Marcel. Duchamp.

I find this piece on Duchamp very inspiring.  I find Duchamp's individualistic and off the board view on life not only immensely entertaining but necessary to counteract what he is against in this world.  I really like the opening idea of the artist and the viewer.  "The artist, Duchamp said, is a "mediumistic being" who does not really know what he is doing or why he is doing it.  It is the spectator who, through a kind of "inner osmosis," deciphers and interprets the work's inner qualifications, relates them to the external world, and thus completes the creative cycle." (9).  It is counteractive to the common notion that every artist has an incentive, and obligation to an idea to create works of art.  This brings me comfort for sometimes I feel "bad" I guess for painting just because I have a picture in my mind.  I love the fact that Duchamp was ready "to rape and be raped by everyone" (10), so to say, and he was.  It is inspiring how many people he touched with his work.  For instance, when he told Suzanne to hang the geometry textbook from her balcony, and let the wind sweep his pages, he allowed for his sister to execute the process of art and feel the final result.  He creates a lot of different art to comment on the process.  For instance, the Coffee Mill which took the idea of the grinder making coffee and creating a piece that celebrates the process of such an essential item to society.  I also found interesting his process in making his work the Large Glass.  The fact that he had trouble starting and let the dust build up and then varnished it as part of the artwork is courageous.  I really like that he took dust, the remains of the natural world, something we in essence create but see it as natural, to put on the glass.  The meaning I put to it as a reader is the comment upon society's ignorance to our "processes" to continue on the theme and our effect as humans on our natural world.   Another one of Marcel's work to continue on the idea of the process is his idea to publish his notes, as they are, with deletions and mark-ups.  Overall, I really enjoyed this reading on Duchamp and I am glad that Kip picked him as one of the artists to study.  

A painting of my own, I just felt like painting lips.