Zak Smith's Blog, page 3
July 17, 2011
(in progress)(acrylic on paper)freeway sections closed fo...
(in progress)(acrylic on paper)
freeway sections closed for repairs today in LA. 'carmegeddon'. not so bad, actually. took a lot of public transportation into the valley so I could paint Charlotte Stokely. Huge bulldogs at her house look like the things Rick Moranis turns into in Ghostbusters. dead cars all over the lawn.
outer LA seems depressing at first--just a sort of hypersuburb--then you see some lunatic in surfer shorts shrieking at a security camera and realize that it isn't actually as boring as it looks. probably goes for the whole country. architecture is letting us down..
Artillery Magazine debate a few days ago, didn't lose.
i have a column there, at Artillery magazine. starting to like it.
June 16, 2011
July 10, Sunday, 2-6 p.m. The Standard Hotel, Downtown LA...
July 10, Sunday, 2-6 p.m. The Standard Hotel, Downtown LA I'll be debating Assistant-made art: Whose is it, and is it ever good? Courtesy of Artillery Magazine. Other debates and debaters, too.
May 22, 2011
Zak Smith...yeah, that guy...
Zak Smith...yeah, that guy...
February 25, 2011
(done)(it'll be at the armory show in nyc, fedex willing)
(done)(it'll be at the armory show in nyc, fedex willing)
hey zak how come you haven't posted anything in so longBe...
hey zak how come you haven't posted anything in so long
Because it takes a long time to paint these things that's why
So why does it say "updated daily"?--well it is sometimes, but right now I'm pretty busy
tired
this painting needs a few more hours
this is the break
i am filling the break i am taking with posting this picture
tired
i always wonder what those painters who like paint 3 lines and then sell that do all day
ok, back to work
February 19, 2011
(this is inarticulate, but I meant it. I wrote it while i...
(this is inarticulate, but I meant it. I wrote it while i was very very tired.)
Sometimes I talked about things, and said "Look, there's a thing, let's talk about it, let's talk about how it's bad., it didn't work, it's dumb."
And people would say "You're an artist, that's special, it's special to be an artist"
And I'd say "No I'm not, look at all these crap artists. It's not special. I just am doing the thing that I have to do."
And older artists would talk like it was voodoo super magic to be an artist. Hippies.
But now, seriously, I am reconsidering. I feel, increasingly, like things are settled, like everyone thinks they know how things are supposed to be, and how they are supposed to be is in a box. There are boxes.
The boxes are like: movie, reality tv, post-radioheadband, little gallery with a picture in it, little book for housewives who went to college to read. Little boxes for little artists to be in so they can be part of this economy and world. And there's no chance any of these things will spill out of the boxes that they are in. No one expects them to do anything, result in anything. As a creative person, you provide a service so that people with brains can stay entertained enough to not blow those brains out so we can keep putting them to work for us. You're like the movie on the plane. Nice. We're flying a plane here. Keep it rolling. Soon we will arrive.
There's a cynical, hipster-Tshirt, pillpoppped, tired Vice Magazine reading oh-we're-all-grownups-here thing here that is saying Oh come on, one day you will be one of them, to survive you will be one of them, and only Them run things. So grow up. Stop expecting to not be in the box. Maybe wait for a computer geek to make a new and interesting box. Have a drink. Have a cigar. The best it can get is basically Bill Clinton America. Lets go for that. Yeah, let's do that. That was fun, right? You'll have a house, you'll have a job. Maybe everyone will have a house and a job. A chicken in every pot. What could possibly be better than a chicken in every pot? Especially in this economy. Doesn't that sound like heaven?
And...and no.
You cannot make art like that. You can't make art assuming it's a thing to go in a box to be checked. Even if it will go in a box and that's it. Things do not have to be this way. Things do not have to be this way. Things can be anything.
