Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Art vs. Money
Recently, I started a Hollywood/Movie blog on my husbands website, Hollywood Lost and Found. At first, Steve was a little hesitant. When he started his site, his mission was to create an atmosphere that spread his joy of working in the movie industry, and share the information that he has learned about the art of creating movies.
Steve is a full-fledged artist in every sense of the word. He expresses his creativity in everything he does. Not just in his job, Im talking about the heart-shaped peanut-butter sandwiches he makes my daughter, the sculptures that he spends hundreds of hours on, the snappy, surreal comebacks hes always throwing at me; his entire life is a creative outlet.
To be a true artist, you have to keep in close contact with your inner child. One of my favorite quotes is from Picasso: All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. Steve has no problem with this. Our house is filled with toys and tools, Steves favorite clothes have robots and cowboys on them, he still has that look of awe on his face when he watches Superman, and most importantly, he never uses the Grown-up Tone of Reason to squash my dreams.
This is why Hollywood Lost and Found has no gossip, leave that for the pissy prom queens and dissatisfied. There are already enough critics out there too. Some critics are necessary, but too many self-appointed know-it-alls, and we just have a bunch of wienie-assed complainers.
We are, however, starting a Recommendations section on Hollywood Lost and Found, where we are going to write about movies that we love and suggest others might like to watch too. The list will be very, very long.
The movies on our lists will be nowhere near perfect, but neither is art. Its not really interesting to have a painting of a person that looks exactly like a person. Thats not art, thats an illustration. Praise to those who have the talent to render something so exactly, but unless it registers an emotional response, I dont really want to put it on my wall and look at it every day.
The same holds true with movies. So many people in this crazy town moan about what is wrong with any given movie, missing the overall picture. Beauty is more than the sum of its parts, which has been proven time and time again by some of the most beautiful people in the world.
If a movie strikes a chord with a large amount of people, I have to take a moment to think about what the moviemakers did right, after I pick it apart in my mind. This doesnt always work, of course; to this day I have never been able to sit all the way through Titanic, but I cant deny that its was extremely popular.
Are good movies the ones that make the most money? I couldnt tell you, I know many people who list some of the most predictable, rip-off, cookie-cutter crap among their favorite movies.
After working in art galleries, I cant help but notice similarities between what makes a popular work of art and what makes a popular movie. The answer to both is that whatever strikes the biggest emotional chord with the most people is going to be the most popular. It has nothing to do with technical application, skill, reality, or any of the issues that armchair critics go on about.
Of course there are fads that will come and go. Yesterday I watched Three to Tango, starring Matthew Perry and Neve Campbell. I think of Matthew and Neve as Flavors of the Week, the people who get into movies because they happen to be popular at the time. Neither is particularly good looking or talented, in fact, they can each be used to illustrate my beauty is more than a sum of its parts point. Dare I say, they were each a fad.
Now that their fad-dom is over, for the time being at least, theyre not really making any super big movies. I dont think anyone can argue, logically, that either is a particularly good actor. Neither is particularly good-looking. But we sure did see their faces everywhere for a while. This happens a million times over in both the art and movie world; the fads come and go, but there are a few good pieces that will always be there for the connoisseurs.
If we didnt have fads, how else can we explain Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze, Jr. being cast in the their completely inappropriate roles in the Scooby Doo movies? The right role doesnt always go to the right person, movie studios are only thinking about what will make the most money. Oh gawd, but Matthew Lillard was dead-on perfect as Shaggy.
How can we try to sell art in a country where people go to Wal-Mart and buy computer-matched paint and wallpaper borders to decorate their living room? The people who believe that coordinating is the same as designing. These masses are the ones that make the genre films, the fad actors, and the mass-produced Thomas Kinkade paintings so popular.
I think the answer is, art doesnt have mass appeal so its not going to make the most money. People want what is safe, like having a chart at the department store tell them that their wall paint matches their tablecloth, which matches their wallpaper. They want their leading man to get the leading girl and live happily ever after. Since art doesnt make the most money, then were not going to see as much of it.
An art critic isnt going to waste his/her time reviewing a mass-produced painting that someone bought at the local mall, so why do others waste their time critiquing the latest studio genre flick? Enough already!
