Fine Arts and Professional Practice - First Semester

Having just completed my first semester on the Fine Arts and Professional Practice BA (Hons) degree course at Blackpool Art School I thought it may be helpful to those contemplating embarking on this course if I shared some of my thoughts and experiences from the first semester (15 weeks).

First thing I realised was the Art Foundation pre-degree course (FC), which I enjoyed imensly, in no way prepares you for what is involved in an academic degree course. Which is a pity really as with a bit of joined up thinking the value of the foundation course could be considerably enhanced. Considering that many of the Blackpool foundation students go on to the BA course at Blackpool there seems to be a large gap between the two courses.

Critical Studies
For example, although the FC includes Contextual Studies (history of Art) the way the subject is taught the subject does not prepare you for Critical Studies (CS) which is the degree course equivalent. CS is much more academic, in its approach, different vocabulary, embracing the philosophy of art and critical thinking. A prior knowledge of these concepts will be a definite asset in your first semester. They throw you in a the deep end and if you have no idea who Baudelaire is or the ranting of Marx, Engle's and the crackpot ideas of Jung and Freud you will be struggling. Particularly as within 10 minutes of the end of the first lecture the library will be stripped bare of any reference material. A criticism I have of the course at Blackpool is they do not provide a reading list prior to your arrival. This places great pressure on the library facilities. See my Amazon wish list in the right hand column for reading suggestions. No the list is not a hint to buy me anything.



Computer Skills
About 50% of the new students struggled with inadequate computer skills. Although help is available from student services, deficiency in this area will slow your progress at a time when you have many other things to cope with. If your computer skills are rusty or none existent. I would strongly advise that you spend your summer holidays getting to grips with basic word processing and the Internet. You will have to type up a weekly blog for CS from the fist week. And there is a 1500 word essay to write at the end of the first semester. This has to be presented in a very precise manner so you need fairly good word processing skills. You will also need to learn how to do searches on the Internet for contextual material both for all aspects of the course.

If you do not have a computer of your own I would strongly advise buying one. I am typing this on a Samsung NC10 Netbook which costs new (Christmas 2008) £225. You can buy laptops at computer fairs for under £100 or less. If funds are really tight try a request on BlackpoolFreeCycle (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blackpoolfreecycle/). If you are disabled or on benefits I believe there is a scheme through college for providing FREE computers.

Moodle
An important part of CS is the completion of a blog or as they now prefer to call it an eJournal on the College Intranet, familiarly known as Moodle. Moodle is like a mini part of the World Wide Web which is private to the college. Moodle is an important part of both your course and of college life. It is used by the college and tutors to communicate with you by posting notices, sending you emails, reporting results of assessments etc. There are a variety of discussion groups on which you can share thoughts and experiences of such things as gallery visits, social events, trips. Ask for help and advice, from house shares, requests for models to where to find a retro 70’s suitcase! And there is a fund of other information both about the college and your course.


eJournal
But the most important part of Moodle is your eJournal. This is the bit that most people struggle with and much to my surprise it was not the more mature students. The younger text messaging, Facebook, MySpace generation seemed to suffered most. If you have never kept a blog or online journal you should seriously find out how this bit of the Cyber World works. If you want to have a practice in advance I would suggest checking out Blogger on the internet. This is an easy to setup and use blog service operated by Google.

Although you are expected to file an eJournal entry at least once a week this is not a diary. It is an assessable part of your CS module and is supposed to take the form of a critical thinking review on an aspect of a CS lecture, seminar or may be a set piece. It can also include reflective thinking about other aspects of the course, particularly the relevance of the content to your professional discipline and/or practice (Oh yes I have not mentioned Professional Practice yet). It must not be a blow by blow of your daily life. Entries should be short and sweet. Ideally no more than a couple of paragraphs, on one subject. If you want to say more or cover more than one topic you should post separate entries. Posts should include references and key words and if relevant an image(s). They should not include slabs of cut and paste text! Neither should they turn into essays. Moodle contains detailed guidelines.

Professional Practice
The other modules on the course, Professional Practice, Drawing and Painting are slightly less demanding initially. Professional Practice covers aspects of becoming a professional artist in all its permutations, self employed own studio, to teaching. The module covers aspects of self employment, setting up a studio, looking for funding, self promotion, galleries, artist groups and networks etc etc. Useful things to check in advance are Lancashire Artists Network, the magazine AN, as many local galleries as you can find, the local art scene in general and within Blackpool in particular.

