But, is it art?

Salvador Dali.
It took looking at Dali to appreciate this kind of art. In a college drawing class of mine at UCCS (now CU the Springs) there was a student who was trying to be original. He actually sucked (my opinion) as he would try for 'conceptual art' instead of doing the f@$king project given. And he always got 'ooh's and 'ahh's from his fellow classmates... except me. And then one day he COMPLETELY didn't do the project the way it was told to be done, and people were fawning all over it. And for the first time the prof asked me what I thought of his work.

I said, at first, "He didn't do the project."

She smirked, "What do you mean?" I think she was expecting the next comment I made.

"Well, the project was to take one of our previous life drawings, re-draw it and incorporate it into a famous artwork with a phrase or word. All he did was take his previous life drawings, cut off their heads, glued them onto the paper to form the edge of a cliff, put one to look like he's being crucified and splattered a word across it with paint. He got the word part right, but he got everything else wrong and I think he should have to do it over. I spent two weeks on mine, and I have seen him not doing anything the whole time. He probably did it all today." (come to find out I was correct)

Silence filled the room as jaws dropped and eyes turned to the artwork again to go over it.

"Well, let's move on," the prof. stated.

Not only was he NOT forced to re-do it, but he got an 'A' on the piece of trash. I got an 'A' as well, but I think that was to shut me up. Come to find out my mother had a similar event in one of her art classes in Boulder... but that's another rant.

Needless to say I have NEVER understood 'conceptual art' or 'surrealism'. I think it's junk... something made because the artist is too f*^king lazy, and people LOVE it. I still don't get it most of the time... but I know what I like. And I likes me some Dali.
I also like Rene Magritte. Some beautiful art... and it's pretty conceptual.


Also, Michael Parkes is someone I have bought prints of. Wonderful fantasy surrealism.


Recently, I visited a site that had original art of the surrealist kind. Conceptual. And, surprisingly, I liked it. His name's Mark Ryden. It's goth/surrealism in my opinion.
Mark Ryden

And to send you on your weekend... here's the SON OF GAWD BEEYOTCH!!!
"Mean Gene, i'm gonna tear me up some Roman villas. I gots me a 55 gallon drum of 'WHOOP-ASS' and i'm gonna open it on dem all, and that's the bottom line because the big JC says so!"