Looks Like People Still Care!!

[Rob C]

Hahahaha.
Richard Feynman said once on Physics:
"We can imagine that this complicated array of moving things which constitutes "the world" is something like a great chess game being played by the gods, and we are observers of the game. We do not know what the rules of the game are; all we are allowed to do is to watch the playing. Of course, if we watch long enough, we may eventually catch on to a few of the rules. The rules of the game are what we mean by fundamental physics..."

That's how I felt at the beginning. I got some rules, then a pawn transmuted into a Queen but not always...OMG

There is some fun in it.  I'm creating a great Website that will be ready around 2050

Abandon the plan: by 2050 there may be no electricity left for Internetting; everybody will be using it to drive toy cars at twenty miles per hour in the built-up zones. There will be no other kinds of zones. At last, landscape photography will have become historical documentary photography and will have to carry certificates of origin to prove they are not fakes, not Photoshop Instinct productions.

[Robert Roaldi]

Abandon the plan: by 2050 there may be no electricity left for Internetting; everybody will be using it to drive toy cars at twenty miles per hour in the built-up zones. There will be no other kinds of zones. At last, landscape photography will have become historical documentary photography and will have to carry certificates of origin to prove they are not fakes, not Photoshop Instinct productions.

Given the average driver's skill level, 20 mph would be just about right.

Automobiles are not a good way to get around in crowded urban zones. Many jurisdictions are realizing that was a poor urban design choice. Eventually we'll get it right.

[rabanito]

Abandon the plan: by 2050 there may be no electricity left for Internetting; everybody will be using it to drive toy cars at twenty miles per hour in the built-up zones. There will be no other kinds of zones. At last, landscape photography will have become historical documentary photography and will have to carry certificates of origin to prove they are not fakes, not Photoshop Instinct productions.

I think the most difficult part is creating a navigable structure that doesn't bore the visitor too soon. 

[JoeKitchen]

Hmmm...
As far as I know the fundamental difference between amateurs and professionals is that the amateur does what he wants, an important proposition for being an artist and the professional does it to please Coca Cola or Mercedes Benz or whatever.
The amateur  at his summit "creates" The pro does what others want. Or doesn't sell.

Just my HO

An amateur does not make enough money to live off of his art.  A pro, regardless if he does it for others or himself, makes money and lives off his work.  That's the difference. 

Anyway, this came up on a recent shoot with an assistant who's father is a fine art painter and makes a living at showing and selling his work.  He (the father), according to his son, does all the same marketing and business stuff I do (and have been writing about here) even though he is a fine art "artist." 

That's right, he reaches out to galleries, sends fliers, uses instagram and other social media to promote shows, negotiates contracts, networks, etc ... (according to my assistant) "plays the game." 

[JoeKitchen]

I have to ask, for all those who say anything commissioned is not real art, or at least below art done for one's self, how about Michelangelo?  Most of his work was commissioned by the Catholic Church. 

Is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel less good and not worthy of praise because it was commissioned? 

One could even argue that David, his most famous personal project, was a big marketing scheme.  A statue that was sure to stir the pot (nudity was such taboo then) carved in secret and unveiled, with no fanfare, overnight in a major town square so the first thing everyone would see and talk about that day was David.  Not to mention, using a biblical character, was an obvious nod to the largest employer of the time, which he probably already had developed some connections with.  You would have to be a fool to think Michelangelo did not use David to play the game.

[Alan Goldhammer]

I have to ask, for all those who say anything commissioned is not real art, or at least below art done for one's self, how about Michelangelo?  Most of his work was commissioned by the Catholic Church. 

Is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel less good and not worthy of praise because it was commissioned? 

One could even argue that David, his most famous personal project, was a big marketing scheme.  A statue that was sure to stir the pot (nudity was such taboo then) carved in secret and unveiled, with no fanfare, overnight in a major town square so the first thing everyone would see and talk about that day was David.  Not to mention, using a biblical character, was an obvious nod to the largest employer of the time, which he probably already had developed some connections with.  You would have to be a fool to think Michelangelo did not use David to play the game.

Haven't artists relied on commissions for a long time?  I would expand this beyond painters to all those engaged in fine arts from jewelry making to music to photography and so on.  I have commissioned several pieces of music from well known American composers and those have been published though I don't know what kind of sales they have.  Certainly there are photographers who mainly worked in advertising (Avedon) or magazine (Annie Liebowitz) and they have had major retrospectives in art galleries.  Commissions and commercial work should not be denigrated.

[JoeKitchen]

Haven't artists relied on commissions for a long time?  I would expand this beyond painters to all those engaged in fine arts from jewelry making to music to photography and so on.  I have commissioned several pieces of music from well known American composers and those have been published though I don't know what kind of sales they have.  Certainly there are photographers who mainly worked in advertising (Avedon) or magazine (Annie Liebowitz) and they have had major retrospectives in art galleries.  Commissions and commercial work should not be denigrated.

My point exactly!

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... I have commissioned several pieces of music from well known American composers...

Bravo, you!

You and the Pope, promoting arts! Michelangelo and American composers must have been eternally grateful.

[Rob C]

Bravo, you!

You and the Pope, promoting arts! Michelangelo and American composers must have been eternally grateful.

Now there you are on safe ground: until we all meet up again in Celestial LuLa, © (yes, again, you heard it here first, and sure, there probably will be one, without need for monetizing, and where all of our pictures will get +1 x infinity plaudits and be observed via perfectly calbrated monitors and invisible computers), nobody can really know. Old Mikey may have hated them all equally, seeing the entire career as nothing more than goddam TMAR productions. I bet he wished he had a Nikon and a 2.8/300 Nikkor, and his competitor's La Gioconda babe all to himself, down on the beach at Fregene.

I think he and Fellini would have been best buddies. I'm booking my seat for the show.