Author: Cindy Barnard

Photographer, Graphic Designer, and Writer
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The Value of Art

…what makes art good.

When we talk about art the word “good” accompanies the subject in direct and subtle ways.

We’ve heard it before, or said it ourselves, “I don’t know what is considered good [art].” And then that statement is often followed by, “I know what I like.”

OK, some believe they have the definitive answer, like a painting on black velvet, that isn’t good art, right?

But I ask, what artist couldn’t make a statement utilizing black velvet if it effectively portrayed their message, whether to shock or inspire? What notions, contradictions, or traditions could an artist conjure with black velvet?

Or what about the value of a still life, a vase of flowers painted on black velvet by your mom at a workshop in the 60s.

We’ve learned through history about the disdain people had for some of the artwork of their time, how artists labored without recognition for much of their lives or during times of transition and exploration, artists such as Monet, Van Gogh, Manet, Turner, and even Cezanne, among others. But today original works by these artists have sold for millions. Apparently the people of today believe these paintings are good.

In searching the web for the topic of “what is “good art”” or “quotes by famous people about “good art”” ( or just “quotes about what is “good art””). I found some surprising and intriguing results on Art-Quotes, presented by the Painter’s Keys:

Art has nothing to do with clarity, does not dabble in the clear and does not make clear. (Samuel Beckett)

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess? (Ludwig van Beethoven)

Art should be something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue. (Henri Matisse)

Art is not made for anybody and is, at the same time, for everybody. (Piet Mondrian)

Art is an experience, not an object. (Robert Motherwell)

Portrait of Gustav Klimt. Photography by Trcka Josef Anton.

And I particularly like this quote:

Art is a line around your thoughts. (Gustav Klimt)

But maybe my question is more intrinsically about what is good ‘taste’ in art? And what should we make of someone’s taste?

Here is a quote I found on the website artbusiness.com by Alan Bamberger in his article, “WHAT MAKES GOOD ART? Answers from Art World Pros…,”:

Robert Flynn Johnson, Curator Emeritus, Achenbach Foundation, San Francisco: It is truly an unanswerable question without stating something that appears pretentious… the perception of what makes art “good ” revolves around the application of that difficult word, “taste” which I observe to be in considerably short supply in society today. People are not willing to take the time and effort to develop their own personal sensibilities through study or reflection but are prone to “go with the flow” from the “tastemakers” so as not to be seen as square and out of touch… so sad…

Generally speaking the people are not exposed to artwork as they should be, not on any consistent and serious manner through schools or universities in general and integrated with the great disciplines of engineering, technology, math, and science. There was a time when the value of ideas expressed in art were more broadly integrated with these disciplines.

Some are truly curious about art, and either seek to learn more about art, either through the tastemakers, wherever they may be in schools, universities, continuing studies, adult education, museums, workshops, and similar.

Then are the roles of the “tastemakers” inadvertently telling us what we should recognize as good art. Are art classes through hands-on experience, or history classes, or otherwise, giving us the tools we need to make informed decisions on our own. Are we confident to say we have yet to comprehend a piece of artwork, either because it doesn’t have the power to draw us in or that we do not value its merits as others may. And that’s OK, too, isn’t it? Or would we be told we simpy don’t understand. And what of it, what if we don’t understand, is it really possible for us to understand the whole of the art world any more than we understand the workings of all humankind on this earth?

So the question about what is good art, or what is good taste in art, is truly unknowable. Which then brings me back to the statement earlier, how can we then place a value on art if we can not define what is good? Or do we simply place artwork into the category of enjoyment or expression and then another category for investment, hoping that somehow the two will actually become one.

So what is someone to do when buying art, are we to buy as collectors would, those pieces that are demanding greatness and attention. Because buying such art, or original art of the masters, is out of the question.

Instead, keeping an open mind and appreciating visual dialogues, we should choose artwork we find around us, or art we find in our travels, by artists who have been inspired — by their own experiences and perhaps other known artists. We should find those artists that have attained a level of exploration in their own right, whatever their ultimate goal or level of recognition.

Some of us have the additional option to choose great art among those of the “tastemakers”, and legitimately so, often. But we are autonomous when it comes to art, and we decide if the dialogue we have found in a work of art is one that we want to have in our own home.

Lastly let’s agree also to move beyond draftsmanship as the arbiter of what is good art. Which brings me to my final thought about seeing, or judging, art.

It would seem that having consistent and thoughtful art classes throughout our education would be crucial for a heighten sense of awareness of the art around us, and thus the world around us. And the ability to discern for ourselves without judgement.

