Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function?

Today in the gallery children we are going to learn about sculpture.

First, and this may be just me, but I don't think so, we do not call sculptures, "statues".
This drives me mad. There is a difference. I will explain it to you later.

Here is my favorite conversation from earlier today.

Lady: I love these prints. I might even be able to talk my husband into these. But tell me about these statues.
(she gets a small break for knowing they were prints)

Me: (trying not to sound snobbish) We like to call them sculptures, they're made of bronze. The artist is from Santa Barbara...

Lady: No, that doesn't matter. I mean, tell what they're for.

Me: What they're for?

Lady: Ya, you know...I get the prints. They will go with my furniture and walls and things, but a statue just stands there collecting dust. What's it's function?

Me: It's function?

Lady: There is no way I could talk my husband into a statue. It's cute and all but it just stands there. Where do people put them? What do they do with something like that?

Me: (my mind is struggling with the concept that she sees art as something that needs to be functional) People do the same thing with a sculpture that they do with prints and paintings. It's aesthetic. They add to the richness of your life and home. Art in three dimensions.

Lady: Dust collectors if you ask me. Cute though...

5 comments:

Heather Anne Hogan said...

Dust collectors! Ha. What in the world was she doing in your gallery?

Mad William said...

Heather Anne,

I had just cleaned too. Not a speck of dust anywhere.

Sizzle said...

just what art strives to be called...cute.

ugh.

Mad William said...

sizzle,

Cute is what I go for with every painting.

Why do these people always find me?

eclectic said...

Gah! Maybe you could market your "statues" as "trinkets" too?

Capitalism and Time, the theft of human souls!

 Where does six years go? In the blink of an eye, she’s gone. I can still see myself, sitting down with my new iPad, this iPad, and writing ...