Above: The preliminary design for the cover of a book of puzzles. Currently, I am in the process of developing the visual puzzle type I call the PATTERN SQUARE.
I have just completed creating a set of 100 visual puzzles. I believe these are a new kind of a puzzle that should complement well the two classics: the crossword puzzle and the sudoku puzzle. While the crossword is a verbal/trivia puzzle and the sudoku is a number/math puzzle, my PATTERN SQUARE is a visual puzzle.
Like my MAZE SQUARES, the PATTERN SQUARES are not only a game but also art. The puzzles are visual abstraction (non-objective, minimalism) and will be offered in a book format and as art prints. Unlike my MAZE SQUARES, the PATTERN SQUARES require a marking tool. They are meant to be completed by the player using a pen or a pencil.
Currently I am in the process of doing research as to whether this puzzle is an original idea that I need to protect with a patent or just a unique variation on an already existing idea. A unique variation will require only a copyright protection. A quick internet research (a more thorough bookstore field trip will come soon) showed that there is not anything like my puzzle out there.
But in my research I came across these two rather alarming submission guidelines (I highlighted the alarming passages):
[DK Publishing] Neither the corporation nor its imprints assume responsibility for any unsolicited manuscripts which we may receive. As such, it is recommended that sole original copies of any manuscript not be submitted, as the corporation is not responsible for the return of any manuscript (whether sent electronically or by mail), nor do we guarantee a response. Further, in receiving a submission, we do not assume any duty not to publish a book based on a similar idea, concept or story.
[Satori Publishers] Any submission(s) received become the wholly-owned property of Satori Publishing, including, but not limited to, content, inventions and concepts, as well as concomitant and/or tangential ideas, and may be destroyed, scavenged, utilized or assimilated upon receipt without remuneration. All claims and rights of trademarks, patents and/or copyrights of such submissions to Satori Publishing are considered to be waived. Under no circumstances will submissions be returned or acknowledged, whether or not the submission contains a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
My first response on reading these submissions is why would any creator submit any original work or idea to either one of these companies. This is is exactly why I have to be careful not to publicly share any of my ideas for projects publicly. It is much easier and cheaper for a publishing director or editor to simply steal an idea and hire their own people to create a project based on it than to have to remunerate the creator who came up with the idea. This is where patent law becomes essential. Anyone with an original idea has to protect that idea with a patent before he or she reveals it in public.
Ideas have value, monetary value, and it is very important, I believe, that those who come up with ideas are satisfactorily remunerated. Stealing an idea is like stealing money. No, it is worse than stealing money because what is stolen is not only money but creative credit.
The other day, I had a dream about a woman but not a specific woman. It wasn't any one I know or have seen. It was a female archetype, a female from my subconscious. It was a sex dream, of sorts. I say of sorts because while it was sensuous and arousing it was not the typical pornographic copulation. I dreamt in details and close-ups. I dreamt about flesh, warm and soft. I dreamt about thighs and a vagina. I dreamt about an unsatisfied need.
The dream made me realize that that is what the ancient sculpture VENUS of WILLENDORF and the Renaissance painting ANDROMEDA by Rubens represent. These two masterpieces of art represent the essence of the female for man. No matter how liberal feminists might despise the objectifying of the female and not matter how politically correct males want to deny it, the female body will always be the thing that draws men to women. Some people may find this shocking, but the female body may be the only thing that draws men to women. Arguably, the need for the flesh, warm and soft, may be the one single thing on which all heterosexual relationships are predicated upon (that is why I believe that "true love", the spiritual kind, may only be homosexual. Two men, or two women, will always have more in common than a man and a woman will).
And the male need for the soft and warm flesh is what these two artworks are about. They visualize the female body as plump (fat) as a way to better express the tactile essence of the female form. While Rodin's sculptures may be more beautiful to look at, as are any popular semi-nude covers of women on fashion magazines, the VENUS OF WILLENDORF is more beautiful to touch. And while Playboy centerfolds arouse the male organ better, Rubens' ANDROMEDA expresses the man's essential need for the female form like no other skinny nude photo has or can.
The detail of Rubens' ANDROMEDA. The painting depicts more than the object of man's desire. It depicts the archetype of the male need: the soft, warm flesh of the female thighs, belly, breasts and vagina.