Please, everyone: do things anyway. Do them. I am sure it looks hopeless now: Like, at best, like some scheme for one more person to get a house. But it's not. You can get out of the box. Humans can get out of boxes. Always have. If we can't, there's no art, there's no fun. there's no anything. Do it anyway, and know that it gets better. Know that if you are still doing it in this world, under these conditions, in this situation which is designed in every detail and on every level to constantly compare you to the lamest possible interpretation of you, then you are doing something,
I was cynical for a long long time. I am cynical. Cynicism is good and will help you. But do the thing that you do. Perform far beyond and outside the expectations. Without it, without the conviction that it doesn't have to be this way, then it does.
Every single one of you. Do it. And know that one day, they will thank you for having kept on doing it, when it was so unfashionable to do anything but make more money and joke about how once you thought you could do it.
Please do things, Please. One day someone will thank you for it. They will look back and say "Oh thank god people kept doing things, despite the constant derision poured on things and the doing of them". Please do things. Please. Please.
Sometimes I talked about things, and said "Look, there's a thing, let's talk about it, let's talk about how it's bad., it didn't work, it's dumb."
And people would say "You're an artist, that's special, it's special to be an artist"
And I'd say "No I'm not, look at all these crap artists. It's not special. I just am doing the thing that I have to do."
And older artists would talk like it was voodoo super magic to be an artist. Hippies.
But now, seriously, I am reconsidering. I feel, increasingly, like things are settled, like everyone thinks they know how things are supposed to be, and how they are supposed to be is in a box. There are boxes.
The boxes are like: movie, reality tv, post-radioheadband, little gallery with a picture in it, little book for housewives who went to college to read. Little boxes for little artists to be in so they can be part of this economy and world. And there's no chance any of these things will spill out of the boxes that they are in. No one expects them to do anything, result in anything. As a creative person, you provide a service so that people with brains can stay entertained enough to not blow those brains out so we can keep putting them to work for us. You're like the movie on the plane. Nice. We're flying a plane here. Keep it rolling. Soon we will arrive.
There's a cynical, hipster-Tshirt, pillpoppped, tired Vice Magazine reading oh-we're-all-grownups-here thing here that is saying Oh come on, one day you will be one of them, to survive you will be one of them, and only Them run things. So grow up. Stop expecting to not be in the box. Maybe wait for a computer geek to make a new and interesting box. Have a drink. Have a cigar. The best it can get is basically Bill Clinton America. Lets go for that. Yeah, let's do that. That was fun, right? You'll have a house, you'll have a job. Maybe everyone will have a house and a job. A chicken in every pot. What could possibly be better than a chicken in every pot? Especially in this economy. Doesn't that sound like heaven?
And...and no.
You cannot make art like that. You can't make art assuming it's a thing to go in a box to be checked. Even if it will go in a box and that's it. Things do not have to be this way. Things do not have to be this way. Things can be anything.
Please, everyone: do things anyway. Do them. I am sure it looks hopeless now: Like, at best, like some scheme for one more person to get a house. But it's not. You can get out of the box. Humans can get out of boxes. Always have. If we can't, there's no art, there's no fun. there's no anything. Do it anyway, and know that it gets better. Know that if you are still doing it in this world, under these conditions, in this situation which is designed in every detail and on every level to constantly compare you to the lamest possible interpretation of you, then you are doing something,
I was cynical for a long long time. I am cynical. Cynicism is good and will help you. But do the thing that you do. Perform far beyond and outside the expectations. Without it, without the conviction that it doesn't have to be this way, then it does.
Every single one of you. Do it. And know that one day, they will thank you for having kept on doing it, when it was so unfashionable to do anything but make more money and joke about how once you thought you could do it.
Please do things, Please. One day someone will thank you for it. They will look back and say "Oh thank god people kept doing things, despite the constant derision poured on things and the doing of them". Please do things. Please. Please.
February 17, 2011
(detail)(bottom left)(acrylic)(unfinished)(bear)
(detail)(bottom left)(acrylic)(unfinished)(bear)
February 10, 2011
(drawing, strippers, unfinished)
(drawing, strippers, unfinished)
January 30, 2011
(viv's head)(unfinished)
(viv's head)
(unfinished)
January 25, 2011
(Mandy & Vivka)(photo)
(Mandy & Vivka)(photo)