Drawing
Drawing is split in two. Main part is "Constructs in Drawing" which is mainly concerned with Life Drawing which will be familiar to those who have completed the Foundation Course. The approach is traditional with emphasis on mark making. You will use a variety of media from pencil to paint but mainly a mix of compressed and traditional charcoal. There is also a more experimental module which is concerned with technical methods and process. It is usually based on the work done in the previous drawing class. Historical and contextual referencing is an important component.

Painting
The module explores spatial awareness through a wide range of technical methods and process combining drawing and other processes such as collage. The subject matter may be directed by the assignment or may be optional. Most students chose to concentrate were allowed on their personal project. This proved to be a sensible choice as it was possible to compare the results of using a variety of techniques on the same subject material. I personally found the approach very enlightening.

The general advice in both drawing and painting is to think "wild" the emphasis is on exploration and discovering personal strengths and weaknesses. It is

Mixed media AJP

important to be self motivated. You need to be able to discuss your work and motivation, be aware of current art trends and their relevance to your work. Our personal work, self directed study, embraced the subjects of Space and Place.

Reflective Diary/Journal
There seemed to be some confusion between individual students as to how this should be approached. Personally I used an A5 spiral bound note book into which I endeavoured to reflect on each lesson. There was an element of diary but on each occasion I made a point of considering the good and bad points of each entry. I received no negative comments at my assessment.

General
I have to say I have found the first semester challenging but very enjoyable. We have a good spirit in the group. The tutors are generally quite human and extremely helpful. There is a tendency for the odd one to forget that not everyone is 18 years old!

Martin Parr - Photographer

Since the 1970s, Martin Parr has photographed aspects of British life, documenting and dissecting the way we live with a witty, unblinking eye. On the eve of Tate Britains exhibition How We Are: Photographing Britain Parr met us at his London studio to talk about his work.

Video courtesy of shihlunchang

WAYS OF SEEING (final episode - advertising) 4/4

This is the fourth of 4 posts showing the final episode of the BBC2 broadcast of John Bergers seminal work "Ways of Seeing" in 4 parts, this is 4/4.

Video is courtesy of manwithaplan999

WAYS OF SEEING (final episode - advertising) 3/4

This is the third of 4 posts showing the final episode of the BBC2 broadcast of John Bergers seminal work "Ways of Seeing" in 4 parts, this is 3/4.

Video is courtesy of manwithaplan999

WAYS OF SEEING (final episode - advertising) 2/4

This is the second of 4 posts showing the final episode of the BBC2 broadcast of John Bergers seminal work "Ways of Seeing" in 4 parts, this is 2/4.

Video is courtesy of manwithaplan999

WAYS OF SEEING (final episode - advertising) 1/4

This is the first of 4 posts showing the final episode of the BBC2 broadcast of John Bergers seminal work "Ways of Seeing" in 4 parts, this is 1/4.

Video is courtesy of manwithaplan999

Transubstantiation - Mass Culture

Re: Walker, J.A., 1996. Art in the Age of Mass Media

transubstantiation:-
noun

1. the changing of one substance into another.
2. Theology: the changing of the elements of the bread and wine, when they are consecrated in the Eucharist, into the body and blood of Christ (a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church).
   

http://dictionary.reference.com/

Not a word that one might expect to come across in a didactic treatise on Mass Culture. (Walker: 1996) In the context of the chapter "Art uses mass culture" I suspect Walker uses the word in its non-theological sense. As he is suggesting that Popular Culture was transformed (transubstantiated) from trash into expensive high art by attracting the approval of cultural bastions such as the Tate.

However, he could well have used the word in its theological sense given the God like standing of Warhol in the world of popular culture. And his ability to transform the exclusive into the commonplace whilst at the same time elevating the mundane to the iconic. Surely a miraculous process. Did Warhol look upon his art in religious terms?


