Does technology make someone an artist?  Michelangelo didn't scratch away the marble with his finger nails, he used tools, hammer and chisels.  But what he carved was his idea, using his own creativity, talent and skill.  I recently read an article about new technology and art in a national magazine reviewing sculpture.  The article told of a genius "sculptor" that had a man sit on the floor in front of a laser scanner.  The sculptor had the equipment operator press the buttons to make a 3D scan of the man.  Then the "sculptor" took a copy of the 3D scan saved on a CD to a fabrication shop where another machine operator placed the CD into his computer.  Then the machine operator pressed the necessary buttons to have the computer tell another machine to carve a copy of the man into a block of marble.  When completed, the "sculptor" had his name placed on the marble "sculpture" and is now called a genius.  I think Michelangelo is turning over in his grave.  

Now, since this works in the visual art world, I'd like to take the same idea to the music arena.  I'm buying a new grand piano.  One of those with the computer inside that plays Mozart through built in speakers, and moves the keys as if being played.  There was a time when this was called a "player piano."  I'd like to arrange a date at Carnegie Hall to perform Mozart for the music lovers of the world.  I will sit at my new grand piano, wave my hands over the keyboard as the keys magically move up and down to the music coming through the built in speakers.  If I had known it would be so easy to be a genius pianist I would have done this years ago.  I'm sure Mozart would approve, it's the new technology after all.

You too can be a world class artist!  Anybody and everybody can now be a world class artist.  With each new style comes a term to define the work.  Some of these terms are; Modern Art, Post Modern Art, Contemporary Art, Abstract Art, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Cubist Art, Surreal Art, and the list goes on and on.  

In this current world where reality is stranger than fiction, anything can now be classified as fine art.  Trash collected and put in a museum surrounded by a velvet rope can new be classified as a sculpture.  How, you might ask?  Easy.  Just declare it so.  This is the era of "Declaration Art,"  copyright 2008 by Art Wells, all rights reserved.  As a new genius artist creating Declaration Art, you could end up one of the world's greatest artists of all time.  

A while back I was helping to clean up an area for an art show.  As I was cleaning up, artists had already began to set up their displays.  I picked up an empty beer bottle, and a cigar butt off of a table to throw away.  I didn't get three feet away when someone started screaming at me, "Hey, what the hell are you doing?"  I said I was on the clean up committee, getting things ready for the artwork to be brought in.  The guy informed me that I had just taken away his sculpture.  I thought he was kidding.  That made him even more angry.  

I've decided to get a head start on creating Declaration Art, so I am declaring to the world the following are my latest sculptures:

1.  The moon, in all of its phases, I declare to be my sculpture in motion around the Earth.

2.  The Earth, I declare to be my sculpture hosting all life as we currently know it.

3.  All humans, past present and future, are now declared to be my work in progress.

4.  Whoever reads this, I declare as a living integrated piece of sculpture with my writing.

5.  Ketchup on a paper plate is now declared to be a sculpture by me, so don't copy it and call it artwork.

6.  I now declare any or all dogs barking as my new audible, sound sensory artwork.

Go to my last blog entry from March 15 to see what other genius artists are creating in the field of Declaration Art.  Get some ideas and become the genius artist that you are meant to be.

Here are some of my favorite "genius works of art" from museums around the country.  After viewing these, I came to the conclusion that it does serve a purpose; these pieces give a lot of artists something to laugh about.  Laughing is healthy.

1.  Three rows of Igloo ice chests on a wall in a museum in California.  WalMart didn't realize they were selling fine art sculpture.

2.  An empty plexiglass box on a pedestal in a museum in New Mexico.  Now you can get great sculpture at the Container Store.

3.  Three logs on the floor in a California museum.  I hope every lumber jack realizes that they are genius sculptors.

4.  Two recliner chairs surrounded by a red velvet rope in a New Mexico museum.  Lazy Boy furniture needs to know that their chairs can double as fine art if you put a velvet rope around them.

5.  A granite bench in a Dallas museum sculpture garden.  How do I know it was a genius work of sculpture instead of a bench?  It had a velvet rope around it, and the granite benches on the sidewalk in front of the museum didn't.

6.  A floor made up of 12" x 12" aluminum tiles, 144 total, in a California museum.  Home Depot, look out, your laborers are going to want a raise.

7.  Two 4' x 8' plywood panels, painted with house paint, in a California museum.  What a sculpture!  Again, Home Depot, you've got to give your laborers a raise, they're all genius sculptors. 

8.  Two bed sheets hanging from the ceiling in a Dallas museum.  If only my mom had known that hanging the sheets inside would make her a genius, she wouldn't have bought that clothes dryer. 

9.  A large bronze sculpture, about the size of a Volkswagon, in front of a museum in Boston.  I couldn't find the plaque with the description, so I started asking people passing by if it was a giant dog poop sculpture?  Everyone I asked said that's what it looks like.  

10.  O.K., that's enough.  But all of these genius works of art had one thing in common.  I was the only one in the room looking at them.  My artistic curiosity I guess.  Everyone else had the good sense to find other areas of the museum with something worth looking at. 

March 10, 2010

I've often wondered what makes art "good," "great," "bad," or whatever?  Do people buy art because it's good?  Ask a thousand people and get a thousand answers. 

I've seen art that seems to be "of the times."  I mean that it is created out of a sense of being in the current trend, or fad, or because the artist thinks it is what people might want.  This art is here today, gone tomorrow.  Even art that is called good or great.  Here today, gone tomorrow.  The genius artists of yesterday, last week, last year are being constantly replaced by the new genius artists.  Here today, gone tomorrow.  Hey, next month come to the hottest opening where you can personally see the newest genius squirt ketchup on a paper plate, and then, here's the real work of genius, attach it to the gallery wall with a blue thumb tack!

I've walked through numerous museum galleries to see empty rooms, that is empty of viewers.  Although the museums bring in these genius works of the newest artwork, the people that lined up on opening night, drinking wine and socializing, soon disappear.  But, the museum got a few ticket sales, the artist got one notch higher on the famous genius artist of the day board, and next month there will be someone new.  Maybe it wasn't so good after all.  But a lot of us just have to go see the new novelty.

 What then would you call art that moves someone emotionally in an uplifting way?  Art that brings a sense of peace or joy?  Art that people come back to see again and again, feeling moved each time they view it?  I think this is what I would classify as good art.  It will take time to tell if it is great art.  If people are still coming back, generation after generation, being moved, then it might be classified as great art.  Maybe like Michelangelo's David, where millions of people have over the centuries traveled around the world to partake of it's wonder.

I applaud the artists of today that are taking time to create art that will inspire and move the audience in an uplifting way.  Their work will possibly be around for the next 500 years or more.  This art will be admired, not because of some paper describing what it is supposed to mean, but because it stands on its own merit of being good art.

I was a guest instructor at the 2Sculpt Stone Carving Workshop in Lawrence, KS, Oct 2, 3 & 4.  During the workshop I held four 45 minute classes giving instruction of the basics of carving a head in stone.   You can get more information on 2Sculpt by clicking on the Resource link at the bottom of this page.

ARTability     163 Oak Lawn Ave.,     Dallas, TX     75207

Your Private Collection Art Gallery     106 N Houston,    Granbury, TX

Creative Arts Center of Dallas      2360 Laughlin Dr.     Dallas, TX

Oxide Art Gallery      501 Hickory,  Denton, TX