tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post2331437857636421037..comments2024-03-28T09:33:38.032-04:00Comments on ILLUSTRATION ART: REPORT FROM COMICON, part 2David Apatoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11293486149879229016noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-13690532461939450692012-11-13T04:23:15.901-05:002012-11-13T04:23:15.901-05:00sehr guter Beitragsehr guter Beitraggutscheine zum ausdruckenhttp://gutscheinezumausdrucken.org/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-15772648565693247432012-07-31T17:16:18.635-04:002012-07-31T17:16:18.635-04:00"self-indulgence" "decadence"..."self-indulgence" "decadence" "having a grand old time" "moral hierarchy" "philosophical fortitude" "the particular rot that toppled us." ~ <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/104843871720362761374/FineArt#5771444135268964418" rel="nofollow">Billy and Jeffy laugh.</a>अर्जुनhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14724439749828805512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-44910800864654603812012-07-31T16:26:34.871-04:002012-07-31T16:26:34.871-04:00Hey David, thanks for commenting on my blog. Looki...Hey David, thanks for commenting on my blog. Looking forward to more posts from you, as well! x<br /><br />d a n i e l l e | <a href="http://www.daniellewu.com" rel="nofollow">daniellewu.com</a><br />ps. If you haven't already, don't forget to enter my <a href="http://www.daniellewu.com/2012/07/giveaway-and-artist-feature-mui-ko.html" rel="nofollow">giveaway to win freebies from Mui-ko's shop</a>!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-61224146777127890672012-07-31T14:58:45.867-04:002012-07-31T14:58:45.867-04:00But who made who, David? Who is making who? The qu...But who made who, David? Who is making who? The question doesn't have an end.<br /><br />Those Ware quotes are just sad. Those editors are 10 minutes away from the Sorolla murals at the Hispanic society in NYC... the most awesome display of fine art available in our hemisphere, I dare say. And they're sitting there in their stuffy offices looking at twerpy doodles and genuflecting.<br /><br />Which brings up the subject of brainwashing...<br /><br />We shouldn't forget to indict the mediocre minds that staff the collegiate humanities, who don't have the intellectual capabilities or philosophical fortitude to fend off the various fashionable-cum-stupefying isms that have brought the academic side of things to a paralytic state, where exchanges of jargon pass for useful thought, inviting ridicule (and hopefully ruin.)<br /><br />If all five pillars that hold up our cultural house are rotten, I can't see singling out any one as the particular rot that toppled us.kev ferrarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09509572970616136990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-75882842879310367782012-07-31T13:45:40.970-04:002012-07-31T13:45:40.970-04:00Jerry Boucher-- I think you are right; in many way...Jerry Boucher-- I think you are right; in many ways, digital art is more permanent than traditional media which fades and yellows with time (until the electrical power goes out, and all digital art disappears). It seems to me that we haven't quite made up our minds what to think about digital art yet. It may seem more "disposable" to us because Photoshop makes us treat digital art more irreverently. Art directors and clients now take liberties with digital illustrations, cropping and editing and altering colors to suit their needs, in ways that they would never have attempted when such modifications required skill and artwork was treated with more dignity.<br /><br />Danielle-- Thanks, you have a lovely blog and I enjoyed reading it.<br /><br />Laurence John wrote, "i can tell that the boys from marketing have been scratching their heads about how to make a bit of extra money from these new fangled mobile devices."<br /><br />I agree, but I think that's OK. For all of the horrifying things that come from marketing-- the pressure to compromise, the censorship of bad taste-- it also serves an important social function. It scrubs new technologies for ways to humanize them in order to please broad audiences. It prevents introspective and self-absorbed artists from becoming totally irrelevant. It helps to inoculate contemporary art against self-indulgence and decadence. Marketing does have an ugliness for sure, but so does art.<br /><br />Kev Ferrara-- I think there is a valid distinction to be drawn in some circumstances. For example, I have been tough on Chris Ware on this blog because I don't think he draws well, but Ware himself seems to be a sincere, self-effacing, hard working person. I would never single him our for ridicule if it weren't for his gushing fans at the New Yorker or the Whitney who write things like, "I don't think anyone in any visual medium is making art that is more elevating." I suspect Ware is embarrassed by such extravagant nonsense. In the case of Koons, it seems like he is having a grand old time because tasteless bankers compete to pay huge sums of money to own his art (for all the wrong reasons). In such circumstances, I'd say there is a moral hierarchy that differentiates members of that milieu.David Apatoffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11293486149879229016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-3932134506965161612012-07-31T10:26:32.701-04:002012-07-31T10:26:32.701-04:00I am with you on Koons, but as is often the case, ...<b>I am with you on Koons, but as is often the case, I fault his audience more than I fault the artist. The gullible collectors who pay millions of dollars for his trash, the gallery owners and auctioneers who whip up a froth over his work to get a percentage of the spoils, the pedants and reviewers who write far fetched analyses of his work in an effort to make themselves culturally important-- to me, their sins are worse than the sins of some huckster who abandons high artistic standards for millions of dollars.</b><br /><br />Seems like quibbling to ethically differentiate anybody in that milieu. The lot of them exist in necessary symbiosis.<br /><br /><b>But in the end, aren't we mostly relating to the colors and shapes?</b><br /><br />No. We relate to the implications. "It is the invisible something in a picture that makes it a good one." ~ Harvey Dunnkev ferrarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09509572970616136990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-52648323083604775222012-07-31T09:58:13.497-04:002012-07-31T09:58:13.497-04:00Wow,I never realized that Thor had such a great ra...Wow,I never realized that Thor had such a great rack.Alexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-39722475149756085552012-07-31T05:23:14.158-04:002012-07-31T05:23:14.158-04:00i can tell that the boys from marketing have been ...i can tell that the boys from marketing have been scratching their heads about how to make a bit of extra money from these new fangled mobile devices. "Reinventing the Graphic Novel for the Ipad" translates as "Repackaging comics for a different medium". sorry David, but it's got marketing spin written all over it.Laurence Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11988700485839219253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-25135173380600259712012-07-30T15:22:34.704-04:002012-07-30T15:22:34.704-04:00I've never been to a comicon but you make me r...I've never been to a comicon but you make me really want to go! just stumbled upon your blog and I really love it!<br />x<br /><br /><br />D a n i e l l e | daniellewu.com<br />ps. I am hosting a <a href="%E2%80%9D" rel="nofollow">giveaway </a>on my blog and I would love it if you won! :) Enter to win artwork by Mui-ko!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-78934077592612275252012-07-30T12:24:15.282-04:002012-07-30T12:24:15.282-04:00The idea that digital work has no permanence is so...The idea that digital work has no permanence is somewhat inaccurate, and I think that saying in instills a disposable mindset in the digital artist is also not true. Canvas, paper, etc are just as prone to destruction as a digital file. One could, if so inclined, take the information in a digital file and boil it down to zeros and ones. A computer of some form or another in the future could then turn that back into a tangible object (i.e. an image file). One can still care about one's work even if it is digital and outwardly less 'solid' than a painted canvas. As to whether digital art is prone to the mores of the 'people making the decisions', that's no different from trad' fine done for patrons nor trad' illustration done for clients.<br /><br />It seems to me that digital art is too easily written off for somewhat odd reasons (as outlined above). All methods of creating art are as disposable (or can be potentially destroyed) as another.Jerry Boucherhttp://www.the-vaw.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-22715150211857079372012-07-28T13:58:46.075-04:002012-07-28T13:58:46.075-04:00"He is a perfect artist for a generation of s..."He is a perfect artist for a generation of simpletons." ~ I read that and nearly choked on my <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPYgb0FP6xo" rel="nofollow">Bubble Yum</a>.अर्जुनhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14724439749828805512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-84332227651174433012012-07-27T21:03:06.606-04:002012-07-27T21:03:06.606-04:00Funny how a bunch of actual Playboy bunnies look s...Funny how a bunch of actual Playboy bunnies look so hefty against the drawn ones.xenideshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02527515587503087809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-87175199365279809832012-07-27T13:52:02.522-04:002012-07-27T13:52:02.522-04:00अर्जुन-- OK, I watched your video and I'm STIL...अर्जुन-- OK, I watched your video and I'm STILL asking, "What, no music?"<br /><br />Li-An-- So I take it you're not an Avengers fan. Perhaps you prefer the Justice League?David Apatoffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11293486149879229016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-72543473886493514952012-07-27T13:45:51.336-04:002012-07-27T13:45:51.336-04:00Armand Cabrera wrote, "An artist and their be...Armand Cabrera wrote, "An artist and their belief about what they are making is part of their expression. Pretty hard to paint a landscape now with the same belief system as Monet. To me that is the significant difference between all artists...." <br /><br />I think you make important points, and I would go one step further to say that the belief system of the viewer plays a role as well. But ultimately doesn't the work have to stand alone? If I put three landscapes on a wall, and I am ignorant of the time periods and the belief systems of the artists-- say, Bruegel, Carracci and Monet-- can't I legitimately appreciate their expressions without any regard for the "artist and their belief"? In fact, don't most people view most art that way? <br /><br />I suspect that an artist who is convinced that a benevolent deity resides in the sky overhead will paint a landscape differently than a post modern cynic. But in the end, aren't we mostly relating to the colors and shapes?<br /><br />As for Andrew Wyeth, I agree he has the cultural importance of a Koons or Hirst (even if his work sells for less). I would say that his themes are timeless but still very relevant and "contemporary" as you use that term. I put most of his work on a higher plane than the work of Koons or Hirst, but I think Wyeth requires a more intelligent audience to see past the old barns and recognize the mysticism, the ruthlessness, the intelligence and the weirdness in his pictures. <br /><br />Finally, when you say "the artist is in complete control of his medium," I assume you are not an enemy of happy accidents? Even Wyeth summoned the courage to take a jar of paint, throw the contents at a nearly completed painting, and then come back the next day to see how it dried.