I found in my online search the perfect message to convey this need for more, better, art instruction in our schools.

Cindy Foley is the Executive Deputy Director for Learning and Experience at the Columbus Museum of Art, and previous to this she was the Director of Education and Assistant Curator Institute of Contemporary Art, Maine College of Art.

For her it is the ideas realized within art that we are fighting for, “the centers of creativity” that influences and inspires the disciplines of math, science, technology, engineering, and the like.

I’ll end her with her video, Teaching art or teaching to think like an artist? (Cindy Foley on TEDxColumbus).

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Solar-Plate Etching

Solar-plate etching, or photopolymer etching, is a process by which one takes a photograph printed on clear transparency and exposes it to a plate that has been coated with a light-sensitive emulsion.

I lay the printed transparency on top of the plate, expose it to the sun, stop the process in a water bath, and after the plate hardens, I ink it and print it on a traditional intaglio or etching press.

Some have called this process photogravure, but it isn’t a similar process, nor are the materials the same. You could say that the results are similar – a plate is inked and then hand printed on the press, typically on cotton paper or mulberry paper (or other fibers and blends).

However, photogravure is a more involved process using gelatin on a copper plate (after exposing the photo transparency on the plate). Then the plate is dipped into a succession of acid etching baths. Depending on the depth of the gelation and time in the acid bath, an extremely wide tonal range can be achieved and you can create an extremely detailed print.

With photopolymer etching the process includes just one exposure to the sun (or a UV unit) and the materials are non-toxic.

The key to photopolymer etching is the photo-production (using Photoshop), making sure your tones are within the optimal range considering the sensitivity of the emulsion, and this will produce a detailed image, even if the tones are limited. However, the photopolymer emulsion is very soft after exposing it, so care is needed when stopping the plate in the water bath. Some plates simply don’t make it past this point!

And with photopolymer etching there are more serendipitous occurrences due to the delicate nature of the emulsion, and there is an ethereal quality to the work  –– and that for me is what I’m aiming for.

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The Art of the Festival

OK, the list,

…let’s see, where is that list now?

Oh, right, here it is. Table, umbrella, (do I need a chair – for breaks, perhaps), table cloth, cooler (water, snack), tent, tent walls, sandbags, display walls, screws, nuts, bolts, tape, clamps, wrapping supplies; and what am I missing? Right, the art!

Continue reading The Art of the Festival
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Art informs technology

I get the impression from general discussions on tv and radio, and through print and online articles, that technology is the driving force of the arts. Or, that technology is more influential over the arts. We could go further and deduce that most any other field appears more dominant than the arts, as witnessed when we see art programs within our schools and other public sectors often given only a nod whenever the budget is revised, or sometimes these programs are excluded all together.

But how could it be about technology influencing the materials, tools, performance, and output of the arts without at the same time applying a reciprocal influence? I would rather explore how art has informed technology. So I searched online.

A search for how art has influenced technology, or affected technology, or “the influence of the arts on technology [or the technological industry]”, or “the fine arts [or applied arts] influence on technology “, provides for the following headlines in this general order:

  • Section 6: Overall Impact of Technology on the Arts | Pew Research …
  • The Impact of Digital Technology on Art and Artists
  • 7 Ways Technology is Changing How Art is Made | Arts & Culture …
  • The Role of Art in Our Lives and How Digital Technology Impacts It …
  • The Impact of Technology on Art – JStor
  • The Impact of Technology on Art. Art and the Future
  • How Will Technology Continue to Influence Art? – Cultivating Culture
  • The Impact of Technology on Copyright and Creativity | Grantmakers …
  • Technology and art: Engineering the future – BBC News – BBC.com
  • How does technology affect art? – Quora

 

suggested-google-search-for-art-technology

Clearly this list is about technology and its influence, also keeping in mind this list contains the most popular searches, or what is a more relevant list of articles for my search query. I’ll have to hone my search even further to see if I find anything about art influencing technology, not the other way around; maybe I should try the very last Google suggestion, “relationship between art and technology”. So I did:

~ 8 Contemporary Icons Explain The Relationship Between Artistry And Technology
~ The Relationship Between Art and Technology
~ The Connection Between Art and Technology – PIXAR
~ The Underappreciated Ties Between Art and Innovation
~ The Relationship between art and technology by Autumn Chase on
~ Art and Technology | ScratchEd
~ What is “Art and Technology?” | SFAQ / NYAQ / LXAQ
~ Art and Tech, part 2: the uneasy relationship between artist and ..
~ 8 Contemporary Icons Explain The Relationship Between Artistry And …
~ The Enduring Relationship of Science and Art

Unless the topic is about the development of computer icons, most of these articles are still about the influence of science or technology on art and artists today. Searches about symbology offer a particular insight to the more tangible influence of the arts on technology, but I’m searching more broadly.

