Musea E-mail Club #334 More than just a Sample Work

[musea/Tom Hendricks]

The next Musea is going to be a special issue, an art exhibit
in booklet form. I'm going to make a limited edition of mini books
displaying my recent art works. Reserve yours now.
And speaking of art and artists:

MORE THAN JUST A SAMPLE OF WORK

I notice that not each art work in even a great artist's life is a
masterpiece.
But by the same token not every word or line or paragraph or chapter
in a great novel is a masterpiece by itself. Yet when we put all the
words, lines, paragraphs and chapters together, they form a
collective work that may well be very great indeed.

I think that when we consider an artists work, we should consider
more than just a single representative masterpiece. That's not fair
to the artist or to us the viewer. We should consider
the entire oeuvre, and see each painting, drawing, sculpture, etc as
a single word or chapter in a lifetime novel.

Some works will be better than others;
some will be highpoints, some will be attempts that failed,
some will be quick studies, and some will be extremely finished
major works taking many years to complete.

But, I think, overall we better understand and appreciate
an artist, (and bring greater rewards to ourselves as viewers)
by seeing his cumulative life's work, than by judging his
life's work on any single most popular or representative piece.

Tom Hendricks, ed. of Musea
the 13 year old monthly art/media zine.
http://musea.us

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