If its not art, what is it?

When artists conceive and give “birth” to their work of art (regardless of the media used), the work does assume and manifest a life of its own, and the artist interactively, with resonance, becomes the medium “whelping” in labor brings the work of art into this weird world of ours (populated with humans).

One wonders about the integrity of that life, when the creator later goes back to alter the original, even paint over it, throw it away, or even worse, someone else does. Perhaps the “medical care” of the art work requires its preservation restoration, and the alteration does not sacrifice the value of the art as originally intended.

An arti-vice is the counterfeit and forgery of art as well as the copying of valuable originals with evil intent or greedy theft in mind. To copy the masters is a learning exercise, and that activity should be allowed and encouraged so that the student may better understand and appreciate the masters and the degree of difficulty involved, but to copy with intent to deceive or cheat would be the same as avoiding the discipline of studying, working exercises, and actually circumventing learning lessons thereby cheating via various shortcuts and on the exam and review falsely earning a passing rather than what should be a failing grade.

My Father taught me drawing when I was in elementary school first having me trace over works of art of all kinds and then I used other aids to learn perspective. Sadly, so much time has passed, and I have not retained all that my Father lovingly tried to teach me.

 Much of what I have dutifully studied and learned is now integrated and has lost its recall specifics, no longer recognizable, now appearing that I do not even know the basics. Perhaps it is that those “basics” were meant only to be stepping stones to what I am truly supposed to know and do now at this stage in my life believing beauty and truth are how we feel within and value those virtues, the art and the artist becoming one.

I am trying to understand why the photography art print below was withdrawn from the veterinarian art show and yet I realize it is not “fine art”, it may not even be art, but what is it? I did create something. What did I create?

There is no art so bad as to be impossible to learn something from it so that the next attempt will improve and be better. It came to my mind that this montage was in the genre of "interpretive art". The mission of interpretive art is to expand the awareness of issues affecting underserved communities.

Via cross-disciplinary art activities, medias, and interactions with real life scenarios in the world around him, an artist expresses and creates art that reflects communication messages dedicated to improving social problems. Interpretative art uses its time and space to explore cultural and political issues most relevant to their artist communities and lives. Interpretative art serves as a communication bridge for improving the health, education, and social justice issues of the underserved, underprivileged classes.

Art at one time meant communication. When entering this piece that was juried and accepted and then not hung without explanation, I realized it departed from the other entries in the show. A framed work that was finished to be hung in the show now sits as a passenger in my Toyota pickup truck, and I am perplexed what I should do with it? Maybe it was art that was meant just for me to ponder its “birth”?... and also wonder what to do if not never to allow such “art” to be reproduced or even seen, and yet what often passes as art is not art at all but simply a problem statement requiring a solution.

I felt the refusal to hang this photo montage that was accepted by the show jurors was a slap and insult in the face, unabashed, to my joy and happiness after first being notified by the jury selection committee that both of my entries had been accepted into the show. I am not upset about the poorly performing second class photography entry.  It is the contradictory actions of accepting an entry then refusing to hang it that bothers me.

This montage had been entered only as a secondary spurious after thought, and at the last moment before the cut off of accepting entries expired.  It was submitted as an experiment in my mind actually to see what would result with it.

I do agree that this specific art entry was a great departure from the la la other paintings in the show. I realize also those in charge of setting up and hosting the show wanted to entertain and impress with guests and the art community with “fine art”, but my reasoning in entering the montage was that the show needed an entry that truly showed how people interact with their pets and the Maricopa Animal Care and Control Shelter with its many strays and throw aways being put to death. That message deserved its historical place because of its truth.  Truth is unwanted many times just like the strays that end up in MCACC.

In terms of numbers of animals and numbers of people circulating in, for, and around MCACC it represented the animal/people bond more than the many pure animal portraiture depicting no animal/people bond whatsoever and one of which (the bull's face portraiture) won first place.

If it is a show about 250th Anniversary of Veterinarian Medicine and service to people, consider then that all these years have gone by and still many people do not responsibly take care of their pets nor their selves. Veterinarian medicine has yet to create and prescribe an effective treatment for that condition.

The jurors accepted the entry and notified me it was in the show, but someone powerful enough in the show refused to hang it.

Oh well, now what do I do with it? As I said it is riding around with me in my Toyota as a passenger. Perhaps if an explanation would have been forthcoming as reasonably due, then truth and the “art” of the show would not be as “palette-able” or “palatable” as it might want to be. I wonder.

This photo work is more than montage judged fine art, it is a problem statement ongoing and moving along with me on the road. For now, I don’t know what else to do with it. So I just will think about it until I or someone else can resolve the questions that surround it.

*****
I now understand why that photographic montage was not hung, but I do not understand why the jurors accepted it into the show if they were not going to hang it.

I now know that the montage is visually disturbing. That is the problem. It is a problem statement that no wants to see because it tells too much about the viewer's being either a part of the problem or a part of the solution and no in between fence sitting. In my mind, it also looks a lot like the Arizona Department of Corrections with its many inmates behind bars many who are people strays just like the canines in the MCACC are being bars. That photographic montage frightens me and perhaps that is what others see also when they look at it. The Haul-Low-Cost of man's
inhumanity to man and cruelty to animals in his care and keeping. Try to not get hung up in that fact soley, for time would be better spent teaching color names to the blind.

Worry is a misuse of the imagination so I will not worry that someone may dislike me. I am art in that respect, and an art that requires a vision that most do not have nor will they ever acquire in this life.

I am an artist because I now choose to be, having aptitude, altitude, and attitude, plus ability acquired via education, training, and experience. I need no one to declare what I am if I know who I am and what I want to do with my life. Beauty and truth are how we feel within and value those virtues, the art and the artist becoming one.

I hope that you would seek to be an artist too in this life, be a work of art that would be amazing beauty and truth through and through. You can be more than you are, better than you were, and impress yourself with inner truths that can never be disparaged by me or anyone else.

Be, ...
Be.!!
Do not content yourself
with what you are,
be more than you are,
positively!