# 2016-11-17 - Bryant Painting Not Art at the Ashton
*Bryant at home at the Ashton, 101 Colorado Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during the Thursday, November 17, 2016 livestream on craft, value and fair compensation. Jenni has painted NOT ART in dripping red across the framed abstract canvas; Bryant, in glasses and a gray shirt, adds the long underline that completes their co-created interruption of the assembly-line image.*
## Reflections
Anything that spins off an assembly line is not art, however much it resembles art. A mass-produced canvas can carry the colors, the brushstrokes and the frame of a painting and still say nothing at all, because it is the output of a machine that would have made the same object for anyone. A thing becomes art at the moment a human being interrupts the droning monotony of an assembly line creation with something truthful.
The canvas on my wall had come off a conveyor belt, so Jenni wrote NOT ART across its face in red paint and I added the long underline. In that moment it became real; it became differentiated. Human hands had interfered with the mechanization, and the object finally carried intentions that belonged to particular people. The irony was the whole point: the instant it was painted over with the words not art, it became art. {{Defiance is the one thing an assembly line cannot manufacture; the moment a human hand defaces the product, the product becomes a work of art.}}
> [!quote]- Original dictation
> It was about how things that just spin off the assembly line are not art. But the moment I defiled it with paint and spat on it, it became real; it became differentiated. A human interfered with the mechanization, and in that moment it became real art, as soon as it was painted over with the words "not art."
## Related
### Writing
- [[blog/20161117 - Not Art|Not Art]] *(Nov 17, 2016)*: the period essay on the philosophy developed through the painting.
### Livestream Lessons
- [[livestreams/Constructing Genius by Recognizing and Developing Your Gifts, Part 2 - Livestream#Why a Defaced Print Draws a Crowd|Why a Defaced Print Draws a Crowd]] *(Mar 29, 2016)*: where Bryant announced the plan and explained why the intervention would make people cross the room.
- [[livestreams/Craft, Value, and the Recovery of Fair Compensation, Part 1 - Livestream#What a Price Conceals and What a Maker Carries|What a Price Conceals and What a Maker Carries]] *(Nov 17, 2016)*: the broadcast depicted here, where the painting became a visual lesson in craft, contribution and human value.
### Wiki
- [[wiki/Austin, Texas|Austin, Texas]]
### Photo Journey
- [[photo journey/2017-04-01 - Bryant's Living Room at the Ashton in Austin|Bryant's Living Room at the Ashton in Austin]]
## Location
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