Understanding Weird Art Critics

In an attempt to help my grad class understand art critics and why they do what they do, our professor had us read a few articles that really didn't make any sense. The first "Critical Mess" reviewed by Matthew Nash started out sort of making sense in the fact that he was reviewing the new book out called Critical Mess. That's about all I understood... in fact the whole article is about art critics critiquing each other and why critics don't necessarily write anything bad about anyone else and also how the system is flawed because artist's are writing about their peers.

Critics who have been trained as artists, I feel, are much more likely to understand the point of view of the artist and therefore would be able to write a cohesive, whether good or bad, review of someone's work. A critic these days does not have to have any sense of art theory or of art in general- they can just write what they feel. In a way that might be okay because then there is an outsiders point of view of someone's work, however most well known critics don't know theory and write what they know or what they feel- artists become known and famous because of critics. How can someone who has no background (such as an mfa or a bfa) make someone famous in the art world without really knowing about the art?????

Take Saltz: his writing is bland a times, hard to digest and really there is no point in any of his reviews until the end where he throws in one paragraph or so about society and art- the binary idea. The fact that he because a truck driver and writes to the everyday person is interesting, yet where is the art background? The village voice is a great place for him to write because he can rant or write about alternative places where art is being shown... yet he doesnt rant; he's a name dropper.

hmm, am i done with the rant- not really, but it will have to do for now.

CSI- Atlanta!!

CSI- Atlanta Printmaking

CSI....

So I was the lead investigator in a CSI spoof for the printmaking department this past weekend. It was a great time and I got to dress up! (Something I haven't done in ages...) Plus I wore heels! I know, don't faint... As soon as the movie gets edited, i'll post it up here, but until then, you can just imagine me as a csi girl! :)

warner's ouchie...

So my friend warner hurt his knee over in europe and this is how it happened. not fun... but at least he's back up skiing again, i think.

Jackson Hole

Found this while searching for some videos... ahh, Jackson... oh how i miss you.