Andy Warhol, The Last Supper (Dove), 1986

There is a consensus of opinion that given Warhol's religious beliefs (Roman Catholic) his work may have had a more religious context that generally realised. In an essay "Transubstantiating the culture: Andy Warhol's secret" James Romaine (an American art historian) (Romaine: 2003) discusses Warhol's secret religious obsessions and how this was revealed in his work. His iconic images of the pop saints Marylyn, Elvis and Jackie, were attributed to his interest in looking at painted icons in church as a boy. Significantly if not ironically he spent the last year of his life reproducing another childhood icon, one of Christianity's most famous and ubiquitous images, "The Last Supper" (Haden-Guest: 2000) a reproduction of which hung on the wall of his family's home and as a prayer card in his mothers missal. He produced at least 40 variations on the image. His memorial service was held at St. Patrick's cathedral in New York. (Christies: 2009) You could speculate that Considering that Warhol died from complications associated from a simple gall bladder operation did he have a premonition of his imminent demise.

I suppose it is possible to draw comparisons between the fanatic fervour and conformity of mass culture with that of religion.


Andy Warhol, Detail of the Last supper, ca 1986

References:-
Christies, 1997. Andy Warhol (1928-1987) | Last Supper | Post-War & Contemporary Art Auction | late 20th Century, Paintings | Christie's. Available at: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5074045 [Accessed January 19, 2009].

Haden-Guest, A., artnet.com Magazine Features - Warhol's Last Supper. http://www.artnet.com/. Available at: http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/features/haden-guest/haden-guest8-3-99.asp [Accessed January 19, 2009].

Romaine, J., 2003. Andy Warhol - Transubstantiating the Culture. Available at: http://oldarchive.godspy.com/culture/Andy-Warhol-Transubstantiating-the-Culture.cfm.html [Accessed January 19, 2009].

Walker, J.A., 1996. Art in the Age of Mass Media 3rd ed., Pluto Press.

Zotero - Citation Organisation

Being of a lazy disposition I have been looking for ways to organise my growing list of references and bibliographies. I currently run Word XP, inevitably Microsoft do not have a means of organising citations in this ancient version. I believe there is an option in Word 2007, although it can not cope with Harvard (Author:Date) citations. I tried a third party option Documentit. Downloaded the Trial version and typed in some 20 bibliography citations. Only to discover that the trial version of Documentit will only allow you to download the first 3 citations in your list, bummer! Having just spent 30 mins typing all that in and not to be able to extract the info again is not amusing. Nowhere in the information regarding the trial version is this limitation mentioned. A cheap trick to make me cough up £14.99 for the full version, I think not, why can they not be upfront about the limitations?

Not to be thwarted, I discovered that I could auto transfer the first 3 citations in my the list into my Word document. Then deleted them from DocumentS*it and transferred again. Yes, it worked the next three citations were transferred and adinfinitum until I had copied over all my bibliography citations into a Word document for future use. Not a completely wasted effort but not quite what I was expecting.

What next, well another session with Google dug up an interesting extension for Firefox, Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] claims that it can "help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources" Zotero is an easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps to gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects), and lets you share the results of your research in a variety of ways. Interestingly Zotero seems to be in dispute with the owners of Endnote a proprietary citation manager.

The easiest way to collect your bibliography is to find the book in question in Amazon click the Zotera icon in the bottom right hand corner of your browser window and Bingo the full citation is added to your library. I have since found a more useful location for Zotero friendly citations at Worldcat an aggregation site for over 10,000 libraries worldwide. The beauty of this site is you can find the details of out of print books.

Zotero integrates with Microsoft Word or Open Office via a plugin. This places icons in the Word toolbar. To add a citation to a document or essay, place the cursor at the point in the document where you want to add the citation, click add citation icon in the toolbar, the first time you will be asked for the format, choose Harvard, select your citation from the list and click add. The citation will be added thus - (Anfam 1998). at the same time Zotero adds the full citation at the end of the document as an alphabetical list. It has worked for me and saved loads of tedious typing.

Digital Student

Yesterdays Guardian (2nd Dec 08) included a supplement "Digital Student". It contained some useful and interesting stuff. One article that caught my eye about e-portfolios. The article described the use of the webfolio software designed by Pebble Pad. This is a bit like Moodle but more interactive. They cited the work of a mature Fine Art student at University of Wolverhampton (sic) showing some interesting examples from Sally's e-Journal.

The Pebble Pad site contains some interesting stuff including a Power Point presentation about the logic behind their creation. There were also links to other useful sites and info. One being a book Art Spoke, and another being a site dedicated to learning on-line with useful info about essay writing etc . There was a very clear example of citing using the Harvard, Author Date, system.

