My branding iron (not self made)

[needsmorecowbel]

I personally couldn't handle those 'pressures' of the high art world and tutors I guess. I saw many people who I considered 'laid back' and very naturally skilled artists/artistans extremely put off by the pressure to become and talk like someone who they simply were not and didn't really have a burning desire to be like. They were never really very good with criticism or adopting what they understood as an artist persona...most of them quit art school

They just wanted to talk about their work in their own language & terms and enjoy making things which interested them at the time.
But some of my friends were demonized for not having the artistic justifications to back up what they were making or rather the justifications were "lazy" and not adequate "in the art world".
I.e. something along the lines of " I am not trying to challenge anyone with this sculpture/photograph/image I am merely presenting this image you see here, which I like for reasons X,Y,Z". Perhaps these people feared they were being disingenuous by presenting justifications that were b.s. I don't know..perhaps they just hadn't done their homework.
You could say these people were more interested in art as craft...i.e being a professional hobbyist...I guess. The high art crowd was one which they didn't really enjoy or want to be a large part of it seemed. They would describe portions of it as "wanky"

I got half way through my uni degree before I was told by one of my tutors (mainly through my frequent absences) that I should give the course away and allow someone who was passionate a go. With two weeks notice I had to quickly choose what I enjoyed...Turned out I enjoyed the craft of it more than the art. It wasn't what I wanted to do a whole lot of 'professionally' in the future...But decided unlike the people that gave it up after a year that I'd stick through it and get a degree from it and make/ retain some interesting friendships and images as a result.

Jim, I am envious of those that can create justifications relating to their work...I was always rubbish at it and thrown to the wolves during crits as I just liked to re-make (readymade) pictures from books that were highly structured (but also very tiny) then improvise all the cutting...

Stu

[P Bill]

ah! Fine Art, what's not to love?


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/an ... 6516092640

[needsmorecowbel]

next thing people will be burning steinways in the street as a form of art...oh lordy...

[charangohabsburg]

Markus, your way too modest. These days an artist doesn't have to make anything, they just keep the ideas coming.

I think Bill is on the ball...
I wouldn't call your branding Iron soul less. You knew what you wanted, designed it and got it made and will apply it accordingly.

Well, it was not my idea to belittle my own (design-)work involved here, and much less the work of artists who are not hand crafting everything (or anything) themselves (just as an extreme example: think of cast sculptures!). "Soul less" may sound a bit harsh, but (of course) I only referred to the "hardware" part of my branding iron, which indeed has very little to do with me or the owner of the CNC machine. Although the design part was a creative process with some deeper thoughts behind, I wouldn't call it "art", even if it is not soul less. For me it's just a useful tool, a nicely designed and well thought out item, using meaningful existing elements which are two letters of an epochal, guitar related very old book:

Luis Milan - Libro de música de vihuela de mano, intitulado El Maestro. 1535.

I understand what you mean Markus and I see how a lower price often scares people away. I guess at the time I was trying to entice people as I kind of wanted to make some money back from the ridiculous amount of money that artists can spent on materials. My friends who were exhibiting alongside me were offering very very reasonable prices for smaller works so putting up $1400 bucks a pop next to works for $100-200 would be really noticeable in such a small space. If I were a known artist then for sure that would be reason able but 400-500 for a new work by an unknown artist seemed okay. For $400 bucks at this exhibition you could pick up a decent sized painting so I had to compete with that also...

Of course, under these circumstances your price had its justification. Raising the price (as you are getting more famous, or for whatever reason) always is an option, while lowering the price of artwork is never a good idea!

@ Jim: Nice sirens there! I remember you have mentioned them a while back.

[needsmorecowbel]

I wouldn't call it "art"

I wouldn't classify it as art either but it is very classily done and well executed my friend...I was merely agreeing with Bill that a lot of artists simply have to "keep the ideas coming"... Look at Jeff Koons. He has an idea...sends it to a company where they draft said idea on a CAD program. They would I assume then make a smaller prototype. Then said company would make the sculpture after drafting/prototyping...he then makes millions of dollars profit selling each piece to a city or a museum etc. It became a bit of a grey area when Koons asked professional wood workers in the 90s to hand carve and paint a series of wooden sculptures of dogs...then he titled the work as by "Jeff Koons" when he technically carved nothing. But he's paying for it and conceived the idea...