Here and Now...What's Happening?

[donk]

That's my youngest! His older bro is behind him...I didn't even see them!!

[Carmody]

Posted by ulli (here)
Isn't this what we've been doing here for ages?
So where will we find the collectors willing to pay us millions?

http://www.cbc.ca/thisisthat/blog/20...-is-invisible/



New York artist creates 'art' that is invisible and collectors are paying millions
27-year-old artist Lana Newstrom says she is the first artist in the world to create invisible "art." In this documentary we traveled to her empty studio to learn more about Lana and her unusual artistic process.
"Just because you can't see anything, doesn't mean I didn't put hours of work into creating a particular piece"
Lana Newstrom, Artist
"Art is about imagination and that is what my work demands of the people interacting with it. You have to imagine a painting or sculpture is in front of you," says Newstrom.

Paul Rooney, Lana's agent, believes she might be the greatest artist alive working today: "When she describes what you can't see, you begin to realize why one of her invisible works can fetch upwards of a million dollars." said Rooney.

Listen to learn more about Lana Newstrom and her invisible art.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FK1ZS5Iyb3U

.... .... ....

And then you get an artist says he doesn't want to paint at all
He takes an empty canvas and sticks it on the wall
The birds of a feather all the phonies and all of the fakes
While the dealers they get together
And they decide who gets the breaks
And who's going to be in the gallery

No lies he wouldn't compromise
No junk no bits of string
And all the lies we subsidise
That just don't mean a thing
I've got to say he passed away in obscurity
And now all the vultures are coming down from the tree
So he's going to be in the gallery

[Pris]

Posted by ulli (here)
The lucky bird was afraid of the mini pond we supplied him with. But he L O V E D the mirror.
He only went into the water this morning when the gardener chased him in.
What a surprise he had, that he was actually floating. Lots of wing flapping at first, then pruning, washing, scrubbing.
Then back to the mirror.

His favourite food is still the brown rice, uncooked.
He seems to be used to it.

Lucky Aflac has found heaven.

Aww, poor thing -- a duck that didn't know he could swim and felt all alone. That's sad! But, thanks to outside forces that propelled him forward, he discovered he had super powers and could float on water! Not only that, but now with the mirror, he realizes that he's got the whole universe looking back at him -- he's never been alone!

An analogy for the rest of us perhaps?

[RunningDeer]

Posted by ulli (here)
Lucky Duck tale continues

Now the pool is dirty, but at least we have a clean duck.

By the way, he likes to stand on one leg.

Reminds me of Jethro Tull.

Might reconsider the name now, and call him Jethro.

Jethro looks content. I learned something new today: clothes and intimate apparel for ducks and chickens.

Here's a rubber ducky for the pool and a playmate.

<3

[Stephanie]

Posted by ulli (here)
Isn't this what we've been doing here for ages?
So where will we find the collectors willing to pay us millions?

http://www.cbc.ca/thisisthat/blog/20...-is-invisible/



New York artist creates 'art' that is invisible and collectors are paying millions
27-year-old artist Lana Newstrom says she is the first artist in the world to create invisible "art." In this documentary we traveled to her empty studio to learn more about Lana and her unusual artistic process.
"Just because you can't see anything, doesn't mean I didn't put hours of work into creating a particular piece"
Lana Newstrom, Artist
"Art is about imagination and that is what my work demands of the people interacting with it. You have to imagine a painting or sculpture is in front of you," says Newstrom.

Paul Rooney, Lana's agent, believes she might be the greatest artist alive working today: "When she describes what you can't see, you begin to realize why one of her invisible works can fetch upwards of a million dollars." said Rooney.

Listen to learn more about Lana Newstrom and her invisible art.

'The king, he has no clothes!'

