Spreading the Geek

Thought I'd just share a bit of my geekiness with you guys today. I'm working on 2 felted sculptures, but don't have pictures to share yet. In the mean time, I've been watching the first season of the awesome PBS documentary series. If you don't know by now, I'm an UBER dork, and proud of it!! I can watch boring documentaries about pretty much anything (except war shows, not really into that). But science, history, art, religion, etc. This show is called
Art:21 - Art in the Twenty-First Century.

It's not the most action-packed show out there, but I think it's neat and inspiring. They basically go into a contemporary artist's studio & talk with them about whatever. It's not an interview, it's more like a monologue. Sometimes the artist is very descriptive of their process and inspirations, and sometimes they just talk all artsy-fartsy & philosophical-like. Depends on who the artist is. Some shows are better than others, but I feel like making art after I watch them, so it's doing it's job!!A

More info about Art:21

Art in the Twenty-First Century is a groundbreaking documentary television series focusing exclusively on contemporary visual art by artists working in the United States today.

The series provides behind-the-scenes views of the artists in their studios, homes, and communities. The artists speak directly to the audience, in their own words, about how, why, and what they create....

While many programs about visual art look to the past, Art:21 presents a diverse group of both established and emerging artists working in America today and to the art they are producing now. The ongoing goals of this project are to enlarge the definitions and comprehension of contemporary art; to minimize the intermediary positions of curator, gallery, and museum as arbiters of taste and value; to offer viewers, teachers, and students a straightforward experience of the artists and their work without interpretive mediation; and to encourage viewers and students to participate in interactive and outreach programs. The underlying philosophy of this project is that contemporary American art is of real interest to a national audience. By making contemporary art more accessible, the series affords viewers and students the opportunity to discover their own innate abilities to understand contemporary art and to explore possibilities for creative thinking and self-expression.

I'm not the biggest fan of "contemporary art". When I think of "contemporary art" I think of splashy painted canvases, or giant abstract wood sculptures, or an instillation space filled with rotting meat to show the decay of the western culture or something. Can you tell I'm kind of jaded with modern art? Anyways, I was a little hesitant to watch this show, thinking it would be filled with super-conceptual artists, but it's (mostly) not. There are some really cool artists, and it's definitely expanding my idea of what "contemporary art" is.

Here is a clip from one of the shows, I have only seen the first season (there are 5!), but I picked it cause you probably know the artist, Jeff Koons.