I won’t describe all the processes that went into the creation of this piece. Why bore you with details that probably would only confuse you more? I’ve been debating with myself and others about sharing ideas freely on the internet. Why share ideas when “artist collectives,” contracted or owned by corporations such as Hobby Lobby, scour the internet for ideas to steal and then sell in their chain stores around the world? I would venture to say that Hollywood scriptwriters and directors also sift through the internet for free ideas to steal and use for their anti-gravity super-hero comic book silver-screen entertainment.
Don’t get me wrong. I think many movies that come out of Hollywood are pretty cool, but I often wonder which anonymous brain the cool ideas have come from. The real story has always been the same; the strong feed upon the poor. And laws are only enforced when they protect the few with all the world’s resources against the rest of the disenfranchised expropriated people of the world.
I recently saw a Youtube video with Jay Baer, a marketing expert, discussing the positive side of being generous and helpful to others on the internet by showing others how to do things, or by giving them directions. He discusses how Hilton Hotels takes advantage through social media of peoples’ needs for help in getting directions on how to get to places in other cities while they’re traveling. Baer also discusses a group of computer repair specialists, named Geek Squad, who show people how to fix their computers by Youtube videos and so forth. The idea here is that most people don’t have the technical skills to fix computer hardware, so they end up calling Geek Squad for help anyways.
I think the above ideas that marketers use to market themselves to people are actually pretty swell ideas. Helping someone without asking for payment actually works in your favor because the person you’ve helped will be more open to helping you in the future if you need it. In my opinion, it actually unconsciously indebts another person to you when you help them. That’s why people in the ethical business world use money to compensate for the “guilt trip” of being helped by another.
When it comes to art, and marketing art, help is not value that it offers. Art just hangs on someone’s wall after it’s purchased. I was at a music gig the other night at The Sister Bar here in my city, and I asked myself while watching the band play, “why is it that musicians are more successful than painters or visual artists are?” I realized that it basically had to do with sound and movement; art doesn’t move; you don’t watch a painter create his or her art; musicians move and make lots of sound, and many people gather around to watch them. That’s the difference.
Nevertheless, even musical artists are struggling in this age in which we are transitioning from traditional media to computerized and internet media. Many musicians feel shafted by the music industry because everyone’s getting an artist’s work online for free. Musicians don’t make any royalties off that. I can totally understand musicians being upset about the way the music world is currently. The internet age and technological advancements are just things that can’t be stopped however.
I don’t know what the future of the art world will be like when the US gets hit with another economic depression after the bond market collapses. I don’t think the arts will disappear though. I just wonder how the arts will adapt in order to survive as viable instruments of entertainment, soul, beauty, wonder, experimentation, etc. It is my understanding that people with wealth are buying art in order to put their money into tangible collectibles of value, and to avoid the increasing taxation western governments are enforcing on everyone.
I titled this piece Blue Cherry Flower. It looks like a bio-cybernetic plant that grows blue cherries hydroponically. In an abstract and exaggerated way, this strange plant is growing a large blossom. I happened to capture the result of this alien futuristic plant in my artistic experimentations. It would have resided in the ghostly realms of mental possibilities had I not taken the time to give it expression. It is derived from a couple of my Micro-Chimerisms drawings, so nothing but my own materials were used to produce this illustration.
Art of eVan 