July 18, 2010
NYC
Elevation: 80m
After much deliberation and discussion with fellow artist friends, I got on twitter. I am not entirely convinced that it is the best decision ever but I think it could prove to be an excellent marketing tool.
What is my reluctance you wonder? Well, how much of my life do I really want to put out there for the public? First rule is that you should not write about anything that is absolutely private. Yet we live in an age where the public have an absolute appetite for private details of the lives of others that I fear my loftier and/or random thoughts are not nearly as compelling to the public as what I ate for lunch. What does one do?
Alyson Stanfield asked if it is possible to separate the art from the artist in her blog a few days ago. I feel the question is inherently part of the reason why my personal life is more compelling to the public at large than anything else. It is as if we knew the daily routine of the artist in question, if we ate what they ate, read what they read, mimicked and repeated their lives to down to every detail possible, then somehow, their genius would rub off on us a little. Their art, creativity and genius would somehow become quantifiable and repeatable. But I know better and really, deep down, so do you. I could trace the step of Keith Carter and set up my camera in his tripod holes (yes people actually do that, Keith has written about this himself) but what I would walk away with would never be the same picture as what Mr Carter took. So what difference does it make?
I believe that the art we create is informed by the lives we live. So then may I suggest that we go live our lives in whichever way it pleases us and be less concerned with the personal details of others? Yes, I will still tweet and update my Facebook status, but I have a feeling that it will be less and less personal as we progress here. Trust me, you already have a far more intimate view of my life through my art than you realize. In the work there is more than a pound a flesh.
*If you really must know, I am currently having oatmeal tea to calm a stomach ache.
Hope your stomach ache is better. As far as the rest of the post…I can't remember what it was about.
-Vince Salvati