My
name is Jake J. Thomas and I’m starting this blog to show you the real deal when it comes to rad art.
Why am I qualified to rip this task to shreds like a rat making bedding
from a napkin? Good question. There’re the degrees, sure, and they
authorize my expertise, but that’s wacked. Knowing I obtained my Ph.D. in Literature from UCSC and that
I did a B.F.A. in painting at Lewis and Clark will impress you, sure, but is it
reason enough to read my blog?
Yes. It is. Still, there’s more. Much more. Listen to the music and look at the magic. That’s all I have to say, but I’m going
to say it a thousand and one ways, again and again.
Let
me state it simply; art saved my life and there’s a good chance it's
saved yours, too. I'm thinking of doing a series of of stories about a
character named Art who goes around saving lives because it’s so fucking
true to say that art saves lives. The thing is: your life has to be
saved over and over again—not just once. It’s a good thing that art’s
fully up for the challenge, huh? What a trip: art. It manifests a
secular belief in some form of reason or purpose behind our intelligence
and feelings. That’s one way describing its effects, anyhow. I'm
not going to try and limit what you consider to be valid as art.
Instead, I plan to write about stuff I find to be rad and try to explain
why it’s meaningful to me.
Why do I think we need to be
saved? Why do I think art should
be celebrated? Where do these
questions come from? Valid and
intriguing, there are always inquiries surrounding every supposition. The second you make a claim about art you
are encountered by doubts. At
least I find myself in such a besieged position but I cruise through the voids
like I was floating across dark asphalt on a skateboard, because I have
practice working with uncertainty. I'm comfortable with paradoxes. Art saves lives, but, ironically, access to the experience of art almost always has to
be defended and justified, because it’s not
yet part of most people's daily lives, therefore it's value is not widely understood.
One
defining thing about art, the kind that I consider to be rad, is that you have
to experience it in person. The necessity
of proximity makes the task of the rad art blogger more challenging, but the
value of seeing artworks in person is hard to overstate. Seeing art is an experience, and it has
a different time-span than other forms of culture.
Reading a book is a process that has a more linear and flexible
timeline to it. Sure, you might
skip around and read some parts more than once, but generally you read a book
from start to finish. How long are
you supposed to look at a series of photographs? How do you know when you are finished?
The
openness of art is one of its strengths, but it can be a limitation, too. All too often the task of interpreting
the work is left entirely to the viewer.
Without enough guidance given through structure, however, the public can
be alienated by this seeming emptiness.
Minimalism can easily be mistaken for laziness just like expressionism
can look like madness. How do we consider
art within a context that allows for the value of the work to be realized? Well, this blog is one modest attempt
to bring art into a discourse that is discerning and energizing.
I
started this blog with a series of self-portraits not because I’m overly concerned
with my looks. Narcissism wouldn’t
be a great reason. No, vanity
has little to do with it. I wanted
to give you an image of me so that you can imagine where I’m coming from. I’m 36 years old. I live with my dog in a house just off
of 26th Ave. with three amazing women as housemates. I go get coffee in the morning just a few blocks away. I live surrounded by surfers and in the
heart of one of the world’s surf capitals. I don’t surf, yet, because I've been busy learning my craft as an artist and writer.
I’ve always seen surfing and skateboarding more as an art than a sport,
though, so it’s definitely a goal to cover some of the rad and expressive action
arts happening around these parts.
If I can find the scrilla to get a board and a winter suit, then I’m
planning on getting myself into the water soon, too.
You
should follow my blog if you appreciate great writing and photography about
art. I’m going to try and post
once a week, on Wednesdays, so keep checking back and let me know what you
think.
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