Art and Commerce

I....had an awesome weekend.

Accompanied by my gurl, the lovely Marisa and our respective Hubsicles, I wandered through Cindy Sherman's amazing retrospective at MoMA with renewed respect for her massive body of work. If you've never heard of her, Sherman - without the aid of assistants - transforms herself into, well, any and every character your imagination could conjure, and snaps herself in the result. She's done this since the 70s, often creating personas that embody the current social climate. 

Aside from the technical mastery it requires to do this stuff, the thing I'm most impressed with about Sherman is her skill as an accomplished actress, 1000% committed to each and every role she plays as she fucks with our heads. As seen above, sometimes she's a girl Friday. Sometimes she's a clown. Sometimes she's a dismembered corpse with a sausage hanging out of her prosthetic hoo-hah. Sometimes she's a wealthy socialite. She's whomever she wants to be. She's you. She's me. Aren't we all?

Keith Haring @Brooklyn Museum

When you think of Keith Haring, you may think of extremely simplistic, now iconic, linear figures of people dancing, a baby crawling, or a dog, or dog headed DJs that spin records, surrounded by bold strokes intimating movement or action.  

This VERY comprehensive retrospective embodies all periods of Haring's work and his impact on New York culture. It pulls you into his process and forces you to recognize how he could say and do so much with just one, continuous line. 

We hit this exhibit with one with one of our fave families, and what seemed to stick with our collection of kids was how they too could express a lot with a simple, bold line.

You will TOTALLY dig the music. You will think of the 80s and where you were (if you were) in the 80s. You will think of the Reagan-fed propaganda damning recreational sexuality due to the onset of AIDS (what led to Haring's untimely demise). You will think of consumerism and fetishism and freedoms we take for granted. And in doing so, you will learn how Haring stood for so much more than a good time. 

I thought of what inspired me to come to art school in New York. I thought of experimentation and the taste of a $2.95 Dojo soy burger dinner and of blind aspiration. I thought of the free-flowing ideas, drugs in the park and the rubbing shoulders with artists in clubs. I thought of how all those things have been replaced by Hollister and Bank of America and Starbucks and Giuliani. And I thought of how, eventually, this city - indeed - held almost all I was looking for. 

This song sums this feeling up real well. Give it a click.

Speaking of finding art in commerce...

Keep the Change

Sometimes, folks who work the register get REAL bored, and have to find viable ways to entertain themselves. Behold this GENIUS compilation, via BuzzFeed, brought to my attention by my awesome friend John, of the above said fave family.

Sources: imgur.com 3.bp.blogspot.com via BuzzFeed

Want more? Click on the link above and prepare to snort coffee out your nose. 

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That's it for now, pups! Stay gold! xoxo