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Ok so finally a reality show where I get to be an expert – or at least I would like to say I am , I hope my 20 years of art experience counts for something. I am hoping that people will be interested enough in this show that it keeps going for a while. It’s just this kind of thing that might get more people interested in art. It has always been my position that many Americans don’t have an interest in art because it is something they don’t understand, or see a use for, or something anyone gave them the ground work to really get started enjoying.
On a personal note… I had been hearing about this show in the making for sometime and was pulling the few strings I have to see if I could get in on the auditions, and I ended up finding out about the auditions the day AFTER they happened, so maybe it wasn’t meant to be this time around. I am sure if I ever did make it on it would be something like a gay Flava of Love / Charm School meets Work of Art. I’m not sure that’s what they are looking for exactly , but it would make for some good TV. I am not afraid to use cuss words, get in fights and put a bitch in their place if you know what I mean.
I come from a school of thought (North Beach , San Francisco to be specific) wherein many of the people I learned art from are willing to sacrifice anything for their passions, so when I saw the calm group of well groomed folks with their manicured art and ideas all dressed up for show, I can’t say I was surprised, but slightly disappointed. “This is the first season let’s see what happens…” is what I told my-self and now I am ready to move on.
There are certainly some very skilled artists and I like some of the “work” I saw. By the way, the “work” is not going to be Art , with a capitol A , because I am sure many of the “challenges” are going to be glorified art school-type assignments, but this is what one must do to have a show like this one.
So the formula is in place , the big girl that’s going to get on everyone’s nerves, the pretty girl that isn’t just a pretty girl, the guy who is just fresh out of the barn, the older – wiser gal etc… so we have all the ingredients for some drama.
The part of the show I looked forward to the most is the critique of the art work. Where I went to school people it was kind of a game to see who we could make cry or stomp out of the room and when they did you would tell them that you are trying to help them “break through.” I was the victim of this game a few times and it was no fun, especially because I felt like the people who were doing the most antagonizing were the ones who didn’t want you to notice they weren’t very good at making art. I learned one very very important thing from these mean exercises, at the end of the day I don’t really care what you think and if I can come away from a critique with something valuable to me at all , then I won. But I truly do not care if anyone thinks I am “good” or not, and that’s a real gift. I will listen to someone who is saying something that I understand otherwise you are making noise.
So at the end of the show during the critique I don’t buy anyone saying ” oh blah blah …… because I haven’t been trained… ” so what. Who has ? Like I say I have been an artist for over 20 years and there are many areas of art I know very little about, we are all specialists in our own art world.
Secondly you can’t disagree with someone’s opinion… it’s their opinion.
I am hoping that art work that has a commercial , illustrative / realistic quality to it isn’t going to get priority over other more raw expressions because that would be a shame. Any one can learn to make images, but only some people have power over their images or artworks and that power moves the viewer.
I wanted to put this post up to get this blog rolling and I will, as I am sure we all will , get more detailed as the posts continue.