Announcements were made recently regarding the second season of Bravo's Work of Art,which is partly produced by Sarah Jessica Parker. The new round of this artist's competition will debut in October,with promises of a Parkour based challenge and performance art,not to mention a contender named "The Sucklord".
The first season of this show drew plenty of ire from those in the artistic community,claiming that it gave their calling a bad name.
While there is some truth to that,art(as in museum/gallery pieces) tends to get a bum rap from most arenas of the pop culture world,a place where ironically enough such talents are meant to flourish.
To get a better grasp on what I mean,here is a display of misunderstood artists for your perusal:
Everybody Doesn't Love Her Sculpture
As the reigning matriarch of the Barone clan on Everybody Loves Raymond,Marie often said that her cooking was the art form that she was devoted to. However,one episode had her attending an art class where she was assigned to make a sculpture as her class project.
Marie decided to use an abstract style but just about everyone who saw it had a very literal view on what it really was. Stunned by the suggestive nature of the piece but too polite to tell his mom the truth,Raymond was willing to let the statue be donated to the local church auction,if only to get it out of his house. In the end,it took a nun to let Marie in on what message her artistic statement was making:
Plenty of No Shows At Pam's Art Show
Back in her days as Dunder Mifflin receptionist,Pam on The Office had the small yet strong ambition to become an artist. Only Jim seemed to take that dream seriously,even more than she did at times.
However,Pam did take a chance on showcasing her work in an art show,to which she invited all of her co-workers. The vast majority of them failed to make an appearance and the few that did either had only insincere support or secret snide remarks to offer up in return.
Strangely enough,the best response to her drawings came from Michael Scott,normally one of the densest people on the planet. His appreciation was most welcome,for once:
Be afraid,Be very afraid...of her Art
Movies tend to feature wacky pretentious types when it comes to characters who create art and in the case of Beetlejuice,the off beat sculptures of yuppie stepmom Delia were almost part of the cast.
From being used to hold captive the elder members of the Deetz family during a supernatural shotgun wedding to nearly destroying the very house that they were moving into,Delia's statues were a true menace to society,polite and otherwise:
A Matter of Life,Death and Art
Another popular portrayal of artists is the tortured by inner demons type and on the first season of Heroes,Isaac Mendez fit that frame rather nicely.
As a former drug addict who drew comics to make money to support himself as a painter,Isaac had more than his share of psychic woes before his ability to predict the future affected his work.
His paintings became key plot points that motivated the actions of other newly empowered folk and while he met a gruesome untimely death at the hands of Sylar,Isaac's painting predictions managed to make their mark well into the second season:
I guess it is the fate of most artists not to be accepted in their time,fictional and real world wise. What is also important is the reaction of the viewer for whom their work is meant to stir some sort of emotion,good or bad. How well such creativity does that is subjective,of course but it's also a great way for people to connect with each other and that's the real benefit to us all:
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