My qualifications for critiquing art are as follows:
I contributed to 5% of my elementary school’s 2013-2014 yearbook cover
I had art as my fine arts elective in middle school (for a week)
I can sketch a really good shaded sphere
I have eyes that can comprehend art and a mouth that can critique it
That last qualification may have been blunt, but it’s true. Art is meant to be talked about. Otherwise, it’s just some scribbles on a wall. So, let’s talk about it! Starting with my own!
No White Spaces (Grace Zhou, 2023)
I don’t have a reason for making these. I’m not an artist, but I wanted to try art, so I did.
I had a difficult time trying to accept my own maximalist products because they say “less is more”. To be honest, I’ve never liked listening to people.
“I don’t want to hear your opinions of me! But what do you think?”
I frequently complain to my friends that “I don’t want to be perceived”. It’s odd because you would think the opposite, especially since I willingly post personal photos and writing for the very purpose of being perceived. If I had to change it up, I might say, “I don’t want to be perceived negatively”. But then again, who does? Even more truthful, who isn’t?
“Who will create the visions in my head if not me!”
Self-explanatory. Except sometimes the ideas in my head don’t match what comes out. Skill issue.
“I have all these cool ideas and I don’t know how to start so I just do nothing”
Decision paralysis is real.
“I want my ideas to go further than my notes app”
Here’s the life cycle of one of my ideas:
Conception: an idea grows in my mind
Incubation: said idea sits in my notes app for anywhere from 2 days to 2 years
Formulation: the lucky idea gets to move from the notes app to Google Docs
Transition: the incredibly lucky idea gets to move from Google Docs to being published on my website!
Unfortunately it ends at stage 4. Next piece: “I want my ideas to go farther than my website with 100 views”.
“Of all the places I could be, I just want to be here with you”
This is inspired by someone I saw on TikTok (I never claimed to be original). It’s a reference to the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once. You should watch it if you haven’t.
Closing remarks
I’m still trying to decide whether I like what I made or not, but regardless of that uncertainty, what I know for certain is that I had fun making it. I think that’s enough of a success.
Now that I’ve properly humbled myself, let me tell you the lore of some pieces of art that my camera roll has collected recently.
Camera Roll Collections (2023)
Louis Comfort Tiffany - A Wooded Landscape in Three Panels (1905)
I saw this piece of stained glass art at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts this summer. I’m not going to talk about the art piece, but rather, a story surrounding it.
Around this area, there were a couple of girls dressed up. They had their makeup done, wore four inch heels, and had seemed to be overdressed for the museum. The person I was with immediately pointed them out.
“I hate when people come to the museum just to take pictures of themselves”, they said. In response, I said, “We don’t know anything about them; let’s just let them live.”
Later, I saw that they were, indeed, taking pictures of themselves the whole time.
I’m not sharing the conversation to paint myself as an empathetic, upstanding citizen for giving them the benefit of the doubt. Truthfully, on another day when I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, I may have even agreed and criticized them further.
I’m sharing this because the interaction made me wonder:
Is there a right way to visit an art museum?
Does it matter if one visits a museum just to take pictures of themselves?
The answer to both of those questions could very well be yes, but it’s still something I’m investigating for myself.
Moreover, how would the artists feel if they knew 300 years later teenagers would be posing in front of their artwork? I think they would just be grateful that their work is aesthetic enough to be in the back of an Instagram post.
Unknown Artist - UT Speedway (2023)
Here’s a unique piece! I was walking on speedway one fateful day last spring semester, and I saw a guy with a sign that said: “Free 1 Minute Portraits”. Naturally, I hopped in line.
My conversation with the artist was brief, a minute to be exact, and he shared that he was graduating in a few weeks with a CS degree. He wasn’t an art major, he didn’t do art on the side, he just simply had a desire to do this, so he did. Yeah! That’s cool!
What’s not cool, however, is the portrait he handed back to me. If this is actually how I’m perceived, I’m going to cry. I swear I was smiling the entire time too.
Unknown Collection of Artists - NYOS Elementary Wall (2023)
While visiting a local Austin elementary school, these fun art class products caught my eye.
Little kids made this
I wish I was them
I don’t care what anybody says
This is cool
I love art
Björn Carnemalm - “The world from Värnhem through Henrik Bromander” (Located at the intersection of Friisgatan/Skolgatan in Malmö, Sweden)
Here are the words translated to English:
There is a strange loud sound of war, of great pain here, in the middle of my beloved orphanage
Upon reading more about the artist, I found that he firmly believes two things:
Art should be public
Art should be seen by children
I’m going to be honest, I have no idea what the context of the mosaic phrase means, even when translated, because I don’t know how to properly search for its meaning in English and navigate through Swedish websites. I can only assume that because it’s located in Malmö, it has something to do with the frequent historical conflicts between the Swedes and the Danes with Malmö being a neighboring city to Copenhagen.
Yeah, I’m going to go with that. This isn’t an educational blog.
I hope this post was a nice break from having to read chunks and chunks of text. Even more, I hope this encouraged you to go do some art! Why not?
as a qualified art critic (aka survivor of the ap art program) i think that criticism of those girls and letting them live can coexist. Like im happy museums are being visited but reducing the pieces to their aesthetic appeal leads to the absolute abomination of the “van gogh immersive experience”
art was amazing 10/10