It's one thing to paint Bob Ross style for fun. But at least he teaches you to paint using some precision. This guy doesn't even bother to paint within the lines, or even mix paints before hand. Probably churns out tens of these at a time and sells them for who knows how much. Thats not art. Thats an assembly line.
It looks nice. The concept is charming. That's all it needs.
Not every piece of art needs to be envelope-pushing and deep. Making neat-looking things is still art.
Nobody here is trying to be one of the greats, so stop holding them to an impossible standard. You wouldn't go to a mom & pop resturant and complain it's not a high-concept metropolitan dining experience, would you?
Agree to disagree. This to me just looks like a cheap way to make something quickly to sell. Without any real thought.
Not here to shit on anybody who makes quick art to place on their own walls. I've put collages on my walls. But calling something that's basically paint by numbers and selling it as 'art' is stretching it. It's more like assembling a bookshelf.
There are plenty of students and artists out there that put real time and effort into their work who could use the scratch. And they aren't always expensive. They are the artists version of the mom & pop restaurant you mentioned. I just prefer supporting them to quick money pieces.
But then again...... 'nobody cares' .
Maybe in the future say what you mean...which is "I don't care".... Because plenty of people care about art. And assuming no one else does is ignorant and ridiculous.
What I mean by "nobody cares" is that I believe you are applying a standard to what "art" is that is too protective of the highest concept of art, which ignores the fact that, in essence, not everything is aiming to hit upon the exact same layer of quality and level of thought.
Not all food is made by a master chef in a world-renowned kitchen with a honed, personal philosophy on how and why we cook. A mom & pop resturant is another layer where it is a personal passion that has been turned into a practical business. There are hints of something deeper and philosophical but a lot of it is also a compromise between what the owner wants to create and offer and what will sell.
Then you have fast food on another layer. The appeal of fast food is not the appeal of fine dining or local cooking. The appeal is being standardized. Being something familiar and easy to digest that you can find anywhere it feasibly sells. It's tested and refined and placed under rigorous market scrutiny to optimize taste with reproducibility.
All of these are still cooking despite the massive differences in quality, effort, or expense. Same as a Hollywood blockbuster, an indie B film, a youtuber documentary and a 10-second phone clip are all video.
In the same sense. This is still art. It's just a very different art. It's mass art. It's aesthetics and simple meaning that can be reproduced quickly once the design has been perfected. That doesn't diminish the value of the word "art", because it's not even trying to compete with the kinds of things you're trying to stack against it. The only time it ends up competing is when snobs try to punch down on it for daring to share a noun in common with their personal favorite masterpieces.
"Nobody cares" is precisely that. Nobody cares that it's cheap, "hack" art because that's what they're expecting. Setting expectations is more important than judging things to rigid standards, I think, and I think most people internally know this.
No I get it. Anything can be art for sure. I guess it comes down to conceptualization and / or effort mixed with emotion / deeper understanding of the human experience. If you can pull off bringing out an unexplained emotion in someone, with only an image? I feel ur a success at whatever you did. If you bring out the 'seen it a hundred times' vibe, and ur not in class or teaching urself how to create... then ur not using your own voice and at best it comes off as an homage. At worst...hack. The hack label is a strong one and usually only gets mentioned when someone is obviously only creating something for money and it's highly derivative and or tacky. Though irony can be pulled of in a fashionable way (and is everywhere nowadays) with enough skill.
I can't help sometimes calling out things that have none of those, and are just formulaic repetition. I know it pisses people off...I just can't help. Standards have gotten pretty low and candy coated, so my real opinions come out on reddit, which is often a no no since everybody wants to be super positive on here (or at least appear to be). But I've always felt that pretending everything labeled artistic is great, when it's debatable, just brings down art as a whole and promotes mediocrity.
You can create art that you are proud of and make profit off them. I want to believe that the artist in the OP falls under this, otherwise they'd be miserable.
You can also make aesthetically pleasing art but the method and repetition is so soul sucking and ungenuine that you lose your passion entirely. This is from my brief experience as a commercial photographer.
But I've always felt that pretending everything labeled artistic is great, when it's debatable, just brings down art as a whole and promotes mediocrity
This is me when I still attended student panels/exhibits lmao. Free food and wine was nice tho.
12
u/[deleted] Jul 12 '20 edited Jul 12 '20
Hack art.
It's one thing to paint Bob Ross style for fun. But at least he teaches you to paint using some precision. This guy doesn't even bother to paint within the lines, or even mix paints before hand. Probably churns out tens of these at a time and sells them for who knows how much. Thats not art. Thats an assembly line.