Understanding the Canon in Art

Critical Studies Lecture 6th October 2008 - Revisited

This lecture introduced the notion of the "canon" in art. At the time my only understanding of the word was as an instrument of war or the liturgy of the Catholic Mass. I had not come across the word in the context of art.
Since when of course I have bumped into the word a number of times, not usually in a context which sank in.

Today I was reading an interesting article in Art World [1] which referred to a new exhibition in the New York Guggenheim.[2] Described as ground breaking and titled "theanyspacewhatsoever", the exhibition involves 10 artists, Angela Bulloch, Maurizio Cattelan, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno and Rirkrit Tiravanija. They describe themselves as individuals but the art world describes them as part of a new "ism", "Relational Aesthetics", an association they have endeavoured to deny.

They are artist who have renounced the production of individual objects replacing these instead with the medium of the gallery or museum space. This they use individually or in loose collaboration to create "artwork" which creates a social environment in which people come together to participate in a shared activity".[3]

Critics, academics, curators and collectors have endeavoured to pigeon hole these artist alongside the YBA (Young British Artists) of the 1990's, considered to be the foundation of the "ism", "Relational Aesthetics",

Guggenheim curator Nancy Spector gleefully suggests the collaboration of these artists in this unique event justifies their addition to this canon!

I feel that reading this article has clarified my understanding of the notion of the term canon in the context of art.

Notes:-

• Canon: a term used to mean work of value or a restrictive and limited code or disciplinary practice and theory.
• Canon: a rule or especially body of rules or principles generally established as valid and fundamental in a field or art.
• Canonical: According to acknowledged rules.
  

References:-

1. www.guggenheim.com/exhibitions/exhibition_pages/anyspace/index.html (accessed 90.11.08)
2. Spector N, "Grappling with theanyspacewhatsoever".Art World.7(October/November),2008,pp.24
3. wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_art (accessed 09.11.08)

Art in the Age of YouTube

One of the growth areas of the Internet is streaming video not least in the art world. There are sites covering exhibitions, gallery shows, artist interviews, art world events, etc. The quality of the output can be a bit variable and maybe dependant on the quality and speed of your broadband connection. Top of the pile is probably BBC iPlayer with Google Video at the other end, there are many in-between.

There are also sites either specialising in art video output or who include a significant content on their sites. One of the more interesting dedicated sites is NewArtTV others include VernisageTV, LXTV. The art magazines ArtReview and ArtInfo both have significant video content on their websites. The current streaming video phenomenon of the Internet, YouTube includes a number of dedicated art channels one of which is operated by the controversial character James Kalm. An exciting find was a YouTube channel under the name of deepsofnight which contains lots of goodies including Robert Hughes's Shock of the New.

The association between art and streaming video is only scratching the surface of the mediums potential, we are watching this space with interest.

Gestalt

Gestalt - A physical, psychological, or symbolic arrangement or pattern of parts so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts. May also refer to a school or theory in psychology known as Gestalt psychology.

Here is an animation of four pictures, each an arrangement of coloured squares of decreasing size, increasing number, and increasing complexity. As the animation progresses there is a moment at which the viewer identifies the image from which the images were derived. This experience might be described as achieving closure or making a new gestalt. This experience is also likely to arrive earlier in the sequence the more times one sees the animation. Even the final image is actually a greatly distorted reproduction of the original picture. See derived image, metamorphosis, and pixel.



Reference:-
www.artlex.com (Accessed 29.10.08)

