Gallery Art (re: Why is furry art not in galleries)
Samantha Ann Patterson
bothered by the attitudes expressed on this topic. I've seen this 'All
Modern Art is crap' message echoed from ignorant rednecks time and again.
When you say this sort of thing, you are not speaking about art at all.
You are speaking about yourself - poorly.
Just because YOU don't like/understand something does not mean it has
no worth. An analogy might be computer operating systems. Your average
user is satisfied with Microsoft Windows. It may not do much, but it's
pretty and gives them basically what they want. Unix, on the other hand
seems mysterious and obscure to most people. They don't understand it and
are reluctant to use it.
On a side note: If your immediate inclination is to attempt to rephrase
the analogy so that your art is Unix and 'modern' art is Windows,
you've missed the point. Keep in mind that clever is not the opposite
of ignorant.
Different people like different things. Were it up to me,
country western and gospel would be classified as noise pollution
rather than music, but just because I don't like them doesn't mean they
should be banned from the air (As the state of Texas did to heavy metal
music in the early 80s). It is good to expose yourself to a wide
variety of things and explore them. You might find something you like,
or at least something that will give you new insights on things you're
already familiar with. (This will trigger the 3 page rant from some
who'll claim they went to art school and went through all the art history
classes and still think it's crap. Before that person writes, I'd like
to say I feel sorry for them for having gone into it all with such strong
prejudices that they didn't gain anything from the experience. They
wasted their time and money to stroke their own ego)
So, back to the original question: Why is furry art not in galleries?
I'm not sure it's a valid question. First, define furry art. Is it
potraits and sculptures of animals? What about Egyptian and Greek
depictions of anthropomorphic dieties? Cartoon characters? You can find
all of those in galleries and museums. Perhaps, what's ment though is
'The Artists I'm Familiar With'... Here's where we get down to the heart
of the matter. Do you know any curators or gallery owners? ... Life is
not fair. the world operates on connections. It doesn't matter if you're
good or you have an important message. hundreds of thousands of people
in the country feel they're good and have important messages. Furry art
is no more or less valid than modern art or photographs of tacos. It's
all about connections. Furry artists, by the large either don't go to
art school or are so anti-social and full of their own prejudices that
they do not MAKE those connections, and I can't think of any who come
from a family who might make those connections for them. If an artist
wants to show in a gallery, they have to pay the time. You may have to
associate with people you don't like. You may have to draw art you don't
like, you may have to suffer in anonimity for 20 years and eat your hat
at every single gallery opening you attend as you watch people whom you
feel are less talented than you get their moment in the spotlight while
you stand by and try to mingle with the guests and find someone who'll
show your art. You have to be a good judge of character and know who
is yanking your chain and who is serious and when to tell a joke and
when to laugh at someone else's. Fame is a complex social interaction,
not a pat on the head.
Of course, I've heard a number of furry artists bemoan about how
they do all this. Fanboys, so-and-so makes big bucks and does art on
printer paper, etc, etc. It reminds me of the people who get on
Jerry Springer and make fools of themselves, sniveling about how pathetic
their own lives are. Don't whine, do something about it. If you're
not getting the respect you deserve, find a better audience. You
can stay inside the furry community forever and be the big fish in a
little fishbowl, or you can chance it and be the little fish in a big
pond.
-Samantha
LancerAdvancd iBuck
>Modern Art is crap' message echoed from ignorant rednecks time and again.
Watch your own insults... it's not really that modern art is crap, but that
what passes for art critisim is. Since the 60's arts funding in the US has been
used to buy the political support of the "Cultural Elite", and as a result the
classical arts and even the concept of skill or design has been neglected to
emphisize the "message" of the piece.
I heard a story at one point, that when the designer of the Vietnam Memorial
met the sculptor who did the statue there, she asked him if it hurt when he
made casts of the people for the statues... it didn't dawn on her that he had
sculpted them.
If you look back on the history of art, the art that offened the art critics
has been the art that proved to be of enduring value. You look at a show like
"Sensation" or or the like, and the critics are ga-ga for it, it's the -public-
that is shocked.
