[Closed] Cultural Appropriation and the LBGTx community.

I am a white, middle aged, middle class, married heterosexual and while I know a few people in the LBGT+ scene, it is certainly not something I am familiar with.

If you are targetting the LBGTQ+ then it's a niche market but if you get it right, now is the right time, you should be able to sell it for a lot of money.

The title of the piece is Help! but would adding the rest of the explanation be inappropriate? I will be asked about the thoughts behind the painting so I want to be prepared.

Too general for interpretation ... "Help!" can be for difference audience. I supposed if you are targeting LGBTQ+ market then the background should have something they can associate themselves with otherwise it is so general nobody really can understand the meaning.

I think on artistic circles you are supposed to have the idea before you paint rather than having random outcomes which you then make up something to fit

Having said that I think 80% of the artistic community do the later.

Accidental outcome or not, it's meaning is exactly that which you choose to take from it. If that's what you see then that's what it means to you.

As for what someone from the scene thinks, who cares? (work with me here) That you see such an issue as a straight white male is an issue of itself, whether it's aligned with correct thinking or not. That you are asking the question shows its not without thought or consideration though. Or I could be talking utter horseshit.

So fat so arty and pretentious

😳

Unless the work is specifically designed to be addressing/portraying ‘pretention/pretentiousness’ I don’t see why would you seek to label it as such? Unless you maybe are just making stuff up as you go along, pretending it means something - and then self-awareness triggered such a label!

Having said that I think 80% of the artistic community do the later.

😳

Science and stats FTW! 😉

Here’s another: I think 92% of dog-walkers believe deep down that they failed at life with humans and so are now walking a dog in order to look special and ‘busy’ yet without having to forge real human relationships*

Seriously: OP it can of course mean whatever you want it to mean/represent whatever of your thoughts it has inspired. If those thoughts sit awkwardly then maybe that too is something to consider (as are you).

In art intentions are not sufficient and, as we say in Spanish, love must be proved by deeds and not by reasons. What one does is what counts and not what one had the intention of doing.” - Pablo Picasso

“Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced” ― Leo Tolstoy

“ I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.” ― Georgia O’Keeffe

*just made it up but it sounds plausible? ‘Journalism’ awaits... 😎🐶

You call it half hidden. I call it poorly executed.

Po-tay-to po-tah-to

Soz

Depends on your view of how art works. Does the artist determine the meaning, or does the audience?*

I've always done what I want to do. It's for others to decide whether it has any meaning, beauty, or relevance to them. Trying to predetermine an audience for art makes it just a craft IMO. You might be OK with that though.

*FWIW, I think it's both. The artist/maker may well have an intention, but that's easily eclipsed by whatever an audience sees in any given work.

PS. Ignore the reductivist troll.

Science and stats FTW!

I'm sure there's a scientific study or several on the 80:20 rule

Good Allyship is more than rainbows. Make yourself familiar with it all and then ask yourself if you have the right. Have you been chased down the street? Fled a country? Had to return to the closet in your old age or to access care?

The BBC are broadcasting something that might be good learning on this type of journey, early march. https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/events/adam-on-screen

On a forum that had a sudocrem cat this is the most random thread ever.

If you are making meaning up can't you just say its the NHS seeking help?

It looks to me like somebody has simply defaced a painting.

I think it was painted by squirrels 🐿

I am a white, middle aged, middle class, married heterosexual

Divorce the wife, black up and set up an account on Grinder....?

What funkmasterp said. Perhaps you could have embossed the canvas lightly so that it showed up from certain angles an when the sun shines on it.

Art is subjective and there is something for everyone.
Nice to see you´re connecting with your creative side.
This is not something I would hang on a wall.

I like the original abstract paint swirl.

Unfortunately it looks like my 7yr old has painted 'help!' on it with crayons.

Idea- okish. Execution - terrible.

You're trying to be thought provoking. I'm not easily provoked.

Has anyone considered that this is an actual cry for help from the OP? Perhaps he is a victim of domestic bullying. That might explain the, err, injuries.

Trying to be that literal with an idea is always going to be tricky. It needs to hold its own as a painting and that obvious a message can hold it back.

Some options would be;

Take the painting of the text to more abstraction - so it's almost hidden. Maybe cut or score into the wet paint. Try having 5 or 6 small painting on the go at once. It makes experimenting easier and you become less precious.

Look a Pop art. This works well with text, maybe some collage and mixed media.

The picture could just shout out HELP for anyone suffering mental anguish not just the lgbtq community, the Help needs to be more pronounced, perhaps if it was s blue coloured, it could be seen as offering help to those who voted conservative or out of europe, or another colour for a failing football team , its what people want to se or believe is protrayed in the picture.

