John, Renoir had people strap brushes to his hand when his arthritis made him unable to move his fingers. Hananiah Harari painted when he was virtually blind at the end of his life, and he painted until he died. If Matisse could cut out paper shapes, he could paint.

Appreciating art, in my opinion, begins with not knowing the story. The story is often indistinguishable from the Painted Word (Wolfe).

My impression is that Matisse, in life long combat with the chameleon Picasso, had to come up with something new. His cutouts succeeded to the extent that they can be found on greeting cards at chain drug stores. So can a lot of Picasso's work. And Renoir's, OK. But... don't believe the hype!

I'e seen the cut-outs, Rick. And pretty well all great Art is seen on tea towels That's a part of what makes it great.

In the same way that the best poetry is available to all, not just the bleeding professoriat.

I do not deny their existence, John. I just utterly reject the story about why they exist. Henri was ham-handed at the trickster game. Which doesn't preclude success and acclaim. He gave Picasso a run for the money at the easel, though! And, yes, the crowd applauds the cutouts and even The Ramones can be had on T-shirts.

Matisse should have died in the saddle, is all I'm saying.

Rick

Wot! No retirement for artists.

Actually I back that. Writers dying at the typewriter, like P G Wodehouse, or with pen in hand, like Patrick O'Brian. I hope I shall die searching for a rhyme. But not yet.

Titian lived to 99 did he not?

I've been looking through your list and can't find anything to say because I don't know how to judge them. l can't make them be poems in my head yet. In fact only one sparked ideas and comments and it was one I'd contributed to at the time. I will carry on trying, though...

Goodness, has nobody been here since I last visited?

I'm sorry to have been away so long, but I'm still having trouble finding a way of commenting on things other than Rick's painting(s), which I understand as artefacts and have already had my penn'orth on.

I think what I really need to do is establish where the other art resides. Is it "there" anywhere? Is its final manifestation printed and framed? If not, will it ever be?

I have little problem with the concept of the written word being "real" in a virtual context, or even of visual art being stored as a copy in a "cloud" situation or a personal computer file, but I have real difficulty in believing in a "picture" that I could not buy. borrow or visit.

But I haven't given up on this and I'm still thinking.

Hi Ann,
Thanks for coming back. Thanks for thinking about this too. Yes, quite a lot of the posts lately have been digital art, but not all. Yet, you nailed the problem here when you said "Goodness, has nobody been here since I last visited?". That is the whole point of this thread.

We do get some physical art too but some of them are a bit old. My "Synapse" is a mixed media collage on canvas panel. Steve Mar posts watercolors and drawings, but, sadly, he takes the art down when they are a few months old. Cyn Neely has posted her paintings and this older thread "Flight Path" has some discussion about the relationship between her poems and poetry. http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showthread.php?t=22602 Prem Singh Charan has posted paintings. It's been a while though http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showthread.php?t=20754

I feel like some of the digital work, including photographs, might get printed at some time. I can understand putting it through the workshop process before going to that expense though. There is a discussion of getting digital art printed on Patricia Marsh's thread "Hanging Basket" http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showthread.php?t=23372

You have inspired me to post and acrylic painting that I intend to photograph and print digitally onto canvas so that I can work on it more without touching the original - stay tuned to this channel.

When I read through this thread, I thought immediately of the Asian form of 'haiga.' It is generally a short poem in haiku form paired with a picture. My understanding is that the poem should not describe the picture; they are independent, capable of existing each on their own. But the haiku is better because of what the picture adds to the insight found in that haiku, and likewise vice versa.

The trouble, if you want to call it that, is that in much so-called modern haiga, the picture is a direct visual representation of the haiku. In other words, the haiku speaks of a man walking in winter, the picture shows a person walking in winter. The picture is to show the essence of the haiku, not a concrete representation of it.

Just my two cents.

Lorraine, I find that very interesting and it gives me an idea for a challenge. Do you mind if I use your post as a quote in the challenge destructions?

Sharon,
Fine by me. I'll look forward to seeing what your challenge is.