[Violet]

Posted by ulli (here)
Isn't this what we've been doing here for ages?
So where will we find the collectors willing to pay us millions?

http://www.cbc.ca/thisisthat/blog/20...-is-invisible/



New York artist creates 'art' that is invisible and collectors are paying millions
27-year-old artist Lana Newstrom says she is the first artist in the world to create invisible "art." In this documentary we traveled to her empty studio to learn more about Lana and her unusual artistic process.
"Just because you can't see anything, doesn't mean I didn't put hours of work into creating a particular piece"
Lana Newstrom, Artist
"Art is about imagination and that is what my work demands of the people interacting with it. You have to imagine a painting or sculpture is in front of you," says Newstrom.

Paul Rooney, Lana's agent, believes she might be the greatest artist alive working today: "When she describes what you can't see, you begin to realize why one of her invisible works can fetch upwards of a million dollars." said Rooney.

Listen to learn more about Lana Newstrom and her invisible art.

That's not invisible art... That's Plato's cave.

[Playdo of Ataraxas]

Here and now, just listened to this short interview with one of my favorites, Alby Mangels, about living in the Here and Now. This is from 2013.

http://storiesoflifeworthliving.word...-alby-mangels/

P.S. I mirror your enthusiasm, Dan, regarding Hemp. Kentucky is one state that is trying to make strides in growing industrial hemp. I've often thought that hemp could be the key to bringing my native Mississippi out of its poor health and poverty. If only politicians were concerned about their fellow humans and not about reelection. The MS Delta is so rich and life-giving, but it is now being choked by miles of GMO corn, cotton, soybean and the pesticide needed to grow them. Not only is Hemp impervious to pests, you can have multiple harvests a year without having to rotate crops and leave the land fallow. It's a win win combination. As the statistics from Colorado will continue to prove the prosperity, fiscal and health, of its repealing of the prohibition, I'm sure some green thumb entrepreneur elsewhere will eventually buck the trend and just go for it. One domino to thrust the next, und so weiter...... Give it a few years and we'll be "drinking that free bubbalub and eating that rainbow stew." (Than you Merle, Country Visionary that you are!)

http://hemp.org/news/HempHarvestUniv...OfKentucky2014

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=yRDOrCFIY4c

There's a big, brown cloud in the city,
And the countryside's a sin.
An' the price of life is too high to give up,
Gotta come down again.
When the world wide war is over and done,
And the dream of peace comes true.
We'll all be drinkin' free bubbalub,
Eatin' that rainbow stew.
When they find out how to burn water,
And the gasoline car is gone.
When an airplane flies without any fuel,
And the sunlight heats our home.
One of these days when the air clears up,
And the sun comes shinin' through.
We'll all be drinkin' free bubbalub,
An' eatin' that rainbow stew.

Eatin' rainbow stew in a silver spoon,
Underneath that sky of blue.
All be drinkin' free bubbalub,
An' eatin' that rainbow stew.

You don't have to get high to get happy,
Just think about what's in store.
When people start doin' what they oughta be doin',
Then they won't be booin' no more.
When a President goes through the White House door,
An' does what he says he'll do.
We'll all be drinkin' free bubbalub,
Eatin' that rainbow stew.

Eatin' rainbow stew in a silver spoon,
Underneath that sky of blue.
We'll all be drinkin' that free bubbalub,
Eatin' some rainbow stew.

[Violet]

Now that was a beautiful song. It helped a lot to have the text. Not so much to understand what the man is saying but to keep focused. With this kind of music I tend to go on "oh, jus' country song"-mode and being charmed by the southern accent, but never really listening to what they are saying (and that is a form of prejudice, shame on me).

Dan and others are passionate about hemp/weed in other ways than mainstream people are "passionate" about it (that's what I gathered at least, you never know). How (and should we) to deal with the stigma of marginal use of weed in defending it medicinal benefits and easy accessibility for the wide public.

