Inspiration: This is all three of my inspirations this week. There's like seven videos in here. This is literally all the inspiration I will ever need for the rest of my life.
Work: More Trolls!
Reading: Gregory Green, Intro/Interview Section
So I'm feeling fun this week and decide to just pick a random page in the book. I open to a delightful picture of a Moltov Cocktail. I say delightful becase 1) It's well drawn and 2) I realized that I already knew a lot about Moltov Cocktails and that made me feel good.
The artist in question here is Gregory Green, who's mission is to "undermine existing concentrations of power and distribute it among the people." Which, before we even get started, is not really anarchy. Anarchy is chaos, not equilibrium. But that's semantics.
Gregory actually seems pretty level headed, I loved his notions about taking off his "artist hat" and putting on his "business hat" and the idea that he doesn't always wear leather and spike his hair and play into all the other Hollywood fetish-ized aesthetics of an "anarchist."
Here's what I don't like:
1. He has five art dealers. Why does someone trying to subvert existing systems use them? Rage Against the Machine gets asked this a lot, because they're signed to a major label and... I mean really they're just a band. Why not be activists? Well because it gets their message out, is their statement. But does it? Does singing songs about anti-government or leftist sentimentality to a sweaty mob of inebriated 17-30 year-old's get the point across to the right audience? Does having five art dealers that help you get into syndicated galleries make you punk rock? No. Being poor because you're trying to do everything yourself is punk rock. And it sucks. But you chose to be punk rock so you have to deal with it.
2. He went to grad school. Not punk rock. Not anarchist. Grad school isn't even pretending you just want to "further your skills." It's explicitly to enter into the market for your chosen profession... or become a teacher.
3. We are living in the most DIY-friendly era imaginable. Greg complains about not being taught in school "how to make it in the art world." Not only does that happen now-days, but it's vaguely irrelevant. Before there were schools, there were people DOING things that MADE the rules up that later got taught to people too afraid to just stick their own necks out. If you want to get famous you don't need to be part of the system. Make a website, make funny videos, get self-published for like $5 a book and go to craft shows and market yourself. All by yourself. Like a person who doesn't want to support the system. If you get paid cash, you could even be a total prick and not report any income to the government and instead make a bunch of flyers for your awesome pseudo-political concept book or whatever hardcore DIY anarchists who drive a crazy van full of radios and guns do. There is literally no excuse to be in the system if your art is about not being in the system.
Then again, once your little indie operation gets off the ground, people will want to join you and you will BECOME the system, man. Isn't that just a bummer.
I really do like this guy though. Or maybe I just want to burn stuff down.
Reading: Gregory Green, Intro/Interview Section
So I'm feeling fun this week and decide to just pick a random page in the book. I open to a delightful picture of a Moltov Cocktail. I say delightful becase 1) It's well drawn and 2) I realized that I already knew a lot about Moltov Cocktails and that made me feel good.
The artist in question here is Gregory Green, who's mission is to "undermine existing concentrations of power and distribute it among the people." Which, before we even get started, is not really anarchy. Anarchy is chaos, not equilibrium. But that's semantics.
Gregory actually seems pretty level headed, I loved his notions about taking off his "artist hat" and putting on his "business hat" and the idea that he doesn't always wear leather and spike his hair and play into all the other Hollywood fetish-ized aesthetics of an "anarchist."
Here's what I don't like:
1. He has five art dealers. Why does someone trying to subvert existing systems use them? Rage Against the Machine gets asked this a lot, because they're signed to a major label and... I mean really they're just a band. Why not be activists? Well because it gets their message out, is their statement. But does it? Does singing songs about anti-government or leftist sentimentality to a sweaty mob of inebriated 17-30 year-old's get the point across to the right audience? Does having five art dealers that help you get into syndicated galleries make you punk rock? No. Being poor because you're trying to do everything yourself is punk rock. And it sucks. But you chose to be punk rock so you have to deal with it.
2. He went to grad school. Not punk rock. Not anarchist. Grad school isn't even pretending you just want to "further your skills." It's explicitly to enter into the market for your chosen profession... or become a teacher.
3. We are living in the most DIY-friendly era imaginable. Greg complains about not being taught in school "how to make it in the art world." Not only does that happen now-days, but it's vaguely irrelevant. Before there were schools, there were people DOING things that MADE the rules up that later got taught to people too afraid to just stick their own necks out. If you want to get famous you don't need to be part of the system. Make a website, make funny videos, get self-published for like $5 a book and go to craft shows and market yourself. All by yourself. Like a person who doesn't want to support the system. If you get paid cash, you could even be a total prick and not report any income to the government and instead make a bunch of flyers for your awesome pseudo-political concept book or whatever hardcore DIY anarchists who drive a crazy van full of radios and guns do. There is literally no excuse to be in the system if your art is about not being in the system.
Then again, once your little indie operation gets off the ground, people will want to join you and you will BECOME the system, man. Isn't that just a bummer.
I really do like this guy though. Or maybe I just want to burn stuff down.
same
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