# 2019-12-31 - Bryant Painting Not Art at the Ashton on New Year's Eve > [!note] Photo Journey No. 52 > Published October 25, 2026, in [[photo journey/welcome|Photo Journey]].  *Bryant with a brush in hand at home at the Ashton, 101 Colorado Street in downtown Austin, Texas, on New Year's Eve 2019, a couple of hours before midnight, painting the words NOT ART in dripping red across a framed abstract canvas of ochre, gray and black. In glasses and a gray shirt, he studies the letters as he finishes the underline.* ## 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 I defiled it with red paint, wrote NOT ART across its face and spat on it, and in that moment it became real; it became differentiated. A human hand had interfered with the mechanization, and the object finally carried an intention that belonged to someone. 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/20261025 - Not Art|Not Art]] *(Oct 25, 2026)*: the full essay on the idea behind this photograph. ### Livestreams - [[livestreams/Constructing Genius by Recognizing and Developing Your Gifts, Part 2 - Livestream|Constructing Genius by Recognizing and Developing Your Gifts, Part 2]] *(Mar 29, 2016)*: where Bryant first described painting NOT ART in red on a mass-produced canvas and spitting on it, so that it becomes a statement about the conveyor belt. - [[livestreams/Craft, Value, and the Recovery of Fair Compensation, Part 1 - Livestream|Craft, Value, and the Recovery of Fair Compensation, Part 1]] *(Nov 17, 2016)*: the "not art project," with the assembly-line painting on the wall behind him, on how value is created by getting off the assembly line. ### 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 <iframe width="100%" height="300" style="border:1px solid #ccc; border-radius:8px" loading="lazy" src="https://www.openstreetmap.org/export/embed.html?bbox=-97.7514%2C30.2599%2C-97.7394%2C30.2679&layer=mapnik&marker=30.263882%2C-97.74537"></iframe> [Open in OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=30.263882&mlon=-97.74537#map=16/30.263882/-97.74537) · [Open in Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps?q=30.263882,-97.74537)