Other important morning coffee question:

- How long do ducks live? (intereference of all kind disregarded)

And I found a small foundation in my surroundings that focuses on India. Yay Because they are small scale they have less costs on wages and transporting big crews and more money can go to the people who really need it. If all goes well, I'll be assigned a young girl whose name I'll abreviate to Fay. Her family does not have enough income to support her going to school anymore. She's already been going for a couple of years now, I believe. As is custom, the boys will get priority and be sent to school whilst the girls remain at home. Well, not for Fay and that's one step in the right direction.

So, if you are in doubt of doing something similar try looking for small non-profit organisations that are known enough to not be obscure but (as opposed to large international foundations with offices in countries other than yours) still within your locale so that's its easier to maintain contact with administration and following up.

Oh, and I met Donald on the way to the bakery. He told me to ask Ulli if Lucky could come over for brunch.

[meeradas]

Our view this morning

[araucaria]

Posted by ulli (here)
Isn't this what we've been doing here for ages?
So where will we find the collectors willing to pay us millions?

http://www.cbc.ca/thisisthat/blog/20...-is-invisible/



New York artist creates 'art' that is invisible and collectors are paying millions
27-year-old artist Lana Newstrom says she is the first artist in the world to create invisible "art." In this documentary we traveled to her empty studio to learn more about Lana and her unusual artistic process.
"Just because you can't see anything, doesn't mean I didn't put hours of work into creating a particular piece"
Lana Newstrom, Artist
"Art is about imagination and that is what my work demands of the people interacting with it. You have to imagine a painting or sculpture is in front of you," says Newstrom.

Paul Rooney, Lana's agent, believes she might be the greatest artist alive working today: "When she describes what you can't see, you begin to realize why one of her invisible works can fetch upwards of a million dollars." said Rooney.

Listen to learn more about Lana Newstrom and her invisible art.

When the Here & Now thread started, this young woman, supposedly the best thing since Campbell’s Soup, was barely out of art college, and boy it shows. She’s dead right to call this invisible art: any inward sign of art is totally invisible, amounting to artlessness.
What we have is the outward signs of some pretty derivative minimalist art – and the different ‘works’ are Warholian mechanical derivations of each other. The medium is a light source projecting at some particular intensity an oval beam of variable dimensions onto a vertical monochrome wall. Dan Flavin used light fifty years ago. Various others used different shapes, and monochrome has been around since Malevich. It is non site-specific, since it was ‘designed’ in an empty studio and is exhibited in a busy gallery which ideally should be empty as well . Collectors may well be disappointed therefore when a ‘work’ is again moved to their own premises.

It may look like abstract art, until we are told that there is an invisible artwork for the viewer to imagine, and which is implicitly somehow related to the work of ‘creation’ that produced it:

“Just because you can’t see anything, doesn’t mean I didn’t put hours of work into creating a particular piece”

And just because she says so doesn’t mean she did. But why should she worry anyway? Time and work have nothing to do with art, unless - or because - one is thinking in economic time-is-money terms (a bit late for that: this is the bankruptcy of art). More importantly: why should we worry? There is no trace of how she spent that time. A remote viewer would see nothing – nothing at all in the everyday sense, as opposed to the cosmic void of infinite potential; I can say this with some authority because I have such a witness (see below) . Art is communication and the communicator has left the building. The message I hear is ‘last one out switch off the light’, but what we are seeing is the ‘cognoscenti’ ‘going into the light’.

The fact is that art has always been conceptual: grappling with giving material form to the immaterial. What usually happens is that this arduous and ultimately impossible process is short-circuited. Instead of translating the spiritual, which equates in material terms to nothing, art breeds upon itself and loses its soul as it becomes the material equivalent of nothing in the trivial sense. If you haven’t got this spiritual connection, art college teaches you how to use the crutch or illusion of ‘art history’.

And of course, the invisible artwork is itself something of an ‘archetype’ – literally the artistic equivalent of the emperor’s new clothes. ‘Archetype’ is the word used by Hans Belting in The Invisible Masterpiece; it is a long book, and I can do no more than dip into it here.