<br /><br />Bolivia - juegos de chicas-- I'm glad there's something here for everyone.<br /><br />Anonymous-- Yes, Christina Hendricks does seem to be the look du jour. I find these bunnies more comical than alluring (with their little Captain America shield or Thor hammer) but there's no doubt the original Hendricks is dazzling.David Apatoffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11293486149879229016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-87294845270227917702012-07-27T12:44:31.500-04:002012-07-27T12:44:31.500-04:00Laurence John-- What you describe is a real danger...Laurence John-- What you describe is a real danger if this kind of work is not done well (and there are far more ways to do it poorly than to do it well). There will be many wrong paths and detours ahead as the aesthetics for this kind of experience are worked out. The projects that impressed me are more than crudely animating a hand removing a gun from a holster. For example, in a panel illustrating an event from the 1950s involving Richard Nixon, elements of the drawing were multi-layered for edification (including film clips of Nixon from that era, interactive material, etc.) Some of the content is just data or instructional material but some of it is additional layers of art. The reader can stick to the surface story and imagine the movement (your "comic book" scenario) or the reader can delve into other layers, some of which can be filtered for the experience you want so you aren't inundated with random, inert clutter. It is still early in the life cycle for this stuff but one can envision an art experience something akin to 3 dimensional chess. <br /><br />अर्जुन-- I'm a person who loves comic books but even I recognize that Will Cotton's concept of "desire" was frozen at an infantile stage and never matured. He is a perfect artist for a generation of simpletons. As for "Estes, Close and Hockney" I think they are among the most prominent painters who first used traditional media to implement content dictated by a machine (or in the case of Hockney, to incorporate a whole bunch of polaroids to make pictures). The situation seems only to have worsened with the later artists on my list, such as Holzer and Emin. <br /><br />Kev Ferrara-- I am with you on Koons, but as is often the case, I fault his audience more than I fault the artist. The gullible collectors who pay millions of dollars for his trash, the gallery owners and auctioneers who whip up a froth over his work to get a percentage of the spoils, the pedants and reviewers who write far fetched analyses of his work in an effort to make themselves culturally important-- to me, their sins are worse than the sins of some huckster who abandons high artistic standards for millions of dollars.David Apatoffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11293486149879229016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-82960047543824232032012-07-25T09:41:27.461-04:002012-07-25T09:41:27.461-04:00Better than articial ugly ladies dressed in super...Better than articial ugly ladies dressed in superheroes clothes ? Easy: a Gruger drawing :-)Li-Anhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10702501956172981776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-80285654554168554602012-07-24T07:01:39.824-04:002012-07-24T07:01:39.824-04:00For anyone that said, "What, no music‽" ...For anyone that said, "What, no music‽" ~ <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F57P9C4SAW4" rel="nofollow">Will Cotton magic.</a> (Gil Elvgren lives!)अर्जुनhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14724439749828805512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-86567581307448588892012-07-24T02:55:48.182-04:002012-07-24T02:55:48.182-04:00Too many Christina Hendricks quotes in the Bunny P...Too many Christina Hendricks quotes in the Bunny Picture. I'm not complaining though. <br /><br />Re: technology. Yes, commercial art will sort it out. If we're lucky, what results will allow new horizons of creativity to dawn and maybe even "fine" art will be able to remove itself from it's own excretory orifice.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-79176815031087548122012-07-23T14:48:11.246-04:002012-07-23T14:48:11.246-04:00really beautiful girl, all nicereally beautiful girl, all niceBolivia - juegos de chicashttp://www.juegoschicasjuegos.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-32621297050478578132012-07-23T10:46:21.617-04:002012-07-23T10:46:21.617-04:00David,
I completely agree with you when creators ...David,<br /><br />I completely agree with you when creators relinquish all control over a chosen medium. For art to exist it must contain a point of view in my opinion and that point of view can only be expressed successfully when the artist is in complete control of his medium. Gaining that control is preliminary to creating art and does not assure art will be made. The idea must exist first and then the creator must use their abilities to successfully communicate it to the viewer. They can’t renounce any part of the development which is what I think you are talking about with your examples. By excessively relying on technology for skills artists give away their singular expression and lessen any impact they could have had if they had the skills to complete their ideas with skill and creativity alone. <br /><br />I don’t know what you mean when you say “someone who has the cultural significance” Andrew Wyeth is the only one who has the same status that I think you are talking about. I know this goes against the grain but I’ve never bought the idea that art had to be to be contemporary in a stylistic sense as long as it wasn’t affecting the expression of another’s work. I use contemporary in the true meaning of the word- ‘of our time’.