Stealing?

The idea of appropriation is odd for me.
to be honest the first time it really entered my vocabulary was when i started art school.
I remember in a crit in my freshman year a student used the word stole/took the image from another source.
The student was instantly corrected by the professor, "you mean appropriated"
Now although, the term is alot better sounding than stealing or taking, but really it is not much different.
if you go from the strict definition of the word, it is wrapped in money, exchange, and a deliberate act of acquisition of something, often without the permission of the owner. The actual meaning of the words are not that seperate, but the use is vastly so. I think if you are an artist and you are using images and you are not taking images beyond their original context, if you cannot reintroduce an image with new syntax and understanding, than you are stealing. There are many examples of this, one that pops right to mind is richard prince, and his rephotographing of advertisements, most notalby so the marlboro man, which recently set a record price at auction. It is hard for me to reconcile my feelings over the work. Alot of me wants to instantly wash my hands with it and call it trite, but i can still see the validity in the idea and action of this photographer/painter in this age of image proliferation. Another example of this was photographer Sherrie Levine, that not just rephotographed existing images but images of well know and prominent photographs by walker evans. There is a slew of other artist especially out of this time period of the early 8o's that were into this idea of using existing image culture to point out realities that are masked by the very images that are used to imply them. This is where i can see appropriation being appropriate. AND i do say that those with no sin among you cast the first stone. I too struggle with this idea of using others images. I was very against the idea up until i started using video and sound, and the marraige between existing audio and footage and manipulating them to serve an anlternative image function seemed appropriate. Originality is an idea that is really hard to get ahold on. Is there nothing new under the sun? Are you not original if you come up with an idea completely independent of any influence, only to find out that a decade ago another artist on the other side of the world did the same thing?....I dont think so. I think images are a languge , a dialouge with a particular motive. Any image vocabulary that has existed should be able to be recalled, and redeployed to express or expose ideas. With the proliferate amont of image stimulation and bombarment that we have today, there must be reflection, this will give us the ablitiy to gain context, and with conxet we can have understanding, and with that a more clear and visible knowledge or the world spinning at an ever increasing rate around us...so i guess in close....STEAL,

HOPE not a dirty word

In class there was discussion, and this has come up before, of a disdain for A utopia. I would agree for the most part, as we know paradise found is paradise lost. But in the arts, as with most things that exist as a group, no matter how spread out they are this utopian idea to me boils down to HOPE. Reminds me of that sentiment " Aim for the moon and you will land among the stars", cheesy yes, but should we just have these hopes, dreams if you would. Dosent that simple imaginary gesture drive us give us energy and a since of purpose to pursue. Shouldnt hope father the future, or should we just submit to the failings of those who came before us. Should we just throw up our tired arms and scream dystopia, put our heads down and become stagnent, let the bacteria of apathy and the looming shadows of captitol pressure turn the clear, crisp, moving stream of creativity and community into a cespool of dispair. Art is at it's core an ability to rerender life, take it in and digest what goes on around us, both personally and universally. Having hope in the function of art keeps our slowly sinking noses above water. Dont mean to sound preachy...but we should find energy not apathay in our creative pursuits.

FLICKER you little FILM they do that sometimes

I recently went to the albritknox, on a friday when they have it free and open to the public. I am sure most of you know what i speak of, they even have a catchy title for it, they have positivly dubbed it "Gusto at the Gallery". GUSTO, isnt that great, Gusto is the word equvilant of a cheerleader. The word itself is pleasing to look at, pleasing to read and embodies all the power and energy of a national champion cheerleader squad dancing, smiling, and tosing themselves into the air. (qucik side note for you word lovers out there::::1629, from It. gusto "taste," from L. gustus "a tasting," related to gustare "to taste," from PIE ) I will start of by stating that i am in no way trying to bastardize the event, for 1. i am a really big fan of FREE, i mean really thats the best price in town, and 2. i believe in allowing a certain time to be truly open, for the museum to actually carry out it's intended function, and that is art for the people, by the people (insert long-winded proletariat romaticized statement here). It is really great, and not only is the art work accessible, but they couple it with public interactive evnts that involve people from all walks of life, and art related explorations of a plethora of mediums, feilds of study and intrigue. But now back to my point i will try and make, maybe. I started to explore this word gusto, for yes as i stated above truly has this impactual visual and audial(sp) apeal to it, it is positive, and makes me want to be there. This is the definition of Gusto,:

gus·to [guhs-toh]
–noun, plural -toes.
1. hearty or keen enjoyment, as in eating or drinking, or in action or speech in general: to dance with gusto.
2. individual taste or liking.
or if you change dicitonaries up

. pl. gus·toes
Vigorous enjoyment; zest. See Synonyms at zest.
Individual taste.
Archaic Artistic style..

I found this great...They really did there etymological research for this title, it truly embodies this action of opening up to the public, which as we can safely assume has varying individual tastes, but doing so with ferver and enjoyment.
On this particular night the gusto was focused on the title "long live film". The highlight of which as a screening of "Avant-garde films", which acutally meant squeeky wheel was kind enough to show selected films from their archive of hand manipulated films. And i must say, a nice and diverse showing of this particular method indeed. Im not sure if anyone is unfamiliar with these types of films, they tend to be abstract, and loosely narative, most of the time it is like watching a pollock painting in motion, which from my video making background i quite enjoy. But it seems that many who are unfamiliar with these types or productions are not. The autitorum that the albright houses these lectures, screenings, and talks, was to my amazement pretty filled, Avant-garde usually tends to throw people off unless well they consider themselves to be to some extent. As i waited for the films to begin i scanned around the room, visually judging everyone there, trying to find people i would be shocked to see there or didnt appear to be the type, it is a bastardly thing to do i know, but i believe i do it most the the time in the hopes that i am wrong. The lights dimmed after a brief introduction of what we were about to see, and let the abstract flickerin' begin. Slowly as the screening progressed, one dark figure after another rose from their dark cushy seats and sped out of there. Now i use this as an example, for two reasons, one being that most of the films were results of public funding for the arts, and secondly, well not only were the people jetting out durring the screening the public, more so they were a filtered down specific part of that public, that has enough intrest, intrigue, or investment to make the consorted effort to attened such a thing. I bring this to the table, for it was questioned about the public not seeing the need for the funding, well it is not just that general public we need to worry of it seems. For even within the smaller more select group of people you have gusto(individual taste).

