Art Face Off.

This site is the home of Art Face Off, a place where artists are trying to empower the public to select the World's Greatest Living Artist. I love this concept, and blogged about my proposal for finding the world's greatest painting previously. The problem is, the first thing you do as an artist going to a site like this is check out the artwork and see if it is any good. You always want to be one of the "lesser" (known) artists in a great show, rather than the best one in a not-so-great show. It would be interesting if lots of good artists enrolled their work in something like this... something free, of course.

Artists find themselves in the same predicament as anyone else when trying to wrest power from the large machine: it is the same as going up against a corporation, or the government. I tried to play the Pearl Jam/ Ani DeFranco role for many years, with some success, but it is hard work, and you definitely do not get as far as you would if you just played along with the game. Artists, by nature, are people who question the status quo, but there are an awful lot of artists who are playing along, like my friends who are both doctors, who are otherwise great human beings, but voted Republican because, they said honestly, "they protect our interests." I have had some great philosophical discussions with friends about the "what if's".... what if the best art was not determined by the amount of money paid for it, what if taste was not determined by lots of wealthy collectors who may or may not know what "good art" is, (or simply have their own taste), what if the people making the important decisions did not have a vested interest in promoting a specific type of art or a specific artist? But the "what if's" do not matter, because they do not change anything.