I SHOULD be typing Levin-ass
Last night jimotron called me a "sucker for the aesthetic", and I thought it was funny. Today, I still think it is funny, but the more I think about it the more I think it is true in more ways than at first is apparent. Here are a number of was that I'm a sucker:
1) I like art-things. My room is decorated with many of my photos as well as cut-outs from photo magazines. I love the medium, but more broadly, I love being surrounded by beautiful things. Why? Because I derive strength from them, metal peace that allows me to work. While I best characterize my work as amateur, some photos that I've taken surprise me and looking at them, as something I have created, just makes me happy.
2) We live in a post-holocaust world (didn't see that coming, eh?), so objects/events of beauty are needed now more than ever. Unlike Lyotard who thought that beauty has no place in a world where the holocaust occurred, I would like to think that the presence of such aesthetic works should serve as a constant reminder of the dual potentialities of human beings: death and creation.
3) Art can solve some political problems. When I was going to be a Rhodes Scholar, I "ran" on the platform of bringing arts programs to urban kids in an effort to both provide them with an integral part of their educations and raise environmental (broadly construed) awareness. Teaching kids the arts, regardless of how "good" they are at them, provides an outlet for expression, especially in environments where such outlets are not always the eases to find.
4) I like creative people. As I tend to get bored of folks who stay static very easily, I try to surround myself with people who are open o the world in creative and interesting ways. Preferably people who are not like myself in important ways but still understand my core values. I've just found that these people usually tend toward the artistic even if they are not, properly speaking, artists. Think about it? Kyle and Bryan? Glassblowers. madamebovary? Photographer. Ken, Kyle, holeymoley? Writers. jimotron? Cannot be captured in immanence! I could go on, but y'all get the point.
5) I end to have an idyllic view of the creative process. Never having gone to art school where I hear they such the love of art right out of you, I have this view of what it is like when I make art and tend to project this out on others. Largely, those who I talk to about this view agree with me, but like me these are folks who don't create for a living (with the exception of Kyle and Bryan, who are also both talented musicians). I like to do craft projects like mounting and framing photos and building things.
So what does it boil down to? Nothing! Why do I always have to reduce things to something else? I guess it's just the philosopher in me, but this one I'm just going to let sit. Why? Because sometimes words most clearly express meanings when they are not spoken at all.
1) I like art-things. My room is decorated with many of my photos as well as cut-outs from photo magazines. I love the medium, but more broadly, I love being surrounded by beautiful things. Why? Because I derive strength from them, metal peace that allows me to work. While I best characterize my work as amateur, some photos that I've taken surprise me and looking at them, as something I have created, just makes me happy.
2) We live in a post-holocaust world (didn't see that coming, eh?), so objects/events of beauty are needed now more than ever. Unlike Lyotard who thought that beauty has no place in a world where the holocaust occurred, I would like to think that the presence of such aesthetic works should serve as a constant reminder of the dual potentialities of human beings: death and creation.
3) Art can solve some political problems. When I was going to be a Rhodes Scholar, I "ran" on the platform of bringing arts programs to urban kids in an effort to both provide them with an integral part of their educations and raise environmental (broadly construed) awareness. Teaching kids the arts, regardless of how "good" they are at them, provides an outlet for expression, especially in environments where such outlets are not always the eases to find.
4) I like creative people. As I tend to get bored of folks who stay static very easily, I try to surround myself with people who are open o the world in creative and interesting ways. Preferably people who are not like myself in important ways but still understand my core values. I've just found that these people usually tend toward the artistic even if they are not, properly speaking, artists. Think about it? Kyle and Bryan? Glassblowers. madamebovary? Photographer. Ken, Kyle, holeymoley? Writers. jimotron? Cannot be captured in immanence! I could go on, but y'all get the point.
5) I end to have an idyllic view of the creative process. Never having gone to art school where I hear they such the love of art right out of you, I have this view of what it is like when I make art and tend to project this out on others. Largely, those who I talk to about this view agree with me, but like me these are folks who don't create for a living (with the exception of Kyle and Bryan, who are also both talented musicians). I like to do craft projects like mounting and framing photos and building things.
So what does it boil down to? Nothing! Why do I always have to reduce things to something else? I guess it's just the philosopher in me, but this one I'm just going to let sit. Why? Because sometimes words most clearly express meanings when they are not spoken at all.