Becoming the Greatest Artist of the Twenty-first Century, One Man’s Journey Documented from the Beginning Steps
The steps that it takes to become a world class artist, the greatest of the twenty-first century, are now being documented from the beginning of the process by the artist himself.
SEATTLE, Washington -
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” So says the famous Chinese proverb. Such a journey would take over two million steps. And the journey to becoming one of the greatest artists of the twenty-first century may take even more. But that is the goal of the 41 year old, unknown, “beginning” artist Maciek Jozefowicz. And he intends to document his journey step by step on the new Facebook page, ART JOURNEY, and in his blog, Konokopia.
“I have the talent and I have the creativity but I lack the skills,” says the artist, “so my art JOURNEY will essentially document the development of my skills which I have not yet had the chance to develop to their full potential.”
And that development begins with drawing. The first group of steps consist of pages and pages and pages of training drawings. “The training drawings show development of my drawing technique and drawing knowledge. They are not made to be works of art. They are work. I do these drawings to improve my hand-eye coordination and my hand control and precision. The training drawings are like a basketball player practicing his shot, or the quarterback learning plays.”
The training is just the means to an end. “The goal to be one the great artists has been in the back of my mind since being a teen but I never wanted to follow the regular route,” says Maciek. And he certainly has not followed the regular route. The artist does not have any formal training but he has a Bachelor degree and a Masters degree in architecture. Both degrees he earned from the University of Washington while in his thirties.
“I always hated the mainstream perception of artists and I did not like the art scene in America in the Eighties and Nineties. There was more social commentary, social propaganda, than art being done in those years. And there was too much shock tactics being used. Good marketing but bad art.”
This might help explain why Maciek decided not to attend the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, in the mid-nineties. “I got accepted into the school. I received a scholarship. But ultimately I decided against it. I did not want to be just another art student. I wanted to be unique. And I thought that a degree in architecture would do two things for me. One is that it would show that I am not just another flaky artist who cannot do anything else. The second is that it would give me a different set of skills and different knowledge that would help to differentiate me from other artists. And I believe it has.”
Even though he is still at the beginning of his art career (“Art is not a career, art is a life choice.”), the artist’s exposure to architecture has already produced two innovative art series: the CONSTRUCTION SERIES and the MODEL SERIES. It also produced what he belives to be one of the great sculptures of the century, ITALIAN SONNET
“The MODEL SERIES is my attempt to develop the architectural model into sculpture. I am still early into the series and most of the pieces are more building than sculpture. But, I believe, the series will eventually produce truly revolutionary and original artwork, sculpture of space and form and structure.”
The CONSTRUCTION SERIES is a group of wall sculptures that draw their inspiration from the Model Series and from the architectural model-making techniques. “This series explores the potential for expression using this simple art-making technique that consists of gluing together various sizes of basswood sticks and plates,” explains the artist.
“ITALIAN SONNET was originally created as a concept model for my architectural masters thesis Interpretations of Poetic Form. But it is a lot more than that. It is a construction that uses two rocks, a wood dowel and cotton twine to express universal truths with minimal means. It is one of the most spiritual work of art I’ve encountered in my decades of studying the history of Western art. And in time, it may be recognized as one of the great sculptures of the twenty-first century.”
But the two series and the sculpture is just the beginning of the artist’s various art explorations. “I love art and I appreciate the great masterworks of artists like Michelangelo, Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Cezanne. But I am not an art snob. Or rather I am an art snob but I am not a genre and media snob. I am just as interested in “fine” art as I am in the art of popular culture. I love sequential art, comics, illustrated children’s books, and visual puzzles.”
And the artist is developing unique, visionary projects in all of these genres. “I have finished drafts of two illustrated children stories that take the form of the scroll, WELCOME, WELCOME, WELCOME and OOMALOOMA. I have finished drafts for two graphic novels and a short children’s comic. And I am in the process of developing two groups of visual puzzles. Each group is an attempt to develop the puzzle into art while still keeping its function as a game. One group of artworks is a development of the labyrinth into customizable art prints. The other, still in the beginning development stage, is a pattern puzzle.”
