The proliferation of art writing around the country, covering the local and aspiring to the global, makes fully-staffed art sections of old newspapers look sparse indeed. What’s rare are blogs devoted to a single artist that have an authentic voice and distinct point of view, not fan notes but life notes centered on a singular art experience, and how that experience unfolds in a life.
Two of my favorites could not be more different. Jonathan Janson’s Essential Vermeer is a scholarly dissection of every aspect of the painter’s work and the context in which he made it. Janson can truly say he has thought of everything. Peter O’Neil’s Go Head On! The Art & Rock & Roll of Chuck Berry is O’Neil telling his life story through his reaction to Berry’s work. In his own way, O’Neil too has thought of everything.
Disclosure: Peter’s my brother-in-law. I remember trying to argue with him once that Earth, Wind & Fire Blood, Sweat & Tears was better than Sly Stone. (Peter’s correction. It never ends, him being right.) Peter was 14, and I was in my mid-20s. He stomped me speechless. In the end, all the cards were in his hands. I was getting a master’s degree, and he was a 9th-grade drop out. How could this be?
One of his sisters emailed me a couple of days ago to say she didn’t have time to read my blog anymore, because she’s reading his. I guess she has a one blog limit. Those who have a one blog limit might consider joining her. I’ll understand.
I am an artist who sometimes writes. As a writer who was recently interviewed by Amy Goodman on DemocracyNow, when asked why he writes, answered, “I write because I like to read.”. (But I can’t recall who said it.)
How to say I like your writing? And that you post my comments. I like reading. Not to worry.
I would like to see political art covered. It’s a “hard” task, doing political art,and it took me decades to get it “right”. Art of dissent.
Emily Duffy has done some political sculpture that works as art, in CA, and had a show in Oct.2008. (No, I don’t know her.)