Three Things .

one

On a board i frequent , Momus described the two perspectives on Warhol . One was those who accepted his life, his collecting, his conceptual films as his most important work. IE Theorists or Duchampians . I think that is what i am but the thing is the art i love i rarely have seen live. I go to Vancouver and see Twombly, General Idea, Akari, Murakami and Wall. I see Stan Douglas at a local travelling show. I saw the big ones when i was in New York the summer i was in grade 9. I am connected to the local scene here .
But these are the exceptions. Most of the art i see is in reproduction and criticism. In advertising for shows, in criticism, in history books. Through educated friends. This means my knowledge of art does not relate to the image. It realties to how people view the image or how i view reproductions of the image. Seeing the colour in a b&w piece for the first time or seeing the fact that those in the histories are still producing amazes me. This is why i love contemporary art . It is new .

Two

I decided against a tattoo. All the flash now seems cheap. Most Tattooing used indicate a rite of passage. Something to isolate you.
In America it was done to mark your way out of conventional society. . The people who got them were the people who were entering in almost all male institutions . You got them in new ports as a sailor. New camps as a solider . As marking in prison.
Even in Japan it was aristocrats or rouges who could get tattooed. It was not common
It in fact was a mark of exclusion. In the south pacific it meant you were a man or a warrior.
It still happens. But now Tattooing seems to be something to show at chic cocktail parties. I was going to get a tattoo. But i have no rite of passage, isolation is too difficult and i respect the craft too much .

Three

A friend is moving to Toronto to go to Art School . We packed her up today . I got some odds and sods as well as and some important things. Including a pretty blue , orange and white geometrical abstract that is cleaner and clearer then a great deal of the other recent minimal stuff. It was meant to parody Agnes Martin but goes out a side door and does something entirely new. She is a really traditional figure artist. Literal but can photograph like an angel.
i still like agnes.