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Team Players Editors: Josh Nemec Roger Allan Cleaves Jenny Hanniver Key Contributors: Inge van der Ven Sam Vanderveken Faye “Fancy� Donavan Cornelius P. Wifflecock Matt Arrigo J.J. Gerad
Foreword Aesthetic Taste is a quarterly publication dedicated to the advancement of art and art practices. It serves as a forum for artists and art enthusiasts to debut challenging and refreshing works of contemporary art. It is our goal to include fine art, poetry and art criticism concerned with current art practices, and displaying exceptional creativity and intelligence. We seek to promote a new movement in art which truly reflects the values, dreams, and desires of contemporary culture. The drive to create something which is never-before-seen is the most important driving force in the creation and advancement of art. For Volume 3, we have selected works that speak to a sense of celebration, resurrection, and coronation. For artists, the end result of the creative process is one which we hope leads to a triumphant feeling, from the victory of the artist over their materials, and the successful handling of their conceptual ideas. Volume 3 is a celebration for art that is not celebrated enough. The works in this issue are energetic, derived from confidence, and are unapologetic for being brilliantly executed. This issue showcases a number of artists from around the globe who are passionate about contemporary art, and have strong ideas about what is relevant for the future of fine art. Some of these ideas are contradictory, but all suggest a form of exultance. We hope you enjoy the content of this issue and we thank you for supporting the artists involved in this collaborative process.
Inge van der Ven www.ingevanderven.nl In her work Inge van der Ven plays with meanings and associations we have of the concept home. Her objects and installations focus on ordinary materials used in daily life. Used tea bags, old floorcloths or nylon stockings are given a second life to function as a skin for her objects. Left trails and spots in the material make you remember its history and give each piece its unique character.
ITS AN ELECTION YEAR VOTE FOR AESTHETIC TASTE
WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE Height: 7’4�
Crimes Committed:
Weight: 1065 lbs
Causing a ruckus in the art world.
Eye Color: Alizaron Crimson
Making work that looks too different.
Fur: Donkey Grey
Not playing well with the other farm animals.
Last Known Relatives: Eeeyore and El Rucio Panza Will most likely be covered in paint.
Public Intoxication Warning!!! Approach with caution. This assailiant will mostly likely be disguised and working in the arts industry.
DEAR JENNY, Dear Jenny, It seems that since Pop Art artists have become aware of becoming a brand and thinking of art as a product? Do you think this is helpful or harmful to the future of the fine arts? Dear Mad Man, Everyone is a brand. I can buy a website of my own name and claim that every inchoate thought I have is my own sovereign intellectual property. Getting a full-time job these days is like orchestrating a corporate buyout. I get offers to write for other magazines and blogs all the time, but because of some bureaucratic jiu-jitsu in my Aesthetic Taste contract I have to keep churning out knee-jerk
armchair philosophy for basically minimum wage. This is because my thoughts and my communicative ability have been bought and the check has been cashed. No, I do not think it is harmful to the future of fine arts, because it has always been like this. Art, and artists, are qualitative commodities and this been the name of the game for five hundred years. Actually, this interaction has significantly improved because now painters don’t get guillotined for painting gouty, inbred, chinless monarchs too accurately. If you don’t like thinking of your art as a product just put black curtains up in your studio and never show anybody anything you make, because otherwise people are going to want to know what your price is, and we all have one. Love,
Jenny Hanniver Dear Jenny, I’ve been struggling to find the difference between art and entertainment. Should artists be striving to become entertainers? Dear Keeping Up With The Kandinskys, What purpose do you feel art serves? Why would people spend their lives researching, producing, and collecting such an ambiguous and ephemeral human byproduct? Compared to quantum physics or crime scene investigation, art seems to yield little to no social benefit. In this respect, I feel that art is a rarefied and purified form of entertainment. An analogy might be that other entertainments such as pop music, vampire movies etc. are like a box of Franzia, and art is like some kind of fortified wine, grappa for example. Franzia is easier to drink quickly, and it is cheaper. Grappa is more complex, more bitter and more expensive. People need art because it is a form of entertainment that seeks to challenge their security, present them with the uncanny, and communicate preverbal emotional information. Art is not easily consumed in bulk, and it seeks to confront you with unpopular thought processes. In this one respect, art is diametrically opposed to other enter-
