HAPPY MONDAY!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic Monday.  I wanted to share with you guys a link.  What was your favorite stuffed animal as a child?  In the meantime, I will continue to learn basic video editing.  I am also thinking of new names to call my space.  "Studio" is really no longer an accurate label.

ALL BETTER NOW!

I'm back again after having shaken off a nasty little 48 hour bug.  Fortunately for me, "Winter Storm Janus" made it completely undesirable to be outdoors, so it was a lucky time to get sick. To keep everyone updated, I have been busy planning every single detail of my very first Guided Art Experience.  My plan is to put this event on during the beginning of March.   I am currently debating whether or not to make my first event invitation-only.  I am also considering having the event streamed live online for anyone to watch from home.  Many possibilities.  Expect to see content of all forms coming from me that may be directly or obtusely relevant to the upcoming event.  Please keep reading and watching and as always thank you for your continued support.  I can't wait to take you all with me on this new journey.  And now, a little humor on this Frigid Friday.  What if Conceptual Art could be more accessible?

Portlandia Parodies Conceptual Art

What do you think?

What place will 2D art have in our modern dwellings in 10 years? Our walls will either be constructed with interactive panels or covered by them. Everyone will have an unlimited supply of visual sources to choose from to view at any time for any length of time. Check out the google art project- you can even read the tiniest brush work detail if you choose. So, where will painting fit? Old school decor? A treasured piece of nostalgia of a lost time? What are your thoughts?

WHAT IF ?

How many of you have gone to an art show recently and left thinking: 'Damn, that blew my mind!' or 'Wow!  That's the most fun I've had at an art event'?  How many events have looked like this:  A large, mostly empty space filled with bright-usually warm light.  You walk in.  You may or may not be greeted depending on the availability of the host and/or the perception that you are important enough to acknowledge.  The art hanging on the walls are usually well presented but boring.  You walk up to the wall next to the painting and read the title/description/statement, then walk away feeling either bewildered, confused, dumb, or even annoyed and angry.  You see many people chit chatting away with each other about how amazing the work is and attempt to dazzle each other with their knowledge of the 'style' or 'the process'.  You still do not get it, so you decide to go to the open bar and take a glass of red or white wine(wallet/purse/checkbook lube).  The ART gallery doesn't want to get TOO creative.  You drink, you socialize, and at the end of it all you were probably thinking.. 'wow, I could have done something else.'  If you have not gotten to this point, you very well may.  

Now, what if there was another way to experience art?  What if you could participate in an experience that involves YOU?  What if you could participate in an experience that is ABOUT YOU?  Would you be interested?  I'm proposing an experience like no other I have ever attended or read about.  I'm proposing a Guided Art Experience.  I will provide the concept, the method, the materials(when pertinent), and will be your guide in group discussions during the creative process.  YOU get the opportunity to create YOUR own art based on your discoveries, revelations, and perceptions about the established concept.  These will be multi-disciplinary art happenings.  They may include elements from, but not limited to:  Theatre(of all varieties), illusion, creative lighting, music, story telling, and writing.  These will not be classes.  You may or may not learn something about an art technique.  These will be designed COMPLETELY around YOU so that you, the participant, may get the most (fill in the blank- fun, satisfaction, amazement) from the experience.  I hope to have many collaborators along the way and I intend on touring these experiences if/when the demand arises. 

Thank you for your continued support and I look forward to you attending the first of these experiences! 

I Want to Make You a Deal

As you may have read in my previous post:  I am Heading in a New Direction and I will need the support of everyone who is interested in what I am going to do next.  Here is where the deal comes into play.  I have many paintings stored in my studio and several that are about to come back to me from a 9 month long exhibit in Houston City Hall.  So, my new path is now completely dependent upon my visibility in the realm of social media.  If you can find me 20 new followers that are willing to follow me on My Will Brooks Art Facebook Page  or on my Twitter account @ WillBrooksArt.    in exchange, I will offer you the painting of your choice at the price you feel it is worth to you(as long as it is reasonable- I will not sell a large painting for $100 for example).  In order for me to keep tabs on this progress, the new followers must send me a message that somehow tells me who it was who directed them to me.  Encourage them to be as funny and/or creative as they wish!  This is a first come/first serve opportunity.  I will be available by appointment in my studio for you to view your chosen painting every day of the week unless I am out of town.  If you do not live in the Houston Metro area, you are still encouraged to participate.  The only catch for you is that you may have to cover part or all of the shipping costs to your location.  Ready?  Set?  Go!

ANNOUNCEMENT: - WILL BROOKS ART CEASES TO EXIST IN IT'S CURRENT FORM AS OF THIS WRITING -

As you have been noticing, I have been going through a process of epiphany that coalesced recently upon listening to a series lectures by Alexander Bard over the past couple of weeks.  Somehow, he was able to frame our contemporary lives in terms I was able to understand.  It has everything to do with a major shift in perception.  I encourage you to google him and hear him out if you are so inclined.

