🖍️
buy your friends art or buy a strangers art. not the mass produced stuff but that weird little sketch or painting or whatever. support folks, sometimes you find out 20 years later that someone was in the whitney biennial and you have one of their drawings from when they were a teenager and that’s pretty cool. buy stuff for $25 or $2000 or whatever you can afford - give your money to artists when you can!
Related Recs
đź–Ľ
You get to not only support them and their work, but it’s the gift that keeps on giving as you get to surround yourself with the creative output of your favorite people.
Jan 28, 2024
đź–Ľ
Buy art from your cool artist friends!!
Feb 27, 2024
đź–Ľ
Inspired by my imminent desire for floras rabbit print, but very seriously:
I think one of my small but important life goals is to establish a formidable collection of art made by my friends and peers, because (a) when they all become famous I will be very rich, (b) it is so much more interesting to populate your walls with physical artifacts of your community than some random posters (though I do love a good random poster), and (c) i think it is harder in the digital age to materially support the physical arts in the same ways we are used to supporting like, musicians - the culture of going to see your friends bands, or buying your friends band merch, is harder to carry over to seeing your friends paintings or sculptures, i think. So I think it is important to try and do so whenever possible. I am trying to channel my inner medieval artistic patron, with whatever pittance of funds I have on hand.
In conclusion:
Make your friends sell you their art
Commission art from your friends as if you are a feudal lord commissioning a portrait of your lover
Hang that shit in your house
Jun 22, 2024
Top Recs from @mitra
🪆
apparel-ish?
I started an apparel brand called Blood is the new Black when I was 23 (in 2004, i’m 42 now) the brand acted as an arts collective, i’d select several artists every season to add to the brand and would curate their submitted works into collections. distro ranged from beams (jp) colette (fr) selfridges (uk) all the way to pac sun, urban outfitters, zumiez in the states. during the 9 years I had the brand I also published zines, produced artist directed films, curated gallery shows etc. it was part of the indie sleaze era and you’d see folks like tegan and sara, michael pitt, britney spears, allison mosshart wearing the brand.
somehow I pivoted to country music along the way and started a brand called midnight rider in 2013. i made licensed repop and vintage feeling tees for musicians and folks like willie nelson, townes van zandt, nudies rodeo tailors, john wayne, the judds, waylon jennings, zz top and so many others. I sold that brand last year!
now I do licensing and merchandise for waylon jennings (so if you see waylon merch or collabs i’m the one behind it). I also spend my free time taking photos and i’m currently working on a book about grand national owners.
id love to mentor folks who have or are starting their own businesses because i’ve learned a lot in the process both good and bad.
Feb 9, 2024
🧑
want to learn a new thing for $150? community college
need access to a ceramics studio or darkroom? community college
want to sound mysterious/intellectual and say things like “i’m back in school” as a grown adult? community college
don’t want 200k worth of liberal arts college debt? community college
want to be in a rag tag group of misfits of all ages and form an unlikely friendship and still have a group chat going after the semester ends? community college
looking for a socioeconomically diverse group of cohorts? community college
i’m about to start my third semester of photography classes and im so obsessed, its been the most wonderful experience
Jan 29, 2024
✨
Cocteau Twins in 1993 or 1994 (with Luna opening) - I was in the 8th grade and my sister who was 14 years older than me took me. We saw Mazzy Star/JaMC and Depeche Mode the next year.
Feb 16, 2024