tainments, which seek to reinforce comforting and popular thought processes. I do not believe artists should “strive” to be entertainers because it is more than likely that they will wind up failing at both. To further my analogy, I believe that popular entertainments can be distilled down to their most powerful images, concepts, narratives etc. and these distilled concepts can be of intellectual use to an artist. Next issue of Aesthetic Taste our own Fancy Donavan will write an expose showcasing several of these mimetic popular culture trends, and how burgeoning artists can utilize them. Love, Jenny Hanniver Dear Jenny, I was wondering how you felt about the graduate experience of obtaining an MFA degree. I’ve been working crappy adjunct positions for three years after receiving my MFA degree, the pay is lousy and I still don’t have enough “work experience” to even interview for most jobs. Isn’t there something disingenuous about a system that hands you a degree stating that you are a “master”, but turns around and asks you to prove yourself again before you are ready for employment with benefits? I can’t think of any other master or doctorate program that works that way. There doesn’t seem to be many entry-level positions for the Fine Arts. Do you have any thoughts on how
to solve this problem or advice for a new grad entering the workforce? Dear Join The Club, I have a Master’s degree in creative writing, and I can’t pay rent because all I do is write advice columns for an online art zine and freelance Groupon advertisements. I wanted to write the “Great American Novel”. I had an idea about a small town girl who falls in love with the wrong man, and finds her own identity in the aftermath. But my publisher turned it down. The conversation went something like this: Me: Hey Rick, have you finished reading my manuscript? Publisher Rick: Yeah…actually, Jenny it was… uh…swell, but I have a few suggestions that I think could really endear your main character “Jessie Hanover” to a wider audience. Me: Ok, I just wanted her ambition to come through…. Publisher Rick: Vampires. Me: What? Publisher Rick: Or werewolves. Either would work. I think young adults will really identify with a coming of age story utilizing the supernatural in an erotic way. Me: Aren’t there already like a hundred of those types of books already? Publisher Rick: Jenny, your book has real potential if you make just a few supernatural changes. Kids will love that ice cream scene! Me: It’s not a kids book… It continued in that vein, with Rick belaboring the possibilities of the addition of
an angel and vampire make out scene. A master’s degree does not guarantee you a career, and it doesn’t even guarantee that you are talented or smart. I know plenty of washouts who got sheparded through higher education, simply because it’s easier just to pass unproductive half-wits than to try to change their nature. My advice is to go full-on Hulk. Give up your weekends and nights volunteering, call every person you know and ask for favors. People don’t like you automatically based on your degree? Well, that’s because a million unemployed masters have the same degree. Prove that you are different. I don’t like the system either, and god knows it hasn’t all worked out for me yet, but at least I’m still writing. I’m working on a horror novel about a slimeball publisher that turns into a werewolf. Love, Jenny Hanniver
Future Art by Josh Nemec
(Editor’s Note-This article exists as the first half of a longer essay, to be continued in the next issue of Aesthetic Taste) For several years, I have been intensively conducting research into the germinal field of exponential digital image proliferation. That, or I have been dicking around on the Internet, it’s hard to tell. My research has been from the perspective of a visual artist, with the intent of grafting “viral” content to fine art, a direction which I consider imperative and inevitable. This research is not an analysis of
