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art that shocks and odd beauty

updated sun 8 aug 10

 

DJ Brewer on sat 7 aug 10


I've been following the shock-art thread in snippets. I hate ugly "art"
-- but in reality -- what I am hating is the part that does not resonate
with my spirit. I hate Jackson Pollack, but I love photography of urban
decay. I guess what resonates with me there is the sense of the passage
of time -- the inference of what went on before in the things that
remain behind. The trashed out, decaying buildings give me a sense of
the eternal, and the ephemeral at the same time. Who knew, when those
buildings were filled with activity, that they would come to such an
ugly and wretched demise?

I make "ugly art" -- horrible face mugs and jugs -- and I love doing
it. I guess its a humorous way of confronting and taming my own demons
of rage and grief. Like trolls turned to stone at the sun's first rays,
these poor monsters will never devour another soul. They are hapless
victims, caught in clay, immortalized in mason stain, and forever frozen
in the fires of Cone 10 Hell.
http://corazondedios.deviantart.com/gallery/#FACE-MUGS

In their very ugliness,there is an inferred irony that beauty is
temporal and age erodes it with its own graceful strokes.

age
in lines
a network never ceasing
seams of sorrow
sewn in softly
by an unseen hand
(written when I was 17)

Perhaps I will make some aging faces also. Art can reflect the ugliness
of the world around us and give it a gaussian edge that imbues it with
its own ragged beauty. Ugliness has its own odd beauty.

However, that being said, I HATE "shock art" -- the stuff that violates
one's sense of peace and dignity -- art that is an affront to the soul.
Life has enough affronts without adding one more to its plethora and
calling it "art."

It's funny -- some people here may love Jackson Pollack -- but I
consider his stuff "trash art" -- although I know he invested his heart
and soul in creating it. Perhaps he, too, was digesting his own demons
in that huge shapeless volume of spattered paint. Still, they were HIS
demons, and I don't have to love how he decided to decimate them! I'll
decimate my own demons in my own way!


much love to all
DJ

William & Susan Schran User on sat 7 aug 10


On 8/7/10 7:40 AM, "DJ Brewer" wrote:

> Art can reflect the ugliness
> of the world around us and give it a gaussian edge that imbues it with
> its own ragged beauty. Ugliness has its own odd beauty.
> However, that being said, I HATE "shock art" -- the stuff that violates
> one's sense of peace and dignity -- art that is an affront to the soul.
> Life has enough affronts without adding one more to its plethora and
> calling it "art."
> It's funny -- some people here may love Jackson Pollack -- but I
> consider his stuff "trash art" -- although I know he invested his heart
> and soul in creating it. Perhaps he, too, was digesting his own demons
> in that huge shapeless volume of spattered paint. Still, they were HIS
> demons, and I don't have to love how he decided to decimate them! I'll
> decimate my own demons in my own way!

I truly believe why and what artists create can often never be completely
understood and I also truly believe many artists are simply driven by their
own brains and desires to make what, we the viewer, term "art" because we
have no other way to interpret it. Some artists may be called brilliant,
while others are deemed insane - in some instances they may be one in the
same.

Throughout history artists that have presented something new have been
scorned and their creations called trash. Then later, with the passage of
time and the influence on other artists, they are praised for their
innovation.

Whether we "love" or "hate" any style/type/period of art is personal for
each of us. For my students, when I discuss any art with them, I don't care
how they feel about it, I only want them to appreciate the art in the
context in which it was made, what came before and after and how it may. Or
may affect them in their visual art growth.

Bill

--
William "Bill" Schran
wschran@cox.net
wschran@nvcc.edu
http://www.creativecreekartisans.com