I remember one time this person told me, totally unprovoked, that I could not be an artist the way I wanted to be an artist.
He said, “I have some advice for you… before you even think about becoming an artist you must get a Master’s in art.”
I remember vaguely that this person was trying to help. He said that his aunt or something was a professor at a very important art school, and that he had asked her what I should do to become like the artists she taught about. That was how she responded, and my friend relayed the message to me out of kindess.
But screw that. I don’t want to spend a decade of my life taking classes to teach me how to make art. I studied art history so that instead I can know what good art is perceived to be. My self-taught nature is important to me, and I didn’t even go to college for art at all, choosing to study amongst critics instead of those who practice.
Now I co-own a gallery. I choose for my damn self what art goes on the walls. My friends and I are carving our own destiny, and it feels like we are living in the Wild West, rejecting the old-fashioned mindset of the East Coast at the US art capital of New York. I feel like LA is slowly chipping away at the view that NY runs the US art scene anyway, and it’s because we do what we please and we don’t let anyone tell us otherwise.
YEE!!
Now back to emailing people and inviting them to our show opening on October 13th!
