But people might get it confused with the anti-feminist subculture with the stories with the houseplants and everything.
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This time it’s just 
To paraphrase Herbert Morrison, “Oh, the stupidity!”
There’s another distinction that bothers me – “artists” vs. “crafters.” Yeah who gets to decide? There’s art I dislike intensely and craft that I love.
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I seem to recall that there was a story about sex robots returned to the factory for repairs with horrible levels of damage to their replica sex organs.
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I can answer this. I worked at BellSouth Cellular’s R&D Lab when we were testing voice recognition software of the era. There were certain frequencies of women’s voices that could break the recognition software. We had a woman in the lab who was the big guinea pig for a lot of this because her voice was in the register.
In general, women’s voices were harder for the recognition software, and Southern accents, too. Accents in general. This was ages and ages ago, so things might have changed.
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On behalf of everyone who’s had to tell a partner “that hurt and not in a good way, and if you don’t stop it we are stopping entirely”, I just hope it was an educational experience.
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Underrated comment right here.
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Thats easy! The Artists do! /s
I joke, but its true. The people that go to school for “art” bristle at being included with any of us self taught handicraft people. I made the mistake of going to a two-day conference on “The State of Craft in Canada” - which I thought would be about, you know, CRAFT. Instead, it was two days of PhDs and MfAs moaning about the dilution of the word “Craft” by people like me. Worst conference ever!
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But is their craft seaworthy?
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This is meant as parody, but it’s too 
not to share:
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Gallery owners and collectors. And I am being quite serious.
When overrated “artist” Tracey Emin got a really skilled embroiderer to produce one of her “pieces” it immediately became art because Charles Saatchi said it was. Who even knows the name of the embroiderer?
A lot of art is actually a bubble. Galleries and collectors get together and decide what is in and will be promoted, and thus create value (in the form of price) out of thin air. A few artists benefit. There’s a story of Lucien Freud talking to Francis Bacon (both pretty creepy btw). Freud remarked that he was thinking of buying some of his own paintings as an investment. “Oh,” said Bacon, “I can’t afford to buy mine.”*
It’s depressing because there is this big grey area between handicrafts and art, most of the former seems to be produced by women, most of the latter still by men. And when you do find successful women artists, some of them at least seem to be doing it by exploiting other women’s technical skills.
*cum grano salis
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This always bothers me!!
Ai Wei Wei’s sunflower seeds weren’t fucking made by him!
Damien Hirst didn’t paint all those damn dots!
But thats “art”!
(flip side, I freaking love conception/environmental art like Christo & Jeanne Claude. And I will fight you over the genius of Rothko!)
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No need. (I was taught art by an Irish Expressionist and an English Jewish Communist. I expect as a result I have some odd ideas on the subject. But they succeeded in imbuing me with a love of art. The first time I went to the Uffizi, it was such a mind-blowing experience that I don’t think I ever fully recovered.)
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I’ve seen Voice of Fire in person while visiting Ottawa, and my god, its amazing.
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Indeed. I think another part is whether you do it for lofty academic artistic reasons, or in order to make a living. I recall a teacher I once had for a science fiction writers’ course, who said that the attitude of the more literary people around was “If you’re so good, why aren’t you a failure?” I think that meant “a failure at being able to support yourself.” The teacher was supporting himself at the time, though as he said “at the McDonald’s server level.” He joked that his goal was to support himself at the McDonald’s manager level.
Yeah. A cousin married a New York gallery owner. I met her once. Just for conversation’s sake I mentioned I liked abstract art. Somewhere along the way, I said I’d bought an abstract painting by Richard Mann that I fell in love with at a mall, something similar to this:
My goodness!!! The fact that I bought it at a mall just irritated the heck out of her. Well, it’s the only painting I ever bought, and I still really like it. It looks like an underwater mud volcano.
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I mean, i hate him… but I also kind of love him? Like… he’s a genius at making money and thats a kind of art? LOL - but I think I’d have a hard time not punching him in the face if I ever met him, you know?
Have you seen the trailer for The Square?
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Making money is Koons’ only genius. I think “his” works are mostly incredibly ugly kitsch, like a gift store ashtray for really rich people.
The Square looks interesting. Gotta love those piles of dirt (or whatever; haven’t set up my sound yet.) Thanks!
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If you haven’t seen it, run don’t walk to watch Exit Through the Gift Shop about art and commerce. It is so freakin’ genius.
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