What is art?

Rant begins here

Art is anything I say it is. Art is not sitting around with other artists in coffeehouses or newsgroups arguing endlessly with each other about what art is. I may not know much about art, but I know what I like, and for the most part so do the people who actually buy art.

I know what kind of art I don't like ...
I don't particularly feel like being challenged all the time to rethink my definition of art, or society, or Man's Inhumanity To Man. Particularly coming from some young sprout who hasn't yet lived long enough to experience art, society or Man's Inhumanity To Man. When you're no longer listed as a dependant on someone else's tax return, perhaps we can talk.

I don't quite see the point of art that requires a lengthy written "artist's statement" to differentiate it from any other pile of rags, discarded construction waste, old grocery lists, or preserved animal remains. Art is by definition a visual medium. If an artist's creative output consists more of words than artwork, perhaps it's time to consider abandoning art and taking up writing instead.

Most of what people consider art, whether it's velvet paintings in a furniture store, or the latest bright young thing to dazzle the New York art scene, does very little for me.

and what I do like ...
A few times in my life, I've seen a drawing, a photo, a painting or a print that took my breath away, and I knew I just had to have it. I feel the same thrill every time I look at those pieces again, even decades later.

These pieces run the gamut from "realistic" to "abstract." Sometimes I can explain why I like them, sometimes I can't. If I get a feeling that the artist has involved the viewer in the art, or shows a glimpse of the artist's soul , I tend to like it more than if the piece feels like it was created just to pay the bills, even if both pieces are equally "good" in a technical sense.

I'd like to make the kind of art that makes someone else feel the same way I do about the treasures I've found through the years. Wish me luck.

[Links] Nicole Saint-John, my favorite real-life artist.

This is neat: AAA Collections Visual Thinking Sketchbooks. The rest of the site is really interesting too. Be prepared to spend a lot of time there. I still have sketchbooks from my art school days, back in the early 70s. I'm scared to look at them though.

A wayward webmaster found his way here awhile ago, and asked me to add a link to his art-related web site in the United Kingdom. It's an interesting site and well worth an extended visit. Here's the link: http://www.howe-bzar.co.uk/

So what makes me think I'm an artist?

I took art classes after school from about age 12 up to age 16 when I "finished" high school. After high school, I studied for two years at the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr Institute of Art), and worked as a graphic artist and typesetter to support myself while sporadically continuing my fine art education at Mount Royal College, the University of Calgary and the University of Victoria. Oddly, even with all that fine art training, I didn't spend much time making art that wasn't work related.

In 1999, I got serious again about making art, and began teaching myself the kinds of things that were out of fashion in the academic world, which, at the time I studied, was more focused on trendy conceptualism as opposed to formal training in materials, technique and skill. This doesn't mean I've jumped on the Art Renewal bandwagon to worship Bouguereau and the rest of the Pre-Raphaelites. There's no escaping the influence of the past century on the art I like to look at and make, I just don't feel a strong connection to the stuff that thrills the kind of people who read ArtForum.

My current interests include:

• Drawing. Anyone can learn to draw, by the way. It does not require any special talent, just the ability to observe things as they really are. Once you learn to do that, drawing them is simple.


• Painting. I've never really messed with this much before now. As an art student I concentrated on drawing and sculpture, so the medium has so far been quite a challenge. I'm mainly doing acrylic and watercolor, with occasional digressions into other media.


• Pastels. Pastel paintings by real pastel artists are typically lush, colorful and thoroughly lovely. Mine so far don't look like anything but mud. I am not ready to give this up quite yet, but I am learning that this is a difficult medium to master.


• Mixed media. When all else fails, glue stuff to it.

My studio

I took over the northwest corner of our patio sunroom for my art studio. It has gorgeous north light and great views of the garden. In mild weather it's just about the best place I could dream of. When it's excessively hot or excessively cold, I paint at my desk in the spare bedroom.

• The easel is a Trident Maximilian "Swiss" easel, meant to be portable by some loose definitions, but not something I would ordinarily take into the field as although it folds down into a suitcase-sized box, it's rather heavy, especially when full of materials. Still, it makes a nice compact studio easel and is well suited to the size and format in which I like to paint.


