mariana abramovitch

What a strange nugget. How interesting that she is trying to let go. She understands that art is about truley letting one's self go to make the art. She is letting go of her fears and self doubts. She is realizing she is so much more than a physical person, but just energy in this one moment.
It is also funny how she is making her entire life a performance. Even down to her planned funeral. Having 3 funerals where no one knows which one is real. Epic.

Off the rim

Jim Carroll was a writer with many vices but believed the drugs helped him tap into his creativity. "Poetry can release a terrible fear. I believe it is the fear of possibilities, too many possibilities, each with its own set of endless variations... with basketball you can fix your mistakes, immediately and beautifully, in midair." I completely know what he means. It is so easy to drown in possibilities. What is the direction you want your paintings to go in. Sometimes you have to decide and use all of your force to go in that one direction, and other times it is good to let go of everything and let the art discover itself. Both are extremely good learning tools.

art reviews of Richard Serra

I'm going to clump these two articles in together since they were rather similar. They are talking about a scultpors work or highrising beautifully arching steel sculptures. Ones that make the audience oooo and aaaaah. Ones that your must walk around to fully appreciate. There is no one direct view of them.

How not dumb is lady Gaga?

Sasha Frere-Jones talks about how lady gaga writes all of her own music and can sing and knows about publishing music. She also knows how to change with where music is going, by following the "disco" movement. She is not afraid to reinvent herself.

Fancy Footwork

David Denby is not too impressed with Black Swan. Honestly, when I saw the movie, I was impressed. I was unsettled the entire movie. It was passionately thrilling and drew me in. I didn't really like the feeling I had in the pit of my stomach most of the movie. But I would not say it was "clunky" but it was ridiculous at parts.

Anytime, Anywhere: Kanye West by Sasha Frere-Jones

Sadly I had never really thought of Kayne West as an artist. But that is just my prejudice against not liking him as a person. I'm never really a fan of cocky people. After reading this article I watched parts of his half an hour long film. All I can say is that it made me laugh alot. It was rather creative. But strikingly painful, I felt kind of embarrassed for him. This like that are sad if they don't have a hint of humor at how silly it is. I guess that brings me back to the cocky part. If you take yourself too seriously, I think it opens you up to more criticism and faults. But if you laugh at yourself you break down all the barriers.

It's Not Beautiful by Ean Osnos

Ai Weiwei grew up around activist parents and was influenced by them to question and push the government. He fully uses technology (twitter) and has no problem with accepting what is, but wants to help make it better. Art is anything that makes a statement or uses your brainpower. So his activism is just as artistic as chopping the neck off of a violin and replacing it with a shovel handle.

The Painted Word by Tom Wolf (Harpers)

It's rather funny how people fall into cliches just by trying to avoid them. Like the bohemians trying to avoid the rich. But painters just want to paint, not be a monkey producing what they are told to produce. This article talked about how art is all about statements, and people buy art because they understand it, or someone else told them how to understand it, aka it is worth money. Pop art came about because it was kinda realistic, but it was also expressive.

A Kind Word for Critics by Francois Truffaut (Harpers)

Although Truffaut is talking about how movie critics are not less than any other critic, he completely bashes French film critics. He does have good points on why he does that, but I find it funny. He also talks about how people see foreigners as having more talent than natives. He also goes on to say how intention and actual production never quiet match up.

I think the reason people think movie critiquing is easy, is because movies speak to people on so many levels. It contains music, language and visual aspects. Thusly it could be seen as more straight forward and speaks to more people.