Vook Bebiew X

As we rebel against beauty, the issue of "design" comes in: not design as composition, but design as - I'm sorry! - a judgement call.
My senior art project in college was my hand-built coil ceramics that were totally non-functional, but meangingful - like a sculpture - and completely unique, but the only hint of beauty I could ascribe to them was an earthy but sparkly glaze that a fellow student-gal kindly lent me. I applied it in a couple different hues, to all the pieces. "Rule-wise" there was no glaze required, but something within judged the whole design as insignificant, if it didn't have at least an attempt at beauty.
That's a judgement call, and that's where the Da-Da ists made their departure. They moved into left brain. They made left-brain choices that became so extreme that they could declare that "extremity" is art, that contrast is art, that anything displayed could be art. But I say:
No design. No beauty.
No standards.
Little art.

Vook Rebiew IX

MEANINGFUL AND UNIQUE, BUT NOT BEAUTIFUL.
In his book Whole New Mind (WNM) Dan Pink says (and I'm paraphrasing) that Right-Brain is "meaningful, unique and beautiful". I like this premise, and he elaborates upon it throughout WNM. To me this is the most pure definition of visual art, whether it's 2- or 3-dimensional, and of music, dance, theatre, authorship, calligraphy, flower-arrangement, singing, public speaking, performances, even stand-up comedy. (I heard it said - as a side-bar - that Jerry Seinfeld says "if you work CLEAN, you can work ANYWHERE," and that to me is where "beauty" comes in, added to "unique" and "funny"!)
But back to Right-Brain as a definition. D. Pink, in WNM, says that "intellectual" is not considered Right-Brain, but Left-Brain. And there's obviously a place for "intellectual". However in art, for example in DaDa-ism, which for many is extremely MEANINGFUL, and of course UNIQUE, (that's a given!), I feel they were clearly rebelling against BEAUTY.

To me, it's a question of DESIGN.
Stay tuned.

Vook Rebiew VII

In WNM, Mr. Pink often refers to the differences between the left-brain approach and the right-brain approach. It has opened my eyes.

This week I went to an "art demo" during which the artist made so many right-brain references to us, that you would've thought he was reading Daniel Pink's material. He is a very well-known and accomplished artist (I love his work) named David Simons, of Tubac, Arizona, and he said:

"Painting is an event." (Not a thing.)

"Painting is a process, not a painting." and he quoted Confucius as saying:

"He who thinks about the fruits of his labor is miserable." The key word there, I think Pink would agree, is "thinks": try not to think so much, but to feel and experience.......

Simons defined art: "Art is nature as seen through a temperament." In other words, our feelings can actually design and interpret reality. And he said "The world never gets tired of seeing itself through new eyes." Time to pull a laminated quote from my wallet: Edgar Degas said,"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." Now I am encouraged and rejuvenated, as I am by reading A Whole New Mind : such fresh, right-brain concepts.

Vook Rebiew

A Whole New Mind, (WNM) by Dan Pink, says, in his introduction, and I quote,

"The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind -- creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people -- artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers -- will now reap society's richest rewards and share its greatest joys."

I've read the book now three times. (I love it.) Mr.Pink does not ignore the Left Brain, but I must say I feel that most arts are always a combination of Left and Right. It's like mastering the scales on the piano, (left brain) so that great music and fun (right brain) can be performed by you on that instrument. Or learning which amounts of water will do what (left brain), with watercolors, so that art, and fun, (right brain) can be produced. What I'm talking about is the combination.

Paper Group

Right up the alley of 2-dimensional artwork, comes the mission statement of an art-group that likes to work exclusively with paper:
"Paperworks Mission Statement"
"The...Collective for paper-artists provides educational and creative opportunities for all who work ...on paper, and promotes the appreciation and enjoyment of the paper....arts........"

The nature of paper is that it is, of course, two-dimensional, and thus fits into our study of the two-dimensional arts in this world. (I went to a paper-making class the other day, and while it was definitely not a two-dimensional process, the final product that I turned out, paper, was two-dimensional, and ready to be worked with, drawn on, used in collage, cut up or not, dyed, traced around, glued, scripted on, etc!)

I am excited to discover this local Collective, and since I have always been a paper-freak, since I was about 6 years old, I am looking forward to "join up" with them. Will keep you posted!