Recent posts tagged art
2023
No One Gets Talked Out Of This (Or Into It)
If someone can talk you out of being a writer, you’re not a writer. But that doesn't mean other writers owe you anything.
The Jealous Guy Feedback Loop Blues
It's always important to recognize creative envy and work with it instead of against it.
2022
A Mouthful Of Ideas
Comparing and contrasting two critics, Roger Ebert and Serge Daney.
The Art Of All, 2022 Edition
"All entertainment is art whether we like it or not" holds up better with every passing year, and for many reasons.
2021
Talkin' Bout Some Bad Mothers
We shouldn't confuse tragedy with misplaced sympathy for the devil.
The In-House Art Preservation And Digital Collage Society
A new flatbed scanner joins my in-home digital creation arsenal.
2020
The Beatings Shall Continue, And All That
It is not required to substitute ugly things for lovely ones in the name of some spurious bid for truth.
"You Don't Have To Live With The Bloody Man"
On portraits of the artist as a complete jackass, and why we need new kinds of stories about artists.
Of The Here And Now, Or The Anywhere And Always
I've long been wary of using fiction as a system of polemic, not because I don't care about the world we live in but because such things typically make for bad fiction
What Might Dance Better
"Since all art finally affirms something, if only its own value, some attitudes thus dance better than others."
2019
The End Of Quality (Not Really)
Some say "good, better, best" is an absurdity and best done away with. I agree, sort of.
2018
Do The Wrong Thing
What if someone Did Something Bad with a creation of yours?
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, But Sometimes They Just Turn Out To Be Cattle Rustlers
We need to have more nuanced ways of taking what matters for us from a given creator and from their works.
The Answer To Last Week's Puzzle
"Are we so desperate to solve our art?"
2017
Artifact And Artifiction
I have been reading the writings of Gerhard Richter, a painter whose view of his work is a good deal more interesting to me than much of the work itself. He was, like John Cage, not interested in creating things that were an expression of his personality; he wanted some larger aspect of things to manifest itself through him. In fact, Cage is explicitly credited as an influence, and in one of the photos in the book, Cage is seen smiling in front of one of Richter's paintings.
Grindhouse Vs. Arthouse Vs. My House
On schlock being useful without the love of it becoming its own snobbism.
No Masters Here
There is no such thing as "mastery" of one's art, just improvement in whatever form is possible.
From Monstrosity To Tragedy
Art isn't profound just because it hurts.
Not The Bookish Type Dept.
I went looking for books in my personal library that are about the craft of writing. I could barely find any.
Pretty Things Dept.
Go make something beautiful and humane. Everything else is just commentary.
Artitude Dept.
"I cannot serve like a waiter, because that's not what this job is about."
2016
Coltrane Vs. Vonnegut III Dept.
To exist is to be misunderstood.
Coltrane Vs. Vonnegut II Dept.
On why being your "true" self is not a matter of acting out things that you normally repress.
Coltrane Vs. Vonnegut Dept.
Two theories about the social utility of art,
Gimlet Eyes Dept.
Artists can be politically outspoken, but are not automatically astute for being so.
