The World: The Ultimate Museum, The Ultimate Canvas or The Ultimate Gallery?

I’ve been concentrating on documenting all kinds of public art projects for just under two years and it has been a blast. I capture work from known and unknown artists - stickers, wheat pasting, graffiti, etc., and also some of my own chalk, yarn-bombings and magnetic work. That has made me wonder how other people doing all forms of street art see the world - Museum vs.Canvas vs Gallery.

The world as Museum makes a lot of sense to me. With world being the Museum, then countries, states, cities and towns are the Galleries. I make two dimensional and three dimensional work that fits into the concept of being in a Gallery. My own work has only had a small corner in a few galleries! I have had work in the Maine, Wisconsin, and the Pennsylvania Gallery. Where one sets the work - drawing with chalk, graffiti on a wall, yarn-bombing a bench, placing a statue or sculpture in a park – I see that as the Canvas.

I’m sure some curators wish they had control of the Ultimate Museum. I think these are truly the museum and galleries where street artists have complete say over what they want the public to see on their canvas.

So what do you think of the world - Museum? Gallery? Canvas?

Please share your opinion.

Originally Posted: January 22, 2013

Contemporary History - History has to start somewhere...

Yarn Bombing is a lot of fun. Yes, I said it, fun. One of my favorite locations is my local Historical Society building site in Freeport, Maine, USA. Why is that? A. Because they enjoy and appreciate it. B. They have particularly interesting (aka fun) architectural details to play with. Now I understand that some people don’t like it because it’s not part of Freeport’s “History”. But is it starting a new tradition and adding to Freeport’s history? Now I know that it is not just my town that has this issue. Largertowns and cities have more people on both sides of the issue and more people all around to ignore their surroundings or be enchanted and happy with urban surprises.

This past month I went and put fourteen monsters on the ball caps of the fence line outside the building. I knew that there were a few naysayers to this. Originally, on International Yarn Bombing Day, 2012, I put two at the fence entrance. The plan was to keep adding to all fourteen fence post ball caps. Sadly, the two quickly disappeared. So I decided to put all fourteen up at once. I also put them up the day before the Fourth of July, at night. I figured in the morning there was going to be a running race and parade and many would see them and enjoy them. Part of the fun is watching the discovery of the pieces and hearing and watching the many that love bumping into the unusual, charming and unexpected as they go about their errands. One has vanished. But I figure that doing yarn-bombing and chalk drawing are my efforts to add to the traditions and history of my town. Just don’t forget that history has to start somewhere!


To view all fourteen monsters check out the video on YouTube "Monsters Ball" you can also find them being posted individually on Acts of Random Art's Facebook page.


Originally Posted: July 9, 2012

Who decides Art is Art?

Even though I live in Freeport Maine a couple towns over and about 15-20 minute drive to Portland I am watching what is going there very carefully. Why should I care that much? Well Portland might not be the capital but it could be a place that sets some rules that will have effects across the state. Giving other towns and cities the light to tighten their reins on what art is.

Now don’t think that this is a completely new thing in art. Because this is  the kind of problem that art has had probably since the first cave painting. I can only picture the hunting scene be drawn with white powder and some one say it’s only real art when you burn the wood and draw with black charcoal. For centuries art also wasn’t even considered art. The early sculptures and fresco’s where not made just because someone wanted to. They where made because somebody wanted to to create stuff but was only allowed on commission and was very specific what and what not to do. When Leonardo was drawing in the dark and in secrecy the human body. His drawings of inventions and the human figure now are considered masterpieces. When what they really are are drawings for ideas and studies. 

Jump ahead a couple thousand years and you will see the same thing going on. But now sculptors and painters can more or less make art for what it is. Art a form of entertainment. But then came photography, and that scared the hell out of artists, painters for sure because how where they supposed to compete with something that can capture a moment and in such detail? It was blown off for decades. Which it was used manly for commercial use and news reporting to give an image to help tell a story. Even though there where artists out shooting away trying to show that it is not threat to painters and the art world, but a new form of art. Ansel Adams is considered one of the best landscape photographers, yet he had to fight and prove that photography was an art form in the start. It wasn’t until roughly the 60’s that photography finally was given the green light to be an art form. In which even drawing the basis to most artists is still on shaky grounds of being art. It is more so an art but in the some of the more tight art groups it’s looked down upon. Even acrylics had a hard time being called paints. Which there are still oil painters that claim acrylics are not real because it’s a plastic paint. Which in my personal opinion if an artist knows how to use their materials and well, then it doesn’t matter if it’s watercolor, oil, or acrylic.

