DAMage Report - A Horse is a Horse of Course...Unless it's an Artist

Carol Jensen, a multimedia artist, jewelry maker and musician taught her quarter horse Buggs to paint two years ago. Her intent is to fill a gallery with her horse's paintings one day, or possibly take his show on the road. The paintings sell for between $75-$125 each and the horse has produced around 30 "abstracts."

Mary Lou Schumaker points out "Let's not forget that Buggs' work is being made with a heavy dose of help by Jensen. She is selecting the palette, directing Buggs and moving the canvas. To call this a true collaboration feels like a stretch. One way to look at it -- she's turned Buggs into her own abstraction maker. And that's their real value -- their novelty, that they're being made with the help of a horse."

Intent is fundamental to art - the artist has to be intentionally setting out to create in order for the label or art, good or bad, to be applied. Everything else is happy accidents. So without intent can the horse be labeled an artist? Isn't it more accurate to label the horse, or any other animal as a tool or part of the process, while the artist would have to be the trainer - whose intention it was to create these pieces using her horse?

The article states that "Horse-produced art has attracted a fair amount of media attention in the last couple of years. Cholla the painting horse has had watercolors displayed around the world. The earliest documented art-producing animal may be Congo, a chimp that painted and drew in the 1950s and the Milwaukee County Zoo's elephant, Brittany, earned minor fame with her painting abilities. Cheryl Ward has coined the movement "interspecies collaborative action art" to reflect the partnership between human and animal.

I don't disagree with the novelty or even entertainment value of using these animals as tools to create art. It doesn't appear that they suffer any abuse to get them "trained" and as pets probably enjoy the attention. I do toss down the bullshit flag though and draw the line at calling these animals artists.

No insult to the intelligence of animals and it is acknowledged fact that some critters can be down-right creative in problem solving and behavior. But slapping the title artist on to them demeans Art... in my ever so humble opinion.

Abstract art is so often viewed with disdain by those that don't understand it nor understand how bloody hard it is to do an excellent abstract that captures and holds the viewer and says something more than "paint on canvas in random patterns." An excellent abstract, such as a Kandinsky is completely about intent, emotion and creative delivery of artistic vision in a way that is unique and inspiring.

The biggest irony is that true abstract paintings are so intellectually and emotionally based that it often does take a degree in art to fully understand them and walk away with an OMG epiphany after viewing some of the masters of abstract. Yet it is invariable the art that is most often slapped with the "oh my kid could do that, my dog,... my horse." In reality it takes an extraordinary amount of study, intellect and talent to produce a successful abstract painting. Throwing paint on a canvas in mimicry of Pollack doesn't cut it as original, outstanding art. He did it, he claimed it - it's done.

Now dress that horse in a tutu and get it to pick out paint colors on its own then slap them on the canvas without instruction, while neighing the theme song to Mister Ed and I will concede and be impressed.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/87733497.html

DAMage Report - Sexually Abused Toons

Christopher Handley, a comic book collector was sentenced to six months in prison for possessing manga drawings. Handley must also serve three years of supervised release and five years of probation. Handley must also participate in a treatment program as directed by the U. S. Probation Officer. The last provision is "intended to provide him with diagnosis and treatment for mental health issues."


Manga is a japanese form of comic illustration that includes sexually explicit graphics. The collection that the U.S. Post Office seized as it was being shipped to Handley included comics of children being sexually abused. 


Handley did not have any criminal history nor did he possess any real child pornographic images. 
Although the psychologist assessed that Handley was not "disclosing enough" Handley admitted he searched the Internet for manga with stories involving the sexual abuse of minors. The prosecution stated that "The works at issue do not even have arguable scientific, literary, artistic, or political value, such as Vladimir Nabokov's famed novel, Lolita, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, or even Alan Moore's recent, but controversial, graphic novel, Lost Girls. By the defendant's own statements, the works for which he was convicted of receiving and possessing are clearly obscene." Okay, so Handley, by his own admission, perved over nasty fantasies involving cartoon minors. Ick. 


