Day: August 7, 2008

Seen on NYC subway:

Group of three seats near door of R train occupied by woman and sleeping man with an empty seat between them.
Middle-aged dude (MAD) plops himself into the empty seat, ostentatiously apologizing to the woman as his fat butt almost pushes her out of hers.
Next, MAD elbows sleeping man, a much younger person wearing an iPod.
"Get up and give this lady a seat!" he says, pointing to a standing woman nearby.
Sleeping man gets up, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, leaving the seat empty.
MAD reaches into his backpack and pulls out a cane, in two snap-together parts, which he has heretofore not needed and which he does not assemble. This PROP is apparently to show why he can't stand up as he cajoles the standing woman to sit in the now-vacated seat. She nods her thanks but does not sit down. The MAD entreats another woman to sit down. She also demurs.
Finally the first woman sits down.
A good deed done! Yay! And it was no trouble at all.

"When people come in the gallery and look at these drawings they aren't sure what they are looking at. After having them up for a few weeks, one thing I've noticed: people noticeably, palpably relax when I tell them they are made with a computer."

--something a dealer said to me about an artist who made very "handmade" looking work in Illustrator and printed it out on traditional art paper. It really makes me think about the anxiety/hatred/jealousy that "genius" drawing produces. (Else why would anyone need to relax?) "Genius" as in evidencing superhuman control or detail. There is a cult of that in the art world (still) and we need to get over it, perhaps. The most hellishly mechanical work is the art of the insane. Those are not hot young talents looking sexy at openings.

A parallel story: A young musician I know plays piano very well and peers who hear her recordings assume she is using software of some kind.