The basis is a story by Balzac, Le Chef-d’oeuvre inconnu (The Unknown Masterpiece). It is about an artist called Frenhofer unable to finish a picture of an impossibly perfect woman for lack of a model beautiful enough. Eventually he decides that it is finished after all and shows it to his friends.

The friends however, see merely a ‘wall of painting’. The ‘body’ of the painting has effaced the body of the woman, and where the eroticism in the painter’s gaze showed him a beautiful woman, the others see nothing. Not only the representation of a woman but the very presence of a work appears to them to be an illusion: in their blunted expectation they fail to acknowledge this phantom work. (p.104)

This is precisely the viewer-response we are seeing here, described two centuries in advance!
We are further told that Balzac’s title was an adaptation of an earlier work called Le Chef-d’oeuvre d’un inconnu (The Masterpiece of a Nobody), in which the work was not impossible, just plain bad. While Frenhofers of that type are two a penny (and I suggest we have one of them here), there are also talented ones for them to hide behind and ape without understanding:

Van Gogh was a reincarnation of Frenhofer, and Cézanne is said to have cried out, ‘I am Frenhofer!’ Picasso rented a studio in the very street in Paris where the story opens, and it was there that he painted Guernica. Ambroise Vollard commissioned him to make a series of engravings based on The Unknown Masterpiece, a series that is among the most profound commentaries on it. (p.123)

(…)
‘there is nothing to see on the canvas’ (…) The tragic outcome ensues when the others cannot see what the painter believes in. What no one else can see has obviously not become a work. The work would have furnished the one proof that the idea was no mere illusion. (p.126)

Belting goes on to discuss real ‘invisible masterpieces’, like Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon, absent from public view for it first nine years – ‘a menacing wall of figures whose exotic masks warn us to keep our distance’ (p.256) that turns the viewer into a voyeur:

For when this voyeur visits a painter’s studio, he is a client with whom the painter negotiates a price. Such an implicit analogy impudently struck at the heart of art selling itself for money.

We have come a long way from the idea of the female form symbolizing the divine beauty of art. This prostitution leads to his analysis of another invisible masterpiece: the Mona Lisa. When the painting was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, the combination of gap on the wall and the mass production of reproductions triggered the attention of the likes of Duchamp, who reduced the portrait to a moustache and beard, and later Warhol, who gave her the Marilyn Monroe/Campbell Soup treatment, ‘substituting the cliché for the work’.

Is this what we are doing here? I think not. Rather than this caricature, we are more like the old masters described by Zbigniew Herbert on the last page of The End of Art by Donald Kuspit:

A major part of contemporary art declares itself on the side of chaos, gesticulates in a void, or tells the story of its own barren soul. The old masters – all of them without exception – could repeat after Racine, ‘We work to please the public.’ Which means they believed in the purposefulness of their work and the possibility of interhuman communication. They affirmed visible reality with an inspired scrupulousness and childish seriousness, as if the order of the world and the revolution of the stars, the permanence of the firmament, depended on it. Let such naiveté be praised.

[ulli]

When I was still an art student at college there was a discussion about the Beatles songs having meaningless lyrics.
That they were inviting the public to make of them whatever they wanted to see or hear in them.
Which somehow led me to the conclusion that an artist must commit to making a statement which was way beyond what the public projected onto it, but conveyed a deeper essence.

But what if the public are themselves waking up, and tap into that deep pool from which only true artists used to drink?



Art in the eye of the beholder?

Thanks for a great post, araucaria.

Never fail to make me think.....

[1inMany]

I have decided to use psychic cinder blocks to reinforce my wall. Inside the wall, I am safe.

Yesterday, the yoga teacher gave us an assignment for the week. Show kindness. I realized, then, how often I am kind to others. Yet I am lacking when it comess to myself. I am quick to have compassion for others, as I can empathize that the journey we all travel is filled with potholes and unexpected speed bumps. But I do not show this same compassion to myself. Is my journey less difficult? I think not. If I were sitting in the chair across from me, this me would have great respect for that me. This me would see the God in that me.

