Frustrated liars and idiot savants, comforted by our petty torments and our liquor filled haunts...

[obliviousally_lj]

I LIVE IN THE MOST CULTURALLY AND ARTISTICALLY STUNTED CITY IN THE WORLD.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artyoungstown/

WHAT WHAT WHAT.

Also, check out THESE GEMS:

What's a light source?
Weeaboo! Weeaboo!
This is an absolute clusterfuck of fail.

Now, here's where I'm going to put in a disclaimer. I support fledgling artists. Seriously. Everyone starts somewhere. But this is not the sort of thing you have in a more 'upscale' art show. These are the things you show in HIGH SCHOOL ART SHOWS. With similar skill and talent.

To prove I'm not a huge bitch, here's some cool/good/neat pieces:

j-vanhoose-fury-owl
j-vanhoose-sleepingkittens
bcohen-naplesbeforehurricane
jbilicki-redstockings
j-omalley-afternoonappt

And then there's things I don't 'get'.

valerio-etchasketch - Great. You can write with an Etch-a-Sketch. Big deal?
vincentvalerio-legoblocks - Giant Lego blocks are cool but..uh...what?

And don't even get me started on abstract art. I don't understand what's so 'deep' and passionaite' about throwing some paint on a canvas in a vaugely artistic manner. I never have and I don't think I ever will.

Also, people from this area need to learn basic graphic design and how to make webpages:

http://artyoungstown.org
http://www.yambar.com/

Please, people. It's NOT difficult. I swear.

And then, well, there's things like this:

http://youngstownart.blogspot.com/2008/05/choose-well-or-be-damned.html

Oh, oh, oh, this incited my rage:

http://youngstownart.blogspot.com/2008/03/yo-daddys-cartoons.html

Followed by:

There is also a CD playing of songs from the cartoons on the intercom and cartoons being show in the gallery and on the large screen in the coat room. Probably one of the few times you can bring small children to the museum and have them occupied. Hmmm. On second thought, maybe you don't want the young impressionable minds of your children absorbing these images?!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand.....FACEPALM.

I could count the reasons I'm wary and a little put off by the local art community but I would run out of counting utensils. Can you guess why?

Comments

[badkitty.livejournal.com]

with the etch-a-sketch, i find nothing short of:
http://www.gvetchedintime.com/
worth a second glance.
now THAT is art with an etch-a-sketch :3
and crazy good art, at that.

[obliviousally.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I've seen amazing things done with an Etch-A-Sketch. And the one I linked is not one of them.

[badkitty.livejournal.com]

seriously, don't feel bad about how horrid most of the art is. i remember seeing a mini-installation of art from a nearby Christian school, and thinking "not bad for second graders...hm". they were SENIORS. 17 and 18 year olds. with the artistic abilities of wombats!
sadly, they were obviously "the best" or else they wouldn't have been put on display with ribbons and such. D8

[obliviousally.livejournal.com]

It really makes me sad. I mean, everyone has to start somewhere, but everyone needs to learn to TAKE A FUCKING CRITIQUE OR TEN. younger kids are praised for their art merely because they can hold a pencil.

I'm so thankful the one art teacher at my high school gave me honest opinions on my art and coloring. Even though I wasn't in his class.

[badkitty.livejournal.com]

we had two art teachers in high school. 2D and 3D.
often Ms.Z (3D) would be called into Ms.M's class to help with critique, simply because Ms.M was too darn sweet for her own good, everything was, "it's good...buuuuut.... __insert actual thoughts here__" , whereas Ms.Z had that professor-like quality of bluntness, literally i have heard her say, "that is a piece of shit. you can do better than that, don't try to get off easy. throw it away and start over"
i mean, i totally understand the critique sandwich, but no need in LYING. seriously, it's hard to see your own damn errors when you've been nose-length away from the same painting for 18 hours. sometimes you seriously need that blunt opinion to open your eyes.
but god forbid anyone tell the TRUTH nowadays. they think people can't handle that. which is bull and only hurting the artist in the first place. it's like getting an A+ on a C- essay.

[mitsene.livejournal.com]

not all the time the best kids get shown. sometimes it's just the loudest or the ones who kiss the most ass. :/

[hellebore.livejournal.com]

o_O were none of the letters connected on the etchasketch's writing? or was it really thin line?

[obliviousally.livejournal.com]

If it's a thin line, it's invisible in the photo. Looking at it closer, however, it doesn't even look like how an Etch-A-Sketch looks when you do that with it.

It could NOT be an actual Etch-A-Sketch, but that pretty much defeats the purpose and still makes me go 'whut?'.

[suzanami.livejournal.com]

okay, porky looks like an idiot in that getup. donald or bugs could maybe pull that off, but porky looks really stupid.
also, the article about the business? oh. my. god. D: D: D:

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree people get carried away with "all art is beautiful! So cheap art is also best art!" Gwah, people should do what art makes them happy, but it's lame to pretend it's anything other than someone's doodles, or unskilled art that a lot of people could do.
I DO have a bit of a penchant for modern art, though. Don't get me wrong, like 90% of it looks dumb to me. However, I admire it for its crazy enthusiasm and ability to expand horizons. Because the 10% that I like just blows me away. And some of it probably just appeals to me (and a few others) and most everyone would think was stupid, but anyway, I have a secret happy place for "modern art". Because it's an excuse do do things like glue wires and bits of machinery to people and make them have a blue jello fight and call it "cyber disaffection" or something equally pretentious. XD

[mitsene.livejournal.com]

this gives me confidence in having a gallery showing someday. if THAT can get a showing........ O___O;;;

now if they were doing some kind of... commentary on weeaboo art, you know, like satire, that'd be another thing altogether. sometimes, too, people seem to think 'if it's weird it's art!!' when there needs to be some kind of hidden message to weird-ass shit for it to be really.. even remotely meaningful. like riddles hidden in poetry. being weird for art's sake detracts from the whole point altogether. ffvhgahh. i don't even go to art school and i get that.