Show don't tell mate.

The viewer looking at your chaotic colours, troubling composition, could feel the cry for help and that would be moving as they made that connection themselves. Profound, even, when it was first done in like 100 BC. So why infantilise things by painting some instructions on the canvas?

Like others have said there are many layers of meaning so apologies if I'm missing the point. Perhaps it is an ironic view of the didactic stupidity of some popular painting you've recently seen? I think you need to have your technique completely mastered, though, before you can paint stuff like that.

To answer some of the comments -

Yes help does look like a child has written it. That is because I got fed up with trying to get the letter as I originally wanted so just washed over the whole lot with a wet brush to get rid of it. What remains is the basic outlines and the colours that dried where they were.

Ruined a good painting? Possibly but I wasn't that please with the original so was going to paint over and still can.

Aimed at the LBGT+ community / Making up the meaning afterwards. No, not aimed at anyone really but if I go to exhibitions, if they ever start again, the people want to talk to the artist about the painting and the meaning behind it. The meaning behind it was the mental turmoil and strains of 2020 but could equally the represent the same mental turmoil that some face coming to terms with their sexuality (as I said at the start).

The question was whether it would be deemed wrong to raise this as an interpretation in the discussion. Having had a long Facebook 'chat' with Susan who is transgender this morning I feel okay about it. She said that explaining that a cry for help can come from different factors and sexuality or gender identity were just as valid as nihilistic anxiety. She felt that there was no issue with discussing the subject from which ever perspective the audience were viewing it. She also said the painting was crap.

I’m sure there’s a scientific study or several on the 80:20 rule

The so-called ‘Pareto Principle’? An aphorism?

This is great. That’s the science bit done.

Now I need to figure out a way to qualify an assertion that 80% of (living) artist’s motivations are postmodernist*

This of course must include all contemporary art including architecture, music, opera, theatre, dance, painting, sculpture, illustration, drawing, cartoons, printmaking, ceramics, stained glass, photography, installation, video, film and cinematography. But second thoughts if we choose just one discipline ie painting then it will be much snappier and more convincing.

*

the focus has shifted from artistic skill to the "meaning" of the work produced.

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/art-definition.htm#postmodernist

So if 80% of artists are painters and 80% of those painters are postmodernist it must also be that 80% of that 80% are just randomly playing around and making stuff up. Even the OP hints at art being essentially farty (gaseous, empty, nauseous?) pretension?

(I’m nearly 80% of the way to a convincing pop-science op ed piece)

Some might ask (20% or 80%) how do I show that ‘artistic circles’ are ‘80% agreed’ on the correct method for creating being a fully-formulated idea before execution? Again, cite the Pareto Principle.

Could possibly follow up with a convincing case for ‘only 20% of ‘artists’ are actually artists?’ 😉

Suggested title: Science Shows That Most Artists Are Actually Fartists

(Same goes for cyclists. 80% of cyclists are actually non-cyclists. See STW chat vs bike thread ratio. Predict- 80/20)

As a confirmed philistine when it comes to art, I am so confused that I can't form an opinion one way or another. Is this thread meant to be viewed in conjunction with the actual piece, as a kind of crossover thing?

If it is, I feel challenged.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_art#What_is_%22art%22?
I favour the institutional theory in most situations.

Art that questions its own status as art is a crowded genre, difficult to make a mark in.

How do you feel about these issues? Can you funnel that feeling expressionistically when creating the lettering? Are there any parallels between the issues and the way the painting is going? Painting is too beige, lettering too child/teenager like. Either it needs to be abandoned or it's evolution needs to take a radical new approach/direction. Obliterate it under something else. Glue more canvas on top and completely hide it. Don't listen to me anyway I never made it as an artist/painter and have stopped painting altogether.

The so-called ‘Pareto Principle’? An aphorism?

This is great. That’s the science bit done.

More your subsequent logic is devastating and I feel suitably humble.

There is an 80% chance all my posts are tripe as well

Surely your cry for help is about your (white male, hetero) need to understand the perceptions of others, and how hard this can feel without causing (unintended) offence or worse still, actual harm and detracting attention away from matters that really matter to those experiencing the very real effects of discrimination and exclusion?

(and I agree with the other points up there that the actuial execution is a bit rubbishh. Why not try slicing it in to 1" strips and fastening them back to frame alternatley upside down and right way up)?

I'm not totally convinced LGBTQ+ could be described as a culture, and as such cannot be appropriated.