I’m often leary of “inspiration” art books. It’s usually filled with a bunch of things like “stand by a tree and listen to the wind” or “imagine every color of the rainbow exploding on your page”. In a nutshell, they are hokey and usually one-dimensional. I had read about Alan Fletcher’s The Art of Looking Sideways a while ago, and had it on ym list of “to buy” since then. I was always afraid to the pull the trigger, but after his death, I had read how this book was just different. And it is. Here is a detailed explanation from Amazon:
Alan Fletcher’s The Art of Looking Sideways is an absolutely extraordinary and inexhaustible “guide to visual awareness,” a virtually indescribable concoction of anecdotes, quotes, images, and bizarre facts that offers a wonderfully twisted vision of the chaos of modern life. Fletcher is a renowned designer and art director, and the joy of The Art of Looking Sideways lies in its beautiful design. Loosely arranged in 72 chapters with titles like “Colour,” “Noise,” “Chance,” “Camouflage,” and “Handedness,” Fletcher’s book, which he describes as “a journey without a destination,” is “a collection of shards” that captures the sensory overload of a world that simply contains too much information. In one typical section, entitled “Civilization,” the reader encounters six Polish flags designed to represent the world, a photograph of an anthropomorphic handbag, Buzz Aldrin’s boot print on the moon, drawings of Stone Age pebbles, a painting of “Ireland–as seen from Wales,” and a dizzying array of quotations and snippets of information, including the wise words of Marcus Aurelius, Stephen Jay, and Gandhi’s comment, “Western civilization? I think it would be a good idea.” Fletcher’s mastery of design mixes type, space, fonts, alphabets, color, and layout combined with a “jackdaw” eye for the strange and profound to produce a stunning book that cannot be read, but only experienced.
It is something I have been “reading” recently, but it is not a book you would really read cover to cover. You can pick it up every once in a while and read parts of it. Or, it seems you could come back to it years from now and look more closely at one of the “chapters”. And, not only arethe quotes and examples well picked, but the way it is arranged is extremely well thought out. Definitely worth the investment…
Chicago Art Open…Depressing…
Over this past weekend, I went to the Chicago Art Open at Merchandise Mart. It is billed as the largest survey of Chicagoland artists. The work at the Chicago Art Open is juried so this is supposed to be the best of the best in terms of Chicago artwork. I found it plain depressing.
I think one of my major beefs with the art world is that a lot of the work is plain junk. Since we are supposed to accept everyone and their ideas and their vision, these artists are under the illusion that their work has meaning and demonstrates some skill. Since so many artists have read that many of the artists that we consider great were initially panned by the art world, there is this unknown quality to who will be the next great voice. I’m sorry, Picasso and Warhol and Pollock were rare breeds. Rarely do I see skill. Rarely do I see talent. Most of what they do seems painfully random and unpassionate. In my opinion, some of these professional artists should make this their hobby and not their profession.
What I see makes me not want to get involved in the art world. To not be lumped in with the rest of these “artists” who take themselves too seriously and will throw anything on a piece of canvas and call it “art”. I guess I really see myself more as an illustrator and designer, but those two worlds are very different from the art world in a lot of ways. I’m not sure I fit into both. I sort of wish I knew if the work I do has any place in the world outside of my hard drive. But then, I’m just another voice trying to be heard. Another artist trying to get recognized. Another artist trying to make a living. I just wish I could put my stuff up on a gallery wall and announce, “Either you like it…or you don’t” and not worry how it is received or if you can get another gallery show or if someone wants to buy your work or if someone will comission you for a project. I mean…can you do that?