This image shows my first test hanging of this Chopin project on a canvas that comes up short. I knew I would need eight feet of artwork to accommodate my already truncated version of this music. The canvas length is only six feet. I picked that size canvas because that is the maximum length, along with a width of twenty-four inches, that I can comfortably load in our 2014 RAV 4. If you look behind my 1974 self-portrait in the next image, you will see part of the artwork titled Schindler’s List. I cannot fit this work in the car, therefore I cannot show it. To make this capable of travel, the plan is to break this half of the artwork into two smaller pieces. That will not be easy, and that is why this Chopin project will be made to fit. I want to exhibit it. Also, the image below of the layout of the music on front tables shows my later plan to accommodate an eight-foot artwork on a six-foot canvas.

This outstanding ArtinMusic video shows my first test to confirm that I have solved the problem of an eight-foot artwork work on a six-foot canvas. It includes a minor mishap that confirms the toughness of this construction, which just may add to the definition of what is art.

I would like to make a brief comment about today’s elevation of high craft as art, which blurs the separation of what is Art and what is a craft. Let me add to the confusion with the idea that all art is craft, but not all craft is art. Much of today’s art is craft disguised as art. That is because craft sells. The public does not want to spend their monies on an object that has no physical value unless it is finely crafted. That means the artist must have put in a lot of effort into it, which then justifies the buyer paying an excessive amount of money for an object that has little physical value or use. Art Galleries and Art Exhibitions see that also and that is why everything out there that sells today is short on being Art and high on craft. Of course I said that all art is craft, but not all craft is art. That points directly at the problem of defining Art which is a lot easier to grip if an object has a quality finished high craft look therefore it must be art. The Art Galleries and the Art Exhibitions see that and run with it for their own survival. The Art market is all in on maintaining the flow of money. Calling something that is actually nothing, Art makes it easier to sell. Especially if it’s pretty.

The obvious answer is Art, because of the monies. Or is the answer craft because neither the balloon rabbit nor the urinal present anything original. Or is there something else to consider?

Scott Von Holzen