Last night’s Nocturne event had me thinking about arrogance and ignorance surrounding art and the appreciation of it. For example, John Baldessari’s 1971 lithograph “I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art.” Is it arrogant…am I ignorant…neither…both? Regardless, good enough reason to pull out my new-ish, still-pointy pencil crayons.
I'm currently situated in Victoria, having previously lived in Beijing, Halifax, Chilliwack, Calgary, Vancouver and growing up in Northwestern Ontario. My aim with photography is...
I love new still pointy pencil crayons, and your handwriting. But I'm curious about your tag regarding art created by elephants. Are you talking about the paintings they sell that are done by the elephants in the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai? I'm very curious.
@pwallis ~ I am surprised that I can still even write in cursive. Nope, not picking on any elephants in particular...just the idea that any non-human animal or young human child consciously creates works of art that are fit to be hung in galleries. The 'and such' also includes a lack of appreciation for art that consists of 3 stripes paint and costs almost 2 million, etc. If the elephants painting at that reserve helps fund their keep, enabling them to live an unchained life free from hard labour/circus performances/tourist amusements, I'm all for it!
@jgoldrup yeah, I agree with the 3 stripes for 2 million theory - that's a load of crap. I'm still undecided about the elephant paintings they sell at the nature park though. I know they have to fund the place with monies other than just donations, but I didn't feel comfortable sticking around to watch the elephants putting on a show (playing soccer, dancing on their hind legs, doing paintings with their trunk, etc.) that seemed like it was taking away their dignity. And I think elephants are incredibly dignified. I did, however, buy some of the paper made from elephant dung. I thought that was a pretty great idea.
My wife works at a zoo and they let the elephant there do some paintings. It wasn't a show for the public and I don't even think they sold the painting. It was just something they did because the elephant enjoyed doing it. In this scenario, I think it is a really cool enrichment. But I definitely see your point to about exploiting it and how it could be negative.
Back to your photo- Cool focus and emphasis. I am bad about reading other peoples cursive though and almost thought it said "loving" instead of "Boring", which really confused me at first :)
@jgoldrup erm, just that I fancy writing something cool and taking a photo of it, but that it won't be anything religious...yeh the hate thread did mention spiritual messages which I sort of agree with, but that was overlaid onto a picture, I fancy actually taking a picture of handwritten stuff. I'm starting a magazine with a friend you see, a literary journal to go out next Spring and I'm doing the art work for the website and the front cover and I've been thinking of hand drawn/written on paper/photo combination. Watch this space. I've got an idea in my head it's just working it out, but shallow depth of field is the way to go! Sorry if it was ambiguous first time round.
Back to your photo- Cool focus and emphasis. I am bad about reading other peoples cursive though and almost thought it said "loving" instead of "Boring", which really confused me at first :)