I went to the Santa Fe Art Walk with the intention of viewing local art. What I did not realize was that I was not just going to be walking through galleries of photographs and paintings, but I would be observing and learning about people from all walks of life. I discovered that this art walk was not solely a place for local artists to display their work. Moreover, it is a place for people to come together and form an extraordinary culture made up of numerous unique individuals.
One painting that I saw was of a mermaid and her reflection. I was immediately drawn to this painting because of its intensely vivid colors. Upon closer look, I noticed that the mermaid’s reflection was wrong. The mermaid’s hair was sticking straight out of her head, yet in the reflection, the mermaid’s hair appeared to be hanging around her shoulders. I gazed at this painting for quite some time, and I realized that perhaps the placement of the mermaid’s hair was not a mistake. Rather, the artist must have been trying to portray some message or idea. Perhaps the mermaid’s hair represents imperfections in every day life. All artwork is created to represent some kind of significance or opinion.
Another particular artist that inspired me was local photographer Cameron Stone. His photography was developed in a way that I hadn’t seen before. He captured images of influential people in his life and took the film he had and developed it through a process of darkroom solarization. The uniqueness of the photography reminded me of the uniqueness of the group of people surrounding me at the art walk. The art walk participants were in a way walking art themselves. Art itself is anything you make it. I at first was surprised at the amount of bands paying throughout the art walk, but then realized they too are displaying their art.
Mason Jennings is a musical artist from Minnesota. I chose to use his song Living In The Moment from the album Century Spring in my video to embody the sense of friendship. Cameron Stone took all of the photos displayed in this video. These photos all depict his closest friends. Without this song, it may seem as though the people in the photos are random. However, when lyrics such as, “I’m living in the moment with the friends I love” are sung, the notion of friendship is implied.
The Santa Fe Art District of Denver hosts a monthly tradition of “First Friday Art Walks”- a culture-rich experience free to the public. The Art Walk consists of open galleries and exhibitions with an eclectic range of visual art, performance art, and live music. As I journeyed down Santa Fe, I encountered numerous kinds of art, formulating together as a colossal collection as if I were in an actual museum. Wandering down the Art Walk, one is able to chance upon landscaped oil paintings, mosaic art, wire sculptures, paste-paper designs, graffiti, limitless photography, and an unbounded array of colors to trumpet the mind.
It is at these assorted collections where one is so inclined to ask themselves – what is art? In a glimpse of the world where there are traditional type paintings compare with modern art; people and things along with simple lines and shadows; the purely objective versus the symbolic. It is here where one can understand the paradigm that art, truly is, based off each person’s own interpretation. Although every piece was established on a set function to portray to the audience, every piece can also maintain additional functions of understanding. As I paced through the night, I noticed a pattern among some of the exhibitions – a pattern that initially, was fairly alarming. Several artists had utilized their skills and techniques to create art that may not be seen as art to the ordinary. Pieces were created and revealed that did not follow the norms of aestheticism. Instead, what many of these artists were putting out were pieces that could almost be thought of as disgusting and repelling, or dark and threatening. I had to wonder, what was the purpose of these disturbing pieces that many are inclined to shy away from?
A gallery by Greg Friedler focused on photography of the not-so-pleasant. The most notable photographs in this gallery included: a series of the insides of gutted fish, perfect arrangements of rotten fruit, transvestites, an inter-racial couple, dead flowers sitting neatly in a vase, a sick child, and a great amount of nakedness. Through Friedler’s categorizing theme of photography, he is attempting to explicate several ideas and push the audience to conflict inherent thoughts with new ones. It is through our society’s values and norms that have impelled people to group certain images, ideas, and realities with either a negative or positive connotation. I believe Friedler may be expressing his view of our modern-day society as one that lacks compassion, open-mindedness, insight, and understanding. The larger majority of our American culture stresses on values that deter away from everything Friedler’s photography represents – that which is founded on beauty, freedom, religion-based norms, and liveliness. These all help form the “American Dream” and what qualifies as achieving success nowadays. But with Friedler’s photography, he highlights the opposing elements of what society generally values. Examples include things that are not considered “beauty”, such as gutted fish and rotten fruit. He shows those who cannot obtain true freedom because of the judgment they receive from the rest of society, including transvestites and inter-racial couples. Friedler shows death through the insides of the fish, the rotten fruit, the sick child, and the dead flowers. Furthermore, he opposes religious-norms and what is considered “appropriate” with numerous photos exhibiting people fully naked.
