I haven’t posted in a long time. But I haven’t been doing nothin’. Lemme ‘splain.

First, I decided to convert my office into my studio. No easy feat. I have boxes packed and bookshelves emptied, I’ve got to paint them black to match the decor in the room they’re being transplanted into.

I’ve got a metric crap-ton of old paperwork I need to spend an hour shredding. Like the paperwork from our first house we bought back in 2001. I think I’m WAY over the time limit/need for those papers. Etc.

It’s spring in California, so I’ve also been catching up on yard work in my spare time. And there’s a lot of it. When it stops raining, I’ll get on the rest of it.

I also purged a ton of old computer stuff and temporarily turned my office back into a PC fix-it place to help out a friend. If my job ever goes tits up, first thing I’m doing is fixing computers for money. I’m awesomely good at it but I just can’t stand charging people for something that’s so easy and that I love to do. I could if I had to, though.

But, on to art – I’m still taking care of my artsy side by reading 4 art books:

  • The Artist’s Life
  • The War of Art
  • Art and Fear
  • The Creative Habit

I also watched about 5 documentaries about art and artists on Netflix (on-demand). I don’t remember what they’re called, but the artists in Manhattan – ugh. What a load of fucking crap. They all complained that they weren’t making money, and I’m not surprised: stuck with the mentality that real art is for love only, not money; that your fans will find you, not the other way around; that you must never give in to “evil” corporations (seriously, are they all fucking retarded?); that you MUST get into a NY gallery or you’re nothing…

Basically, the documentaries I watched were 100% opposite of what I actually believe about art. No, it doesn’t always have to be a scathing assessment of our modern lives in order to be good. No, squiggly ink lines that happen to look like things don’t magically become a thesis on the human condition. No, your shit doesn’t sell not because the art world is snooty, it’s precisely because YOU are snooty.

I guess my pragmatic, geeky side has taken over what I think of art. I think art is something you make intentionally, except when you don’t. I think art is an idea, but can also be just a fucking apple in a fucking cup. So fucking what? Art can be something you find attractive. Art can be new horizons. Art can be the tried and true. Art is whatever the fuck you want to paint.

Either way, you’re not a pro unless you can paint all the time and can sell it. 80% of success is showing up. Most of the artists in the documentaries barely showed up. Or were total asshats when the did show up. Or had attitudes like primadonnas.

I guess I’m not a NY art scene kinda guy.

I think Hazel Dooney has it right – do your own thing, do the guerilla marketing, be true to yourself, show and sell your work, show up even when it’s hard, and be you. Always be you. Don’t let “them” tell you that you’re wrong for being you. Fuck “them.” Fuck them right in their tight little cornholes. Technology has changed the world. Adapt or go extinct.

Okay, off the pedestal for now.