essay g07t2774

I have always wanted to be writer, but alas I was not born with the skill of writing. I used to sit for hours trying to perfect my English creative essays at school, all I wanted to do was to write a literate masterpiece, but unfortunately as much as I tried I just couldn’t do it. One day my art teacher explained that their were just some people who thought in words, some people in images and others perhaps scientifically (but she didn’t know much about that), so I decided if I couldn’t express myself in words I must be an image person, and so I gave up my writing career, but never my passion for the written word, and decided to create images. Last year I went to the Johannesburg art festival, and it was amazing. All or most of the gallery’s of South Africa came together to exhibit some of their best works. It was really hard to take in each artwork as there were hundreds, I was quite overwhelmed. In fact if I think back on the festival I only remember a few artworks and even less actual artists (you would expect more from someone studying fine arts). One of the artists I do remember was Willem Boshoff, all his work that was on show fascinated me. When I saw his name as I walked into the gallery I recognized it as we had spoken about a few of his works at school, but nothing extensive. This I must admit, made me pay more attention to his work. My schooling came in handy as I whipped out the few facts I knew and recognized an artwork much to my aunt (who had taken me to the exhibition and is very arty and intellectual) and her friends delight . Although Bosshofs works had just proved that I wasn’t some 1st year art student who was learning nothing and drinking my life away, and I was actually learning something (which hopefully I prayed my aunt would tell my mom) it was really breathtakingly fascinatingly beautiful.one of the main things that interested me the most, as my aunt her friend and I examined the works was his success in combining the written word, with visual art in the most interesting ways.This made me think that there are more then one way of thinking, in fact there are millions and the combination of more then one way of thinking and seeing can create something so beautiful. When we got this essay and I was thinking of ideas of what I could possibly write about I suddenly thought about Willem Boshoff and decided that with the guidance and inspiration of Boshoff I could surely get somewhere with this essay, perhaps I would even write a master piece.
With my idea entailed and inspiration oozing out of me I began to use my new web 2.0 skills to research as Boshoff. One of the first Blogs I came about was Myrtle street reviews which is a West Oakland based blog ‘about slightly sideways reactions to things’. The Blog is quite interesting and the writer Susanna Varestus proves to be a very entertaining writer. She explains a few of Boshoffs works beautifully showing her obvious passion for words and poetry. Her descriptions of his works are extremely visual. The blog only has one image of Willem Boshoffs work which was disappointing but it has a few links to other websites with the artworks that Suzzane explains. In a way I found the Blog a bit disappointing as it explains that it is reacting to things in a ‘sideways’ manner but the Blog itself is quite boring. I would have loved to have found a Blog that was exciting as the subject matter the Blog discusses here is exciting. Other then that the Blog explains Boshoffs works brilliantly. One of the works she describes is a project Bosshoff did in the eighties. In this work Boshoff worked for 370 days consecutively for seven hours every day, detailing everything he had achieved and done in that day, in a way it could be said to be a diary. He called it wooden calendar when he finally finished the work. Suzanne explains the work and its connection with poetry and words beautifully: “The 370 Days Project seems to me a gorgeous poem about the universe, about the secrets at its root, and about what we can know. A language known only to itself can only reveal itself to us in glimpses, in segments of code, in shapes which we may or may not misinterpret. Finally uninterested in stalking us, having discovered enough entertaining ways to manifest itself through us, language retreats from the garden. We hear only a slight rustle as it, like a jaguar, softly leaps into the great jungle. The story is not something that we can even begin to know. We are left to prune our bushes, plant our flowers in rows and harvest our fruit trees, creating order instead of meaning”. It is these kinds of descriptions of Boshoffs works by Suzzanne that excites me, it shows the magical connection between visual arts and words as well as the mysterious difference between the two. I also really enjoyed this Blog as it shows that via web 2.0 the whole world can be a critic or a writer, this woman has beautiful views on Boshoffs works which perhaps would not been read if it wasn’t for the web.
One of my favorite art works Willem Boshoff created was “Garden of Words’ which he put up in the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. The work is beautiful and was public for all to see. I came upon a few Blogs which discussed the work. There were quite a few random blogs I found which discuss this work. One Blog which focused mainly on food had a small piece written on the work and that is just one example of the many random blogs not relating to art at all which talked about this artwork, every person giving his or her interpretation of the artwork. Dennis Laidlers Climate change, Biodiversity and environmentally sustainability blog even had an article on the artwork. The artwork had a great interest to Dennis (the main blogger) as the artwork deals with extinct and endangered plants and flowers. The installation comprises 15 000 'artificial flowers' representing 15 000 endangered species. Dennis explains that he believes that the artwork is doing a great deal of good as it will make people aware of the reality of problems such as the extinct and endangered species of the world. The rest of the Blog deals with issues of climate change biodiversity, although Boshoffs artwork deals with the effects of perhaps climate change and the effects that we as a society have on the environment, much of what Denniss’s blog deals with, it is an artwork and not something one would expect on such a blog as the one Denniss has created.This to me is inspirational and just shows that the internet today is joining many spheres of study, any one once again can be a critic. Denniss also put up incredible pictures of the Garden of words, they were definitely the best I could find on the internet.
While researching Boshoff on the internet the most exciting thing I came upon was interviews I found with him on YouTube. These were the most direct and I found most interesting as Bishoff describes some of his works and shows as well as explains some of the works he has created. YouTube to me is the most insightful as it is a personal interview with Boshoff. The exciting thing about web 2.0 is that you can get hold of interviews and personal accounts of people and artists such as Willem Boshoff, this is exciting as an interview of an artist and their insight of their ideas on their works as well as getting some sort of feeling about their personality gives me or any other viewer more insight and a better idea of the artist and his/her artworks. Willem Boshoff is an incredible artist and I have learnt a lot from researching him on the internet. Researching Boshoff has also helped me to grasp a better view of just how many people one can inspire and that anyone can write for the world to read an any persons ideas of an art work or an artist. There weren’t that many Blogs about Bosshoff which were very extensive, but there were lots of random arbitrary non art blogs which described and dealt with his works in new and interesting ways with new and interesting words and phrases to describe it. I think that these new descriptions and ideas put across by these bloggers about Willem Boshoff works should be the inspiration for a new art work, or maybe this could be my new inspiration for the beginning of my art meets word masterpiece