“Encompassing some of the most significant art movements of the last century, SFAI [San Francisco Art Institute] has historically embodied a spirit of experimentation, risk-taking, and innovation.” (1)
Michael Kuchar, “director, cinematographer and visual artist is an underground film legend whose work –singly and in collaboration with twin brother George Kuchar—has inspired filmmakers from Jack Smith to John Waters.” (2)
Mr. Kuchar has invited Fairfield resident Jim Weidle, (art featured below) who will be offering his views on the current art situation and showing recent drawings executed while teaching a Florida Workshop this past October/November. He will also be drawing with Monday Group, a few SF artists who draw in a coffeehouse; yes, on Monday nights.
I asked Jim what are some themes he hopes to explore.
JW: They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. What they sometimes forget to add is that pretty much all knowledge is little. With Art making, if one perseveres, some point is reached that seems to extend beyond ‘knowledge getting’. Our current cultural lexicon seems to have no word or dedicated term for this phase. But serious artists are fairly comfortable with all manner of crises, and a crisis such as ‘no-word’ rather speaks on behalf of the ineffable aspects of serious art.
RH: You say serious art.
JW: Yes, I have qualified art making of the serious kind. Here is another word predicament: ambiguous qualifiers. ‘Serious’ as in solemn? Grim? Not funny? I probably mean serious as other than work motivated to sell, or impress, or some kind of dabbler-type stuff. As such, serious art would be fairly rare. And this leads back to the current art situation: We have dabbler-art, sofa-art, therapy-art. monetized art, investment art, corporate art. The funny (serious funny) thing about this list: a case can be made that much of the celebrity-type art one now finds in many of the new, tony, capacious art museums is, by this standard, not serious.
RH: Anything you would like to add?
JW: There is, as you know, our little cultural obsession with the New. This has corrupted the situation for making serious art. Culturally, we misinterpret New as Recent, not as Original. Original art is always born of perseverance; and, as such, takes forever and is always too late to be recent but right on time to be original; because original survives. Whereas the ‘recent’ is often experienced as manic and anxious; that is, if it can even qualify as experience. And usually survives not at all.
1) “SFAI History.” – About SFAI. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
2) “Brakhage Center.” Symposium 2016. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
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