Successes

[Artyczar]

I agree with you Hermes, this kind of texturing and glazing is simply outstanding. Beautiful piece.

 

[musket]

And of course, there's the question of what success actually is. I expect the criteria to be very different for abstract artists than for realists. Really, who's to judge?

I like your comments, musket. I find the process of making a painting or sculpture as painful as I imagine childbirth to be.

I must also say I am not falsely modest and can see and acknowledge, without any embarrassment, that I have on occasion made something good. Here is an example (not sure whether I've shown it before) of a ceramic piece that is not just aesthetically pleasing, but required technical skill to make. It is a coiled and pinched object in stoneware clay that was rubbed with oxides and glazed lightly, then fired at 1280°. It was 350 mm high before firing, and everyone in the studio predicted it would crack and collapse, because the walls are only 3 mm thick, less on top where the gills are. As you may know by now, I simply adore this kind of texturing and colouring in my pieces.

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In no way would I consider this piece a failure.

I agree about it being painful, though I got no idea how painful childbirth is!

 

[Desforges]

I like your comments, musket. I find the process of making a painting or sculpture as painful as I imagine childbirth to be.

I must also say I am not falsely modest and can see and acknowledge, without any embarrassment, that I have on occasion made something good. Here is an example (not sure whether I've shown it before) of a ceramic piece that is not just aesthetically pleasing, but required technical skill to make. It is a coiled and pinched object in stoneware clay that was rubbed with oxides and glazed lightly, then fired at 1280°. It was 350 mm high before firing, and everyone in the studio predicted it would crack and collapse, because the walls are only 3 mm thick, less on top where the gills are. As you may know by now, I simply adore this kind of texturing and colouring in my pieces.

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Gorgeous piece, something I would love to have.

 

[Artyczar]

I expect the criteria to be very different for abstract artists than for realists. Really, who's to judge?

Why would it be different?

 

[Hermes2020]

Thank you, Artyczar and musket. Desforges, it's a lovely compliment when you say it's something you would like to have.

 

[Dave Woody]

Wow......this thread is loaded with superb works.....

 

[musket]

Why would it be different?

When you do realism it's gotta look like something, well, real. Everything else is subordinate to that. Not necessarily hyper-real, but still realistic. That's the primary criterion. Abstracts are seldom random. Usually, rules of thumb about composition, color harmony and so on apply. But they don't have to look like anything but themselves.

 

[Dave Woody]

This, below, is my most successful moment.....
A letter from Sir Adrian Newey in reply to a picture I sent to him.
(sorry, the glass is cracked)

 

[Dave Woody]

 

[Hermes2020]

This, below, is my most successful moment.....
A letter from Sir Adrian Newey in reply to a picture I sent to him.
(sorry, the glass is cracked)

That didn't bother Duchamp!

 

[Artyczar]

When you do realism it's gotta look like something, well, real. Everything else is subordinate to that. Not necessarily hyper-real, but still realistic. That's the primary criterion. Abstracts are seldom random. Usually, rules of thumb about composition, color harmony and so on apply. But they don't have to look like anything but themselves.

I think applying realism rules to nonrepresentational works just makes art confusing. It's more than just apples and oranges. Like Science and Science Fiction. There has been Sci-Fi written based on physics that has never even existed, but the creator/author somehow made a case for these technicalities (worlds living on gasses, on spiritual plains, etc.), or whatever else. I think one can make abstract art based on the abstract and that in itself can work; abstract can be judged on a few merits that share realism: color of paint, composition...and maybe that's about it. The only thing to make a true comparison are the emotional affects these things have among viewers. But there's no subordinate since the reference for abstract is subjective and hidden. That's kinda the magic of it: making the intangible tangible.

 

[musket]

Right. They're different, and "success" must be judged by different criteria.

 

[musket]

It might be helpful to remember that just because one isn't satisfied with a piece, it doesn't necessarily follow that the piece is a failure.

 

[Dave Woody]

It might be helpful to remember that just because one isn't satisfied with a piece, it doesn't necessarily follow that the piece is a failure.

...and ... I sent artworks to these, with a letter asking them to return them to me
if they didn't like them: Carrie Symonds (UK Prime Ministers' concubine, at the time); Tate Modern;
Sotheby's; David Coulthard and most recently, Sir Lewis Hamilton.

They might have binned them, they might have kept them but they have not been sent back as of yet.

 

[Artyczar]

...and ... I sent artworks to these, with a letter asking them to return them to me
if they didn't like them: Carrie Symonds (UK Prime Ministers' concubine, at the time); Tate Modern;
Sotheby's; David Coulthard and most recently, Sir Lewis Hamilton.

They might have binned them, they might have kept them but they have not been sent back as of yet.

Did you send them any return postage, or were you just expecting them to send them back if they didn't want them? Sometimes they expect that.

 

[musket]

Probably always, not sometimes. I certainly wouldn't pay out of my pocket for return packing and postage of unsolicited artwork, if I didn't want it. Most likely what holds for me holds for others, and for institutions in particular.

 

[Dave Woody]

Hell no, I didn't encourage them to return them by including pre-paid, self addressed
Jiffy Bags. It isn't unlikely that they heard 'stick this in the loft/backroom/basement with the others'.

 

[musket]

You can't go far in the art world without an agent. Next time, forge a note from Charles Saatchi to accompany the work.

 

[Artyczar]

Yes..the key is, if you didn't want it back, then by all means, don't send return postage. If you don't care about it though, you can't assume they won't scrap it. Not that I want to be negative, but I personally wouldn't send art without knowing what they've done with it....unless I didn't care what they do with it.