[Jewelry making - Article 00158] - Re: [Orchid] Smithsonian jury results

[Jewelryartschool]

========[ Invite a Friend - http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm  ]========

>     The notion that someone who goes out and picks up stuff and
>     arranges it so, so artfully deserves equal if not greater weight
>     than someone who creates an item which has never existed before is,
>     well, "offensive"comes to mind. A pile of rocks is merely a pile of
>     rocks. A sculpture carved out of marble, even if you or I don't
>     like it, deserves more from all of us. 

    Sounds to me like - If it's easy and takes "no" skill - like moving
    a rock from one place to another... and it's cheap, 'cause the rocks
    are free... it ain't art? 

    If so, then where/when does it become "art"? When you spend 100
    hours stacking them just so? Or when you invest in tools, machinery,
    and skills to change the shape of them? 

    This can lead to half a million other questions. If you are moving
    the rocks while doing a ritual or a dance, or perhaps if you roll
    them into position using your nose, does this give them added
    "value"? 

    If it's the only rock in the world of it's kind - is it
    automatically "art" because you got a couple drops of your blood on
    it and made a "pattern" - while moving it? 

    If the rocks are positioned on some exact geographic position
    determined by some super accurate global positioner - would that make
    it art or math or science? 

    If the rocks are arranged to cast some kind of fantastic shadow when
    the sun is in exactly the right position, maybe once a year? 

    If the "rocks" are manmade/synthetic to begin with (creating an item
    that has never existed before) - does that make them art? 

    If you position the rocks just so - under a waterfall - and leave
    them there for a time that you determine - and thereby change their
    shape, but without much of your effort involved - what have you got? 

    Seems to boil down to the amount of effort expended? Or could it be
    that a tool of some kind has to be employed? Or is it simply intent? 

    So, if you took the very same rocks and crushed them with a
    sledgehammer, added sand and cement and poured them into a mold -
    that resulting sculptural form is now "art"? 

    Or if these particular rocks contained gold veins, and you smelted
    the metal out them, and made a gold statue of the material that was
    once part of the rock - what have you got? 

    To me all of these are useless questions. I like the earlier post
    that deals with cold hard reality. CAN YOU SELL IT? Will it put food
    on the table, clothes on your back, and a roof over your head? If so,
    you can make more of whatever it is, and live another day 

    NONE of what we discus/make/repair/"restore" on this forum is
    necessary to life. It consumes huge quantities of energy and natural
    resources to get the basic materials. It consumes huge amounts of
    mental and physical resources to finish the "product." 

    In the end you have a shiny bauble that only a minority of people in
    the world (who live well above the subsistence level) can afford to
    squander their money on... and we live on that money. What does that
    make us? THAT might be an interesting subject for another thread. 

    For some people just having the time to look at "art" and baubles -
    much less discussing "concepts" on thousand dollar computers for
    hours at a time - is unimaginable. They are busy scratching the dirt
    - to plant the crops that will maybe let them live another season...

Brian Marshall
____________________________________________________________________
T h e   O r c h i d   L i s t
Open Electronic Forum for Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Procedures
____________________________________________________________________
Orchid FAQ:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/faq.htm
Orchid Archives:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive
Orchid Galleries:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm
Invite a Friend:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm
____________________________________________________________________
Tips From The Jeweler's Bench - Article Archive
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tip_sear.htm
The Jeweler's Selected Bibliography List
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books
Buy Orchid Jewelry:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/shop
____________________________________________________________________
-Unsubscribe:
-Email: orchid-request AT ganoksin.com Body=unsubscribe subject=blank
____________________________________________________________________