Plato's Cave

Last month the New York Times ran an article about art school critiques, interwoven with scenes from Art School Confidential. Believe it or not, the picture above is not from some Hollywood parody of the art world, but from a real-life (Yale, no less) MFA crit.

The blogsphere (Art Fag City edward_winkleman) bemoaned the film's send up of the art world. I found that to be the best part of a rather schlocky movie, with holes in the plot big enough to toss a Richard Serra through.

What I find most interesting is that in tandem with the pulling of hair, gnashing of teeth, and beating of breasts, comes the shoulds and oughts of art school education, best articulated by Art Soldier:

"...what art students need most is the time and space to experiment and grow as artists without the eyes of the art press analyzing their every move. There isn't enough of this sort of development going on as it is."

This is in response to ArtInfo's new practice of featuring student work.

Of course, if art students are given time and space and space to experiment, you run the risk of them creating the only thing more hermetic and ripe for parody than 'art about art:'

and that's art about art school.

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Cleverly Grousing

I returned to OCCCA to pick up my piece from the Confessions show, and with it came a copy of the review in the Orange County Register.

Was it P.T. Barnum who said, "I don't care what they write about me, as long as they spell my name right?"

Would the corallary to that be, "I don't care how my work is displayed, as long as I get into the show?"

Well then I have nothing to grouse about.

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I'm Dying to Go!

I can remember about 12 years ago when we first got internet access at work and I did a search of my name. The first listing was for a woman named Buitron on the Texas 10 most wanted list. She had shot her husband (presumably another Buitron) and was on the lamb.

Now there's orinthological web sites devoted to the bird, photographs by my cousin Robert, books by the recently desceased art historian, a train, a town, a teacher, and of course, some of my art.

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Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Well the glossy mailers have started for the June primary; I remember when they used to send potholders.

Today's Wired News has an interview with Pete Ashdown, hoeing a hard row against Orin Hatch in Utah. It's refreshing to see a political candidate who has a grasp of the issues and is willing to run a transparent campaign. He even has a Wiki page!

After reading, I decided to send him $20. One wonders who would have been our current president if one quarter of those who despise Bush sent twenty bucks to an opposition candidate's campaign.

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