Real Art, Real Paintings, and the True Worth and Value of Art

On this page I plan to photograph and display here some of the drawings and paintings I have done over a lifetime of working as an artist.  I would also allow anyone to submit their own work. However since my first love is for traditional drawing skills, and painting techniques... this is what I would accept for this particular gallery.

I have reviewed an "Art Appreciation" textbook on Amazon, called "Understanding Art". My headline for the review is "Fetid stinking offal , presented as "art".

I confess, that's about an awful a thing to say as it gets.My wife enrolled in a nursing program at the local community college was required to take an art appreciation course, and to buy the above mentioned text..at $80 used ! Since my major was in art, naturally, she called upon me to assist her in plowing through that "tome". First of all, we were a little steamed to have to pay that much for an art history text. Secondly, I was particularly incensed to see hundreds of pages and illustrations featuring the lousiest crap you can possibly imagine~ and I mean shocking, disgusting, disturbing, inept skritchy skratchy.

Here is the problem : working as an artist as I had for over 37 years, it was clear that if my client did not approve of the plans for his advertising image, logo, etc....I would see my electricity disconnected, car repossesed, and home foreclosed, and wife and child abandoning me. You see, there was no room for inept skritchy skratchy crap. It had to be exquisitely executed, and had to appeal to a mass audience...or I would soon be sleeping under a bridge.

In the very early days of art history, e.g. Egypt ~ art was no more important in society than any other craft such as plumbing, or rock masonry, sheep shearing, etc. Artists were Craftsmen. Then about the time of the Rennaisance, where we find the all powerful Catholic Church commisioning works...artist suddenly found themselves elevated to the stratosphere. It is here that "artists" as such became renown, and even revered. But if you examine the works..they all exhibit the absolute ultimate in artistry and technical skill. These skills continued to develop under the Atelier system of master and student, until by the time of Ingres and Bougereau, art became the visually stunning and extremely valuable commodity of exchange that it still is today.

Now enter'modernism"...which "challenged the acadamies, and the rarefied atmosphere of elitism that grew up around and in the  "Art World". A challenge was a good thing in that regard. But of course, art continued its long, slow decline down to the  painfully hideous state that it is in today. But get this...the Art World is still populated by haughty , snivelling elitists, proudly displaying , yes, rubber blow up dolls with animal heads engaged in an orgy ! And worse ! So...if it is shocking, offensive, repulsive, and inscrutable....well then, according to these snivelling, self appointed elitists it MUST BE ART ! If it looks like a child scribbled it, and is not possible to fathom its reason to exist...well then we, the hoi poloi, the uneducated masses, are just too stupid to "appreciate art"...thus we have books like  "Understanding art" to explain to us, the great unwashed, ( poor ) hicks that "this is art"...yeah...right.

What's wrong with this picture? Precisely this : Let's suppose you need a kidney operation. Is it alright then for the surgeons to break with tradtion, break all the rules, and "experiment" on you ? I think not.

The same goes for a mechanic to fix your car, a house painter, a carpenter...we all expect these tradesmen toapply due diligence , calling on a lifetime of training and experience to do their dead level best....or we can sue them !

Only in the 'art world' is  skill and technical expertise mocked and ridiculed. These people and their , ahem, "art" has now de-evolved back significantly below "craft". Artist today who buy into this tragic scheme....can consider themselves as having slid back down to the level of a Wart Hog. ...a "Creature"  that only a mother could love....and the"club ladies" ( translate rich doctor's wives, and lawyer's wives, etc.).. who will embrace you....slobbering fools that they are.