powered by SignMyGuestbook.com



Language Log

Friday, Sept. 08, 2017 - 9:38 a.m.

Showed my mom one of the books I made-- the little paste paper snowflake book. "What do you DO with it?", she asked immediately.

She has figurines around her house, which for some reason she sets on the floor, as if there is a miniature ceramic elephant charging through from the patio. And she asks me what do you do with a book.

If at this point in her life she has no use for non-functional objects, I do understand. But she has always been like this. She is not alone, and this attitude is the reason functional objects sell better at art fairs than decorative art. But to have it put to me like that, as if I have to answer this question before my work has a right to exist, fills me with a rage. "Nothing; never mind; you wipe your ass with it or burn it", I want to say. Instead I say, "You open it and you look at it and it fills you with joy as you marvel at its beauty. It's art."

previous next

Leave a note