Darts - possible career path?
 

I was motoring through the TV channels over the weekend and came across the ESPN coverage of the Embassy World Dart competition.

For those interested, it was John 'Boy' Walton who took his first ever Embassy World Darts title - and the

Seems like the same hand/eye co-ordination would be required in darts as in painting. Fine manipulations of long pointy objects, and that sort of thing.

I used to have a dartboard up behind where my easel is now. Maybe I should never have taken it down....

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Attorneys for Budweiser, Guinness, and (who knew?) the Monet en D'Banque d'Or Palme have terminated the grace period for the bit of frivolity previously on display in this space -- a part, after all, of an august Forum.

Thanks to all for playing, and we'll see you next time.

Hmmm, whole number you say, would that be Celsius or pints? Steven, that looks a little like Dartanion without the hat.

I keep trying to think of that right angle.

Burt Rutan was able to fund a manned space flight because there was a rich dude, Paul Allen, that cared. Someone bankrolled team tennis. That little Asian dude is touring the country singing the national anthem in baseball parks, and Tom Hankey came in second place in a dart competition in Frimley Green, and won $47,611.20!

All this is going on while our brethren are winning chump change at the international portrait competition.

All can rest assured that I am thinking on this matter. There is no off position on the genius switch. Now if I can just find a genius.

And I would like some consideration for editing out what I was going to include in this post.

You say you don't like darts?
 

For some reason this really bugs me.

Binion's 2003 World Series of Poker Tour:

20th place $ 45,000
12th place $ 80,000
5th place $ 320,000
3rd place $ 650,000
1st place $2,500,000

The 2004 event will be $5,000,000 to the winner!

International Portrait competition:

Grand Prize best of show $5,000
1st place $2,000
2nd place $1,500
3rd place $500

Iron Chef
 

I think I found my genius, he

Oh Mike! I thought I'd roll right off my seat laughing after I read this!

Not only do I confess watching this with facinated horror when they reveal what unfortunate little sea creature I never heard of will be the main course, I find myself unable to tear myself away to go down to the art studio at times to watch it!

I would buy tickets to Studio Stadium, and propose a lobbiest to up the price of a portrait competition to meet current standards of the next dart match, or maybe as much as the next Texas Hold Em' Celebrity Pot at least!

Happy Painting everyone!

Marta,

Some things just irritate me. I think at it's core it is the fact that whether it's a dart thrower, a poker player or a professional golfer, at the end of the day these folks have produced nothing of lasting value. What they have done is provide a diversion for people like us. And more importantly, they have provided the opportunity for the tooth paste company to alter our buying habits, and for giving them that opportunity, they have made the above mentioned rich.

I don't begrudge these people their good fortune, or the capitalist system at work. My aggravation is that no one in (or for) the art community has managed to capture the imagination of the mass audience.

You gotta believe that Tiger Woods has sent many a youngster to the golf course instead of hanging on the street corner. Paul Newman, in the movie "The Hustler," sent me to the pool hall as a young kid and, while not life altering, has certainly created a lasting influence.

Images and stories can be a very powerful influence on shaping the way people live their lives, or, perceive what is important in life.

What this outfit needs is a promoter, a teller of stories, pitchman, a huckster, a shill, a Francis Ford Coppola, a Madonna (Esther), a P. T. Barnum, a Mother Theresa, a Boston strangler, a Monica Lowenski, an Amelia Earhart, a Daniel Greene.

All boats rise on an incoming tide.

Thank you Mike,

I know that I think that this is funny, I only wish that I could understand the words and the soul of your language better. But you have seen my writing so you will know what I mean. Please don

Mike,
I didn

I have totally enjoyed reading this thread! "Chevy trucks and Viarga," I laughed till the tears rolled.

Jean

Don't forget Dick Blick up in the top right corner.

Marta, et al, please don't hesitate to make fun (not that I thought you were) of anything I say. I don't take any of this too seriously, so have at me, or any of my hair brain ideas.

I'm not trying to recruit new artists, I surely don't need any more competition. I would, however, like to see those with a real talent, those who create beautiful pieces of art to last for centuries, to be compensated on at least on an equal scale as a dart thrower, who at the end of the day has created nothing.

I think it's "process" that intrigues people. Even if it's watching a bloke repeatedly hitting a small bullseye with a dart time after time. As the camera pans in we see his eyes, his mental process at work, his execution. After all, when an art competition is held, the work (the process) has already been completed. We never get to look into the painters eyes as he thought through the process. We never witnessed those deft strokes, or the planning over sketches and color studies.

I think these things could captivate an audience at least as much as a game of poker, if produced and edited in the right way. If you could incorporate victory, defeat, anger, humiliation, torment, controversy, gold, beauty, skill, treachery, deceit, I think Dick Blick would drive up in a Chevy truck for all that.

It couldn't be like an instructional video. If that were true they'd be selling like hot cakes. You have to pit one fellow against another in some fashion, like an Iron Chef. After all, the Chef doesn't just bring in the food for tasting, they chop off the foods head, wrap it up in sea weed and boil it, right before your eyes. Process, coupled with intrigue, that's what fascinates me.

If someone could find the magic formula. You know for TV poker it was the simple act of putting the camera eye into the table at each player position such that the viewing audience could know what two cards the player was holding. This simple idea has created such a sensation that this years winner will collect $5,000,000 in front of the TV audience.

Let them in on the PROCESS I say.