Q Museum

I was promising to tell you of a new venue for art; my intended subject continues to have computer issues, so I will tell you of another, one of a growing movement: virtual art galleries that the public can contribute their own work to. Often they are associated with bona fide institutions such as the Louvre and the Smithsonian. This one is via CBC's show Q, hosted by Jian Ghomeshi. This phenomenon brings up questions about what art is, what makes an artist, how one discerns what is good art, and so on. The snob in us can sniff at the everyman aspect of this, the accessibility of fame and recognition; but why are we derisive or dismissive of John Doe's art? What makes his inferior to some of the crap that does make it into legit galleries? As my friend says, much art criticism is pretentious baloney (my paraphrase) anyway, so does it not pretty much remain to us, the viewer, to decide what is 'good' and 'not good', not only the gallery owners? It's much more about your emotional reaction, than just technique, maturity and universal appeal. Here is an example from Q by Jackie Alcock, Who is looking at us while we are looking up at them? All starts are in the right place.

Now, this is redolent of Kurelek (self taught) and perhaps fits into the naive genre, but that does not necessarily make it 'bad art' which should be kept in a closet gathering dust. For me it, along with its title, triggers a response that is about my place in the world and how tiny I am and concurrently how important I am to God (Matt 10:29, 31) despite the enormity of the universe. Doesn't mean I would put this in my living room, but it also doesn't mean it shouldn't be made accessible to more people via the internet. If you would like to contribute your stuff to the Q Virtual Museum, go to http://www.cbc.ca/q/index.html?copy-virtualmuseum. It will be interesting to see where this movement goes--trend of the Naughts that we look back at and laugh at, or (right or wrong) a new branch of the established art scene.