Therefore, today, I will have compassion for me, too. And I will find kindness for me, for I am no less a child of God than anyone else.

Much Love,

[araucaria]

Posted by ulli (here)
Which somehow led me to the conclusion that an artist must commit to making a statement which was way beyond what the public projected onto it, but conveyed a deeper essence.

But what if the public are themselves waking up, and tap into that deep pool from which only true artists used to drink?

This is what is happening. The traditional artist is the high priest of creativity. The need for clergy of any description is disappearing as people are learning to cut out the middle men. Some are still collecting their pay check while serving their notice, but the actual work has already been transferred elsewhere.

[Curt]

Well, gang, I'm taking off for a while. Time to retire...

All play and no work makes Jack an exciting but poor boy. Got to focus on my off-line life for a while. It's long overdue.

Time to dog-ear the page and set Project Avalon on the bedside table for now. But like any good book, I'm bound to return to it again when the time is right.

After all, I do love so many of the characters.

Bye for now to all my pals and pal-lettes, to all my Calzsters and Paulers...

In the meantime.... I'll see you in the dreamtime...

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-fN-Xjpd-qE

[araucaria]

Hey Curt, I understand ( I think). It's been great finding myself on the same page with you and having some good laughs as well. Goood books have a habit of jumping off the shelf when needed. So... keep your hat on

And - goes without saying - don't cancel that subscription.

All the very best to you my friend.

[RunningDeer]

Posted by Curt (here)
Well, gang, I'm taking off for a while. Time to retire...

Curt...quick-quick...check your PM before you're disconnected.

L,
Pauler

[Pris]

Posted by ulli (here)
Isn't this what we've been doing here for ages?
So where will we find the collectors willing to pay us millions?

http://www.cbc.ca/thisisthat/blog/20...-is-invisible/



New York artist creates 'art' that is invisible and collectors are paying millions
27-year-old artist Lana Newstrom says she is the first artist in the world to create invisible "art." In this documentary we traveled to her empty studio to learn more about Lana and her unusual artistic process.
"Just because you can't see anything, doesn't mean I didn't put hours of work into creating a particular piece"
Lana Newstrom, Artist
"Art is about imagination and that is what my work demands of the people interacting with it. You have to imagine a painting or sculpture is in front of you," says Newstrom.

Paul Rooney, Lana's agent, believes she might be the greatest artist alive working today: "When she describes what you can't see, you begin to realize why one of her invisible works can fetch upwards of a million dollars." said Rooney.

Listen to learn more about Lana Newstrom and her invisible art.

Is everyone actually taking this seriously? Am I 'missing' something here?


"This bit of satire was lost on many readers and listeners, which Kelly explained (in an article translated from French) may have been partly due to the fluid definition of what constitutes art:
In the arts, there is much room for interpretation and we thought it would be interesting to push the idea to the extreme ... the invisible art.
Kelly believes that the number of people who read the post alone without listening to the accompanying audio likely helped push the joke a bit further than was intended:
People read on the Internet so quickly that many did not taken the time to check if it was true or not. We encourage people to listen to the audio, because that is where lies the joke. After listening, people will have a hard time believing it's true."


http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/newstrom.asp

[ulli]

My first thought was 'this is satire, surely', but I was too lazy to dig deeper.
And so what...to some artists nothing is too crazy...

[araucaria]

Posted by Pris (here)
Is everyone actually taking this seriously? Am I 'missing' something here?

It depends on what you mean by ‘seriously’. Artists have literally been exhibiting sh:t and other trash for years. The fact that the situation is beyond satire does not mean it is not worth commenting on. On the contrary, any concerted attack on creativity needs to be exposed.

[Pris]

I think it is good to acknowledge it is satire before commenting... that's my thought. This is The Project Avalon Forum. We don't want everyone to think we're a bunch of schmucks.