AI ART?

I always think that the idea that art is somehow precious is quite laughable. People treat art with far too much reverence. It's basically what has turned art into a commodity. Creating fictitious standards, competition in the art world and notions of good and bad art has played right into the hands of the money men. It's only art for goodness sake!

Everyone is an artist. You don't need a piece of paper to tell you that you are an artist. You don't need anyone's permission to be an artist. You just need to do it. The only values that art really have are the ones that the artist has in the joy of creating and to those that consider something to be art are the joy of viewing/experiencing a piece. These are the reasons why I hate the concept of NFTs and embrace AI picture generation. Art is in the eye of the beholder as Duchamp illustrated. Art is what you want it to be. All art is collage in one form or another. AI is just an automated way of creating collage. It's here to stay. I suggest you get over it and embrace it. Nobody will die from it. Lighten up folks.

Generated by Dall·E using: Is AI art and what really is art?

Going underground

 What is art?

It always amuses me when people are exercised by a work of art. I suppose art should challenge and be challenged, so from that point of view it’s good that they are. People are funny when they are affronted by something they basically can’t comprehend. Unable to shed their blinkers. And so it would seem that an ad that David Hockney has designed is causing people to become agitated because it disturbs their narrow idea of what art should be. 

‘Brilliant’ or Totally Phoned In? is the headline on Artnet News. People seem afraid of it because they don’t know which way to swing, and so they go with a gut reaction. Do you know what? I DON’T FUCKING CARE! 

Art is art. There are no rules. Stop trying to be fashionable. Relax. If you like it you like it. If you don’t, you don’t. Stop trying to pre-judge the pretentious zeitgeist. Stop trying to understand art. Wake up and get over yourself. 

Art is not something that trend setters/influencers prescribe. Art is what you want it to be. 

What is art?

If you don't know the answer, this pdf pamphlet might be able to help you. If you think you know the answer, think again. 

Doing art

I was asked recently about what I was thinking when I created my art? I found that an almost impossible question to answer. 

I guess the easy answer would be everything and nothing but that would be a bit glib. Mostly when I’m making art I’m in a little world of my own so I’m probably not thinking at all in the accepted sense. Actually creating is often just so therapeutic that I’m often lost in a near meditative state. And then sometimes when things just aren’t going how I hoped they would be going I get a bit grumpy. Then is usually the time to get up and walk away and do something else. 

When I go and gawp at other peoples’ art I’m never bothered about what the artist was thinking or what the artist is trying to convey. So many people seem to have a need to understand art and I really don’t understand why. You can’t possibly feel what the artist was feeling so why bother worrying about it? 

People who wear the badge of Art Expert, Art Historian or Art Critic know no more than you about a piece of art. It’s all made up. All you need to know is that there is a piece of art which you either like or you don’t and that you take from it what you want to take from it. You can’t know the mind of the artist. 

With my art sometimes the title comes first and the piece springs from that. Other times the picture tells me what the title is. Then as often is the case I have a picture, I have a title, neither necessarily connected so I just put them together because it amuses me.I rarely explain my pictures because, well why should I? And anyhow, how are people going to exercise their minds if I give them the answers?

When presented with a piece of art before you, firstly, don’t panic! Then just take from it what you want and try not to read it like some cypher. Just take it for what it is and what it does for you. 

Art is easy. Stop taking it so seriously.

The art market “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”

There’s been a fair bit of coverage recently in the press about digital art and non-fungible tokens. With NFTs digital alchemists have reinvented the south sea bubble. It truly is all artifice. 

The problem here is how artists see the 'art market' in general terms. The 'art market' and the whole cryptoart thing are no different to the Emperor's New Clothes. It's all made up bollocks that has nothing to do with art whatsoever. People need to understand that. 

For as long as I can remember I’ve despised the art market. I decided early on, when I first started to take my art seriously, that I didn’t want to make my living as an artist and that I didn’t want to get on to the treadmill that is the art market. 

As I’ve never sought to make a living from my art that puts me in a privileged position. One of being able to treat the art market with the disdain it deserves. I feel for those poor souls who struggle to make a living from their art. They often become slaves to an uncaring system. a system that sees money making and competition as virtues. I decided never to sell my soul to the devil. 

The value of art cannot be measured in monetary terms. The only values that art has is in the feelings that reside with the artist and the feelings of any beholder/s. No ‘expert’ can value art. There are no experts; art experts are charlatans. Art investors don’t give a shit about art. Their only interest is in making money. They worship a fool’s gold. The artwork is incidental. 

