Alright Time To Quit Messing Around!

If I see artwork that intrigues me or inspires me....stops me in my tracks I immediately want to know about the artist and their story. I like to know the back story, how they got where they are today and what inspires them......thats just the way I am. Maybe its because I am an artist too, I am not sure why. I just like to know where an artist who has inspired me came from, their success stories, what they look like.....it makes it more fun to idolize them. I try to be as open, candid and relatable as possible I find lately this has helped my success greatly. It seems the more my followers get to know me the more they love my work and understand it. Just speaking from personal experience.

A comment I received today from an amazing person and art fan:

"I just saw your artwork on HAED! You're Amazing!! I want to stitch the Arabian horse! I admire you and your work so very much. Although there is quite an age difference between us, we share some "crosses" that we've had to bear as we travel on this "Journey" of life. One of my children passed away when she was just 11 years old from Leukemia. It's been many years ago; but, it still feels like yesterday. I find comfort in knowing that the Good Lord must have thought that I was pretty special to have given me the Precious Gift of Debbie! I, myself, am blessed to be a 14 year Breast Cancer survivor and have had Parkinson's Disease for over 11 years and have minimal effects with it. I've had 31 surgeries in my lifetime for various reasons and struggle with depression. I wish that I could draw. I've always been fascinated and in awe of the talented like you. I can't even draw stick people, Sheena!! I've only "known" you for an
hour; but, you can be sure that I'll continue to admire you and your work .....always. Thank you for sharing your life and your priceless, precious talent
with everyone. You are also a survivor like myself. You will remembered in my special thoughts and prayers."

Speechless....humbled.......grateful for this kind of support and interest. Makes all the failures worth it....all the sleepless nights and doubts....fears......
step by step day by day people are coming to me opening up becoming loyal fans and making my journey clear.

Blaine,

Van Gogh chopped off a part of one earlobe. He committed suicide not long afterwards.

Do I see van Gogh as better or worse? Or possibly par for the course?

None of the above. I see a history of a human being that struggled. In van Gogh's case with hindsight
being 20/20 I see a master artist who made art well before its time.

Pollock gets a bum rap as a tired worn out drunk. His art gets all sorts of things thrown at it. The
criticisms could fill volumes. After you have seen a half a dozen to a dozen Pollock splats do you care?
Sort of.

Bottom line we are supposed to know, it is what it is. No one is perfect so why judge what
is so easy to misunderstand?

Dave

I can sometimes recognise the work of a particular artist by the style, but in general, I prefer not to know. Art should stand on its own merits.

Generally speaking if I like the art, then I like the art. Who created it is largely irrelevant. However, as Jane points out sometimes you see a style and you recognize it instantly so you know who the artist is. My neighbor is a well known local watercolorist who specializes in local landscapes and his work can be almost instantly identifiable. Others on FAA are the same, with a distinctive style.

I am still trying to find mine, as I discovered art so late... :D

- Richard Reeve
ReevePhotos.com

Initially it is about the art, not the artist. If it intrigues me then I might want to know more about its origins, but usually not.
Because I like someone as a person does not mean I have to like or appreciate their art, and vice versa.
However I do look at, but not necessarily like, works and histories of well known artists and this must have some influence on me.
Everyone can make a masterpiece in somebodies eyes, even me - but that doesn't mean everyone has to like it.

to Your questions: no and no.

Since all great art comes from a unique EYE , unique HAND and the unique MIND .

You can never separate that EYE, HAND, MIND from the INDIVIDUAL that created that art

When I see an artwork that speaks to me…yes…I want to know who made it. I want to see more.

Yes and no. If its really different, I'm more interested in the back story. If its simply decorative then not so much.

Typically I want to see more of the art to see if the artist has a consistent style.

If its a conceptual piece like a pile of rope on the floor then I definitely read the museum card which may or may not change my view that I'm looking at a pile of rope on the floor.

The gallery I'm in told me that buyers do ask about the artist when they are considering buying a painting. I leave my bio, postcards and business cards wherever my work is shown, if possible.