Visual Arts Glossary

Visual Art Glossary

After-image	Weak image of the complementary colour created by the brain as a reaction to prolonged looking at a colour. (After looking at red, the after-image is green).
Alternating rhythm	Repeating motifs but changing the position, content or spaces between them.
Analogous colour	Colours that are beside each other on the colour wheel.
Art criticism	The process and result of critical thinking about art. It usually involves the description, analysis and interpretation of art, as well as some kind of judgement.
Assemblage	Sculpture consisting of many objects and materials that have been put together.
Asymmetrical balance	Informal balance in which unlike objects have equal visual weight.
Background	Part of the picture plane that seems to be farthest from the viewer.
Balance	Principle of design that deals with arranging the visual elements in a work of art for harmony of design and proportion.
Bas-relief	Sculpture in which part of the surface projects from a flat plane.
Chiaroscuro	Using contrast of light and dark to create the illusion of three-dimensional form on a two-dimensional surface.
Clustering	In design, creating a focal point by grouping different objects or shapes together.
Colour wheel	A tool for organizing colour.
Complementary colour	Colours that are directly opposite each other on the colour wheel (for example, blue and orange).
Composition	Arrangements of elements in a work of art.
Continuation (continuity)	In design, arranging shapes so that the line or edge of one shape leads into another (technique for creating unity).
Contour lines	Contour lines define edges, ridges or the outline of a shape or form.
Contrast	A large difference between two things. It is a technique often used to create a focal point.
Crafts	Arts works that are both decorative and functional. (Weaving, fabric design, jewellery-making and pottery).
Crosshatch	Technique for shading using two or more crossed sets of parallel lines.
Culture	Behaviours, ideas, skills and customs of a group of people.
Distortion	Changing an object's usual shape to communicate ideas and feelings.
Dominant element	Element in a work of art that is noticed first (elements noticed later are subordinate).
Emphasis	Principle of design that stresses one element or area to attract the viewer's attention first.
Exaggeration	Increasing or enlarging an object or figure to communicate ideas or feelings.
Flowing rhythm	Visual rhythm that is created by repeating wavy lines.
Focal point	Area of an art work that attracts the viewer's attention first. Contrast, location, isolation, convergence and the unusual are used to create focal points.
Foreground	Part of a picture which appears closest to the viewer and often is at the bottom of the picture.
Foreshortening	A form of perspective where the nearest parts of an object or form are enlarged so that the rest of the form appears to go back in space.
Gesture drawing	A drawing done quickly to capture a movement.
Hue	Another word for colour (colour has three properties: hue, value and intensity).
Intensity	Brightness or dullness of a colour. Intensity can be reduced by adding the colour's complement.
Linear perspective	Technique of creating the illusion of depth on a flat surface. The lines of buildings and other objects converge to a vanishing point on a horizon line (viewer's eye level).
Logo	A visual symbol that identifies a business, club, individual or group.
Medium	Any material and technique used to produce a work of art (paint, glass, clay, fibre, etc.). It may also refer to the liquid with which powdered pigments are mixed to make paint.
Middleground	Area in a picture between the foreground and the background.
Mixed media	Any art work which uses more than one medium.
Monochromatic colour	Colour scheme which uses one hue and all its tints and shades for a unifying effect.
Motif	Repeated unit to create visual rhythm.
Negative space	Space around an object or form.
Neutral colours	Black, white and grey.
Opaque	Quality of a material that does not let any light pass through.
Organic form	Shapes or forms that are free-flowing and non-geometric.
Path of movement	The path along which the viewer's eye moves from one part of an art work to another.
Pattern	Lines, colours or shapes repeated in a planned way.
Perspective	Method used to create the illusion of space on a two-dimensional surface. Can be created by overlapping, placement, detail, colour, converging lines and size variations.
Picture plane	The surface of a drawing or painting.
Point of view	Angle from which the viewer sees the object.
Positive space	Shapes or forms on a two-dimensional surface.
Principles of design	Guidelines that artists use in composing designs and controlling how viewers are likely to react to the image. Balance, contrast, proportion, movement, emphasis, variety, unity and repetition are examples of the principles of design.
Proportion	Principle of design concerned with the relationship of one object to another with respect to size, amount, number and degree.
Radial balance	Kind of balance where the elements branch out from a central point.
Random rhythm	Visual rhythm in which a motif is repeated in no apparent order.
Regular rhythm	Visual rhythm created through repeating the same motif with the same distance between placements.
Repetition	Technique for creating unity and rhythm in which a single element or motif is used over and over again.
Reproduction	Copy of a work of art.
Rhythm	Principle of design that repeats elements to create the illusion of movement. There are five kinds of rhythm: random, regular, alternating, progressive and flowing.
Scale	The proportion between two sets of dimensions.
Shade	Dark value of a colour made by adding black.
Space	Space can be the area around, within or between images or elements. Space can be created on a two-dimensional surface by using such techniques as overlapping, object size, placement, colour intensity and value, detail and diagonal lines.
Split complementary	A colour scheme based on one hue and the hues on either side of its complement on the colour wheel.
Style	Style is the artist's ways of presenting things. Use of materials, methods of working, design qualities, choice of subject matter, etc. reflect the style of the individual, culture or time period.
Subject	A topic or idea represented in an art work.
Subordinate element	Element in an art work noticed after the dominant element.
Subtractive method	Sculpture that is made by cutting, carving or otherwise removing material.
Symbol	Visual image that represents something else.
Symmetrical balance	Formal balance where two sides of a design are identical.
Tint	Light value of a colour made by adding white.
Translucent	Quality of material which allows diffused light to pass through it.
Transparent	Quality of a material which allows light to pass through it.
Trompe-l'oeil	Means "fool the eye". Style of painting where the artist creates the illusion of three-dimensional objects.
Unity	Principle of design that gives the feeling that all parts are working together.
Value	The lightness or darkness of a colour.
Vanishing point	In perspective drawing, a point or points on the horizon where receding parallel lines seem to meet.
Variety	Principle of design concerned with difference or contrasts.
Visual weight	The interest or attraction that certain elements in an art work have upon the viewer.