So with all these projects, how will the artist find time for his JOURNEY? “Well, when I say art is my life, I mean it. It is. And the goal of my JOURNEY is not just to be one of the greatest artists of the twenty-first century. The goal of my JOURNEY is to be one of the great creators of the twenty-first century.”
The artist acknowledges that this is a lofty and a rather immodest goal. But it is a goal that he is confidently taking steps towards. “Whether I succeed or come close to succeeding really depends of how much life I have left. Thirty, forty years of intense, focused work without unnecessary distractions is what I hope for.”
For more information about the work of Maciek Jozefowicz you can visit his website Konokopia. There you can find more information about the various projects the artist is developing and find various links to his other sites. For images please contact the artist via email.
A gallery is a store pretending to pimp culture while selling mediocre decorations to the rich. I have notices three kinds of artworks dominating the gallery scene. They are:
(1) PRETTY PICTURES and PRETTY SCULPTURES. The sculptures are made from precious materials such as marble, thus making them precious objects. But the actual art is insipid and weak in ideas, if not entirely devoid of them. The pictures are generally large because larger artworks fetch a larger price. The pictures are also insipid, thus making them more appropriate for public display. Decorations should not be controversial. Abstractions and landscapes sell the best and are the easiest to produce and cause little controversy.
(2) SOCIAL COMMENTARY and POLITICAL/PHILOSOPHICAL PROPAGANDA. Social commentary and political propaganda expressed in the visual medium is not art even though it may look like it. At best, it is superficial and shallow as commentary and weak as art. But it is very easy to write about and it gives the appearance of substance and depth of thought. It is thus loved by critics and by museum curators. These types of "artworks" can make "art shows" that are easy to promote and, if done right, create lots of controversy that sells tickets and t-shirts. Great for attracting college students in bunches.
(3) ADOLESCENT and PUBESCENTEXPRESSION OF FEELINGS, MOODS and FANTASIES. Often this type of art is given a hip name category like "outsider art" or "street art". Lots of skulls, knives, blood, penises and vaginas (or vaginae if you prefer). Lots of portraits of unusual looking people with unusual behaviors. Various "inventive" use of new materials like painting on a garbage can cover or some other object (the recipe is easy: find some kind of an object on the street, paint a mediocre picture on it, let it dry and exhibit). There is also the fantasy and science fiction genres that fit in this category. These are generally inspired by or created for the video game industry. Clichés abound as do the endless, pointless visual details. And while sexual desire and love are some of the most important themes in the arts, their development today is on the level of a pin-up. Actually, today's handling of these important and universal themes is a fusion of the celebrity pin-up with the modern horror movie. I call the contemporary pubescent-like expression of love and desire in art "horror porn." Just imagine endless variations of vaginae with teeth and penises as snakes and blood coming out of everything.
As I have gotten older and have had the opportunity to observe more people, I noticed that you can classify people by their dreams. I don't mean the dreams they have at night. I don't mean psychoanalysis of dream types. By dreams, I mean their goals, their wants, their highest desires.
And what I have found is that the overwhelming mass of people dream about possessions. Most people's goals, wants, desires is to own lots of toys: boat, motorcycle, snowmobile, large flat screen television, Xbox, husband or wife, children (yes, people obsessed with possessions treat other people as possessions. That is what their wives/husbands, their children, their friends are, possessions.). It is not a profound revelation that the modern culture is materialistic.
To say that the vast majority of people in America are materialistic is a cliché. And even though it is old news, I still find it irritating. I find it irritating because these types of people consider the acquisition of possessions, the acquisition of toys, an ACCOMPLISHMENT. A purchase is NOT an accomplishment, is it a purchase. Buying a bicycle is not an accomplishment. Buying anything is not an accomplishment. It is a purchase.
Now, having the money to buy stuff with may be considered an accomplishment. Or rather, HOW you make the money that you use to buy stuff with may be considered an accomplishment. What do you do? What is your contribution to the world? The answers to those questions are your real accomplishments.
Watching and participating in the process of putting in a tiled floor in my brother's kitchen has given me an idea for a visual puzzle, something akin to the crossword puzzle or sudoku puzzle but visual rather than verbal or numerical.
