The East and Such

I have no idea why I'm leaving New York. But I will miss many things...

On Connecticut:

-Did you know that Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain were neighbors?
-Episcopalians.
-People in America DO play croquet. And they all live in Connecticut.
-Key places: Greenwich, West Hartford, Essex, and Litchfield


On Westchester, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties:

-Yes, there are people who live in the Hamptons full time
-Hipsters come here, but just don't want to admit it. They say they are just stopping by on their way to the Bronx.
-Key Places: Brookville, East Hampton, Tarrytown


And finally, On New York City

-Though I love Pilsen-- SoHo, Brooklyn, and the Lower East Side make Pilsen look like Wicker Park. Downside? Greenwich Village smells like Diarrhea in August.
-Food
-In LA, Britney Spears is an artist. In NYC, Wallace Shawn is an artist.
-Key Places: everywhere

Art, the Artist: It's not just for you, sorry!

I am making a series of comic strips for PBS to promote literacy, specifically in urban areas with great disparity. The coordinator offered to continue to pay me to make the comics even after my internship, if there is funding. I responded with an enthusiastic, "If there isn't any funding, I'll do it as a volunteer."

Truth is, at the end of the day, artists are not just thinkers, but activists. Try as one might, the artist is not the proverbial Athenian philosopher sitting on a rock for eternity. If your art is out there, you are making a difference.

Moreover, no matter how personal or self indulgent or even narcissistic you think your art is, the self centered nature of the piece is instantly evolved into "self AND community" or "self IN community" the moment you show it at a gallery, or get published and distributed, or perform, or even the second you post art onto your public art site. Because society is the muse of the artist, beauty is retroactive to pragmaticism. Parallax. Would Thomas Mann would eat me alive? I honestly don't think so.

So I started thinking about pragmaticism and the bureaucracy regarding creativity in society. It's at art schools, museums, even in the smallest galleries.

Specifically, regarding MY goals as an artist, socio-economic disparity can be assuaged by art and literature and literacy and creativity. No one, including bureaucrats, denies this. Then why is it creative charter schools that are closing the gaps in Hartford are being shut down? Why is there such a stir when Obama wants to pass anything involving art commission on a federal level? It's because we need more creatives going head first into the policy aspect of art in a functioning society. Artists need to work with the bureacrats to be heard. Notice I say "work with" and not "get passed"?

This is part of the reason I want to get into the bureaucracy of art and education. Making art for advocacy and activism is completely necessary because it promotes awareness. But I think we need more creatives in the law/policy aspect of things to mediate between bureaucrats and artists/activists. Someone who speaks both languages. I mean, imagine what this would do for anti-censorship in art? Imagine what this would do for creative programs in education administration? Imagine what this would do for commissions? And on a more individualistic level, imagine what knowledge in the administrative and political aspect of your cause would do for your art? Your pieces would be so much more meaningful. Afterall, Chaucer was a diplomat and John Butler Yeats was a lawyer.

And no time is better than NOW. A weak market calls for bold action. Calls for creativity.

Note that I am not saying that this is the responsibility of all artists. Everyone plays their part. Regardless of your part, keep in mind that beauty does not have to be destroyed by pragmaticism and pragmaticism does not have to be rendered useless with beauty. Instead let them exist side by side, as a paradox.

With that in mind, I have told some friends about some crazy new ways I may possibly want to take my career as an artist to the next level in the distant (distant, distant) future. Well, I don't think it's that crazy, but most of my friends seem to, which I think is a testament to how other people's crazy pales in comparison to mine.

For now, I am focusing on getting into grad school and these comic strips promoting literacy in urban areas. Because, remember, they DO make a difference

Hamptons and the coast

I really do prefer the East-coast coasts to the West-coast coasts. Perhaps it is because I grew up with Santa Monica Beach almost literally in my backyard and it is nothing new to me? Santa Monica Beach has the golden sands, palm trees, and the general bonhomie, but the Hamptons have the white sand, the greenery, and the assurance that the lifeguard was not hired because of how big her boobs are.




Everyone knows that I am a bonafide city boy. Yet, as I had recently told my friend Jenny, even I like to escape to the country for a little at a time in the summer. Emily Dickinson once wrote in a letter to I forget who, "how strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude" or something like that. I wonder why that is the case? Truth be told, I have been escaping to New York City almost every afternoon, even just to sit and study at a coffee shop, as of late. I do, however, like the New England foliage.

Notes from Top-sider country.

I went into Hartford, the city, today. To say the least, Connecticut is best experienced through the rustic little New England towns and the natural terrain. I think Connecticut "cities" were created just so the many rich people here would no longer have to commute all the 50 minutes to New York City for work. While in Hartford, I must have thought to myself every 5 minutes, "Oh! What is that beautiful historic looking building? Perhaps a museum? Perhaps a former home of a founding father? Oh. An insurance building... Oh! What is that beautiful palatial building? A church? A synagogue? Oh. An insurance building."

This patriotic looking homage to democracy, for example, is the Hartford Fire Insurance Company. Nothing more. Regardless, the countryside here is nice and the towns are storybook quaint. Everyone wears top-siders and ties their sweaters around their shoulders. Naturally, this troubled me as I am never one to fit in.

So, are there really places that are "right" for individual people? I know that in general, there are those who are more "city", "suburb" or "country" types. But isn't it possible to, as the saying goes, "love the one you're with if you can't be with the one you love"? With my work, I like to perpetuate a parallax with art. I find this easier to do in the city. I suppose, however, that it is possible to do anywhere else, as long as I take the time to take in the dynamics of the society.
---Afterall, Shakespeare wrote, as Touchstone, "those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country as the manners of the country is mockable at court” (not exact words, As You Like It). Contradictions in the world do not cancel each other out, but instead exist side by side as paradox. But ofcourse, I cannot let the general public know this, as it obviates my parallax-driven art. =) So ask yourselves this: Do you like where you are? If not, couldn't you? And if so, why?

Sanity is overrated.

God has accommodated His will to my desires substantially these four years. As my Chicago days come to a close, I can't deny that I have met some of the best people I will ever meet here.





Let me ask all of you who are in transition to remember each and every crazy person you've ever met. Keep in mind that to remember is not to continue to know. After all, Oscar Wilde said, "I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones." But as for the old friends that continue to be present ones, remember Proverbs 18:24 "Some friendships do not last, but some friends are more loyal than brothers."