Model Railroading as Art.....

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello… I am new to the forum and a grant writer. I apologize in advance for opening up this can of worms since a search of previous posts suggests that it has been covered, with some strong emotions, in 2005.

I am working on behalf a model railroad museum and am interested in making a complelling case with foundations that model railroading is art and should be financially supported from arts foundations.

So… I’m not interested in any counter arguments against model railroading as art… However, if there are compelling arguments that model railroading is art and should be considered as such I’d be most appreciative to hear from you all and incorporate them into my work.

I will review the 2005 posts as well…

Thank you in advance…

jason

2

One of my favorite topics. My wife is an artist and very active in the art community here where I live. I have been tempted to build a diorama and enter it as art in one of the local contests.

But you should not have a problem convincing a commitee that CNJ’s layout is a fine example of realism.

Or that other’s works have a character of expression of their own.

3

I could not agree more. Anyone that attended the Craftsman Structure show last weekend could not fail to walk away believing that they were experiencing art in the truest sense. I sent you a PM about it.

4

I have never encountered, nor sought, a definition of art. If one were to ask me, I would say that it is a crafted representation of something that exists in nature, whether itself crafted or existing without the thought of humans.

If you agree with that, in principle at least, then the process of portraying a railroad, in anything but the real operational scales, is art. It is a representation, a copy, mimickry if you will, and requires so many of the skills that artists today will insist are needed for their own variations of art.

5

I have a lot of trouble seeing how it could not be called art. I guess the basic question is, what is art? Of course, no one can answer that, at least not without the next person to come along disagreeing.

So, how is model railroading art?

Well, Chip pointed out how it can use alterante mediums to create a representation of reality, which I think could be one definition.

I think art also uses different forms to connect to various emotions and feelings. There are the nostalgic feelings that a layout set in a particular time and place can arouse. There is the feeling of power that the locomotives can evoke. There is the beauty and vastness of nature that the scenery represents. And there are all of the smaller human activities taking place.

When one views a layout of almost any type it brings about some type of emotion. Just as traditional art does. The layout uses different mediums to represent reality, or even an abstraction of reality. Just as traditional art does. The layout is more interactive than many forms of traditional art, but it seems that even that is becoming more comon in newer art forms. Maybe model railroading was leading edge art!

I think I am having some trouble answering this, because I really don’t see how it cannot be art. It uses various mediums to bring about an emotional response.

6

I found this thread after a search, and it is probably worth a look. Lots of strong feeling in this one.

http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/690277/ShowPost.aspx

7

I think one of your arguments must be that not all model railroaders are created equal. Most people, your committee perhaps in particular, think of model trains as a loop of track on a plywood board.

However, there are people like Malcom Furlow, a professional artist, who creates a model railroad of a caricature railroad fiesta set in San Juan. Or George Selios, who creates an overly dark cast to his structures and cities to recreate the heaviness of the Great Depression. Clearly, these two are using artistic methods to create a response other than what would expect of a person creating a model.

If that is not art, then my opinion is that you need to expand your parameters.

8

I’d maintain that almost any model RR, even the one on the 4x8 with little or no scenery [}:)], is art, though I can see the trouble in ‘selling’ it as such. There is plenty of ‘art’ that I don’t see the beauty or purpose of, but I don’t think it is up to me to say it isn’t art. It is a slippery slope, pretty soon a portrait isn’t art, and I don’t want to go down that slope.

But, as Chip said, if Furlow and Selios are not artists, than there are very few around, in any medium. You wouldn’t need to give grants to anyone.

But Chip, how is a model really different than a portrait, at least once you add any attempt at scenery at all? A ‘minimally’ sceniked layout might me analogous to a charicature, it is a representation, but not meant to show the details. I’m not really an ‘artsy’ person, but to me, it has to be considered art.

9

Art takes on many forms, such as visual, musical, literature, sculpture, painting, printmaking, crafts, handicrafts, culinary arts, and then there is Aesthetics, the certain branch of philosophy that considers art.

Then if you take a look at just the visual arts you have painting, photography, printmaking, and filmmaking. I could go on and on with the various forms of art…

So, is model railroading an art in and of itself? Maybe!

While model railroading encompasses many forms of art to achieve the end result, such as painting, modeling, crafts, photography, and printmaking (decals), among others, it also utilizes many other characteristics. Such as design, electronics, lighting/electrical/wiring, engineering, computing, woodworking, metalwork, and others I can’t think of at the moment.

So, is model railroading art? Not sure that it is a pure art form, but it does utilize many forms of art and other characteristics to achieve the end result.

Now from the philosophical point of view, there is an art to just about anything you do, and I believe that. For example, you could say that there is an art to washing dishes. So from that stand point, you could say that there is an art to model railroading. But is model railroading art?

Maybe! It all depends on how you as an individual see it when you are experiencing it! For some it is an art, for others it is not!

10

Jason,

I hope you have your flak jacket on!! Go back and search the Spacemouse classic “All hail John Allen” or words to the effect (Chip, help us out here) for a quite intense discussion of this topic…

I think that you will get backlash as other posters point out, from the “cute trains on a board” impression that many non-modelers have of Model Railroaders. I would suggest that you take a look at Narrow gaugers and proto modelers as well for some very fine and (only my opinion) artistic modelers. I know that the definition of proto is seemingly non-artistic but to my eye some of those layouts are the most “artisitc”. Search: Jack Burgess, Jim Vail, John LaBarba (John has a very artisitic approach), Dave Adams, Paul Scoles, Rand Hood, Boone Morrison…I’m sure that I’m leaving out a ton of others.