Oh and by the way, for anyone wondering if looking at manga comics leads people to becoming sex offendors: "there is currently no risk assessment developed to estimate risk for future sexual offending for individuals possessing sexual images in Manga or Anime." In other words, it's illegal because.

One of my heroes, Neil Gaiman, who fought in defense of Handly, recommended that anyone interested in comic art look through their comic book collection. S. Clay Wilson's Underground Comix...even Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series could be considered obscene. He said "I wrote a story about a serial killer who kidnaps and rapes children, and then murders them."  (The Doll's House) "We did that as a comic, not for the purposes of titillation or anything like that, but if you bought that comic, you could be arrested for it? That's just deeply wrong. Nobody was hurt. The only thing that was hurt were ideas." (http://splashpage.mtv.com/2008/11/24/neil-gaiman-on-the-obscenity-of-manga-collector-christopher-handleys-trial/)

It comes down to the line. Where is the Perv line in art? Where is the art line in art? We've talked about what constitutes art on this show several times - this is an example of what happens when a legal system determines something is NOT art and is not protected under creative laws. 


I just posted several nude drawings I did on my facebook page, some of which explore bondage themes. If my friends network didn't consist almost entirely of erotic authors, artists, performers and art lovers - there is no doubt that my  ONLINE DIGITAL "ART" would offend some. But I'm protected because it's art. But for how long?


http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-02-11/christopher-handley-sentenced-to-6-months-for-obscene-manga

DAMage Report - You're not Black So Give it Back

Let me start by saying this kind of shit burns my ass up. Intolerance, discrimination, elitism, narrow-minded weenies: they are all my biggest hot buttons and will inevitably bring out the ginger in me.

A white sorority team won an Atlanta Step Show contest and walked away with a $100,000 prize in what  has been a black-only competition.  The lily-white girls winning has caused an uproar on both sides of the discrimination issue. So much so that the sponsor, Coca Cola, has announced scoring discrepancies and also awarded a black sorority team with a co-win prize of the same amount. Controversy arose when some complained that step shows are supposed to highlight the black Greek tradition. (Think about the term black greek tradition for a moment will you.)



Are you fucking kidding me?

At what point in time will we stop with the stupid shit and quit qualifying people on their skin color, ethnic backgrounds, religious preferences and sexual orientations? Since when did any of that have a damn thing to do with artistic ability? Apparently not only can't white boys jump, white girls can't Step in some narrow minds.

I respect an ethnic group's right to dominate or focus on an area of the arts that is rich with cultural history, but it doesn't give any group an exclusive, nor should it. It certainly doesn't invalidate other artists' right to explore those areas and topics. Billie Holiday rocked the blues but so did Janis Joplin. Think of the loss if someone had insisted that Janis wasn't allowed to sing in a predominantly black genre of the arts.  Or if someone had told Jessye Norman she couldn't sing opera because that is only for fat white chicks. Native American made arts hold a higher value as they should because it reflects a direct line back to a rich cultural history. But that doesn't mean I can't paint a damn half naked warrior on a pony if I want. Or do african drumming (which i love), or belly dancing in turkish veils, or any number of other arts related activities that tie back into a particular culture. Exploring them and exploring the history or beliefs of any group of people is not only healthy, it makes us better people.

Stereotypes and moronic rules of who can and can't explore subjects and ethnic genres in the arts are debilitating to everyone. The barriers that keep being thrown up need to come down. People need to stop dictating what others can and cannot do - in the arts and in life.

http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/2010/03/white-sorority-wins-100000-ste-002571.php

DAMage Report - Art and Sex

To see the Klimt, you gotta wade through the sex. Literally. It is highly entertaining and not a little ironic that a museum is forcing interested audiences to face the topic of sex and art without blinders. By displaying a renown work by Gustav Klimt inside a Swingers' Sex Club, they are reinforcing the subject matter that the artist addressed with his piece: sex.

Some artists and their works become so famous that often the initial impact of the work, the artistic intent is lost. Klimt was a controversial painter for his time and often addressed the topic of sexuality. But Klimts have become so popular that there isnt a dorm room in america that doesn't have The Kiss or one of his other famous works hanging from the wall. Just like musicans cringe at becoming musak, artists cringe at becoming sofa paintings. Fame is nice, but there is something nightmarish about having your creative efforts reduced to background noise and background visuals. We no longer SEE or HEAR the art.

