{"id":407,"date":"2009-09-08T00:36:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-08T04:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=407"},"modified":"2009-09-08T00:36:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-08T04:36:00","slug":"im-sick-of-eye-candy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=407","title":{"rendered":"I’m sick of Eye Candy"},"content":{"rendered":"
Even my own homemade recipes leave me with an unsettled stomach.\u00a0 I used to get a thrill out of making some colorful lollipop of an image, but that stuff is for kids.\u00a0 If you still crave candy, then you’re still a kid too.<\/p>\n

Call it Decorative Art, or The Decorative Arts<\/i><\/a>, it’s still the same old eye-candy.\u00a0 In fact, Decorative Art isn’t really art at all —it’s decoration<\/i>.\u00a0 Pretty fractals may be nice to share and talk about and sell to the great mass of decorators out there looking for something nice<\/i><\/b> to cover the living room wall or front entrance, but it’s only art in a broad, general, graphical sense.<\/p>\n

Previously I’ve said that fractals aren’t very fertile subject matter by which to express deep thoughts or make bold political statements but I realize now that that’s letting fractal art off a little too easy.\u00a0 Like a father speaking to a child who’s setting themself easy goals in life, I say, you can be more than that, you can be art, you can be anything a pixel can be.<\/p>\n

But I know better than to give advice to someone who’s happy doing what they’re doing and hasn’t arrived at the point where they see things the way I do.\u00a0 So to all those of you who aren’t happy with eye candy and occasionally get a deeper thrill out of artwork that is something else, that’s good.\u00a0 And to those who find their stomach turns at the sight of a super sour gumball or a bright orange fruit chew, that’s even better.\u00a0 It’s good to feel bad about bad things.\u00a0 And eye candy is bad art.<\/p>\n

Bad art?\u00a0 Yes, I know there is a subjective factor to tastes in art and all that sort of argument that people often pull out to neutralize artistic criticism (except their own, of course), but graphic imagery that merely looks pretty and doesn’t engage the viewer’s thoughts in some deeper way hasn’t ever qualified as art in any serious circle of intelligent people before except in some trivial, functional way like the way a vase of flowers does in the front entryway in someone’s house.<\/p>\n

That sort of thing is a Craft and those who make it are Craftsmen, not artists.\u00a0 It’s perfectly respectable to be a craftsmen; there’s nothing derogatory about the label.\u00a0 What’s not so respectable is when craftsmen want to call their fractal flower arrangements Art, <\/i>and themselves, Artists<\/i>.<\/p>\n

It’s not that they aren’t good at what they do, or professionals, or anything else like that.\u00a0 They’re good craftsmen, some of them are excellent craftsmen (craftspeople), and many are very professional and quite highly skilled in the technical aspects of their craft, but it’s just that what they produce has no other dimension to it than to be decorative –something pretty to look at.\u00a0 But don’t call it art because that’s being pretentious, shows ignorance and trivializes what art is, and what art is all about.<\/p>\n

And art is all about thoughts, feelings –mental action and reaction<\/i>.\u00a0 Maybe it’s possible to say something with flowers?\u00a0 Not likely.\u00a0 That’s why they’re such a popular decorative item, they’re just something pretty to make a room look nicer, like visual air freshener.<\/p>\n

Fractal art isn’t eye candy or visual air freshener.\u00a0 I guess I could give some sort of pep talk here or rallying cry for more art in fractal art, or lets all try to put more meaning in our fractal art, but really, if you’re happy with what you’re doing making eye candy then you’re not going to do anything like that.\u00a0 People don’t make art because they’re told to, they make it because they’re sick of eye candy and don’t get a thrill from it anymore.\u00a0 They make it because their gut tells them to.<\/p>\n

Technorati Tags:

Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2848,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2848","url_meta":{"origin":407,"position":0},"title":"Rebooting Fractal Art: Part 3","author":"Tim","date":"4 August, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"What fractals fail to do... You can't make art with them.\u00a0 And we all need our heads examined for thinking we could in the first place. I should be a bit more specific when I say, \"art\".\u00a0 I mean the thinking man's stuff.\u00a0 The kind of image that provokes your\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 6 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 6 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2848#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Beardsley-peacockskirt.jpg?fit=400%2C547&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3051,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3051","url_meta":{"origin":407,"position":1},"title":"A Fractal Made Me Smile!","author":"Tim","date":"29 September, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"If you've been following my recent revolutionary thoughts about fractal art you may have noticed a few comments posted by readers here and in other venues relating to emotional experiences and feelings triggered by fractal images.\u00a0 Such things are important from my revolutionary perspective because they appear to refute my\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3051#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/800px-Goya-Guerra_33.jpg?fit=500%2C393&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":406,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=406","url_meta":{"origin":407,"position":2},"title":"Fractal Art, Phase Two","author":"Tim","date":"3 September, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What? You didn't know even know there was a Phase One? Well, let me begin there, then. At the dawn of fractal art.Phase One, the first stage of fractal art, has been oriented around software. The big developments in fractal art came from developments in the software that made it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=406#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ambaka.com\/blog\/25\/phase2.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":214,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=214","url_meta":{"origin":407,"position":3},"title":"Who Dissected Roger Rabbit","author":"cruelanimal","date":"5 August, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Who Dissected Roger Rabbit (2007) The function of art is to disturb. Science reassures.--Georges Braque Andrea Yates believed that cartoon characters told her she was a bad mother who fed her children too much candy...--Court TV News For some reason, disembowelment and bloodshed is a helluva lot funnier when it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=214#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Who Dissected Roger Rabbit (Detail)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/08\/rogerrabbit_detail_ulc.jpg?fit=450%2C312&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2646,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2646","url_meta":{"origin":407,"position":4},"title":"Reality Changes Things","author":"Tim","date":"11 April, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Something happens to fractals when they start to resemble real things.\u00a0 It's sad, in a way, but I think fractal art is limited in its appeal to a wider audience simply because it's \"fractal.\" Fractals have shape, color and pattern, but often those purely abstract, non-representational qualities relegate fractal imagery\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/458px-Galaofspheres.jpg?fit=458%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":370,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=370","url_meta":{"origin":407,"position":5},"title":"Challenges for Fractal Artists","author":"Tim","date":"24 February, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Under Red Sea, by maruscyaI think working with fractals is very much like the art of nature photography.\u00a0 Nature photography tends to be descriptive, showing what things look like and focusing primarily on the form, color and interesting situations that one finds in the natural world.\u00a0 Sometimes you see a\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=370#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}