Ars gratia artis

When I logged into my blog account the other day, I found a notice from Google (the service host) that they were changing their policy regarding blogs that contain explicit content

In the coming weeks, we'll no longer allow blogs that contain sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video. We'll still allow nudity presented in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts, or presented where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content.

This doesn't apply to Dances With Dogs as it is a relatively tame blog. The most explicit content I published was the series of Guns and Nudity blogs, and that was only PG-13. There are some "suggestive" pictures, but anything "explicit" was not seen, thanks to strategically placed happy faces.

Many web and blog hosting services has a no nudity policy regarding content. This is fine, and I understand there position, but this blanket policy would also exclude many famous classical art paintings by established artists.

Some years back, someone created a webpage on GeoCities that showed paintings and other artwork by by Michaelangelo, Raphael...

(No, not the Ninja Turtles)

...Leonardo DiVinci, Reuben, etc, which were nudes, and on the top of the page wrote a big bold caption that stated that in accourdance with the webhost terms of Service, these images are prohibited.

Some libraries have a similar policy: Nude art depictions are prohibited from being accessed on their computers, and sometimes are even blocked by web filters.

Ironically, the same images can be found in books on art available in the very same library that prohibits them on the computers.

But we do not want our children to be exposed to nudity. Or Art.

They should stick to there violent PC games, I guess.

I'm a creative person with a vivid imagination.

Obviously. I publish a blog that has talking dogs.

I'm very artistic, the result of genetics, environment, or both. My talents manifested themselves early. Even in pre-school director noted that my finger paintings were better than the other children, both in technique, composition, and subject matter.

I was also unique in that, as an infant, I did not attempt to eat crayons.

Speaking of crayons: When I was a child, there was a "Flesh" colored crayon in the 64-pack of crayola®.

Back in the day, Crayola® came in 8, 16, 24, 48, 64-packs. If you had the 64-pack, you was the shizzle, because you could be so much more colorful than the others in your class (except for those who also had a 64-pack).

And the 64-pack had a built-in sharpener so your crayons could always be sharp (8-pack students always had dull crayons)

And in the 64-pack, there was a crayon labeled as flesh. As kids, we were curious, and tried to match the crayon to everyone's flesh, and found that nobody in our class was flesh colored. So we compared other crayons to our skin. Most of the kids in the class were white, and by "white" I mean Caucasian - nobody in the class was actually white.

The closest to white was Andy Lindholm. He was pasty, but he had some color. Andy was sort of a Light Beige.

Most of my classmates were either Apricot, Peach, or Tan (Except Juan who was Burnt Umber, and Leroy who was Brown. And Light Beige Andy). There were no "White" people in the class.
 

You won't find a Flesh colored crayon in the box, 64-pack or other. It got fired. Actually, it just got renamed along with a few other colors that were not politically correct.

You wouldn't think crayons would offend people.

Another color that got changed was Indian Red (to Chestnut) out of concern from teachers that their students wrongly thought it was supposed to be the color of Native American's skin. The name actually referred to a red pigment from India.

Hey, maybe the NFL should consider this for a team name: Washington Chestnuts.

(Or maybe Congress should find more to worry about that the name of a football team.)

In 1992, Crayola® released a set of eight multicultural crayons which "come in an assortment of skin hues that give a child a realistic palette for coloring their world."

And even that offended some people.

One of many crayon colors you
won't see in a box of crayolas®:

 

I have some "formal" art training (other than finger painting). In college a took several art classes as electives. On of them was Drawing I, taught by an instructor who was one of those "formal" art teachers who believed everyone should adhere to the formal rules of art.

I believed that as an artist you should make the rules as you go.

One of his teaching techniques was to give us an assignment, then wander around the class to observe and critique of progress.

"Critique" is a French word that means "to criticize."

It sounds nicer in French

After "observing" my progress on an assignment, he "critiqued" my progress, primarily on my usage of numerous lines.

"There are no lines in nature" he reminded me.

"Yeah?" I responded. "Well, the are lines in Doug's art!"

I have always been a troublemaker.

On the average, males only know about a dozen colors: red, orange, yellow, light green, dark green, light blue, dark blue, purple, white, pink (sometimes called "salmon"), gray, brown, and black.

Show a guy a shirt, and ask him what color it is, he will give you a simple answer, like blue.

Women, on the average know about 4000 colors.

Show a woman a shirt, and ask her what color it is, she will give you a different answer, like Sky Blue. Or Navy. Or Aqua. Or Cyan. Or Cornflower.

Computers, like the one you may be reading this on, understand 26,777,216 colors. A few of the have specific names, most don't and are only known by an alpha-numeric code (such as #D2691E), and unless you are a programing geek you probably don't ever need to know this.