No, and no.

Roger Swezey gives always a great advice, good reading ur posts, from experience point of view :)

This has been an enlightening exercise.....artists cannot even agree..personal preference rules.
What I take away from all of the comments so far, is that I won't obsess, nor seek THE answer to anything I do art or business-wise.
There is none.

I could have the most perfect and delicious peach in the world and yet, somebody won't like peaches.

"...I could have the most perfect and delicious peach in the world and yet, somebody won't like peaches."

:) Reminds me of when all the grandkids are here. Invaribly one of them will not like something that's been cooked for dinner. When two or more of them don't like it, then I consider it a mutiny. :)

Perfect answer Marlene. There are no answers, just different preferences and ideas, and that pretty much sums up everything. Some collectors want to know about the artists, some couldn't care less. I guess I'm usually interested to know a little of the background of an artist whose work I admire but I think that's just because I'm a struggling artist myself.

I don't think it matters for every single piece of art that I enjoy but the ones that move me that really inspire me, that make me think WOW..."I wish I made that" I explore further and like to know who it came from and the artists story...their face....their techniques.....and what journey they've had artistically. But I think this is coming from an artists perspective and not just a consumer. Being an artist myself I believe is what makes me so interested.

I want your peach Marlene. (;

Sydne, I'm happy to share with you!

The art work itself is most important to my enjoying it and maybe wanting to return again often to continue doing so.

What does an artist look like anyway?????????????

oops

this

Good question.. I have always been drawn in by art in all forms. I have studied and read art history. design, format, and style ,the person behind the art all intrigue me. Even The most awful people in history have been known to create beautiful works of art like Hitler. I offend wondered if he was encouraged by his parents to paint if he would have been inspired to be an artist and not one of the most vile men in history.
So yes I can love someone's art and dislike who they are as a person. Art often has a story behind it. Sometimes I look at a piece and wonder what someone was thinking when they created their piece . Sometimes I look at my own work and wonder what I was thinking lol
Sheena Pike I have to say again I love your work the colors your style. I read your story behind a piece of your work and I teared up so sorry for your loss. Its so good that you started drawing again and sharing your talents you are so gifted.

I was reading David post on Van Gogh and i searched him on google and there were different views on how he lost his ear, some said it was in a fight with his friend and his friend cut it off, and some say he cut it off . Regardless i viewed his paintings and was looking for clues, and that made me view his paintings differently. If i looked at hitlers art i would wonder what he was thinking which would change my view on his art. thanks for your thoughts and you've changed my view on this and i would love to hear more opinions !

I love what David has to say as well, Blaine.

Although a bit on the silly side, David does educate us on the weird assumptions we all make.

On that note, my husband will watch me work and as he walks away, he always says, "Don't cut off your ear, Dear."

I don't know.

I have a very few pieces of art that friends from my art guild have painted - only a few because I don't have much wall space. I like the art better because I know the people, and in some cases, I know interesting stories behind how the art was made.

I also have some art that was made by complete strangers, and I don't feel that not knowing the artist detracts from the art.

There are friends and family who have my art. They like it, in part, because I made it. Then there are the friends and family who have suggested that they prefer not to receive art as gifts... so I don't give art as gifts unless friends / family specifically hint that they would like some.

Complete strangers have bought my art and as far as I know I have never had any contact with them at all, and they know nothing about me other that that I made a piece of art they wanted.

Complete strangers have bought my art and then been interested in finding out who I am, as a person, and we've become kinda sorta friends.

No single answers. We all love that now-famous-on-FAA penguin pillow so much because (a) it is a charming design, and (b) because your son made it....

thanks Cheryl!

Blaine,

Art expresses the artist's ability to think. When you put the heart around the eyes some days ago I saw a strong dose
of talent.