Frankly the gallerys are full of what the critics are telling us is "Great Art"
but by and large, it's WAY too soon to tell... look back 20 years from now
and see who's talked about as an enduring artist
There's plenty of great modern art out there, but I don't trust the critics to
tell me what it is, I'll chose for myself though, and see what history has to
say..
iBuck
Homepage at http://lanceradvanced.com/Furry
"You can have it these ways :Fancy,Correct,Quickly- Pick 2"
bevnsag
well entrenched and institutionalized support structure to keep it that
way. Absolute artistic merit (as much as that can be defined) is
irrelevant, as it is primarily a money game between gallery owners, art
critics, and big money investors. All too often it is a "Emperor's New
Clothes" routine, as any avant garde wannabe can become rich and famous
on the whim of "people who count" and/or his own PR machine. (In regards
to big real galleries, not local art-as-furniture stores)
Regarding "furry" art, most doesn't work for traditional gallery space
in that it doesn't make good home decor for the same reason most
illustrative and book cover art doesn't. Except for the fans, there is
no wider appeal to over specialized imagery. However, on occasion, art
INVESTORS will grab onto all kinds of specialized genre material when
they feel there is an investment potential. Cells and sketches from
classic animation are hot, as are some particular genre illo and cover
art, but only as long as there is a hot and well moneyed market keeping
it going. Modern "furry" art simply doesn't fit into any of these
categories. At least not until there is some major break out work that
will convince "people who count" that there is a lot of money to be made
hyping the stuff.
Brian Sutton
>should be banned from the air (As the state of Texas did to heavy metal
>music in the early 80s).
Where did you hear that? San Antonio was a big tour stop for most heavy metal
and big hair bands in the eighties.
After hearing Shon's tales of running with the fine arts crowd it killed any
interest I had of trying to get into a gallery. Besides as the net continues
to grow you have a true art gallery for the proletariat, now I don't have to do
a token anti-Reagan piece to get a showing, just spend some time with my
scanner and and click click my stuff can be seen by literally millions of
people.
Brian Sutton
"They tried to corner the market on stupidity the way the Hunt brothers
tried with silver "
-Shon Howell
Visit my website @ http://hjg.kcomplex.com
for deals on Furry art & comics
Joshua Barney
little art gallery on the web?
I don't try and figure out the mechanics of what makes art art, and frankly
I don't give a damn. If someone says its art, then hey... it's art. But
just because it's art doesn't mean I have to like it.
~ Joshua
Brian Sutton wrote:
--
-----
"You can't have bread and loaf."
http://www.furnation.com/Arctic_Winds/
Tired of the Windows world?
http://www.linux-mandrake.com
Matt J. McCullar
Safer basically ripped modern art several thousand rectums with his expose
on the modern art culture in New York some years ago, and good for him.
Anybody can glue three urinals on the wall and call it art, but it's not
going to speak to future generations. That's what real art does.
Not all music is art. But it can be, if played properly. 90% of country
music is nothing but singing alcoholics. When when you do find something
that works, and works perfectly, it makes the search more than worth it.
I still own and treasure the Richard Scarry books I read from my youth, and
wouldn't give them up for anything. Perhaps that's one of the sources of my
interest in anthropomorphics, because Steve Gallacci's stuff is, in my
opinion, a form of the Richard Scarry universe with all the characters grown
up. Both are detailed and fascinating to read, as well as beautiful to look
at. I can't do it; so that makes it art. :)
Art galleries are becoming more and more obsolete. Why risk your neck going
to some rat's-ass end of town when you can look at it in the comfort of your
own home? You can actually communicate with the artist, too. Art is all
about communication, anyway.
DishRoom1
>I like Red Green's take on art: "If I can do it, it's not art." Morley
>Safer basically ripped modern art several thousand rectums with his expose
>on the modern art culture in New York some years ago, and good for him.
>Anybody can glue three urinals on the wall and call it art, but it's not
>going to speak to future generations. That's what real art does.