Potted Art Course

I came across this site today whist looking for something quite different, as one does. The link is to the course notes for a course in Art, Design and Visual Thinking at New York State College of Human Ecology. It is surprisingly comprehensive an includes numerous excellent images and references.

Link

Affordable Art Fair

I have had a selection of my Flora Photographica series on sale at the Affordable Art Fair Battersea this weekend (22nd to 26th October) and I am delighted to say they sold out so I am just a bit chuffed. I was represented by Wills Art Warehouse. A great gallery in Putney and a must visit if you find yourself down that way.

I also had some of my art up for sale and that was not doing too bad either.

Modernism - Greenberg - Discuss

The major obstacles to tackling this essay are the impenetrable prose and unnecessarily complex vocabulary. The armoury of the educated to defend their assumed intellectual superiority.

From my lowly standpoint it would appear to me that Greenberg is suggesting or rather stating that to legitimise or justify art we must criticise it but before we can do that we must understand what it is and what it is endeavouring to achieve.

He implies that the only medium capable of representing modernism is painting as painting is the only medium that can divorce itself from representation and what has gone before by virtue of its flatness; the essence of Modernism.

References:-
http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/modernism.html (Accessed 20.10.08)
http://homepage.newschool.edu/~quigleyt/vcs/mp_sum.html (Accessed 20.10.08)

Rothko at Tate Modern

With great anticipation I visited the Rothko exhibition on Saturday (18th October). A painter who has held considerable fascination for me since I read his biography on holiday last year. At the time of my visit I have to confess I had forgotten the precise means of Rothko's demise. So what you may ask, you need to read on to find out!

Given the publicity that this new exhibition at Tate Modern has received there can be few people unaware of the idiosyncrasies of Rothko as an artist or the mysticism associated with his work. Or the fact that many are moved to tears by his work. Would I be?

Rothko painted in isolation and rarely explained or discussed his work, an isolation that added a mystery and an intrigue to his paintings. Something which taunted the art world long before his tragic death in 1970.

Possibly Rothko's most idiosyncratic stunt was to take on a commission to paint a series of gigantic works to decorate the imposing and expensive restaurant of New Yorks grand Seagram's building. But he never delivered, instead he donated the work to the Tate Gallery, the catalyst for this new exhibition. But why did he take on the Seagrams commission and why did he not complete it?

According to a journalist, John Fischer of Harpers Magazine, who bumped into Rothko in the bar of a transatlantic liner; Rothko's reasons for taking on the commission where subversive. He confessed that he wanted to upset, offend and torture the diners at the Four Seasons. "I hope to ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room," he gloated, "with paintings that will make those rich bastards feel that they are trapped in a room where all the doors and windows are bricked up"[1].

After 30 minutes in Gallery 4 of the Tate Modern, I felt trapped and overcome by the most overwhelming feeling of depression, to the point were under my breath I told myself that If I did not get out of the place, there and then, I might end up slashing my wrists.

Rothko killed himself by deeply slashing both arms at the elbow. I now know why!

[1] Feeding Fury, Jonathan Jones, Guardian 7 Dec 2002: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2002/dec/07/artsfeatures
Accessed 19.10.2002

Developing the Right Language

One of my grandmothers homilies was that she did not know she was poor because no one had told her! Critical Thinking is a bit the same for me. As a practical scientist, I have spent most of my life Critical Thinking but I did not know that because we called it analysis!

