INSPIRATION POINT 005

Photo: ffffound

We saw this picture pop up on tumblr and we really loved the sentiment behind the poster. We love (love) food but we also love the world. The poster was originally commissioned by the US food administration and inked by artist F. G. Cooper  in 1883.

You can buy one of your very own here.

Don’t Do It Yourself?

Every year my Mum, gawd bless her, makes over 200 hundred Christmas cards by hand. It’s not easy but she thinks it’s worth it.

This year in the run up to that ever mystical last posting day, she started to panic. Being the kind-hearted spirit I am (for this read: an expert in procrastination), I offered to help. The design was done, the cards were already to go, all I had to do was wield a glue gun for a few hours and stick all the pieces together. Many cups of tea and one accidental episode of Gardener’s Question Time later and I’d knocked it out of the park.

And so along trundled Christmas, with its parties and visitors. In between the sherry and mince pies they could be heard lavishing Mum with praise for this year’s card. “It’s my favourite, as always!” they fawned.

“You didn’t tell them, did you?” I asked. “Tell them what? I designed them!” she replied. “Oh, I see! Did you even give me a nod on the back of the card, or are they all still signed by you?” Needless to say I was easily won over with a large glass of wine and slice of cake.

I was only pulling Mum’s leg, of course. But it does bring up a real issue with art. Which part is the art? The design, the making process, the little nugget of the idea that everything has sprung from?

Recently a couple of Britain’s most distinguished artists, Damien Hirst and David Hockney, had some beef over this very issue. Hockney wasn’t impressed by Hirst’s flagrant use of assistants, who were executing some of his work. With Hockey slyly writing, “All the works here were made by the artist himself, personally”, in the corner of each paining at his exhibition at the Royal Academy.

He went on to quote a Chinese proverb about painting: “You need the eye, the hand and the heart. Two won’t do.”

Hirst reportedly remarked that his assistants are just as capable of drawing those little dots and that, shock horror, he finds doing it boring. According to the proverb this is not only cheating but also takes something away from the painting. If you’re not looking at dots by Hirst’s fair hand then why not just look at a print?

When standing in front of my favourite painting, Monet’s San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight, I feel as though I am looking at part of him as I gaze in awe at the skilful brush strokes. Is it different when considering modern art – is the idea above the process in this case? Are we to stand in awe of the mind that thought them up, rather than the skill it took to paint them?

Everybody enjoyed Mum’s Christmas cards this year – the thought and the unique design was still there. So, does this apply to a canvas full of dots too? When you take yourself to a gallery and really invest in the art in front of you and the very idea of art all around you, would you feel cheated if you found out they’d all been done by, well, me?