3 Books about contemporary fine art world you must read

Whether you are an artist, art collector or an art lover you will learn a lot about making, buying and selling art.  Artists do not just become known and rich.  Artist are creations of the media and so is art.  You will save yourself great deal of time and money by reading these books.  All of them are relatively recent and equally good. 

The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art by Don Thompson is a book about the art market.  It is not a novel as the other two books in the list.  It is putting art into prospective of economic forces, free market and controlled market.

Boogie-Woogie by Danny Moynihan is a novel which was turned into a movie with the same title.  It paints the characters that play in the market.  It paints a picture of the market made of greed, pride and ambition.  If you are a curator or an artist you may change your mind about your future once you read the book.

Ponzi and Picasso by Rochelle Ohrstrom is the most recent addition to the list.  This book crosses the geographic and social borders.  It drops the names of contemporary artists that you must know to carry intelligent conversation with other art lovers.  It also brilliantly describes cotton ball lingo often used by art dealers to confuse and hypnotize collectors.

Why do I like movies about war and holocaust?

I guess the main reason is that they set a scale to the human suffering.  When you complain about your life not turning the way you want, you not being able to afford a new car model, or you not getting advancement you watch a movie like that. So what?
Nobody is crushing your bones or pushing you into a railroad car.  You have an opportunity to change a course of your life.  Sure with years every person accumulates a baggage of disappointments.  But you also had good times and you learned the lesson.  When I watch movies about war and holocaust I can see from a distance how well I live.
At the end what matters is how you feel now in the moment.  If you can change something then change it and stop talking about it.  Otherwise make a Peace with what you cannot change.  The important thing is you can change your perception.  That way you can even change your past!
YOU want to watch good movies about war and holocaust?  My two  personal favorites are The Pianist (2002) and Counterfeiters (2009)
Be happy and joyful this 2015.  Appreciate what you have and go after what you truly want!

Why most New Year resolutions fail or how can you treat your lower back pain

You know everything you need to know to be healthy and happy.  Why are you not?  Majority of people prefer to do what is easy instead of what is right for their body. One complaint that I routinely hear is about the lower back pain. Sure the advertisers may say “you should check it with your doctor”.  Check it if you want.  The majority of us already know the answer or had an examination done.  You need to check it with your lifestyle.

Why most diets fail?  Why most New Year resolutions fail? To have a long term effect you have to make a lifestyle adjustment. And the change must be easy and enjoyable. Otherwise you will fail again.  To get rid of your lower back pain you must constantly strengthen your abdominal muscles.  Because most of us are working in the office for 8 hours a day, we do not exercise them.  The back muscles have to compensate for that and they are overworked. You get a spasm.  We all have 24 hours per day and make choices how to invest time.  The best choice you can make is spend 1 hour a day walking and doing sit-ups.

That means you have to walk for 30-50 minutes every day to take care of lower abdominal. And you have to do 200-400 sit-ups per day every second day (10-15 min). You do not have to start with that.  Start with 50 and add 20 every week.  You do not need any particular machine, any fancy cloth, any special space or any membership in the athletic club (which will eat another 30 min of your time every day driving).  Those are good for manufacturers of the products and owners of the clubs.  You do not even need companion.  It’s better to have a date with yourself.

If you spend every day 1 hour walking and doing sit-ups I assure you your lower back will never be in pain again.  In addition it is a great way to do meditation – walking.  And if you become bored you can change a route.  In fact I change my rout every day.  Even a little change makes a difference.  And while walking I can plan my next day since I have a phone with me and a calendar,  I can think though my next day presentation,  I remember to call my parents of Sunday (and write a reminder in the phone).  Because the blood flow increases and oxygen stimulates my brain I have a great date with my destiny.  Try it.  It works.

The artist mean free

I was deciphering the phrase written in the article about artist Darja Bajagic:  She was sick for “being okay, as a woman, with these kinds of images even existing in the world, let alone propelling them in paintings and in the gallery system.”  I went on reading her interviews and looking at the images she images created.  I liked the fact that it is a woman who is researching and creating such art. Refreshing.

