Featured Abstract trench art

Here for no particular reason are three of the four abstract flat trench art etchings I did in 2003. I was just starting to take this up as a hobby after retiring from my govt 9-5. I actually entered them in an art-judging session held at the Alexandria, VA Torpedo Factory, now a busy artist workshop with a great many tenants, many of whom are professional artists. They told me what I’d done was craft and not art, so I appreciated the opinion and set the craft aside to focus on my online sales of militaria. How are they trench art? I cut sections of brass out of 57mm WWII antitank cartridge cases and flattened them in a press. Then I laid out designs and acid-etched them. Then I gave them names. You can make any comments u want, I’m not the least bit sensitive about these samples from my failed abstract art career. But I’ll be back after I reinvent myself with different media I’ve been acquiring as art supplies. Lighting is bad on the first two, unfortunately.


#177: “Evolution”







(Unnumbered). “Hiroshisaki”



#176 “Societies”

 

Well, In MY opinion, it takes someone with artistic talent to plan, design, layout and create what you have done, and I think they are pretty neat!!!!! They may have called them "craft" just because they are not on Canvas, but IMHO, they are definitely artistic!!!! YOU GO, SPRING, BOY!!!!!!! You are on to something nifty!!!

And, I might add, I believe they must have taken a lot of time and work!!!!

 

I agree! I think they are very artistic.

 

Actually laying out the design on each varied from 5 min. To as much as an hour. Etching as I recall maybe 45 min. including de-acidification. Clear coating maybe 10 min. Certainly if I’d put any real thought into the designs it would have taken longer.

 

If this is art, your works surely are.

 

What pretentious snots to say these arent art. I think they are wonderful,I especially like the first one. Id have bought it !

 

If that's all Yoko's got, I'd say she can't hold a pebble to Spring!!!!! Other than her famous name!!

 

I can see these on the wall of a high class Asian cuisine restaurant. I guess, since they're WWII, just not Japanese.
Good job!

 

About 17 times more talent than Pablo P

 

Better than half the stuff I see sold as "high art", and far better than the average so-called abstract. (generally as far as I can tell code for "I can't draw a lick")

 

It shows your mettle...!

 

I only wish I had some talent to do something like that.
Don't listen to the naysayers, they know not what they speak of.

 

I like them all to .. I like the first one "Societies" the best .. all very nice indeed, Joy.

 

Love the second most. Couldn’t find a translation what does the name mean spring?

Also not sure who the person was who called it craft and not art. If that was applied to to many incredible artists then whoever they were would have blocked out a good few. There’s a porcelain artist called Pierre Williams I love jumps to mind.

Almost seems like an engagement with retro-avantgardism to me spring. Really love it. Battle scenes seem to be an obvious subject idea for the nature of the medium very cool

Sounds like whoever judged that competition had a very biased idea of what they think art is and your work didn’t fit into it. Try more competitions next time.

 

“Love the second most. Couldn’t find a translation what does the name mean spring? “

When i finished it, it reminded me of two of the biggest explosions in history prior to end of wwii so the name is a combination of the names of the unfortunate cities involved. Im sure some will be tired off by that knowledge, but it is historical fact now.

 

Not something we should ever forget. Nice I like it! Could almost be showing the chaotic sharp explosion of the iniatial blasts or the aftermath of unrecognisable debris.

I can see a stylised person in these, almost cave painting in style. Is this where man has come on from then. The man could also be vesuvian in style, a snapshot of the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

There’s nothing warm about the piece, cold metal, sharp corners, no subject to attach to. Much reflecting the subject matter.

If I can see that stuff vaguely from looking at it for a couple of minutes I don’t see why they’re just craft. Makes no sense. Even if they aren’t what you saw in it, art is imagination.

 

Super cool!

 

Cited from http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/tate-debate-when-craft-art

This says it all for me.

Tracy Fiegl14 October 2011, 15.54
Comparing art to craft is like comparing philosophy to engineering: they're two separate ways of looking at the same thing. To me art is communication of an idea or an emotion, while craft is the physical manipulation of material. An object can easily be both, either, or neither. A sculpture, for example, may communicate, but it was constructed using craft. Likewise a teapot can communicate an idea, but it was crafted. Function is misleading and no distinction. Functional objects can still communicate ideas, so art can be functional. One object could be viewed two ways: if you look at the way it was made and the materials used, you are looking at its craft, if you think about its ideas, you are viewing it as art. An object could have been crafted, but contain no art. Even a painting can be crafted but artless. A ready-made might be art with no craft. I very much like the idea of a spectrum. One last thought: skill doesn't enter into the definition of art, since a piece could succeed as art but be poorly crafted.

You did art sunshine!!
Cheers
Stephen

 

hi springfield...have you considered taking this up again and collecting cannons part time....fantastic ART !!...regards ..pewter2

 

Bah, everyone's a critic.

In my opinion there are only two criteria for art.
1 - Don't be afraid to color outside the lines
2 - Have fun doing it!!

If you can check both of those, then you are an artist and you are creating art, period.