Art, What is it Good for?

I frequent an online arts discussion forum, and every now an then the subject come up of the "value" of art. A poster wrote:

I want to understand the value of young artist work. There seems to be a plethora of cartoons and work influenced by video games, violence, and seemingly shallow and markedly gruesome subject matter. I am open minded. Someone please explain to me how to appreciate such expressions. Has formal training in the visual arts died? I understand commercialism, replication, pop arts and pop culture. But these doodles that fill the smaller galleries in Philadelphia are warping my artistic sensibility. I want to see the value in this but am struggling. Anyone up for a critical discussion? 

I wrote this in response:


You seem to be implying that art should be implicitly good for something other than self expression.

Certainly there are other types of art... commercial art, commissioned art, "social practice" art. But fundamentally, in my experience an artist creates because he/she "has to", not because it is "good for" anything.

In the free market, that work will either be collected, or it won't. If the art is purchased, it means that that piece of art somehow communicated with another person.

Artistic expression tends to speak in languages. If you are creating art about Harry Potter, you are speaking to Harry Potter fans. If you are creating zombie art, you are talking to a particular subset of horror genre fans.

Artists who are formally trained tend to talk to other artists. Rules of self-generated composition and techniques that are esoteric languages designed to communicate to those who are "in the club".

Commercialism, pop arts, and pop culture says "f*ck that". It is the difference between telling a joke like:

Renee Descartes was on a flight to France when the stewardess asked him, "Coffee, tea, milk, Mr. Descartes?" "I think not," he replied. And VANISHED!

And a joke like (told in a southern accent):

Why's my fanger like a lemon pie? "Cause it's got my rang on it!"

The pun has been called the lowest form of humor. But I enjoy them throughly. What is a joke good for? Do you need to be versed in existential philosophy to be able to laugh? Do you need to be formally trained in visual art to enjoy imagery?


Think of how poetry has evolved over the centuries. The complex rules surrounding sonnets, haiku, etc...

Imagine if humor had those rules. Granted, limericks have a foothold in the world of poetry and humor, thus the rigid structure. But imagine a parallel world where there were subsets and genres of humor, each with its own set of rules... a "school" of humor. Humor snobs would create comedy clubs that wound up hosting comics who told jokes that only other comics would understand.

Imagine if you had to be versed in the origin of the "Niagara Falls!" routine (Slowly I turned, Step by Step, Inch by Inch) in order to understand a whole evening of jokes. Imagine all the people pretending to "get it" as they drank wine and nibbled on crackers and salmon; the room filled with queasy laughter, and half a dozen genuine deep belly roll laughs.

That is what we have done to art.

When "Dance" isn't Dance

Here's an intriguing one from nbcnews.com.

A sharply divided court in New York says lap dances don't promote culture in a community the way ballet or other artistic endeavors do, and so shouldn't get a tax break.

The article states that a lawsuit was filed by a strip club in Albany, NY that was trying to take advantage of the tax examption for "dramatic or musical arts performances".

The fascinating thing to me isn't that the lawsuit was denied. It is that the state's top court was split 4 to 3.

The Politics of Gaming

Back in April, I wrote a post about my experience with Role Playing Games. Seems that the irrational "Jack Chick" days of gaming are not yet over.

Jack Chick's take on Dungeons and Dragons

I just read an article "Warcraft-Playing Candidate Shamed by Republicans".  Democratic candidate Colleen Lachowicz enjoys playing World of Warcraft, and online fantasy role playing game.

If she enjoyed playing shuffleboard and was ridiculed for that, I imagine the AARP would be up in arms. Time for gamers to become a political force, I think.

Richmond, Virginia First Fridays

I went into Richmond for First Fridays this past... um... Friday. The event has grown a lot since I went a few years ago, and has changed tremendously over the last 10 years.

Sidewalk lights in front of 1708 Gallery

Pretty, and safe to walk on too!

I went down specifically to see a piece by one of my favorite artists, Lynette Shelley. Lynette emailed me to let me know she would have a piece on display at Art 6 Gallery, and I had to make it a point to go see it. I've been a fan of Lynette's for years, but this is the first piece I got to see in person.

Art 6 Gallery. 6 East Broad Street, Richmond, VA

The gallery was pretty packed. There was not only artwork, but a performance by the Latin Ballet of Virginia.

Latin Ballet of Virginia performs on landing at top of stairs at Art 6 Gallery

As it turns out, the performance was being video taped. And where did the intrepid camera man decide to set up? Right in front of Lynette's piece!

My view blocked by a videographer, capturing the Latin Ballet of Virginia performance!

The videographer and the DJ who had been hired for the evening both loved Lynette's piece. The DJ even had had the time to view her work online that morning, and was a big fan. The videographer graciously moved his camera for me.

Bird of Truth, 16"x20"

Afterwards, my wife and I stopped by Gallery 5 to take in a bit of the fire show:

Poi spinning has become popular in Richmond over the past several years

Music, spinning, and random fireball bursts

There was a side alley that had a number of artist vendor booths. Lantern making seemed to be a hit of the evening.

Vegan Cupcakes and Tacos were on the Menu

And I finally got to see some of the murals that were done during the G40 Art Summit in April.

LOST, Teleportation, Time Travel, and Tenerife

The television show LOST was one of my favorites for six years. I spend a lot of time posting my thought about the show online under the screen name Desmondisthekey. I have to admit, I spent a lot more time thinking about the show than I did watching it, and had a blast doing it. Here's a peek into just how far "down the rabbit hole" I fell:

The Island is a Brane: Parallel Dimensions


Well, today I was reading an article about teleportation using quantum entanglement. It seems that scientists have been able to instantly teleport information over a distance of 89 miles. It is all very complex and fascinating stuff.

Here's a bit of a fun LOST link (besides the fact that it involves quantum entanglement, teleportation, and the possibility of Time Travel. The teleportation experiment involved the Canary Island of Tenerife. What is the relevance of that you might ask?

The character Richard Alpert originated from Tenerife:

The Obama Campaign hops on the "Great opportunity for exposure!" Bandwagon

The local Obama campaign office posted this on craigslist:

The East Henrico OFA office is in need of a local artist willing to come and paint some of our campaign office walls for the election. 
We have the supplies and permission to paint some of our blank walls and need someone talented and willing to come help out the OFA team and get President Obama re-elected. This is a great opportunity for an artist to gain exposure as many people are going to be coming into the office and seeing their work between now and the election. 
If you or someone you know would be right for this please contact us! Our Office is located at 4719 Nine Mile Rd in the Basement of the McEachin & Gee Law Firm. Please email or call us at 937-4725.  

Here is my response to them:

I am writing to you in response to your posting on craiglist seeking an artist for the campaign office.

I am an Obama supporter, voted for him in the first election, and intend to vote for him again, without hesitation.

However, I am terribly disappointed in your post. The Obama campaign has raised $690 million dollars as of August according to the NY Times. That money is being spent on high end advertising firms, network advertising time, youtube ads, Hulu ads, and just about every other place it is possible to squeeze and ad before a viewer.

Here is an opportunity to hire someone locally... a member of the 47%, to create original artwork for your campaign office. The good will generated in the artist community in Richmond would go a long way to generating support. Instead, you are repeating the tired phrase of "great opportunity for exposure". Here's a newsflash... the entire world is selling the same thing you are... opportunity for exposure. Artists are dying of exposure.

When considering commissioning an artist, one should use a variation on Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative; assume everyone else is asking for the same thing you are asking for. An artist who is exposed as "working for free" will certainly generate more opportunities... to work for free. If this is the economy the Obama administration is promoting, perhaps my unquestioning vote needs to be reviewed.

Paying for Internships

Well, it has obviously been a while since I posted here. After daily blogging for almost three months, I decided to take a bit of a breather. I'm hoping to settle down into a weekly posting schedule.

(Side thought... if I saved up all my posts, and scheduled them to automatically post once a week, I would have had almost two years of posts!)

Ok, now that I've justified my slacking off, I thought I would talk about internships. I've posted before about my frustration with how arts organizations use interns. For-profit businesses have jumped on the bandwagon as well, trying to get away with using low or non paid interns instead of actually hiring bona-fide employees.

Well, there's a new wrinkle in the formula. Businesses actually CHARGING folks for the "privilege" of interning.

I first came across this in an arts discussion forum I participate in. Someone was hawking their gallery, and proudly announcing that opportunities were limited for people to pay for internships! Apparently, this is not limited to the arts. Here's an article from the Washington Post from 2010,

More would-be interns paying thousands to land a coveted spot

The article reads:

The Washington Center is the city's largest program, and for the past three years it has placed about 1,500 interns annually, up from about 1,300 in 2007. It charges nearly $9,000 for a summer, including housing.

and:

The National Internship Program, formerly the Washington Internship Program. It charges an enrollment fee of $3,400 without housing and has seen its numbers increase from 166 students last year to an expected 250 to 300 this year. The for-profit company has doubled its staff in that time and is beginning to expand into other major cities.
"There has never been a harder time to get hired," said chief executive Lev Bayer, whose mother started the company nearly 30 years ago. "There is such a need for internships. We have more students than we can ever deal with."

From the U.S. Dept of Labor 

The following six criteria must be applied when making this determination: 

The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment; 

The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern; 

The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff; 

The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded; 

The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; 

The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.

On the flip side, people art starting to wake up. This from the New York Times:

A former unpaid intern for the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, accusing its parent company, the Hearst Corporation, of violating federal and state wage and hour laws by not paying her even though she often worked there full time.

and:

The lawsuit against Hearst states, “Employers’ failure to compensate interns for their work, and the prevalence of the practice nationwide, curtails opportunities for employment, fosters class divisions between those who can afford to work for no wage and those who cannot, and indirectly contributes to rising unemployment.

“Unpaid interns are becoming the modern-day equivalent of entry-level employees, except that employers are not paying them for the many hours they work,” said Adam Klein, one of the lawyers for Ms. Wang. “The practice of classifying employees as ‘interns’ to avoid paying wages runs afoul of federal and state wage and hour laws.”

and:

Last September, Mr. Klein’s Manhattan-based law firm, Outten & Golden, filed a lawsuit against Fox Searchlight Pictures, accusing it of violating wage laws by using unpaid interns to work on “Black Swan” and other films. Fox Searchlight has denied any wrongdoing.

It is about time. This foolishness of people working at unpaid interns so companies can avoid hiring actual employees has to end!

Ah... and  the latest update. From July 23, 2012 topclassactions.com:

A federal judge has conditionally certified a class action lawsuit covering unpaid Hearst Corp. interns who worked at 19 of the company’s magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping, since February 2009.