There is an obvious complexity of reasons why Friedler stresses on these opposing elements to what people are accustomed to. The basis of his argument seems to be an idea he is focusing on – that our society is incredibly sheltered in a non-tolerant, non-rationalizing fixation of ideas and norms, and that we are not compassionate in the understandings of varying cultural values. Also, that most people in our society are too selfish in their concerns, that they group together all that is negative; therefore grouping together dead flowers and rotten fruit with a sick child, because we don’t have the empathy or time to care about the sick child. Taking time to feel empathy for the sick child would be a burden to us in our busy lives, and would bring us down because most people would rather focus on things that make us happy rather than focusing on the ugly of reality. So instead of taking time to maintain compassion and seeking truth, we automatically consider it ugly and negative, and categorize it with other things that are ugly and negative to us, such as the things that are dead. The same can be demonstrated by the photography of the transvestites and inter-racial couples. We are so wrapped up in our individual lives and packed schedules, we don’t feel we can give the time of day to question, ponder, and perhaps understand people with opposing values to us. Friedler’s photography of other peoples stories highlight the major issue of our self-centered values. This seems to be his reasoning for creating the photography exhibition that he created.
His photography offers a chance for people to view the things they don’t normally see or want to look at. It becomes a choice – whether or not we decide to indulge in the unknown world of strangeness, ugliness, and truth. He is giving people a chance to rub their minds and strengthen or re-evaluate their values. Only when we can look and think about the things we don’t want to look at or think about, can we truly understand our values and beliefs. Depending on what each individual does with this given opportunity, I believe Friedler is offering people a chance to better themselves by testing their character with these photographs. If someone can take the time to try to understand an opposing cultural value than what they are accustomed to, through these photos, then the goal of these photos has already been partly reached as people expand their minds for true critical analysis. These photos not only give people the chance to open up their minds, but to question their own values. Most people grow up with values that were instilled in them during early years in the household, and they don’t even understand the basis of their values. They call these their “values” because of their family or group/religious affiliation, not knowing the fundamental reasoning of these values. When Friedler exposes people to things/people they don’t want to see or think about, it brings another opportunity to question our own beliefs. We get a chance to ask ourselves why we are so repulsed by what we see; is it truly repulsive? If so, then why, when it isn’t harming anyone? If we don’t understand the fundamental reasoning behind our values and beliefs, then our values and beliefs are worthless. Friedler’s photography offers people a chance to truly grasp and restructure their core values.
Another fascinating artist by the name of John Bonath showcased sculptures and digital pieces that may be thought of as unsettling. Some of his pieces include a woman being engulfed by cockroaches, a morphed photo of a man who looks diseased and clouded in smoke, and a woman emerging from a tight hold of what seems like people trapped in hell. In similarity to Friedler’s exhibition, Bonath presents things that are unsettling to us. Bonath’s digital pieces can also help reinforce a person’s character if they so choose to when they come across these pieces. In addition to how the exigence and aims of Friedler’s pieces, I think Bonath’s pieces also help people to realize the truth of why we categorize some things as good, and others a bad. Perhaps it is “bad” only because we don’t see it often enough and it frightens us to come across things that aren’t part of our usual daily lives. But then, is it truly bad? Or is it only considered “bad” because we as human-beings are becoming less and less inclined to adapt to change? We cannot accept the unusual and that which does not fit the norm because it inconveniences our lives. In an era where convenience is a new cultural value of America, we don’t have time to embrace the strange; it would be much easier to consider it bad and set it aside. But when we do that, the “bad” isn’t truly bad, and ultimately we are hurting people by purposely steering away from understanding them. When we don’t allow our minds to expand and we only fill our lives with the things we are comfortable with, tension is created between opposing ideas and values. Much of that tension is unnecessary, since most opposing groups would not harm each other if they could just have a better understanding of other values and be content they have their own. I think both Fridler and Bonath stress on this idea with their exhibitions.
The ideas and opportunities they are pushing out to society also helps people better appreciate that which we already consider beautiful, free, and life-filled. When people see too much beauty, beauty loses its value. The same goes for freedom when all a person knows their entire life is freedom in every choice they make. Many of us take for granted the energy and liveliness we have every day in our lives because we are accustomed to it. We have an imperative need for opposing elements to reinforce the things we appreciate. When we become too accustomed to the things that are good, they lose value, leading to a further loss in value of all that we do already appreciate and bask our lives in.
Art is art because of the freedom it allows; and with freedom comes inventiveness and frankness. People generally have a set idea already of what is good and what is bad, but ultimately, who is to determine what is considered good and bad? What makes the bad, as we interpret them, truly bad? There is no fundamental reason why the things we think of as scary are really scary, or the things that people find ugly are actually ugly. Qualities and misunderstandings have been placed upon certain things, and or ideas that give them a negative interpretation, and therefore – people tend to agree with those negative interpretations. We think the masked killers in these horror movies are scary because that is what we are influenced to think. We turn away from it because it unsettles us to see something so scary or unpleasant. Most people would turn away from an openly naked body because we are taught that nakedness in public is inappropriate, and to engage in that nakedness in front of others, is inappropriate as well.
