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 games–I’ve heard most of these referred to collectively as “boy culture.” The prototypical piece of dude art will involve a naked woman, video game paraphernalia, graffiti/advertising/design flourishes and will most likely take the form of a mural (see: Coop).

The term was originally (and, I suppose, pejoratively) meant to apply to art made by/for young urban males who were not effete, skinny intellectuals in high school (and indeed there is an undercurrent of anti-intellectualism in the “movement,” if a “movement” can be said to exist). However, the rapid mainstreaming of Dude Art has caused it to snowball and pick up a number of other pseudo-movements, which would now most likely be called (collectively) something like “neo-pop” or (equally meaninglessly) “hipster art.” (The “female” version of dude art, for example, replaces naked women with fey graphite drawings of woodland creatures or burning houses, but includes many of the same visual flourishes). The center of Dude Art seems to be California, certainly L.A. but perhaps equally as vital in San Francisco–the type of work featured on San Francisco art-blog Fecal Face, for example, probably represents the apex that Dude Art aspires to.

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.

4:30pm is, for me, the absolute bottom of the day, when my ability to focus is at its lowest and I’m most prone to second-guess my skills, choices and right to even exist. It’s no coincidence that it’s also the time of day I’m most likely to slink guiltily out of the apartment to inflict my mood on the larger world. The afternoon constitutional is the natural remedy for the problematic afternoon, as is the one-off project. The one-off project has the potential to make everything much worse if it fails to go anywhere, but at least you’re working, rather than surfing the Internet (which is how most Problematic Afternoons can be diagnosed). The afternoon constitutional, in turn, has the potential to lead to a sort of endless meandering until dinner. But sometimes simply being on your feet will clear your head enough to let the ideas back in, and you may cut the walk short in favor of a one-off project.