What Art Is, Part 1: Art and Imitation
or
A Little Constructive Criticism
Art takes a stand, it challenges you, it might even slap you in the face. Artists assert personal visions - meaning they label their decisions with their own names. Art then, is a celebration of individual responsibility. The best artists affirm the possible, the poetic, and the profound.
Imitation is attractive. It sweet talks you, and flatters your good taste. Imitation decorates, advocating of the status quo by making attractive what already is. Imitation is comforting, reassuringly reflecting your world as you want to believe that it is. Imitation offers no new possibilities. There are no latent implications within its seduction. Its appeal is shallow, with a positivity that tends to flatten anything in its path. It creates two-dimensionality and depthlessness.
Art functions a corrective for imitation, teaching the eyes to distinguish between the two. Frosted Geometric Abstraction (oil on canvas, 2004) is a small painting conceived as a chromatic and textural simulation of a sugar cookie. This small painting finds its identity in opposition to imitation, particularly in opposition to morsels that masquerade as works of art, when they are more like exercises in empty calories.