Before, like many others, I felt as if I was trying to reconcile a way to merge the old way of doing things with the new way that is currently changing the way we conduct ourselves socially and the way we do business.   The “Gate Keepers” are losing power faster than they know how to handle it.  Art galleries are struggling to operate in this ‘old way’.  So, they’ve devised a new strategy - the art fair.  They are everywhere and they court only the wealthiest among us.  They are only delaying the inevitable fact that the “Art World” is dying a slow, painful and embarrassing death.  Art belongs to all of us and it is not a ‘thing’.  Art that statically hangs on a wall or sits on a pedestal is dead.  I’m certainly not the first to say or think this, however the evidence now can no longer be ignored or denied.  In my opinion, it has no place in the future beyond nostalgia and decor  and will not survive.  Sure, there will be stragglers and those determined to make the world bend to their will, but they will continue to struggle more and more with each passing year in this outdated mode of thinking.  We are still in transition and some of those structures will continue on to become dinosaurs in a new era.  Think about how well traditional retailers like Sears and J.C. Penny are fairing.

 In one of the lectures I listened to, Mr. Bard used the electronic calculator as an example of how we, as humans have changed.  He said when they were first introduced, academic institutions struggled with how to deal with it:  How to keep students from ‘cheating’ using these devices that made learning adding, subtracting, multiplying, and division, among other mathematical functions irrelevant.  He asserted that from it’s invention onward, math students should have been taught how to ‘do math’ using the calculator- manipulating technology we created as shortcuts.  We’ve done it in so many other areas of life.  People don’t build cars, robots do.  Doctors don’t perform many delicate surgeries- robots do.  So, what’s the point in constantly reinventing the wheel?  What good is acquiring knowledge if we are not using it to our advantage as a species.  Using paint on a support was nothing but a technological advancement of it’s time.  They were not meant to be ends unto themselves.  When Western painting was developed, artists used a type of tempera paint to apply it to wet plaster.  When it dried, it created a long lasting and vibrant image- The Last Supper and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are probably the most famous examples of this.  Next came the advent of canvas supports and oil paints.  The canvas was light and mobile unlike a  fixed plaster wall.  Oil paint was developed as a way to allow artists to continue to manipulate the image on the canvas until the slow drying oil finally set up-a technological advancement.  Then there were the better mousetraps- different supports, new paints like acrylic what were invented as a means to make producing art even easier and less toxic.  These advancements essentially ended in the 1960’s.  Since then, ‘painters’ have come up with innumerable ways to display paint on a support.  We’ve been left with a legacy of work that is so detailed  it mimics a camera image all the way to a totally blank white canvas with no content at all.  The medium has been exhausted.  I was forced to ask myself the same question I’ve asked myself before but this time through different eyes:  Why am I reinventing the wheel?  It’s old and it’s outdated and it’s only important because we were all taught it was.  The Controllers of Art have since dictated what is ‘good’ versus what is ‘bad’.  When it was discovered profit could be made, opportunists came out of the woodwork and that was the birth of our Art-Industial Complex system. In no other time in History have artists been so severely taken advantage of.  These folks do not own our ideas and they can no longer silence the ones they deem unacceptable(unprofitable). The Art Gallery is completely irrelevant now.  No artist needs them, and people are tired of being told how they are to value and experience art.  We artists can operate with ease through the various social media outlets  and are no longer at the mercy of the  wealthiest among us thanks to the advents of gofundme and kickstarter.  If you are “good” and “relevant”, people will support you according to their interest and ability whether it is by sharing your ideas with others or financial support.  This is true Democracy.  People are tired of being told how they are to value and experience art.   

This brings me to another subject.  What is art now? What is it’s function?  How do I see where I fit into this new world?  The answer is that I will continue to create my own ‘universe’.  I will no longer be painting “pictures” or pursuing a “style”.  Again, those are old ideas that are simply irrelevant in our new world.  “Art”- in all forms is the new relevant “religion.”  Successful artists will be those of us who communicate relevant ideas, concepts, and universal truths in an informative and entertaining way. Thanks to new and extraordinary technology, elements from every discipline is at my disposal, and  I will have no bounds as to how rich of an experience I can produce for participants.   My work will include writing, story telling, fantastic visuals and most importantly will be participatory.  My work will be part conceptual, part performance, and part sermon with a visual focus. I will now produce carefully and meticulously planned experiences.  I have generally been referring to them as Guided Art Experiences.  Also, I will no longer be setting prices for any resulting physical art work.  Any of my future events that results in the production of physical  work will be collected through democratic auction or donation only.  Many of my ‘events’ will have merchandise such as T-Shirts, Prints, etc for sale according to relevancy in order for me to make a living-have adequate housing, food, transportation- life essentials.  What should you be expecting from me?  You will certainly find me more actively blogging and more fully exploring other social media avenues pertinent to my mission.  I will be engaging with all of you much more frequently, and  I am excited and I hope you are too.  Expect to experience art in a way you probably have never experienced it before.  Most importantly, thank you for supporting me and staying with me through this process. 

Trust Me, It Will Be Worth the Wait.

I am still refining my statement, please stand by.  Until then, here is my newest painting of the day:

January 16 Painting

4"x6"

Acrylic on Birch Panel