By deliberately confronting what we do not want to see or to think about, we learn to tolerate — and eventually even to appreciate — that which is different. By broadening our perspectives, we learn to adapt to and even to embrace change, in the world and in ourselves. We must test our core values, and we must be willing to revise them, if they are to remain strong. Only by facing that which we perceive as negative can we truly discover what is positive in our beliefs.
creative capitalism on Prezi. Art has always been synonymous with creativity and dare I say, rebellion. It is a gleam into everyday life, a representation of heartache or perseverance, or even a stab at politics. The exigence of art lies in its roots of ingenuity, promoting a need for change. Whether this change is great or minuscule, artists create pieces to influence their audience. The monthly “Art Walk” on Santa Fe Street is a rich environment full of a diverse crowd and eclectic galleries of art. Hundreds of paintings are open to the public for a once-a-month free viewing, complete with incentives like crackers and wine. Artists of the pieces stand next to them explaining their motives, persuading their audience on the exigence of the piece. Although this exigence could be for some creative purpose, the people who attend the art walk morph into consumers. The word ‘consumer’ has its own connotation to it; an audience rooted in the economy. This is not to say that every individual who attended the event’s sole intent was to buy art, but as a collective group, they are perceived as a mass pool of possible purchasers. Suddenly, people turn into nothing more than walking checkbooks. This mentality by the sellers is upheld through the different themes of each gallery and the different pricing of each painting. For an audience to be a rhetorical audience, they must be capable of change. In the instance of the art walk, the audience can change the quantity of paintings sold, and therefore, each gallery’s profit margin. So while the audience for a particular painting and the audience for the art walk are the same in a physical sense, the differences in their purposes for the two make the difference in the rhetorical situation. Besides the exigence and audience of the art walk, the constraints of the setting also add to the rhetoric of the situation. Constraints are factors that can change the situation or the outcome of the situation by affecting the exigence of it. It seems that in the instance of the art walk, the real constraint is that of a budget constraint. Each person who attends the art walk has a certain budget and therefore they affect the outcome, or how many pieces a particular gallery sells that night. The United States is famous for waltzing in the flourishing dynamic of capitalism. The foundation of this country, capitalism is the source of that “American dream” and that “free enterprise” is indeed the best. When the words, “capitalism” or a “free market” are mentioned, the Mona Lisa isn’t often the very next image to appear into a person’s mind. Juxtaposing art to a competitive market might be a stretch, but the art walk seems to combine the two worlds perfectly. In economics, the Law of Supply and Law of Demand are the basis for a free market economy. Through incentives (say, some red wine and crackers) consumers are given reasoning for making a particular investment. So while the art exhibited in the event may be produced as a form of expression, the art walk is rooted in America’s go-to solution—profit. A particular gallery in the art walk, the Sandra Phillips Gallery, is a perfect example of the open battle between art and profit. The gallery is composed of the old and new world, with its breathtaking old architecture and modern appeal. The art contained in the gallery includes everything from contemporary paintings, to sculptures and prints. Through all of these different elements, the gallery creates the look of a high-end, professional environment, set up to convince all possible buyers. During the art walk, this particular gallery’s vendors were dressed in all-black, business attire. This detail alone made the Sandra Phillips Gallery stand out, all because of a simple business detail that it exposed. It seems that business suits aren’t saved for just the office, just as art isn’t only saved for coffee shops. There is great exigence in the set-up of this particular gallery, as it does not hide the fact that they are trying to sell, not just display. The gallery also shows a very eclectic showcase of art. This kind of diversity equates into a much broader audience. By creating this broader audience, more consumers are attracted to the art and therefore, more money is made. It’s important to note that this “business” environment of the Sandra Phillips gallery still has its constraints. For people whose main goal is to only view the art, the business environment works against the gallery. The business setting of a gallery makes an obvious difference in the profit trends of the gallery. Capitalistic or creative or both, the art walk provides a new thought into the world of our imagination and our economic savvy. So while a particular art piece may “speak to me,” I’m going to go a different route and say that “money talks” a bit more.