Recently my brother put in a new tile floor in his kitchen. The work was done by my brother and my father but I was there to see the entire process (and I did make a very modest contribution to the work). And the process gave me an idea for a visual puzzle which I am now developing. I call this group of puzzles Pattern Squares. They will be part of the larger SQUARE SERIES which currently consists of the Maze Squares. The group represents my interest in taking the visual puzzle into the realm of art. They will be offered individually as art prints and collectively as a puzzle book. So far I have made 75 of these Pattern Squares. When I have 100 of them I will begin testing the puzzle on friends and acquaintances to see how I can improve it (and whether it actually is a fun and challenging puzzle game).
More information about this group of puzzles will be available in the upcoming posts. But for now here are some photos of the process of tiling my brother's kitchen floor:
My father preparing the bed of mortar on which the tiles will be placed.
Placing the tiles on the bed of mortar. The difficult part is in keeping the grooves between tiles even and in keeping all the tiles on the same level. The leveling process caused a lot of stress.
Grouting the grooves between the tiles after the mortar has set and the grooves have been cleaned (see top photo where I am in the process of cleaning the grooves from the mortar).
My brother standing on his new tiled kitchen floor. It turned out great even though we were all learning on the job. This was the first time any one of us put in a tiled floor.
Does a younger person have more potential than an older person?
That is a question I have been giving some thought to recently. Does a ten year old have more potential than a twenty year old? Does a twenty year old have more potential than a forty year old? The common view, I believe, is yes. The younger person has more potential than the older person. But is the common view correct?
The answer to this question corresponds to the answer to another related question: does talent deteriorate with age? I believe that depends on the particular talent. Physical (athletic) talent very much deteriorates with age. The body wears out, becomes weaker, less flexible. The reflexes slow-down. No matter how much we keep the body in shape, it deteriorates with age and so does the physical talent that depends on it.
But artistic talent, I believe, does not deteriorate with age. Creative talent (creativity) does not deteriorate with age, either. History is full of examples to support this. Some of the great masterpieces of art have been created by older (old) artists. Michelangelo, Rubens, Rembrandt, Matisse, Cezanne, have all created great art at the end of their long lives.
Unfortunately, the mainstream perception of talent and potential and age is based on athletic talent. And because athletic talent deteriorates with age, and it does so rather quickly, it is not surprising that most people believe that the young have more potential than the old.
But there is another important question that is part of this subject. Can talent be developed at any age? Does "younger" talent develop better than "older" talent? Can the older person with talent develop his (or her) talent as well as the younger person. Again, the popular perception is that the younger person can develop his talent "better" then the older person. And that may be true in certain kinds of talents but, I believe, it is not true in the case of artistic and creative talents. I believe that if you have artistic and creative talents, you can develop them to their full potential at any age. That is because these two talents do not depend on the body as much as other talents do (although artistic talent still depends on the body somewhat. After all, it takes an amazing hand-eye coordination and a steady hand to create artwork).
So what it comes down to is that the only difference between the potential of the younger person and the potential of the older person, in the case of artistic and creative talents, is how much time they have to develop their talents, of how much life they have left. The younger person may have more life left and thus more time to develop his talents. But the older person may be more focused and more determined. The younger person may have more time to develop and grow but he also may have more time to go astray.
The reason this thought has preoccupied me recently is because I want to know whether, at my age (40), I can develop my artistic and creative talents to the level of a world class artist. I want to know whether my age will stand in the way of my becoming one of the great artists of the twenty-first century. I don't believe that my age will keep me from reaching this goal. Other things may, but not my age.
Mediocrity loves details and the digital medium allows the mediocre artist to put in extraordinary amount of details by the simple process of zooming. By zooming-in on a small area, the artist can paint-in almost microscopic elements of form (and much of those microscopic details are derived from various photographs that are placed on the under-layer of the digital canvas). And the details seem to impress the masses. They always have. Even in the past, artists' were judged on how realistic, how true to life, their images looked. And today's art proliferates with realistic, highly detailed images created with such digital medium as the Adobe Photoshop. The fantasy genre is especially ripe in this style of art. The average digital painting of today is like a large pot into which the chef threw-in every ingredient he had in his kitchen, simmered the concoction for a few hours and served it stirred (not shaken, shaking the mess may dislodge some of those precious details. Actually that is what every artist and architect and designer should do to their work before calling it finished. Shake it vigorously so as to dislodge any meaningless detail debris from the work. What is left should be strong fundamentally, structurally and conceptually (but don't forget to vacuum afterward. There is no need to preserve the debris fro future generations). Unfortunately, much of today's work that I've come across, if you shake it there will be little if anything left on the artboard. The entire artwork is made out of nothing but detail debris that is held together with "atmospheric color".). Details are part of what makes great art great. But it is the well chosen details that contribute something meaningful to the subject of the artwork, not the meaningless proliferation of details that essentially result in visual pollution.
