Dude Art has become so mainstream since I first started carelessly throwing around the term that the definition is almost too fuzzy to be useful anymore. Originally intended to refer to the type of art that one finds on skateboard decks–but not the type of skateboard decks that you use, the type that you hang on your wall (“you” here referring to everyone but “me”), dude art exists at the highly profitable intersection of graffiti, skate culture, independent comics (post–Fort Thunder), “design” (advertising), collage and video… Read more »
Lexicon: Art Trolls
Though actually predating its namesake by a generation or more, the Art Troll gets its current name from the Internet Troll, a special class of Internet users who post “controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages…with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.”#
Certainly art has been shocking and occasionally scandalous for most of its history, but I say the Internet Troll only predates its namesake by about a generation because the Art Troll requires… Read more »
Lexicon: Problematic Afternoon
The Problematic Afternoon is the sort of mental minefield peculiar to artists, writers, freelancers, grad students and other “self-employed” types. The Problematic Afternoon represents the time of day where morning’s promise has finally and completely worn off, all talent seems squandered, and it has somehow become impossible to produce any kind of quality work. This is where frustrated plans turn into a larger existential anxiety over your choice of career and life in general.