digital mimetic or viral content as phenomena in general, but rather specifically it’s potential application to the field of fine art. The difficulty in conducting this research is that the field is still inchoate, and frequently willfully absurd, constantly threatening the possibility of shirking serious examination. I believe viral and mimetic visual content, if properly researched, could exponentially increase the audience of visual art, leading to the creation of art instantly relevant to younger generations. Essentially, I believe that we will witness the development of a strong form of visual communication, independent of language and geography, largely distinct from any specific regional cultures, which would provide an intimidatingly powerful voice with potential applications in advertisement, design and the fine arts. A cursory examination of this phenomenon, as it exists today, will reveal cats. People love to watch cats in adorable and
humorous scenarios, and the Internet reflects this interest by providing almost infinite variations on the theme. A search of “cats” on YouTube, a video sharing website, will yield roughly 544,000 results. Many of the most popular of these videos boast 30 and 40 million views apiece. According to the Whitney Museum of American Art’s website they “open their doors to nearly half a million visitors each year”. This means that a video of a kitten yawning will attract 80 times more viewers than every exhibit the Whitney puts on in a year combined. If you are an artist, this should be unacceptable to you. To me, the problem lies not in the public’s proclivity to cats, but in their apparent ambivalence to art. That, as artists, is our fault. The mere suggestion of acceding to public whim in the creation of artwork can get you drawn and quartered in some circles, and I do not suggest taking up your brush in the hope of drawing 40 million viewers to your funny/cute cat paintings exhibition. Pablo Picasso claimed in an interview that he was “…only a public entertainer who has understood the times and has exploited as best he could the imbecility, the vanity and the greed of his contemporaries.” His strategy clearly
was effective, if deflating, and artists today should likewise aspire, at least, to “understand the times”. The public has a system of sharing visual content with one another, and it doesn’t involve driving downtown to an antiseptic gallery. Millions of uploaded images and videos are being streamed, shared, tweeted, blogged, reblogged, pinned, “liked” and thumbs-upped every day. For the most part, nobody is advertising or disseminating these images; people are spreading them to one another on their own initiative at exponential rates, much like a biological infection, thus the term “viral”. Common themes in viral media include song parodies, crazy pet antics, cute babies, men being hit in the testicles, and people humiliating themselves in public. To generalize, the content is predominantly juvenile and sophomoric in nature. At the time of this writing, there is very little intellectual stimulation in watching most viral videos. Any “art” related viral videos usually depict the creation of trompe l’oeil illusions made by utilizing banal materials (e.g. chalk, dust, latte foam, push pins, Photoshop etc.) with no objective beyond rote technical display. There appears to be no collective desire to share the kind of slow burning, complex, conceptual or intellectual visual experiences often relegated to the fine arts. However, the mere existence of an autonomous, potentially world-wide, forum for image circulation which
requires minimal effort, no monetary investment, and no advertising, yet reaches upwards of 40 million viewers who are participating of their own initiative, on a daily basis, should evoke some amount of professional curiosity amongst forward thinking artists. Artists should not attempt to re-contextualize preexisting viral media for fine art. That would not be very interesting. What they should do, is what they did with the printing press, photograph, silk screen, television and video camera; assimilate mimetic and viral Internet strategies into the broader language of fine art. It would be exceedingly easy to write off Internet generated imagery as devoid of substance, as a passing fad, or (perhaps more damningly) as puerile entertainment for the socially stunted and immature. Beyond the fact that there is clearly precedent for invoking such callow content in fine art (Jean Dubuffet, Trenton Doyle Hancock, John Currin and Mark Ryden come to mind), I believe that the current crop of viral media seems immature for two reasons. First, being that many active users of the Internet, are themselves young. We are witnessing the pubescence of the first generation of children who have been turning to the Internet, to