karen cooper - Blog: definitions!

Hey, Is That Cheating, Or What?

by Cooper on 12/31/2009 9:44:33 AM1 Comment

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio in Jefferson, Iowa.

Ok, about that title: "Hey, Is That Cheating Or What?"

Number one, emphasis is always important. Bear that in mind and go with the loose definition of cheating for the duration of this post

. In reality, I think we are headed toward a discussion of artist's "crutches".

I am still reading in the book I mentioned in an earlier post---Conversations In Paint, written by Charles Dunn, and I found an interesting passage that got me started on all this.

If you get a group of artists together and play the devil's advocate by striking up a conversation regarding the painting "tricks" a fellow artist uses, then quite likely you'll end up where I'm going with this. Here, how about an example or two?

1. Artist projects a copy of a photo on the canvas, draws it in. For shame.
2. Watercolor non-purist adds white paint. Heavens, that's not even legal, is it?
3. Artist uses somebody else's photo image for reference material. And doesn't pay anyone for it, Dios mio.
4. Artist copies someone's painting in entirety. Aaargh!
5. Artist brushes varnish over a giclee reproduction to make it look like a real painting. Hey, wait a minute: that one really IS cheating!

So I am not here to weigh in on the moral ramifications of any of the above. (EXCEPT for #5, which really is disgustingly deceitful and tacky) Rather, I'd like to share a new one I found in the aforementioned book.

It comes under the heading of "Lost and Found Edges" Mr. Dunn states that "perhaps no advice is more frequently heard in painting classes than "lose and find the edge" Yup, we hear that all the time, he's right-on with that one. He talks about "found edges" being hard or rough-brushed. He talks about "lost edges" being blended or unseen. Hey, info tidbit: Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci invented the blended edge and called it "sfumato", Italian for smokelike? Mr. Dunn goes on to describe a blended or 'lost' edge as "an edge can be blended so we are not quite sure where it begins or ends."

Then he gives the reader this great little table of characteristics, and ways to use edges. Way down on the bottom of the "blended edges" list comes this gem:

"provide for audience participation and hide drawing errors."

Aaach! You mean, we don't have to perfect those drawing skills any more? Bingo! A new way to cheat! No, no, I mean, a new artist's crutch. No, no, I mean--- oh darn, who am I kidding?---it'll never work. I'd better go send that email to find out what the second semester drawing group schedule is.

Short cuts will always cut you short, right? Have a lovely day, and thanks for stopping by.

Later, Cooper

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Defining

by Cooper on 11/2/2009 12:25:21 PM1 Comment

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio where the question has been asked: What is art? It must be definition day.

Is it easier to define what art ISN’T? Perhaps. Actually, probably.

1. Art isn’t the thing you hang on your wall to match your sofa.

2. Art isn’t the thing you hang on your wall, that you are sure your friends will approve of because they all have a copy hanging on their walls.

3. And on that note, art isn’t a copy or reproduction of an original piece of art.

4. Art isn’t something featuring the year’s top five “decorator colors”

5. Art isn’t something made because you think somebody will buy it.

Actually, this is one of those times when I wish I was one of those people who made a file of all the inspirational quotes from great artists of the past and what they’ve said art is. You know they knew because of what they left behind: ART

And THAT makes me think of the time I saw VanGogh’s Starry Night at the Art Institute in Chicago. The place was packed with other people all trying to see the paintings as well. You were supposed to be polite, look at the painting, and move on. Nope. I was rude and I stopped. For a long time I stopped, because the painting required me to look at it for a long time. Art, Starry Night, most definitely is. It makes your eyes not want to leave. It makes you not want to leave.

But realistically, it doesn’t have to be Starry Night, or Luncheon Of The Boating Party, or Young Girl Writing to be art. Feature this: even you or I can make something “art”. But it has to have at least a smidgeon of something that all three of those paintings I just mentioned have---it has to be INTERESTING.

Sure, maybe it matches your sofa and if it’s interesting then you can call it art. It makes your eyes want to look because it’s interesting, not because it matches your sofa. It makes you take another look because it interests you, it speaks to you, sofa color has nothing to do with that.

And maybe it does have five of the year’s top decorator colors, but forget that, it’s so interesting that you want to look at it all the time. You walk out of your way for another chance to look at it because it interests you. It's calling you because it's so interesting. Yea! You get to call it art!

Sorry, I can’t stop without one more qualifier: to be interesting, it’s got to be real. And that’s two kinds of real to you. Real as in honest-created-from-the-heart-real. Something must inspire. Yup, that rules out #5 on the list. AND real as in original, not-a-copy, not-a-reproduction. A poster of Starry Night I can leave. Starry Night, the original made me want to stay. And look some more. Now that’s art.

Have a lovely day, and thanks for stopping by.

Later, Cooper

ps. See you at Metro Art Expo in downtown Des Moines, Iowa this weekend!

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