Hey Mirror Dash....
 

Did the font work?

nahh... no big deal.

it is frustrating that as a sometime graphic designer with close to 9,000 fonts on my hard drive, i still can't get the shit to display correctly.... but i'm not about to lose any sleep over it....

Oh ok, I always wonder if I should have been a graphic designer.

well, what are you up to with yr bad self anyway?

Studying, I have two midterms next week, and you?

mucking about in grad school... supposedly working on a Masters in Architecture... thesis currently kicking my ass.

Ugh, that sucks. I have three midterm essays to write this semester, ugh I feel like I want to throw up.

what sort of stuff to you study? declared a major?

I declared photojournalism, with a minor in art history. However, I am thinking of doing art concentrating on photography.

no shit.

<--- sometime freelance photographer.

Cool, how does freelancing work? Sorry for my naive question?

<--- all the time art history nut.

no such thing as a stupid question, imo.



freelancing = industry jargon for "i don't have a job, but i'll sell you these photos."

So paparazzi?

So what era do you like in Art? Or movement?

ha. no... i don't know anything about celebrity chasers. though i guess they do generally work freelance. i could never make a living snapping embarassing photos of famous people.

i did read an article in the ny times about a paparazzo who refuses to take compromising shots and ALWAYS gives his subjects final approval before publishing. consequently he actually gets invited to the hollywood parties, gets behind the scenes access on movie sets and is close friends many of his subjects. forgot what his name was. but basically somewhere midway between high-end portait photographers

http://72.5.117.144/fif=fpx/c/CR2850...d=400&cvt=jpeg

and the slime in the street with the scooters who take this crap






....anyway. if i was going to do the celbrity circuit, that's how i'd swing it.









what i did was architectural photography for architects i knew. i did it for way below cost because i was trying to build a portfolio and i had a day job as a draftsman at the time.

Oh I see, I find architechture to be intriguing but I feel kind of intimidated by it.

it's actually far less of a pretentious field than the "art world." unless you want to be an "architectural historian" or "architecture critic" you've got to be able to gain the respect of a pick-up driving contractor, cause he's the one who will actually be building yr "masterpiece."


apologies if you were planning on buying a scooter and chasing celebrities.

Damn, now I need to do a Business major.

please don't let me scare you out of art with a concentration in photography... it is in the top three on the list of things to do with my life. but if yr serious about it you should know that the "art world" is a cutthoat nasty place. i know many people who had huge dreams and now shoot weddings to pay the bills.

Oh yeah, I know it is not very easy. That is why I went with photojournalism, not that that is any easier.

photojournalism is somewhere in my top ten things to do with my life... i'm just not ready to give up my dreams of being a capital "a" artist.

True, I think one can be both an artist and still work. I know it is looked down upon, but I think that is how it is done, without stressing for money.

where to start...

primarily post WWII "conceptual art" ...60s neo-dada. fluxus. minimalism, land-art, installation work, performance art..

current fav artist: gordon matta-clark. my thesis (what there is of it) is an attempt to continue where he left off.

other strong influences: joseph bueys, sol lewitt, dieter roth, mary kelly, gerhard richter.


to the extent that these artist were influenced by pre WWII artists, i am also a huge fan of the "historical avant-gardes" ...ie, dada, futurism, surrealism, pataphysics, paranoid critical method, etc.

i prefer to think about art through the filter of freudian/lacanian psychoanalysis and french poststructuralism/deconstruction. this is highly unadvisable if the thought "i need to get a business degree" came anywhere near yr head.:D

We were talking about Matta-Clark today in class.

edit- I would also like to add, that I have yet to discover which era I like the most. I have artist that I enjoy, but not movements.

true.. one of the most down to earth and stable "artists" i know works men's wear retail at the mall. he's had solo shows at galleries, i have yet to do a group show.... so i assume he's got a better handle on the thing than i do.

Yeah, I want to do a series of photograph on stereotypes. That is an idea I might do over the summer, since I won't have any classes.

you are absolutely right in this.

from what little i've seen of the inner workings of the "art world" [and by "art world" i mostly mean the ny gallery scene/venice biennale type stuff]:

movement, shmovement! bullshit marketing. it's all about selling work, and if a critic picks up on an "ism" and the galleries get behind it... it goes in the history books.

if you talk this way in yr art history class you will fail.... you might be able to get a professor to go so far as admit that the "cult of personality" surrounding an individual artist is more important than "movements" ...but neatly packaged "isms" are what the university art history departments make their living on.

You are absolutely right on this, I guess people want to neatly label things. I have never been able to do that, I just hate to fit one mold, and things I like to fit it. It seems odd, but that is the way I view art, and life.

not odd at all, imo

this goes to the very core of the hypocrisy you have to get used to if you want to succeed in this thing. if you want to sell work, you need a gallery to represent you to potential collectors. if a gallery wants their cut on the sale, they will market yr stuff using over-simplified labels. and if you're lucky and a critic comes to interview you and you want to continue to sell work, you just nod and say, "yes, how amazingly perceptive of you, i do in fact fit this ism you speak of." ....and then you have to figure out how to sleep at night....


blech... it makes me want to puke. and yet this is what i dream of.

I know that feeling, well I am going to bed. It is one, and barely studied, have a good one.

peace. and good luck.