solve their problems and answer their questions, their whole lives. Secondly, and perhaps requiring more of a logical leap, I believe that Internet memes represent a form of “baby talk”, the first steps in the creation of a more complex form of collaborative, instantaneous, visual communication that will mature as this current generation of young people matures. Memes and viral videos today appeal mostly to slapstick humor, and an appreciation of the “cute”, the same type of stimuli that infants most respond to. As the phenomena of Internet memes is still germinal, I believe this to be a very telling correlation. It is possible that we are witnessing the first awkward cave painting analogues of the digital landscape. Part of my rationale in this is that some Internet memes appear to evolve, and grow in complexity. “Rage comics”, a sub-genre of meme, rely on a set of mutually agreed upon symbolic characters to tell humorous anecdotes in comic strip form. There are currently dozens of
accepted faces, which represent character archetypes (not unlike the masks in ancient Greek theatre) for narrative use in the comic strip. What is remarkable is that there is no one specific author of these digital comic strips, they are created by anyone who knows their basic lexicon of imagery, often anonymously. Visually, rage comics appear much like typical newspaper comic strips, except that they are made collaboratively, by thousands of anonymous authors, and they are released several hundred times a day. Rage comics can be characterized as “exploitable� because they rely on viewers to create future permutations of the meme, while still employing the original premise and framework. This exploitability often allows memes to reach a greater audience, as the number of authors creating additional permutations exponentially increases. These authors share their version of the meme to new viewers, some of whom then in turn make their own permutations. This is generally done until the joke is no longer funny, typically when the degree to which the image can be exploited, while still retaining a degree of consistency, has been discovered, and the limitations of the joke are apparent. Aside from rage comics, exploitable memes often take the form of captioned images. The original image exists as basic framework of the joke, and the captions change as new authors provide alternate versions of the joke. This is not unlike the contests offered by magazines to create the most humorous caption to a photograph, except that in the case of
memes there is no winner, other than, possibly, the permutation shared around the Internet most. Rage comics and exploitable memes are of particular significance to the fine arts. They provide an example of a pictorially driven language, in which viewers contribute to, and increase the longevity of, the initial image by authoring their own versions. Often memes are submitted anonymously, or the author is listed as an esoteric Internet handle, and mostly nobody cares who makes them. The collaborative spirit, and the wit of the images themselves, motivates people to create. Clearly, if fine artists could likewise motivate their own viewers to take an active hand in the creation and propagation of their particular conceptual message, art would find a more receptive (and numerous) public audience. To reiterate, it is not the fact that both fine art and mimetic content rely on pictures that links them, or not only that. It is the generative and collaborative spirit that motivates the inception of either endeavor. People want to share memes, without any expectations of recognition, with complete strangers, simply because it amuses them. From a sociological viewpoint, the only difference between the sharing of exploitable memes, and a fine art show reliant on relational aesthetics, is a lack of ambition on the part of the memes, and a lack of audience on the part of the art show.
Continued NEXT ISSUE Part 2: Dolan and the grotesque, projected future growth of the viral media phenomenon, and application in the fine arts.
For Cool Prizes and Cash Giveaways Visit us at AestheticTaste.com Disclaimer: There are no prizes or cash giveaway, but visit us anyway. Art is what we have to offer.
Samuel Vanderveken www.samvanderveken.tk
1.Objective Destroyed 2.In the Middle of Something 3.The Temptation 4.Smutty Ramble
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Once upon a time an artist wandered out into the woods and built a studio. This was a place where dreams were born. They had tasteful
dreams, which would change the way we look at aesthetics. They dreams that art could be both challenging and aesthetically pleasing.
