paintings are no longer just paint
i used to think fine art was paintings and paintings were paint on a canvas.
only recently, i realized that is not the case.
painters can paint with anything
the great artists of today paint with every medium.
they paint with code, with images, with videos, with words.
they paint websites and applications and games and songs and artwork that feel alive.
they create their own systems to paint hundreds of paintings at once.
they generate tornados and water and trees that look like trees.
they craft shaders to refract light and create shadows like the sun.
they generate forests and mountains and noise and worlds that look and feel just like ours.
they paint videos and images and emotions into worlds that feel parallel to ours.
the painter matters as much as the painting
a couple weeks ago, i went on a cruise and attended the on-board art auction out of curiosity.
it was so ridiculous i couldn't help but instinctually pull out my camera and start filming. immediately, as if detecting my amusement as a threat, a suited man walks my way and blocks my camera, warning me: 'you may not film. this...' he waved vaguely at the paintings behind him, clearly not drawn by him, 'is copyright.'
'copyright?' i rolled my eyes. annoyed, i turn on my lavalier mic. i audio record the rest of the auction.
i watched as an ensemble of crew members autonomously put up frames of paintings on a row of easels. an announcer would tell the sob story of the artist, struggles they went through financially and emotionally, dips and peaks in their career. they spoke fondly of these unfaced artists, talking grandly of their high-caliber commissioned commercial work – graphics on Boeing-737s, celebrity owners of their work. they laid out the numbers and facts about the artist and why they deserve recognition. finally, they’d state the starting price.
but like me, the audience didn't seem impressed. as painting by painting went up and down, none of them got any bites. frustrated, a woman with a penny skirt and a neatly gelled bun starts pacing around the room, raising her skinny arms in a confused stance, pressuring 'are there really no takers?'
people didn't budge.
eventually, the announcer, annoyed at the incorporation of the audience, finishes by asking the audience 'show some respect and at least give a round of applause for the artist.'
it was at this moment that i realized it isn't just about the art, its about the story behind the artist.
these days, a painting to me is anything that breaks the mold and pushes the template forward. it’s about the artist behind the breaking and the representing of a feeling that hasn’t been represented that way before. it's a way to capture an emotion, a world, a place, a time, given the tools at the painter's dispense, to put it out in the world in a way others can feel, too.
