[AGL] all colors plus black and white, or not

[Gerry]

The touch of the painter and his/her use of color and talent with design and
the final "polish" or lack of same are all dictated primarily by the
location and aspects to Venus in the horoscope, 12 basic positions and lots
of variations from there. For instance, a Venus in Scorpio is likely to show
some extreme use of color or contrast or content and a rather messy canvas,
whereas a Venus in Gemini would likely show some very clever use of design
and a clean canvas, and so on and so forth throughout the vast ranges of
individual horoscopes. For some the stroke is everything, for others it
matters little. Some insist upon political or social comment, others could
care less. In the end we usually find some artist whose approach is similar
to what ours might be and name them as our favorite(s), cop a few of their
idea. The same qualities apply to musicians and our taste in music. Hey,
some people always keep their cars washed and others let the rain do it for
them. So many different strokes and ideas about what is truly beautiful.

Three years of art school left me so confused that I didn't know what I
liked any more. I did like Mondrian a lot, and a few others whose work I had
seen in museums or on slides in class. I was looking for rhythms. My main
art history teacher was an expert on the Alhambra and I saw hundreds of
slides taken in that fabulous structure, no doubt influencing me to some
extent (clean geometry and the visual trickery it can produce with depth
perception). Took me years to arrive at some direction and when I did it did
not involve much that I had been exposed to in art school. Wound up with a
degree in Technical Illustration, doing my drawing on a computer...no
brushes, no tubes, no canvas, just the printer on the table waiting to show
me what I had come up with on the screen. I could not devote all the time I
saw the cartoonists (Gilbert, Jaxon, Wilson, etc.)spending on a frame,
sitting on their butts for hours and hours scribbling with a pen, yet when I
am in front of a computer (sitting on my butt for hours and hours) I am
excited the whole time.

Mondrian? He is in the garden, all the rectangles of the rows and the fences
and pathways which produce fields of color, all within a play on 5's and 4's
at the core...Huh? Me? Venus in Pisces trine to Mars in Scorpio...clean
edges always, within the circle.
G





----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Irwin" <billi at aloha.net>
To: "survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s"
<austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 8:09 PM
Subject: Re: [AGL] all colors plus black and white



> What's wrong with unfruitful discussions?  I thought that was what we were

> all about!

>

> What I was trying to get at is that the use of butterfly wings, or any

other

> material in a creation, is that materials do in fact have meaning.  That

is

> why they are used, they don't get in the way as Mike says, they are part

of

> the message.  A popular quote -"the medium is the Message".  Oil paint is

a

> material and somebody that knows how that works can do wonders, I am

> thinking of Van Gough here in the way he applied his pigments.  His craft

of

> the brush stroke and use of the pigment to create a surface effect added

to

> his message and enhances the emotional effect.  I see many painters that

> paint like house painters - they carefully mix up the color and apply it

to

> the area in a nice even manner, then for the next color area they do the

> same.   Their craft of the brush stroke is non-existent and they seem to

> think that the paint itself has no connotations.  For those people I say

go

> study Van Gough or Chinese brush painting.

>

> A number of years back there was a guy here that did abstract collages

using

> dried banana bark and leaves, they were kind of good abstractions and

> regularly got into juried exhibitions.  Using the banana leaves gave a

> interesting effect and texture that you could never have gotten with

paint.

> Now is this "fine art" or "craft" ?   Fine art because it relied on

> composition, color, abstraction, and 2 dimensions.  Craft because it used

> banana leaves as the material and depended on the cutting and pasting of

the

> material and was about banana leaves to a great extent.

>

> So therefore, I don't agree that paint is better than some other material

> and that the material you do chose to work with does have meanings and

that

> is why you use them.  Paint has meaning also, particularly to people that

> say painting is the only art form.  Many "fine artists" have poor concepts

> when it comes to dealing with craft arts.

> Aloha,

> Ewie

>

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: "Jon Ford" <jonmfordster at hotmail.com>

>

>

> > What Mike is saying might be true for purely abstract painting  produced

> > according to a particular ideology of art. However, if you stretch this

> kind

> > of thiking too far, it starts to seem like "my advanced culture is

> > inherently superior to your 'primitive' culture." We could debate about

> this

> > too, but it likely be a rather unfruitful discussion.

> >

> > Jon

> >

> >

> > >From: "Bill Irwin" <billi at aloha.net>

> > >

> > >Clearly you don't have an understanding or appreciation for the craft

> arts

> > >where material is a major point.  Also take a look at Chinese brush

> > >painting

> > >where material (ink) and the craft of the brush stroke is a major

> > >consideration.

> > >

> > >----- Original Message -----

> > >From: "Michael Eisenstadt" <mike.eisenstadt at gmail.com>

> > > >

> > > > pigment out of a tube is better than feathers or butterfly wings

> > > > because it has no associations and therefore gets in the way of

> > > > the art less.

>

>

>