[TheForge] Art, doncha know....

[Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer]

Hooray!!
A real, genuine, adult discussion of art and metalwork!
Very pleased to see it.
My father, both an artist and a metal worker in the traditional 
sense, passed on at 90 last night.
May we all do as well...pete f

Rob Fertner wrote:
> Sturgeon's Law: "90% of everything is crap" 
> Credited to Theodore Sturgeon a noted science fiction author.
> 
> The lesson behind this is that we should seek out the worthwhile 10% and
> ignore the crap. 
> 
> I have a problem with the arbiters of art, many of which are not producers
> of art (good or bad), but they seek to impose their definition of what is
> art. They are the critics, patrons, or members of grant committees that seek
> to promote only those artists that fit their worldview. Very influential,
> yes. Monolithic, no.  Which helps some good art break through to the masses.
>  
> Art is a form of communication that transcends words. Art can be subtle in a
> way that you have to study it for a while to get the message. If a
> reasonably intelligent and educated adult can't figure out what the hell the
> artist was trying to do without reading the title card, then I have to say
> it ain't art.
> 
> Rob
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I gotta disagree with your thesis.
> It has been my impression, after a mere 50 years or so of travelling  
> the world and looking carefully at art, craft, and industry, that  
> there has always been crap, and there have always been diamonds  
> scattered in amongst it.
> I had a high school teacher, of the classics, as it happened, at an  
> exclusive prep school, way back when in the 60's, who advanced a  
> theory, certainly not his own, that 95% of everything was crap.
> And there is a great Mark Twain quote, something to the effect of "I  
> hate the damn Greeks- they already stole all the good ideas".
> 
> I would suggest that instead of living in an era of charlatans and  
> cheapjack hustlers, we are actually living in an age of some of the  
> greatest craftsmen ever. But since there are 8 billion or so of us,  
> you have to look a bit harder to separate the wheat from the chaff...
> 
> 
> 
> 
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