Time to Renew

What magazines do you read? Professionally, I read ArtForum, Art in America and New American Paintings. A few years ago, my favorite of art periodicals stopped production – New Art Examiner. It was the Midwestern-America answer to the international perspective of ArtForum (although, I believe ArtForum is more LA-influenced, these days). I subscribed to ArtCalendar for a year, but the horribly-written articles and piss-poor marketing advice grated on my nerves a little too much. By the time my subscription ran out, I was prepared to commit an act of eco-terrorism on my mailbox, due to the innumerable articles in the magazine promoting a marketing scheme based purely on “painting to the market”. That deep and intuitive advice was right at home with the editor’s endless supply of contrived choices for cover art and heart-shaped bullet points. Finally, all of the “exhibition opportunity listings” (the reason anyone subscribes at all) are easily available for free online.

I’m debating taking on a subscription to Modern Painters. It used to be a pay-to-be-shown vanity magazine, but was bought-out a few years back and has been making some interesting headway in the legitimate art world. I may just continue to cheat and read it (in the café at Borders) for a few more months before making any decisions – it’s $56/year which makes it hard to commit to a subscription although its not as bad as the insane amount of $80/year for ArtForum.

Under the heading of muse - my subscription to Montana Outdoors is forwarded to my studio in Santa Fe; which always causes a rollercoaster of mixed emotions when it arrives in the mail. As much as I love the high desert, there really is no comparison to the sense of instant belonging I feel each time I cross the Montana state line. I’m also an avid fan of National Geographic, particularly the regular “ZipUSA” column; something I’ve mentioned in previous posts with both love and regret for the editing decisions.

I still pick-up the occasional Paris Review. It was the Paris Review that first introduced me to the writings of Rick Bass via his short story Her First Elk. I have considered a subscription to the book for ten years, but always recoil from the idea when I read the list of “donors” which is a “Who’s Who” of elitist. I wouldn’t mind anyone from that list buying MY work or even having the occasional person believe I am part of that club… but I don’t want to ever actually BE elitist. Look at what it did to Truman Capote (granted he had multiple issues but the elitism definitely was the stimuli). It just seems that once you cross that line and become one of their gang, you lose the option to leave and return to your true-self. - DN