Work of Art 2.5 and 2.6

Episode 5: “Ripped from the Headlines.”

A great idea, but again the judges totally blew it. They jumped on the Sucklord for being too literal, yet gave 20k to Young for a piece that was the most literal piece of the week.

In week 6, the challenge was to create street art and the winners, Young and Dusty rack up a deserved win. Unfortunately the Sucklord finally is defeated by the forces of evil.

Frankly, I could see value in his and Sarah’s piece. Having been to New York, and not being from there, the city is a maze, and I thought their piece expressed that.

Then there is Lola and Michelle. Frack. Lola is quickly becoming the “Miles” of the season. What a frickin douche bag. I’m starting to realize that they cannot draw. What kind of artist can’t even draw a frickin penis? You would think that between two people with BFA’s, one of them could draw better than a 5 year old.

They also tried to pull off some kind of “Bad Girl” skit this week. Try to imagine, two Harvard educated socialites being “gangster,” Totally unbelievable. And BTW if they had encouraged people to deface my work before judging, Mr. Elite would have seen what the term “Get Medieval” really means.

Nothing On

I came across this old broken down TV in the middle of the Mojave Desert. I first spotted it because the edges of the case formed an unfamiliar straight line off in the distance. As I got closer, I realized what I had found. It really stuck me as odd to find such an old style piece of electronics out in the middle of nowhere.

It reminded me of a time when television programming went off the air at night, the only image they would broadcast was a test pattern and tone.

We only had four channels back then, and I still remember being entertained by what was on.

Today we have the 24 hour news cycle, tons of programs, and yet, there still seems to be nothing on.

11/11/11

As the clock approaches 11:11 today, 11/11/11, I’m happy to say that I find the project I’m working on to be quite appropriate. The press release will come later today, but I can say this project is to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.

The Wounded Warrior Project is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to "honor and empower wounded warriors" of the United States Armed Forces. "The Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) works to raise awareness and enlist the public's aid for the needs of severely injured service men and women, to help severely injured service members aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet their needs."

For more information you can visit their site at:

www.woundedwarriorproject.org

Work of Art 2.3 and 2.4

The challenge in week 3 was: Create Pop Art.

Jerry Saltz is quickly proving himself to be a total prick. Two comments from him pretty much spell out his disdain for artist and art lovers alike.

Quote 1 - “I'm on this show to explore how art can be brought to non-élite audiences.”

Really dude? I’ve watched the show for its entire run, and I haven’t found any profound wisdom that has been divined from his eliteness.

Quote 2 – “Young won for his piece about California's Proposition 8 and gay marriage -- not for his p.c. subject matter, but because he took on scale, color, advertising, powerful messaging, and communication in a very direct, visually forceful way, produced in the quasi-political conceptual way in which he already works.”

The challenge was “Pop Art” not “quasi-political art” In case Mr. Elite didn’t know:
From Webster’s Dictionary - Definition of POP ART:
“: art in which commonplace objects (as road signs, hamburgers, comic strips, or soup cans) are used as subject matter and are often physically incorporated in the work”

From Wikipedia:

“Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art. Pop removes the material from its context and isolates the object, or combines it with other objects, for contemplation.”

Leon commented that his piece was possibly the only real Pop Art, and he was right, but he got sent home anyway.

Why have challenges if you’re not going to use that as prime judging criteria?

In week 4, the challenge is to make a companion piece to match with the work of a child. A good challenge, again some of the artists missed the point. Surprise, Surprise, they were not the one sent home.

This week’s victim was Tewz who I always figured would go home early. I don’t think he deserved to be booted yet, and thought it was great of Sucklord to defend Tewz’ work.

And then there is Jerry “Elite” Saltz. What a douche. He decides to threaten to go “Medieval” on the Sucklord if he includes any more Star Wars characters in his work.

First, Star Wars is a part of Sucklords art, which is just what he does. It is his style, his shtick; it’s what makes people like Simon part with their cash to own an original Sucklord.

Second, the only way for J-rod to go “Medieval” would be for him to dress up like the court jester he is and have the contestants beat him with a Cat-o-Nine tails.

Hey that might be an idea for next weeks challenge.