What is Talent?

I received the above postcard today. I saw the image and initially thought, "It's just two chairs stacked on top of each other! Where's the talent?" but upon further inspection I noticed that the artist, Mike Womack, created an optical illusion with paint. Now, that's talent. The piece is titled Cloud. Maybe this year's exhibit will have some more examples like this.

I have visited previous exhibitions of New American Talent and have wondered why did this curator choose these pieces and what are they seeing that I am not. One year, a piece with a title that I do not remember (probably untitled complete with the pretentiousness of all lowercase), was simply a roll of toilet paper on a holder bolted to a wall and part of the roll was carefully rolled out and laid out over a couple of steps. The Stark Gallery marketing people featured this piece on the post card advertising the exhibit.

Some people wonder why the public does not support the arts to the extent that they feel the public should. Others wonder why non-commercial artists are not taken seriously.

Does the toilet paper roll artist really have talent? Talent worthy of being placed in a gallery? Talent greater than say, Thomas Kinkade? Which one is the hack - the commercially successful Thomas Kinkade or the toilet paper roll artist? I think the real talent was the person who convinced a curator that the carefully laid out toilet paper roll is art worthy of being placed in a gallery.

I wonder how much of a curator's criteria is determined by the merit of the art rather than other factors? Curators are human beings with all the foibles. Would a truly talented artist with poor representation have the same chance as a so-so artist with a great agent?

Changing subjects: in the third panel Momma realizes that her own death would make her children happy. The one thing I'm certain about the nature of God is that it has a sick sense of humor when it comes to answering some prayers. Momma knows it, too.

My father-in-law is still in the hospital undergoing treatment for cancer. The drugs and toxins have had a weird effect on him. Walter successfully convinced his father that the people at the VA hospital were not trying to kill him, they did not kidnap him, and most importantly, they are not trying to sell him a car. The third item took Walter the longest to explain. Odd the fears that come forth in an altered state of mind.

Two of the joys of producing a somewhat funny but not brilliant web comic is the lack of death threats and not pissing off a lot of people when real life intrudes upon updates.

I've been asked to kill myself but I've not irritated anyone to the point of them mustering the time and energy to do the job themselves or put down the money to hire someone to kill me. Just a command and a hope that I would obey that command.

A small part of my life is based on a similar hope. I send my commands telepathically. So far it has not worked. The woman using the treadmill next me never shut up, the woman with several noisy children did not kill them, and no one fully paid attention the words coming out of their mouths. No one thought for an entire minute.

As for real life intruding upon updates. Hey, Ces! When will there be new Medium Large? I know that paying work and other things take precedence over a free web comic but what about my needs? I need to be reminded that there are people who draw better and are funnier and that I will never achieve that level of wit. Also, I could use the laugh.

Part of me knows that I can do better but another part of me wonders if this is my best. It is the second part that bothers me. I have a reached some limit? I should focus on the first part and take action.

Some think I should turn it over to Jesus. At least in Jesus I would be content in my bit above averageness. At least that is the theory. After all, God has a plan and place for everyone and maybe his plan needs a somewhat mediocre web comic and a person to do a dead-end, although well-compensated, job to fully function.

Actually, the theory is that Jesus will magically make you a better person without any effort on your part. At least, that is how I've observed some self-proclaimed Christians act. They don't try.

This whole line of thinking is why I don't fully believe in an anthropomorphic, personal god. I hold on to the belief in an anthropomorphic, personal god for comedic purposes. It is too rich a mine to completely walk away from.