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What am I doing? Why am I doing it? And where did it come from? A personal view by PIERRE

Gold Funeral Mask, Mycenae, National Museum Athens, c. 1200–1000 b.c.

Metals have been found in a natural state since prehistoric times. It was the discovery of the processes of metallurgy, the treating and smelting of ores and the making of alloys, which was the catalyst for the first industrial revolution. The discovery of metallurgy revolutionized the ancient world and helped transform Late Neolithic agrarian societies into city-states. Neolithic culture had used the same principals and technologies over many thousands of years. The most highly used materials for artists were stone, (the least perishable), wood, bone and textiles, (the most perishable). With the great invention of the loom, new types of art developed. Weaving was initially utilitarian in nature, and the provenance of women. Women quickly realized the potential of the loom as an artistic tool that could be used to help unleash their creativity. Essentially, throughout the history of art, new technologies would lead to new methods of working with new materials. This would eventually lead to new styles of art. The modern analogy of this is the advent of photography, computers, and video.

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Diplomatic Agreement                                                                            The news is not in the newspapers
1992 - 1997                                                                                                            1991-1997

Should art glorify—and be accessible to—ordinary people? UK-based artist Piers Midwinter firmly says yes. “Anyone is capable of producing a pure work of art—but to do so, they must stay true to themselves. And what is the self? It is where each and every one of us tries to be as human as possible—to be, as the Buddhists believe, the best we can be in a civilized manner.”

Midwinter, creator of Raw Art Link, is a fan of art-for-the-common-person guru Jean Dubuffet. Dubuffet, Midwinter says, “argued that trained artists were influenced by cultural expectations, etc. Therefore, any art created would be tainted. He sought artists that were either totally outside the system or did not care for it; their art was purer. Unlike Picasso and Dali who were telling the world how great they were, he told the world how great a highly marginalized sector of society was.”

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