Sunday, November 17, 2013

The Power of Art

The meaning of art; Creation of beautiful things, the creation of beautiful or thought-provoking works; e.g. in painting, music, or writing. (The Encarta Dictionary: English, U.K.)

Concept; Something thought or imagined, Broad principle affecting perception and behaviour, Understanding or grasp, Way of doing or perceiving something. (The Encarta Dictionary: English, U.K.)

Art gives the viewer the opportunity of seeing a ‘subject’ from a totally different perspective, it provokes thought; the viewer is free to interpret or judge it in any way she or he desires.  Art being thought provocative instigates discussion, debate and new ideas. This being so an artist has the ability to ‘make changes’ to social thinking.

Take notice of the differing attitudes people have. For example, on Facebook today the various remarks about a photo of people looking at Ad Reinhardt’s Exhibition at the David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea New York;


Deeply contemplating against a wall with a black square on it WTF?

Stuff White People Like (Black Squares)?

ART IS LAME’

They have more patience then I do...I'm not a person to tell someone else that they can't enjoy/define what is art for them, but if I wanted to look at black rectangles, I could just stay home and stare at my television while it's turned off - LOL!

 ‘It's like when you reach the dead end in a maze, you can't progress from this point, so it's telling the viewer to go back, to regress or to say WTF!? Hehehe

Do you think the people who made the above comments were ‘closed’ or ‘open’ minded? Did they ask themselves, 'what is the artist's message?'


Open to Concepts: My journey as an artist requires me to be open minded. Initially I researched the history of art, the old masters, renaissance art and so forth. Then contemporary art; with visits to libraries, Art Museums and Galleries. About 3 years into this journey after being disillusioned by the art-works of previous winners of my local ‘Contemporary Art Awards’, I contemplated using the contents of my studio rubbish bin as ‘installation art’ for the 2008 awards. I didn't for I feared being rejected. Silly I, for the winner was...




 A well known local artist interviewed in the TV news described the results and work as being ‘rubbish’. Yes, it was ‘rubbish’, but no-one was saying anything about what the artist was ‘saying’, the message he was conveying. I'm glad he entered this piece and not I, for at the time I was an unknown artist, my version probably would have been rejected. Dane Mitchell is known for ‘pushing the boundaries’, he has an international reputation, he is accepted in the art world, he has made his mark.

The Power of Art; Whether Music, Sculpture, Paintings, Writing or film; art has the capacity and strength to influence people and their actions. Even more so, it has the power for political and social change, the artist who chooses to use this power has a serious responsibility.

‘Last year the editors of 'ArtReview' magazine named the Chinese dissident 'Ai Weiwei' the most powerful artist in the world.... In China, Ai—a brave and unrelenting critic of the authoritarian regime—has spent time in jail, was not allowed by the government to leave Beijing for a year and cannot travel without official permission. As a result, he has become a symbol of the struggle for human rights in China, but not pre-eminently so. He is too quixotic a figure to have developed the moral gravitas of the great men of conscience who challenged the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.’ Dated September 2012. 


It is written ‘the meek shall inherit the Earth’, in the state that it is in right now and the direction it is headed, there won’t be much earth left for the meek. More people are needed to make a change to benefit not only Mankind but also the Planet we inhabit.  

Smog over roads in China

So much smog a breathing mask is needed

Ocean garbage is out of control

Ocean trash

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill death to bird life

Amazon Rainforest, the lungs of Earth, diminishes by the day

I am sure there are other individual artists or groups who are like minded. I'd like to hear from you. Let us unite to use the power of art to create a better world, a world with a future that provides hope for all. 
Kia kaha toi toi, kia ora,Tepora Watene.

PS: If you are going to make a comment could you please elaborate and define what you mean when using expletives,(see first comment) and to what the expletive is referring to, or even better still, if you don't have good English language skills enabling you to using better adverbs and adjectives other than expletives, don't comment. Otherwise, we'll all know what kind of skills you have as an artist, .... You can think of your own expletives to fill in the gap. 


Wednesday, November 6, 2013

PEOPLES CHOICE AWARD

2013 OSFA Exhibition & Competition; Gallery Artisans

My thanks to all who visited Gallery Artisans to view the Exhibition entries and especially to those who voted for my art-work ‘PINK ROSE’; without your votes I wouldn't have won the ‘People's Choice’.

Awards & Exhibition Closing Ceremony

6.30 pm., Friday the 1st November, myself and my supporters met up with other artists and their followers for the Closing Ceremony and Awards/Prizes. Our daughter, three of her friends and a special friend of mine were there to support me. The prize I received for the ‘People’s Choice’ was a ‘Gordon Harris Art & Graphic Store’ $50 reloadable gift card; just what I've always wanted! Thanks to
‘Gordon Harris Art & Graphic Store’, for sponsoring the main prizes.

As well as winning the ‘People’s Choice’ I and many others won spot prizes; I won a pack of Oil/Water Soluble Pastels, which is just perfect as I have been dabbling with pastels for the last few months. It was a great evening for all.  At about 9.30 Alex (Gallery Proprietor) bought the evening to a close as there were only a few of us still there. We moved onto ‘Biddy Mulligan's Irish Pub’, who was one of the other main sponsors of the Exhibition & Competition.

My thanks to Alex McPherson; Founder and Proprietor of Gallery Artisans, Hamilton; for continuing with the ‘Annual OSFA (One Size Fits All) Exhibition & Competition’, which used to be held at Thornton Art Gallery (now closed).

Alex has retained ‘Pink Rose’ at the Gallery for sale.