One more note about ARTRA.

I met with my Otis students yesterday and we talked about the ARTRA show. It was a fantastic discussion. Curatorial premise, cultural differences and expectations, commodification, what inspires people to make art, materials used, the space in which we look at art, what it all means etc. Most of my students are not fine art majors. It's a Sunday class, so I've got a good cross-section and they're smart. Most of them are interested in design of some sort. Yes, I know, it's funny since I tend to be the anti-christ of design, but anyhoo, the one thing that surprised me was to hear some of them talk about how difficult it is to SEE art here in L.A. Unlike NYC, where you amble by a gallery and stop in- here, you have to make a concerted effort to visit a gallery. Many of my students said they found the commercial setting of galleries intimidating since they don't plan on buying art. Therefore, they didn't feel like a gallery was a place to make a special trip just to look at art. Seeing as artists, we're ingrained from day one to look as a much art as we can, I don't think it occurred to me that galleries would be an intimidating place to look at art. Ironic, no?

It does require effort to look at art. I have to schedule it on my calendar. I'm not so great with openings. I go to openings to say hello to people and I am notoriously remiss at attending more than 2 or 3 openings in an evening. Sometimes I'm notoriously remiss at attending one opening in an evening.

I'll post some new work later on. The Furry One is demanding my attention right now.