An Art Manifesto

Sunday, September 15, 2013

A MODEST MANIFESTO

By: Kurt von Behrmann

                A piece of writing can take on a life of its own.  I started out writing an introduction to a brief essay on art in Phoenix and it turned into a discourse on ranting.  The whole process of writing is about journeys, but sometimes the side roads are just as intriguing as the destination.

                Talking about art in Phoenix it seems inevitable that a rant will follow.  There have been more than one rant I have had about making fine art in the desert.  Sometimes it fell on deaf ears.  Other times the pointed remarks made their point.

                What started my whole process of ranting and art in Phoenix started with my latest commissioned project.  Overcoming the trouble and difficulties of creating fine art, I had successfully pulled off the most difficult type of art, the commission.  It just so happened all the stars lined up properly.  The client understood my work, the space was great for art and I was given a lot of creative latitude.   What made the whole project work was that my work was understood and my direction appreciated.

                Against some well-meaning advice to “tone down” my work or making something more “accessible,” I stood true to what I do, and I believe do best, create contemporary art.  When I started creating art I made a promise to do what I do and not be swayed from my direction.   Commercial art is an anathema to me.

If a commissioned means “trashing” my integrity as an artist, it is not the right commission for me.  I am selective about the commissions I accept. I have chosen to be so by choice.   I supposed I could sell more if I “pandered” to “common tastes” but I cannot do that. My role is to elevate and expand art, not to hamper its growth.  Artists are supposed to set standards, not following blindly existing trends.  In order for art to be trend free, it has to be breaking new ground, not wallowing in existing puddles.

                My past patrons accept a standard.  The patrons I have do not want me to pander and would be insulted if I created “lesser” works.  Not just for me, but for my patrons, artistic integrity is not an option.  It is a mandate.   

                If one is going to create fine art, one has to be serious and taken seriously.  I was very fortunate in that I had a small, but understanding, set of patrons who truly understand art.  They know what I do, what I will not.   My adherence to my own standards have been the key to my artistic advancement.  The work does not grow if you become caught up in the game of “playing to a crowd.”

                If there is a rule in show businesses, and it is true in Fine Art, is that honesty is what an audience ultimately wants.   Clean, dirty, messy or neat, if there is a truth to the art it will work.  Such art will find an audience.  Lie in art and it fails to sell to anyone.  You may get lucky with a “gimmick” but for long term durability, honest in art is the only way.

                The other rule of show business that is true of singers as it is for artists is that you have to be distinctive.  When a singer opens his or her mouth and you know instantly who it is, that is the key to being an artist: people recognize your style.  If you want to succeed critically or commercially you have to be different.  Style is part of being different.  How style evolves is intriguing. It comes from a combination of discipline, inspiration, hard work and truth.  Style is not something that is grafted from an exterior source.  Style comes from within.

                Being distinctive, being creative, being an artist is about demands.  The demands of the profession, the demands of reaching higher and higher levels of achievement, the demands you place on yourself, art is about demands.  Demands are just a part of the process.

                One can be an artist and be purely a careerist, but I don’t think you are an authentic artist.   When you create purely to sell, there is fakeness to the whole thing.  The work shows its roots.  The regrowth shows through.  It doesn’t take long to see that the work is simply phony.  

                What started as a rant turned into a manifesto.

                Sometimes the journey is about the back roads.

Ranting: An Instrument of Change

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Rants

By Kurt von Behrmann

                Rants are constructive. When situations reach a pressure point so intense that articulating the problem in sharp tones becomes a release valve, a good rant has a special place in the world.  Factoring the world as it is, I amazed that outrage doesn’t express itself more often.  

There is something in the American psych that prefers to accept the status quo without complaint.  No matter how intense, until things reach total collapse, until situations become impossible, only then do the rants in full epic swing begin.  Considering the state of so many things, it seems odd protests have not been more frequent or more intense. 

Accepting problems without question has benefits.  Protesting and ranting require energy. Complacency only demands silence. Rants and protests puts your voice on the front lines.  Once you put forth an opinion, you are at risk for ridicule.  Removed from the safety of anonymity, putting on a good rant brings you attention.  It places you center circle at the meeting place between accepted notions and iconoclastic myth shattering.  Remaining silent offers security.  Remaining silent also prolongs beneficial change.  Prolonged apathy turns into immobility.   Eventually nothing changes for the better for all. 

 

 For a select minority, silence is the gateway to literally getting away with murder.  Keep demanding what you will and moving ahead without compliant from anyone and silence becomes a credit card with no limit.  Lack of disturbers of the make believe peace always means someone is taking too large a cut of the pubic pie.  Until someone says no, everyone has to do with smaller and smaller slices.  In time someone gets the whole pie and everyone else is left with crumbs.  Look at the banking scandals that ruined our economy and you start to see how the whole thing works.  Minus a huge crowd of ranters, the whole ugly mess was cleaned up  by the very people hurt the most.

Ranting, just like any form of communication can be abused.  To rant simply to rant without reason is just noise.  To rant about the inconsequential is a rant wasted.  In the high stakes game of ranting, you need to select a topic that merits a worthy response.  Choices on what to rant about are critical.  Choose wisely before starting an epic rant.

Dee Dee Woods Latest Project: The work of Rip Woods

August 5, 2013

Dee Dee Woods is a photographer in her own right with some amazing work. She has shown at the Herberger with me, and some of the strongest artists in the Valley.   As a labor of love,  she is putting together a showing of work that honors her father’s contributions to the arts.

She is hosting an event, listed below with times and dates.
This is a day well worth putting on your calendar.
See what Dee Deed just did.

