not quite art

The art show that believes there is life outside the galleries.



Marcus Westbury, creator and host of the utterly fantastic ABC series Not Quite Art is working on season 2, and he wants your ideas.

From the Facebook group Friends of Marcus' Not Quite Art TV Show:

Dear friends of the show,

Sorry for the spam but at least i am trying to consolidate these things now.

1. If you loved Not Quite Art (or hated it and just want a decent quality copy to complain) then you can now buy DVDs of the first series. A bargain at $34.95! I'd sign them for you but i'm not physically near the big room with all the DVDs in it. However i do promise to buy you a beer if you see me around and you have some verifiable proof that you bought a copy!

Buy them from here (or make someone else buy them from here):

http://www.barefoot.net.au/films/not-quite-art.aspx

Buy one, i'm poor!

2. I've written a big essay for a fancy literature journal. It's called Fluid Cities Create and it is in the current edition of Griffith REVIEW. If you watched and liked NQA you will probably recognise a lot of the themes that i've explored in the essay.

To read all about it and download a PDF for FREE, go to my web site:

http://www.marcuswestbury.net/2008/05/10/griffith-review-essay-fluid-cities-create/

3. Last, but not least, I am still on the lookout for interesting people, artists and ideas to appear in the next series (which was going to be called Culture Shock and is now probably going to be called Not Quite Art again). To find out more about what the series is about visit this page:

http://www.marcuswestbury.net/2008/03/25/culture-shock/

Oh, and if you're bored and trying to kill some time you can also read about my hilarious shenanigans at the TV Week (tm) Logie (tm) awards (tm). Strangest. Night. Ever:

http://www.marcuswestbury.net/2008/05/05/a-night-at-the-logies/

thanks,

marcus.

what makes fine art so fine?

I've always struggled with the differences between fine-art, and pop-art (not in the Warhol sense).

I should have called this blog "the embarrassingly obvious epiphanies of jean". Or perhaps Künstlerroman. It seems ridiculous to admit it here, especially because I had this same epiphany years ago with cinema. What separates the Lynch's from the Speilberg's.

It's quite simple really. It's the level of skill. You can't effectively subvert genres until you really understand them. The extra something that makes a work of art magic. is actually a subtle execution of successfully combining enormous reserves of knowledge, thought, effort, skill and time. It is why we say we appreciate art.

intro: the documentation and voice of chaos

I'm always so overwhelmed by the prospect of creating art. Why should I? Who do I think I am? I don't even know what I want to communicate! I don't have anything new or original to say! And what the hell is art anyway?!!! Am I doing this to punish myself? I'm not even starting on the actual theoretics behind it all. It all makes me crazy... but here I am.

Working it all out is so chaotic, it raises questions, too many for one girl and one lifetime. Who are we? Why do we exist, why are we so dependent on each other, why do we like, or need art? Why do we need to communicate?! What's my role in all of this? Why can't someone just tell me! Sigh.

Because I like finding answers? Maybe I like finding questions. Perhaps that's why I always feel so overwhelmed and under-informed. I produce questions more rapidly and randomly than I find the answers (if they even exist). But it's not always about questions. It's bigger than that. It's about truth; identifying it, connecting with it, enjoying it.

Thus, my documentation of it. What better platform to document my search than a blog? It's more reliable than my memory. I'm more likely to think more about what I've just seen before closing that tab, if I think it's worthy of posting here. And its perfect for my never-ending desire to justify my thoughts and actions. And ideally, this will all lead to my making sense of it all.

So, essentially, the following are my thoughts & findings, which I will analyse the fuck out of, with the intention of working out who I am, what my place is, what my strengths, interests, likes/dislikes (never underestimate the greatness of the process of elimination)... and the perfect platform to voice my incessantly analytical internal monologue.

Oh also (and possibly most importantly), this should also document my ideas and thoughts about my Photography project/s for the year! *Deep breath*