On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 3:47 AM, William Conger <[email protected]>wrote:
> We live in an era of extremes. Maybe it was always the case, at least in > Western Culture. Whatever the idea or practice, the tendency was and is > to take > it to the most extreme level of realization. Then the idea or practice > collapses and something new is begun. The way to be an artist today is > clearly > to do whatever you do to the most extreme. If you use paint then either > go for > the most lavish, extravagant use of it or to the opposite extreme , the > most > wispy, delicate, slight. It's gotta always be 'over the top'. Smart > artists > know they can't 'begin' anything because beginnings of a new cultural > shift are > pan-cultural events. They happen insidiously and seemingly everywhere as > anyone > who has studied the origins of new ideas quickly learns. But artists, > alone and > by sheer will and genius can and do finish cultural eras. They are the > great > ones we all admire. Cezanne didn't invent cubism. He finished the > Renaissance > perspectival and narrative tradition. Cubism was invented by scholars > looking > back at a wide array of tentative changes. So it is with any idea. What > could > be more vivid in that respect than the so-called arms race. To invent the > most > extreme weapons is the name of the game; to build the most extreme > (highest) > building, or the fastest plane, to perform the most difficult feat in > athletics, > etc. The list is long. The closer a cultural era is to the most extreme, > the > closer it is to radical change. The whole Western World is now in a > Baroque > phase. We're at the extreme of what our culture is. > > Go for the extreme of your idea! Take it to the breaking point! Better > to be > on the wave than under it. > wc > > Whenever I watch tv programs which feature brides shopping for their wedding gowns, it surprises me that almost none of the brides say: - I am having a traditional wedding so I want a classic gown. Almost all of them say something like: - I really don't know exactly what I want, but I know I want something..............................DIFFERENT.......................Definitely over the top.........................Lots of WOW factor.................and by the way, not too POOFY. Seems like the notion of 'fitting in' has become just soooooooooooooooooooo 20th-c.