Josh Nemec www.JoshNemec.com 1.. The Job Interview 2. This Town Makes Pretty People Fat
Roger Allan Cleaves www.rogerallancleaves.com 1. Painting For Dummies 2. The Racontuer of Neverland 3.The Ghost of Captian Hook
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Aesthetic Taste of the Earthling by Samuel Vanderveken What does aesthetic taste mean? In my opinion, it’s just the result of a certain education, which is accompanied by a certain way of looking at the world. I’m quite sure artists in general look at the world with a different pair of eyes. Or, as a famous Belgian curator once said: “The eyes of the artist are washed”. Meaning that with creating works of art, and by using different materials, and knowing certain techniques and theories, an artist looks differently at works of art and at the world. When I just think of painters, who are trained to use substances to create light and darkness on a flat plane, I guess they analyze colors a lot, they look differently at shades and reflections, find certain compositions in their surroundings. And the longer they paint, the longer they look with these eyes at the world, the more reality reveals itself as something really weird. You know, it is all very strange isn’t it? I mean, in general, the way everything turns around… No? Living on a big ball, somewhere in space, floating around. Every day we pass by this bigger ball made of lava, on a distance just
far enough so we don’t burn or freeze. And because of the light of this burning ball in space we can see colors and forms through two other little balls in our heads that are connected with nerves to a mushy mass in our skull. And this mass in our white skulls (we all have a white skull!) somehow remembers all the stuff we’ve seen over the years and can send certain impulses through the body it controls. Some of these impulses we call emotions. And those emotions might have something to do with aesthetics and the taste that is formed by the mash in our heads. So it’s all quite personal, but at the same time we’re all humans. We all came onto this planet the same way, and will all leave Mother Earth in quite a similar way. So you can look at this matter from two sides: one is the side of the individual, second is the side of the human race as a whole. And at this point in history humans are raised and educated in such different ways it is impossible for us all to have the same aesthetic taste. We all know art history started with cave paintings and fertility figurines (or the first toys as some scientists state; like prehistoric Barbies), the primary
forms of aesthetics. If this really is the beginning of Art (yes, that big charged word), then our art history lessons were quite limited. Because all artistic expression until today, in every continent, evolved from these prehistorical findings. By which I mean that it’s not only about the big impressive paintings commissioned by the clerical people or the portraits of western aristocrats. It’s not only about what you see and read in our city museums or conceptual art galleries. It’s equally about people who drew funny pictures on the sides of their houses just as decoration (or maybe for religious reasons), somewhere in Mali. It’s about the guy who draws a penis on the wall of the toilet. It’s as much about any kind of expression that makes our mushy masses go “ding-dong”, but where the world can live without. Art can be anything, as long as it’s useless, I guess. Food is useful, water, shelter, affection, warmth, light. But art? I’m not sure (On this matter I recommend you to read The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. It’s quite revealing). But to come back to the matter of “everything can be art and the narrowness of our art history classes”: Maybe art ceases to be art once it stops surprising us, once we have seen, absorbed and understood it. And that’s why most contemporary artists tend to seek different forms, different ways of working, in addition to the ones they have seen and know. Although, any way of creating something is equal to another way, only history will tell whether the work reveals its secrets or mag-
ic, and by not doing so will be a part of it or not. Classical art for example used to be about creating the illusion of reality in a picture or sculpture. But now that we have photography, film and 3D-printing it seems no longer relevant to make paintings or sculptures in this way. I’m
not saying it’s wrong to make a photorealistic portrait for example, but I guess in that case you’re just holding on to some kind of western tradition. And in this internet-, cheap flight- and bus-linked world you have to understand that the rigid western tradition is something we should get beyond. Or maybe we should rewrite it as “Art history of the world” or “Art history of the ball in space” or “Art history of the human alien”. And in this book there will be a chapter about the aesthetic taste of the earthling… Yes! That’s the book I’m going to write! Maybe tomorrow … less randomly … YES! Maybe.
Haikus by JJ KFC K F C Chicken Is all I can afford now. Art,help me pay bills Fuck the Rules Show me the rule book. I will break every last rule. Painting needs a champ Art Degree Blues The crappy job blues The song of my existence. Sad Songs Sound So Sweet
Aesthetic Taste Volume 4
CALL FOR ART collaborate: (verb) 1-to work, one with another; cooperate, as on a literary work. 2-to cooperate, usually willingly, with an enemy nation, especially with an enemy occupying one’s country. For Aesthetic Taste Volume 4 we are looking for works of art that speak to collaborative efforts. Have you ever worked with an artist whose style is drastically different from your own? Sometimes, the greatest collaborations can be accomplished with your self being the collaborative party. Have you ever gone into your studio, feeling gutsy, determined to try something new that your hands have not done before? We are interested in pairs, teams and groups collaborating to create inventive works of fine art, and individuals taking new chances and “collaborating” with their own entrenched styles. With the loose idea of collaboration in mind, please submit your works to aesthetictaste@gmail.com . We are appreciative of all the art that is hitting our submission box, and it’s our goal to personally respond to everyone that submits. We would really like to incorporate more writers in the mix, so please pass this information along to your writer friends, because we want to work with them as well. Media accepted: paintings, prose, poetry, creative writing, art criticism, art reviews, manifestos, prints, drawings, photographs, cartoons, comics, sculpture/installation documentation.
