They say art is subjective, but like so many things those hip people say they’re usually wrong.
Art may be subjective up to a point … Let’s say you think that an artist’s painting featuring ripe apples in a wooden bowl is extremely boring, whereas someone else may salivate at the same artist’s rendering of those juicy fruits. Or, an artist’s ocean painting on canvas may look calming to you but remind another person of the time they almost drowned. Naturally that person would be reluctant to appreciate the calming effects of that ocean scene and hang it on their wall.
So, different subjects in art are subjective but the real question is… What is art and what is not? To me, and I may be no scholar, but, if someone makes something that requires rare talent and is recognizable, exceptional and beautiful, then that is considered professional art. If a person doesn’t know how to make something but they try and it turns out as an unrecognizable blob, then that’s probably not talented art!
After all, anyone can make something that looks like nothing! Any grade school kid can construct some unrecognizable blob out of clay claiming a likeness to his dog. If that was the standard for art then every human would be a great artist, right? I think most folks in general wouldn’t be considered professional artists and their creations worthy of notice!
However, according to those enlightened types; those guys with scraggily beards and ponytails and braless women with hairy underarms… today, anything at all, no matter how awful, is considered art! Why? Because those art critics told you so! And after all… they know best!
Today, we regular folks are bombarded with contrary notions that rival our common sense. If you do not agree with these hip enlightened ideas forwarded by these geniuses on TV, radio and print, then you’re just an old fashioned dinosaur and are not open minded.
My almost daily commute takes me along beautiful Sarasota bay where the city has placed about ten large pieces of art in front of the water. This art sits in the grass alongside the road and is an eclectic group of the following… There is a blob that is brown with soft rounded curves. I won’t be gross with my interpretation of what it reminds me of. Next, a series of welded metal shapes at least one I can recognize as two balls connected together. There are also random sticks welded into no recognizable pattern and another that looks similar to a melted triangle! Several other blobs of no particular shape are also featured that I cannot describe.
Then, alongside the various shapes there is a thirty foot high replica statue of that famous photo of the sailor kissing the nurse upon the announcement of the end of World War Two. The likeness is exact and the colors perfect and every time I drive by there are several people standing in front taking pictures alongside this famous icon.
I understand that the statue is famous and people come from afar to see it… surely, a wise decision by the city of Sarasota to have it featured there. While people both young and old snap their photos in front of this war time reminder, what about those artsy blobs alongside also prominently displayed?
Well, I am happy to report that in the hundreds of times that I have driven past I have never seen even once someone alongside a blob taking a photo! Evidently, even the enlightened types in the media cannot convince you regular unenlightened citizens that a blob is not just a blob!!
And to you I say bravo! If they enjoy those blobs so much then let them stick them in their living rooms where they can have ‘love that blob’ cocktail parties! Or, even better yet carrot juice parties! After all, regular folks do not appreciate obscure desires like carrot juice parties, and really that’s what it’s all about, showing everyone how different you are! If you’re enlightened and ever so smart then you celebrate bazaar things that those dinosaur people just cannot appreciate, because frankly they are just too prehistoric and dumb!!
It must be great to be enlightened because it means you never have to make sense ever again!
Post note: The City has removed the blobs, and yet the WWII statue remains! Could it be that they realize that a blob is just a blob?
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