What do you want?

I am here to please you

Not really, I am creating art. My art. My ideas, thoughts and passions are created for me. My feelings expressed in paint or sound or movement.

You, the viewer, are a participant in my experiment to show or tell my inner most wonders and hope you understand.

If you appreciate it and applaud, don’t forget to drop a few coins in the tip bucket.

An artist doesn’t work for minimum wage. An artist does not have an insurance plan. An artist does not have a 401k or a pension. An artist does have a passion to create and present their feelings where few where venture.

To make a living wage or at least a means of sustenance’s, an artist must conform to the general public’s whims. No matter how extreme or revolutionary an artist might consider their work is, to earn a living the works must sell.

The public can be persuaded to appreciate radical ideas and with enough positive critical response believes whatever the artwork is worth the price. If the artist can make a name or an icon of themselves, anything after that can be thrown together and sell.

For the rest of us, we must cater to the public’s whims. If they want flowers or unicorns or swan dances or Bach tributes, we will comply. A background dancer on a Beyonce video or a oboe player in the Boston Pops or a mural painter in Milwaukee or the bass player for Paul Simon will make a sustainable living wage without pleasing you…the public.

The most creative ideas and thoughts must be put aside for they might appeal or might not and to feed a family and afford travel the artist or performer or musician or creator will put aside personal passion to present art to please you.

Try This...

We use our eyes and voice and smell to recognize and establish items to tell the brain what it is, but what if one of those senses was not there?

Take a look at a painting.

Now describe it to another person without them seeing it.

Sounds easy?

I challenge you to do this. Why?

It will surprise you and to the one you are trying to describe the image without viewing it.

Take this example of the Mona Lisa.

“There is this lady, well a woman. She doesn’t look old or young but may mature. She’s got a long nose so maybe Italian but the eyes look like there is a lack of sleep. Here skin tone is sort of yellow or white and here eyes are dark. She is standing, no maybe sitting still. Her hands are folded on her lap. Her shoulder hair is straight and parted in the middle but with curly ends and her dress or whatever she is wearing is dark. Looks like she is wear a hoodie over a peasant’s dress with just a hint of cleavage. She might be plump or maybe pregnant. Behind her is some kind of winding road going to a lake or a river. There is a cliff and some trees and a bridge but it is very vague. She is looking over to the right side and has a somewhat grin going on.”

Can you visualize what I just said? Could you draw or sketch or paint the vision in your head?

Now try a Jackson Pollack or a Rodin or a Led Zeppelin concert. Unless you experienced the same feelings and discussed the reactions afterwards, it is difficult to explain to another.

The same is for a reading or a viewing or any personal influence to share with another who is a virgin to the thought.

Just let everyone enjoy or define his or her own meaning of the experience.

I Want Your Money

What is wrong with that?

I want your money. No really, I want YOUR money. What is wrong with that?

People grow up to start enterprises or join an already established business for employment providing them with enough funds for food and shelter. As families grow, more money is needed to live comfortably.

So we work for profit. The money beyond what is necessary to pay wages and other expenses to manufacture ideas, products, and other necessary items consumers will purchase.

Profit allows for growth of the company and more money for the owner. The higher the profit means children can go to better schools, bigger houses, fancier clothing, and fancy cars: all the items we aspire to. That is if all the workers get to share in the ‘profit’ of their hard work?

But if you are not an established business or have an excellent credit status, you need money. The banks have money. There are also others who have money and are available to acquire funds with the right presentation or begging.

That is right. Begging is necessary to get someone else’s’ money. You can also present false promises and broken dreams, but whether online or face-to-face it is begging.

What are the folks with the wad of cash in their pockets going to do? Are they going to part with their hard earned (even if not by them) cash for some foolhardy idea or promise?

Somehow this seems to work. Take a look at the political campaign contributions that are flooding in for an array of faces with false promises and silly rhetoric.

So with the right public relations and networking, you too can make millions from other people’s money. What do you have to lose?

Comments

As a person who types words on the Internet and also reads much of the nonsense out there, I preview the comments and wonder?

Who writes this stuff?

If someone, like me, takes the time to put out what might be informative or stimulating thoughts, why muck it up with comments of hateful or uneducated rants? 

