Re: Crappy/Krappy

Aw, come on! The painters and sculptors I know, and I'm about to be tempted to drop names, all discuss pencils, bondo versus clay, paint from Auto paint to Windson Newton, Krammer colors, Gum arabic versus terpentine, solvents, board or canvas, textures, streatched or readi-made -- which brand, cheepest -- what materials last, i.e. fiberglass, paper mache, plastic molds, what kinds of stone, marble from Italy, Brussels, Carerra or indonesia . . . in Carmel they still argue over Sienna or Burnt Sienna.

Sure we talk politics, war, peace, dope, in or out, movies, stars, who do you know, galleries, patrons . . . and the best comment is 'nice.' Never good. Feelings? From a painter?!

I found Sartre's "Essays on Aesthetics" to fit the mold to a tee.

So, photographers discuss materials and technical stuff. So? We talk about the weather, mostly.

Come on, why single out photographers. I'm sick of that cliche . . . the big thing in the arts right now is materials. Using construction and building materials. My mother's using mesh to do her sculptures. Did it with Portland Cement . . .teaches how to armature Portland cement.

How about ceramicists? Talk about techniques. Raggu? Temperatures? Patinas?

Give me a break.

All they TALK about is materials. And space . . . space to work, space to exhibit.

I don't know the artists in your community, but . . . . well so much for now.

S. Shapiro
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Dalyvoss@aol.com
  To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
  Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 4:32 PM
  Subject: Re: Crappy/Krappy

                      ----- Original Message -----

> From: Christopher Lovenguth

>>I don't see painters saying "I
>> used a #3 round head brush" and measuring with scales exactly what
>> combinations of paint they used to get that color or timing how long
>> they let their canvas dried before applying the next coat.

>>>>You don't know any painters!

                      Steve Shapiro, Carmel, CA & Venice Beach, CA
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  I'm a painter and printmaker, and over the 20+ years i've worked at it, i've known a lot of painters, and it's been my experience that the ones who do the most talking, do the least painting. The ones who obsess over materials and techniques love the social aspect of being a painter... after all, it takes at least two to discuss materials and techniques! If that is what one loves about being an artist, then good for them.

  There is however another group who quietly paints/prints/sculpts without doing a lot of talking about technique/materials. The knowledge is there about the materials... it has to be to a certain degree at least... but as for yada yada yada about this or that paint or surface or brand... i've never seen it happen to the degree that i see some photographers discuss technique, lenses, cameras etc. When i get together with painter friends, we don't talk about technical stuff... we talk about politics, or music or sometimes even ART (whatever that is). When we look at each other's work, the conversation is usually more about the feelings evoked by the piece, not what brand of paint was used ;o)

  susan

  dalyvoss.com/paintings
  Susan Daly Voss
  lower upstate NY
Received on Mon Jan 3 20:03:29 2005