The Transactions of the Artist

When I  begin to make a piece of art, all sorts of transactions fire up. Some I push down, some I silence completely, some I put off to the side for later, and finally some I try to focus in on keenly.

It's the ones that I am trying to focus in on that often seem the most elusive. But artists are nothing if not tenacious, and I am very much an artist. I do not give up. And you the viewer - do you give up? When looking at a work of art that is slow to reveal its pearl, do you give up easily? Sometimes I think you do. Sometimes when viewing a piece of art, you the viewer just aren't that into it. I get it. A lot of art is so subjective, so self-referenced, that it leaves no entry for another, for you the viewer, to even approach it. At least on the surface.

That's not the art I want to make. I want to make art that invites the viewer closer. I want my art to take the viewer on a magic carpet ride, with the destination of that ride unimportant. It's all about the journey.

This all comes from a recent New York Times Magazine Letter from the Editor by @NYTMag Editor Hanya Yanagihara. Here’s the link to Yanagihara’s NYTMag piece

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