Fun in Art

     Sometimes I think that "Real Artists" are making fun of us and I admit in my "paintings" I am throwing that fun right back at them.  I mean, really, how in the hell could a print which you can get with a click of a mouse, be worth thousands of dollars?  I am an old guy and I think the "Beatles" were hugely successful and talented, but they always kept their humor.  Remember that song, "Give me Money"? At least they were honest.  Dennis Hopper collected a lot of art and now it is up for auction.  He once shot two bullet holes into a portrait of Mao painted by Andy Warhol.  Andy wasn't offended and called Dennis a "collaborator" in the new art piece,  Mao with bullet holes.  He laughed too.  He knew the joke is on us, that this portrait that might contain two dollars worth of paint on a thirty dollar canvas will sell for God knows what at the auction.
     I think they have a certain contempt for the public and we allow this because they are probably right. We don't know what we want and we change our mind when the Spring styles emerge.  It is a fact, well I heard it somewhere, that the fashionable colors for next year will be found in the underwear of French fashion models this Spring.  Are we really that stupid?  We throw away just about everything.  The only permanent monuments we build are landfills.  Art itself is cheap to mass produce and throw away on a whim. We like it, you know, because it fits with the couch.

     I really think it comes down to this:  art is a business. I know with my metal art if it just stays around my shop then I don't sell much of it.  It can be expensive to produce and if I don't sell it I can't afford to make more of it.  We need the galleries, the exhibitions and public showings, even the art critics to pedal our wares.  Selling of art is a business too.  In the 1970's some clever salespeople convinced us that shag carpeting was the lastest in home floor coverings and we bought that hook, line and sinker!  Art is no different.       My Other Blog is Here.