Weird Combinations by Roger Allan Cleaves
I can imagine the conversations that occurred between executives before Cowboys & Aliens was given the green light for production. Executive 1 said, “This will never work. You can’t just throw aliens and cowboys together and expect people to pay for this shit.” Executive 2 replied, “Why not? Cowboys and Aliens go together like peanut butter and jelly. Like fried catfish and spaghetti. Like Beavis and Butthead. Not only is this going to work, but it’s going to be epic, and it will inspire many more movies down the road. Who knows? Maybe one day we will make a movie about Abraham Lincoln being a Vampire Hunter. Just give it a chance.”
With a look of reservation and gloom executive 1 said, “We will roll the dice and take a chance. I fear that what we will be left with is Snakes on the Plane or even worse Machete. It’s your ass if this thing fails. I just don’t want my name anywhere near the credits.” Executive 2 walked away and talked to the powers that be, and the awesomeness that is Cowboys & Aliens was created. Sometimes when you roll the dice on a crazy idea you win big. Inside of you the spirit of art wants to blow on the dice, hurl them across the table, and yell “Baby needs a new pair of shoes”. So many things are done right in this movie, and it serves as a perfect example of one of the most important themes in contemporary art. Pick up any great novel, any comic book, watch any primetime TV show and you will find that they all depict monsters, humans with monster-like behavior, and foreign monsters invading the world. The stories being told today are about mankind’s fight to exist. As a civilization we are fascinated by apocalyptic
times, but the fascination with doom does not rest with the idea of death. It’s quite the opposite, the depiction of doom makes us highly optimistic that we can alter and survive a tragic event. A passage from Don DeLillo’s White Noise makes a powerful observation about doom and art: ‘“All that blood and glass, that screeching rubber. What about the sheer waste, the sense of a civilization in a state of decay?” “What about it?” I said. “I tell them it’s not decay they are seeing but innocence. The movie breaks away from complicated human passions to show us something elemental, something fiery and loud and head-on. It’s a conservative wish-fulfillment, a yearning for naiveté. We want to be artless again. We want to reverse the flow of experience, of worldliness and its responsibilities. My students say, ‘Look at the crushed bodies, the severed limbs. What kind of innocence is this?’” “What do you say to that?” “I tell them they can’t think of a car crash in a movie as a violent act. It’s a celebration.”’ Art has become celebratory, and some would say that the job of the artist is to find new ways to celebrate art through new creative ventures. I expect that the current trend in contemporary art, of combining two polar ideas to make one creation, will continue because as a society the only thing we can invent is new technology, which allows us to discuss old ideas in a new format. Life is not complicated. People aren’t incredibly interesting. Through the action of
making art we pretend that there is more to discover, or we become content to repackage what we already know. Let’s begin to take a closer look at how Cowboys & Aliens successfully uses the “combine and repackage” approach, so we can begin to understand the dynamics that go into composing an artistic feat of this nature. Before I begin I would like to note there are large amount of closed minded people that do not want to consider that traditional art needs to change. If you are an artist, you have to be willing to consider that art needs changing, and be willing to make art in spite of the few critical minds that will be against the creations you will spawn. I must state that if you don’t take delight in the arranging of eclectic elements for the sheer joy of seeing the possibilities, then you will probably never be able to see the beauty of Cowboys & Aliens, or of mold-breaking artworks being created in the fine art world. First you have to find variables that have already been romanticized in a particular culture. It is important that the variables you choose already have a built in audience that may or may not share a crossover audience, because then you can get the meat eaters and vegans to find common ground. The two parties might even discover that they have a lot in common. American culture has a fascination with cowboys because it’s a time period that has expired, and American culture has a
fascination with aliens because we desperately want to see things we have not seen before. When both genres of movies peaked in popularity, they did so with a campy loveability, and without the special effects that we have refined in this era of film making. The campiness of westerns and sci-fi films is what makes them loveable, and you want to be sure not to eliminate those elements from your contemporary creation. You want the tough cowboy type to that gets by on true grit to be the hero, and you want the alien with the second mouth in its chest to be the murderous villain that you have imagined for years. The idea is to keep all the best parts of all your variables intact while creating a singular feature. Cowboys & Aliens gives us the western landscape, the tough cowboy hero, played by Daniel Craig, and somehow even manages to include a tale of lost love and a tale of a budding romance, and most importantly a good western cannot be complete without an epic shootout scene. What we need from a good alien film is grotesque aliens who have advanced technology. The aliens must be stronger, smarter, and more durable than any human being alive. A good alien film must also have a plot in which the invaders are here to conquer the earth and mine the world of its resources. High speed, ultra sleek, space craft is also a mandate of any science fiction feature concerning aliens.