I am not a feminist.  I am not even a woman. I am the artist, poet, thinker.  Only I will decide when I want to change and how I want to change myself. 

I am also sick… just like Darja Bajagic of people (and artists) telling other artists what they should and should not do, think or should not think.  Everyone wants to play amateur psychologists to the artists and amateur interior designer to their friends. Your depression, anger, aggression, complexes, insecurities need to be medically treated - not shared with friends or forced on others.

Do not tell others to do what seems right for you.  Face it!  It does not work, did not work and will not work. Especially when men advise a woman and woman advises a man.  Men and women wired differently.  We act the way we were designed by nature.  Men have their needs and those needs must be satisfied. So do women.  You want to be a woman?  Great!  I want to be a man.  So let me be a man and I will let you be a woman.  

You want to be treated in a certain way I cannot deliver then seek the place where it will happen. And what if such place does not exist?   So much energy wasted by trying to fit the real world into a fantasy.  The world is not going to stand on its toes because you “can get mad”.  And neither will I.  Get over it…

The world is not a book.  The world is just is.  Thanks you Darja Bajagic 

Is it unfair or just unlucky?

The words you use to describe your experience are a big deal and so are the images you create in your head.  Describe something as unfair and you enjoy being a victim of circumstances. Describe it as an unlucky and you become a victim of random. You are still a victim but to a lesser degree. Describe it as your mistake and accept as responsibility.  Now you take a control of your destiny.  Rare times when there was nothing you could do to improve your experience.  Not only the experience matters but what have you remember of it.  It’s to your advantage to learn your lessons and take care of yourself in the future rather than starting “trying to protect others” political campaign. Desire to turn negative experience into a political campaign or even a law is contagious.  The media heating this desire every way it can.  It is media business.  But do you want to make it yours? Would you permit an experience to change a direction of your life? In most cases you are reacting the way your surrounding has programmed you and expecting you to react like a Pavlov dog. Most of us deep inside do not want to entertain the stupid but we do.  Step back, calm down, decide what is to your advantage?

You can turn your experience into art.  Great art!  There are artist who seek experiences to stimulate themselves.  Art of social criticism can be entertaining.  In the world where everything is trying to shock human senses it is not easy to catch someone’s attention. The only viewers that are always on guard are those self-appointed dignity-police members. They want to censor artists language and influence their thinking. They are organized and vocal. It takes a skill to get your point across for politically incorrect issues in a clear and uncontested manner.  In fact in the society of media tyranny it is just as difficult as in the society of censorship.

On being a professional artist

On the way to New York I was in the next seat to the famous Russian artist. The work is small.  We have a long flight of 9 hours from Moscow.  We talked about many things but one stood in my mind.  He said it simply:  the professional artist spends 20% of the time creating and 80% marketing.  Armature artists do just the opposite.

It is so much easier to seat in the studio and create.  But the world is already overloaded with art as well as other things.  Unless you can find a good against who will do it for you will likely to be where most of the artists end - in obscurity.  If you find a good agent you can consider yourself blessed.  Luck is not logical and cannot be explained.  It just is.  

It is also good idea to remember that may great things in life you created by very talented armatures.  You want the names?  Alexandr Pushkin the greatest Russian poet (Eugene Onegin) was a public servant. Vinicius de Moraes (the author of “The Girl from Ipanema”) was a professional diplomat.  If you are not familiar with that song you should listen to it as soon as you finish reading this sentence. Serge Gainsburg (french performer provocateur) spend years studding painting till finally he said “F$ck art, Make a fortune” and did just that.  He became a song writer and a performer.

We are living creates and we change it time.  People around us always try to imprison us into a category they are comfortable with.  But we do not have to accept the category they assign us.  Nor do we have to be someone, or be someone for very long!

What did I remember Art Basle 2014?