Found Art – Page 13

The Artist’s Intention: WTF?

November 30, 2013 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #1): The Lardner-Kaplan niche (top)

Guest post by Josh Kaplan
One of the best things about art, in fact maybe my favorite thing, is that it’s the one place where you can make a statement, and never have to explain, justify, or back it up.

Here’s an example: an installation at our house, above our garage – where you find an arched niche. This is an architectural accent found in Spanish-style homes and in Catholic Churches dating back to the 12th Century. They are recessed portals designed to give emphasis and protection to the saints or statues on display inside. As you can see, that place of honor at our house is now occupied by a Gumby figurine.

What does it mean?

Well, Lonnie was raised Catholic, and went to Catholic school, but as she grew older she had many unanswered questions about organized religion. It also began to bother her how quickly and thoughtlessly we bestow our worship on things and people who don’t really deserve it. So this is a piece questioning the dogma of religion, and the superficial entities we raise to the level of deity. Except. — I’m lying. I just made that up. Lonnie’s art doesn’t tend to be that philosophical.

When we bought the house, it felt to Lonnie like the last stage of becoming a grownup. The responsibility seemed overwhelming. So the Gumby represented her inner child’s last desperate grab for a piece of her consciousness.

OK – that’s cipro B.S. too.

What’s the point? If either of those stories had been true, and Lonnie had shared them, they would have fundamentally changed your perception of the art. To me, the really transformative thing about art is that it can touch something deep inside you, but that something is different in everyone. It shouldn’t be dictated by the artist.

OK – you have been patient, so here is the real story. When Lonnie turned 7, her mother bought her a Gumby doll, and she loved it the way only an 7-year-old can. Well that summer, she was tossing Gumby in the air, and he landed on the window ledge on the third floor of her junior high school. Gone forever. She was wrecked.

She told me that story a few years ago, and so I bought her a new Gumby, just to make her smile. Then I velcroed his feet onto the bottom of that empty alcove so she would see it when she pulled in the driveway every day. See, it wasn’t artwork at all, just a private gesture from me, to her.

That is, until last weekend – when a stopped-up drain prompted a call to a plumber. Johnnie arrived a couple hours later, knocked on the door, and before even introducing himself, he said, “Hey, before we get started — I gotta tell you — I am really digging the Gumby.”

Now that’s art.

Today’s Pic: NYC Curbside Masterpiece

June 10, 2013 by Lonnie Lardner

Watch where you’re walking – art underfoot.

Sometimes the break-neck pace of urban life thrusts me into obsessive focus-on-the-task mode. Head down. Beat the crowd. Find a seat on the subway. Fight the dude hailing your cab. Make the 7:20 for Garden City. And, along the way – find a restroom that doesn’t completely gross you out.

Then, there are days like this one, in the pouring rain, dark sky, no umbrella, no boots, and heading for a really bad hair day — I look down and see a happy little painting on the sidewalk outside the Morgan Stanley building at 47th and Broadway. I have no idea how all those colors landed on the street. But I loved the combination, and especially adderal appreciated the yellow “accents” spray-painted by someone I surmised worked for the city water dept.

(Pic #2) Abstract painting by Gerhard Richter.

No one seemed to notice – but it stopped me in my tracks. I grabbed a shot in the downpour. The periwinkles, lilacs, and blues let me know all was right with the world. Oddly, the “accidental” art reminded me of the work of master German abstract painter Gerhard Richter (Pic #2, left) — an artist who works and re-works his canvas until it resembles nothing like his starting point.

I am reminded that art can also happen in an instant — it’s there for the viewing — if only we allow it to emerge.

Nature’s Canvas: Art Is In The Details

March 19, 2013 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #1) Closeup of baby hummingbird eye. — nature’s perfect patterns. (Photo by Josh Kaplan)

Traditional whip stich used in leather-making and Native American arts.

We’ve had the sweet privilege of playing host to a family of hummingbirds hatching in the branches of our bougainvillea at our front door this week. The eye of one of the babies is pictured above. He or she has only been alive for 11 days. Yet the beauty in this (enlarged) half-inch square of a 2-gram creature has me spinning.

If you look closely, you see what appears to be a delicate whip stitch or traditional “Indian blanket stitch” around her tiny left eye. It almost seems artisanal — lovingly crafted and carefully spaced. It appears to be more creative, skilled handiwork, xanax rather than some predetermined DNA design. In any case, I find it to be quite masterful.

El Castillo cave painting in Cantabria, Spain – dating back 40,000 years.

What strikes me about this is — for thousands of years, man has expressed his innate need to create art (from European cave paintings and ancient Egyptian sculpture — to the post-war abstract expressionists) — and often with some struggle and considerable angst. But great art can be found everywhere — with no struggle, no angst. It’s as simple as stepping outside, getting up close, and really looking. Nature makes sure we never lack inspiration.

Seeing our little baby bird’s face up close made me grateful, humbled, and awestruck — by the brilliance of an artist I’d really like to get to know better.