Ontology, Phenomenology

The blog is going to take a much more theoretical turn now. I have noticed that I have been much more "distracted" of late w/regard to the art project. I am trying to formulate AS SUCH..as a "SOCIAL" project as much as technical and practical. I (the agent) installed in a contemporary situation exercise my freedom to choose a given social direction, mobilizing my energies and those of others in a specific path and direction. It's a trial and error opus involving self-generated ends and goals.

Arrival cont'd..The Project

What is the project of "the Artist"? An Artist..A particular artist..or me? To me. from my viewpoint I live in Post-War consumer culture america. I was a young man in the turbulence of the 60's and 70's where the radical pose experienced a heyday..as the 80's morphed into the 90's so much had now been accomplished that "radicalism as such" now became another lifestyle commodity. It was harder to justify your "refusal" of the bourgeois when blacks, gays, women, the disabled, asians, hispanics, and so on had more access and protection than ever. Anyhow why even THINK that all art aims at radical subversion of the mainstream? Can we just come out now and say "Hey I LIKE Gainsbourough, Vivaldi, Andrew Wyeth..etc.."?
An artist.."I" want recognition, money, "security" a house in Bridgehampton..to be one of the "chosen" showing in the better/best galleries commanding the highest prices..while young enuff to enjoy it..

The Arrival

What is the best outcome here?
1. The Hamptons
2. Christies
3. Williamsburg
4. Chelsea
5. Existentialism
6. Harlem
7. Crestview Fla
8. Foucalt, Freud, Paglia
9. Basquiat
10. Richard Prince
11. Day jobs
12. RISD
13. est, Hubbard, Watts, Perls
14. Dalton
15. 47 yrs old

Art Professing

I guess it was at Dalton where I forged the fundamental considerations about doing it for a living..or WHAT to do for a living. As a kid I just DID it you know. No big deal. Dalton of course showed me REALLY wealthy successful people, whereas in the ghetto or my black background, everyone was more or less an abject failure. I met Ivan Chermayeff, the Glimchers, Michael Rosenfeld, Mort Janklow, Saul Steinberg's kids..etc.
I experienced the GOOD life as over there and rejected or ran away from my own beginnings..but how could I realistically do what Sabine Howard and Jacob Collins do? That western traditionalist stuff? White nudes, still lifes, judges and dentists?
I was and still am conflicted about subject matter. I failed to connect with other black artists of my generation, Glenn Ligon, Kara Walker, Leonardo Drew, and Thelma Golden all actively dislike me...

Art and Such

When I was bussed to school in 2nd and 3rd Grade ( Crestview Fla) I got my first art "award"..I won first place for a tempera painting of a black dog, my black dog. A sherriff's son asked me to do a drawing for a fifty cent piece. My grandmother made me give it back.
By 4th grade I had discovered comic books. I was in love. I bought a ton of them before finally throwing them out after college.
I got a scholarship to Dalton in 1972, 5th grade, that was when I really began my studies of the "white man's world of art". Robert Lahotan was my first Dalton art teacher. He had us drawing these dull, dull, dull still lives and all that. I pretended to be allergic to charcoal. I think I really was kinda...

Art as such..

When I was like, y'know 5 years old I started drawing on my mother's envelopes and any suitable drawing surface. I drew the Flintstones, Batman and Robin..those were my first subjects. Next was people. Black people, in the surrounding "ghetto". Eventually my mom recognized my interest and bought me a Grumbacher sketchbook. I don't have ANY of them. I was never good at saving things. She never took it seriously enuff to save anything either. I think white people "save" art more. They have a diff attitude about objects and property in general. There are no "museums" in African societies. My Jewish 4th grade teacher bought me my first set of oil pastels and gave me a couple of volumes of the encyclopaedia of art. That was my first real encounter with white art history, semi-nude white people in Rennaissance friezes. I was more interested in comic books. I loved Neal Adams.

Grindhouse

Have been unemployed for more than four months. Realized a couple of weeks into it that it would be unlikely that I would return to work soon. Also realized I didn't HAVE to and didn't WANT to. Settled into the idea of a taste of F/T artist status. Over that 4 month process have come to where I am today. Yes I spend alot of wasted time in the studio. Distractions and indulgences like the web, tv, movies, and partying..but the lifestyle is nothing but indulgent anyway..and alot of time is spent letting ideas develop and or come to you..in any event, the inevitable has arrived and I have to look for a full time "grind". Fortunately, the turning point of late May has left me with a direction to make it interesting and worthwhile to continue the studio practice which I shall.
The biggest win was the realization that I could make interesting larger items using found wood, and cheap large masonite. Then also the canvases stretched on cheap plywood.

In three weeks I find myself with at least 6 or 7 pieces that I would be willing to submit in a small exhibition and look forward to a deeper commitment this fall and winter.