>
>Not all music is art. But it can be, if played properly. 90% of country
>music is nothing but singing alcoholics. When when you do find something
>that works, and works perfectly, it makes the search more than worth it.
>
>I still own and treasure the Richard Scarry books I read from my youth, and
>wouldn't give them up for anything. Perhaps that's one of the sources of my
>interest in anthropomorphics, because Steve Gallacci's stuff is, in my
>opinion, a form of the Richard Scarry universe with all the characters grown
>up. Both are detailed and fascinating to read, as well as beautiful to look
>at. I can't do it; so that makes it art. :)
Heh, I liked Richard Scarry as a kid myself. :-)
>
>Art galleries are becoming more and more obsolete. Why risk your neck going
>to some rat's-ass end of town when you can look at it in the comfort of your
>own home? You can actually communicate with the artist, too. Art is all
>about communication, anyway.
John Shughart
BR
<snip>
> After hearing Shon's tales of running with the fine arts crowd it
> killed any
> interest I had of trying to get into a gallery. Besides as the net
> continues to grow you have a true art gallery for the proletariat, now I
> don't have to do a token anti-Reagan piece to get a showing, just spend
> some time with my scanner and and click click my stuff can be seen by
> literally millions of people.
<snip>
True, of course there's a growth almost equal if not greater of the
"artfully" challenged, so the present situation is akin to a small
needle in a large haystack. So when are we going to get anything like
what Scott McCloud envisioned? What about other mediums?
David Formosa (aka ? the Platypus)
<cir...@deeptht.armory.com> wrote:
> I don't generally enter such flamey discussions
I haven't seen any flames in this thread. No one has made any
personal attacks against anyone or anything like that.
> but I have to say I'm
> bothered by the attitudes expressed on this topic. I've seen this 'All
> Modern Art is crap' message echoed from ignorant rednecks time and
> again.
The people who are expressing this attudide are not ignorant rednecks
but highly skilled artists and some of the most inteligent peopel I
know.
> When you say this sort of thing, you are not speaking about art at all.
> You are speaking about yourself - poorly.
> Just because YOU don't like/understand something does not mean it has
> no worth.
True, but if something (like art) is ment to communicate an idea or
create an emotical reaction in a viewer and it fails to do so is this
the fault of the Artist or the Viewer? If I see an artwork by my
contimpory and the only way I can understand it is by reading the 5000
word essay that the artist (or critic) has written about the artwork
then the artwork has failed. Indeed you might as well hang the essay
in the place where the art goes.
[...]
> Different people like different things. Were it up to me,
> country western and gospel would be classified as noise pollution
> rather than music, but just because I don't like them doesn't mean they
> should be banned from the air (As the state of Texas did to heavy metal
> music in the early 80s).
That is fine but does that mean I should be able to grab my white
noise generator plug it into a speeker and then when people say that
they don't like it I accuse them of all being ignorenet and not
understanding the true buty of my art.
> It is good to expose yourself to a wide
> variety of things and explore them. You might find something you like,
> or at least something that will give you new insights on things you're
> already familiar with.
I have no objections to this. But it doesn't mean that the cult of
uglyness is right.
[...]
> You may have to draw art you don't like,
What is the point of that? If art is about communicating your
feelings what good comes from drawing art you don't like? (Commision
work is diffrent, thats about the artist acting as a vercal for
someone elses feelings).
--
Please excuse my spelling as I suffer from agraphia. See
http://dformosa.zeta.org.au/~dformosa/Spelling.html to find out more.
Free the Memes.
The Saprophyte
"Matt J. McCullar" wrote:
>
> I like Red Green's take on art: "If I can do it, it's not art." Morley
> Safer basically ripped modern art several thousand rectums with his expose
> on the modern art culture in New York some years ago, and good for him.
> Anybody can glue three urinals on the wall and call it art, but it's not
> going to speak to future generations. That's what real art does.
>
It occurred to me the last time this example came up that urinals are a
simple, almost classical design, not unlike those of ancient greece, and
that but for a whim of aesthetics, we'd be exhibiting them as cherished
art relics and pissing in amphorae.
It's all about perspective.