Today I went in to take the skills test for a job with the U.S. Census Bureau. The test was comprised of 28 questions, only ten of which needed to be answered correctly in order to qualify. Since all the questions were about on the 5th grade level (alphabetise this list... add these sums), I spent about half of the 30 minutes alloted to me drawing on my scrap paper. In the process of doing so, I had the most scathingly brilliant idea.
If any of you have seen my drawings, you know that I am probably the world's worst artist. My figures rarely come out proportional, my grasp on perspective is limited at best, and I even have trouble drawing a straight line. This provoked a small but steady thought in my brain: "I wonder what it would be like if someone like me tried submitting their work to art galleries, museums, agencies, etc." At first this thought merely tickled my fancy, but as I stopped to think about it, I realized that I had the kernel of a potentially interesting idea. So I have decided that my major project for the coming year will be this: get a sketchbook and other art supplies and go crazy making a portfolio and writing an artistic statement. In the process, keep a detailed journal of the creative mind at work. When finished, send the portfolio off to different places and wait for responses. Record said responses for posterity. In the end, I should have an interesting account of what it is like being an artist in 21st Century America. Who knows, maybe if the writing's good enough I'll submit the whole thing (lovely illustrations included) to a publisher. Even if not, I'll keep it around for my own pleasure.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
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4 comments:
brilliant! Dave swears some string art he made in VBS back when he was 11 is hanging in the Chicago Art Institute. If he can do it, anyone can.
this sounds like a plan I would create in my head right before I decide that it would be too much work
You wouldn't believe the number of times I stopped to look at a piece in the Tate Modern art museum in London and immediately thought, "Given the materials, I think I could produce a disgusting mess just like this." This, of course, only makes me wonder why they're getting paid gross sums of money and I'm not. I think creating modern art depends less on your ability to create art and more on your ability to BS meaning and value into something that, otherwise, you'd expect to find in a garbage dump.
Do it!
!! I'd really love to see the responses you get. A lot of modern art requires little technical ability; it is enough that it be "fun."
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