A&E: Avatar and Explination

So apparently my last little story caused a rub. Normally, if you leave a comment anonymously, I don't pay it any attention. I think Tom Hanks said something similar when he talked about MySpace: If you don't have the balls to at least leave your name in a spiteful comment, then you don't deserve my attention.

This is the exception due to the fact that said comment is the kind that shows the power of the internet and anonymity, which can lead to mindless and often blind fanatical behavior. I've seen it on YouTube, any Disney forum I've posted on, and any website that offers a way to leave comments and critiques. It's what I like to call blind fanaticism. Basically, you are such a fan of whatever it is you are a fan of to the point where any negative criticism said or relaid by anyone is like an act of blasphemy to your God of religion of choice.

As a fan of Disney, I consider one of my best strengths is that I can critique the company and their products without blindly hating the name. For example, the way that the states are treating their theme parks is rather insulting. All the best parades are being debuted either in California or Tokyo while Florida, their crown jewel, is still using a float that debuted nearly thirty years ago. We will probably never see events that have the same grand or majesty as Tokyo DisneySea's Style, which featured floats and costumes representing the various classic art movements (personal favorite goes to Ursula designed as a Japanese woodblock print Geisha) or even something as simple as fun as Chip & Dale's Cool Service. And all that show is is a boat with water guns spraying guests to cool them down during the torturous summer heat! Meanwhile, as bad as this is, I feel confident that their film division may be on the right track again with animated stories that actually rely on heart and making the viewer care about the character. I saw this with Enchanted and is looking forward to seeing this again in Wall-E. I didn't see it with Valent or even Chicken Little. There was nothing there that made me care about the characters.

Now, those comments would be replied with equal spite from people who see the state properties of theme parks as the best in the world. In fact, they have at one point or another.

This is very much a personal opinion, but I think that this kind of fanatical behavior is rather dangerous. If you cannot step outside of your fandom to see how your interest and behaviors are seen by those that are not member of your little club, then you're not getting a well-rounded view of yourself, the world you live in, and all things in between. Do I practice what I preach? To a degree, yes. I see the art work from both within and outside of it. That's why I can laugh at the token episodes about the art world I see on sit-coms while rolling my eyes in disapproval at the same kind scenes in movies like Along Came Polly. That's also why I can appreciate and actually spend time with the pieces I did in Venice, even if all I saw were (and this is a face value description) was a bank of monitors of women reading the same letter in different ways or a three portable urinals broadcasting various post-war speeches from three of history's top political figureheads.

With my recent critique with Lauren, she said that I need to be objectively stand outside of my thesis and look at my work to see if it saying what I want it to. This is a very difficult ability to step outside yourself and look at the world completely disconnected from the experience. But to just look at something and then completely be turned off by it because it rubs you the wrong way feels a bit ignorant.

Now then, on to the next subject...

This little guy on the right is my Gaia Online avatar. Over the weekend, I've been thinking about these self-portraits and came to the conclusion that, on my own, I've run out of representations for myself. Some of the images are starting to repeat themselves. The strange thing is, I've had this avatar for about four years now, and the range of representations for myself is nearly infinite given the inventory of items I have collected. I mean, on that website, I've dressed in drag, as a vessel for demons, a ninja, a pirate, a robot, an elf, a fairy, a pimp, a cowboy, a stripper, Satan, Santa Claus, Cupid/Eros, a vampire, a humanoid dragon...

You get the idea.

In relation to the subject above, these avatars pretty much let me do things I wouldn't normally do. I wouldn't dress in drag or have a cybernetic arm surgically integrated to my body. Some of the characters I've come up with tend to look like they would act in a way that I wouldn't act in real life, such as my stripper character that pops up on the site whenever I've been sexually frustrated.

I think this is that nuance that Terry was talking about. It wasn't so much the mathematical construction so much as it is that personal quirk unique to an individual's personality.

What I plan to do isn't anything new to Gaia. Users there draw their avatars all the time, giving them a more appealing aesthetic representation outside of the pixel doll base used to make programing the avatar feature on the site easier on the servers. It's allowed simply because there's that protection of fandom. It's probably why my Sea of Dreams subtitles haven't been pulled from YouTube. But can fan art be fine art? Sure, if done properly. Murakami used the iconic image from Time Boken for his paintings, but he put a little spin on it that made it into art. Andy Warhol did the same thing using the very image of Marilyn Monroe. On top of that, I don't think Gaia owns exclusive rights to wings that sprout from the temple of one's head or white summer dresses with a black waist band.

I have enough options with my Gaia avatar to use as a foundation guide in designing a character. From there, it's all a matter of drawing that image in a style and in an aesthetic that is unique to me and fits the collective whole I have going on. If an avatar strikes me as something that would be interesting to sculpt, I may pursue that as well. Mostly because my two sculptures are the ones people are responding to the most. The drawings? Not so much.

The thing that bothers me right now is the fact that I know someone would rather want these portraits to be treated like art portraits. Painted, not drawn. Elegantly framed, not pinned or taped to the wall. Clean and refine in presentation, not raw. It's something I thought would be interesting, but I don't know if I have the money for it.

Besides, I like digital paint rather than real paint. Less mess to deal with.