One search above though is interesting, What is “Art and Technology” | SFAQ / NYAQ / LXAQ, by By Peter Dobey. The submitted comments in this article by developers, web professionals, and artists alike offer insights, even if not cohesive, as to the definition of “art and technology”, the intersection of the two worlds. In some ways this is what I’m after, how art and technology interact together, but specifically I want to explore the notion that art is actually the major influencing factor, and well, my outcome at best may be an indeterminate discourse. (More ideas will come from this publication, which is based out of our tech hub, San Francisco.)

So what am I comparing when we say “the arts” and technology? Or in other words, what are the arts; what is technology? The arts have been defined, and as I am targeting, as applied and fine arts. (Some would say they are no longer interwoven, and maybe they are completely free of each other as separate fields; but are they, and if so would they remain so in our ever-changing future?) The field of technology I am targeting is applied science, especially computers and information technology, and the resulting code and user interfaces.

For more about these questions I turn to the mission of the Bauhaus movement (Bauhaus Design School, 1919-1933) where the founder, Walter Gropius, became renowned for his modernist approach to art education. He broke down the traditional divide between the fine arts and the ‘applied” crafts and redefined the relationship between art, design and industrial manufacturing techniques.

In this way I believe we are moving closer to the relationship of art and technology. There is so much art and design around us that we assume it just happened; and indeed it did – we are creative when daydreaming, playing, gathering, and innovating. Our daily ventures and routines are a creative process influencing our endeavors, and then we call it art when we record these endeavors in some way.

One of the first things that come to my mind about art affecting technology is the influence of the arts upon Steve Jobs. The story goes that calligraphy made an impression on Steve Jobs and subsequently on the look and feel of computer fonts.

The tech icon recalled in his famous 2005 commencement address at Stanford University,

“It was the first computer with beautiful typography,” Jobs said. “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.”

Job’s sensitivity to the arts influenced every part of how a mac was developed, not just the look and feel of the fonts and user interface; and in this way, we humans responded with great enthusiasm to these devices, down to our mobiles and handheld devices today.

Is this the effect of product design, not “the arts”? But I am suggesting that applied arts, informed as much by fine art as is dancing and painting, are “the arts”.

Recalling the earlier stages of internet development, I remember how web pages were created to resemble actual layouts on paper — the cool, hard surfaces of a web page became the rough edge of soft, tactile paper, or organic background patterns; and dials, knobs, and metal trim were developed to resemble analog radios and record players.

Developers were elated, or either charged, with building this new technology to display familiarity to the consumer, and what better way then through art. The entire development of software programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator are based on actual artistic tools and endeavors.

It could be stated that design, from industrial products like the ipad, mobile phone, or CPU, and their interfaces, are imbued by our creative psyche as is sculpture, painting, performance, and other forms of the arts.

It is obvious to me today that without the arts, without this vital form of expression influencing our technology we are all doomed. The visual language itself provides clues and signals to human nature, our culture and values, and our intents, and is well suited to influence our technology.

Technology has been shaped as much by how humans respond to it, and the creative synergy in this relationship, as the arts have been shaped by technology. But one assumes the greater influence of one over the other, and how does this perception play into the social framework and fiscal supports of our communities.

The debate and discussion will continue through this category of understanding the relationship of art and technology; but clearly for me I’ll stand on the side of how art has directed our lives through its influence upon technology.

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Working in an artists community

artist easel with dried paint

When I happen to be the first to arrive at the studio that day, I’ll walk by artists’ studios, staying along the aisle and observing the shelves stocked with artwork in various stages of completion.

There’s a stillness to the place that is lit by the morning sun and shines on forms molded by hands, turned on a wheel, created with a brush, covered with wax or paint or glaze. Better than meditation, this brief but cherished moment puts life into perspective, all of it.

These forms are living entities imbued with grace, elegance, whimsy, irony, anger, lust, greed, sorrow. Once you know to look, it is a gratifying realm to see. Sometimes I forget to look, to pay attention, but then I know where to find it again.

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Mount Desert

Every year traveling to Mount Desert is mandatory. Acadia National Park reserves much of the land on this island. Some natives stress the second syllable of the name Mount Desert, de-Zert, like the arid land with rounded dunes, which is reminiscent of the bald mountain tops on the island, and as described by the french explorer, Samuel de Champlain, “île des Monts Déserts”. But many people pronounce the name like the sweet course at the end of a meal, DEH-zert, as in the french pronunciation, “Déserts”.

