Renouncing Art
Mon Aug 4, 00:35 | CreativeToday, I quit the Icelandic Festival Fine Arts Show, and will not be entering again.
This act has not been done because of the organization of the show. Rather, the organizer – Lebeau Jakobson – is an incredible woman who does an excellent job year after year.
The reasoning is because the judge, Leonard Marcoe, a University of Manitoba Fine Arts graduate and a Fine Arts lecturer, shows commendation for “creativity and innovation” to something that shows neither that came from – fancy that – a Fine Arts student. It is, pardon the crudeness, nothing more than one big circle jerk in their favour.
My objection to the Fine Arts program is something I actively promote, but this has brought it to another level entirely. The program and its respect has only lasted through sheer numbers, both monetary and population.
I am no longer to be called an artist. I am a designer. Art is design without purpose, and things without purpose have no value. Call me designer, photographer, painter, typographer, but never artist or associate me with the word, as it is a filthy word with no value.
I’m no longer interested in being an active participant or volunteer for the festival. After spending the entire holiday taking pictures for the art show, my winning entry was left completely unacknowledged in the program, and the photograph itself was cluttered with text beyond recognition. I would have thought it was oversight, were it not for the fact that the photography contest’s page seemed to need one more fish-gutter advertisement rather than commending its participants. Sandcastles gain printed praise, but people who take their work seriously gain nothing.
I really, really liked entering the art show. It was the main reason I participated in the festival at all, and was one of the few things I actively looked forward to. This is an action of objection on my part, not of bitterness. I am disappointed in the judge’s selection to the extent that I will no longer be involved.
I have no interest in being associated with something so self-serving as to avoid doing something right.