inkbluesky

copper art splash wallpaper

Two days in a row of being a little creative and I doubt the trend will go to day three. I may have some more tattoo pics by the end of the week, so good news for the ink freaks who would rather see tattoos then my photoshop experiments.

From a fellow wordpresser(could I get some credit for inventing that word), It’s all Schopenhauer’s fault 

Once upon a time, artists were craftsmen (and craftswomen) - not reclusive “geniuses” working in isolation. In a world without intellectual property lawyers, Boticelli never had to worry if anyone owned the copyright to the Goddess Venus.

And for that matter, neither did Bananarama. Why write original songs when you can raid ancient myth? “Venus was her name.. she’s got it.. yeah baby she’s got it.”

Enter Schopenhauer.

“Symbolism” was all the rage in the late eighteen hundreds. Artists realized they didn’t have to use accepted religious icons and symbols - they could just invent their own. Why, artists could even start painting whatever they dreamed about.

This has turned out to be a bad idea. In the first place, it means that instead of understanding the symbols that artists use, the audience now must mentally journey to whatever odd, private state of mind that the artist has.

First, even though I disagree I liked this post. Well written and some real wit, which is rare. Maybe because I’m an all American mutt with some native American in the mix I’m a little more aware of euro-centric prejudices then some folks and I sense some in the post. Native Americans managed to communicate and create quite a narrative sans traditional European religious symbols, so the sweeping judgement that “it means that instead of understanding the symbols that artists use, the audience now must mentally journey to whatever odd, private state of mind that the artist has.” presupposes that there was ever a static world standard in artistic symbolism and the narrative that with with those symbols. Then there’s European history itself, European art does predate Judeo-Christian symbols by a few thousand years. Yea, probably from the 11th century on some symbols in art became somewhat universal (through western Europe and lets not forget the impact on religious symblos from the split of the eastern orthodox church), but even they originated in the artists mind even if they were meant to serve community or state interests. Symbolism has never been stagnant, artists and patron are always learning new symbols. Professional patrons( just those that take a more then average interest in art) are generally keen on learning new symbols and discussing them, why else art societies or book discussion forums - I know that when Hermann Melville writes about the sky we’re being introduced to a reality and a symbol, but the sky actually becomes a different symbol depending on context, it is not an absolute easily defined unchanging symbol - when does it mean God, when does it mean rhe unknown.

Then there is the thought control aspect of forcing all art back to  pre-Schopenhauer. What if the artists approaches the canvas or the film camera and has a vision that cannot be expressed through some nice neat universal symbolism- No you must use a flying black crow to symbolize death here! so that everyone gets it without thinking. The idea that there was ever universal symbolism is misleading both in terms of history and the amazing width and breath of culture around the globe. Because of TV and the net the world seems smaller and more connected now, but that obviously wasn’t always so. By concentrating on the fine arts canon of 17th to 19th century Europe (certainly a great time for the arts) the writer is leaving out most of the world. In doing so he/she is not just cutting off a world of intellectual stimulation, but is canceling out the fun of discovering and learning something new.

Anyway, no blog flames intended the post did get me thinking about some things I hadn’t thought about for a while.

Fmr. Lincoln Group Intern Describes Paying Iraqi Press to Plant Pro-American Articles Secretly Written by U.S. Military

We speak with Willem Marx, a former intern with the Washington-based government contractor, the Lincoln Group. He spent a summer in Baghdad paying to plant pro-American articles secretly written by the U.S. military in the Iraqi press. [includes rush transcript] He held a loaded submachine gun while being driven through Baghdad by two Kurdish security men.

He had three million dollars in cash locked inside his bedroom in the Green Zone.

Armed with a gun, he interrogated Iraqi employees about whether they were doing their job.

He spent a summer in Baghdad paying to plant pro-American articles in the Iraqi press that were secretly written by the US military.

He was just 22 years old and he was an intern at the Lincoln Group, the Washington-based government contractor. The company gained notoriety last November after the Los Angeles Times first revealed it was being paid by the Pentagon to plant stories in the Iraqi press as part of a secret military propaganda campaign. A subsequent Pentagon investigation in March cleared the Lincoln Group of any wrongdoing.

Just thought this was interesting. One can can understand the pentagon wanting to get its side out, but wouldn’t it have been better in the sense of being more effective if they had gone to some at least marginally pro pentagon Iraqi media people and got them on board rather then a 22 year old from Britain as a middleman.