Portrait of Tom Waits, because y'know Art!

I made a drawing... this is an art blog right? yipee drawing!

Fuck Minimalism, give me Maximalism

simple canvases of color
sentences with three words and too many pronouns
"it's not about what is being shown, but what is not being shown."
that ambiguous unknown in between all those carefully selected words
giving you something to ponder?
bah
acts of a coward
scared to miss the mark with your art
so you stop a mile short
with vague directions
telling the audience to go find their own truth
like a timid boy who's unable to ask out the girl of his dreams
because he fears rejection
wouldn't want to open yourself up to ridcule
being wrong isn't cool

how about doing something earnest with your hands for once
even if its just the fap fap fap at a small desk in your room
i bet we could find merit in that self congratulatory act
overshare
expose yourself
leave nothing to their imagination
make your brain strain and sweat
find your limits of articulation and surpass them
talk like a crazy person
work too hard on dipicting your observations
be like Giacometti with your marks
a frenzy of attempts
all heart felt
coalesing into a horde
there are too many
they distort your truth
you will be vulnerable this way
they will laugh at you
ask why you even bothered
but from this mad activity
your intentions shall be known

The Artist as a Storyteller!

Installation view of Mai-Thu Perret's "Little Planetary Harmony," 2006, at the Renaissance Society Chicago

I'm going to drop all pretenses that people actually read these, and just write the essay I want to write. Because that's a thing I do, write essays for fun. It's like a sudoku puzzle but instead of a grid you have the landscape of art history, and instead of numbers you have types of art that I like... okay that analogy doesn't work well but we'll move on.

Maps

The biggest idea that I latched onto while I was at college was investigating how I felt about my distance from my childhood home.  It's not the most innovating idea ever but it's something that I think about a lot, and was able to spark passion into new art projects.  Living in the world we do now, I also knew that my view was a subjective one.  To get a more rounded view on the subject you'd have to ask a lot of people, so that's what I did.

A Studio's Interior as an Artist's Home

I did two projects for my senior year.  Each project contained multiple pieces but it was more about the whole than the individual pieces.  A common idea in Installation Art.  I did a lot of reading that lead me up to this point.  At first I just wanted to have an environment with paintings and text, but then as i read more this idea evolved.  Books by Marshal McLuhan and Claire Bishop gave me a larger frame of reference on what was possible.  Honestly I probably had too many ideas for my senior year, but i felt like my last year within the safety of an institution wasn't the time to play it safe.  So I chased after some really crazy big ideas.

Art Review - Mike Vance

I want to talk about art.

But since I'm in Portland now and MECA won't let me roam their studios critiquing other people's work – their loss – I'm going to take a stab at this writing thing. This is an exercise for me, but also I think documenting thoughts and sharing them can only be good. Plus no one wanted to do the podcast. In the very least Mike Vance will have a review he can point to if he ever needs one.

Berger's Book List: Inside the White Cube

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Alright during my senior year I read a lot. If anything half of what I did that year was read and it really shaped how i approached my work. So of course got to share what I read and this seemed like a good place to do it.

Montserrat Library has this book, I actually made them order it.