The Prezi presentation above is a my more sarcastic take on art in all of it’s capitalistic glory. I chose to make a Prezi presentation because it’s an “unlimited” canvas; this creates the feel of a “walk” through the pictures that I chose. My hope in making this presentation was to give my viewers their own “art walk,” in a more unconventional style. I grouped the pictures by the three different elements that make up a rhetorical situation: exigence, audience, and constraints. In the first grouping of exigence, I chose various pictures that all show the importance of money. One of the pictures in this grouping is a cartoon that shows how art is in reality, just a visual representation of money. Much like this one picture is a hyperbole, the entire presentation is meant to be a sarcastic exaggeration of the rhetorical situation. The next grouping, audience, was made to be very eclectic. In my paper I discuss that one of the purposes of art galleries are to be appealing to a very diverse audience. So while Hillary Clinton might not ever walk the streets of Santa Fe, even she can be a consumer. I chose to include a clown in this grouping because while it may not seem like it at first glance, even clowns have money and are therefore also considered “walking checkbooks.” I also included a clown because believe it or not, I witnessed a clown buying an expensive painting at the Santa Fe art walk I attended—not what you expected? I know, I didn’t either. The final grouping shown in the Prezi presentation is that of constraints. As I previously mentioned, the constraints of this rhetorical situation are the individual budget constraints of each person. I chose to display economical graphs to emphasize this idea. The art parodies that follow the constraints were chosen to add the element of sarcasm. Art is often seen as serious, and the pieces that I chose are meant to give you a second thought and maybe even a laugh. Many of them are parodies of famous paintings like Munch’s The Scream and Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory. In including these paintings (along with some political pictures) my hope is that art is seen for more than just something to look at. Look at the hidden meaning, even if this is the capitalistic gain made from producing them. Hopefully by going through my “art walk” you analyze art a bit differently, always keeping the not-so-obvious rhetorical situation in mind.
On the first Friday of every month, the city of Denver puts on a free public event in the art district on Santa Fe Avenue. On these Friday nights from 6-9 pm, the general public can walk up and down the 5 blocks, visiting any of the numerous art galleries along the strip. Last Friday, I had the pleasure of experiencing this art walk for myself and I was amazed at what a great event the city of Denver puts on. However it wasn’t actually the art that stood out for me, it was the actual event, the art walk that I was impressed by. In fact, I found the artwork and the art walk to be two very different things.
While the art was truly amazing and the pieces themselves were clearly made by very talented artists, it was too hard for me to define a certain exigence or purpose for a lot of the pieces. One piece especially got me thinking about this idea. The work wasn’t any beautiful scenery or careful portrait. It was merely a compilation of splattered paint on a massive 12-foot canvas. Sure, one could argue that a piece like this was to go against the norm, or to show a shift from traditional paintings, but those ideas have been around for decades. It came to me while staring at this piece, that while this was an amazing piece of artwork, it really had no true purpose besides visual appeal. There was no certain exigence or specific reason it had been created, nor was there a defined call to change it was trying to send out. Keeping this in mind, I continued on to at least a dozen other galleries and while some had slight messages behind them, I failed to come up with solid reasoning as to what changes the artists wanted through their pieces. To me they just served as eye candy with price tags on them. The same process was difficult for me in defining an audience. With so many different interpretations surrounding these abstract pieces, its easy for audiences to be torn apart in analyzing a painting too much.
After reflecting on the event as a whole though, I realized how different the art walk was than the art itself. The city of Denver puts on this free event for more than just visual appeal. The monthly art walks are to bring a city of 600,000 people together into a tightly knit community who can come together for once and appreciate something simple in life. Throughout the course of my night, I saw people ranging from babies, to grandparents, and from the wealthiest of wealthy to homeless. (Of course the homeless were probably just there for the free food, but still there was quite the variety). I found that there was a defined exigence to change the scattered city of Denver and bring together a community who can recognize the value of art at its finest. Its audience is the city of Denver and specifically those lacking a central theme in their life. Art can be very powerful and by presenting a free public art walk, it not only gives the artists satisfaction, but it provides contentment for the people as well.
The term Maxwell’s Demon represents the idea of an ancient experiment preformed by James Clerk Maxwell to defy the 2nd law of thermodynamics and to show that while all things die, there will always be something to keep it alive. This thought can be applied to the idea of “artwork vs. art walk”. While the artwork often has no one exigence or purpose, it is the central theme for an art walk. Even though the two are in essence opposites (art is visually appealing with no call to change and an art walk builds a community to appreciate a common premise) they support each other perfectly and combine for an event not to be missed.
To parallel this idea, I chose the theme of the yin yang. The yin yang symbolizes two opposite ideas (represented by black and white) and shows that while they are still completely different, they support each other nonetheless. For a more artistic representation of this, I chose the idea of the art walk to be the background of the white portion in the yin yang and the idea of artwork to be the white circle in the black background (an abstract piece of art too). Instead of digitally editing this picture with a program, I chose a different representation and cut out the pieces myself for a more artsy effect, similar to that of the art I saw on Friday night. Even though the two are complete opposites when it comes to their exigence and their purpose, without the one, the other would be nothing. Just as the yin needs the yang, artwork needs an art walk to achieve its full effect.