The Secession - a world-renowned art venue in Vienna  has incorporated a sex club as part of an art project by Swiss artist Christoph Buechel. It is a bit of a shame that the swingers aren't there during the day, but their mattresses, erotic pictures, bar and whirlpool are, creating a hedonistic atmosphere that art lovers have to walk through in order to view Klimt's famous "Beethoven Frieze" which caused a scandal when first exhbited in 1902. "Considered one of the Austrian painter's key pieces, it was once thought of as obscene and pornographic because of the way women's bodies were depicted."

Museums around the world carry art that deals with the topic of human sexuality, but we often obfuscate or disregard the message of the art in order to maintain a displaced sense of propriety. We can shuffle past gorgeous Modigliani nudes in the museum and make appropriate sounds of ohhhh and ahhhh, without considering what the artist was trying to say with his sensual nudes and how it reflected a wildly bohemian era in Paris.

By forcing the public to trapse through a sex club, the artist and the museum are forcing eyes wide open. You might be able to view the Klimt in ignorance, but you can't step over the condoms without at least lifting your foot high.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/ct-travel-ap-swingers-museum-vienna-story,0,5191713.story

DAMage Report - What is more important - the art or the artist?

"Banksy, the secretive British artist whose work has appeared on city streets around the world, said on Sunday he hoped his documentary film "Exit Through The Gift Shop" will raise the standing of urban art. But the anonymous graffiti artist with a cult following said in a shadowy video message to audiences at the Berlin Film Festival on Sunday before the screening of his film that it was possible it could have the complete opposite effect.

"My ambition was to make a film that would do for graffiti art what 'The Karate Kid' did for martial arts  As it turns out, I think we might have a film that does for street art what 'Jaws' did for waterskiing. There was no plan, there was no script and we didn't even realize we were making a film until halfway through. I think it's a good film as long as you've got very low expectations."

We've talked about intent being important to the artist in order for the creative product to be considered art. The whole graffiti art versus random tagging argument. Art is a means of communication - a way to express, to scream, to shout, to cry, to celebrate, to share a complex concept that can't adequately be conveyed with enough force using plain old conversation. Conversation can often be easily dismissed or forgot. Art on the other hand leaves a lasting impression... or tries to. Banksy is known for using the world as his canvas to convey his political and social messages. By remaining anonymous he initially drove the focus toward the art. The artist was invisible. The longterm results however is that the artist is possibly more fascinating than the art. And that more than anything else is what his film appears to be about. Whether the irony is intentional or not I'm not sure - but i suspect, given his propensity for ironic wit as shown in his art, that it is. 

From a small-time graffiti artist to a global star, Banksy's work has become so valuable that several of his street works have been salvaged and sold, including a painting on a London wall that fetched $340,000 in 2008. He's become world famous for illegal outdoor graffiti, including painting the West Bank barrier and leaving a life-size figure of a Guantanamo Bay detainee at the California theme park Disneyland -- both documented in the film. Banksy has had four exhibitions in Britain and the United States that attracted a total of over 550,000 visitors. For an invisible man he has cornered a nice portion of the art market that he disdains.

According to one critic "the story he tells is hilariously outrageous --somehow too implausible NOT to be true. It offers plenty of opportunity to poke fun at the art market, and intriguing insights into the ingenuity -- and agility -- of the street artists themselves."

I admit as far as generating curiosity about his film, Banksy has done that. I'm interested to find out if the film itself ends up feeling like a piece of graffiti with the early random film clips woven in with a haphazard autobiographical story line. 

