My first blog. It's been on my long do-list for some time. I sampled a few artists blogs to understand the purpose. Okay, it's another venue for passing on information and maybe having discussions. I am surrounded by this swirl of who's, what's, when's, and why's of the art world and it's all so serious. (Yes, I do take my art very seriously.) It was then that I decided to begin my new blog with something humorous related to the art world. I will build a blog library that would include among all the serious stuff, some bits of funny.
My daughter was sitting near me when I told her my plans. Being a big SpongeBob Squarepants fan, she told me about a particular episode related to art. So we watched the video together and shared our laughter (and a bowl of Cheez-its).
SpongeBob Squarepants, Second Season, "Artist Unknown"
(Only one student has enrolled in Squidward's art class: SpongeBob). www.Nick.com
For those who haven't seen the episode, I'll try to briefly describe it. (You really have to watch it in order to catch all of SpongeBob's and his creators' typical humor.)
Squidward, cashier for the Krusty Krab and part-time artist, is all excited about teaching art 101 at a recreation or learning center. (All too funny for me as I taught art for the first time last year with the Community Recreation and Education.) He opens the door and sees tons of students; however, they're for the cooking class and only SpongeBob remains as a student. (As a teacher, you want a good size class; both too many and too few students have their issues.)
Squidward, after saying art is not fun and games (there's that seriousness), asks SpongeBob to repeat: "I have no talent." (Have you ever had teachers like this?) So, Squidward says he'll start SpongeBob from the beginning, demonstrating a wobbly circle on the chalk board. SpongeBob draws a perfect circle on a paper. Aghast, Squidward crumples the paper and SpongeBob promptly makes the crumpled paper into an origami figure. Totally frustrated, Squidward tears the paper up and SpongeBob makes a collage of the paper bits.
Squidward finally tries to demonstrate sculpturing and the marble block crumbles for him. Then SpongeBob quickly sculpts a realistic male figure. Squidward says he can't make art so quickly and pulls out a book, "The Rules of Art." (That's a blog topic!) Squidward then puts a clay piece shaped liked his own nose onto the sculpture and claims that now it's art. (Has a teacher ever worked on your artwork - without prior permission?)
Poor SpongeBob is so demoralized, so undeserving of his teacher, and that despite his obvious natural talent and creativity, he somehow didn't get it. (Have you ever felt this during or after a workshop?) When a world famous art collector shows up, SpongeBob gets knocked into a dumpster and haplessly taken off to the dump.
This exuberant art collector is on a shopping spree for a new museum. Of course he considers Squidward's art material for the trash but then he gets excited when he sees SpongeBob's sculpture. He removes the only flaw, the added nose and claims it's genius. The collector says he'll give fame, fortune, and immortality to the sculpture's artist (, i.e. dreamland). Squidward then erroneously claims it's his work.
While carrying it out to the car, the sculpture's head gets knocked off and crumbles. The collector says that Squidward should be able to fix it and will come back later. Squidward rescues the demoralized SpongeBob from the dump and tries to get SpongeBob to recreate his art. Now, understandably, SpongeBob can't draw a perfect circle and the marble block crumbles, because, repeating his teacher, he surmises they're not in the book.
As SpongeBob heads off into the distance, the completely exasperated Squidward is trashing the place and destroying his art. (Did you ever get this frustrated?) The collector comes back and Squidward dumps his beret on the janitor's head, saying he was the artist. The episode closes with the dust clearing and a sculpture like Michelangelo's David remaining amidst the debris.
