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It's not what the world needs right now

thebaffler.com

61–70 of 181 posts

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#61
post #53
post #31

Most other comments so far have viewed this artist's lifestyle negatively, as he wrote that he got by via abusing various policies and tax fraud (via "[hallucinating] a DJ software skin" to claim as a business expense). But he's an interesting person for sticking to his craft for close to a decade now: he has persisted in working hard to produce artwork and submit it for exhibition. However, to what extent is this li…

Why would that be risky?

As someone teaching at an art school/university I can assure you that unhealthy drives for art often (but not nearly always!) have hard psychological causes. That brings all kins of hardships with itself, many of those artists live unhealthy, often impoverished, rarely stable lives. And while the romatic view of the impoverished artist is a popular one, these people are rarely as free as they like they would be and I have seen suicides happen.

Most artists I know would love to have stability, yet in society there is rarely space and funding for the things they are doing. I know people who had to move their ateliers 4 times in 10 years, just because the landlords use them to make the rental/area more attractive to a better pating clientel and then kick them out.

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#62

> A gallerist who wants to work with me says she can’t add a white man to her roster. Pretty fucking disgusting that someone would openly say that to him.

LOL - people have said shit like this to my face my whole life, including some CS admissions guy at CMU but he had the nerve to throw in a derogatory remark about ADD too. Just normal shit that happened in the 90's I guess.

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#64
post #60

Several commenters here hate the writer, calling him "completely insufferable", "a character that the reader hates", or "a selfish, narcissistic jerk". But I didn't find him that bad? His worst crime was stealing a $4000 suit from Barneys New York.

so stealing is ok if it's from the wealthy and corporations..

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#65
post #31

Most other comments so far have viewed this artist's lifestyle negatively, as he wrote that he got by via abusing various policies and tax fraud (via "[hallucinating] a DJ software skin" to claim as a business expense). But he's an interesting person for sticking to his craft for close to a decade now: he has persisted in working hard to produce artwork and submit it for exhibition. However, to what extent is this li…

The common wisdom is , if you’re going to be an artist, it better be because you can be nothing else. It’s that hard.

So, it’s a rare person indeed who can be a serious artist and support themselves financially some other way

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#66
The more I read this, the more I dislike the writer. Probably some mixture of disgust and jealousy, as a failed artist who can't bring myself to do/am incapable of doing the things he's done to see some measure of success. Is this what it takes (for an extroverted white dude)?

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#67
post #64
post #60

Several commenters here hate the writer, calling him "completely insufferable", "a character that the reader hates", or "a selfish, narcissistic jerk". But I didn't find him that bad? His worst crime was stealing a $4000 suit from Barneys New York.

so stealing is ok if it's from the wealthy and corporations..

Yes.

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#68
post #64
post #60

Several commenters here hate the writer, calling him "completely insufferable", "a character that the reader hates", or "a selfish, narcissistic jerk". But I didn't find him that bad? His worst crime was stealing a $4000 suit from Barneys New York.

so stealing is ok if it's from the wealthy and corporations..

generally yea

there's also a big difference between "one guy supposedly stealing one thing as a part of a story" and "let's all go steal"

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#70

The question I have not yet seen in the comments here is whether or not this post is real or fiction. Is it the journal of a questionable character, or a deliberate attempt to push people's buttons? And honestly, that is why I like it. I really hope it cannot be taken at face value - that would be disappointment.

> whether or not this post is real or fiction

Well, he has one other post on the same site that is explicitly marked fiction, where this one is not. That may be a clue.

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