Arts or Crafts...

I am pretty much the worst blogger ever these days. I have been mildly busy and haven't had as much down time as I usually need to blog. I went to my first wedding of a highschool friend last weekend and it was awesome. It's a whole new realm of adulthood when your friends start getting married, espescially friends you still wrestle with and don't seem like they should be ready to tie the knot. Anyways, this topic has been on my mind for a while now and it should inspire a little bit of debate.

I hear that anything can be art, they way the sun sets, a tampon in a tea cup representing women's struggle (from the movie Ghost World), or someone taking a paint brush and flicking it at a canvas. It seems that there is a lot of people who would lead you to believe that art is something not bound by talent or anything at all really; that anything can be art. While it may be art to the beholder, I am going to go out on a limb and say that things like splatter paintings, found art, object art (a shovel hanging from a wire), a plain blue canvas titled "Blue," and thigs along those lines are not art, they are craft. After a recent visit to the MoMA (museum of modern art) I became even more secure in my belief that art does have it's parameters.

Shortly after my visit to the MoMA I went to a reading of a play that is going to be performed at MSU next fall written by one of the professors there (also the director) called "Arts of Crafts." It essentially had the same issue behind it of the difference between art and craft. It's a fine line between the two and often gets people upset when you try and state your opinion about it. This is just my opinion, but like most of my opinions, I'm probably right. Now I'm not going to attempt to define art because I am pretty sure that is impossible, but I am going to define the difference between arts and crafts. I think in order to make 'art' you need to be an artist. Not to say that everything an artist does is art, for example Picasso's sketches that people pay millions for are not sketches, they are doodles. It needs to be who you are. It is a way of life, something that you feel so passionately about that it is how you make your living. It is not possible to be an artist who paints on the weekends sometimes. That person may be a good painter, but they are not an artist. For them it is a hobby or just something fun to do, something they enjoy. I enjoy painting, I have done several of them over the last few years but I would not call any of them art nor would I call myself an artist. I call them paintings. It is just a craft. Bob Ross taught me how to do it on PBS.

Much of what I saw at the MoMA was not art work, it was craft. Someone putting a rock on top of another is not a work of art, it's bullshit. A shovel hanging from the ceiling next to a chair is not art, it is a shovel and a chair. A monochromatic canvas, whatever color it is, is not art. These things for the most part are not even crafts. Me doing a splatter paiting, that's not art - it's a craft. It looks cool and maybe if Jackson Pollack did it people would think it was art but it's not (which is another topic to discuss later). I'm not a fan of Pollacks but I can admit that he is indeed an artist. Why him and not other splatterers you ask? I've been on the fence about him for a long time but I think that his work evolved into what it was and he was the first to do it (or at least be famous for doing it). His paintings are actually progressive and innovative and inspired (for the times). The painting at the top of the blog is a famous one of his and while it is pretty much a jumbled mess that no one can find meaning in without being full of shit, it is art nonetheless. There are few things as annoying as people trying to explain what art is and why it's meaningful as a piece. The truth is that no one but the artist knows what his painting (or other form of art) means and any assumptions or speculations on what it represents are just wrong.












This is not art, it is a plain blue canvas yet for some reason it is hanging in the MoMA, in the same floor that houses a long pink flourescent bulb that is plugged in and leaning against the wall, a black canvas that has a card that says something to the effect of "if you look closely you can see where the black fades into a deeper black and then back to black and there is a point where there is one dot of blue..," a gray canvas, a plain canvas with one line on it and so on. It is the worst floor at the museum.


















This is also not art, it is a printing that belongs on the shelves at Urban Outfitters. I'm not really sure what my point is and I may even seem a little fascist or something, but there is a distinction between arts and crafts and I just wanted to iterate what that was. Anyways, hopefully I start blogging more soon as I am currently finished with school and unemployed. As always, get your feet off the ground and reach for the stars. Go big or go home. Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory lasts forever. Carpe diem. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.

life's short, live large

-M, p & z

oh ps - I will take a picture of some of my 'art work' and post it so you can all see the true difference between arts and crafts. Also I'm currently reading Joe Biden's latest book to figure out some more about him and so far it's pretty interesting. I'll keep you updated.

I'm not the biggest fan of abstract art but I do love me some Miro...