i's gots a halo do you

IN LOOKING BACK THROUGH THE HALO

the halo is interesting, maybe i am a bit late commenting, but most good things come through spontaneous reflection distanced from the matter at hand. But this halo image has been frolicking around in my head sporadically for some time. When i first came to buffalo and didnt know anyone and i was begining to painfully intergrate myself by meeting people and socializing there is somthing that kept comming up. When i was being introduced to people for the first time via someone else, they would always start off with announcing that i was a grad student at UB. First off i didnt really think twice about it, of course why not it is true, this is why i am here right now meeting you for the first time in this setting. Logic is blinding sometimes. But the more and more this happend i started to notice a trend. The peoples reaction was generally the same each instance. They would perk up and their voice would gain a sort of intrigue with repeated phrases like "REALLY", "OH VERRY GOOD". I started to realize that this was a little membership card, this title, this thing that could be looked at i guess as an achievement, but in my eyes it was just somthing i am doing now, another part of my continued progression through life. It is not like i particularly earned the position, or i invented somthing of major importance, it was like using a template for a website, the attachement of this title, which followed my name much like the PHD, Made my identity. I guess i kinda see this as a sort of halo, somthing that is placed on me, and not me placing it on myself, for the most part. Instantly at the utterance of this i was accepted, to an extent, into a particular social bracket and circle. It seems to me this academically placed halo is in direct proportion or fucnction to that which gets placed onto artists socially. It seems that the upper class, which dictate most of popular culture needed to invent this merrit badge inorder to let us feel inducted into a system that is generally out of our element. The creation of art to me is very removed from this space in which the halo is placed. Having a social position and the act of creation to me couldnt be any farther apart from each other. Is this just another example of how academia has vastly perverted most forms of personal expression? the restriction of the cannon is removed so to speak and instead is replaced by the halo, which appears to aknowledge the merrit of individual creativity. But really it just seems like a trojan horse. They present us with his image of our individuality, while the other hand picks our creative pocket, and holds us to a larger system that we cannot see becasuse the blinding light from the halo doesnt allow us to precieve the horizon. I don hold this just to the blindness of the individual recieveing the halo, but really to all that are involved, including those on the "outside" who just as blindly accept the same information as truth. they may have a differnt feeling about it, instead of prasing, they look on with scorn, perhaps. To return to my original example, as i started to notice this occurence and well the general perdictability of it, i would begin to place the halo on myself without prompt. Not just to those who are in this particular social of culture or academia, but also to the "average" the "unassuming" etc. It was funny to me how similar teh reaction was, it may have lost it's luster of praise, but nonetheless it still commanded a particular acknowledgement. And perhaps it ws perdictable becuase it has been so long practiced and induced into society, that it envokes a pavlovian response. MAYBE...?

skectch books

When i was young i remember digging into the colset in the laundry room, for no particular reason.
As i was lifting up a short stack of towels i noticed, just undearneath them, the white glossy corner of
a dust jacket caught my eye. I put the stack of towels down and dug out two books. They were old text books
of my fathers when he was getting his bachelors taking night classes years ago. The books where from his
renaissance course. I remember eagerly thumbing through the pages and glazing over the images. At one point
i remember being still and really looking over the images. They were replications of Leonardo DaVinci's sketch
books. I just marvelled over the texture and composition of the text in juxtaposition to the images of anatomy,
portraiture, and schematics of inventions. Ever since that momment, and going to see them on display, i have
always made every mark in any of my sketch books with the thought that some day they might be displayed
behind UV protective glass, and atomosphereically controlled enviroment, while masses of bodies march
by in euphoric passive stares. I just find it funny that the sketch book, this left over relic of an individual can be
fawned over. We have seen so much of his imagery, his entire catalog but, he has been so established into
the dogma of culture that we scrap at the bottom and hold on in quiet disposition. The sketch book is the
before, not the after, eventhough I still might daydream about the lime light of hermetically sealed containers.

Soliloquy for the Educating Artist

To teach, or not to teach: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The resistance and risk of the outrageous art world,
Or to take arms against a sea of academia,
And by opposing end them? To teach: to work;
No more; and by work to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural pains,
That creativity is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To teach, to work;
To work: perchance to create: ay, there's the rub;
For in that work of solitude what creations may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the esteem
That makes calamity of creativity so long a life;
For who would bear the pressure and restraints of time,
The system’s wrong, the proud critics contumely,
The pangs of despised creations, the days delay,
The insolence of position and the disdain of
The waiting merit that the undeserving take,
When them themselves might their quietus make
With a bare infatuation? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat over a blank canvas,
But that, the dread of nothing after teaching,
The empty space from whose bourn
No artist can return, puzzles the purity of will
And makes us rather bear those fears we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and potential,
With this regard their thoughts turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Muse! Nymph, in thy consideration
Be all my sins remember'd.

TEST RUN

I haVE never had one of these before....so i have to give this a shot to see what happens...CHECK ONE...CHECK one....microphone check....IS any one out there...? is there to much on the high end?.....check....i think the mic is a little hot........AHH!!! turn it down man.....GOD!...ya know i would like to be able to hear later....