We have dozens of these guys along the beach in Venice. Is there a school somewhere teaching this?
Is it really bad art? Would it be if there was only one guy doing it, and it wasn't proceeded by the tidal wave of sci-fi art that is out there? Would it be genius if it was done by a black lesbian Haitian trying to escape life on the streets?
I don't like the cliche' scene in that one, but I might hang one in my house if it was an original scene. I do love the techniques, the speed and the way they reveal. It's great street entertainment, or at least was before it became so common here.
There is a phenomenon here on Venice Beach, which if you don't know, is a couple mile strip along the sand with shops, restaurants, and bars with a tons of street performers and vendors selling their personal art and creations.
The phenomenon is that when some new idea starts selling well, a whole shitload of people pop up doing the exact same thing. It started with t-shirts and sunglasses, and then palm reading, then henna tattoos, then real tattoos and piercing, then hemp items, then juggling sharp objects, break dancing, spray painting, bear can art, pot dispensaries, etc., etc. It starts with just one person introducing it and like a microbial population in a flask, balloons overnight to where within a few weeks that idea is everywhere and nobody is making any money off it, and it peters out to a few remaining vendors doing that. It happens over and over, and the people doing it imagine themselves as artists and part of a very independent, creative, non-conformist, and specifically non-capitalist community, but it's clearly just the opposite.
It does lower prices pretty effectively. Selling home made incense was one of these things once. Overnight it went from a couple vendors to dozens, and the they were almost giving them away 20-30 for a dollar. Then the cops came through and kicked them all out since they didn't collect or pay sales taxes, and the vendors right across the sidewalk with brick and mortar places had to and couldn't compete. Eventually some came back anyway.
The metaphor I used above about microbes in a flask is a basic phenomenon in life that hits me with a lot of things. I was very impressed by the real thing in "Medical Microbiology" in college back when bell bottoms were in. We did the experiment where you start a culture with some microbe species. We used a safe variant of E. coli a lot I think. After starting it we would come in every day and do a population count and graph the results. The explosion and following rapid death and decline to near sterility really left an impression all these years.
Bago, yesterday in the Detroit thread, I was thinking the same thing... a bacterial culture in a petri dish, with the medium being exhausted in the middle and the growth continuing outward.
When the moon hits your eye Like a big-a pizza pie That's amore When the world seems to shine Like you've had too much wine That's amore
I was thinking about how it never fails that after the golden goose is carved for the big feast, the left look down at the slaughtered carcass and wonder why the heck the thing isn't producing any more golden eggs.
"He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.” ― St. Francis of Assisi
I see something of all three present. The energy with which he approaches the work pleases me, as does the space he saved for his signature.
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The art is hideous-- But the process is skillful. The etched buildings are a surprise.
We have dozens of these guys along the beach in Venice. Is there a school somewhere teaching this?
Is it really bad art? Would it be if there was only one guy doing it, and it wasn't proceeded by the tidal wave of sci-fi art that is out there? Would it be genius if it was done by a black lesbian Haitian trying to escape life on the streets?
Is it better than this?
I don't like the cliche' scene in that one, but I might hang one in my house if it was an original scene. I do love the techniques, the speed and the way they reveal. It's great street entertainment, or at least was before it became so common here.
There is a phenomenon here on Venice Beach, which if you don't know, is a couple mile strip along the sand with shops, restaurants, and bars with a tons of street performers and vendors selling their personal art and creations.
The phenomenon is that when some new idea starts selling well, a whole shitload of people pop up doing the exact same thing. It started with t-shirts and sunglasses, and then palm reading, then henna tattoos, then real tattoos and piercing, then hemp items, then juggling sharp objects, break dancing, spray painting, bear can art, pot dispensaries, etc., etc. It starts with just one person introducing it and like a microbial population in a flask, balloons overnight to where within a few weeks that idea is everywhere and nobody is making any money off it, and it peters out to a few remaining vendors doing that. It happens over and over, and the people doing it imagine themselves as artists and part of a very independent, creative, non-conformist, and specifically non-capitalist community, but it's clearly just the opposite.
It does lower prices pretty effectively. Selling home made incense was one of these things once. Overnight it went from a couple vendors to dozens, and the they were almost giving them away 20-30 for a dollar. Then the cops came through and kicked them all out since they didn't collect or pay sales taxes, and the vendors right across the sidewalk with brick and mortar places had to and couldn't compete. Eventually some came back anyway.
The metaphor I used above about microbes in a flask is a basic phenomenon in life that hits me with a lot of things. I was very impressed by the real thing in "Medical Microbiology" in college back when bell bottoms were in. We did the experiment where you start a culture with some microbe species. We used a safe variant of E. coli a lot I think. After starting it we would come in every day and do a population count and graph the results. The explosion and following rapid death and decline to near sterility really left an impression all these years.
When you get caught between the moon and New York City, it's crazy, but it's true...
Bago, yesterday in the Detroit thread, I was thinking the same thing... a bacterial culture in a petri dish, with the medium being exhausted in the middle and the growth continuing outward.
When the moon hits your eye
Like a big-a pizza pie
That's amore
When the world seems to shine
Like you've had too much wine
That's amore
I was thinking about how it never fails that after the golden goose is carved for the big feast, the left look down at the slaughtered carcass and wonder why the heck the thing isn't producing any more golden eggs.
I'm hungry.
"He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”
― St. Francis of Assisi
I see something of all three present. The energy with which he approaches the work pleases me, as does the space he saved for his signature.
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