The Banksy name and the urban myth developed about his artistic persona carries as much, if not more artistic merit and weight than the graffiti art that was initially his focus. Given some of his personal antics, I can see why. In 2004, Banksy walked into the Louvre in Paris and hung on a wall a picture he had painted resembling the Mona Lisa but with a yellow smiley face. Though the painting was removed by the museum staff, it and its counterpart, temporarily on unknown display at the Tate Britain, were described by Banksy as "shortcuts". He is quoted as saying: "To actually [have to] go through the process of having a painting selected must be quite boring. It's a lot more fun to go and put your own one up."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61D22X20100214?type=entertainmentNews

DAMage Report - Scavanging for Arttention

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-live-0210-art-hunt-20100209,0,1725808,full.story

Trying to make a name for yourself in the arts world isn't easy. Just getting someone to stop and look at your work can be a struggle for artists. Sometimes thinking outside the box and using technology along with a sense of fun can help as artist Patrick Skoff discovered. He wanted his paintings to be noticed so he started dropping them off in plain sight, free for anyone to grab and take home.

"A year and a half ago, Skoff, 32, began to leave his artwork around Chicago for others to take home because he realized how easy it was to ignore his artwork. He was not getting noticed. 

And now he is. At last count, Skoff figures 700 people — via Twitter, Facebook and texts, where he and Brown call themselves "Skoff and Sam" — were following his exploits, receiving digital hints about where and when he would leave new artwork. He created a market for himself and built a network of followers, many of whom wanted to know when he would leave some new art. So he made a game of it.

A game that raises questions: Is it about art? Or self-promotion? The thrill of the hunt? Or a sly comment on art appreciation? Is it generous or, considering he's unknown, desperate? Does it prove, as he believes, you don't need "a gallery light shining on a work to show art; the city can be your gallery"? Or the opposite — that context matters, and, considering how many people walk past his art without pausing, real art is gallery art?

Maud Lavin, chair of visual and critical studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, said Skoff's hunt is a "kissing cousin" of relational art, which deals in human contact and not framed pieces. Donald Young of the Donald Young Gallery said: "what he's doing is about the human story and the art is irrelevant."

What is fascinating here is that apparently the marketing strategy has become part of the art. Skoff's paintings have not only moved into the performance art realm, but are delving into the realm of mythos and urban legend development. By creating a mystique around his art and making the participants play active roles in locating them, he has made himself into a sort of Robin Hood of the Arts - giving free art to the masses.  It may not be great art... but it is good enough that Skoff can make a living (sort of) at it full time and has people actively pursuing him to acquire his work. Good art and good ideas don't always have a high price tag slapped on them. And all the people who walk past his paintings, leaving them untouched, are themselves still touched by art - even in passing or subconsciously. And that is a wonderful thing.

CATCH the show TODAY at http://www.laTALKradio.com at 2pm PST/ 5pm EST / 10pm GMT (Channel 1 - DAMage Report)

DAMage Report - Dicking Around

It is ironic that overtly sexual art is frowned upon, yet human nature compels us to apply sexual associations to certain shapes in art. Phallic and vaginal symbolism in art is as old as the cave paintings. Little stick man...giant stick. Sometimes the iconic reference is intentional, sometimes not. The lastest giant phallic, titillating University of Alabama students, is a sculpture by instructor Craig Wedderspoon.  "Argyle" is part of his series of works intended to reference fabrics and textiles that some say looks oddly phallic. (It looks more like a pear to me but then maybe they grow 'em short and fat in Alabama.)

Famous phallic art includes the giant Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks by Claes Oldenburg, 
The Eiffel Tower is often considered phallic, as well as ANY public monument that is taller than it is wide. 


Famous vaginal art includes O'Keefe's flowers. Georgia O'Keefe adamantly insisted that it was not her intent to create flowers that reminded people of colorful cunts and people just read what they wanted into her art. That makes it even more fascinating to my mind.


Disguises in which the offensive and offending phallus has appeared include:

• Banana
• Horns (fertility symbol in ancient art)
• Cigar
• Gun - pistol, bazookas, cannons, spears, swords, etc. 
• Maypole
• Monument
• Obelisk
• Tower
• Lipstick
• Snakes
• Trains, cars - the faster and bigger the better
• Right side up triangle
• Generally any long, hot thrusting.... ermmm never mind.

