Ep. 030 FMF My take on Reality Shows for Artists

Episode 30 Fan Mail Friday question comes from Kimmy and New Orleans, Louisiana

Kimmie writes to me and says "I have been such a fan of reality TV and of course I have been such a fan of your artwork I ever wonder if you would ever be on a reality TV show? A few years ago there was a reality show called “A work of art, the next great artist". And I thought you would be terrific as one of the artists with all your colors and style. Have you ever thought to apply to that show?"

Thank you Kimmie for writing to me and for the nice complement. It's so funny that you should ask this question because this question was brought up in a conversation I had with a couple of other artist a few days ago. I have seen that show that you mention, a work of art, the next great artist… and I thought I would give it a whirl as far as checking it out to see what it was all about. I don't watch a whole a lot of reality TV, in fact I'm not a fan of the bachelor, bachelorette, I don't watch Survivor anymore however I do like the Amazing Race. I also like Home and Garden TV (HGTV) and the Food Channel and really enjoy the competitions they have on there. 

Now, I will say first of all that I am truly thankful that you have written man and I am so flattered that you thought that I would be a good contestant on that show.

When the show came out, I watched it to see what the buzz was about, I had envisioned that this show would have been a lot more exciting and a lot more interesting. In fact and I must include a disclaimer here that I am not a hater, I truly believe that there is art out there for everyone, however. I will say for the record that this show was not what I had imagined and I personally feel that it could have done much better without all the "high art snootiness.”  There I said it, yes.  I think the show was over-snooty (is that is even a word!).

I will admit that I don't understand a lot of that over intellectual over thought out artwork stuff that goes on.. I will admit that I don't understand a lot of that over intellectual, over thought artwork stuff that goes on. I don't understand big black campuses were the one dot in the middle of it and I don't understand pieces of thread that are nailed to a 10' x 10' green painted reclaimed wood as being anything interesting. That's just me, I'm not a hater, it just does not appeal to me (Not everyone likes frozen peas at the grocery store, but there is marked for it).

I'm not a fan of that kind of work, I like work that has a lot of visuals to it, I am a huge fan of lowbrow art and the surrealism, I'm a big fan of pop art, and I'm a huge fan of mixed media art work and collage. I think that if I was on that show the way that it was produced with all the fancy art curators and gallery owners that I would've ended up blasting everyone out of the room. I would have probably challenged the thought process, I think I would've pushed the limits and got probably kicked off the show. I'm not saying I'm not a team player but I'm saying that I found the exercises and tasks to have been ridiculous.

The way I create, and the way I think would've probably put everyone over the edge and I believe that my art would have given the "powers that be” a stroke.  

If ever given the opportunity to create a show like this I would do it in a more lighthearted way, something that would've really allowed everyone to create based on their true talents, something like the food competition that they have and made it faster paced  and would've allowed a lot more creative freedom. 

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