I’ve never wanted to sell my original works of art. In my earlier days I experimented with producing simple black and white pictures so that they could be photocopied. I’ve always liked the idea as art being ephemeral. Then when digital art came along I realised that it was what I had been waiting for all my life. I could create art without actually producing an original. The great thing about a digital file is that it can be copied over and over and each file is exactly the same. This really upsets the art market. They can’t cope with an art that they can’t exploit. Enter blockchain technology; it creates a unique non-copyable ‘thing’. That ‘thing’ is then sold as a provenance with a piece of digital art supposedly making the artwork ‘original’. Of course it’s not, as you can still create identical copies of the actual artwork, so it is very much a shame. But, hey ho, I’m not going to be able to stop it. So why does it bother me? 

What does it bother me?

Well it bothers me because it gives people a false impression about what art is. They think art is something elite, something they could never understand and so they never go there. They never explore. They never get to dip their toe in the rich, warm, stimulatingly efficacious waters of the arts. And that’s sad. That’s why!

"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!

Elitist art fuckery

As an artist I find the approach to art by society's self-styled elite very frustrating. There's a lot of pretentious bollocks talked about art and I refuse to take any part in the charade. Art is just art. Everyone can be an artist. It doesn't require mystical powers. It doesn't require a degree. So please can we cut this utter nonsense out?

Art is only ever in the eye of the beholder. There's no Beaufort or Mohs scale for measuring art. Art is subjective. You can't pitch one work of art against another. Art competitions and art prizes are meaningless. You either like a piece of art or you don't. You don't even need to know what a work of art is about. If you get something from a piece of art then all well and good. If you don't then move on to some different art. You don't need some pretentious art critic or art historian telling you what to think.

I suppose I'm in the fortunate position that I have never sold my soul to the money god. I've never put myself in a position where I needed to earn a living from my art. I produce my art for the sheer love of it, for wanting to create, for wanting to express myself. When it comes to the art I produce I rarely compromise. Artists need to stop pandering to the whims and fancies of the rich who treat it as just another investment, just another collectable. Stop this elitist art fuckery!

We are artists you and I

Art is not exclusively a rich man's sport. I realise that it might be perceived as such, particularly in the media, but it is not so. The British Critical Establishment try to tell us what is and isn't art, but in no way do we have to accept that. Based on the narrow-minded opinions of the critical elite, the education system churns out clones of what are defined as talented artists; giving them a certificate to back this up. You can legitimately teach craft, but in no way can you teach anyone to be an artist. Art is subjective; it is in the eye of the beholder, there are no rules defining what art should or should not be. There is no good art and there is no bad art, just art.

High prices at art auctions reinforce the myth that artists are good or bad, winners or losers. The elite use the language of competition and false quality standards to bolster the artistic myths. There is no competition in art. Art is beyond competition. In the South Sea bubble of the elitist art world a value system is applied that is meaningless in the extreme. Art critics give the thumbs up to what they see as good art based on their fictitious criteria. These art critics, these self-styled experts on art are charlatans. Unfortunately as with the Emperor's new clothes most believe what the charlatans say. The fashionistas dictate what's in and what's not and so that gallery content and major exhibitions are influenced by just a few. And thus a commodity is born.

What is art anyway?

Art is whatever you want it to be.

There is one artist above all others who has been so influential in the way that I look at art and in particular how I creatively operate. His name was Ken Sprague. I first became aware of him in the 1970s through his posters and flyers for a number of left wing political campaigns. I liked his bold, sometimes neo-brutalist, lino prints. It was a style that got the message across. Ken was direct in his message. Then in the 1980s he presented a television series called 'Everyone a Special Kind of Artist' where he highlighted 'ordinary' folk who practised their art for the pure love, enjoyment and fulfilment it brought them. Since then 'Everyone a Special Kind of Artist' has been my mantra.

'Everyone a Special Kind of Artist' is derived from a quote often used by Eric Gill, an artist and designer of some rather pleasing typefaces, and unfortunately a practitioner, allegedly, of some rather dubious moral behaviour. That quote is 'An artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of artist' and as I understand it originally comes from the philosopher Ananda Coomaraswamy.

The idea that only a chosen few can be artists is yet another piece of pernicious propaganda perpetrated by the elite who continue to oppress us. The elitist concept of art is a downright lie. If you want to be an artist then you can be.

We need to liberate art. We need a mass movement of art participants. Anyone can be an artist if they want to be. Seize that notion and own it. Go forth and create.