Disguises in which the offensive and offending vulva has appeared include:

• Cup
• Rose and other flowers
• Valley
• Cave
• Heart
• Upside down triangle
• Various fruit
• Oysters
• Shells

Generally the phallic symbolism has the vulva symbol beat hands down for number of instances it appears in art. No doubt due to penis envy. What are some objects that looked phallic or vaginal to you - either in art or in real life?

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20100201/NEWS/100139933/1007/NEWS02?p=1&tc=pg

****
NEA Call for artists:
Design the next NEA logo - concept theyr'e looking for is "reminder that art workers are real workers who are part of this country’s real economy.” Art workers “earn salaries, support families, [and] pay taxes,"
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/33795/nea-launches-logo-contest/

DAMage Report - Artful Oopsie

There are bad days, bad weeks, even bad years... but falling into a $130 million dollar Picasso could constitute a bad life. 
"A New York woman accidentally lost her balance while attending an art-education class at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and fell into a Pablo Picasso masterpiece. She reportedly was uninjured, but her tumble tore a 15-centimetre vertical gash in The Actor.


The museum did not elaborate on why the unidentified woman fell. But it asserted that the tear didn’t affect “the focal point of the composition” and it indicated that it should be repaired before the picture is included in a major Picasso retrospective at the museum in April."


Despite the strict security that every top museum I've ever been to employs ("Ma'm STEP AWAY from the art or we shoot to kill") it seems there are little oopsies with famous and irreplaceable works of art.


Picasso Is a Target?
"In 2006, casino mogul Steve Wynn was showing off his famous Picasso painting, "Le Rêve," to friends when he accidentally poked a hole in the painting with his elbow. It was a costly mistake: He was just about to sell the piece to art collector Steven Cohen for $139 million. The 6-inch rip in the canvas was eventually repaired, but the sale was called off." Can you imagine the look on his face? [It's just a little wear and tear Mister Cohen - how about we knock off ten percent of the price and call it all good?]


Kids Say the Darndest Things
"At the Tate Britain in London, a child vomited on Carl Andre's "Venus Forge" sculpture in 2007. The Minimalist's sculpture is a series of steel and copper tiles placed on the ground. In 2008, one of Mr. Andre's copper-tile floor sculptures sold for $2.6 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York."  [Everyone is a critic and I wonder if the vomit increased the value of the piece.]


Trashy Art
"In October 2001, staff at a chic gallery in London were forced to go dumpster-diving after a janitor accidentally swept up an installation by prominent British artist Damien Hirst. Called Untitled, the piece was a tableau consisting of half-full coffee cups, ashtrays with cigarette butts, empty beer bottles, candy wrappers and an easel." [Maybe if Hirst had titled the piece? I wonder if the janitor got a pay raise for adding a little dumpster ambience to the piece.]


Bleeding Art
"Marc Quinn calls it an “urban myth,” but others insist that it’s true. Reportedly a self-portrait bust that Quinn made from nine frozen pints of his own blood melted in the freezer of legendary London art collector Charles Saatchi after decorators working on his kitchen pulled the plug. Quinn’s blood busts currently sell for $1-million each and it takes him at least one year to accumulate the necessary blood."
[That would suck and not in a friendly vampire way either. Imagine discovering that a year's worth of blood, sweat and well, blood - going down the drain. At least he got to keep his cool mill.]


So my week kinda sucked -  but seriously, not as bad as the people who accidentally destroyed million dollar works of art. See - bright shiny spot in every cloud.


REF: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/notable-gaffes-involving-art-and-artifacts/article1445644/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704094304575029610052908770.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_RIGHTTopCarousel

WTF'art? The Line Between Snake Oil and Art

What is and isn't art is one of the eternal questions. I tend to be very opened minded (I think) but even I have my lines I draw, especially when gimmick overshadows artistic intent and impact. 

Jeffrey Deitch, the new director at The Museum of Contemporary Art in LA, had heard about two young artists who spent the occasional evening ransacking a hotel room, ripping apart phone books, writing on the walls and getting stoned.