As I search and develop the right side of my brain through the pursuit of art the exposure to abstruse aspects of the subject are quite enlightening. One of the pleasures and frustrations of the endeavour is the discovery of a new language and of course the words that go with it. My inadequacies in this area are evident as I struggle with the lexicon of the subject. This inadequacy was brought home to me as I listened to a commentary by Sasha Cradock on one of the works (Flowing 2 by Marta Marcé) at the current John Moores exhibition, but I shall leave Sasha to another occasion.

One of the first reoccurring words to catch my eye was "epistemology". At first glance I read it as "episiotomy", must be something to do with my daughter just having given birth. As you may imagine the sentence did not make much sense until I reread it and realised my mistake.

After a lifetime immersed in the scientific language of microbiology, biochemistry, haematology and a load more ologies getting to grips with the language of art is not far off learning Norwegian and I have been trying to do that for 14 years with little success. So you can see I may be struggling with Critical Studies!

Definitions:-
Epistemology (from Greek - episteme, "knowledge") or theory of knowledge is a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge. The term was introduced into English by the Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier (1808-1864).

Episiotomy is a surgical incision through the perineum made to enlarge the vagina and assist childbirth.

The Persiflage of Language

I have tried to avoid involvement in the Damien Hirst controversy. Mainly because I could disgrace myself with an uncontrollable outflow of profanity and derision. I was however taken with Robert Hughes's outflow of derision in his Guardian article of 13 September 08 concerning Hirst's upcoming Sothebys auction.

As I read the article my eye was caught by the word "persiflage". Initially I was taken aback by the use of a word containing more than two syllables by an Australian. But what did he mean by the use of this interesting word, as there seems to be more than one interpretation?

Quote:

By now, with the enormous hype that has been spun around it, there probably isn't an earthworm between John O'Groats and Land's End that hasn't heard about the auction of Damien Hirst's work at Sotheby's on Monday and Tuesday - the special character of the event being that the artist is offering the work directly for sale, not through a dealer. This, of course, is persiflage. Christie's and Sotheby's are now scarcely distinguishable from private dealers anyway: they in effect manage and represent living artists, and the Hirst auction is merely another step in cutting gallery dealers out of the loop.

A quick Google produced a selection of definitions from reputable sources:-

1. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Persiflage

• light, bantering talk or writing.
• a frivolous or flippant style of treating a subject.

2. American Heritage Dictionary -
Per·si·flage

• Light good-natured talk; banter.
• Light or frivolous manner of discussing a subject.

3. Online Etymology Dictionary -
Persiflage

• to banter
• to whistle, hiss

4. WordNet -
Persiflage

• light teasing

5. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary -
Persiflage

• to quiz, to whistle, hiss,
• Frivolous or bantering talk; a frivolous manner of treating any subject, whether serious or otherwise;
• Light raillery

Ah but which definition did Hughes have in mind when chose such a mellifluous word? Was he referring to his writing as banter (good humoured, playful conversation, To speak to in a playful or teasing way) or did he mean frivolous (unworthy of serious attention; trivia).

It's OK these word mongers using words of more than one syllable but are they using the word to clarify a point or to show off? Like so much writing about art there is a tendency not to use one syllable where you can use two or more. I appreciate a long word used correctly may save the use of many more smaller words but....................what do you think?

Whatever his intention my contention would be that he intended the interpretation "frivolous", for me that would sum up Damian Hirst and his work perfectly - "persiflage"! Or as an Englishman may say; frivolous, unworthy of serious attention!

References

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/persiflage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/sep/13/damienhirst.art

The Power of the Mid Life Crisis

How may of us harbour an unfulfilled desire to write a novel or direct a film, quite a few I suspect. How many of us actually do anything about fulfilling that dream, very few I am sure. Well my kid brother, Johnny Parker, driven by his mid life crisis has taken the first steps down the road to fulfilling both of these dreams. The novel is still in the incubator but the film has just hit a computer screen near you. Beauty and the Butcher a humorous tale of unrequited love was written and directed by Johnny.

The tale follows the theme "Beautiful Beautician loves Hunky Butcher but can she overcome her shyness, her loathing of meat, competition from the cocky Estate Agent and a mountain of cruel obstacles to get to the man she adores?" Does she, well you will have to watch this very accomplished first effort at creating a short film.

View the video below or follow the link for a Hi-Res version.