Even though we have opportunities to post gossip, you wont be finding any of it on Steves site, and were too busy with our own lives to worry about what other people are up to anyway. Steve wants his site to remain a positive learning experience, if I feel like having a bitch-fest, I have to do it on my own blog. Like now.
Steve is a full-fledged artist in every sense of the word. He expresses his creativity in everything he does. Not just in his job, Im talking about the heart-shaped peanut-butter sandwiches he makes my daughter, the sculptures that he spends hundreds of hours on, the snappy, surreal comebacks hes always throwing at me; his entire life is a creative outlet.
To be a true artist, you have to keep in close contact with your inner child. One of my favorite quotes is from Picasso: All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. Steve has no problem with this. Our house is filled with toys and tools, Steves favorite clothes have robots and cowboys on them, he still has that look of awe on his face when he watches Superman, and most importantly, he never uses the Grown-up Tone of Reason to squash my dreams.
This is why Hollywood Lost and Found has no gossip, leave that for the pissy prom queens and dissatisfied. There are already enough critics out there too. Some critics are necessary, but too many self-appointed know-it-alls, and we just have a bunch of wienie-assed complainers.
We are, however, starting a Recommendations section on Hollywood Lost and Found, where we are going to write about movies that we love and suggest others might like to watch too. The list will be very, very long.
The movies on our lists will be nowhere near perfect, but neither is art. Its not really interesting to have a painting of a person that looks exactly like a person. Thats not art, thats an illustration. Praise to those who have the talent to render something so exactly, but unless it registers an emotional response, I dont really want to put it on my wall and look at it every day.
The same holds true with movies. So many people in this crazy town moan about what is wrong with any given movie, missing the overall picture. Beauty is more than the sum of its parts, which has been proven time and time again by some of the most beautiful people in the world.
If a movie strikes a chord with a large amount of people, I have to take a moment to think about what the moviemakers did right, after I pick it apart in my mind. This doesnt always work, of course; to this day I have never been able to sit all the way through Titanic, but I cant deny that its was extremely popular.
Are good movies the ones that make the most money? I couldnt tell you, I know many people who list some of the most predictable, rip-off, cookie-cutter crap among their favorite movies.
After working in art galleries, I cant help but notice similarities between what makes a popular work of art and what makes a popular movie. The answer to both is that whatever strikes the biggest emotional chord with the most people is going to be the most popular. It has nothing to do with technical application, skill, reality, or any of the issues that armchair critics go on about.
Of course there are fads that will come and go. Yesterday I watched Three to Tango, starring Matthew Perry and Neve Campbell. I think of Matthew and Neve as Flavors of the Week, the people who get into movies because they happen to be popular at the time. Neither is particularly good looking or talented, in fact, they can each be used to illustrate my beauty is more than a sum of its parts point. Dare I say, they were each a fad.
Now that their fad-dom is over, for the time being at least, theyre not really making any super big movies. I dont think anyone can argue, logically, that either is a particularly good actor. Neither is particularly good-looking. But we sure did see their faces everywhere for a while. This happens a million times over in both the art and movie world; the fads come and go, but there are a few good pieces that will always be there for the connoisseurs.
If we didnt have fads, how else can we explain Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze, Jr. being cast in the their completely inappropriate roles in the Scooby Doo movies? The right role doesnt always go to the right person, movie studios are only thinking about what will make the most money. Oh gawd, but Matthew Lillard was dead-on perfect as Shaggy.
How can we try to sell art in a country where people go to Wal-Mart and buy computer-matched paint and wallpaper borders to decorate their living room? The people who believe that coordinating is the same as designing. These masses are the ones that make the genre films, the fad actors, and the mass-produced Thomas Kinkade paintings so popular.
I think the answer is, art doesnt have mass appeal so its not going to make the most money. People want what is safe, like having a chart at the department store tell them that their wall paint matches their tablecloth, which matches their wallpaper. They want their leading man to get the leading girl and live happily ever after. Since art doesnt make the most money, then were not going to see as much of it.
An art critic isnt going to waste his/her time reviewing a mass-produced painting that someone bought at the local mall, so why do others waste their time critiquing the latest studio genre flick? Enough already!
Even though we have opportunities to post gossip, you wont be finding any of it on Steves site, and were too busy with our own lives to worry about what other people are up to anyway. Steve wants his site to remain a positive learning experience, if I feel like having a bitch-fest, I have to do it on my own blog. Like now.
