tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post2242856160308097967..comments2023-07-20T14:52:22.013+01:00Comments on Alternative Eagle: The serious artistKaren Cheunghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01162058505350255330noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post-73243234762714935462011-03-15T13:00:44.812+00:002011-03-15T13:00:44.812+00:00Go find that confidence! I want to see and read th...Go find that confidence! I want to see and read that book!Mamma og merhttp://www.mammaogmer.nonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post-3475381846077055612011-03-14T11:06:24.723+00:002011-03-14T11:06:24.723+00:00Hi Therese. Thank you so much for your lovely comm...Hi Therese. Thank you so much for your lovely comment - I really appreciate it. And yes, I too would love to do a children's book, but I haven't found the confidence yet to try and promote my work to publishers. Maybe one day I will!<br />KxKaren Cheunghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01162058505350255330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post-5832361891560249652011-03-12T21:19:03.830+00:002011-03-12T21:19:03.830+00:00Dear Karen,
I stop by your blog ever so often. I...Dear Karen, <br /><br />I stop by your blog ever so often. I particularly love your animals with personality disorders. I wish you'd populate a world with them, and make a children's book out of it. I'm sure your books would be loved.<br /><br />All my best, <br />ThereseMamma og merhttp://www.mammaogmer.nonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post-13947872462483044922011-03-08T18:09:36.458+00:002011-03-08T18:09:36.458+00:00:-) Hi Jon. Hope your 'distraction' is doi...:-) Hi Jon. Hope your 'distraction' is doing really well!<br /><br />I think what you wrote was a really interesting slant on the problem, and it seems like a very realistic kind of attitude. I suppose that the idea of a compromise of sorts, marrying your instinctive interests (because otherwise one would be bored/uninspired) with an awareness of what might make one 'successful' is a good way of going about things. I think the hardest part is resisting the nagging feeling that you're barking up the wrong tree and wasting time doing something that will come to nothing. A healthy amount of perseverance, in your field and mine, is required!<br /><br />I've been feeling a bit lost recently, but all of your comments have put a good deal of perspective on the whole thing. Thank you!<br />xKaren Cheunghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01162058505350255330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post-79466000852120329782011-03-06T21:04:06.379+00:002011-03-06T21:04:06.379+00:00I meant to comment on this earlier, but I have bee...I meant to comment on this earlier, but I have been - ahem - distracted... :)<br /><br />It's interesting that you raise this, because in light of the government funding cuts and so on, I've been thinking analogous things recently about science and my place in it. And I suspect there's more similarity between art and science on this than may be expected.<br /><br />I think I have to start with what interests me. To not do so is to make my life a lot harder than it needs to be. But then a healthy dose of self-awareness is called for: are my instinctive interests too geeky to say something broadly of interest, too esoteric to be funded, too self-indulgent to lead somewhere? Answering "yes" to these sorts of questions is not the end of the world, but most likely some sort of compromise will be needed. Well-known scientists may have simply been lucky to be interested in (and solve) important problems, or good at putting themselves about, or they had a good eye for an avenue that led to something significant. Or, quite possibly, they were pretty obscure during their life, and the impact of their work only became obvious posthumously.<br /><br />Much or most scientific research has only modest short-term impact, but art is harder still to assess because its benefits are even more intangible. Personally, I wouldn't worry about creating something "good" - I'd aim to create something which will resonate with people who share (some or all of) your perspective. And then hope that those people see it... ;)Jonhttp://www.flakery.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post-82621154551910551582011-02-26T10:18:58.480+00:002011-02-26T10:18:58.480+00:00My wonderful and talented young brother in law wro...My wonderful and talented young brother in law wrote this to me yesterday and I thought it was really thoughtful, and said a lot of things that I agree with. Thanks, David:<br /><br />Firstly, I find the term 'Artist' to have a sterile nature as through history it was prescrib...ed to the artistic. Those who recognised the power and talent of certain individuals and envied them for it seem to unfairly be the judges of who is an artist or not.<br />Then I regard an artist as an unfair term, because of its broadness. I feel that art is losing it's way today, as anyone can walk into the Tate Modern, stand two cardboard toilet roll tubes on the floor in a vast empty room and call it an exhibition. This mockery and jumping on the 'art bandwagon' gives artists a bad reputation, which particularly affects the genuinely talented, spent-their-whole-lives-perfecting-what-they-do sort of people, like you!<br />Personally, I am merely a tracer.I can see whatever I want to see in a blank space in front of me. Lines, shapes and colours swirl and shift on the blank page or canvas before me and then settle into a finished image- which I begin to trace and fill in.