Street Art on TV

I'm not one to write about something based on a TV show. Nor am I one to watch “Reality TV” but, honestly, there are the few that I find interesting. One show I like is “Work of Art”. I enjoy it because, it is interesting to see what the artists do with a challenge and how they use materials. A couple of weeks ago one challenge was street art. What got me thinking wasnʼt really the subject of the show or the works, but what Simon de Pury said at the start of the show. He stated. “Street art started as an expression outside of the art world and the law. Slowly the initial pioneers transformed the illegal expression into an exceptional form of art.”

To me, the most important thing he said is how it slowly transformed into an official form of art. This has been historically true for all arts. The other thing that the episode did with the works that were made, and Simonʼs statement was help present graffiti and other street arts in a positive light to the public. Because this show is watched and can be watched by people who have no clue about art and want to see the mysterious happenings in the artist studio, education has been slipped in. Effectively, the street art episode, to me, showed that graffiti is not as black and white as some people think. There are many layers to some works. All work? No. But the fact that street art, from the name someone uses as a tag to a yarn monster, from a mural (legally made or not) to chalk drawings always has intrinsically more then what it is on the surface. People, including some in the established art world, have a hard time because when actual street works are put up, they are for everyone to take in and the artist is not there to give an explanation. Putting a street art episode on a TV show like “Work of Art” does do something different, I hope it proves to be more educational then people might realize - Pop Culture really can help explain cultural phenomena.

Top 10 Images of 2011!

Hello! A New Year is upon us and I hope to find even more exciting images of random art in 2012. Now even though Acts of Random Art is not a full year old yet there are many images of 2011 that where found. So I went back and looked at all the images that were posted and stored on Flickr and picked the top 10 images. I hope you enjoy them and please share comments and if you have favorites let me know. And if you find some over 2012 share them with everyone on Acts of Random Art!

Here you go! 2011 to 10 images!

Happy Holidays!

Let it snow! Because Maine should have snow and doesn't I went out and changed that. I visited 9 trashcans on the street of Freeport Maine and put chalk drawings of snowflakes on them. If you are in the area stop by and check them out. Tomorrow (Friday Dec. 23rd) I plan to put photos of all the flakes on Flickr! So keep your eyes open for them!

Best Images of 2011 search starts now!

New images just updated on the A.o.R.A. flickr page! Now to start look and figuring out the top 10 found art for 2011! They will be posted January 2nd. Just incase I find something so amazing in the next two weeks. But I should start looking over and making some choices. If you have any favorites please let me know!


check them out here!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/actsofrandomart/pool/

No Real Excuse

As much as I'd like to apologize for not writing a lot lately, I can't really. I say this because I have been busy making some sculptures and other art. But at the same time I should have been squeaking in some writing time. Breaking up time for those multi projects is still being worked out. Do not fear though! I do have some writings on the horizon and plan to get a couple more down this month. With a real push to getting more time set aside for 2012!

And thank you to all who have followed these writings and I hope you keep on checking in and passing the word on for the subjects you find interesting. And I'm always looking for more subject matters involving art and the streets.

Who decides Art is Art?

Even though I live in Freeport Maine a couple towns over and about 15-20 minute drive to Portland I am watching what is going there very carefully. Why should I care that much? Well Portland might not be the capital but it could be a place that sets some rules that will have effects across the state. Giving other towns and cities the light to tighten their reins on what art is.

Now don’t think that this is a completely new thing in art. Because this is  the kind of problem that art has had probably since the first cave painting. I can only picture the hunting scene be drawn with white powder and some one say it’s only real art when you burn the wood and draw with black charcoal. For centuries art also wasn’t even considered art. The early sculptures and fresco’s where not made just because someone wanted to. They where made because somebody wanted to to create stuff but was only allowed on commission and was very specific what and what not to do. When Leonardo was drawing in the dark and in secrecy the human body. His drawings of inventions and the human figure now are considered masterpieces. When what they really are are drawings for ideas and studies.

Jump ahead a couple thousand years and you will see the same thing going on. But now sculptors and painters can more or less make art for what it is. Art a form of entertainment. But then came photography, and that scared the hell out of artists, painters for sure because how where they supposed to compete with something that can capture a moment and in such detail? It was blown off for decades. Which it was used manly for commercial use and news reporting to give an image to help tell a story. Even though there where artists out shooting away trying to show that it is not threat to painters and the art world, but a new form of art. Ansel Adams is considered one of the best landscape photographers, yet he had to fight and prove that photography was an art form in the start. It wasn’t until roughly the 60’s that photography finally was given the green light to be an art form. In which even drawing the basis to most artists is still on shaky grounds of being art. It is more so an art but in the some of the more tight art groups it’s looked down upon. Even acrylics had a hard time being called paints. Which there are still oil painters that claim acrylics are not real because it’s a plastic paint. Which in my personal opinion if an artist knows how to use their materials and well, then it doesn’t matter if it’s watercolor, oil, or acrylic.

