certainly I cannot, create universally understood representations of those experiences we wish to share. Inevitably some, even most, of those who view the products of our efforts won't "get it". Therein lies the vagueness of the term art. For my own part I have resolved to pursue my objective without worrying whether what I do is "Art", concerning myself only with whether and how well it communicates and I endeavor to look at the work of others the same way. Does this photograph, painting, sculpture, whatever, speak to me? If it does, it has fulfilled its creator's intent no matter what we choose to call it and that is what matters.

Convergence of Ingenuity?

That is what a friend called it when The Online Photographer blog referred its readers to the site of a photographer on the West coast who was making tondi (art speak for round, also sometimes called tondo) images that were similar in flavor to some work I had been doing (see my "Ways of Working " post on Nov. 7th). Now I encounter another example in the Newsletter of the Photographer's Formulary. This involves another 'thread' of work I have played with but haven't shown anyone previously, photos of car details (hood ornaments, radiator emblems, rear view mirrors, etc.) like the one above. Mostly it is old cars, they're so much more visually interesting than the new ones, but I have shot a number of new car details, mostly headlight and taillight images. The compound faceting of the reflectors and lenses is very abstract and interesting.

Convergence of ingenuity is when two or more people independently have the same or very similar idea at the same time. With all the people taking digital photos these days I'm sure it is happening a lot in photography.

Ways of Working

Today's post is in response to an article in the NY Times which an e-friend sent the link to.

In thinking about the approaches to shooting that the article describes I'm somewhere in the middle between shooting hundreds of photos and editing out all but what he calls "happy accidents" or carefully considering each shot. In my opinion those who carefully consider each shot before tripping the shutter miss a lot of opportunities by pondering too long unless they are shooting in a studio and controlling every detail. OTOH shooting like crazy and trusting that luck will yield something worthwhile is not creativity (IMO) any more than winning the occasional $10-20 LOTTO prize is wise investing. I would add that the jackpots are about as frequent in either.

I began my life in photography as a photojournalist. I was taught to shoot the first view that grabbed me and then 'explore' the subject for other ways of seeing it. It is a strategy that I use to this day. If in doubt, I will take the photo and decide later whether it is good but the best shots usually come from 'communing' with the subject.

Today's photo is part of a series of photos of river foam. The foam forms naturally, often in eddys below waterfalls or rapids. I like capturing the patterns. It is an exercise much like the childhood pastime of finding shapes in the clouds.

A Watercolor Show & Moose River Rd.

On Thursday I went to Old Forge to see the Annual Watercolor Exhibition at the Arts Center. The show was great as usual. It continues through Oct. 4th and I recommend it if you can get down there. On the return trip I drove through the Moose River Plains again. The autumn color varied a lot from peak in some places to just starting in others. There was some excellent color around Wakely Dam where the photo above* was taken but I'd guess peak color in general will be in about a week. Unfortunately the forecast is for rain all week starting tomorrow (Sunday 9/27). Overcast is great light for autumn color but fall rain is often accompanied by wind which knocks the leaves down. I'd like to get out at least twice more (3-4 times would make me happier) before the leaves are down.

* View across the river above Wakely Dam with Buck Mt. on the horizon.

Art is Art

In this morning's paper there was an article about a robotic chair that autonomously falls to pieces and then reassembles itself. It is being exhibited around the country in galleries and after the tour will be sold to a collector.

This is an example of what bothers me about the state of the art world today. "Art" is a broad term that covers many areas of creative endeavor but it seems me that its meaning is being broadened too far. Communication through language depends on words having meaning. They tell the listener or reader what something is and, by default, all else that it is not. In recent years I have heard almost everything including politics, sports and cooking described as "art". There are books on the Art of War and the Art of The {business} Deal. An Amazon search for books on "The Art of..." returns 1,293,083 matches.

Then there are those galleries, museums & grant foundations that exhibit and/or present awards to "installations" such as a folding table with overflowing ash trays and empty beer cans. Think Damien Hirst in a London Gallery. If a thing contains any one element, even peripherally, of the definition of art then it is deemed "Art". Worse, the distinctions between the various forms of art are being demolished. The dark scribblings of a drug addict trying to work through his/her addiction via art therapy are held on a par with the work of a trained professional painter, indeed in some venues they are valued higher because they are untrained and the "Art" they produce is therefore not derivative, a bad thing to be in the art world but inevitable to some degree for those artists who made the error of actually studying art.

