To be fair, Dave Barry saw it first.

I was catching up on my Dave Barry columns today while installing (for a second time) OS X on a G3. This is the column I was reading that prompts this entry. Before you click on the column to read the genius that is The Dave, click to this site: artcritical.com.

Did you look at "chair"? That's the title, you know. chair. They want an amazing amount of money for chair. So much that one could go out and by a decent used car with it. This is an example of "found art" which is to say, "trash". One person's trash is another person's treasure, they say. Or art.

Don't get me wrong; I love art. A lot. I really do. I love the works of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Breugel, Van Gogh, Mark Rothko, Rockwell, Kandinsky, Warhol, Rodin, O'Keefe, Picasso, J.M. Whistler, and a host of others. I don't really "get" some of the stuff by Kandinsky or Picasso but I appreciate it. I think that the reason I appreciate their work, as well as the works of hundreds of others, is that they have created. They've made something out of nothing and put effort into it. Kandinsky's abstractions are a little out there but they have motion and contrast. On the other side of the coin are the works of Mark Rothko, who's paintings are, at first glance, nearly monchromatic. When you look more deeply into them though, you see subtle variations of shade which make for a complex image. I really do appreciate that.

But when a person finds a old busted up chair somewhere and sticks it in a corner and calls it "art", that's where my understanding and appreciation fails me. I have friends who are artists. Heather, for example. Heather is a very talented artist. I have a beautiful drawing of a goldfish she did which hangs proudly on my wall. I look at it frequently, and appreciate it. Heather also is a chandler -- a maker of candles -- who is dedicated to her craft. She takes great pains at making sure her candles; indeed, everything she does, are made well and with care. I don't think it would ever occur to her to find an old busted-up chair on someone's trash heap and put it in a corner and call it art.

I support the arts. I understand that not every piece of art is called 'art' by all. But the vast majority of people who create art do just that: They create. They make something out of nothing. They don't make nothing out of nothing. I'll close by sharing an idea I had a long time ago for a work of pseudo "performance art". A large wire trash can, the kind you see made of wire mesh but on a much larger scale, would be placed in the middle of a dark room. The can itself would be illuminated from above with a narrow-focus white spot. As people came into the room they would be invited to grab at random from one of several boxes around the room a piece of colored paper. They wouldn't be able to determine the color before they took it. Then they would be invited to crumple the paper up or fold it or do whatever with it and toss it into the basket. There would be a distance involved between the perimeter of the exhibit and the viewing/tossing area, so not every item would go into the basket. Some would fall around the outside of it. Many would go into it. From there, the basket would fill with brightly colored paper, always changing as it filled. Every so often, when it was overflowing, an image would be taken by a panoramic camera of the basket and the debris field around it. Then the basket would be emptied and the floor swept and the process would start again. Sure, it's wacky and odd but it is created art. In fact, it's created by hundreds of people. That's truly inspiring.

I need to sit down after this. Anyone got chair?