Blue GhostGhost's Blog, page 99
January 8, 2013
Current install at the gallery is no joke
We went through over a hundred sheets of drywall this past weekend. I am sore.
December 24, 2012
My mother is nearly impossible to shop for, so my sweetheart and I are taking her painfully dull...
My mother is nearly impossible to shop for, so my sweetheart and I are taking her painfully dull kitchen knife set to be professionally sharpened today and then wrapping them and putting them under the tree. I feel like a genius.
December 20, 2012
delacroix:
adornoble:
People who fetishize the link between mental illness and artistic creation...
People who fetishize the link between mental illness and artistic creation are fucking scum. This includes not only people who think that we should valorize and aspire to some of the very real problems that artists had (as if it’s like a lifestyle choice), but people who think that any kind of psychiatric medication “takes the poetry out of your life” (will never forgive the person who said this for saying it) instead of like you know BEING A THING THAT CAN HELP PEOPLE.
I think totally pro-medication arguments are just as problematic as totally anti-medication arguments. We’re talking about people, and what’s right for one person isn’t necessarily right for everyone else.
Medication can certainly be a really helpful thing for a lot of people, but its side effects can be negative enough to greatly diminish the quality of life for others. “Taking the poetry out of life” may be flouncy phrasing, but it’s an experience that isn’t all that far off for a lot of people. And vilifying those people because their experiences and their solutions to those experiences don’t mirror your own isn’t exactly un-scummy.
As someone who works as an independent curator, one of my main jobs is to go between the artist and the institution. I need budgets, contracts and interpretive materials all on a strict deadline. I also want an exhibition that is critically excellent and is growing the artist’s practice. I don’t know what the OP means by “had” because many extremely talented folks I’ve worked with suffer from a wide range of mental illnesses. I don’t know if that helps or hurts them as artists and it’s not really my fucking business anyway. But anyone in my field sure as hell has to be tolerant of the fact that not everyone can function in the same day to day way others do and that isn’t necessarily something that needs to be fixed.
December 19, 2012
Yeah these people and their conifers. The James tree rant in Art...
Yeah these people and their conifers. The James tree rant in Art Criticism is almost verbatim the lecture I got from Man friend the first time we went to an x-mas tree lot together. I enjoy knowing someone new is getting initiated.
December 18, 2012
My amazing sister in law found time during her doctorate research trips to fall in love and is...
My amazing sister in law found time during her doctorate research trips to fall in love and is spending the holiday with her new sweetheart who lives in New Orleans. This is the conversation I heard this morning as my man friend talked to her on the phone:
Man friend: You guys put up a tree together? Was this a sharing moment or a instructing moment? Tell the truth.
Her: (hesitantly) Well I did pack my own Christmas lights in my luggage. I didn’t know if I could find the right ones down here.
Man friend: Sounds like it was more instructive then.
Her: But what if he wanted to do something terrible, like getting only white tree lights?
Man friend: But it would have been okay if he liked all blue lights or something though?
Her: No. That is totally unacceptable
Man friend: Or maybe if he got one of those fiber optic trees, with the light changing needles. Then you wouldn’t even need lights
Her: stop it, I’m going to throw up
December 13, 2012
"They laughed. They actually believed I was joking. Even upon further explanation, they refused to..."
- ear DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #98: Monsters and Ghosts
Sometimes when reading Dear Sugar letters I get really emotional but this one is so good. I had this dream about a month after my dad died. He was a monster and then he was a ghost and I loved him even though it wasn’t ever an easy thing to do.
