Courier

I was very disappointed with the "Courier" exhibit at UAlbany. Although I can appreciate art created by typed words, it seemed to me that the work was rather elementary for an exhibit that garnered so much attention. First of all, the entire exhibit as a whole was very visually unappealing. For me, color is what draws me into a piece. Black typed words on a white background is not only boring in content, but there is nothing to draw in the audience. The only part of the exhibit that I found appealing was the video of Michael Winslow making the typewriter noises with his mouth.

Economics and Art

Money is a key aspect of most peoples lives. It is the one element that drives most individuals in the work place. This is important with artists too who survive on their very work they hope to sell. Which has been hard to do in the last two years with our country's economic issues, but art’s value is its capacity to direct our attention to a particular object, image, sound, environment, or situation.

De La Vega

An artist who is very similar to Banksy is James De la Vega who primarily does sidewalk art with chalk. De La Vega resides in Soho and most of his work appears in Spanish Harlem. He usually accompanies his drawings with aphoristic messages such as "Become Your Dream," which has become perhaps his most popular slogan. He has been doing this work since the early 1990's. In addition to his sidewalk art, he does street murals, paintings, and has even developed his own line of clothing. He has an East Village gallery in Lower Manhattan called Galeria De La Vega displaying his work.

Public Art at Imperial Beach

My Uncle, Malcolm Jones, is an artist based in La Jolla, California. He does a great deal of sculpting and works with acrylic. He graduated from Harvard University and is 1 of only about 50 artists in the world who do this type of work specifically. This is his contribution to public art. It's called "Surfhenge" and is located at Imperial Beach near San Diego. It is a very well known piece of public art and took him over a year to complete. “Surfhenge” consists of four 16-20 foot high surfboard shaped arches, weighing up to three-quarters of a ton each, and are believed to be the largestcolored acrylic moldings ever cast. Alluding to giant surfboards stuck in the sand, the huge colored shapes of Surfhenge pay homage to the proud surfing heritage of Imperial Beach.

Surfhenge, along with I.B. Pier Plaza, was dedicated in July 18, 1999, as the newest signature landmark on Port of San Diego tidelands.

He also did 10 "surfboard" benches that are scattered among the pier

The Mona Lisa Curse

Robert Hughes's documentary provided a very insightful view into the world of art that many people are not aware of. Personally, I was very surprised at the amount of money that exchanges hands in these art auctions. For example, I had heard of Andy Warhol, but I had no idea his paintings and photographs sold for so much money. I thought Hughes argued his case well about astronomical prices ruining the "true purpose of art." He interviewed many who agreed with him and he also interviewed collectors who are selling and buying these pieces of art and directly contributing to their Titanic-sized price tags. We were able to see both sides of the story. The only thing that I didn't like about Hughes was that he personally attacked certain individuals, like Andy Warhol whom he called stupid and boring.

How Expensive is Too Expensive?

With paintings and sculptures being purchased for astronomical prices these days, one has to ask the question: how much is too much? More importantly, have we already surpassed this? The answer, in my opinion, is probably. $135 million for a painting is an astronomical price for something that is simply hanging on your wall, making only an aesthetic contribution. In comparison, the most expensive car ever purchased at auction was a 1965 Shelby Cobra Coupe for $7.5 million. A hefty price, yes, but not even in the ballpark of $135 million. A car, it can be argued, is functional art and can be driven to work, raced, or sit as a showpiece. As an economics major, it is amazing to me that the market for art has created such prices for its most distinguished pieces.