Invite card for Dee Dee Wood’s exhibition

Dee Dee Does It: The First Annual Studio Project Exhibition.
Dee Dee Woods is putting together an exhibition in honor of her father, Rip Woods, who was the first African—American Professor of Art at A.S.U.

This exhibition is a celebration of his art.
When: The exhibition opens Saturday, August 17^th starting at 7 p.m.
Where: Dee Dee Did it/ @ 934
934 East Southern Avenue
Phoenix, AZ  85040

For more info: 602-486-4272

George Zimmerman, the fear and anxiety.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

(NOTE: one juror, the only minority on the jury, has come forward)

George Zimmerman, the fear

George Zimmerman

When the verdict came out that George Zimmerman was found not guilty, something about that felt oddly out of place.  Many predicted the outcome, but the result was still unsettling.  Dividing America into black and white, literally, what had seemed like racial progress was turned upside down.

 For all the marches, brave sit ins and bold ventures on buses, all the progress made by African—Americans and sympathetic whites was suddenly null void.  The dream of a racially blind America could is still a dream.  If you found Zimmerman guilty or innocent, this trial was about more than one man. This trial was about an ambivalent America that views all black youth as black villains.

The details of the night who said what will never be known.  Only the participants, one dead and one living will ever know.  What is not subject for debate is that Zimmerman chased a young man and eventually shot him.  The young man in question did not have a gun.

Having been a neighborhood watch volunteer, from the training I know this to be true,you are told that you are never to interfere with a crime in progress.  If you see something suspicious, do not get involved.  You are the eyes and ears of the authorities, not the feet, legs arms and well-armed arms.  This is a point strongly stressed.  Apparently Zimmerman forgot the constraints that define neighborhood watch.

When the verdict was announced, shortly thereafter one of the jurors, it was an all-female jury, explained what took place behind the scenes.   Her face hidden in shadows, she gave a carefully worded explanation of what they were thinking.  Apparently she was not so confident in her decision to make herself known.  That fact alone draws considerable attention.

If everyone agreed, why hide in shadows? Who has something to fear? Could there be retaliation, or the fear that the public sentiment went the other way this time, both black and white, could that be the fear? Clearly the jurors were not confident that they got this one right.  They clearly feared something.

Pundits were clearly drawing conclusions, but the real focus here is about something deeper.  There is a deep seated fear surrounded black youth and no one wants to say why or how.  The reasons are deep seated.
Sliding under the radar of all the conversations is that so much of contemporary African-American imagery in the popular media is negative.  From the image of the pimp to the young black criminal, the reality of African-American life is in a sharp contrast to the pop cultural depictions. The disconnect is jarring.

 Once you witness African-American life up close, it is not that wildly different than white America.  While there are some minor social differences, the dreams, aspirations and anxieties are the same.
With a President of both African and American ancestry, the world was quick to say racism had ended.  On one level it has. The overt racism is gone. Now it is hidden in code words.  The insults are not hitting the targets.  Instead they are doing a ballet dance around them.

Thomas Wolf summed all of this up a long time ago in the eerie prophetic “Bonfire of the Vanities.” He saw all of the ugliness, including profiteers who make money wherever hate can be marketed, that marked race relations. In the book tensions mounted into a scene not too dissimilar from what happened in Florida on some levels.  Wolf predicted it and now it is playing out on television.

It is so hard to look at George Zimmerman and wonder had Zimmerman been black and an innocent white youth was dead would the verdict be innocent?  The very fact we are even asking tells us much.

Cheerios and conflict: A conservative view on race in America

Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Racism: One conservative perspective

One conservative writer addressed racism

(A concise version of a longer article)

Is this progress?  Have we really changed.

 

Kurt von Behrmann

            America’s dirty little secret, actually it isn’t that small, is racism.  The close relative to sexism, and it usually goes hand in hand with ethnic slurs and homophobia is still very much alive and well. It is not on life support. Current events clearly demonstrate that the influence of prejudice is not vanishing.         

            The acceptance that racism is deceased if fueled by the idea that (in some areas) African-Americans are on a rampage to disseminate “civilized” Caucasian culture. 

            Where is the proof?  Have we seen terrorist acts by African—Americans against churches and public places?  I think not.

            Viewed as an enemy to all things decent, Black equity is equated with an unraveling of the status quo. The argument sees any creation of equity as a threat.

            For all the flag waving that we are proud, fearless and free, apparently we are collectively scared shitless of “Blacks with Guns.”  Bring up racial equity and suddenly no one is either proud or fearless.

A new view, or the realization of what already is. The new American Family.

            I can hear the misconceptions of what I have stated. So let me make this clear.

            I fully support our men, women and gays in the armed forces.  Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, African, I always make a point to “Thank them” for preserving and securing freedoms that allow me and others to write and express freely.

            Yes, I sent items to make life easier for troops. I created art work that celebrates woman in combat. I created paintings that show the hard side of returning troops.

            None of those works sold, but I am proud I did them. I would create them again.

Cheerios, changing the world. The old debate goes on.

                         

            Back to racism, look at the recent cereal ad.

            If you missed it, there is an ad showing a child or multi ethnic background.  We see her father, who is clearly an African—American male married to a “WHITE” Woman.

            Apparently actors playing a role are a threat to our “AMERICAN WAY” of life.

            Alarm and protest greeted this ad.

            The company putting out the ads refused to stop airing them.

            Flying in the face of those opposed to interracial couples, the ad runs on today.

            If we are so “racist free” why did this ad bring up such “anger?”

            It makes no sense.

           

            Have we moved forward?  You be the judge. I just presented a conservative view.

Glendale Community College Art

The Traveler 46