One of the other arguments that you will get is the definition of “craft” versus “art”. There are many who argue that Model Railroading is craft and doesn’t rise to the level of art. Many artiists and craftsmen in other fields have been struggling with these definitions for years. Check the fields of wood working and quilting for another take on this discssion.

I personally consider the best modeling to be art. Whether the creator of the work intended it to be so or not. It is just my opinion and thus is not driven by any rational underpinnings…

Guy

11

I have always considered model railroading as an art.

Certainly there’s a science to it, an engineering requirement, etc. Proper wiring, proper trackwork and geometry, properly built and maintained locomotives and rolling stock are critical. But making that equipment look like it’s in service (i.e., detailing and weathering) makes it art.

Scenery and structures, of course, are even more overtly artistic. The ability to turn a mount of plaster into a miniature version on the Alleghenies requires more artistic vision than skill (after all, anyone can hot-glue foliage clumps to a hill… …but can you do it like nature does?).

Once upon a time I worked in charcoal and water color paint (with a few excursions into oil paints). Now I work in ground foam and flextrack.

Model railroading is art…

…or at least, in my opinion, it is.

Maybe I should, instead, caveat that layout building is an art. Model railroading (i.e., the trains and related equipment/structures) might as a whole be considered a combination of art and craft.

12

Among model railroaders, there are some obviously very tallented artists creating exceptional layouts, whether or not they make a living as artists in the purest meaning of the word. It is interesting to consider.

As a professional artist myself, what has always annoyed me is our tax money being doled out to con-artists for “garbage” in the name of art. I would like to see all such funding curtailed and those individuals forced to make it on their own without Govt sponsorship. If you like “urine in a glass with a cross in it”, good for you I guess. But those of us who know the difference between scams and real art that takes both tallent and years of work to master should not have to fund it! OK, Rant over! I know, got [#offtopic] there.LOL

[C):-)] Rob

13

I have always felt the model railroading is art. The 1st dictionary definition

While individual models meet this definition, I think the well done scenic layout fully meets this definition. Layouts require the selection of elements - structures, ground foam, track, trains, people, ballast, paint, etc that must be blended together. This selection and blending is similar to a painter selecting paints and creating the parts of his painting.

How successful the model railroad artist is, is of course dependent on the viewers. But just as people think some paintings are better than others so do model rails think that some layouts are better than others. John Allen is held by many to be one of the best artists of model railroading and probably inspired more people than anyone else - my opinion, many will disagree; just as many disagree about Picasso.

See this site for John’s work http://www.gdlines.com/

Enjoy

Paul

14

I just reread that post. Ah, those were the days. I haven’t got hate pms like that in a while.

15

I just read most of the "All hale John Allen’ thread. Wow! It gave me a better sense of the different personalities on this forum. Now that was a long, heated thread!

16

***Chip, glad I looked…I LOVE that photo. Hope you don’t mind that I set it as my desktop pic for the wife to see. We’re both into trains and have plenty of horses on our farm so that is especially “cool” to me.

YeeHaw [C):-)] Rob

17

Yes, without question, building a model railroad is an art. I guess one of the questions you should answer is what is the nature of your museum? Do you have showcase after showcase of antique trains? If so, you aren’t exhibiting art so much as perserving history. If you actively engage the public and offer classes in building scenery, structures and other crafts related to the hobby, then yes, you are functioning as an arts center.

In order to qualify as a place where art is created and enjoyed, you have to do more than lock commercial products behind glass. Too many “model railroad” musems fall into that category.

I believe model railroading is art, because each practitioner pursues it to his (or her) individual level of personal satisfaction. Obviously, there are those who achieve a higher level of generally accepted artisitic merit… A Blondie comic strip is as much art as the Mona Lisa, but I think most would agree that the Mona Lisa is a bit more of a cultural landmark…

When one considers the complexity and depth of knowledge one can attain through the pursuit of model railroading, and the level of skills that might result, the hobby can almost be compared to the study of music. How many of us have built a “practice” layout?

So yes, go for the gold. Just make sure that your museum does more than protect crusty old Lionels from collecting dust.

Lee

18

Don’t tell anyone, but it is my desktop as well. [:-^]

19

Art ? ? Well that’s a stretch, what isn’t art?? this question has been brought up a few times on this forum and I found responses were to the “I don’t think so” status, but the posters probably believed it is an art. I paint watercolours and people have called me an “artist” I tell them I’m a “painter” What defines art? (Got 2 weeks?) I would think most people would have a hard time trying to define a model train layout as “art” and trying to seperate what they see as guys “playing with trains” regardless of the skill involved in creating the layout.- - - tough call, why is the sky blue??? good posting.

20

If it’s done from scratch, as the stone sculptor’s statue come from a hunk of rock, or the bronze sculptor’s statue comes from an ingot of bronze (although he also had to make the mold first), or the glassblower’s vase came from a hunk of semi-molten glass, then perhaps it is art, and in that you have a compelling argument. But if, as is true just shy of 100% of the time, an assemblage or partial assemblage of commercial parts (as is the case with me), then you have a false argument. You may bamboozle people into buying your argument, but that doesn’t lend it creedence.

So the compelling argument: If only raw materials are used (that doesn’t mean unrefined materials), as in a painter’s or sculptor’s work, then a model railroad is art.