Beatiful Losers

On Monday we watched the film "Beautiful Losers," which is a documentary film that was released in 2008 about a group of artists during the 1990s.  At first, class seemed to be going in a minimal/casual direction, but soon changed due to the lack of participation.  I think it is safe to say that everyone had the case of the Mondays, especially after having full bellies from all the turkey over Thanksgiving break.  That is why we were assigned to write a response to the film and answer questions about what the ideas and inspiration were.  I thought the documentary was moving.

One of the themes I noticed behind the film was the notion of D.I.Y. (do it yourself).  There were 12 artists who each had a distinct creative background whether in traditional art or street art.  There were painters, graffiti artists, illustrators, and photographers.  Each artist had a particular technique, but the reoccurring message was to do art yourself and make something out of nothing.  During one of the interviews, someone mentioned that art school is a place where people tell you what not to do.  A lot of the artists in the documentary shared this view.  Most of the them never desired to become famous or admired amongst the contemporary art world.  Instead, they wanted to create art for themselves and went against the mainstream culture.  That all changed when they formed relationships together that would propel them and their work to become sought after in commercial advertising, painting, and the film industry.  Their growth as artists is conveyed throughout the documentary, while maintaining a handcrafted attitude.

The artists' inspiration appeared to have come from street life and each other.  They would share their creations in a gallery called Alleged.  At first it was more of a social gathering than a place to present artwork.  It eventually became a gallery where people would come and see their work.  As the gallery hosted more shows, the artists became friends and their relationships allowed them to inspire each other by sharing ideas.  Another thing that ignited creativity and inspiration during the 1990s was the booming skateboarding scene.  No one had ever done art on the back of a skateboard.  Some of the artists were avid skateboarders and used this outlet as inspiration to express their creativity.  The most known artist to do so was Shepard Fairey.  These are just two of the things I noticed during the film.  There may be other forms of inspiration that were mentioned during the documentary that I missed, but street culture and the sharing of ideas were the two that stood out in my mind.