SW Reproduced Art still art?

Class was fantastic on Thursday. It was a great way to figure out what Benjamin was saying. It gave me a chance to work with someone who I hadn’t worked with before. It was nice to talk things through—see where they came from.

This exercise helped me figure out how to attempt to understand some of the heavier readings we have. How to approach a thought and to break it down.

Is reproduced art still art? Can it still hold onto that aura? I think that it can…in certain situations. In my house the family room and living room are full of art. My mom had the pleasure of representing an artist when I was younger. So we have originals, lithographs, screen prints, and prints. I know which are real and which are real copies, but because I have a personal relationship with them, I know the artist, I have lived some of his art, even though I am looking at a print I can feel the celebration in his art.

I have stood at the modern art museum in DC and not been affected by certain “original” paintings. So I think aura is dynamic. Aura for me-- to this day I look back on a ski trip my dad took my best friend and me on in high school during spring break. We went to Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. There is a ski run called 7th Heaven, and the pictures do two things. They remind me of the pure brilliance of snow capped mountains, the feeling of being on top of the world. But when I look at these photos I don’t struggle to find my breath as I did on the run. But I don’t think the aura is absent.

But to me these pieces of art or my photos, even on a computer screen I feel their realness. Perhaps this is because I am connecting it with a feeling and experience versus just as art.

"Scarlett Wishes"