"Paintings With Personality"

Crab cake is one of my friend, Ginny's, favorites. I had to take a picture for her.

ART VERSUS PORNORGRAPHY

      I finally graduated from my ‘pay as you go’ TrakPhone to a fabulous SMART PHONE that I completely haven’t figured out. The main problem is I don’t want to take the time to read any of the material. Surely I can figure it out, it can’t be worse than a computer.

      Things were going pretty good until ‘Honey’ (my husband, for any new readers) and I went to Pittsburgh. Guess I have to admit the phone only rang twice and one text in a month, good thing because I’m still not real sure how to answer the phone. When Honey and I were in Pittsburgh, I sent the above picture via text to my friend Ginny. The conversation that ensued went this way:

Me: My crab cake sandwich.

The response: Looks great Judy. It’s Jack (I’m not giving the real name).

Me: What? (Sometimes I’m not very articulate).

The response: I’m Jack. You texted the wrong person.

Me: Who are you? (Not only inarticulate but a little dense).

The response: It’s JP Topart (Again, not the real name).

Me: Wonder where Ginny went. (Not my most intelligent moment). Then the light bulb comes on.

Me: Hello Jack, I’m sorry I bothered you and I won’t do it again.

Jack: No problem at all. Looks like you’re having fun!

Me: Sure am (I finally got something right).

      I still haven’t figured out the SMART PHONE. Jinnie, Ginny and I went to the Whitney Museum of Art in NYC yesterday.  No wonder I’m confused, look at their names.

      By the way, if you get the chance to go see the Whitney biennial show “DON’T”. When we got there, we were told to start on the fifth floor and work our way down. So, to the fifth floor we went. The work there was good. We walked through looking at the art, talking about the compositions and what the artist might have intended, and etc. before going to lunch. When we finished eating we enthusiastically went to see the remaining four floors. The next three floors were a major disappointment! Someone called it art, but we sure didn’t. It was all photographic, video or needlecraft, pornography! And so, I come to the question of what is visual art?

      Dictionary.com said: “The quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.”

      I wouldn’t say that explains a lot. It’s hard to describe something so subjective and constantly changing. I mentioned a few things about art in two previous blogs, the elements of art in blog 4, and the principles of design in blog 7. I didn’t say a word about the materials used or what the artist was trying to say in the painting. Then there is the question of what the painter actually did convey, and how the viewer reacts to the work of art.
     I would say that art makes life a lot richer; can you imagine a world without it? Art can make us angry, make us laugh, or cry, in fact it can trigger a whole gamut of emotions. Most people never stop to think about art, it’s just there and they expect it to always be there.

       As far as my phone goes, our server at lunch removed ‘Jacks’ number from my ‘smarter than me phone’, and Ginny put her number on. So I’m glad to say that problem is solved. I’m afraid it will take years to solve pornography versus art.