Blog Number 10

Out of all the speakers we've had this term, I believe that the one this week (Donald Morgan) was the perfect one to end our last guest speaker lecture. I immensely enjoyed this week's focus on arts transition throughout the last couple of decades. From the shift to simply aesthetically pleasing and beautiful pieces of art, to the post-modernist work that we see today that I believe conveys a much more powerful meaning then what was previously done prior to this new type of arts existence. Donald Morgan is a professor at the University of Oregon and has taught art at different universities as well. Morgans speciality is sculptures, but he still paints and draws occasionally which I thought was cool. Morgan reminded me of the other sculptor that lectured our class because the two of them are so different from one another. I believe that Morgan values aesthetic more then the other sculptor, who I believe seemed to  focus more on simply explaining or conveying a given "message" through her art. She (I apologize but I forgot her name.. the previous sculptor) was much more modern I believe then Morgan was.
Our reading this week, which involved an interview with the famous Leo Castelli, explained in much detail the change that we've seen in art within the last couple of decades. Mr. Castelli was an art curator in the 60's and was exposed to and saw many varieties and different types of art. Society is changing and so is the world of art. We have seen the development of different types of art medias in the last half century and nowadays everything is considered art. "There is clear evident involvement with social problems of all kinds, and they're not filtered." (461) Art, and what it explains to convey, has changed dramatically in the last half century from simple aesthetically pleasing pieces to pieces that epitomize beauty and promote protest and change.
I believe that studios and art shows have somewhat lost there credibility in the last couple of decades simply because of the rise of the Internet, allowing anyone and everyone the ability to show and exhibit there work to the rest of the world. I believe that in a sense art has also lost some of its practicality. Art used to be just pictures and sculptures created to be displayed on a wall or a stand and to be looked at by the public. I think art has become less about its aesthetic beauty and simply looking at a piece, and has turned more into a way of created ideas and making people think outside of the box. Take Morgan's drunk robot sculptures for example. They in no way provide any practicality to the public besides being interpreted in the viewers own mind. I still find them aesthetically pleasing, I just don't believe that they have provide any function or practicality.
After taking this class I've realized that art is literally around us. We are all artists and the world is our canvas, pallet, block of wood, or whatever you want to create, its there's for your making. I have a much bigger appreciate for art in general after this class, but at the same time am sad that art has become such a hugely globalized thing. With the rise of the Internet and of societies increase in appreciating art, anyone and everyone can become an artist, which is a great thing but at the same time I believe takes away some credibility from the truly great artists.

I believe that this picture below exemplifies more then any other piece of art, societies change from classical art to the new contemporary art that we see everywhere today.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://site.icanvasart.com/DvdPoster/Andy_Warhol_Pop_Art206b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://celebritiessite.blogspot.com/2009/11/pop-art-andy-warhol-marilyn-monroe.html&usg=__oZmKilvgbnYbDmns1WLKNmmVAtw=&h=343&w=530&sz=131&hl=en&start=0&sig2=RECWzfLPCXpIDePia3EOmQ&zoom=1&tbnid=mLoXXPPkkBjtGM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=177&ei=CQ33TOS1FYGisQPX_aTODg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dandy%2Bwarhol%2Bpop%2Bart%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1020%26bih%3D707%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=108&vpy=422&dur=515&hovh=181&hovw=279&tx=142&ty=143&oei=CQ33TOS1FYGisQPX_aTODg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:18,s:0