This Pilgrim's Progress

But is it Art??

The WSJ's Opinion Journal has a great commentary by Lionel Shriver about this summer's open submission exhibit of contemporary art at London's Royal Academy of art.  Seem's that one artist's submission, a scupture of a laughing head, was separated from it's base during shipment. Well, the head was rejected but the base or plinth was accepted and exhibited as a work of art.  It was basically a slab of slate with a small wood support for the sculpture.  Shriver's commentary says it best: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008540 .

Tattoos

The WSJ has an interesting editorial on tattoos by Naomi Riley, one of their editors for their Taste page.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110008523

After some witty and interesting commentary she makes her real point in the final paragraph:

"As we have learned from the horrendous clothing fads of recent years, appearances do matter, which is presumably one reason people get tattoos in the first place. But there is something to be said for dressing to fit in and thinking to stand out.

Vince Hemingson, a tattoo historian and Canadian filmmaker recently raved to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about the marvelous messages of tattoos: "Great tattooing really tells the story of someone's life, if people take the time to think it out." Alas, they rarely do. "

Tattoos

My "loyal readers" (yes both of you), know that I'm not fond of body art or piercings or other "adornments" that are popular these days.

Fox News has an article today on the rise in the number of people seeking to have their tattoos removed. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,194732,00.html).  Generally it's mostly people with Chinese characters that don't quite mean what they thought, that the article talks about. That was real popular 10 years ago when the tattoo revival started picking up.

I predicted a while back that  if someone could come up with a painless or near-painless way to remove tattoos, that they will clean up financially as the aging Generation XYZ'ers seek to get rid of unsightly or ill-considered tattoos that they got in the bloom of their youth.

Tattoos were always popular among the military, but as you get older the original reason for getting the tat no longer exists or has faded with time, much like the tattoo does itself.  An old tattoo looks pretty sad and ugly.

My maternal uncles were Marines in WWII and they had the requisite tattoos. Both of them regretted getting them though. The hula-girl you got in San Diego in 1943 doesn't look or seem as hot or trendy when you're  in your 60's (or even your 30's or 40's).

What I'm really amazed at is the current popularity of tattoos among young women (on their own bodies, that is).  I guess it sends a message if you are a young female with a tattoo, but I'm not sure it's the message they originally wanted to send. Besides, do you need a tattoo to advertise that you're trailer-trash?? It's usually pretty self-evident!!  In India women use henna to draw designs on their hands and arms, but it's not permanent and needs to be re-applied after a few weeks. That seems to be a better way to go about decorating yourself, if you get tired of the design you can change it or better yet let it wear away.

My kids when they were little, pre-school/elementary school, liked to apply the fake tattoos that were popular back then. Interestingly, those don't seem to be as popular with the kids these days. Stickers were also popular, as were the fancy band-aids with colors and patterns.  My kids both did some body-decorating when they were toddlers. One of them colored themselves with a blue marker pen...they looked like a smurf or a midget-druid!! Another time one of them plastered their legs with the fancy band-aids. You couldn't see any skin since the legs were completely covered in band-aids.  Their indulgent mother let them do it and wear it for a few days, but come Sunday I laid down the law and said they couldn't go to church like that!! The wailing and crying was heart-piercing as we peeled about 500 band-aids off our child's legs!!  What memories!!

Essential Paintings for Theologians???

Veith at Cranach, points us to a post on the blog "Faith and Theology" where they've come up with 20 Essential Paintings for Theologians.  Read both posts and see what you think of the list.  I'm not sure why these should be especially relevant to theologians?? Veith, of course, thinks Cranach should be on the list, and a commenter wonders why El Greco didn't make the cut (me too). 

I don't know if such lists serve a purpose other than to start discussions about who/what should or should not be on the list. 

As one from the reform tradition, I question whether Christ should be depicted at all?? And if he is, are we seeing the Man or the God or Both??   

Also as a Calvinist, I'm not so interested in variations on the Crucifix, where Christ's body is hanging from the Tree,  since that smacks of idolatry. Not that everyone treats the Crucifix like an idol, but many of the spiritually and theologically ignorant do.  Those paintings depicting stories from his life or a particular incident of the Stations of the Cross I feel have more of a legitimate purpose of informing and reminding us of his sacrifice.