<br />An artist and their belief about what they are making is part of their expression. Pretty hard to paint a landscape now with the same belief system as Monet. To me that is the significant difference between all artists; time and experience not broad style. Style can be two things, it can be contrived manifesto or the honest expression of ones experiences captured creatively in than artists chosen medium. I prefer the latter and think that it rises to the level of what art is for me more often than manifesto. Manifesto eschews facility or control or even communication. Everything is subjugated to its agenda. So much so in some cases that you need to read an explanation of the piece to understand it.armandcabrerahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01772142818316748471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-60953474382607700572012-07-23T10:46:05.583-04:002012-07-23T10:46:05.583-04:00Koons, let's face it, is an industry. And a li...Koons, let's face it, <i>is</i> an industry. And a little bird told me the paintings other people make for him on a weekly basis go for a million or more dollars per (once his name is affixed). <br /><br />Is that scavenging? Seems the opposite as I see it. <br /><br />Is Koons compromising his art in some way in order to just make rent? (Ha. And ha.) <br /><br />Laurence John's point is a good one.kev ferrarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09509572970616136990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-59259114562652067402012-07-23T08:39:58.033-04:002012-07-23T08:39:58.033-04:00David, David, David, Katy Perry is far more popula...David, David, David, Katy Perry is far more popular than the above mentioned crud, which only makes the work of oil painter <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/104843871720362761374/FineArt#5768340387987577890" rel="nofollow">Will Cotton</a> of greater "cultural significance".<br /><br />Estes, Close & Hockney …what year is it …1972?अर्जुनhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14724439749828805512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-64998011444295959762012-07-23T07:16:54.544-04:002012-07-23T07:16:54.544-04:00"but these creators have at least made a good..."but these creators have at least made a good start; they have learned to employ apps to make a monster in the background of one panel get up and crawl out of the panel and across the page of your e-book"<br /><br />put a graphic novel on a screen and throw in a few moving parts and all it looks like is an animatic for an unmade animated film. do people really need to see a hand taking a gun out of a holster (stiffly done) to enhance their experience ? the whole beauty of comics is that the reader imagines the 'movement' (and sound, and dialogue). <br /><br />if you start moving little bits and pieces of a comic on a screen all you've done is made a very shoddy animated film.Laurence Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11988700485839219253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-37230326806659042882012-07-23T01:09:18.163-04:002012-07-23T01:09:18.163-04:00Kev, I am a big fan of oil paint, and I'll rai...Kev, I am a big fan of oil paint, and I'll raise the ante with vine charcoal (against which your oil paint is a johnny come lately). I can still be dazzled with what those media can accomplish. But would you say that Damien Hirst qualifies as a "bottom feeder" if he uses a computer to design crappy patterns with hearts and flowers, which then get tons of adulation and sell for huge sums?David Apatoffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11293486149879229016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-62759370685836683272012-07-23T01:02:19.947-04:002012-07-23T01:02:19.947-04:00Armand, you raise a good point about gallery art t...Armand, you raise a good point about gallery art that I think is worth further exploration. I do not deny that there is excellent, honorable work to be done in traditional media (and in fact that you are among those who do it). But my sense is that an artist today who paints a landscape is looking at the same sun on the same hills and capturing it with the same tools (human mind/eye/hand/brush/oil paint/ canvas) that Monet and countless others used. <br /><br />My concern in this post is that in recent decades, modern technologies seem to pervade the work of the "headliners" who dominate the cultural dialogue. Traditional "painters" such as Richard Estes or Chuck Close or David Hockney employ digital cameras and projectors and polaroid cameras at the heart of what they do. Artists such as Christo, earth works artists such as Smithson, performance artists are all dependent on digital technology to create and record works that could not have existed in previous centuries. Hirst, Holzer, Emin-- they all use modern technologies in their art, and often not for the better. When you refer to gallery artists outside of the NY (or LA?) mindset that qualify as "contemporary," do you have anyone in mind with the same cultural significance as the above artists? <br /><br />But my main point had to do with video "fine" art or computer "fine" art or algorithm "fine" art-- art which seems to have climbed aboard a powerful, transformative medium without the power or taste to control it and shape it into something of meaningful artistic value. Warhol just flipped the "on" switch and let the camera run unguided-- not just for "Sleep" but for his many other movies such as "Eat" and "Kiss" and "Blow job." I am unimpressed with those who abdicate the responsibility for editorial coherence. <br /><br />You know the gallery world better than I-- do you think I am missing something?David Apatoffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11293486149879229016noreply@blogger.com