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I'm a conceptual artist. I get art ideas that pop up in my head, but I need to work with a concept artist to make those ideas be translated into visibility. In other words, I have no technical art skills of my own...I just have ideas. I posted before on the question of 'is this art.' Art can be divided up into 2 areas. You can have technical skills or creativity skills and if lucky you have both. Plain and simple, if judgements have to be made, and the outcome is uncertain, there is art in the process. I used photography as an example in the other discussion. If there was no art in the process, one photo would be as good as the next. It is the same with bread baking as photography. One loaf of bread would be as good as the next, and on and on with other areas of questioning art. I can't show you most of my conceptual art portfolio. Too graphic, too sexual, too political. Here is something that is milder in nature. It marked my leaving of working in NYC. Covid had just hit and I was out of NYC in January of 2020. The artist uses their art to make sense of the world. It does not matter what the area of art is, it helps them deal with life. I was already working on the Cell Phone People Series, so I made a few panels in the series trying to make sense of covid. It is called 'First Date During Covid.' This one is censored. (I had 2 panels done of this, censored and uncensored.) I had mailed this censored version in the form of a RPPC's to curators and gallerists around America I had contact with to mark my leaving NYC and to thumb my nose at covid. 'First Date During Covid.' 2020 Teoli / Dagger I've worked with artists for decades with bringing inner visions to life. I learned early on, before things get too far with the job; I want to see a rough sketch to see if we are on the same page. Sometimes the art works out fine, other time it does not. I'm not rich and the jobs are generally in the $20 - $30 area. So, I don't want to squeeze the artist too much for little money jobs. Generally, the artist is a digital nomad type of person working overseas. Either they get it or not. If they can't get it to work in an edit or three, then I just pay them and move on to the next idea. I basically give them a script and let them go! One artist remarked, "So much freedom" in doing work for me. A lot of the artist end up doing work in an assembly line kind of thing. One artist may outline the drawings; another artist may ink it up with color, another does the text and so forth and so on. I seldom give them drudgery copy work. I give them the script and it us all up to them to work out the details. Once in a while I give them a copy job that is drudgery. But it is very seldom. If rich it would be interesting to give the same job / script to a bunch of artists and see what they come up with. A person could run a monthly contest and give out $ for awards for such art contests on the Deviant Art forum. But someone would have to run it. Even if I had excess $$, I don't have the time. I just want to see the outcome of creativity and technique. And the subject matter may be in question on such contests when it comes to art of my liking. I'm of the 'old school' Robert Crumb comix era and like that type of art. But it is very pricey trying to have art done in the pen and ink style like Crumb did. Simplified panels of digital art work best for a low budget. Whatever the reason, whether seeing or producing...humans like art! Workup sketch to 'First Date During Covid.' 2020 Teoli / Dagger <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

I had posted a thread about 'Ways to Strength and Beauty' on a photo forum. One of the replies was above. My reply to them is below... That is how chance is. "The more I do...the more I do." That was what Garry Winogrand would say. I say, one thing leads to another. Morale of the story, expose yourself to all sort of things and you can expand your experience. I found out about 'Ways to Strength and Beauty' after watching 'Triumph of the Will' by Leni Riefenstahl. I found out about 'Triumph of the Will' after what looked to be a copy of it turned up in my 16mm film archive. (Don't know if it is a full copy or not. It is in 2 parts.) I found out about the importance of carefully handling large film reels on a core when one of the 'Triumph of the Will' parts blew out from the center. It is like getting toothpaste back in the tube...you can't. I spent about 45 minutes getting it back in shape and had to put in 1 splice. Example of film on core shown vacuum sealed to be frozen to halt vinegar syndrome. <><><><> Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Popular Culture Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Audio Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography

That was a photogs question on a Reddit Photography thread. Here is my take on it... OP...maybe a little. Genius is something you are born with, generally speaking. Although sometimes a thing clicks in the mind and you are ready to go. That is what happened to me after working on infrared flash for 4+ years. Something clicked. But I could have easily given up after 4 years of failure. The genius produces outstanding work with little or no effort, whereas the non-genius may struggle to produce something mediocre. If we could all be geniuses at what we aspire to be going to class or cracking a book open...we would. In the 70's I had a friend that went to Art Center College in L.A. He studied photography. I used to go to class sometimes with him to sit in on classes. I could not afford to go there, so that was as close as I got to Art Center. Anyway, I noticed in the critique sessions for weekly assignments the same students would produce more or less outstanding photos on each assignment. Some would produce OK photos and maybe a great one once in a while and some would produce low end stuff as their general output. Later on with my work as an Art Director I noticed this with artists I would hire or do portfolio reviews on. Some had good technical abilities, but poor creativity. Others had creativity but poor technique. Others had both technique and creativity, but were flakes. Back in the 80's I met a gal in her 40's that retired from business and wanted to be an artist. She was well off selling her business for millions and lived in a mini-mansion in San Marino, CA. She said she had taken some art classes and showed me her portfolio. The draftsmanship was poor and creativity was poor. And her prices to do jobs were very high. Her background as a successful business owner tainted her realistic conception of what is paid for art jobs. Her work smacked of someone with little art talent that struggled to put it down on paper or canvas. It wasn't in her, she had little talent and classes did not do much for her apparently. Now someone with natural talent bangs it out with little or no effort whereas she struggled just to produce sub-par work. In my own case I tried to learn some creativity with book cover design. I produce lots of artist's books. Designing the cover has always been hard for me. I am not a creative person in that area. I bought a number of books on cover design. I studied and studied them over and over again. The best I could do with my creativity for cover design would be to try and copy off of covers I liked in the book. It wasn't in me. When I first started with photography in 1969 / 1970 I wanted to be a fashion / studio photographer. After a few years it sunk in I had no talent for that type of work. Eventually I found what I do have talent in and work in that area. We all have different abilities, so why not make the most of the talents you got? Sure, study all you like but if it is not you, don't waste your life on trying to be something you can't naturally be great at. Do what you are great at. Selection from Weekly World News Front Page Archive Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection