Obstructions

 

Last Week's assignment was to take our most accomplished drawing to date, with 4 obstructions.  Draw it in color, from life, and then two from the list the class gave to us.  I chose 'don't blend at all' and 'change environment'.  I had a lot of interesting obstructions, and I had ideas for each, but in the end I wanted to go with something contradictory to my initial drawing.

 

If I were going to rework this in anyway, I'd make the colors even smoother, someone mistook the pastels for paint at one point, and I'd want to capitalize on that even further. Also my right arm's shoulder/armpit area, I feel like there's some touch up to be done with the anatomy there. 

Art as a Commodity

"The point is, that every piece of art changes your whole perception of the rest of the world for the rest of your life. And it's not a joke! And if it doesn't, then it's not art, it's a commodity."

- Lawrence Weiner responding to a question from Liam Gillick in "Between Artists"
pg20

I wouldn’t say that’s true at all, because I wouldn’t say that commodities don’t change a person’s perception of the world.  Technology in general tends to have that effect on people in particular. Computers for example, changed people’s perspectives of the world, I’d say in a longer lasting manner and farther reaching manner than most art has.  I wouldn’t say that if it’s one, it can’t be the other at the same time.  Nor do I think it would be possible for something to change someone’s perception of the world for the rest of their lives, if someone had the same perception for a lifetime, they’d hardly be justified of qualifying art, because a changing and evolving perception is far more necessary to understand the depth and changing context of art.  In my opinion the type of ‘art’ in this quote is impossible, so perhaps nothing is art, and everything is merely a commodity, which I would have an easier time supporting.