Next, make sure you find interesting ways to use technology to show the viewer things that previous time periods could not offer. The beauty of Cowboys & Aliens is that the guns are updated to lasers that shoot across the sky, and the alien spacecraft cause beautiful explosions in the desert. When a cactus flies across the screen and rolls around on the golden sand of the desert, you feel a sense of joy because you are seeing it for the first time, and with such great clarity. Computer generated imagery is so evolved now that it is hard to find the line that separates reality from fiction. Enhance anything that can be improved without disrupting the format of the way the genres work. If there are elements that you can exploit, that will endear you to fans who might think the idea of your combination existing together might be ridiculous, I advise you to exploit them to the maximum ability. Cowboy & Aliens accomplishes this by introducing Harrison Ford, Mister Indiana Jones himself, into the cast. People love the shit out of Indiana Jones and they might be willing to see him pass the torch to Daniel Craig while they fight aliens. What else do people love? People love tension between different factions and nothing touches our hearts more than when different races have to come together to defeat an even bigger villain. Cowboys & Aliens threw in the tension of resistant Native Americans to achieve this effect. It’s what I refer to as “Peter Griffin logic�. To save the world
we might have to team up with Jaws to defeat Big Jaws. The last crucial element to making your creation work is timing. The hardest variable to control is timing, but you have to do your best to be aware of the moment. It helps your cause of gaining mass appeal if the audience is ready to see what you have to offer. When Cowboys & Aliens hit the big screen they shared the box office with vampires and werewolves. Everyone was right at the point where they were ready to throw a brick at the screen if someone introduced one more vampire love story. Cowboys and aliens had not been forgotten, but they were outside of the limelight. You want to pick variables that do not freshly exist in our consciousness that we would not mind revisiting. If the scene is crowded with movies about cowboys write a tale about the mob. If too many stories are being told that involve dogs as family pets, you need to think spider monkey. If you can’t be original, then be different.
If you follow these steps you are well on your way to creating something that people might want to see or have never seen before. If I were you I would run to my studio and start finding interesting combinations and attempt to make them make sense. With any luck you can be the next box office success or the next rising star in the art world. Good Luck!
J.J. Gerad
jjgillustration.tumblr.com
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The Drawing Board In the next issue let ‘s try to include more drawings of sexy kitty cats. We don’t want to lose our fan base. Scoot and Doodle may be the best thing About our Google Hangouts. We should make a zine of these drawings. A wish all the people that read this zine would send one image. We would have over 1500 images to look at. There’s no such thing as too Much Tequila Have any more clowns walked into the bar lately? No matter how many hours I work I don’t believe I’m employed until the check hits the bank. #1-”Once you have seen one magical tableau at a mystic society, you have seen them all” #2- “Why not? Why not have a teddy bear in a row boat?” “screw being an artist, how do I become the falconer’s protege?”