Month: May 2016

Babel of Tongues: The Need for a New Language of Thought

Can poetry lead us to a new country?

S.C. Hickman's avatarThe Dark Forest: Literature, Philosophy, and Digital Arts

Reading several critical works brings me back to a notion I’ve had for some time: all the past narratives (Freud, Marx, Philosophy, Science, Economics, etc.) no longer capture the state of affairs in our time… the stories they tell, and we tell each other: the metaphors they use, the whole complex system of relations they use to capture what we are experiencing in our day to day lives, and even the global shift of relations across the world itself, are useless to most people. They no longer speak to us, give us the meaning or context within which we can relate to ourselves or others. So we wander from abstraction to abstraction, unable to relate to one another because each of us is an assemblage of competing systems of thought that no longer relate across systems. Therefore we’re in that crash space the Scott Bakker is always describing… unable to speak to each…

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Sometimes you fail…

I had a good drawing… but pretty much ruined it. Paper (Canso: Sketch Esquisse Croquis) is not good for water color or wash, unless applied fairly dry for details. Stick with pencil for this sketch book. Get something better for more finished work. But it was a lovely day to spend a couple of hours in the warm spring sun!

Across the street from A-Space. Ink, water color.
Sketch across street from A-Space 5-8-16

Urban Street Sketching: learning, and long way to go

If it wasn’t a challenge, wouldn’t be much fun. Not very good at this yet… a lot to learn. Every day, out on the street. I think it’s because I’m a life long obsessive journalist that I’m drawn to this. I would describe what I see on the pages of my journal… this kind of sketch is like a journal entry without words.

52nd Street fruit stand, looking toward Pine. Pen & ink, watercolor wash.
52nd St fruit stand

Everything that’s Wrong with the “Art World”

Fuck the capitalist gallery to investor pipeline–those who own it, and those who seek to profit from it. What is both so irksome, and revealing–is how this pitch is aimed, not at those who love art, or the art… but ‘investors,’ those who, by turning art into a capitalist commodity, eviscerate it’s value as art, as set up a gatekeeping system, that functions, not as means to select the best, but to exclude all but the smallest fraction of art and artists, precisely to raise the monetary value of what the system lets in. What this has to do with aesthetic value is purely accidental.

Skip the guesswork. Here’s three things to look for in an emerging artist:

Saatchi Art

 

GUEST DOODLEWASH: Urban Sketching With Marc Taro Holmes

More inspiration

Charlie O'Shields's avatarDoodlewash®

Belvedere Dyptich by Marc Taro Holmes - Doodlewash, Urban Sketch of city skyline in watercolorI’m Marc Taro Holmes (visit my website, Citizen Sketcher, and follow me on Facebook and Twitter!). I’m Canadian, and was born in Alberta (a mid-western province) – but have worked all over the USA as an artist in the video game industry. Recently we moved back, settling in Montreal. It’s one of the more scenic cities in Canada. Great place for an artist!

Little bit of personal info about yourself, when did you start painting?

Actually, funny story, I always wanted to paint – but I didn’t want to make any bad paintings. Around age 19, I finally realized it doesn’t work that way. I wasn’t going to spontaneously discover how to paint so I’d better get started practicing. I’ve been fairly compulsive about drawing ever since.

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