Tina Winterlik: Collecting Art: My Opinion

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Collecting Art: My Opinion

I've been thinking about making a post on collecting art since Invaluable has been working on a similar project. Initially I was hesitant, but I decided that if I pursued it from an angle of social justice and indigenous issues, it could make a difference.

Now those of you that follow me on Google +, Facebook, Twitter, Linked & Instagram know that I am super busy usually blogging about Social Justice, Climate Change, Environmental and Indigenous issues.

I created a project specifically to raise awareness about pipelines, tankers and oil spills and how they can impact our lives and all the animals and marine life as well as forest creatures should a spill occur in their home.

I called it #SaveMyCoast http://savemycoast.blogspot.ca/

I started from just a few paintings I created of my daughter playing on the beach.

And as I blogged about the threat of a oil spill happening right here in Vancouver BC Canada, I was in turmoil of how I could get people to listen and engage. I also needed an outlet to vent my fear and frustration, using Art Therapy I channeled my energy into #SaveMyCoast and digitally added the impression of an oil spill on each painting. It is a glimpse of what could happen if we don't take action and stop them.

It took me a while to think and research what I would suggest to people to collect and this is my opinion. Collect art that raises awareness about #SocialJustice #ClimateChange #EnvironmentalIssues #Indigenous issues. Help bring attention to these serious issues of our time. By collecting them you help preserve them and hopefully they will live on long after you have gone. In the present time, you create conversation and we need to have more conversations about these critical issues that we face and that will impact our children and children's children.

In this way you are helping preserve the #TRUTH

Do you know who Annie Pootoogook was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Pootoogook
To be honest I sadly did not know of her art until she passed away.
https://canadianart.ca/features/annie-pootoogook-1969-2016/

The news of Annie's passing really affected me. You see her art was a little similar to my early work

But hers had much deeper meanings. What made me really sad and moved me was that instead of writing about how great her art was and the deep meanings behind it and focusing on those issues, the media focus on the wrong thing. It could have helped but it didn't. http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.3779380/stereotypes-plagued-inuk-artist-annie-pootoogook-in-life-as-in-death-says-gallerist-1.3780850

Here's a related article : https://www.facebook.com/notes/david-suzuki/confronting-the-crisis-of-violence-against-indigenous-women-and-girls-in-canada/10154599181061591

Now Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories
http://moa.ubc.ca/portfolio_page/lawrence-paul/
Creates strong messages with his art and it speaks the #TRUTH and I would suggest people collect his work.

http://moa.ubc.ca/portfolio_page/lawrence-paul/

My daughter and I visited the Museum of Anthropology this summer and we blessed to see his work
https://tinawinterlik.blogspot.ca/2016/07/inside-museum-of-anthropology-summer_7.html and the work of other gifted artists, such as Ian Reid, Heiltsuk Artist, https://tinawinterlik.blogspot.ca/2016/07/meet-yagis-he-eats-tankers.html

https://tinawinterlik.blogspot.ca/2016/07/meet-yagis-he-eats-tankers.html

Art has historically been used to portray the #TRUTH but it can tell lies.
https://mylangaratrccarvingjourney.blogspot.ca/2016/10/labels-thanksgiving-truth.html

https://mylangaratrccarvingjourney.blogspot.ca/2016/10/labels-thanksgiving-truth.html

I find these images so intriguing, one portraying a peaceful moment and the other violence, yet there is so much more going on.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/oct/05/artemisia-gentileshi-painter-beyond-caravaggio

From this article in the Guardian, they make a VERY GOOD POINT, why was her art overlooked?
"Artemisia Gentileschi turned the horrors of her own life – repression, injustice, rape – into brutal biblical paintings that were also a war cry for oppressed women. Why has her extraordinary genius been overlooked?" https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/oct/05/artemisia-gentileshi-painter-beyond-caravaggio

"“This is the ring you gave me and these are your promises!” yelled Gentileschi as she was tortured in a Rome courtroom in 1612. Ropes were wrapped around her fingers and pulled tight. The judge had advised moderate use of the sibille, as this torture was called, for she was after all 18. Across the court sat the man who had raped her. No one thought of torturing him. Defiantly, Gentileschi told him her thumbscrews were the wedding ring he’d promised. Again and again, she repeated that her testimony about the rape was reliable: “It is true, it is true, it is true, it is true.” "

This painting and the testimony struck a very strong cord with me. The #TRUTH will find a way...sort of like #NATURE finds a way. Well that's my opinion.

So if you are going to collect art, please let it be powerful, let it be for #TRUTH, let is be about #SocialJustice #ClimateChange #EnvironmentalIssues #Indigenous and #Women's Issues, such as for #MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women).

Let the artist vent and heal through art therapy, let #Truth be heard and shared and let it live on, long past your lifetime so that hopefully in to future, there will be justice, social, environmental, climate.

And as one final suggestion, please, please read this post,
https://mylangaratrccarvingjourney.blogspot.ca/2016/09/cultural-appropriation.html

Watch this video about Cultural Appreciation- There is so much to be learned and it's important to learn and acknowlege the TRUTH in art, culture and to acknowledge Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Appreciation and the Fine Line that exist between them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbrGFapT2i4

That's my opinion.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Collecting Art: My Opinion

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