One of the very first things I ever posted about here on Kitsune Noir were the paintings of Dan Witz. I didn’t know much about him or what the hell I was doing for that matter, but his paintings totally stood out to me and proved in my mind that if I shared what I felt passionate about, this silly blog thing might work out. Well a year later I’ve posted over 1000 times and had way over a million page views, so things worked out by me just doing what I enjoyed.
So I started reading this interview that Sarah from Wooster Collective did with Dan was really enjoyable, especially because he’s been making art for so damn long that he definitely knows a thing or two. The interview is actually an excerpt from his upcoming book, but don’t be fooled by the word excerpt. The portion of the interview you get to read should take you at least 20-30 minutes I would guess. I got about halfway and was already thoroughly enjoying myself. The way Dan tells stories is great, and a lot of the wisdom he gives I personally found to be pretty smart. I’ve pasted three of my favorites, so if you enjoy those I highly suggest checking out the rest, definitely insightful.
I used to say that art should be an agent for change. I wanted my work to wake people up, but as time went by I realized that it’s useless trying to anticipate how people will think. Now I’m content to let doing my stuff help keep me awake-to be an agent for my own inner change. Which is, admittedly, a lot to ask, but a healthy thing to aspire to.
What good is art that makes people feel unworthy and left out? I still don’t know. This was the beginning of a life-long aversion to anything exclusionary. Or boring. Especially boring. For me, that was the worst thing art could be. If you couldn’t dance to it (metaphorically, I mean) then fuck it.
People I’ve met who are really good at what they do often seem to posess an encyclopedic knowledge of everything about their medium, they see themselves as the logical continuum of that time line, they know and are constantly gathering more information about every aspect of their field of choice. The canon, the anti-canon, trivia, anecdotes, etc.
Bobby