American Heros

What a couple of gems we had this week. Treats all around! First off reading about Coco Fusco and her bizarre and challenging tactics in approaching art. Plus mister Ron Graff in the flesh! That man is oozing with personality and spunk, which for me personally is really what I needed from this class...I found myself extremely  discouraged and slightly threatened from the readings and guest artist last week. But all that aside, because this week I get to talk about those little beams of light. Yes!

I think one of the main reasons I loved hearing Ron Graff’s story was because it was so...unnatural, if you will. His story went against every typical ‘child born artist’, who never had any doubt in their mind that they were artists and created masterpieces from the time they could open their eyes (gag me). True art takes work, some people might be more inclined (God bless em), but it still takes work. A lot of it. 

Just the fact that he started out on a rough path, having to choose between the Navy or prison at such a young age. On top of this, it sounded like he was genuinely clueless when it came to art. He reminisced on the story of painting his first live model and not knowing where to start (he started on the nipple). I admired his ability in time management and studio discipline. He applied himself wholeheartedly to every new skill set he experimented with. Not to mention he was even willing to step over that line of what was considered to be his well established style. Grant it, he might have burned the paintings afterwards.... he still did them, he gets fun points for that. Lots of them. Basically he was just a breathe of fresh air for me. An extremely talented artist, who was extremely down to earth... Just like Coco Fusco!

Coco Fusco, what a hidden secret! At first I was like, “oh, great another extremist whose a diehard environmentalist”, but SURPRISE! She an extremely legit artist who can express her views without 1) forcing them on to you or 2) making you feel like a horrible person (she’s a winner in my book). She had a very interesting point dealing with how we look on our lives; she stated that we need to share BOTH pessimistic and optimistic views. This is such a simple idea, but I think we often get so caught up on being on side A (the world is ending tomorrow) or side B (we’re invincible)... sometimes I feel like there isn’t a happy in between, but there is. Neato. 

“For myself, I like to think of a productive relationship to society and to creating cultures as being back-and-forth kind of movement between going out into the world and learning about people, places and situations, and then going back and reflecting on them in the work that I do” (332) I pulled this quote out because I thought it hit the jackpot. I feel like this theory/practice can be implemented to art. I feel like this is how I make art, I dwell on experiences I have had in the real world...and then I generally abstract them... Regardless, I was thoroughly entertained this week. 

Visual Response:

This week I picked Jacob Lawrence’s work. I love everything about him. Anyways, I chose his work because when I was a youngster my Momma & I went to the Settle Art museum to one of his exhibits. There they had his paintings, obviously, but they also had the tools he worked with. They where simple, hand made and extremely humble. My mom cried because she was so touched at the beautiful pieces he could create with so little. I have always remembered this because, here was this amazing artist, but he lived & created with such simplicity. It just reminded me of the artists this week.