"Deitch handed them keys to his SoHo gallery and for almost a week they crammed it with 2,000 shredded phone books, and stabbed a broomstick and broken wine bottles in the walls for "Nest," a show that was to remain there for a month. It didn't even survive the raucous opening night party. The next morning the gallery was such a smelly, flammable beer-and-urine soaked mess it had to be completely cleaned out and refilled with another 2,000 shredded phone books." 

My initial reaction to reading this story was to turn up my nose and cry fowl (That's a Nest joke in case you didn't get it.) The idea that one man has a magic wand that he can wave about and declare anything he wants as art was an anathema to me. But it goes to show that snap reactions and making judgments on what you HEAR instead of what you SEE or EXPERIENCE for yourself is the quickest path to ignorance.

After watching the video of the "NEST" I had to backpedal and reassess my viewpoint. Because the video itself shows an intriguing performance that reflects aspects of human nature... and isn't that what art does? 

But I'm not willing to give carte blanche to anything being art. There are people who are nothing more than faux artists, along for the ride and not really interested in anything except notoriety, money and ...well money. Art should educate, should make you think - should communicate and touch us in some way. But not in the ways some "artists" seem to think it should.

In "But Is It Art?"  Cynthia A. Freeland points out "If artists just want to shock the bourgeoisie, it becomes pretty hard to distinguish the latest kind of art that gets written up inArtforum from a Marilyn Manson performance that includes Satanic rituals of animal sacrifice on stage."

A good example of crossing the line from possible art into lunacy is Richard Whitehouse, an artist from Ohio, who is constructing a piece called The Rape Tunnel. It's an installation in a gallery, a long narrowing tunnel that can be walked through, and he's promising that anybody who enters it during the exhibition, he'll attempt to rape. In a similar exhibit piece in 2007 called THE PUNCH-YOU-IN-THE-FACE TUNNEL, at the end of the tunnel he would punch the subject in the face instead of raping him or her. 

Whitehouse said "The impetus was completely reactionary to the current state of art, and motivated by pure frustration. I ended up breaking the nose of the third person to crawl through the tunnel, an aspiring model. She went to the hospital and eventually sued me. Her modeling career was put on hold. The point of this [is] I’m still having an impact on this young lady’s life, something not many other artists could claim about their work. Rape seemed like the next logical step."

Does that cross the line? I would say so. 

REF Story: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-et-deitch19-2010jan19,0,7212534.story?page=1

DAMage Report - When Barbie Was Bad

With eternally perky plastic breasts, a waspish waist, long blonde hair (usually) and no genitalia, she has been the iconic representation of perfect beauty and femininity for fifty years. But little miss perfect Barbie keeps getting her tight, silicon bootie in hot water. Located, ironically enoug h, near Silicon Valley, the One Of A Kind Barbies gallery has stirred up controversy over its displays of barbie sculptures. The gallery features the fashion doll and similar action figures in various works of art including ones with religious themes and ones with sexual overtones. Due to community outrage over seeing Barbie's nipple-less breasts and va-jay-jay-free groin bared in public display windows, the more potentially objectionable pieces are now displayed inside separate areas within LaVonne Sallee's new studio. 

In 2002 Barbie lost her lawsuit against another artist that outed her secret bondage fetish, when he created modified barbies in BDSM scenarios. The judge in the lawsuit rules that "The sale or display of `adult' dolls does not appear to be a use Mattel would likely develop or license others to develop," she said. The parody appears to pose no threat to sales of Barbie dolls and thus does not seem to violate the company's copyright, the judge concluded."


That pretty much made the doll fair game for creative parodies and use in artistic pieces - everything from barbie enchiladas to lesbian barbie vignettes to barbie threesomes. The unveiling of her secret slutty life was attacked with glee by an army of artists worldwide. 


The reason she is vilified, toyed with (heh) and manipulated by so many is because she has represented the ridiculous female stereotype of perfection  and repressed female sexuality for as long as she has been in existence. And that stereotype is alive and well in toy stores and homes across the globe.  (Ironic considering her prototype was inspired by a german hooker doll named Lilli.) 


