Of Wells and Oil Slicks...

So today was a good day. I kicked some ass at school, academically. The whole ambiance of the day just seemed very relaxed, despite next week being the last week of classes.

I also registered for the next semester today. Fun times baby. I'm headed for a concentration in Women's Studies and another associates degree, this one an A.A. in Humanities.

I've been really ambivalent about this second degree. It bugs me that I'm not an art major and that I'm not directly and actively working on my B.F.A. right now. Like, bugs me to the point that when I sat in on one of my old professor's class's crit a couple weeks ago while I waited to ask her if I could borrow a book, I almost cried for the beauty of it. She was irritated because only 3 students out of 16 had work to put up for critique, but I was dazzled. I just miss it so much. It doesn't feel right, not taking art classes.

But I'm trying to make the best of this. I'm trying to take classes that will inspire me and help me expand my understanding of art (hence the two philosophy classes this semester). I figure the more I know, the more I can create. In a lot of ways, an artist's mind is like a well. You're constantly drawing from the well to create your work. If the well goes dry, you're pretty much fucked. I don't ever want my well to dry up.

I've got to wonder though, how much this stuff is adding to my well. I wonder if instead of adding more water, it's really just pouring oil down my well. If I'm now going to be drawing up other people's thoughts and ideas and interpretations that have floated up to the surface, trapping and spoiling my own underneath it.

Ok, maybe I've carried this metaphor a little too far. But seriously, I don't want to spend the rest of my life regurgitating other people. And I understand that nothing's original, but still...

Hmmm...this requires more self-reflection I think.

Art and Porn

So the other day in my 19^th Century Philosophy class, two of my classmates had a presentation they'd done together that included stripping nuns. Ok, so they weren't real nuns, just women dressed up like nuns doing a VERY erotic belly dance (and as much as I'd love to link the video, I haven't for the life of me been able to find it on YouTube).

This sparked off a debate about what is art and what is porn. I won't get into that argument here (for the record, I think it all depends on intent and personal taste), but it got me thinking, can something be both porn and art at the same time?

Consider Titian. A great (if not the greatest) Venetian painter of the 1500's, Titian is one of my heroes mainly because he painted right up until (literally I believe) the day he died. When he started to go blind from old age, he threw out his paint brushes and painted with his fingers. And his work didn't suffer! How bad ass is that?

Now a short and simplified art history lecture for those not in the know, before I stop drooling and come to my point: The Renaissance painters had a big kick about returning to classical references for inspiration and they loved them a naked woman. Higher-up clergy were still big patrons, which is why you see a lot of Madonnas (with and without child), but in reverence to the Greeks and Romans, almost any woman painted that wasn't the Virgin Mary of a specific portrait was a Venus.

Back to Titian. Most painters' Venuses were, as a reflection of the times, modest. See Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. Note how eager she is to cover up all her girly bits, even with the nymph right there with a robe.

Now let's look at Titian's most famous Venus, Venus of Urbino.

Well would you look at that? She's not hiding anything, is she? And she doesn't exactly look displeased either...

I understand this probably isn't getting anyone's rocks off (well, other than mine...but I really like art), but in its day it was considered pornographic.

And this isn't just a one-shot “dirty” picture. Titian had a thing for erotica. Venus of Adonis:

“Look honey, I'd love to fornicate some more, but I have to go off to war now!”

For the mindset of society when it was painted, it's porn. But is it art too? Obviously Titian thought so (but pornographers are always claiming it's art, aren't they?). We think so now, and surely it must have been considered art in its time because it was known and shown.

So what does Titian show us? That something can be intended to be beautiful and graceful and to stimulate a physical, sexual response at the same time? Or does he show us that the Ren folk were prudes? Or both?

In the case of the stripping nuns, I think the goal was to be both. And I think they achieved that goal. It was stimulating, but it also was a beautiful commentary on female sexuality and religion.

But I'd really like to start a discussion on this, so what do you think: Is there art and there's porn, and never shall the two meet? Or can they come together?

Dirty Car Art!!!

So to make up for my one day absence that I didn't even realize I had, I start writing last night about art and porn...then I fell asleep. So I was still intending to write the art/porn article for today, but something way cooler was brought to my attention.

Dirty Car Art!

No kidding, there's an artist by the name of Scott Wade who has become known for his art done in dirty car windows. From his site, Dirtycarart.com:

“Like any reasonably creative and curious human, Scott can't resist a dirty rear car window. We suspect that Scoot start off with clever sayings, like, “wash me.” Probably his first image was the ubiquitous smiley face. Unlike most folks however, Scott lives on a mile and a half of dirt road – caliche, as the locals call it, road-base: a blend of limestone dust and gravel and clay. Driving over this surface result in a fine, white dust that billows up behind any vehicle driven faster than a galloping turtle, coating the rear window. Being an experienced artist (and let's face it, a little...different), it wasn't long before Scott was experimenting with techniques to achieve these amazing detailed and shaded drawings.”

And amazing they certainly are! From the close-ups of the images and a picture of himself on his website, it looks like Scott Wade uses a variety of paint brushes to achieve an awesome range of values. He has incredible reproductions of famous pieces as well as some portraits and animal landscapes. I would love to post some pictures here, but I was so excited to write about him, I didn't want to wait for a return email. And alas, as I am a fledgling blog, I'm not hopeful I'd get permission anyway...but there's nothing ethically wrong with posting links!

The image gallery itself is in frames, but here's an impressive portrait of Einstein out of frames; as well as Dogs Playing Cards; a creepy yet funny picture of his daughter in the rear window; one of my favorite paintings, The Birth of Venus; and some of the great classic horror stars.

If I've whetted your appetite, you can click “home” at the very top of any of the images, or go to http://dirtycarart.com/index.html. It is seriously worth it!