Hitler sometime possibly during WW I made an abstract image, seen here as number seven.

http://sobadsogood.com/2013/07/22/25-rarely-seen-artworks-painted-by-adolf-hitler/

Hitler as an artist was technically very good. He could get into a lot of technical detail.
But to shift into more abstract thinking he was lacking severely. His book written while
in prison was the worst possible plan for a modern state he could come up with. He wanted
to take a modern industrial state back to a feudal system on the Russian Steps. An ignorant dream totally
obscured by someone who could not understand life.

Dave

dave i just check out the link you posted about hitlers art i thought it would be darker and he had flowers and nothing what i expected even with who he was and what he did i still like his art!

The times shaped Hitler. Hitler would have liked to have shaped his times. He committed suicide
instead of answering to the Russians for what he was.

His art kind of has two phases. I am not an expert at all on his art, but looking at those images
on the link, he has a pre WW I period and a during WW I period. He goes from sane to insane.
Is it him or his subject matter? It is his subject matter. He sees the trenches. His artistic control
deteriorates. He comes back stronger later, but not very strong.

So WW I shapes him. The German depression shapes him. His self hatred shape him. A desperate
Germany shapes him. And he destroys all in his path. He did not ever come to terms with his life. He committed
suicide instead. He certainly had no value or understanding for anyone else's life.

Addition: His detailed paintings took great control, but were somewhat empty. His abstracting process was
no good.

Addition II: There are very few human beings in his paintings. Only a couple of strange figures. He really
did not have any instinct for or understanding of his relationship to humanity as an artist.

Dave

the flowers threw me for a curve. i didn't expect from someone who could kill with out remorse!

does anyone know more on this? dave your info is good I'm just curious!

FACTS-
Hitler was homeless when he was 18 he lived in the streets and sometimes in homeless shelters. He had very little self esteem. He was tiny very thin man. He couldn't work any hard labor jobs. His intent was on becoming an artist, he twice failed the art academy's admission test; his drawing skills were declared unsatisfactory. He made a little money drawing postcard views of Vienna.

MY VIEWS-
He was taken over by the power he had over people and his own low self esteem and self hate he become a heartless demon.
I see a lot of sadness and emptiness in a lot of his work. Just makes me wonder if he was accepted as an artist if he would have gone down a very different path. A man that painted beautiful flowers was a man responsible for the death of so many people.

On the other hand if he'd been hit by a stray bullet in 1917 the world would have been a better place. Art or no art...

Richard,

With or without Hitler there would have been WW II. Hitler did not produce Hitler. He
could not even get into an art school. I recognize the German HIGHER EDUCATION system
was strict and in many ways backwards. Still he never amounted to anything. His country
wanted to amount to more.

The larger theory is that Germany stuck between the powers of East, USSR, and West, UK, France and US
that Germany is in a power vacuum in central Europe. This caused massive instability. The US has gone to great lengths to change
this And the US has succeeded. Germany has succeeded. We have just been through a great depression for the last
15 years, 20 or more in Japan, and the US has guaranteed the larger powers, China, Russia etc stability and no
world war. What we are seeing elsewhere is a new super cycle of
environmental decline v emerging nuclear dictators. If the US abdicates any responsibilities involved with global
events there will be no globe.

Dave

Im sorry I think I may have turned this topic into a conversation about Hitler . I didn't mean to make it seem like anything that horrible hateful ..using this term lightly person did. The topic of Hitler's art and what kind of artist he was popped up a bit in my class. I think my teacher had a weird fascination with him and I do read a lot of bios about people good and bad. I once asked my teacher if you can go back in time when Hitler was a baby and knew what kind of person he was going to become would you kill him or try to save him and love him and hope that he would change. He wasn't real happy with me at that point lol

http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=478

Charlie is an artist also!

"Charlie is an artist also!"


And thank goodness the court system provided him ample "alone time" to pursue that vocation until the day he leaves this world.

Back to Blaine's point - No, if I like the art I like the art. The person behind it will not make me like it any more or less.

I think Charlie is a great example of Blaine's Point. How many are buying it only because its Manson?

Manson's somewhat better work seems stuck in the early 1970s.
Most of his work belongs on hell's refrigerator.

Dave