Blog Post 1 Maintenance Art

I felt good about performing maintenance art, particularly because it involved cleaning the campus and making it look nicer for everyone. Mierle Laderman Ukeles maintenance art is different from Richard Serra’s art because hers depicts acts often overlooked, yet critically important and add to the beauty we take for granted in everyday life, while Serra’s art depicts a wild act we would judge as uncommon, flinging molten lead. Both pieces are art in their own right as they were intended to be. If Mierle Laderman Ukeles had been doing the same act as a janitor, it would likely not be perceived as art, although the action Is the same. The artistic aspect of it calls us to look at it and question it. I suppose what makes it art is what it intends to say, where a janitor intends to say nothing, this artist calls us to think and feel and question. Painting on a canvas is usually art because art is the common reason why anyone would paint on a canvas relative to a house, which is painted for utilitarian purposes. The intention of creating art is enough to make something a piece of art, so unless the painter paints on a canvas as practice for canvas painting, they are likely creating art. And likewise unless a house painter paints a mural on the house, he is likely doing it for utilitarian reasons making it not art. Women’s work is art, as long as the artist intends it to be. Performing the act in an artistic medium, for others to see and observe and contemplate the art is a key factor, like if a tree falls in the forest and noone’s around to hear it, if an artist creates art alone for no one else to see, is it art? I think no. I’d clean Robert Downey Junior’s star. I actually really wanted to go to Hollywood to perform this maintenance art, but given the short timetable for this assignment and my busy schedule, I was unable to go.