Our new Digital Library, as presented in Sketches, is a series of doors, which is a useful
metaphor. Doors are about the wanderings of our individual artistic journeys, our progression
into the world of fine art. What exactly is fine art? Wikipedia offers an historic explanation at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine_art, and for the modern world it is about personal
expression. What names should we put on these doors? Of course we want doors that lead to
discussion and guidance on painting in oil, acrylic, encaustic, watercolor and ink. A video of
our upcoming March demo will even make you wonder if a new door might be about the
imaginative use of discarded linoleum. Our artistic experience has sent – or will send – many of
us though doors like these into the expressive worlds of dance, poetry, sculpture, writing and
music.
Our pragmatic needs say there should also be doors about the effective use of abstraction, alla
prima, plein air and marketing. How about a door about sharing of our artistic excitement?
That door should be labeled “art league involvement.”
Jeff Harold has initially offered these descriptions:
• Door One so far has eight YouTube videos about oil painting, more than five
hours of video which include painting techniques of Carvaggio, DaVinci, and
the Flemish artists.
• Door Two has a video on essential watercolor skills and another on intuitive watercolor,
which lets the paint take you on a tour.
• Door Three gives you seven Artists Documentaries and art related video shows.
• Door Four has a virtual tour of the Barnes Foundation Collection and four Barnes
Takeout art talks.
• Door Five has an art website to explore.
• Door Six is art related Netflix shows.
• Door Seven has Hulu art shows, and might include Amazon Prime art videos.
It’s up to our members to recommend more videos and suggest names for these and more doors.
Send them to Val Brandner at sketchit@yahoo.com. Much of our future Member News will be
about where our members see this Digital Library growing.
What’s in your artistic journey?
Message from the President:
Finally, the answer – What is Art?
It’s the start of a new year and what better way for an artist to start it then to have a definite
definition of what art is or isn’t.
First, what started all the hubbub in the first place. Going to the great Internet to find a definition of
art resulted in the following definition: art is the expression or application of human creative skill
and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be
appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. QED (that’s math for end of proof), sort
of. This narrows it down to your basic mediums like oil, watercolor, acrylic, sculpture, etc. But if
this is the case, how did we end up with a banana duct taped to a gallery wall being declared art and
selling for $120,00 with a “third edition” expected to sell for $150,00?
Let’s go back to 1917 and Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp was on the board of the Society of Independent Artists. The story goes that the Society sponsored an exhibit that was not juried and had promised that every work submitted by its members would be displayed. Why Duchamp submitted a urinal from the
J. L. Mott Iron Works has several theories. One goes that he did it as a practical joke. Another one suggests that he was encouraged by a lady friend. He did submit the piece, but under the name of “R. Mutt”. The rest of the board refused to show this “artwork”, not knowing the true name of the artist. This caused a stir in the art community and eventually leading to the idea of “concept as art” or “conceptual art” being a legitimate artform.
This led to other “conceptual” pieces such as “Vertical Earth Kilometer” by Walter de Maria. With
the help of an industrial drill, de Maria dug a narrow hole in the ground exactly one kilometer deep,
inserted a two-inch diameter brass rod of the same length, then concealed it with a sandstone plate.
A small hole was cut in the plate's center to reveal a small portion of the rod, which is perfectly
level with the ground. The result is a permanent work of art that people are forced to imagine but
may never actually see. (By the way, this piece is still available if you want to buy some conceptual
art. You’ll have to pay the moving costs.)
And then we have the banana and duct tape. Back to the Internet dictionary where we find the
definition of conceptual art: art in which the idea or concept presented by the artist is considered
more important than its appearance or execution. In other words, anyone can call anything “art”. I
got out of bed this morning; anyone want to buy that for $100,000 (I’ll throw in my PJ’s as a
bonus)?
So, I lied. I don’t have the answer to what is or isn’t art. But I have to say that asking if something
is art seems every bit as useful as asking how many fairies can you fit on the head of a pin.
Enjoy the new year, and if anyone asks you what is or isn’t art, you can safely give them a knowing
smirk, blink of the eye, and say “I could tell you but then, being an artist, I’d have to conceptually
kill you”.
Jeff Harold
"We are thrilled to announce the date for the 2023 Art In The Shire Exhibit and Reception
March 15, 2023! Please find the following important information about the Exhibit and
Exhibit Reception.
The Art in the Shire™ Exhibit will remain live throughout the months leading up to the exhibit
reception. Accordingly, you may bring us pieces in advance of the exhibit reception. Please
contact us for details of drop- off of your pieces. Our clients and members of the community
are enjoying the exhibit. If any of our clients or members of the community inquire about one
of your pieces or your work, we will contact you within 24 hours. Please note the
following regarding the exhibit:
Please send your Artist Statement of your pieces by January 24, 2023.
Each artist will be able to showcase three (3) pieces in the exhibit.
All pieces must be 2-Dimensional.
For each piece, please submit the Artist Entry form. (See attached)
There is no entry fee to participate in Art in the Shire™ Exhibit and Exhibit Reception.
Please contact Renee Leonard from The Shire Law Group, PC ®
Jeff Harold’s Upcoming Classes
Jeff Harold will be teaching Photoshop via Zoom through the College of Lake County on
Tuesday evenings. Class starts 2/7/2023 from 6:30 pm until 9:00 pm and runs for 8 weeks.
I'm teaching Photography for Beginners on Saturday mornings at the College of Lake
County in Grayslake. Class starts Saturday. 4/1 from 9:00 am until 11:30 am.
Phil Schorn’s Classes and Exhibits
During January Phil will be participating in the Adler Arts Center Member Exhibit and
also the 2023 Members Exhibition at the College of Lake County, Robert T. Wright
Community Gallery of Art. He has two workshops scheduled for January and February. January will be Black & White drawing and February will be Impressionist drawing. I'm offering each session twice
during the month. Visit my classes page to sign up. Phil will be setting up a Watercolor
Pencil workshop as well in the near future. He will be in the January issue of Color Pencil Magazine. Phil wrote another workshop for the magazine and did a Winter Cardinal, this will downloadable from the magazine. It will be on his website in March.
Phil also submitted his "Monet Antibes" to Circle Foundation for the Arts, in the UK. For their "Circle
Quarterly Art Review Magazine Contest" he received their Artistic Excellence Award. Very cool.
Check out more of Phil’s art and events on his website: pschornstudio.com.
Links to recent virtual activities
Samantha McDonald September interview at https://youtu.be/ke_ixvuC7KE
David Becker October virtual demo at https://youtu.be/DSoi4ZVnN7c
David Becker interview at https://youtu.be/b-HB1sMGo9Q
Richard Medina's Image Transfer Demo https://youtu.be/tRWgy1DRXVA
Interview with Danielle Gross https://youtu.be/qVXgnk6yfvE
Birth of a Monarch https://youtu.be/NoTcPw3VOnA
Backyard Cranes https://youtu.be/YLXJSBf4PZ4
Featured Artists at Starline https://youtu.be/aKOeIN3Gros
Interview with Bob Fesser https://youtu.be/SvUBqq07gHQ
Copyright © 2023 Lake County Art League - All Rights Reserved.
Lake County Art League is a Non Profit 501(c)(3) Organization.
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