Saturday, August 29, 2009

E of A sketches

This is a collection of sketches meant to represent art, activism and
the way in which they interact in society. Make sure to read the legend below,
to better understand the images.

E of A (legend)


In my FACS class Art and Activism we were asked to conceptualize activism insofar as it interacts/affects/and is affected by art. The images to follow are interpretive- to a certain point, however each "scenario" is meant to be a separate example of how art, activism and society intermingle.

an Artist Manifesto

1. Art is a language, it must be written in words. The reason there are no more art movements is because there are no more languages. Post Modernism destroyed them all.

Languages are born out of recognition, reproduction, pattern and memory

Without memory we can never improve, change, evolve, grow, or sustain what we value.

2. Time is a natural resource. It is an Artist’s air. We sell our air just to survive and then everybody wonders why all the Artists are holding their breath.

3. Art is freedom. It needs freedom like plants need water and sunlight. It can exist with less freedom as a deformed and stunted plant continues to exist.

4. Freedom lives in two dimensions; one in the real world, and the other in our minds. One is the unlocking of a gate, and the other is knowing the gate is unlocked.

5. Most of the world’s greatest masterpieces were never created. They failed to escape the mind who first conceived them.

6. Civilization can survive without Art, it has and still does in many places. It isn’t society but the soul that falls apart without it.

7. Art can and does serve the wealthy and powerful. Only we decide when it deserves better.

8. A true Artist is open minded to everything, he listens then interprets accordingly.

9. There is such a thing as bad art, it is exists in the absence of thought, inspiration, imagination and vision. Good Artists are aware of these forces, great Artists possess them, and Masters weald them.

Good art touches something that others try to access through it. It is the marriage of the intellect and the emotions.

10. An Artist must farm their imagination to strengthen their creativity. One can gain or lose creative power depending on one’s habits.

11. A strong imagination is limitless, it feels like an ocean of possibilities. The artist’s conception is the wind that carves and molds these troubled waters.

12. An artist’s tools disappear every time he steps into a new media. We begin using them without knowing how they work let alone that they exist. With every new creation the tools become a little clearer. With every new media, our old tools change.

13. an Artist knows when art is being truthful. Unauthentic art exudes a lofting, almost undetected- funny smell.

14. Living in constant inspiration is the goal of any Artist lucky enough to have experienced it before.

15. Artists cannot fit into social conventions- when they do, they cease being Artists. This transition is reversible.

16. A true Artist is not economical, he pours into his work every detail he hopes others will pull out of it. There are no short cuts to a master piece.

17. obfuscation is not a style. It fills the white space within a young Artist’s work, and helps distract the teacher from seeing these empty spaces.

18. Artists don’t see what exists, we bring what doesn’t yet exist… into this world.