Now with that background what I am following that’s going on in Portland Maine is a quote from the cities attorney:

“The court has already determined what art is. It’s not up to an artist what art is.”
-Mary Costigan, City Attorney (Portland, ME) 

Now how does that work? Artists can’t decide their work to be art? This day and age one of the hard things with contemporary art is what is art? You have performance art, fiber art, functional art, the list can go on and on. Now isn’t it easier to have the non art world settle the art worlds age long on going fight? And to use the courts to say that is and that is not art. Reasons why I am watching this is because of a danger that it makes me feel of where and how art is decided on. Because there are people that think that the jewelry they make is a true piece of art. Where someone looking at a painting that is all white and it’s all about the fact it’s 100 layers painted on, each layer at 10:56am everyday for 100 days. People will say, “That’s art?” But having the courts claim they know what art is, well that is dangerous. To me it’s not a Freedom of Speech thing. Because what this is all about is people selling art on the streets of Portland when they where told it’s open and now they are trying to slam the door shut. I see it as a problem for Portland’s Public Art groups having a harder time later when they want to put something in a public space and the courts say, that is not what we call art so no. And some of the internal bickering that will go on even more will be a problem. The reason why I don’t think that it’s a Freedom of Speech thing is only because it’s a commerce thing. To say selling art is a Freedom of Speech, that is different then saying you can’t make art that represents this. That is where blocking Freedom of Speech comes into play. But blocking what art is to sell, that’s a entirely different thing. Go to the MoMA, Milwaukee Museum, Portland Museum of Art, Boston, Chicago Art Institute, The Walker in Minnesota, any major museum anywhere and you will see from furniture and silverware in the design sections to Egyptian and Contemporary art work. All in which is called Art. Now for Portland to say a wooden spoon is not hand made and a form of art, they have not looked and educated them self on the history and show what is. The Portland Museum of Art will be having a show involving shaker furniture. Before questioning and saying what is and what is not, the courts need to really open their eyes and read up on somethings.

Originally Posted: October 29, 2011

Nothing is Permanent in Public Art

Most think, when it comes to ephemeral art, about environmental works. The kind of work that is built from rocks, sticks, grass and leaves and anything that is natural to the environment around it. Art that can the return back to the earth and not do any damage.

But that is not the only ephemeral art. Graffiti even though it is spray paint, yarn bombing and wheat pasting just to name a few gorilla art forms are very ephemeral. Some just last longer then others. Even a commissioned piece of public art work might not last forever. Some work lifespans are shorter than others. Richard Serra, had a piece in New York City that was designed to break up a giant space, it made people angry and it was ultimately taken down. His work is made site specific (a piece made for the one place it is placed and nowhere else) so the metal was then scrapped. 

Richard Serra - NYC - Tilted Arc

Occasionally, other works get taken down and cause a stir. Maine’s own controversial labor workers mural in the Maine State Labor Building taken down by Gov. Lepage (without seeing it himself but because of an anonymous request) is a case in point. Maine Labor Mural Check this site for ongoing information on this active controversy.

Graffiti is sometimes taken down in a matter of minutes and sometimes left for years. But at the same point it will ultimately be cleaned off or painted over, by a property owner or another Graffiti writer. This continuum of artwork stirs controversy, generally less formally than commissioned work and sometimes in graffiti spats and wars between or among individual or groups of writers.

In the end, it seems that all the public art is ephemeral or short lived. That is, in comparison to more “formal” art forms in galleries or museums. But even for those works, being in the public eye is usually brief, with the work leaving galleries to be moved to storage, the artist’s studio or private collections. So remember that nothing is permanent in public art or for that matter, in art in general.

Originally Posted: September 7, 2011