Defining Art

Aesthetics courtesy Mercedes Benz

Open Studios and Aesthetics:  

Artist versus Artisan

Have you ever gone to an art show or an open studio and been confused as to what is art and what is not, or as to who is an artist and who is merely doing craft projects?  If so, you are not alone.  While art might have been highly defined and organized at one point, it is no longer so.  Any definitions about art or as to what is art and what is not will be contradicted as quickly as they are established.

    Rather than worrying about defining art or even attempting to understand art, I find it more useful to consider developing one’s own aesthetic or appreciation of art and to then challenge oneself to find more and different types of art and artworks in which you become interested.

    For instance, I know that I really like the sculpture of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.  At first, I thought that the sculptures of Ancient Egypt were weird and silly but as I learned to appreciate the relationship between Ancient Greek art and that of Ancient Egypt, I began to fully appreciate them both.

    On one of my first trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, I was amazed at how real the faces of some of the sculptures were from India and how similar they were to Greek art.  After doing some reading, I learned that much art from Ancient Afghanistan and Pakistan was highly influenced by the Greek invasion under Alexander the Great.

    As I became more experienced, I learned to enjoy the differences as well as the similarities.  Viewing art is like any other activity – the more you do it, the better you become.  The better you become at viewing and interacting with art, the more you enjoy it.

    During this process, you will determine for yourself what is interesting and what is not.  This is your personal aesthetic.  

Shag: Press Your Luck

Shag Is Smokin’

    Tired of Antismoking laws and contemporary “lofts” that seem a b it too much like old apartments?  Perhaps you need to get Shagged.

    Shaf, aka Josh Agle, takes us back to when American was cool – way cool.  Mod was hot, monkeys were funny, and style was everything.  The world not only loved us – it wanted to be us.

    Educated in the Visual arts at Long Beach State in California, Shag combines a classical sense of space and narrative with the native humor and visual communication skills of a commercial illustrator.

    Shag (think JoSH AGle) jumped off the covers of classic jazz records and modern magazine designs – is it my imagination, or do I see a little Bing Crosby and Audry Hepburn film influence also?  -- into the postmodern world.

    A Shag differs from many contemporary retro pieces in that it is not merely a classic mod pose. 

    Rather, the images are, as Shag puts it, “set in the middle of a story or situation – characters are interacting and reacting to each other and to outside events.”

    Part of the Shag narrative depends on the strong differentiation between foreground and background, render in large spaces of flat color.  The eye skims across the background, registering the action denoted by the figure as in a carton panel.

    Shag’s classical training is readily apparent, and perhaps that’s what makes the pieces so great.  The line of each figure flows into a dialogue with another image, other lines, and pools of color.

    Even a six on the Kinsey scale will follow the legs of a Shag vixen to see where they are going.

    Shag’s other trick is the building of context. 

    Take Twelve Stations of Ptolemy.  Based on the traditional horoscope, each image contains symbols, colors, activities, and often animals, related to each sign.

    They are a smoothed-over, cooled-down, and [Pf]attened-up update of the Medieval Bestiary or Book of Days.

    The same attention to narrative symbolism imbues all Shag’s series, whether in the Genesis cycles of Before the Eviction; the more classical Heroes and Monsters, based on Greco-Roman mythology; or Holidays on Ice, straight from the Madison Avenue-Hollywood reader.

    So, put on some Esquivel; pour yourself a gin; and go ahead, light up – it’s your life, after all.

    And go Shag-a-delic with OX-OP Arts’ return to style.

Shag:  Press Your Luck

Through June 20

OX-OP Arts

1111 Washington Avenue. S.

Minneapolis, MN  55415

(612) 259-0085

 Originally appeared as "Shag is Smokin' " Lavender Magazine, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 10-23 June, 2005, p 142.