Show a computer a shirt and ask what color it is, you will get an answer like ##1E90FF

Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains? Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Bob Ross
The Joy of Painting
 

He estimated having painted

between 25,000 and 30,000

paintings in his life.

Do you know who knew lots of colors? Bob Ross.

 

Bob Ross was the host of The Joy of Painting, an half-hour instructional television show which ran from January 11, 1983, until May 17, 1994. In each episode, Ross taught techniques for landscape oil painting, completing a painting in each session.

 

Bob became known for his soothing tone and reassuring comments, and his use of catch phrases such as "happy little trees" and "happy little clouds" while painting.

"We don't make mistakes; we just have happy accidents."

Some of the colors Bob used were titanium white, phthalo green (and phthalo blue), midnight black, dark sienna, Van Dyke brown, alizarin crimson, sap green, cadmium yellow, and yellow ochre.

And you won't find these colors in a box of Crayolas®. Even the 64-pack.

Bob irritated me, though.

First off: what was up with that hair? White (or rather Beige) people are not suppose have afro's like that.

Bob would sit at the canvas, easel in hand, and in thirty minutes, he could create a majestic landscape full of "happy trees" and "happy mountains."

And he painted the @#$% mountains with a spatula!

He'd scrap up some paint from his palate with said spatula, smear it on to the canvas and "voila! " a mighty mountain.

It would take me thirty minutes just to paint one happy tree.

And it wouldn't be as happy as one of Bob's.

She comes in colors everywhere She combs her hair She's like a rainbow Coming colors in the air Oh, everywhere She comes in colors

The Courtyard of the

Old Residency in Munich

by Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler painted. Maybe if he had

been able to earn a living as a painter,

World War II may never had occurred.

I have a theory that if you say something ridiculous, if you say it with a straight face people will believe you.

This is how Adolf Hitler was able to come to power. He didn't smile.

I've learned to do this on a smaller scale. One of the"ridiculous" things I tell people (with a straight face) is that the color orange did not exist until the 1600s. I further explain it was invented by Rembrandt van Rijn, who named it after Filbert, Prince of Orange, his chief patron (and I pronounced it "oh-rahnj" to make it sound European). I further challenge people to verify (or disprove) my claim by inviting them to go to the library and find a book on classical art (or go online) and try to find a painting done prior to the Renaissance that has any orange color in it.

Only one person has actually taken me up on the challenge.

Regular readers of this blog are

aware of my love of coffee and

coffee shops

A friend to whom I told this came to the coffee shop carrying a book entitled "Religious Art of the Early Middle Ages (Vol I). Before she even ordered her coffee, she sat the book down on the table in front of me, opened it to several bookmarked pages, and pointed out several examples of pre-renaissance art in which the color orange was used.

I was actually proud of her. Most people accept my bullshit without giving it a second thought.

"See? See?" she taunted. "How do you explain that?"

 

"Hmm" I responded (with a straight face). "Maybe it was the Ancient Greeks who invinted orange."

 

"Yeah" she said, "It must have been."

Well, I was proud of her for a few minutes.

 



My Dogs are artistically creative. I explained in a previous blog entry that I try to expose my dogs to the Humanites: Art, Music, Theater, etc.

 

My dogs like to paint. Lacking opposable thumbs, however, they cannot utilize crayons, brushes...

...or spatulas.

But they did like the episode of The Joy of Painting I showed them on YouTube. They especially liked the was he talked. One morning, they asked me to cook "happy bacon" and "happy eggs" for breakfast.

So instead of brushes (or crayons), my dogs fingerpaint - or "paw"paint to be more accurate (as dogs don't have actual fingers in which to "Finger"paint with.

 

I might be biased, but there work is above average both in technique, composition, and subject matter.

Reba, my newest dog (4 month old), likes to lick the paint.

And tries to eat crayons.

 

 

I turned in a finger painting for an assignment in a college art class.

Yes, I said finger paint.

The assignment was to make an artistic composition that used colors in the order of the spectrum - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.

 

Sometimes ones artistic muse goes out on a beer run, and forgets to come back for some time. It was on an evening like this I tried to complete the assignment, but no matter what I did, it just didn't come out the way I wanted. After a while I stood up, and unfortunately was not paying attention and I placed my left hand in my paints.

 

Then out of frustration, slapped my oil paint covered hand on of poster board.

 

I went into the bathroom and washed the paint of my hand, then went to the kitchen for more coffee. When I returned, I noticed that the hand print on the poster board was clear and went from a red thumb to a violet pinkie finger - the hand print was in spectrum order!

 

It was dry by morning, so I took it to class and turned it in. The instructor loved, praising my originality, and even held it up for the entire class to admire.

A lot of my educucation resulted from B.S.

I will cover this in a future blog.

I am green today
I chirp with joy
like a cricket song

I'm a rainbow today
all the colors of the world
are in me

I am blue today
calm as glass and
cool like the sea