Q&A #13: How is art cathartic on Aristotle's view?

    Art is a way of expressing emotion. It's like yoga, where you can let all your stress out. Like writing in a journal to let all your tears out. Like talking to a friend, to let out all your emotions and lessen your burden. People can do the same with art.

      In Aristotle's essay, The Poetics, he pretty much rambles on about the complexities of poems and their structures and the way they are written. Of course, he explains how there is always a reason for how the poem is the way it is. That's how art is too. It's a complex thing.

   Poetry is just like art in many ways though. In middle school and high school, I remember my English teachers hammering us about iambic pentameter and symbolism and a whole bunch of gibber-jabber. Every time I would think to myself, "Seriously, do these poets really think of all these things as they write it? Do they legit write out outlines and ideas, taking days to piece together such a simple poem about a flower to make it sound like death?"

    I know for sure that when I write poems, I don't think about any of these. I just worry about whether or not the poem makes sense. And then when I hand my poems into my teacher, I get comments back about how the structure isn't good enough, but then they would bring up about something entirely different, a detail in my poem that I would just refer to in a metaphor that my teacher would emphasize it, making the theme and meaning of my poem something entirely different.

    The same went with my pieces of art. When I was in elementary school, my art teacher would add to my show and tell at the end of every class of my drawing about the large amounts of blue or orange I would use in my pretty picture, emphasizing it to the extremes, sometimes, to the point where it seems like she's describing a painting from Van Gough. With all the words she put in my mouth, you'd think I was emotionally depressed when really, I had just gotten back from recess.

So....here's my question: Do you ever think that people over think things way to much and assume a piece of art work to be much more intentional than it actually is?

Museum Review of MASS MoCA's exhibition: Everything That Rises Must Converge

Petah Coyne

Everything That Rises Must Converge

      The exhibition, Everything That Rises Must Converge, created by Petah Coyne, portrays the theme of life and death. The choices of these works of art are chosen according to human nature. It reveals the joining of two opposite things, creating some sort of oxymoron that turns into ultimate chaos. The exhibition organized by title, which is created according to how the artist depicted strong emotion in the piece of art. Ironically, I saw a flock of birds fly by on my bike ride up to MASS MoCA, so when I entered the museum exhibit and saw all those birds trapped in dead blobs of roses, I felt something strong. I felt sad and trapped and felt a strong connection to the artist’s creation. I saw such innocent and free living creatures being swallowed up by a symbol of love and lust that is dead, decaying, black and evil.

Response to Katie Sparagna's questions:

1. How does the quality of the materials used in art effect it as a work of art?

2. Can make-up artist's really be artist's?

Coincidentally, my friend and I were looking at some make up ideas for a school event yesterday. We happened to be looking at the Youtube video tutorials of how to create certain designs on your face.

Not all companies produce the same makeup. It may look the same but the quality is different, which makes the product different from other companies. 

The quality of makeup definitely effects the outcome of how it looks on your face. If it's too powdery, it wont show up well, meaning that the color it looks in the bottle or container will look a lot lighter on your skin. If it's too liquid-y or chunky, it will come out blotchy. So you'd have to find the right makeup for the occasion. Makeup can also be labeled its quality of how long it lasts on skin and how your skin reacts to it. You can be messing with chemicals so makeup can have its risky side to it. If you were to go to a Halloween costume dance, dressed up as Lady Gaga, crazy clown or whatever, you'd want to get makeup that would stay on your skin long and wont bleed when you sweat. Plus you don't want to come back from a party, wash the makeup off and find welts all over your face that wont go away for weeks.

Makeup artists are artists. They pretty much paint on their temporary masterpiece on your face and you'd get the pleasure of displaying it where ever you go. 

Why does Piper maintain that performance art is alone partially unique?

In Adrian Piper's essay, Performance and the Fetishism of Art Objects, he explains his philosophical idea of how all art objects have their own uniqueness to it. Piper mostly focuses on art objects because of its solidity, structure and identity. When Adrian Piper states that performance art is alone partially unique, he means that the Performing Arts is something that can be only seen a few times, unlike art objects, which could be seen all the time by viewers and as many times they like. You can only enjoy a performing art at the moment, unless it is video taped, then it still wouldn't be looking at the same art, the video tape would be another piece of art itself.

Response to Sarah's Question:

Does cake have a place in sculptural studio art?

Sure! I mean, the kitchen is pretty much the studio, the dinning room is where the cake gets displayed to people and then eaten, just like a painting would (not including the getting eaten part). One thing I like about cake art is looking at one that looks like it is not edible when really it is. Take this cake from the television show Ace of Cakes for example:

Although this is a really weird idea for a birthday cake, the fact that it was created and made to look just like the actual Nikon camera makes it a piece of art. Like what Arthur Danto says about art, "....if art is imitation, mirror-images are art."

Here is another cake from another television show called Cake Boss.

Response to Hanna's Question:

Is it better to have a teacher, or let your skills develop organically?


From my point of view it should be your choice as to what you want. If you're clueless as to what you want, you should get help from a teacher. But if you know what you want to do, such as abstract art, and know how to reach that goal, of making abstract art, by yourself, than you should go for it by yourself.
Sometimes it's also good to learn by yourself yet get inspired by other people's art work. 
It is also good to be so involved in your piece of art that you make it personal. 

"When the artist loses himself in his art, then the art comes to life."
-Hazrat Inayat Khan