Here it is, a space for reflections on art and adventures and basically everything I care most about. I should have started this months ago, but put it off endlessly, until finally the moment arrived where it seemed like a good place to start. I decided to start writing again for a lot of reasons, mostly because my writing practice basically died after graduate school and I really started to miss it, but also because since leaving the comfy bubble of an MFA program I’ve been thinking a lot about community. How they are made, what they consist of, and where they exist, both in real time and in digital in-between space.
There are countless articles that suggest that a lack of community is one of the major reasons most artists stop making work after they leave school. It’s something I’ve always thought about but have been thinking about even more now, when it seems like there are thousands of things that can get in the way of making work as you grow and how the older you get, it almost starts to seem amazing that anyone keeps making work at all. I’m certainly not the first person to write about such a phenomenon, but it’s definitely something to consider and to hopefully feel comfortable enough to discuss.
I suppose that an attempt at creating community, reflection, and discussion is one function that I hope this jumbled collection of writing ends up having, even if it’s in the smallest possible way. Maybe I haven’t found a community yet to follow the one I found in school, but if writing and sharing and being open and honest in any way creates a community I imagine it’s worth it, even if it’s totally miniature or exists only for a single moment.
So here’s to checking in every now and again, when I see a crazy good show or get excited about some idea or other, finding the sentences in the moments between job shifts or loads of laundry, notes scribbled on the backs of to do lists while on lunch breaks, making space and time for art, and searching for the words and images to match. And then sharing them, because that’s probably the most important part - even though I find, often, that it’s not always the easiest.
Excited to see what happens.