This Halloween, Lindsay and I acquired a painting called That Feeling When You Get a Sweet New Tool. It is spray paint stencil art on plywood, and it depicts an average-looking, white-collar hobbyist, holding a soldering gun with a happy look on his face.
We bought the painting along with another piece by the artist, SKWRL, at a Halloween party silent auction at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; a location synonymous with the maker movement and manufacturing Renaissance.
(Check out the hosts here!)
The happy feeling of getting a new tool is relatable. This is precisely what the whole Maker Movement is based on. The look on the guy’s face is like he got a new toy, which is a feeling that seems to have been lost in an era where downloading an app just isn’t the same. It’s interesting that utilitarian tools are replacing what we used to have for consumer electronics. So it’s kind of rare that you get that giddy new toy feeling, and that’s what’s exciting about this dorky piece of an ordinary guy, getting something he’s really into.
The maker movement is all about pragmatism, building stuff, and frugality, and now it’s working its way into an amateur art market as well. I’m not saying that That Feeling When You Get a Sweet New Tool will be worth millions of dollars one day, but art seems desperate to try to imitate life here.
Does the maker movement really need a fine art to justify its validity? It feels like an inversion.
Frank Ball 