3388 Natural art, garbage art

Sunday, November 6, 2011

“…those who wrestle with something and come out on top
tend to have a better understanding of that something
than those who merely submit to it.”

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My body is falling apart. My skin no longer fits, drapes in folds above my knees, on my neck, my jowls. I can't trust my knees anymore. I who used to sit on the floor by preference, and could rise straight up without using my hands or knees, now find it difficult to get my behind off the floor.

But I'm not dead yet. I am very proud of the fact that I can carry an 18-pound Nugget in a backpack carrier for at least a mile with no effort or effect. (I say at least a mile because that's the most I've done. I'm sure I could go farther.) Uphill is a bit difficult, but even without her on my back uphill has always been more difficult.

Very proud and happy.

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This is amazing. A murmuration of starlings, recorded in Ireland. It starts out with a few stills, then goes to video. It raised my spirits.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

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There's a story going around about a cleaning woman who damaged a 1.1 million dollar artwork by, uh, cleaning it. I got curious about what a one million dollar artwork looked like, and sniffed around until I found this story, http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/nov/03/overzealous-cleaner-ruins-artwork?newsfeed=true, which has a photo of the full installation, and also mentions several other artworks over the years that had been ruined by cleaning and janitorial staff.

The murmuration video above raised my spirits. The linked artwork story cast me down again. So many people want to ignore or destroy natural art, and exalt crap art. I don't understand.

I flat-out do not understand modern art. Frankly, I agree with the cleaning staff. Most of it is crap. The only art involved is the art of convincing someone that a) it's art, and b) is worth anything. Apparently if you have that talent, you can dump a bag of household garbage on the floor and convince someone it's "art".

(In fact, according to the story, someone did exactly that. The cleaner ruined that one by throwing the garbage out.)

Bull poopy. What's that old saying about fooling fools?
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