viva mexico

this Diego Rivera print of Frida Kahlo currently resides in the Viva Mexico exhibition at the MFA in Boston. it was certainly one of the strangest images displayed and one of my favorites. also among my favorites were photographs by/of the lovely and fascinating Tina Modotti . the exhibition as a whole was a little bit ho-hum in my opinion, but worth seeing for this print alone.

concerns...

"The more I learn about the history of social movements, the more concerned I am that I am being groomed for a role that I don’t want...as organizations jumped on board the 501(c)(3) wagon, truly radical and inspired social-change organizations faded into oblivion...

Today our work is inextricably tied to our funders and, whether we like it or not, we cater our programming to them, often instead of our constituents. Most of our work hours are spent wooing donors and applying for grants, and our programs our showing the strain..."

from Creating a Monster: Capitalism in the Community Arts Classroom

By Brandi Rose

if this statement interests you in any way follow this link to read more.

feeling good

prepare to be mesmerized

watching the timelapses of Sol Le Witt's wall drawings being created could potentially suck up an entire afternoon, and is actually well worth the time spent (in my opinion, anyway). click the image above to go to page on Mass MOCA's website where the making of this image (and many, many others) is posted.

of value...

the image in color is by master painter claude monet. the image in pencil is by amateur doodler, nora gilchrist (aka me).

when i was studying art history at umass boston a few years ago i suffered a loss of confidence in the usefulness and value of what i will call "non-masterful art". those were dark days. my state of mind was as follows, "ugh, there's so much crappy art out there, i don't want to add to the pile."

thankfully these days i feel quite different about this matter. i feel that all of our art has value, even if it is just to our selves and perhaps a handful of others. i am glad that i can share my "non-masterful art" here and i am even more glad to view the work of others, masters and amateurs alike.

to some a great artist, to others a vandal...

while i have much respect for the property of others, i am kind of glad that Banksy doesn't. i find his work to be extremely poignant.

check this article:
http://www.wishtank.org/magazine/commons/banksy_a_counter_current_to_modern_artistry/

do you like to draw? yeah, me too.

these are the last two pages of the sketchbook i recently filled. i got this sketchbook as a gift (to myself, admittedly. one of many) about five years ago. at that time, i used all of about 10 pages of it as a place to make preparatory sketches for a painting class i was taking. after the class was over, i did not touch the sketchbook for three years.
in 2007, i attempted to pick it back up in an attempt to stir up the old artistic juices that had been laying dormant for some time. this was frustrating. my skills were greatly lacking. i used all of 4 pages.
this past april, i picked the sketchbook up again as a place to take notes in a new class that i was taking (arts and visual inquiry- fun class!). all of the sudden i was bit by the doodlebug. the sketchbook served as a visual journal of sorts and was filled up within a matter of about 4 months.

what does this have to do with art of the web, you might ask? good question.
well, the fact that i can share this image and this story with you all in this way is where i will start. technology is an amazing tool that allows us to share our stories/ideas/thoughts/expressions. we have the means to express these stories visually, through the written word, and with sound. we also have the means to combine these elements. technology has cracked the egg of personal expression open and it's insides are leaking all over the web...
it is daunting but i'm up for it. let's explore.