Marcelo Viquez

Marcelo Viquez  has been on my links since I started this blog and I really love his work, especially, like me, he doesn’t seem to be able to paint to well either. It doesn’t stop him from creating great art though. If you haven’t had a the chance to take a look yet I would urge you to do so. I honestly don’t know much about him except that he was born in Montevideo in Uruguay in 1971, which makes him a couple of years younger than me.

His paintings are exactly the type of ‘Art’ which I find my self questioning ‘is it art or not?’. Then think what the heck it works, it’s fresh, it makes me smile and it presents the world in a new light. I love his use of colour, his playfulness together with pathos and the fact he uses his dog as a muse and of course that through the clever use of imagery and symbolism he has been able to create art from sketching.

Where does Creativity come from?

Where does creativity come from? Are people born naturally creative? I don’t believe so. I think creativity, like many things is more nurture than nature.Why? I guess my own creativity started as an escape in childhood and from reality of actual living. I guess I’m not the first person in the world to find life difficult sometimes and drawing the world and its people was my way, though not consciously, of studying the world objectively and with some detachment. I then found that this, was a whole world in itself, one of which I was in charge and that was almost completely limitless. And the creative process is like that, you start off at the beginning without necessarily knowing what is at the end.

Being creative allows you to see the world in a different way, it teaches you to be observant and intuitive and make connections between things where others would not.

Some others have said it better.

You can’t wait for inspiration.  You have to go after it with a club.  ~Jack London

To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.  ~George Kneller

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.  ~Mark Twain

When is Art, Art?

 

When is Art, Art? Is Art still Art when nobody else sees it? What does it take to make a piece of Art? Can it be a single piece or does it need to be part of a body of work? The culmination of an idea, developed over a length of time with other work to support it? Is it possible for someone to pick up a canvas and paint and produce a piece of Art, with no formal training or any kind of build up in terms of developmental studies?  If Van Gogh had only ever created ‘Sunflowers‘ and nothing else would it still be considered great Art or is it better Art when taken into the context of his life and lifes work? When does something become Art? Could an illustration be considered Art? Or a sketch? Is it the scale, the context, the technique? Is it Art, if only one person considers it Art, or does it need the approval of many?  Is it still Art if only the Artist sees it…..?? Any piece of Art that works for me is something that helps me see things differently or  just from a new perspective, be that painting, drawing, film, dance…..