Saturday, February 9, 2008

Long Diatribe about nothing

So today I went spot hunting and found some sweet spots to put up some wheat paste and other stuff. I am currently searching for a spot to put up my nine portrait posters, but if a spot for all nine can't be found I will post them in threes. Here is one of the spots.

For the other part of this post I want to talk about aesthetic, or what I find beautiful or intriguing. It always amazes me the differing view points on art and beauty. I find Jackson Pollock's drip painting amazingly beautiful, and yet someone else thinks they are utter shit. So who is to say what is art and what isn't? I mean maybe people have legitimate claims that their children's artworks should be hung beside Van Gogh and Derain. Recently I have been thinking (I have been a tad bit depressed lately, but that isn't really anything new) , that what if this view of art and aesthetic goes beyond just art. Take for example, I like really quirky, and often times, pretentious paintings. My favorites are the artist that are crazy as a loon, and usually declare themselves geniuses or get arrested for drawing things they shouldn't. This like of quirky and pretentious things also happens to go out to the women I like, which I really did just discover. I typically like shorter haired, smart, artsy, I'm-better-than-thou girls. It just amazes me how well they fit into what I find beautiful. It isn't just me though, I don't think. I always find it weird that these girls never like me, but the quiet shy type usually do, and in this paradox I have come to realize that you can't create a perfect life based on just your aesthetic and preferences, but you have to develop it with the hep of people around you. I will now tell you a story about Dali to illustrate this point. Dali was asked to paint a perfect replica of Vermeer's Lace Maker, which he gladly went to work on, and when it was finished it was almost a perfect copy. Dali considered it a failure, because the colors were not correct due to the fact that the Vermeer had aged over hundreds of years and the varnish had cause the colors to change ever so slightly. Though the copy was perfect, the artist saw it as a failure, and thus sometimes perfection isn't alway beautiful. It is the faults that add true beauty to something. Pollock's paintings might not be perfect renditions of landscapes or anything, but in the complex simplicity of the idea and the work this fault is turned into a major achievement of the work. I don't really know if any of that makes sense but since you came to see some art here are some sketches (these were taken with a camera not scanned sorry if they are bad quality).

Fafi Copy


Michelangelo Copy


Emo-hair-super-stretched heart girl


Ohh Shit that's so crazy


Grid Drawing and color Practice (Our Man Dali in pink and blue)


Exposed women


Prelim for Flower girl wheat paste

4 comments:

Alex said...

First sketch and last ones are my favorite. You and I pretty much have the same taste in women, Walt. Except you at least have some type of female interested in you. Chicks don't dig me. Also can't wait to see your next pastes.

Holly The Terrible said...

We should have a poster contest between me and you and everyone else. The theme could be women with wings and one leg. (no time limit since we take long time on stuff like that)

Walt said...

That would be fun but people would be at a disadvantage seeing how amputee women are my specialty and birds and feathers are yours, but we should do it. Rules will be that the poster has to be at least 16 x 20 and the medium has to be marker and pencil and ink. Collage is allowed.

gabbagabbahey said...

hey walt, like the blog so far. Looking forward to the next posts...

I could get into a philosophical discussion of aesthetics, but I think I'll just say that I really like the word 'aesthetics'. It's very aesthetically pleasing.