Now with that background what I am following that’s going on in Portland Maine is a quote from the cities attorney:

“The court has already determined what art is. It’s not up to an artist what art is.”
-Mary Costigan, City Attorney (Portland, ME)

Now how does that work? Artists can’t decide their work to be art? This day and age one of the hard things with contemporary art is what is art? You have performance art, fiber art, functional art, the list can go on and on. Now isn’t it easier to have the non art world settle the art worlds age long on going fight? And to use the courts to say that is and that is not art. Reasons why I am watching this is because of a danger that it makes me feel of where and how art is decided on. Because there are people that think that the jewelry they make is a true piece of art. Where someone looking at a painting that is all white and it’s all about the fact it’s 100 layers painted on, each layer at 10:56am everyday for 100 days. People will say, “That’s art?” But having the courts claim they know what art is, well that is dangerous. To me it’s not a Freedom of Speech thing. Because what this is all about is people selling art on the streets of Portland when they where told it’s open and now they are trying to slam the door shut. I see it as a problem for Portland’s Public Art groups having a harder time later when they want to put something in a public space and the courts say, that is not what we call art so no. And some of the internal bickering that will go on even more will be a problem. The reason why I don’t think that it’s a Freedom of Speech thing is only because it’s a commerce thing. To say selling art is a Freedom of Speech, that is different then saying you can’t make art that represents this. That is where blocking Freedom of Speech comes into play. But blocking what art is to sell, that’s a entirely different thing. Go to the MoMA, Milwaukee Museum, Portland Museum of Art, Boston, Chicago Art Institute, The Walker in Minnesota, any major museum anywhere and you will see from furniture and silverware in the design sections to Egyptian and Contemporary art work. All in which is called Art. Now for Portland to say a wooden spoon is not hand made and a form of art, they have not looked and educated them self on the history and show what is. The Portland Museum of Art will be having a show involving shaker furniture. Before questioning and saying what is and what is not, the courts need to really open their eyes and read up on somethings.

A response to another Yarn Bombers observation

After reading this great blog entry on the observation of another Yarn Bomber…(First if you want to read what they said before going on with this read Maluca Yarnbombing entry). I’ll wait...

Okay, now I’m assuming you have read the entry and now know that they were looking at monster feet and chicken feet moving up on a post and finding that it’s the city workers moving them so that they will not be damaged when cleaning the streets. I personally think it is fantastic and choose to assume that the workers liked having something different to look at other then the usual post. Now, it’s funny, because when we bombed Freeport, Maine, for International Yarn Bombing Day and Monster Foot day it was very interesting to see what happened to the works and who seems to really like them and who, oddly, has a problem. One restaurant, Azure Café, really enjoys it. The monster feet from June 11^th, as well as the additional ones on Monster Foot Day, were such a success they are still on the lights outside the building. The book store across the street leaves work up until it gets to a point that it looks a little shaggy and they take it inside. Some things they have even put aside for us to recollect and use later or just for display behind the counter. Surprisingly, Banana Republic, has left monster feet up on lamp posts, the Historical Society cracks me up by protecting things put up there. I even hear people talking about how when something fall off they pick them up and put them back! This means people around town are protecting these random works of art. Which is really pretty funny, sweet, and telling that art touches all of us in surprising ways.

Now, one thing I find funnier than the places that keep stuff up, is some of the ones that take them off right away. For example, a store that on International Yarn Bombing Day, June 11, 2011, my team was pretty sure this one store would be all for it. It’s a “Hippie” personality of a shop. So we figured that they would be laid back and want it. But, they were the first to take the two or three small things off the bench in front of the store. I went out early that morning to photograph the work in the morning light, the bench items were there, but when I talked to someone who went by an hour or so later, it turned out that the store people had taken it off. While I was pretty sure Banana Republic would have removed the feet that morning, they didn’t. And the other shop is a closer “local” shop. How ironic is that?

Now, I think one reason why yarn graffiti is more accepted is that it’s not permanently affixed to things. That is why I think most gorilla art that is not fixed to things and just placed is more accepted. It can be taken down when it fades or if it’s not liked by someone and it does not damage anything. Chalk, yarn, sculptures are all things that can happen without really getting people’s feathers too ruffled up. That and it is always safer when it’s humorous. Please share with us what your see happen and your observations of public art, from Yarn Bombing to stickers to graffiti. Keep your eyes open because little things may pop up when you least expect them! And if you can’t find any in your area, you can always make things happen.