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“An artist cannot speak about his art anymore than a plant can discuss horticulture.”
“Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.”
“Living is a horizontal fall.”
“Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time”
“Art is science made clear.”
“Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.”
Feb 12, 2024
Related Recs
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There's a thing that I notice at art museums sometimes. Someone wearing a slightly annoyed expression will be speeding through the exhibit like they are going down a long to do list. Or I'll be playing a board game with a group and there will be some guy with a strained face looking like they'd rather be anywhere else. Maybe another time we're leaving a movie and they start to complain about how it 'wasn't realistic', you get the picture.
I swear to God it makes me want to pulpify their face.
I'm not saying that you need to like every piece of art or that you should feel bad for not liking a movie, but, goddamn, at least give it a fucking second. Closing yourself off to The New, being automatically opposed to earnestness when it appears, is one of the most damaging defense mechanisms I can think of. It is, in turn, also one of the best ways to maximize your misery.
The defense mechanism that is cynicism, turns its users into parasites of the Social; they are sold the idea (a lie) that damaging and denigrating <<something>> allows one to become independent of its power structure. On the contrary, just as a leech is the most dependent on its host, cynics are those that are most dependent on the power structures in our culture.
I really want to emphasize the difference between criticism and cynicism, because I am in no way saying that we should not criticize bad or damaging art, but to successfully criticize something means to first buy in, to really allow yourself to be taken by a piece, to examine it as it comes. Buying in as a term (even one so bathed in capitalist sebum) is the right one in this case because to buy in requires one to make a sacrifice. You cannot experience art without opening yourself to the possibility that it will do damage to you. To fully allow yourself to be moved by a piece of art is to allow yourself to be cut.
But inside that cut is what it means to be human.
I think the single best way to combat cynicism is an unceasing curiosity of the world and the people in it. The normal and common of this world is absolutely fantasmatic if you take a moment to examine it; we see the world through have fluid filled orbs made of meat for fucks sake. The fact that there is anything at all, the fact that you and I exist for even a second is an absolutely unbelievable mind fuck, and to be unimpressed by any and everything doesn’t make you special or better than anyone, it just leaves you on a road to the pit of despair and leaves me really bummed out for the rest of the night.
Sep 20, 2024
100TH REC HOMIES
Here it goesss...
Recently watched a documentary about one of my favourite artists, Coulter Jacobs, and there's a shot in the film that briefly lingers on a quote he had painted onto a block of wood:
Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest*
My take on it:
The quote isn't anything revolutionary, but within the context of the doc, which focuses on Jacobs' artistic pursuits/struggles and influence within the LA tattoo artist + abstract art community, it perfectly sums up the importance of being forgiving & allowing yourself room to breathe when you're working on your craft.
As someone who has a tendency to overthink & give my all with even the smallest of tasks, finding that delineation between seriousness and levity can get very blurry at times, but perhaps that's exactly why that short sentence stood out to me and it may be of use to you too.
Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, it's just as good a reminder to not take everything in this life with too much severity. It's a heavy existence already, no need to make it harder on yourself by treating everything like it will utterly make or break your life and/or career.
*The quote originally comes from Hermann Hesse, a German-Swiss novelist, poet, painter & Nobel laureate whose works focused a lot on the pursuit of personal authenticity and self-understanding.
Apr 11, 2024
i always think about the cycle of consumption
Art is to be made to be consumed and we do, but the other art needs to be made so in the same way a dentist needs a dentist. Who is at the end? Are we not in a deficit of creation?
i think about this often, it reminds me of the crywank dog on the album cover, or a snake eating itself. or all those monkeys typing what I’ve already written here in an infinite timeline.
all this to say not all art needs to be good and we shouldn’t create art to be good.
Jan 17, 2025
Top Recs from @lucy-bull
Jan 21, 2024
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Just saw a sick wavy example in GDL
Nov 5, 2023
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Depends on the theatre
At new bev, I need to be very front row
At Los Feliz 3, second to last/middle or very back
Honestly tall people should not be allowed to sit in first few rows and hats should be forbidden
Jan 22, 2024