On Sep 25, 2011, at 20:52 , William Robb wrote: > On 25/09/2011 2:40 PM, Daniel J. Matyola wrote: >> I don't care who said it, it is an ignorant and arrogant comment, >> unworthy of a great artist. >> > Quite often, the great artists are both ignorant and arrogant. > They are, after all, merely differently gifted versions of ourselves, and > they have, by dint of their gift, more reason than most to be arrogant. > Why should someone who can slap paint on a canvas in a pleasing way, or press > a button on a little black box at the right time be any less of a human being > than anyone else? > Besides, it might have been said in jest.
I'll second Robb's explanation. San Francisco in the 60s. One of my good friends, an amazing artist, at that time using gesso and Rapidographs of the smallest wire, was drawing complex miniature scenes on poster board that at first and from a distance seemed to be a portrait, or a Haight street scene. Once you stepped in and studied it, you became enthralled in the internal goings on. He has since moved on, and grown into painting, sculpture, studied in France and God knows where else. He never went to school after high school. After failing as a real estate magnate (never started) and drug distributor, he never had another job. Everything was his art, and being social enough to the right people who would buy his works, or send him on his way to travel and paint, sculpt, etc.. I stopped by his studio some 20 years ago when I was in San Francisco for MacWorld, thinking how great it would be to catch up after a long absence. Found him working on the largest piece of jade I'd ever seen (could have been something similar, but he told me jade) that a woman had shipped to him to do with as he saw fit for her. He had fashioned it generally as the bust of a Roman warrior, wearing a helmet with a crest that was tall in front, small at the back. The crest consisted of a dozen elephants, each one smaller than the one in front. Each was topped with the large, covered hathi howdah the Maharaja would use, the drapings from that were detailed in bas-relief. Inside of each was a person sitting on a supported pillow. The person was about 1/2 inch tall and smaller, but had details on the face of a nose, eyes, mouth, and topped with a hat. The rest of the helmet was similarly detailed, as was what showed of his garment. The skin was smooth and flawless. As I remarked on the piece, Jim blasted me with a long tirade about how I had graduated from art school, but had wasted my talents by working for "the man", learning about technology, a turncoat to the art world, a useless turd on the face of the earth. Followed by, "Get out!". That sound like a true artist? http://www.artwithin.com/art/d0/a19/ He used to be on Facebook. Not there anymore. I don't know if he is still alive. Joseph McAllister Pentaxian http://gallery.me.com/jomac -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.