Character and Art

To make it in the art world does one have to be a character? In Thornton, the author describes the people who work at Artforum as characters. They are eccentric, have huge personalities, and strong opinions. Even their presentation of self is performative, they dress in outrageous outfits that are meant to command attention. Thinking outside of just Artforum many of the most well known artists are themselves a spectical. Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Sophie Calle: all of them are characters who are almost as equally well known as their work. So how do these two things interact, persona and work. Do they have to? Does success depend on it?

I'm missing home and decided to look up Llyn Foulkes. He's a one man band and performs all over the place. Here's his website. click the 'music' tab and enjoy!
http://llynfoulkes.com

Contemporary Art vs. Contemporarty Writing

I have two B.A.s, one in English (Creative Writing) and the other in Studio Art. I had to decide which discipline to pursue. I chose art because I felt less constricted by it.

Reading the Thorton book, I found it interesting when she quoted Elizabeth Schamelan, senior editor at Artforum, who said, "Contemporary art seemed to be taking more interesting risks than contemporary fiction" (153). I think part of the ability for contemporary art to take more risks is that it isn't as much of a mass produced commodity as fiction. The two markets do share similarities, but when it comes to the publishing house, fiction needs a certain marketability. This marketability means that fiction has to stay within specific forms. There are limited options for form and language, because in order to get readers writers need to make work that sits within a the tradition of literature and its structure.

Contemporary artists have some more freedom of expression because they are making an object that doesn't rely upon a publisher for realization. Their objects are stand alone and (generally) one of a kind. I'm aware that contemporary artists are concerned with where they fit in the market, but I don't think they have to be slaves to the mass public reception of their work in the same way that contemporary writers do.

Here are some artsy music videos i've been watching

Murakami and MTV

Check out MTV's report on Murakami's opening in Brooklyn in 2008. They call him "the Louis Vuitton artist" which made me cringe.

Art:21

I am watching Art:21 these days.It's really a helpful resource for us to know what exactly the artists are thinking about their works and how they accomplished the works. There are five seasons in it,we can find DVDs at Flexman Library and also watch them online at: http://video.pbs.org/program/1217143847/
To watch William Kendtrige cutting paper horses,talking about his fantastic ideas and other artists' having fun with their works are the most enjoyable time for me these days.

Thomas Kinkade on ShopNBC

Kitsch, kitsch, kitsch. I was flipping through channels on tv can came across Mr. Thomas Kinkade selling is paintings on ShopNBC. Kinkade himself talked about his paintings as a world for his collectors to step into. On this segment I stumbled upon, Kinkade painted a scene from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I guess people want to be in Disney movies.