Point of View

16 x 20 oil on canvas

Have you seen or heard of the TV show Work of Art-The Next Great Artist? I hadn't, but my helpful husband found it for me and started recording it for me. Wasn't that nice, now getting him to watch with me is another story.  It is on Wednesday nights on the Bravo channel. Okay first, an interesting little tid-bit the Executive Producer is Sarah Jessica Parker. It follows the next greatest _______ (you can fill in blank, model, singer, comedian, design star etc.) format. The contestants are given a task with a short little time to complete it in.

As an artist, the interesting factors for me are: 1) how each artist interpreted the assignment and 2) what the judges say about the finished pieces.  On the episode I watched they were given the assignment of creating a portrait of one of their fellow artists. A few of the artist produced a total abstract painting of their subject; stating that they were capturing the essence of the person.  I was so interested how these highly esteemed New York City judges would critique these portraits.  So often I have my self-doubts, feeling I am so conventional, lacking an semblance, of avante'gardness in my creative bones.

The judges final assessment of the artist's work singled out these artists that created the abstracts (versus a true portrait) and scored them lowest in the group and in fact eliminated one of them. Wow, I actually agreed with the judges, hmmm. Looking forward to the next episodes. Would love to hear what you think...