• The cabinet is Shawn's Watercolor Station from Richeson, which is capable of hiding a surprising quantity of supplies, paper, panels and canvas. It's a fine piece of furniture in its own right, built like a tank from solid oak and oak plywood, and easily transportable from room to room if necessary.


• Scattered about my corner is a typical selection of brushes, paints, pencils, drawing boards, a magnifying lamp (covered by a tea cozy so the lens doesn't set anything on fire when the sun hits it), and other odds and ends. It's easy to keep the space tidy (though I frequently don't), and I can haul everything out at a moment's notice and paint to my heart's content.

Sketching in the field

I bring a small to medium sized field kit with me whenever I'm out, which gives me many opportunities to sketch and paint. The trick is to avoid carrying too much stuff -- if it's too heavy to lug around, it'll be left behind next time. My "minimum" setup easily fits in a purse, and consists of the following items:

• Paints. Two mint tins with half pans of watercolors. The large one is a "classical" palette consisting of earth colors and other traditional hues typical of the 18th and 19th centuries. I get a nice range of colors and mixes for sketching plants and outdoor scenery. The small tin holds a collection of primary and secondary colors, evenly spaced around the color wheel. With these, I can mix virtually any intermediate color. The pans are held in the tins with blue putty poster adhesive, and I put a silica gel ("do not eat") packet in each tin to keep the paints from staying soggy in damp weather. Both palette suggestions are courtesy of Handprint.com's excellent watercolor site.


• Colored Pencils. Another small mint tin (Starbuck's vanilla mints) filled with a tiny set of colored pencils I found at the local Barnes and Noble store. The pencils came packaged in a CD jewel case, which was too large and fragile to carry in a purse. The set of 24 pencils fits perfectly into the mint tin.


• Drawing tools. A plastic Cretacolor lead holder, holding a very thick soft graphite lead. This lead holder is also the perfect size to grip the tiny colored pencils. A "click eraser", easier to manage than a regular plastic eraser. A fine point black drafting pen.


• Brushes. A set of size 8 folding watercolor brushes: flat, filbert and round, with synthetic bristles, from Pro Arte, plus a "mini" size Water Brush. The translucent blue shaft holds water and is easily refilled. It flows just enough to moisten the brush tip, and is very convenient and mess-free for quick watercolor sketches.


• Sketch book. I adore pretty little blank books made with exotic papers. They're smaller and lighter than the typical hard bound sketch pad, and they look great. This one is covered with recycled sari material. Like the colored pencils, it came from my local Barnes and Noble store.

For more ambitious expeditions, I pack the "minimal" set in a medium sized bum bag, and add a Schmincke 12 half-pan watercolor box (that actually holds as many as 20 half pans), a small squeeze bottle of water, some more Water Brushes (flat and round), a selection of pens and pencils, a glue pen, a travel-sized can of hair spray to fix pastel drawings, and a tin box that once contained an AOL startup CD but is now filled with most of a set of 48 Conte hard pastels. I also carry more paper, including a postcard-size watercolor block, a larger sketchbook, and a selection of exotic and ordinary papers trimmed to fit on a 6 x 9 inch clipboard. I also include a digital camera, a miniature Leatherman style tool, some paper towels for cleanup, and a few other odds and ends including a wide brim hat and sunscreen.

For a really serious session, I take a lightweight metal tripod easel, a folding camp chair, larger watercolor blocks and sketch pads, and a bigger selection of painting and drawing materials.

Recent paintings

The Telephone Psychic. 16 x 20", acrylic and collage on panel.

9 of Cups. 16 x 20", acrylic and mixed media on panel.
7 of Earth (The Garden). 16 x 20", acrylic and mixed media on panel.

Buying Art Supplies Online

As you might guess, Bakersfield is not one of the best places to shop for art supplies. The selection is limited, and most of the stores that sell art supplies at all cater mainly to crafters and kids. As a result, I buy most of my art supplies online.

Prices can vary a lot from one site to another, and each one seems to have one range of products that they sell cheaper than anywhere else. I did an unscientific comparison among all the stores listed below for a selection of items, and found that no single store was cheaper than any other. They vary in the selection of products and brand names as well, so a complete item by item comparison is not possible.

