Beautiful Losers

On Wednesday February 24, 2010, I attended the exhibition of the documentary Beautiful Losers and heard Aaron Rose speak of his experiences creating the film. Personally, I thought Beautiful Losers was one of the best documentaries I have seen all year even though Rose claims him and his fellow artists had minimal experience in film making. The documentary consisted of artists such as Margaret Kilgallen, Harmony Korine, Geoff McFetridge, Barry McGee, Mike Mills and Stephen Powers II. All these artists depicted their unique and one of a kind styles which varied from acrylic paint to spray paint, and skateboard artwork to political cartoons. My two favorite artists were Stephen powers and Barry McGee because I found their graffiti artwork as an outstanding novelty. I also really enjoyed how down to Earth, vivid and witty the documentary was and yet it also managed to send a powerful message to its viewers and audience on how artwork is an important aspect of society and culture and that every artist should take pride in who they are. Aaron Rose said " what I was trying to do with this documentary was make people want to make cool stuff" and "encourage their friends to keep working on their art." Another interesting fact about the documentary was that the title was not planned ahead of time, rather, Aaron Rose had to think of a title at last minute so he looked at titles of books on his shelf and saw a novel titled "Beautiful Losers" and said "that's it!" Currently, Rose is working on a new film project on the life of Sister Corita, whom Rose claimed some believed Andy Warhol stole her style during their friendship. I am definitely planning on looking into his new film when it is out. Overall, I was glad that I attended this speaker event because walking away from the documentary Beautiful Losers, I feel I have built much more appreciation for valuable artwork.