Accessible and alluring, the park provides the public with a treasure of mountains and archipelagos, and trails to access both by land and sea.

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San Juan

Being in Puerto Rico was enlightening, in some ways it is as you may expect considering what you hear in the news about its economy, some places are impoverished. On the other hand, it continues to be as lively an island as ever, and San Juan is a bustling city with architecture that’s astounding, from the Spanish colonial influence with colorful buildings, clay tiled roofs, and ornate balconies to the neoclassical style of the 19th century as seen in the govenor’s manion, La Fortaleza.

Rejuvenated homes and businesses are pressed next to other businesses that were at one time thriving centers, but now in a global economy with new technology, they have not made it, the previous ways of enterprise are no longer available; and change isn’t easily attainable by families still holding on to these decaying structures.

It’s easy to travel there; it is an American territory, you don’t need a passport. You hear many talk about the beauty of other islands in the Caribbean, and from what I’ve seen this is true, but I would still prefer the beauty and expanse of Puerto Rico.

In San Juan I was in awe of the people and their culture, their art and history, and the environment. I had the opportunity to discuss with some of the people their thoughts on statehood with the United States. You hear some say that most of the people want it, but then you hear that it’s more of an equal, contentious divide. I want Puerto Rico to thrive, for them to attain all the rights any state and citizen would have, whatever their status with the US. I believe we owe that to any territory in our control. Looking for the US to do what’s best for the lovely people of this island.

cat at the door
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Our local museum

The entrance hall in our museum is an expansive space with pathways around the periphery that entice exploration. It is a perfectly fitting gem, with a combination of open spaces and intimate galleries. Located here in Portland, Maine, the facility itself meanders along edge of downtown and the adjacent neighborhood that soon overlooks the bluffs of the Western Promenade.

And the museum is for me the perfect size, with each exhibit area to scale, facilitating a personal connection with the artwork on display.

The museum was founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882, and in 1908 Margaret Jane Sweat bequeathed her three-story mansion, along with a generous fund, to create a gallery in memory of her late husband, Lorenzo De Medici Sweat. L. D. M. Sweat, by the way, was a Maine State Senator from 1861 – 1862; he was then elected to the U.S. House and served from 1963 – 1865.

The mansion, known as the McLellan House, grew in this location, with a major expansion made possible in 1981 by Charles Shipman Payson who provided funding. He also promised 17 of his Winslow Hormer paintings.

I know and love the museum by this collection, and work by the Wyeths – Jamie, Andrew, and N. C. Wyeth. (The Farnsworth Art Museum will be impressive to see, too, with their newly constructed facility, as well as another establishment at the Farnsworth, the Wyeth Center.)

The Portland Maine Museum features work by Mary Lou Lipkin, Thomas Hart Benton, Eliot Porter, Käthe Kollwitz, and Dahlov Ipcar, to name but a few in their collection. And each time I visit, I go the galleries upstairs to see work by Louise Nevelson, Marsden Hartley, and John Marin.

As part of the museum’s European collection, you’ll find some of the canon’s of 19th and 20th century, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, René Magritte, Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, and Auguste Rodin.

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The journey of art

My fine art study was in painting and design. And I wonder why sometimes considering I spent more of my time in the foundry. It was a great experience – pouring bronze and iron, throwing pots and trying to maintain a reduction firing in my kiln. I enjoyed it all and saw so many possibilities for developing my artwork in all of these fields.

But I love color and painting composition, and photography; and computer graphics fascinated me, which helped facilitate employment after school.

Photography then was used for reference, and now the photograph is the thing. To compose what you’re seeing within the viewfinder in real time so that it conveys just what you’re experiencing at that moment is likely the hardest task I’ve tried creatively. And it is just this practice that I’ve learned to see again, or to say, continued the journey of art.

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Winter Crossing

It’s winter now, but not for long. Snow has fallen and melted away, and many think it will not snow again. Daylight Savings Time started today. It arrives earlier each year it seems to me. This time it is an entire week before the spring equinox.

Our winter this year was mild, too mild. Usually the ground stays white throughout the season. But this winter we would have a few inches of snow and it would all melt away to the soft brown earth before it would snow a few more inches and then melt again. Boots needed through the snow or the mud.

The scarf and gloves are still out, no trust yet has been granted to the change of season despite that it’s sunny and warm today, and when you’re out of the wind it almost feels like 70 degrees.  Here at least are few winter images.