Artists You Should Know and Car Shenanigans.

I had serious car shenanigans today. I'm on my way to my in-law's for dinner, both midgets in the car, and I was creeping up to a red light. All of the sudden, my car makes this terrible, nasty noise like screaming metal, and the weight shifts drastically on the passenger's side. The shock only lasts a second because this has happened many, many times before; I had a flat. Ok, get the car off the road. Luckily, there was a Cole Muffler, literally, right next to me.

So I go to pull into their lot – already pissed because flat tires are no fun and I know we won't have the money for a new tire for a few weeks – and the steering wheel is having almost no effect. At the same time as I'm getting the car to kinda move towards the parking lot, this ugly dragging/grinding sound is following me and I'm thinking That's way more than the rim from the flat...

There I am, a moderate walk with two small kids away from my in-law's, with a majorly fucked up car. A Cole Muffler guy comes out and I asked him if I could leave the car while I went to my in-law's to figure out what to do with it. He asked if I could pull into a parking space, and I told him I could barely pull it into the lot. That's when he looked under the car and said, “Yup you lost a ball joint.”

To skip to the end, the car is now at the lot of my father-in-law's mechanic, where it will sit for at least the next month, until we can get it fixed. If we're lucky, it'll only be around $100 for ball joint, tire, and labor. If we're not lucky, it'll be more like $300-400. Bleh.

All this means for you my reader, is an abbreviated Artist You Should Know. I'm intending Tuesday's posts to be a more in depth spotlight on a particular artist, but with the above shenanigans, I'm afraid all I've got is a list of 5 spectacular artists you should take some time to get acquainted with.

http://www.jasondaquino.com/home.html Jason D'Aquino

This guy does incredible things with graphite! I didn't even know you could draw on a spoon. Definitely check out his Hunter S. Thompson portraits.

Ron English

Shame on you if you don't know who Ron English is! Start with the billboards and watch Read Between the Lies.

Audrey Kawasaki

Everyone who knows me knows about my fangirl love for Audrey Kawasaki's artwork. Well executed, sexy girls with depth...what's not to love?

Stella Im Hultberg

More sultry ladies, but with a decidedly different quality.

And of course, no list would be complete without:

Judy Chicago

Um, hello, The Dinner Party! Never heard of it? You ought to be slapped. Just get out of my sight until you're more well-versed.

Whooo ARE yooou?

So here we go. The inaugural post of what I like to call Ramblings of an Art-Obsessed Mama. Maybe I'm being a little pretentious to put my blog name in italics...but then again, I'm blogging aren't I? And isn't that really just admitting to a pretentious streak? I'm assuming that what I have to say is so interesting and so just-what-the-world-needs that I needed to start a blog, aren't I ? Well don't you worry, it's going to get a whole lot more pretentious when I move this bad boy from here, its temporary Google home, to my soon-to-be website.

But I'm still not answering the question posed in the heading, am I? So let's get down to it. I'm Manda Spadaro and hopefully I'll be hanging in your house someday. Some of you reading this may know me better as InsaneArtGurl. I'm an artist in my second decade of existence. I have two kick ass midgets, one sea god creeping up on four and a horse goddess that's just over halfway to her first birthday. I'm married to a charming madman whose obsessions alternate between computers and writing. We have a gloriously trashy home that I hate cleaning.

Painting was my first art-love, but while I was working on my associates degree at Onondaga Community College, I found myself drawing more than anything else. Then during the one-year failed experiment that was my enrollment at SUNY Oswego, I discovered printmaking and sculpture. So now, as I attempt to repair the damage of aforementioned failed experiment so I can get on with my BFA (and while I figure out what I want to do as my day job when I grow up), my medium of choice is all over the place. Most recently I got my hands on a screen printing kit and sticker paper, so look for lots of raunchy bumper stickers once I open my Etsy shop.

As for the aim of this blog, I'm hoping to expose myself and others (did I mention this blog was going to be rated somewhere between PG-13 and R?). There are a lot of great artists I know and have discovered that I think ought to be household names. So primarily, this will be my thoughts and theories on art and artists that I think you need to know. My passions also lean in many other directions, so occasionally you'll find more than art here.

And so you have something to do, I'm going to kick-off the actual content with some of the more-than-art stuff. A few vlogger and blogger reviews for your viewing pleasures.

First up is new kid on the block vlogger, Dark Libertine. I first “met” DL a while back (maybe two years ago...possibly as far back as three) on a Gothic magazine's message board. I wasn't there terribly long before a large group of us, for reasons of internet drama and general BS, migrated to The Crypt. Recently, DL has decided to share his intellect and insight with the world via YouTube. With vids posted so far about racism, whiners, and the nature of goth, Dark Libertine is sure to be engaging for everyone. Check out his channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/tremzozero

Next up is Semyaza. Sem is actually the administrator of The Crypt and another wonderfully insightful mind. So far he's only got one video, on the nature of friends and family. So let's all go pester him to make another! You can find Semyaza at http://www.youtube.com/user/semyaza666

For those that like to read, there's the brand-spanking new blog Sarcasm Not Included written by Erin, aka Kasmira, another Crypt citizen. Kas has a funky, fun writing style and an eye for handmade treasures if her first Freaky Fashion Friday post is any indication. Read Sarcasm Not Included at http://sarcasmnotincluded.blogspot.com

And last but not least, there's the various blogs of http://bitchmagazine.org. The official website of the wonderful magazine Bitch, bitchmagazine.org has numerous blogs that will satiate your need for biting pop culture criticism between issues. It's also your place to subscribe to the magazine itself, which is something everyone should definitely do.

Thanks for joining me on this first trip through Mandaland. Come back by tomorrow for an important Artist You Need to Know post!