<br />The Pre-Raphaelites were discontented with their art scene as I am with our current one. To earn money we have to bend to the will of people who smother what we are truly capable of, as they think of art as meaningless (due to those previously mentioned who daub childish paint botches on a wall, or cover a motorcycle engine in blue felt... or simply get out of a bed, leaving it unmade!!!) In my view, I'll never call myself an artist until art has been revolutionised. That's what I hope to instigate. For me to call myself a true artist... True Art needs to be defined first.Karen Cheunghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01162058505350255330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post-4938256918343362342011-02-26T10:06:54.736+00:002011-02-26T10:06:54.736+00:00I think we all have a 'Trevor' - how insis...I think we all have a 'Trevor' - how insistent he is depends on our individual characters, but he's there nonetheless, the bastard.<br /><br />Kat, I know what you mean about criticism. Even the gentlest criticism sends me into a defensive fury. Not my best characteristic. Even when a client comes back with amends I get all self righteous and narky, albeit not to their faces! I guess we just have to learn to take it on the chin.<br /><br />And thanks for the last comment - I think those themes do 'fit' somehow, disturbing though they are! xKaren Cheunghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01162058505350255330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post-34435585162103780812011-02-25T14:20:49.007+00:002011-02-25T14:20:49.007+00:00Lauren I love the fact you have an inner critic ca...Lauren I love the fact you have an inner critic called Trevor.<br /><br />That is so awesome.<br /><br />I hate criticism (which is kind of hard for a researcher as we get a lot, reviewers comments suck). These days I just try not to care as much, but its hard. It can feel like everyone is pointing and staring and laughing like school. Bad reviews or awkward questions can really make one paranoid. <br /><br />I like your themes of science meets art, death and being observed. I think they fit better than you think.katnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post-42593649315272053452011-02-25T13:27:34.352+00:002011-02-25T13:27:34.352+00:00a very difficult call ...trevor is insistent at ti...a very difficult call ...trevor is insistent at times<br />then when i have to do something off my own bat i feel utterly uncreative... like we can turn it on and off like a tap x <br />ta for the analogy though :-)<br />xxxLauren Tobiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15998738651074616311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post-23974713366233610462011-02-25T11:47:28.075+00:002011-02-25T11:47:28.075+00:00Kat - I think Pete's comment is probably spot ...Kat - I think Pete's comment is probably spot on. Art should stir something in you, whether it's amusement or the fear of your own mortality, whatever. And yes, a lot of artists worked on commission in the past - I keep forgetting that! Thanks!<br /><br />Lauren - it's like a ghost of those godawful lectures we had to attend at UWE. I'm seriously impressed and a little scared :-) But I see where you are coming from! It's hard to silence that critic, though. I suppose the best we can do is please ourselves at the end of the day and stop worrying about what other people think.<br /><br />Thanks for your comments, guys. xxxKaren Cheunghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01162058505350255330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post-7509992363305300302011-02-25T11:39:39.933+00:002011-02-25T11:39:39.933+00:00Maybe art is just communication....a decorative th...Maybe art is just communication....a decorative thing done well lifts the spirits and a peace of conceptual art may change the way you think about something ..be it a horizon line or a post it note.<br />i think that the most stultifying bit is the need to "criticise and make verbal what is a visual medium"<br />i think art is an instinct...a way to order our visual world and make are mark on it.<br />oooooh where did that come from !<br />just make your mark karen you have a hard worked on gift, please yourself and try to tell the internal critic to take a holiday ..although my internal critic...lets call him trevor ..thinks i am being a tad pretentious. xxxLauren Tobiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15998738651074616311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2211285783434059218.post-1137218191384567232011-02-25T11:20:37.935+00:002011-02-25T11:20:37.935+00:00I think illustration is art just as graphic design...I think illustration is art just as graphic design and fashion are forms of art. Although they can be commercial, weren't a lot of historical paintings also done for clients? Artists have always had to do commissions to make money.<br /><br />I think my boyfriend summed up what is good art quite well when we went to a modern art gallery in Nottingham. Both of us are quite cynical and know very little about serious art. We both thought the building was hideous from the outside. Inside we were immediately struck by the work of Jack Goldstein. We had no context, no education but we liked it. We couldn't exactly say why we liked it but Pete said "maybe good art is when you feel something when you look at it, even if you don't know what that is".Katnoreply@blogger.com