duchess of cook county

going to open up a bit here.

the nature of blogging has changed for me over the years. what i used to single out as the coolest art i could find is now being circulated through sites like colossal, my modern metropolis, boooom and of course, tumblr, and fed directly into the newsfeeds of millions of users everyday. i'll see an artist i considered to be a well-kept secret go viral with facebook likes and be posted again and again in the same day, only to end up somewhere so far out of the art world that even common buzzfeed and pinterest users- and the entire tumblr universe- are aware of the image. but never the artist- no, don't give them the credit. 

it depreciates the work of art in question since its "aura" - the notion which gives art its value, that there is only one of them in the world -  has been compromised by its mass exposure, its popularity.

i question if it's still worthwhile for me to post the spectacular art i find (like the majestic glowing caves or glass sculptures below), since i no longer know that my blog is the first place you're going to see it.  katy's canvas is supposed to be dedicated to the out-of-the-ordinary, the things you don't see everyday. now i worry that everything i post you have already seen somewhere else - not on a gallery website, or another unread blog, or in the divine corridors of an actual museum- but right on your facebook or tumblr where you didn't have to do work to find it. it's become a part of the mundane, and if i post it again, i'm just adding to the over-saturated world of media, creating another copy of the same image only to chip away at its value. 

although adverse to my open and loving spirit, i for some reason think art should only be allotted to those who seek it. who really appreciate it. i guess what i already knew, but am realizing again, is that keeping art esoteric is what keeps it precious. finding art should be an adventure, an intimate and challenging journey. call me pretentious, call me the duchess of cook county- guardian of les artistes- but i believe your personal contact with the work is what gives art its meaning. 

photos of glow worms in New Zealand's caves by local photographer Joseph Michael

who is now internet famous

but probably won't ever exhibit in a museum :/

you see, my blog is just a starting point. 

take these artists' names, and go on a treasure hunt!

for example, these multilayered glass sculptures by Ben Young

what else does he do? who inspires him?

how does he inspire you?

while we're on glass, below is an artist i found on a trip to Ken Saunder's in the West Loop gallery district (right outside of my new office)

talk about an artist whose work needs to be experienced in person-

these glass sculptures reveal and conceal themselves based on the angle by which you view them

(making them very difficult to capture them via lens)

working on your flow? we all have been - since the beginning of human history:

A Meditation on the Art of Not Trying

chrysalis

chrysalis: a preparatory or transitional state 

chrysalism: the amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm

have you ever really thought about how amazing it is that a caterpillar

Samuel Jaffe

ACTUALLY

turns into a butterfly?

have you ever thought about how magical that process is?

what the hell goes on in the chrysalis to make such a transformation?

it's as if we learn about it in kindergarten

reading "the very hungry caterpillar"

then we stop thinking about it 

before our fully developed minds

can contemplate what it really is:

the perfect metaphor

for being in the middle of things

brain brimming with questions

because you don't yet know

where you're going, how you'll get there

or

that the questions you have

about yourself, the world

have no real answers

no explanations

no beginnings or ends

life just moves on,

mysteriously,

whether you like it or not

Rafael Araujo

but rather than assume 

with a career

and a spouse

and a home

i'll burst from my cozy cocoon

i'd like to think we are always in the process of becoming

that the chrysalis is in fact...

perpetual

Fernan Federici

unlike our crawly counterparts

the butterfly we wish to become exists in the mind alone

a vision which steers us through the unknown

something to strive for but never to own

a state of being that is not determined

but rather, we create for ourselves

Yoshitaka Amano

and while we can find beauty in the console of others,

no one else can guide us through, for

"While all old people have been young, no young people have been old,"

and

 "while you can describe your experience, you cannot confer it."

~Andrew Solomon, The Middle of Things

all we can do is

"Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, or books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

~Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

or, do as David Sedaris does, and

"prefer to believe that inside every television there lives a community of versatile, thumb-size actors trained to portray everything from a thoughtful newscaster to the wife of a millionaire stranded on a desert island. Fickle gnomes control the weather, and an air conditioner is powered by a team of squirrels, their cheeks packed with ice cubes."

~David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day

~

all day to delay

i think ill stay

not “on my way”

isn’t it gay

all day to delay

 

i’ve got an alter-ego

neptune rain dance

she moves like the beach grass

and she sings because it feels good

in her world, time doesn’t exist

just space, open space

she bikes through the stars

and looks out over the waves

and is tickled, by the whole thing

 

photos of the surface of mars courtesy of hiRISE

 

 

“Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get.

Life should be touched, not strangled.”

~Ray Bradbury

 

featured artists: pejac, kate powell, tchmo, ignacio torres, patryk kuleta, derek fernandes,raffaello ossola, carmel seymour