A simple new story turns into a row of opinions and offensive agendas. My question is ‘Why?’

(Preface: I don’t chat or tweet or get into running streams that go nowhere and I rarely comment on post, but I do read many of them with amazement and thus my own rant)

Recently I read some article from an established journalistic news agency and reviewed the comments. The first few were somewhat intelligent review of the writing with some interesting personal reflections, but then came the blast against everything from the writer to the media to the government to religion to the man-in-the-moon.

How does this happen? Are we that distracted?

A comment (to me) should be like a critics review. Comments should be an intelligible intellectual discussion of the thoughts or actions of another who took the time to post for others to read and react to.

Most artist and writers and performers enjoy and learn from the comments of their audience. If a writer writes for profit (or survival) he or she appreciates the response of their readers. It is data from their audience that helps them perceive their better points for future efforts.

If the comments are full of hate mongering, it is like spraying graffiti on the Mona Lisa. Suggest start your own original blog to spew your filth. Like any civilized discussion, if you can’t add anything interesting, stay quiet.

With that said, and all those with strong idealism from politics to abortion to gun control to parking tickets, will wave the ‘free speech’ flag in my face. I’m sure we all have something to say, but it can be constructive or destructive and without the basics of fact version fiction, the Internet has become a pool of screaming memes. If your comment is nothing more than a selfie, I will delete it.

What I am asking is when authors, painters, musicians, and artist of every kind post examples of their creativity on social media, take the time to review it and say what you like and what you don’t like in an intellectual method?

Again my point is, when an artist posts something they would like to be responded to on the web, respond to it. Make a comment. It makes the piece grow stronger.

Comment?

Interpretation

Art is not definitive. It is not like history or science based on facts and numbers. Art is our outlet to express that we are and what we feel.

Art does have techniques and methods as guidelines, but only the true knowledgeable critic will note the warmth and depth of art. Knowledge is not wisdom. Art stands alone as an individual interpretation.

Anyone who views or listens to art will carry his or her own interpretation of it. Personal preferences come with how a person likes or dislikes art. Understanding and perhaps an appreciation of what the artist or designer or composer or director had in mind may change a person’s taste, but each piece of art will be perceived differently.

The artist constructed his or her art with an idea to share with another, but an artist eye is a one-way mirror. What he or her proclaimed as art, may or may not be understood by anyone else. All the descriptions and explanations for art are all just documentation. The art must stand-alone.

We are bombarded by art everyday. Posters and signs and flashing electronic media, in every shape and color and sound, become a blur to our senses.

Take the time to find a book or a play or a show or a gallery and relax and enjoy the art. Appreciate the expression of another human being’s attempt at relaying their feelings and emotions.

Discussing your interpretation of the art may raise consciousness in yourself and others. Isn’t that what art is all about? 

 

How much?

How do you value your artwork?

Sometimes it is the going wage or whatever the market will allow. How do you put a price on your passion?

If your art relies on someone else to produce like composing or writing, you have to arrange for a take of the production cost. If you name becomes popular you can renegotiate.

If you art is of a performer then you must rely on an agent or manager to get you into places that will allow you to play. These are complicated negotiations depending on the venue, audience, production cost, salaries, fees and merchandising.

If you art is presented on canvas or walls or whatever media for one to enjoy and possibly take home, then there is the cost of production and materials, time and effort, and space to create.

The hardest measurement of a work of art or of an artist is the creativity. That special character we all have in us but only a few adopt it and use it in various forms. What is the price of your vision or sound or a line of words? How is your passion to present your inner most revelations to others priced?

Remember the adage of a ‘starving artist’ is true for too many of those who choose to craft their life in the world of art. Some can curve their personal passion to present what the public demands. Some will become disgusted with the rejection and shift to working on a loading dock or behind a counter.

Like any job or career, one starts small and works their way up. Become familiar with your art as you become familiar with your audience. The price of presentation is as costly a lesson as your passion of creation.

And don’t forget to leave a tip.

Thank you and come back again.

Why Did You Do That?

Explaining your thoughts.

Artists draw and paint and perform and compose and write trying to express their personal feelings and thoughts. The books are published and the painting hung and the music played or the dance performed.

Are you ready to explain to someone else why you did that?

