Angry, resigned and motivated -- artists reflect on next four years

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Tuesday, November 9, 2004

[nickcarraway]

Second of two parts.

What is the artist's role in society? Artists have been debating the question throughout history.

The former U.S. poet laureate said he thought about the election results all day -- "when I could think."

"The question of how the rest of us should behave seems pressing," he said. "Erosion of civil liberties? The courts? Further and deeper predations on the environment? It's hard to see how the Endangered Species Act will survive, except perhaps in name. An interesting indicator of the intentions of that Bush clique will be to see whether they punish Republican dissenters like Richard Lugar. If they go after moderate Republicans first, watch out.".

[2banana]

"No NEA for you...!"

[clintonh8r]

Perhaps they'll go into their "dark period".

[johniegrad]

Jeez, I'm glad I got this guy's opinion.

[dennisw]

Angry, resigned and motivated -- artists reflect on next four years
"I'm numb. ... I've been drumming all day long. ... It's my sword." Mickey Hart (right), musician

[MediaMole]

The NEA really should give out grants of shampoo.

[Ciexyz]

Pity party, pity party.

[LYSandra]

What a clueless waste of space bunch! they should all just go to Canada or maybe Ireland with Redford - yeh tat's the ticket!

[RexBeach]

The really good news is this: These numb tacos are in the same area - San Francisco.

Paul Kantner, once of "The Jefferson Airplane," described old SF this way: "It's 49 square miles surrounded by reality."

Now, who could aruge with that?

Viva Bush!

[talleyman]

What is the artist's role in society?

Uh, maybe something to do with art?

[skip_intro]

With these "artists", I believe that the proper thing to do is starve.

[Polyxene]

I thought an artist created something, i.e., paintings, sculpture, music, etc. for the love of his/her art and not for money. Guess I was wrong!

[friend of ace]

"The Bush team's Homeland Security Act has already affected our independent counterculture publishing," he said. "We air-mailed a book to a Canadian customer 10 days ago and it still hasn't cleared customs! Canadian customs is now totally jammed -- funny, this has received no news coverage. In the pre-Bush era, this book would have arrived at its destination in four days.

Last I heard from friends in Buffalo,,,The canadian customs has been on srike for a number of weeks now ....1000's of trucks parked all over buffalo that can't get into canada their checking all cargo,,,i'm sure it's real good for their economy!!!!!!!!

[goldfinch]

The artist role is to entertain, like modern day court jesters. It is impossible to take these self-centered people anywhere near as seriously as they take themselves. And they wonder why taxpayers remain opposed to public funding for the arts...

[CaptRon]

What is the artist's role in society?

Telling everyone how necessary they are so they can collect government grants.

[najida]

Exactly--- Art is for yourself, something you almost have to do. Money isn't the reason (though it is nice).

That is why I don't like the NEA, it makes art something that it isn't.

[GalaxieFiveHundred]

"I plan to continue my association with this wonderful organization." Donald Runnicles, conductor, S.F. Opera.

Oh yeah, he looks stable.

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

Art is a function, i.e., a thing, the purpose of which is to offer its characteristics for observation.
If we agree on a set of criteria, we can talk about whether sush a thing is good art or bad art.
The role of an artist is to make art.
If you're making a political statement, you're an editorialist, not an artist. If you're worrying about your "role", you need to find something to do that suits you better.

[massgopguy]

The Artist's role in society is to avoid work at all costs while trying to convince the hoi poloi that our not comprehending his BS makes him brilliant.

[Billthedrill]

I got two basic complaints from this gaggle of honking geese - first, that they might not get as much money from the government as they'd like, and second, that they'll be killed in their sleep by Republican death squads. Well, their place at the trough isn't in peril, and they won't be killed. In their sleep.

[Luddite Patent Counsel]

Well, yeah, that too. Plus the other stuff I said.

Seriously, though, there's a difference between being an artist and trying to make a living making art. The B.S. is part and parcel of the Art World, and is one path (too often traveled) to the "making a living" part.

[vannrox]

Art is one of the most important aspects that defines a culture. So the loss of Art can be equated with the loss of an aspect of one's culture. There is much to lament ...if this is the case.

But it is not.

It was over the last 30 years , with elements of maybe 50 years, that art has been reduced from something beautiful into a useless and meaningless joke. It has become ugly and disruptive, it has lost it's purity, meaning and sense of human nature. When one looks at modern art, one laughs at the sheer insanity of the babble.

Fine art, is something that elevates the spirit and influences the soul. The loss of beauty and replacement with formlessness was lamented by Conservatives 30 years ago.

There is a new respect for art. And this time, it is back to values and meaning. Go to the www.artrenewal.com website and you will see the real direction that our culture is taking.

No longer will our government fund insults to our sense of beauty and purpose. Sure the artists can still play with trash, and make clay formless blobs, or weld junk steel into formless shapes, but this time...we won't pay for it.

The lament from the left is predictable....but long over due. They should of cried when the artist's Godward, Sir Lawrence Alta-Tadema; Willaim Bouguereau, and Jean-Leon Gerome were being blacklisted and replaced by the whores of criminal lust. Not now.

The lament from the left has nothing to do with art.

