Monthly #147 - Art Competition

Wow! My brain has been overloaded by the quote already! I am reminded of Plato's comment, "Do we not know that as regards the practice of the Arts the man who has this God for his teacher will be renowned and, as it were, a beacon of light but one whom Love has not possessed will be obscure?". (Symposium 197A).
And .....
"So the maker of anything, if he is to be called a creator is at his best the servant of an immanent Genius; he must not be called 'a Genius' but 'ingenius'; he is not working of or for himself, but by and for another energy, that of the immanent Eros, Sanctus Spiritus, the source of all gifts." (A.K.Coomaraswamy. Selected papers on Traditional Art and Symbolism, 1977, Princeton University Press NJ USA) (page 33).
Loadsa words that boil down to: If it ain't driven by some Holy inspiration then it's crap!
The original, internally driven, atheistic idea has to be contrasted with these two examples of artistic endeavour born of external, spiritually driven forces. One can say that art exists "to make stony things look stony" but what does it look like when said stone smacks you between the eyes?
(Sorry for that. Blame half a bottle of excellent Champagne - Mrs wozhere, thankfully had the other half).

Missed a bit - we are celebrating the survival of 30 years married.

A story I picked up during a holiday in the Outer Hebrides. Some years ago, after the notorious 'pile of bricks' work of art was exhibited, a crofter applied for a grant from an arts funding body to build a heap of peats (brick-shaped lumps of peat from the local bogs, traditionally cut and put into a heap each year as fuel for use during the winter). His application was rejected. He asked why. He was told it was because it wouldn't be art. Persisting, he asked why a pile of bricks can be art but a heap of peats would not. The answer, when it eventually came: it wouldn't be art because he wasn't an artist. Go figure... My brain hurts!!!

But on that basis, any submissions to this monthly competition by those of us who do not regard ourselves as artists cannot be art.

Congratulations, davidwozhere, on surviving 30 years of marriage. May there be many more (I've managed 45 years so far - eeeekk!!)

Steve

An interesting competition non the less, not discounting for a second the thoughts and opinions, absolutely

I have made some attempts myself so far but as of yet I am not happy to reveal , struggling I am, kitchen sink is filling up with dirty dishes, the ashtray is full of butts and the bottles stack up daily and i haven't washed in weeks
I have the rest of this September month, to come up with something clean.

Best of luck, Flan

ps, Kasperbergholt , you got me thinking

Dirty dishes, ashtrays & empty bottles - could be turned into an interesting series of photos, I think, some macro shots perhaps?

By the way, the Shklovsky quote shouldn't be a limitation - work that relates to art in one way or the other is welcome.

Do people still stack peat in the countryside? The story reminded me of Seamus Heaynes' 'Diggging'.

Enought name-dropping for a month or two - just get carried away by comments & photos & people's reflections

That was a treat to read - thank you for introducing us to it. I'm more than happy that my wandering and inebriated keyboard has incited some discussion but now I have to turn into an "artist" and come up with a submission!

What a diverse selection of photos!

1st - Clash of the titans by Noelcmn

2nd - SpacemanCapri by RayWå

3rd Feeling Arch by Simonmac

They were indeed a tough set to judge, I had to rely on a piece of someone else's art to be able to enter this! Thanks for the podium.

Well done to Noelcmn and podiums.
No offence Kasperbergholt, I was hoping for some interesting comments and critique with regards to Photography and art from your perspective. I know my entry is not art but it would be insightful for the reasons why

Well now, that was an interesting challenge, complete with good doses of philosophy, wine culture and jokes that has me laughing out loud. Kudos to kasperbergholt, and all contribitors. Thanks for the unexpected win, amid such tight competition. Congrats to RayW and Flan (I see no reason why it cannot be called art, there is at least an element of Aesthetics) and hopeful that you will tell us what it is. Not the dishes as far as I can gather And Congrats to Davidwozhere for 30 years of marriage, and Lubbyman too for 45 years! Warms my heart, despite the "survival" terminology

Noelcmn, it is my heart on my sleeve lower (left) and my face scrunched on my lapel (upper right) and me being hot under the collar (middle)
In fact it is a slow speed double exposure of a bronze statue of the lateTerry Wogan (TV presenter) in he's birthplace hometown, Limerick City.
He mightn't have liked the location to honour him though, Poor-mans Kilkee, as it is affectionately known by the generations gone by and the remaining holding on.
"Poor-mans Kilkee" was a place for people to who couldn't afford to go on holidays to the real Kilkee Co Clare even when they had holidays, very older times,

Shows what the demon drink can provoke! But there was some interesting discussion in there, including that wonderful poem, Diggging (were there supposed to be three 'g's in the middle of that?).

Super image Noel and congratulations for claiming the top spot.

I can't put a photo on this page (not allowed) but Flan asks for clarification of why his photo was not considered art. Go back to the reason I cited for my own offering to be considered "art" - i.e. it springs directly from a given culture. Flan is Irish (I think) and one absolute root of Irish culture (pardon the pun) centers on the cultivation of potatoes. This involves a great deal of 'digging'. Now, unknown to all of you, the frontispiece of Coomaraswamy's book, cited and shown in my submission, is an early 20thC photograph of the author digging in his garden !! So both of us (Flan and I) can legitimately ask, "But is it art?"

Taking the discussion a little further along, Jung came up with a theory of how disparate threads and ideas come together (apparently) of their own volition. He called it 'synchronicity'. We have a perfect example of it right here !

DavidWoz, I love Colcannon and that is an art in itself

No offense taken I’d feel the same way. Actually, I think your photo is art.

I began writing a couple of lines for each entry, but it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought.

I had difficulty interpreting your photo—the content. At first, I thought it was some sort of copper statue, focused on the chest area of a man, perhaps capturing a sense of tension there. This would fit well with a theme of struggle or difficulty. But I wonder if I might be overinterpreting.

Another quote from Shklovsky, from the same essay as the first:

"The end of art is to give a sensation of the object seen, not as recognized. The technique of art is to make things 'unfamiliar,' to make forms obscure, so as to increase the difficulty and the duration of perception. The act of perception in art is an end in itself and must be prolonged. In art, it is our experience of the process of construction that counts, not the finished product.”

In the context of this contest, I think all of the photos come close to this.

In a sense, perhaps the photos and the accompanying text thread around them form an art experiment too?

Thanks for taking the time to reply Kasperbergholt and yes I also would have difficulty discussing or critiquing what qualifies as art at times. The quotes are very thought provoking, nice touch.
Best of luck Flan