There was no clear "low price" winner overall, though one store (Mr Art) was lower for more of the items on my list than the rest, followed closely by Dick Blick and Jerry's Artarama. Watch the web sites for sales, and take advantage of "free shipping" offers if you find them -- you may come out ahead even if some items are a little more expensive.

Reasons for and against online shopping

Pros:

• The selection is unbeatable. Anything you can imagine is available online.


• Deep discounts. Even with shipping, prices tend to be lower if you shop carefully.


• Pretty printed catalogs make great bathtime reading.

Cons:

• By buying online, I am bypassing local merchants. At some point, though, local retailers need to offer something of greater value, whether that's products or service, than I can find online.


• Delivery can take a week or more, sometimes much longer, especially if items are back-ordered or the dealer is clueless.


• Not much opportunity to try before buying. This is a significant drawback for all but the most generic of products.

About credit card security:
People are often reluctant to provide credit card information to internet sites when placing an order because they are worried about hackers getting their information. Not to make light of the situation, because more than a few major online retailers have indeed been hacked, but shouldn't you be at least as worried about offering your credit card to your local pimply-faced teenaged minimart clerk with with the pregnant girlfriend? Think about it...

Here are a few online art supply dealers I've ordered from:

• Dick Blick - Art Supplies. Huge selection, great product descriptions, immediate order acknowledgment by email, updates and ETAs on backordered items. Huge printed catalog, plus smaller catalogs sent throughout the year. In meatspace for decades, came online only near the end of 1999. They manufacture their own "store brand" paints, which could be a real moneysaver. Some great deals and some higher than average prices. This is the model of what an online art supply store should look like, with a good search engine, items indexed by category and by manufacturer, with descriptions and lots of illustrations -- competitors take note.
  


• Jerry's Artarama. Recently redesigned web site with much better navigation than before. I haven't seen any online retailer that can match the selection and prices offered here. About the only thing they don't carry that I like to use are Schmincke watercolor paints in half pan sizes. They have everything else, though, at prices nobody else can beat. Huge paper catalog, updated frequently throughout the year, but finding anything is a bit of a scavenger hunt.
  


• Cheap Joe's. Nice web site, great selection, a few unique items I couldn't find elsewhere. Prompt shipment, not the lowest prices but still reasonable. Big paper catalog, quirky sale flyers with great deals.
  


• Pearl Paint. Huge selection, needlessly complex web site layout, fast shipment but many items are inexplicably out of stock (although they do take the time to phone me if they can't ship an item). They do carry the elusive Schmincke half-pans, which makes up for their sometimes spotty inventory on other items. Great paper catalog.
  


• Mister Art Store. Lots of stuff on the web site, but good luck finding it. On the plus side, they have a great selection (once you figure out how to navigate a large and not very well designed site), and prompt delivery.
  


• Utrecht. To their credit, they sent me a printed catalog almost immediately after I requested it. You'll need to have the catalog handy to figure out the web site, though, because there are few or no product descriptions, and photos of items are rare. The web site looks like it was designed by someone who has never actually tried to order items online -- you guys need to do more than just a plain database query with the results dumped to the screen -- this site is almost as difficult and annoying to navigate as MisterArt. Like Dick Blick, they manufacture their own line of paints, which they claim are equal to or better than the brand name equivalents.
  


• Dixie Art & Airbrush Supplies Home Page More for the airbrush crowd, but a usable selection of fine art materials and great prices. More items promised Real Soon Now. Fast delivery, and they answer their email!!
  


• Molly Hawkins' House Plenty of low-priced, "house brand" stuff for art teachers, lots of "student grade" paints, brushes, and other supplies. Some fine art materials at really great prices. No online ordering -- you have to print and fax back the order form, but order fulfillment was fast, accurate and friendly. The catalog contains actual samples of their drawing and watercolor paper, so you can see what you're buying.
  


• Art Supplies from Rex Art Another meatspace mail order art supply dealer moving onto the web. "Search" button never seems to work, but the site is reasonably well laid out. Prices are on the high side for many items, but they do offer a good range of Richeson easels with free shipping -- a potential bargain. Huge paper catalog plus separate price list, $5.00 or free with order. Nice, personal email responses to questions and comments.