Secret's Out

Here is another website that you should all check out. I complain about art all the time. Modern art drives me nuts in the sense of what truly is art, but this site has pieces that really are art. Let me explain.
When I was a senior in high school, the art school across the street invited us over to their students' final project gallery. The group of us, expecting paintings and sculptures, were disappointed beyond belief. The first artist had plates of food. The first plate was a hamburger titled, "Falling Down." Huh? I didn't get it then, and I still don't understand now. Most of the artists did similar things. The only one that seemed to really make sense was a boxing showcase. The artist had trained with a boxer to learn how to spar. Then he taped the matches and played them back in slow motion so that the viewer could see how the body moves when punching. That was the art: the way the body moved. I could see how that was art. On a sad note, the final night of that exhibition had the student actually fighting in the ring against a professional boxer. The boxer swung too hard and hit the artist in the head with a killing blow. According to the paper, the blow caused an anuerysm which killed the artist. The boxer was crushed and apparently retired because of it.
Now, as an adult in a town with a large art community, I once again see things that make me question what exactly art is. As I mentioned in a previous post, my wife and I went to the Walker on the night after Wolfgang Puck's restaurant opened. We walked around the Walker while waiting for our reservation and looked at all the art. Some of it was beautiful and interesting, but some of it, in my opinion, just could not be called art. One artist just put a toilet on a pedestal. The title of the piece? "Toilet." It was just an American Standard toilet placed on a platform. How is that art? I get that there is found art, but a toilet is just not really art to me. Yes, one could argue about the form of the toilet, but this toilet was not made by the artist. No, no, no, no. It was the same kind of toilet you would find at Home Depot. Next to that toilet was a car hood. Was it painted? No. And, according to the plaque, it was, "the hood off of a Chevy Malibu." Huh? Again, how is that art? How is someone getting paid to do that? Maybe I could do some art. How about this: I'll stick a pipe into a small platform. At the top of the pipe, I'll paint a few blood red marks. With me so far? Ok, I'll title the piece, "Family Ties." That sound weird? Ah, but we haven't gotten to the true part of modern art: the back story. See, in my opinion, all of modern art is really about the story that explains why it's art. For "Family Ties," the back story is that my father had to escape the Holocaust as a child. So he on one end of the pipe is the blood of his history, but the pipe is secure to the ground which represents his new family in his new country. How about that one? Ready to give me a grant?
So why do I bring all this up? Because Post Secret, to me, is actually art. The combination of stories along with the creative ways of delivering those tales comes across as real art to me. Go through some of the postcards and look at how the people reveal their secrets. It's quite stunning and artistic. I also bring up this website, because my postcard has been accepted (I will not say which one it is). So, enjoy the art and support your local galleries. While I may not agree that some things are art, we need places where we can view these pieces.