It has everything to do with money. The Left is morning the loss of funding...and the amount of monies that they has taken from us in the form of taxes. No longer will they sup at the banquet table at our expense. No longer will they take our money and proudly laugh at us for being upset that it has been stolen. No longer shall they be in a position to DEMAND us to accept their version of reality for anything other than what it is.

[SF Republican]

Seeing Mickey Hart reminds me of the Grateful Dead; Do you know what one dead-head said to the other while at a Grateful Dead show when they ran out of drugs? dude - this music sucks.

[weegee]

Do you know why Grateful Dead fans wave their hands in front of their face when they dance? They are trying to clear the music out of the way so they can see the band.

[Swiss]

"All Art is Quite Useless" - Oscar Wilde

[WIladyconservative]

Paging Hellinahandcart . . . .

[WIladyconservative]

As a conservative artist I am reflecting on the next four years as ones where I will be quite content . . . .

[weegee]

There is a response movement to "clever" modern art...

http://www.stuckism.com/

Here they protested the notorious Turner Prize: http://www.stuckism.com/Tate04.html

The Stuckists demonstrated against the Turner Prize for the fifth year running on Tuesday 19 October.There have been no painters in the Turner Prize for the last four years. There will also be a demo on Monday 6 Dec (Turner Prize day).

Charles Saatchi's recent statement that more paintings should be in the Turner Prize endorses the Stuckists' campaign. Disappointingly he failed to back his words with action and turn up in a clown costume..

Photography was invented during Turner's lifetime, but he didn't adopt this new medium.

He painted pictures. he didn't even collage figures (which he drew notoriously badly) into his scenes. Turner would obviously not have won the Turner Prize, which should be renamed The Unlike Anything Turner Ever Did Prize.

THE TURNER PRIZE: A Stuckist Manifesto

Anti-anti-art: A Stuckist Manifesto

[RockinRight]

If they could think, they'd have voted for Bush.

[RockinRight]

For a second I thought that was George Carlin.

[weegee]

If it is political statements they want to make, perhaps they should seek a communist nation like North Korea as a sponsor. They they would not be milking the American taxpayer to make antiAmerican artistic statements.

[weegee]

[hellinahandcart]

All right, all right, I admit it now. I was pretty angry too, until Nov. 2.

Now I'm okay again. LOL

[weegee]

Money is nice and I would not say that an artist has to be poor or suffer in order to produce quality work BUT many artists were unknown in their lifetimes. Separating the quest for profit can leave an artist free to follow his muse rather than following more money. Some artists sell their work on eBay; this way the market determines which of their paintings/drawings were more popular. Others let a spouse price the work; it keeps the bookkeeping out of the "art brain" and also puts a wall of separation between a customer/admirer's ill feelings over the price and love of the artist's work. There is no stress on the artist himself spent having to defend the price or haggle for what he wants.

If the artist stays genuinely clear of noting the price/which works have sold, he will continue to create what he wants rather than trying to squeeze out more "money makers".

Van Gogh painted works for his brother to sell. It didn't happen much (his brother died 6 months later I believe so Vincent's nephew inherited the works and kept them).

Vincent painted a lot of self-portraits and flower pot paintings. He did some knockoffs (interpretations) of Japanese prints.

There is only one famous painting of his room, only one Starry Night.

There is something to be found in the paintings he did variations on but there is a spark in the unique/singular works.

Photography allows me to "give" a customer "one that looks like that" without having to keep repeating myself. They want one like that, they get "that" and yet there is still an original creation in making the print. Art prints can be beautiful too but the complexity to make a print (especially from a painting or drawing) pulls the artist out of the control of his own work.

[weegee]

When all else fails, a despondent artist may want to try eating his paint. < /sarcasm >

[Tempest]

This is too funny. I wonder what these artist would do if they were forced to show real talent by seeking some real employment.

[viaveritasvita]

Do you think we could commission any of these leftie yahoos to paint a pic of SKerry and his wife, smear elephant dung all over it and put it in a jar of urine?

<><

[Ditter]

Hey I'm an artist and I'm not angry! Oh yeah,I'm a Republican artist! Yea President Bush, I'm still doing a happy dance!

[sport]

Which one is Mickey?

[auboy]

One NEA too many. No, make that two NEAs too many.

[Publius6961]

What is the artist's role in society? Artists have been debating the question throughout history.

And they will continue to do so forever.

Every kid with a hammer thinks everything he sees is a nail

Artists are tolerable once the necessities of existing are satisfied, and once all external threats eliminated.
Until then, they have always been and will always continue to be a nuisance at best.

[najida]

Art is the rain that washes away the dust of everyday life.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

We have to tread lightly, don't want to lose the artist vote (NOT)!

[FierceDraka]

An interesting indicator of the intentions of that Bush clique will be to see whether they punish Republican dissenters like Richard Lugar...

Lugar - PAH! He's been in Washington WAAAY too long, and is out of step with most Hoosier Republicans - BIG TIME.

Problem is, the only likely way to get him out of office would be to elect a damned Rat. So we're between a rock and a hard place here.

[ladyinred]

Perhaps they'll go into their "dark period".

What playing bongos in coffee houses reciting doom and gloom poetry while sporting black berets?

[tiggs]

ping

[Larry381]

Why would anyone listen to some clown who allows himself to be interviewed while taking a dump?