[TheForge] Art, doncha know....

[Bob Ehrenberger]

Everyone has an opinion, and so do I.

I think that a big part of the problem is government sponsored art.  Just 
like insurance, when the person making the decision is not paying the bill, 
the system is broken.  When the government wants to support art, it gives a 
bunch of money to a so-called expert who them hires a friend to produce 
something to sell to the government. If that expert had to spend his own 
money, a lot less crap would be produced.  One of you said that good art 
stands on its own. I agree, and if it is good, someone will be willing to 
spend their own money on it.  When they are writing checks out of someone 
elses account, the standard goes down the tube.

In summary, you can make and sell anything you want. You can call it art if 
you want.  But con't make me pay for it with my taxes.

Robert Ehrenberger
Shelbyville, Mo.
eforge at centurytel.net

-----Original Message-----
>From: George Dixon <gdblacksmith at charter.net>
>Sent: Nov 7, 2007 3:11 PM
>Subject: Re: [TheForge] Art, doncha know....
>
>The assertion that 'art is in the eye of the beholder' is more of an
>intellectual conversation stopper than an intellectual truth.
>
>Perhaps analogy would make my perspective clearer:
>I dislike country music...I like other styles of music.  However, any
>music poorly delivered sounds bad to anyone in earshot, like the
>genre or not.
>
>It is obvious to the ear that music played onna out-of-tune
>instrument, country or classical, is being poorly executed.
>Unfortunately the human eye does not have the instinctual reaction to
>bad 'art' that the ear has to bad musical execution.....
>
>The result is art-speak, explanatory titles and 'eye of the beholder'
>compassion.
>
>Again, the work stands alone and no amount of wishful thinking or
>nonjudgmental equivocations can change that.
>
>
>In most cases there is no record of what an artist was thinking as he
>carved or painted or forged...there is simply the work itself.
>
>
>George Dixon