Tag: ART

S_V_H Closer image 2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
Artwork on the studio floor.

The gallery images above result from my wanting to do something different with the two ten-inch end canvases. In the above image of the artwork, the two end canvases I can easily butt them up against their adjacent canvases. Not only boring having all the canvases in a line adds no depth to the artwork. To develop this artwork I first look at the idea to mount those little end canvases either under or on top of their adjacent canvases. Because of the wording written on the main canvases, and the farming of the speakers’ boxes on the backside, I decided against that idea. The solution was to mount the end canvases high enough above the base canvases to allow the words to be seen. The height needed between the canvases then led to a simple design of swiveling the end canvases shown in the images above.

Finally, the idea of swiveling canvases seems interesting. The concern I see is the difficulty in swiveling multiple canvases, while also maintaining structure stability when hung. This music box I see as a good start and a template to expand the technique of swiveling canvases in future projects. Whether this is another door open or another path found, this project continues the line of incremental innovations in the evolution of this art.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Closer image 1 update

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
This is what I now believe is the final look of the artwork layout with a disheveled Metaphorphsis2 in the background.

I posted what I thought was the final layout for this artwork in the previous blog entry. After returning to this layout a few days later, I did not like what I saw. It reminded me too much of the 2022 artwork, Metamorphsis2. The similarity concerned me. I wanted an updated look. I believe this current is a move in the right direction. It opens up the work but still leaves enough canvas to fill with the words “We ain’t never getting older.”

This is a late draft of the cover music for Closer.

This art is not about prettiness or technical excellence. It is about presenting a professional image both visually and in its performance that grades a very good (looks near mint until looking closer). That is the sweet spot for me. I put in my time, detail, and design in each artwork. Being concerned with aesthetic beauty, or the spectacular finish of near-mint fine-art craft would put me over the top. Anyway, a high-quality finish plagues much of today’s so-called art. I don’t underestimate the beauty, skill, and effort required to create a finely tuned and executed craft. Such art certainly has value and a big edge in today’s exhibition jurors. That may be why so much of today’s art I see as kitsch with a token hook to stand out from the crowd, or simply a piece of craft created by an artisan. See, this Washington Post article confirms some of my thinking about craft art. I am concerned with this art is will it fit in the car and will it store? Finally, does it reflect the person I see in the mirror? In the mirror, I see a face of a person who is all about what is art. When I look at my music boxes, I want to see that reflection in the workmanship and the music.

The image of Malevich’s Black painting seen below in the upper corner certainly is art, but not finely crafted. Below is a work by Jeff Koons that is also considered art. But is it art or just an expensive craft? One version sold for over five million dollars.

“It just seems to me seems to me, that only a really low IQ population could have taken this beautiful” form of expression that is art, ” It looked pretty good. It was pristine. Paradise. Have you seen it lately? Have you inspected it lately? It’s…… embarrassing”. It is all high craft and without curiosity, without imagination. Art with no purpose other than to look perfect on a stranger’s wall, or a vaulted investment. It just seems to me, in today’s contemporary art, the drive is not to create something original but to use a “hook,” that becomes a highly crafted ordinary.

MA section of Suprematist works by Malevich exhibited at the 0,10 Exhibition, Petrograd, 1915
Kazimir Malevich, 1915, Black Suprematic Square
Jeff Koons artist’s proof, on display at The Broad

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H The music box Closer image 1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen
The first layout plan at ten feet works with the 3.5-inch notes I cut out for this project. Then I decided I wanted to include the incidentals.
The second plan increases the length of the artwork to 11 feet using the 3.5-inch notes and adding in those incidentals.
This third design returns the artwork back to a final length of less than 10 feet. I removed two 12 x 24-inch canvases. See the second image. I then returned to my very first image plan using 10 x 20-inch canvases as their replacement. My size constraints required that I cut out all new notes, reducing their size to 3 inches in diameter. A later decision was to replace each of the two smaller end canvases with rectangular pieces of metal.

One design factor for this new work was that its length of 10 feet did not include the speaker boxes. Usually, the added speakers mount onto the ends of the artwork. I cannot do that here because of the requirements of fitting all the music on the canvases and still keeping the 10 feet length. The solution for the speaker boxes was to use the two 16×20 end canvases for the speaker boxes. The musical notes on those canvases I will then place on a curved metal sheet. I showed an example below from Metamorphosis 2. This keeps the overall length as is, while the curved metal sheet also adds depth to the artwork. After taking a longer look at the purpose artwork, I decided I needed to reduce its length, but still retain all the incidentals. I did this by reducing the size of my notes from 3.5 inches to 3 inches.

Example from Metamosphsis2 using curved steel plates.

This is an updated draft of the cover music for the music box Closer. The music has more punch and a better up-and-down flow to the music.

The final artwork will display the three last lines from the cover music. Those lyrical lines are “We are never getting older, We are never getting older, and No, we are never getting older.” I am repeating the repeating idea that I used in the previous project: Don’t Give up. In that work, I wrote those three words probably a couple of hundred times. That many repeats won’t happen here because of the length of the lines.

Include in this art’s documentation, I will attend a reception at The Art Garage in Green Bay, Wisconsin on Friday, the 11th from 5pm until whenever I become bored. Pictures to follow. Of the seven members of EmptyWallsArt, only two Don and I will be there. All the others are attending to “family matters and shabby excuses.”

Scott Von Holzen