Will the sculpture ITALIAN SONNET be considered by future generations as one of the great sculptures of the twenty-first century?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“Italian Sonnet”, a sculpture that may be considered by future generation as one of the most important artworks of the twenty-first century, is now available for purchase from the artist who created it.
TACOMA, Washington - December 3, 2012 - The scholar and historian Kenneth Clark said that "art is justified, as man is justified, by the faculty of forming ideas..." ITALIAN SONNET is an idea. ITALIAN SONNET, small enough to be held in the palm of the hand, represents the precarious binding of opposites: the eternal (rocks) with the temporal (wood, twine), nature (rocks) with culture (dowel, twine and the act of manipulation of these materials), male with female, light with dark. ITALIAN SONNET is a universal icon that may well be considered by future generations as one of the most important sculptures of the twenty-first century. The piece is now available for purchase directly from the artist.
Originally, ITALIAN SONNET was created as an architectural concept model for the artist's Master thesis. The thesis, titled INTERPRETATION OF POETIC FORM, involved translating the form of the sonnet into architecture. As such, ITALIAN SONNET is a translation (transformation?) of the form of the Italian sonnet into a physical object. “The lighter horizontally oriented rock represents the octave, the darker vertically oriented rock represents the sestet and the dowel and twine represent the volta,” explains Maciek Jozefowicz, the artist who created the sculpture.
But ITALIAN SONNET is more than a concept model. It is more than a mere translation of a form of one medium into a form of another medium. ITALIAN SONNET is a transcendent artwork. It is a sculpture that does not aim to satisfy the eye. It aims to satisfy the heart and the mind. ITALIAN SONNET is an attempt to connect the art of the past with the art of the present with the art of the future.
“ITALIAN SONNET connects us to our past, to our beginnings,” says the artist. “It alludes to the menhirs, the cromlechs, the dolmens, and the Willendorf Venuses. It alludes to the primitive art of the primitive man. It alludes to the first rudimentary tools: the tying of a sharp rock to the end of a stick to make a spear. It alludes to the first shelters, the dark cold caves that our ancestors inhabited. It alludes to the beginning of thought and of civilization.”
“But ITALIAN SONNET connects us to our present, also,” further explains the artist. “The sculpture is a modern artwork with a modern aesthetic. It is part of modern, abstract art tradition. The perceptive viewer can see it as being part of minimalist art, found art, assemblage art, land art, environmental art. It connects them all.”
&And ITALIAN SONNET connects us to our future. It connects us to our future by expressing universal truths that always were, are and will be. For example: the piece expresses man's subjugation of nature (the controlling of, or the “tying-up” of the forces of nature). It expresses the "enslavement" of nature to men's needs and desires. But the sculpture does not only refer to the relationship between man and nature, it also refers to the relationship between men (ITALIAN SONNET is about war) and the relationship between men and women (ITALIAN SONNET is about love).
But the allusions of the sculpture proliferate further, beyond Western art. ITALIAN SONNET alludes to the form of the yin-yang symbol. It alludes to the Japanese Zen garden with its stones "floating" in a pool of combed sand. And like the stones of the Zen garden that mean to represent mountains, ITALIAN SONNET is a small object that represents monumental ideas.
It is the poetic richness of ITALIAN SONNET that makes it one of the great sculptures of this century, and one of the great spiritual works of art of any century.
For more information about the sculpture please contact the artist at maciek@konokopia.com. You can see more images of the sculpture on the Konokopia website at www.konokopia.com . You can purchased ITALIAN SONNET the Konokopia shop on Etsy.
