Three Part Blog

When I originally set out to make this blog, I intended to update every weekend. I seem to be falling well behind that goal. Oh well. Such is life. This posting comes in three parts. I don't think I have done a three part post in a while, so that might help make up for my lack of recent updates. : )

PART 1

Last time I wrote about a work in progress for a show in Atlanta. I have since finished that piece, and have sent it on its way. It arrived at the gallery yesterday. At least that is what the tracking information is telling me. I thought perhaps you might want to see what the finished painting looks like, and for those of you who are not in the greater Atlanta area, here it is:



If you do happen to be in the Atlanta area check it out at the Art House Gallery December 11. It should be a good show.

PART 2

In addition to being an artist extraordinaire (Hah!), I do some substitute teaching. There is one teacher for whom I fill in, that allows me to teach an art lesson while there. This past Tuesday we did a project on creative problem solving. The students were asked to create an object capable of getting one sheet of paper as far down the adjacent 100 ft hallway as possible. They were free to be as imaginative as they liked, the only limit was in the materials they could use. They were allowed two sheets of paper, three inches of tape, three inches of string, and two paper clips. Some ideas worked better than others, and the ultimate winner got her project roughly half way down the hall. The following pictures were some of their designs.













































PART 3

When I taught Art Appreciation, we would occasionally play a game. This game was called "Is it Art?" Now that I am no longer teaching this class I see no reason to let a perfectly good game rot away. So I thought we could play it on this blog. Here is how it works: I have an official "Is it art?" folder. Here is a picture of it:




As you can see it is full of images. Occasionally I will pull out one of these images and post them on the blog. These images could be anything; a painting, a drawing, or perhaps the internal working mechanisms for the landing gear of a 747. We really have no idea what these images are going to be. Your job is to look at the image, scrutinize it for a bit, and come to some conclusions as to weather or not you think it is art. Post your thoughts in the comments section. I will announce weather it is or is not art in a later blog entry. There is a wide variety of art made these days, so in order to eliminate some confusion here are some other rules. First if the image is art it must be claimed by an established, recognized artist, and be exhibited in gallery, museum, or some other official setting. Secondly, I will never present a photograph. While photography is art, there would just be confusion if I showed a photo of a tree or something. You must look at the object within the image, and decide if this is the art, not the image itself. If you are confused, or have questions post those in the comments as well. Here we go with "Is it Art?" See you next time.