P-put it to the test-o

He said 'What do you think about my manifesto?'
'I like a manifesto, put it to the test-o.'

Sultans Of Ping F.C.:Where's Me Jumper?

I wrote this manifesto (below) in 1982 and it still pretty much sums up how I feel about art and my art in particular. Everybody can be an artist. Nobody can tell you what is and isn't art and what you should like. Nobody can tell you how to enjoy art. Art is not exclusively for the elite. Art really needs to be democratised.

Free ‘Money’ - Millions!

Would you like a free wad?

What must it be like to give away millions?*

What is money, anyway?

Money is artifice; a promise of a perceived value; an abstract concept. Its practical value can oscillate wildly, particularly in uncertain times.

What is art?

Art is in the eye of the beholder.

Is art currency?

Only if you want it to be. Like money art has value if you believe it has value. The minute you stop believing it’s all worthless. But of course art can have value way beyond any recognised monetary worth; an aesthetic, cerebral or decorative value. Think about it!

The great currency give away

I’ve designed my own artistic currency. There is no promise of any monetary value but if you like my art you may feel that it has a certain intrinsic value.

Each one of these folding sheets of paper ‘money’ is worth a million notes*. Up until now I’ve been printing out a few at a time and leaving them in strategic places as an experiment in found art. I leave them on trains and buses, in racks of leaflets, as extra tips in restaurants and extra donations in collection boxes, in library books, in pubs partially tucked under a beer mat and in other public places where they might be observed by the curious.

Would you like a free wad of this ‘cash’?

I’ve had several thousand printed so if you would like a wad at absolutely no charge to yourself then please contact me and I’ll send you a goodly supply of notes. Help spread the joy. Distribute them as freely as you wish. Feel like you are an eccentric millionaire. Guaranteed to break the ice at parties! Contact me and the ‘cash’ is yours. Be part of my art experiment.

*please note that this ‘currency’ has absolutely no guaranteed monetary value. The notes are purely works of art.

If you would like a free wad of artist cash, yes at absolutely no charge to yourself, then please fill in your name and address below and I’ll send you a goodly supply of notes. Help spread the joy. Distribute them as freely as you wish. Feel like you are an eccentric millionaire. Guaranteed to break the ice at parties! Apply now and the ‘cash’ is yours.

Fill out my online form.

Use Wufoo integrations and get your data to your favorite apps.

Is art important to life?

I happen to think that it is. A society that does not value art is baseless, crass, and vacuous. Even the cave dwellers of early human kind knew the importance of art; to be is to create and to create is to be.

Now when I talk of society valuing art I don’t mean putting a high monetary price tag on it. The value should be about enriching life in a cerebral way. Art is about enjoyment, being challenged and inspiring thought. Looking at art as some kind of investment commodity is the mindset of the fool. Art should be for all to enjoy and not just the filthy rich.

Go out there and embrace the creative now!

Art is not a skill it’s a state of mind

Art can only ever be in the eye of the beholder. Art cannot be prescribed or quantified. Art is beyond criticism. The art critic is but a fool. And anyone following the utterances of the art critic is an even bigger fool!

An artist, cartoonist and printmaker that I found interesting and whose work I have enjoyed was Ken Sprague (1927–2004). He once said “everyone a special kind of artist”(which was also the title of a TV series he was in for Channel 4 in the eighties). Now from this I understood him to mean that anyone and everyone is capable of being an artist. I firmly believe this to be true. Everybody can be and is an artist. You create something that you believe to be a work of art then it is art. It doesn’t mean that anyone else has to recognise it as such. But equally they can’t state that it isn’t art or claim it to be poor or worthless art. You may think that this is an opinion of convenience; a metaphorical foil to parry and riposte the judgement of others, and perhaps you are right, as you are entitled to your opinion as much as I am entitled to mine. I remain firmly of the view that art, all art, is down to personal choice and personal choice alone.

Art appreciation can only ever be subjective. This is why I maintain that you cannot criticise art. You can say that you don’t like a work of art but it cannot be judged. There are no measurements of artistic merit. You either like something or you don’t. This is why Art competitions are a nonsense; the instrument of the pretentious. 

Art means nothing, yet it means everything. Does it really matter what the artist was thinking when she or he created their work? Not in the slightest. The beholder should take what they want from a work of art, and they should never take what they are told to take. Art critics, those pompous, pumped up, self-obsessed experts of absolutely nothing know no more or no less than you or I do about a work of art. Believe nothing they tell you.

Art is yours for the liking, if you so wish. No one can tell you what to like. You decide!