It’s an odd thing. The way we’ve been hammered in all the possible metaphorical ways to think that the original is better. Even when there’s no real original, there must be a limit. I’m not sure why but I think it has something to do with money and, no, I can’t really come up with another reason. Perhaps to create a manufactured urgency and envy. But those are more side-effects from the money issue.

I’m an aesthetic. Poster, print, painting, reproductions. The image and what it gives me is the important thing. To me, if someone asks me where I got it and I can answer and perhaps even give away a copy, that’s a good thing. I want art to be appreciated, to drift in and out through people’s lives. It’s hard in some cases, architecture for instance don’ really lend itself to copies in an easy way except by way of LEGO. (LEGO needs to be recognised as an art-form.) But I can’t see any reason why kids shouldn’t be allowed to climb on old statues if you got those in the garden. 

Expensive photographs with editions of five copies, I don’t see the point. Not really. there’s a bit too much reverence for art as a static object, the beauty of tear and wear is seen with disdain. Perhaps I’m just too digital in my way of thinking but I can’t be alone in this. Art needs to be liberated.

dooeypig replied to your post:dooeypig replied to your link: Etsy:carbonated ink…

You’re a terrific huckster! Which is why I wanted to let you know of my money’s absence. Silence on the Internet can carry lots of unintended insults and dismissals where none were intended. Hence my note. Tis

Okay, good art huckster, bad salesman. Had I been good at sales I’d probably had sold more than… let me count, three prints. Then there’s the whole you should buy because you like it and not to make money — which is one of the reasons I’m so disappointed in the growth of fine are auction houses and such things. The value comes from beauty, not green dead presidents from the future. But I digress.

I’ve not been offended by anyone’s silence. At least not in this matter.

Traditional media project: #1 acrylics

This was the sketch I did last night. Today I put it up on a board and painted it over with acrylics — cheap ones, so lots of beginner errors. I haven’t held a proper brush in ages. Ten years or so. This is how red it became.

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Tommy told me yesterday that he had looked at my drawings and tried to work out how I came to draw just that motif. He couldn’t really, and I was really short for an answer. Even more than usual when someone sprouts up the insane “where do you get your inspiration” question. For me it’s very natural, sort of intuitive. How do one explain it? I go where the lines and the mind merge? But that sounds a bit too quasi-philosophical with more than a hint of spiritualism — just short of asking the spirit guides.

And he’s a writer so I know it’s a bit deeper question in reality than the inspiration one. Damned if I can explain it. When words fail, they really fail. That’s the problem I think, that we try to explain art and creativity with language. I think it would be easier with an improvised sign-language but that opens up other problems.

Swedish television showed an hour-long documentary about Tove Jansson earlier today. It was, as one would expect, great and once again it reminded me of that theory that the geometrical shapes we use when we draw has a foundation in how we ourselves are built. Concious or subconscious, the eclipses and circles, the rectangles and the squares — they’re there. I guess the loved ones also affects it a bit, seeing someone for a long time across a table or in a mirror matters in how the mind visualise and sends impulses.

In Tove, I think it’s switched in importance. The soft circular shapes are from people around her, and the angular and more pointy in some of the secondary characters comes from herself.

themeds replied to your photo:untitled people #1 (by Nn.) Further proof that…

Well, just call me Sloth then because I always draw the eyes super crooked.

Well, the eyes are one of my defining attributes, no matter what angle my left eye looks slightly smaller than my right.

But unless polished away at some art school or similar, my theory is that artists — especially self-thought — are influenced in the way they use the geometrical shapes by how they look themselves. Do you draw the head as a ellipse or a tube? How about the hands? Wedges or circles? Things like that.

notlikethecheese replied to your post:Comfort shows that never fails, ordered by…

LOVE the west wing! i got the complete box set for christmas… my parents thought i was crazy.

I got the cheaper box with much less flair, so I’m thinking of doing an upgrade when my economy allows. And of course it’s your parents that are the crazy ones. The dialogue alone is worth the box. Shit, I’d buy the dialogue alone on tape.

idsploder replied to your post:Comfort shows that never fails, ordered by…

I’ve watched 30 Rock on occasion. Currently working my way through Firefly. Love Wonderfalls. Great show.

30 Rock is a bizarre thing. The first episodes are uneven and even though they’re very very episodic it still builds up on each episode. Without much back and forth referencing. It’s… Genius.

Wonderfalls, the Middleman (can’t believe I forgot to include the Middleman! But it’s only 12 episodes so it wouldn’t have made it into top five because of that) and Firefly are shows that I love to pieces. Due to Serenity I’ve accepted that Firefly is dead, but the hope of a miraculous resurrection for Wonderfalls and the Middleman lives on! I shall not falter in my belief.

Reinvention

The old trusty Flaunder (transparent OH paper taped on top of the scratchy plastic):

The new Dub-Dub:

The drivers was a bit annoying, probably because of some conflict with the old ones, but now it works. WORKS!