The blonde, blue-eyed babe still symbolizes perfect beauty in the U.S. and many parts of the world. Go into any toy store and over 80% of the barbies on the shelves will be blonde. There are the smattering of token ethnic dolls - but they are such a minority that its hard to believe we're in 2010. And it isn't just ethnic dolls that are the minority.  I and several friends spent the month before christmas searching for a barbie with red hair. I had planned to make some gag gifts for friends... but none of us were able to locate a single redhead barbie in stores or online. (The exception being a very pricey collectible Mackey doll on auction.) It highlighted for me that the barbie icon is still kicking up her heels. 

Artists tend to be the myth-breakers, stereotype-busters and icon-smashers in society. Declare something taboo or sacred and you will find artists pouncing on it to use in their creative explorations. The sexless, anatomically incorrect barbie must die! Because in reality, every woman that once owned Miss Perky Boobs will tell you that barbie is a closet slut and has made out with not only GI Joe and Ken, but all her barbie girlfriends as well. Art destroys the facade of perfection and lays bare the truth - ain't nothing sacred in art or barbies. And you really, REALLY have to worry about people who are offended by nudity in dolls.


Reference News Story: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14172387?nclick_check=1


Catch the DAMage Report Arts Day today on http://www.LAtalkRadio.com at 2pm PST /5pm EST

DAMage Report - The Future of Art is a Virtual World Away

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/how-new-technologies-secure-a-place-for-the-arts/article1415229/

You remember that old tv series called Beauty and the Beast? There was a subterranian culture hidden beneath the city. That is what it feels like to have stumbled across a thriving arts community florishing in the underworld of the internet. A place called Smallworlds is an online game with something different. It is a full blown virtual reality that encourages and rewards the arts. The program has limited use drawing canvases to ensure originality of pieces. And artists have built galleries, created competitions, explored the works of famous artists in forums, and they even give drawing advice to students. Digital communities like this are inspiring and nurturing a new generation of artists.


With all the cut backs in arts education and decline in museum attendance it is exciting to see an area of the arts experiencing growth and generating excitement.

As Domonic Lopes points out in his recent article about technology and art "Times of rapid technological change push us to ask, what are the arts? Privileging books, live performance and gallery displays risks overlooking new realms of artistic creation....

Photography and filmmaking are more popular than ever, but what's really remarkable is that photographers and moviemakers can reach a potentially enormous audience through sites like Flickr and YouTube. Bypassing the galleries and movie studios encourages diversity: Flickr hosts communities of photographers who reject the aesthetic ideals endorsed by the art market, and YouTube has spawned entirely new genres like Machinima and trailer mashups. Engagement with the arts is down only if we confine the arts to the gallery, theatre and concert hall."

Artists from "Smallworlds" have observed that painting digitally allows people with limited physical space to create art, and the cost of art supplies is... well virtually nothing. (Heh. Sorry. Had to throw that in there.)

Teenagers like Marissa Carter have used the digital drawing games to develop skills that have translated to real life improvement in artistic abilities. She was particularly excited that her art teacher is trying to get her work into a show. (The digital painting of a strawberry is hers.) Other aspiring artists have seen the drawing games influence their interest in going to museums, in purchasing art supplies for the first time, and an interest in learning more about master artists like Thomas Kinkade, Rubens, Renoir. Arts education is alive and well!!!!
It doesn't begin and end in the tiny virtual world though. People have begun to collect digital art and display it in their homes in LCD wall screens. Entire new vistas are opening for the art world and the exploration and contagious excitement of the "virtual artists" is going to take art in an entirely new direction.

“Interactivity” explores the immersive potential of technology. You can “splash” paint across a screen by waving your arms in front of Mehmet Akten’s Body Paint installation, or watch the branches of Simon Heidjens’s digital trees move whenever the wind blows outside the V&A. These projects offer a foretaste of the next generation of sensor-controlled computers that we will operate with our voices or physical gestures, rather than keyboards and mice. - New York Times, 12/13/09

Digital art is still the Ginger-child of the art world, but it is moving toward having its day in the plasma spotlight.

*Strawberry Digital Painting by Marissa Carter

*Portrait of Woman by Truble King