Thursday 23 November 2017

"Anything can be art, but there is very little good art.”

I love the work of Grayson Perry and mostly I agree with what he says on many subjects. I particularly like his analysis and observations on manhood. But I do have to disagree with him on the quote above. A quote attributed to him in this Guardian article. Well actually I only disagree with half of it; the other half is okay in my humble opinion.

It's the second half of the sentence that I can in no way agree with. You can't benchmark art. Art is purely subjective. Using good or bad is just a pointless exercise. When the art elite talk about good or bad they are not talking about weights and measures what they are really talking about is fashion. Fashion amongst the bourgeois art clique. It's all bollocks. For the umpteenth time you can't grade or measure art!





Sunday 19 November 2017

"A grand old painter died today"

Almost eight years before I was born and on this day in 1947 George Thomson passed away. In the 1911 census he was registered as being a painter and decorator but according to my mother he painted murals on the walls of theatres and cinemas in and around Dundee. I have no way of knowing whether or not he actually did paint murals but I like to think he did. I also like to think that's where  my artistic desire to create comes from.

George is buried, in view of the Tay, in the churchyard at Longforgan, Perth and Kinross, Scotland; 5 miles west of Dundee. George was my great-grandfather.