Austinist: Truesday: The Big Rug - For Sweeping, Pulling

bruthanick

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:42:36 -0600

I walked outside and noticed that raindrops were on my arm, at that instance, I knew it was art in the making and I had no camera.

shototsu

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:56:44 -0600

I love the idea of the emotional landfill! I'd offer that time a bus full of 7-12th graders sang the Flintstones Vitamin jingle at me while replacing "growing" with "starving." I was a runt of a kid. As a knitter I can understand what you're getting at with regards to craft vs. art. I don't look at my knitted items as art, because they are never a result of my creativity. A lot of knitters may disagree, claiming choices of color or fiber as "creativity." In my opinion, art is writing a knitting pattern. If my knitting were free-form or based on my own pattern I would call it art. I also don't see speaking a foreign language or playing someone elses' tunes as creative; go figure. It doesn't mean I don't respect the craft. I'm a terrible photographer, Japanese speaker, and guitar player. I definitely respect folks with those skills.

truecraig

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:21:13 -0600

Not that I want to take myself too seriously here, but I completely agree with you on the comparison between the column and the tree photos in terms of artistic legitimacy. They are both very similar in purpose and presentation, and neither fits my own definition of 'art'. The only meaty difference would be that one was actually pulled from the mind while the other was captured in the wild. Created vs Found. Concept vs composition. To the guy's credit, I didn't force him to cough up his concept behind the tree photos. But he didn't offer it, either. He intentionally blathered on about structure, which isn't the same as concept. But I wouldn't go so far as to categorize my feelings toward the photog's 'peer art' as 'rage'. I simply didn't agree with dude about the delineation between 'art' and 'stuff that looks cool'. Which is totally subjective, I know (hence: opinion). Bottom line: I was being a pretentious dick by actively discounting his efforts, regardless of how sincere I felt (feel), and if I could take it all back and not bother, I would. That's why it's a Landfill Moment.

badhead

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:24:16 -0600

Re: relative merits of photography etc Yes, yes and all of that. But surely ranching is more difficult than the sort of slice of life piece dressed up in nice prose. The attempt to elevate the normal, quotidian stuff of life into the status of something beautiful, or transcendent, or presumably at least worth someone else's time. The setting apart of mere observation by plucking it out and inserting it into the public eye; rather like the photos at the showing you went to, or perhaps, by publishing thoughts about those pics on a public blog. What I do applaud about this post, though, is the courage to direct rage at peer art. The reason everyone and their 12 year old brother has managed to perform TWICE at fucking Emo's (inside) is because people are too goddamned supportive of everything that even smells of creative in this town.