I disliked most of the selections.  Too morbid or medieval for my taste.  I also find it weird that the Renaissance painters painted these historical scenes in contemporary dress. It'd be like showing Jesus in Nike's and a backward baseball cap. But then they were painting to appeal to their contemporaries and maybe they had no idea what the average Galilean or Jew wore in Roman Judea?

Let me know which ones you like and why! (I'm open to being educated in my tastes by the opinions of others).

I wonder what kind of paintings they would pick if the selection parameters prohibited depictions of Christ??

How about "Art for Calvinists"???  Problem is coming up with a definition! Suggestions anyone?

Thomas Kinkade

The World Magazine Blog has an interesting question posted by Olaskey: "Why is Thomas Kinkade's Art so popular?"   Click on the link to read some spirited exchanges of opinion. 

I personally don't care for Kinkade's art.  It seems so trite and contrived to me. I like art that's less interested in special effects and more interested in communicating a message of beauty or transcendant excellence.  But then I enjoy Jackie Chan movies, so my entertainment choices don't necessarily reflect my aesthetics unless humor and the execution of flawless martial arts stunts constitutes a form of art? Maybe they do at that!!  The fact that Kinkade produces so many of these paintings, one wonders if he's got some trained chimpanzee's chained up in a basement somewhere cranking them out for him, or maybe he's outsourced to Chinese-prison-labor??  (just kidding!!).

"Daniel of the Year"

World magazine's "Daniel of the Year" for 2005 is Makoto Fujimura. It is a fascinating choice, and I think they made a great decision.  Be sure to read the article, and then don't forget to read his opinion piece , "Walking Backwards" in the same issue. He has a blog at: makotofujimura.blogspot.com and that article is also posted there.  He has a lot of insight,  so much so, it's almost too trivial to leave it at that!!  But my writing talents aren't up to the task, so take a look for yourself.  Check out his post "Why Art" .  It speaks to the importance of art and the arts as expressions of our culture, and the choices we make in our expressions conversely affects our culture.  There's probably more there, but that's what I took away from reading it on my lunch hour. I hope to dine more leisurely on his thoughts later.

Joy of Reading

The title of this post referts to an article in byFaith Online by Kathleen Nielson "The Joy of Reading Great Works". I highly recommend it. She discusses literature in the context of the Christian faith and why we should read great books. She also covers what and how we should read as Christians.  Especially note the references she sites too. They also look like wonderful resources to further explore this topic.

"Mind of the Maker" part 2

Well, I finished reading Sayer's "Mind of the Maker".  It was a good read but not quite what I was looking for. Her theme in this book is to explain the nature of the Trinity using the analogy of the creation process of an artist or writer. 

It gave me some new insights into understanding the nature of the Godhead as the Trinity, but I'm not sure it gave me any new insights into the topic of aesthetics, art, beauty, etc. from a Christian perspective. I would still recommend it to anyone who struggles with trinitarian doctrine. 

One of the things she just brushed on was "What explains bad writing or bad art. " She explained it as the result of the author or artist straying from the intrinsic nature of the Idea or Concept they are attempting to create in their art. I think that has a great insight for when Christians create bad art, but how about pagans?? 

I often think of pagan art as an expression of God's reality or creation through the filter of the pagan's cultural framework or worldview. Some of it may be real close and even beautiful, and some of it can be real bad and ugly as it more expresses man's sin rather than God's nature. An example would be Classical Greek sculpture versus Classical Mayan or Aztec art.

I think the Greeks understood a lot about the generally revealed creation, whereas the Meso-Americans seem to be clearly in thrall to their demonic and blood-thirsty "gods" that demanded human sacrifice and constant warfare to keep them in check. 

I wouldn't call Meso-American art "beautiful" because of its rather horrific themes, and it's designs seem to have their own strange formalism (like Egyptian art) that has nothing to do with reflecting the beauty of creation.

Pre-classical Greek art had a stiff and wooden quality to it too.  The Greeks were clearly looking for truth, unfortunately their search was inward rather than outward. Interestingly enough the Byzantine Greeks went back to formalism (rather than naturalism) in their iconic Eastern Orthodox art.

To be continued.......

"Mind of the Maker"

While looking for stuff on Christian Aesthetics, I just located Dorothy Sayer's essay "Mind of the Maker" on the internet. The CBI has it in it's online library:

http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/dlsayers/mindofmaker/mind.c.htm

So far, it's a fascinating read. I may need to print it out so I can linger on and ponder the concepts. She has incredible insight and even though the language is not simplistic, it is very readable.