Reviews and critical analysis and opinions and critiques are made of art everyday. There are columns and publications and blogs giving someone else’s thoughts of the art.

So if someone asked you, “Why did you do that?” could you explain your art?

First you don’t know anything about the person asking the question. Each person has a different background and experiences. Each person can

Second the art itself in it’s own presentation should relay your ideas. Why does it need further explanation?

Third do you remember the feelings or ideas? Have new experiences changed your interpretation of an earlier work?

Forth is the promotion. Every type of art, if it leaves your house to be viewed by others must be marketed. And descriptions of the memories and feelings that created the ideas or the presentation should be defined to relate to the unenlightened critics and reviewers.

Artwork by Diane Clement (without permission). Log onto Website

http://www.dianeclement.com and adopt living art for yourself.

Stealing

But it was my idea?

We can’t help it. Some call it plagiarism. Some call it copyright infringement. Some call it stealing.

Everyday we read something or hear something or even say something that has never crossed our mind before. It may be significant enough to remember and that may carry over into another thought or action or sound or statement that wasn’t really ours to begin with but we just picked it up.

Isn’t that how we are educated?

We are taught facts and figures and our mind jumbles all these thoughts and calculates a new understanding of them with our personal experiences. As we regurgitate these facts we put our own spin on the meanings, as we understand it.

You will hear a note progression and remember the phrase and while writing a personal work add it into the piece. As a writer you will tend to phrase a statement with remembrance of a former read sentence.

Is this stealing another’s thought or just expanding the idea?

For all thoughts are built by exposure to other’s thoughts and ideas. Can education be copyrighted?

If you create something you want to protect the rights to that creation, but only if the lawyers allow you to do that.

A creative person has made a statement or performed or created a sound that is new and different and interesting, so why should it always be for profit. The artist still needs to survive to create another work but respect the appreciation of others to appreciate their work and copy it.

Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country, that grants the creator of an original work, exclusive rights to its use and distribution, usually for a limited time, with the intention of enabling the creator to receive compensation for their intellectual effort.

Plagiarism is the "wrongful appropriation" and "stealing and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions" and the representation of them as one's own original work. The idea remains problematic with unclear definitions and unclear rules. The modern concept of plagiarism as immoral and originality as an ideal emerged in Europe only in the 18th century, particularly with the Romantic Movement.

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem and is a product or a process. Patents are a form of intellectual property.

As you can see there are many laws and many more to protect an artist’s ideas and creations, but no matter what, someone will pick up a line or a tone or a beat or a word or a move and include it into their creative repertoire.

Even our most celebrated artist has picked up bits and pieces that have come before. We build upon our history and hopefully make it better.

So I understand an artist needs to have compensation for their creations, but feel somewhat complimented that your ideas have been copied. The rest of us will call them ‘covers’.

Critic

Knowledgeable or just a disguise for a bad attitude

One of the most fearful consequences to producing a work of art is the critic review. No matter if it is a book or painting or performance, someone can read or view or listen or just attend then write their opinion of the work.

Some may have the knowledge of the performer or writer or artist but his/her words can excel to stardom and riches or crash a career. One person with a few moments can understand or not the ideas and emotions of the art. With a few politically incorrect words can debase the author, performer, and creator without legal repercussions.

And we all read these words and judge whether we will attend a performance or go to a movie or purchase a book or download the song and then we pass on the review. We hold the opinion of these critics, as we do to our trusted friends can prejudice our own attitudes and taste.

Now every piece of art or music or literature or design or fashion or even hairdos should be viewed and commented on so the artist can learn and expand his/her thoughts for future works. A friendly critique can be a helpful discussion without sounding like an authority spout out.

“Marvelous”, “Stunning”, “Shameful”, “A Disaster”, “Must See”, “Screeching Noise”, “A Wonderful Experience” and many more splatter the pages of magazines and newspapers and websites followed by a respectable experienced and licensed critic. As these words sway naïveté, no one thinks of the phrases as basic advertising.

My point is to you Mister or Miss or Misses or whatever ‘Critic’. I will read your review with a grand of sand and perhaps give it a bit of thought, but I will make up my own mind for what I like and what I don’t like. It may be great, but I don’t like it. It may be poor, but I like it. That is just the way it is.