Joe Mills

Chicago Art Open…Depressing…

Over this past weekend, I went to the Chicago Art Open at Merchandise Mart. It is billed as the largest survey of Chicagoland artists. The work at the Chicago Art Open is juried so this is supposed to be the best of the best in terms of Chicago artwork. I found it plain depressing.

I think one of my major beefs with the art world is that a lot of the work is plain junk. Since we are supposed to accept everyone and their ideas and their vision, these artists are under the illusion that their work has meaning and demonstrates some skill. Since so many artists have read that many of the artists that we consider great were initially panned by the art world, there is this unknown quality to who will be the next great voice. I’m sorry, Picasso and Warhol and Pollock were rare breeds. Rarely do I see skill. Rarely do I see talent. Most of what they do seems painfully random and unpassionate. In my opinion, some of these professional artists should make this their hobby and not their profession.

What I see makes me not want to get involved in the art world. To not be lumped in with the rest of these “artists” who take themselves too seriously and will throw anything on a piece of canvas and call it “art”. I guess I really see myself more as an illustrator and designer, but those two worlds are very different from the art world in a lot of ways. I’m not sure I fit into both. I sort of wish I knew if the work I do has any place in the world outside of my hard drive. But then, I’m just another voice trying to be heard. Another artist trying to get recognized. Another artist trying to make a living. I just wish I could put my stuff up on a gallery wall and announce, “Either you like it…or you don’t” and not worry how it is received or if you can get another gallery show or if someone wants to buy your work or if someone will comission you for a project. I mean…can you do that?

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The Art of Looking Sideways

I’m often leary of “inspiration” art books. It’s usually filled with a bunch of things like “stand by a tree and listen to the wind” or “imagine every color of the rainbow exploding on your page”. In a nutshell, they are hokey and usually one-dimensional. I had read about Alan Fletcher’s The Art of Looking Sideways a while ago, and had it on ym list of “to buy” since then. I was always afraid to the pull the trigger, but after his death, I had read how this book was just different. And it is. Here is a detailed explanation from Amazon:

Alan Fletcher’s The Art of Looking Sideways is an absolutely extraordinary and inexhaustible “guide to visual awareness,” a virtually indescribable concoction of anecdotes, quotes, images, and bizarre facts that offers a wonderfully twisted vision of the chaos of modern life. Fletcher is a renowned designer and art director, and the joy of The Art of Looking Sideways lies in its beautiful design. Loosely arranged in 72 chapters with titles like “Colour,” “Noise,” “Chance,” “Camouflage,” and “Handedness,” Fletcher’s book, which he describes as “a journey without a destination,” is “a collection of shards” that captures the sensory overload of a world that simply contains too much information. In one typical section, entitled “Civilization,” the reader encounters six Polish flags designed to represent the world, a photograph of an anthropomorphic handbag, Buzz Aldrin’s boot print on the moon, drawings of Stone Age pebbles, a painting of “Ireland–as seen from Wales,” and a dizzying array of quotations and snippets of information, including the wise words of Marcus Aurelius, Stephen Jay, and Gandhi’s comment, “Western civilization? I think it would be a good idea.” Fletcher’s mastery of design mixes type, space, fonts, alphabets, color, and layout combined with a “jackdaw” eye for the strange and profound to produce a stunning book that cannot be read, but only experienced.

It is something I have been “reading” recently, but it is not a book you would really read cover to cover. You can pick it up every once in a while and read parts of it. Or, it seems you could come back to it years from now and look more closely at one of the “chapters”. And, not only arethe quotes and examples well picked, but the way it is arranged is extremely well thought out. Definitely worth the investment…

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Martin Luther King Jr. Quote

Not one of his most famous quotes, but one of my favorites.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

So many applications…I’ll keep them to myself for now…

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Fail Blog

I’ve been a subscriber to Fail Blog over the past couple months, and it consistently makes me laugh. The one above is one of my favorites.

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CEO Punched…The American Dream…

I know the story about the Lehman Brothers CEO getting punched at the gym has made the rounds, but I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten more press. I mean, maybe it is a bit sensationalized, but with all of the rhetoric and lies and finger pointing and thievery and deception, I’m glad someone did this. Maybe his punch was meant just as a punch, but I think it lets these powerful elite in our country know that some of us are just not going to ever accept they do in the name of profit.

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Champagne Celebrations and Food Fights

After witnessing the White Sox win a one game playoff a couple weeks ago (check out my photos on Flickr to the witness the blackout and the celebration), I was reminded of the two things that I think every male adult wishes they could be a part of…the champagne celebration and the food fight. The champagne celebration is so specific to sports that most of us will never get to actually participate in one. Having Ken Griffey Jr. spray my section on September 30th (which will be the only time he does that this year) is probably the closest I will ever come. None of us will ever follow a graduation or wedding or birth of our child with a champagne spray fest…it just seems like something that I would want to be part of.

In the same breath, I would love to be in a huge food fight. I guess this might be the kid in me, but who wouldn’t want to have a large scale food fight where reckless abandon is the norm? Is taht strange? I don’t want this to seem like I want to destroy property but that kind of “fun” is just not attainable to most of us. Although, it might make Christmas dinners with your family more fun…

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Byroglyphics

Image courtesy of Byroglyphics

These are excellent. Byroglyphics (otherwise known as artist Russ Mills…no relation) has a great touch. Everything is done extremely tight with these seemingly messy illustrations. The handmade quality to this work makes it stand above other normal illustrations. I’ve seen many illustrations over the last year that look updated versions of a child’s artowrk, and they never do anything for me. This work has an over the top sophistication to them that makes you want to examine each part of it…check it out…

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Eric Natzke

Image courtesy of Eric Natzke

I came across the work of Eric Natzke at the Wired NextFest here in Chicago. His work definitely falls under my love of simple yet complex work. He has tons of elements all working at the same time…and it looks effortless. Sadly, or maybe not so sadly, it was the coolest thing I saw at NextFest. It was worth the trip to see this work up close.

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Lego Star Wars Battle Scene

I am a sucker for Lego photographs. Thanks Gizmodo!

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Simmons and Burke

Image courtesy of Simmons and Burke

These images by Simmons and Burke are mind boggling. If you go to the site, click on the SMALL link on the left to see the images larger. This falls in the category of stuff that I like to look at, but am unsure if I have it in me to create something like it. Since my own personal aesthetic is very simple and clean, I like it when someone can make something seemingly messy, well, simple and clean. It sort of achieves that simple and clean look through a lot of effort. Check it out…

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