With the robotic chair we have an engineering project hailed and exhibited as a work of Fine Art, worthy of exhibit in galleries and collection by an art collector. It is novel, creative in a mechanical sense and probably fascinating to watch it do its thing, but is it really "Art"? It seems to me that when the meaning of the word art stretches to include anything and everything we choose to apply it to, it no longer has any meaning. If it can be applied to anything, it describes nothing. A word that describes nothing is useless for communicating what something is. OTOH using the same rational by which the article concludes that the robotic chair is art, "It has no utilitarian value," D'Andrea said. "It is an art piece", one could argue that the word "art" itself is art. The ultimate self-referential work.

Two Viewpoints on "The Wall"

One of my e-friends is Darrell Bohlsen, a retired art historian. We correspond about art and recently discussed a NY Times article about an economist who claims to have determined the "Top Ten" works of modern art based on how many times works appeared in art history books published between 1990 and 2005. We both agreed that was pretty silly for reasons I won't go into here but my friend decided to make his personal Top Ten list just for fun.

Today Darrell sent an email with his #1, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Maya Lin 1982. He wrote "Although the AIA (American Institute of Architects) has honored it as Architecture I consider it a memorial sculpture qualifying for my list."

"Ms Lin has come up with a concept (at age nineteen) of a war memorial that rejects the traditional Manneristic, larger than life, solutions of dictatorships. Think, Moscow-Soviet Union, China, Cuba, or Saddam Hussain's Irag. Indeed, think Washington DC with Frederick Hart's Korean Veterans War Memorial, adjacent to Ms Lin's work."

"Ms Lin's work with its delta shaped granite rising out of a depression in the earth sets the tone for meditation on war and its dark polished granite surfaces reflect the observer and his/her involvement. I have been to the monument four times and have always been moved. Moreover the people I observed there have been also. Most I assume have no formal association with Art."

He went on to detail the history of its "improvement" (not in his opinion) by the addition of two additional features both in the historical style and concluded by recommending "Should you visit the monument in the future I strongly suggest you follow the wishes of Ms Lin and first walk to the wooded knoll that faces the monument on the opposite side of the site and walk over it to the other side. Then turn around and experience what the designer intended by going back up and over and through the trees you will encounter this powerful sight of mother earth opening up and accepting her sons and daughters home."

I responded that his choice for #1 is interesting and thought provoking. Memorial, architecture or art? All three? I have not seen the original but I have seen the "Traveling Wall". As a Vietnam Era Vet with friends who went to Vietnam (I was notified I was going to go but the orders never came and I never asked where they were) "The Wall" has associations to me that overwhelm the mere form of the work. When I went to see the traveling version, art was not on my mind and I'm sure Darrell is correct in assuming that most who visit it have no formal association with art. They don't go to see art. They go because of what it represents in terms of personal loss, a friend, a child, a brother/sister, a father or mother, a wound on their soul.

I agree that a traditional "heroic" memorial would not have been appropriate. Those things are propaganda designed to make us feel good about the sacrifice of young lives to settle political disputes. It is refreshing that we finally rose above that tradition with "The Wall", putting the price of war ahead of the false glory, but pathetic that so many had to die to do it.

As an Army photographer I used to photograph the ceremonies in which they awarded medals, photos to be sent to hometown newspapers. It didn't take long for me to note that if the soldier was still living the Commanding General always awarded the medal. If the award was posthumous it got relegated to the Deputy Commander, a Colonel. The General never did those ones, the spineless (expletive deleted). Burned in my memory is one ceremony where the young widow and a small child of 2 or 3 got dragged out to the ranges for a ceremony in the field because someone thought it was an appropriate location for a posthumous award to an infantryman. As the 20 something widow balanced on her toes to keep her high heels from sinking into the sand and the Colonel was handing the widow a folded flag with medals pinned on it, the child was pulling on her skirt and asking "Where's Daddy?".

My friend Darrell explained that he feels that "The Wall" has aesthetic merit that will continue to attract many visitors even in future when those directly affected are gone. I'm sure he is right. Maybe someday I will be able to step back emotionally and examine The Wall objectively as a work of art, but not yet.