Paper Man Studio

There are so many, many interesting people in the world; it’s too bad we won’t have time to meet most of them. Just track back a few “likes” on your Facebook page and you’ll find fascinating profiles of people who are intelligent and/or clever and/or downright brilliant. I wish they were my friends.

It also amazes me how nowadays you can actually communicate with people you’ve seen on television just like they were anybody else. I left a comment on a wall recently commending some people on a TV show I’m currently following, and two of them actually responded– not directly to me, but still they responded to something I posted. How weird is that?

Someday, will someone do that to me? Think, Wow! Paper Man just responded to my “like”! . . . Funny.

My visit to SAM on Sunday was very pleasant. I got lost in front of the Bierstadt, as I thought I would; I honestly don’t know how long I spent in front of it. I stood back to take it all in, I moved close to examine all the tiny details, and every so often when my eyes found another perfect spot on the canvas, my brain cried Look at the light! How did he capture it so beautifully? I am amazed and humbled. I have a visceral response to that painting that I really can’t explain. I am engaged emotionally in a way I haven’t been with many other works. For me, there is something magical about it. I might even be having a relationship with it.

Funny aside: I took advantage of the Member Appreciation Days 20% discount and bought a couple of books. Turns out I bought a Taschen book on Turner that I already own– and had bought from SAM two years before. What a dope!

I’m really enjoying watching Work of Art on Bravo on Wednesday nights. It’s amazing to watch how these creative people work. I also like having the bird’s-eye view; the artists comment on each other and their works behind each other’s backs, and sometimes they’ve misread the person and sometimes they’re just being bitchy. I wonder sometimes what they thought of themselves and the things they said when the watched the video back. Were they embarrassed?

Art is so weird. It’s completely subjective. In most of the arts, such as fashion, dance, haute cuisine, architecture, there are standards and usually a set of rules most people have agreed on to determine whether one’s creation is, in fact, fashionable, enjoyable, edible, etc. In visual art, SO much is entirely subjective that it really depends on who’s doing the judging. I’ve seen a lot of art I don’t like, or understand. I’ve seen a lot of art that takes my breath away. Who decides whether it’s art? And then, who decides whether it’s good art?

Art is what happens between my work and your brain (don’t quote me on this; I’m quoting someone else and I can’t remember who). If there’s a reaction, it’s art. If there’s not, it isn’t. But only to you. Someone else might respond to something that left you cold or (worse!) indifferent.

I could go on, but it’s late and I have to get up early. Note to self for next entry: wunderkammer.