Back in Austin now. LA was relaxing, a kind of media-soaked departure from daily life. I had planned on doing all kinds of art tourism, but in the end I was more than satisfied running errands with my mother, drinking beer with my stepfather while he smoked pot all wrapped up in a blanket, movies with my brother.

So much for Ernesto Neto and Su-en Wong both of whom I had big plans to see.

I am feeling a tremendous creative surge these past couple of weeks. It's an explosion that's invigorating and frustrating. Invigorating for obvious reasons and frustrating because the ideas come so much faster than I can ever realize them. I'm dreaming of drawing, painting, music, programming, other things all springing from the same well. I met this guy, Frank, in Chicago when I was there a couple of weeks ago. We talked about art, about ideas. I said: I keep a running list of all the ideas that I'd like to someday pursue. If I worked on it full time for the rest of my life, I would still die without having finished that list.

I'm in LA for the holidays. I've accomplished the very great goal of not moving from the couch all day. I hope to see a Su-en Wong show later this week.

I already wrote this post once and it seems to have vanished into thin air...

The Guardian has an article on the paintings of DH Lawrence here. Who knew? I found a few images here, but I'd give pretty much anything to see the alleged painting of the boy pissing on dandelions or sunflowers or whatever it is.

Here are 2 reasons why the whole DH Lawrence thing has me going right now:

1. He was horny as fuck and that is usually a good thing when it comes to making art.

2. He apparently didn't let the whole division of disciplines limit his vision. I always want to roll my eyes when artists say, "If I didn't paint, I don't know what I would do! I have to paint 'cause it's all I can do!" And they are always quite taken by their own devotion and passion when they say this. They can hardly look at you for having to blink away tears of joy. I always feel sorry for them. I want to say, "Hey, that's too bad. If I couldn't paint, I would write. And if I couldn't write, I would play music. And if I couldn't play music, I would act..." You get the point. Creative energy is creative energy is creative energy. Use whatever voice in whatever medium makes sense at the time. And when it stops working, change it.

Check out Chris Finch's skewering of wunderkind Takashi Murakami and his legions of Louis Vuitton bedecked fans here. I love Finch and his unvarnished writing. But this does seem a little harsh on poor Takashi.

Art historian Arthur C. Danto has proclaimed that art history is over. I bought his argument for a while, which by the way is not that art doesn't continue to innovate, but rather that it no longer has a necessary direction as dictated by the grand narrative of history.

But there is something emerging, something that won't be fully clear for another several decades. It's analagous to the way that art became aware of its own philosophical underpinnings, beginning in the Renaissance (in the west) and ending in the middle of the 20th century. Something is happening in art where it begins to play more self-consciously and in more profound ways than ever before with its identity as an economic object. I haven't thought out all the fine points on this. I'll get back to you when I do.

I've come home from striking (uninstalling?) the North Project; a project I was involved in conceived by Ron Berry at The Blue Theater and produced by Refraction Arts. I've had some time to reflect on it and I've decided I was right earlier: The North Project exemplifies everything that is right and everything that is wrong about the art scene in Austin; brilliant ideas undercut by a distinct lack of polish and--dare I say it?--professionalism.

Not that everyone involved--all the designers, choreographers, technicians, etc.--wouldn't have been capable of a higher level of sophistication. No, it's just that the Austin art scene promotes this totally lackidaisical approach to art-making, and that doesn't seem to be changing. Which is frustrating.

Side note: Eliot Haynes's soundscape was brilliant and perfectly executed. The Butoh dancers were very good. Everything else left something to be desired.

For example, why was I the only one who seemed to care about all the cords snaking around all over the place? The power strips in plain view? The remote control that someone left right ON TOP OF THE GODDAMN MONITOR for everyone to see??! (And to add insult to injury, a little pile of North Project flyers left carelessly on the monitor pedestal for no apparent reason.) How much effort would it have taken for someone to shoot some Windex on the window of the inner room? Or how about 5 minutes to iron the chiffon before hanging it up to use as a projection screen? Those wrinkles show, you know.

So why didn't I do all of this? Because it's much easier to sit back and complain, and more fun besides. No, seriously, you can only run around hiding cords and duct tape for so long before it begins to feel like something of a lost cause.

To be fair, Ron did an amazing job of pulling this thing together at the last minute with just a little help from a few other folks. My point is just the overall level of art in a town where nobody sees anything wrong with wrinkled (unintentionally wrinkled) projection screens. You would have been slaughtered in New York or even San Antonio for that shit.

Okay, so maybe that's why Austin is such a great place to *become* an artist, if not such a great place to pursue a real art career. You can experiment with new ideas, amazing ideas, and not have to worry about ironing chiffon. Maybe. But if you ask me, ironing the chiffon is part of becoming a "real" artist. That's why this shit matters. It's the wrinkled fabric that separates great art from great intentions. Austin is a very "A for effort" kind of place, for better or worse.

I keep telling people that in the end, I'm glad I was involved with this and that's true. The end experience was wonderful, once you're there in the theater and the lights went dark. It's also true that a larger population of artists who appreciate what craft and intentionality can accomplish would be nice.

Went to see some art yesterday at Creative Research Lab. Kind of an uneven show that has some very great stuff and some not very great stuff. Not much to get excited about.