Our close friend and ally Markham Maes totally crushed his show at the Engine last night, Sight Beyond Sight. It was totally mind-blowing. We’d like to take a minute to thank everyone that came out and contributed, both big and small, from makin’ art to hangin’ art to just kickin’, drinkin’ beer and soakin’ up the vibe. The whole night was just awesome. Nice one Shitty K. We’ll be gathering pics from the posse over the next few days to put together an archive to document the evening. It’s certainly worthy and needs to be shared with mankind.
On a slightly tangenital note, I showed up at the shop today to clean shit up and reorganize, but not before reading my daily email from Marc over at the Wooster Collective. If you’re not familiar with Wooster, you should check it out and soak up some of the amazing culture they help deliver on a daily basis. It may not be for you, but it very well may strike a chord. The Wooster Collective was founded in 2001. The site is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating ephemeral art placed on streets in cities around the world. But, that’s not all Wooster is. It’s a communication tool and a delivery system for its founders, Marc and Sara, as well as an entire generation, actually generations concerned about the state of world, the people that help shape it (both positively and negatively), and serves as one voice among many to help promote forward-thinking cultural and social change via the arts. Marc and Sara at Wooster are a big inspiration for all us at JoyEngine and as our own collective we’ve gotta give ‘em madd props for standing up for what they believe in, voicing their opinions (as we all should), and promoting the arts and culture to the nth degree.
The Wooster Collective has recently taken some heat in regards to a few of their latest blog postings. Subsequently, commenting will no longer be available at the Wooster site (it’s been some time since comments were permitted at the Wooster site, but they will certainly never return). I personally agree with Wooster’s decision to permanently drop the notion of commenting on their site. If you’re one of the worthless idiots out there hitting up blogs like Wooster with negative commmentary (whether it’s via an on-site “comment” mechanism, or old-fashioned email), get off your lazy ass, start your own blog, or your own entity, or your own culturally significant arts or cultural project, sacrifice time with your friends and family, put your finances and respective ass on the line, and create your own voice. Don’t just FUCK with someone elses.
I often rant and rave that most people have no idea as to how tough it is to create a sustainable cultural vehicle (and by vehicle, I don’t mean transportation device, at least not on a physical level) capable of making positive change, not just within the arts, but on any level. So go ahead and play armchair critic, talk shit about the people you know, the people making big moves in your community, about how people like Shepard Fairey are sell-outs (take a good hard look in the mirror if you’re one of the folks runnin’ that crap - what the fuck have you done?), or spew your worthless rants about how so and so oughtta do shit like this or like that. To those of you that fall into this category, and there’s a lot of you, I hear your crap walking the street, grabbbin’ a coffee, havin’ a beer - I have this to say, “Shut the FUCK up, and go do something that helps more people than just your pathetic selves.”
In closing I’d like to reiterate Marc’s conclusive response to all the Wooster haters out there full of negativity. According to Marc, Wooster’s recent Spring Street Experience taught them this: (or, at least helped further solidfy the validity of the eight statements listed below)
1. That we only want to be around passionate people in our lives.
2. That if you put all your heart and soul into something, you can achieve anything - absolutely anything.
3. That it’s not possible to please everyone. That the more people you please, the more people will want to take you down.
4. That you must trust your instincts. Don’t let people tell you that things have to be done a certain way. They don’t.
5. Share things with others. Don’t make it all about you. Make it about “us”.
6. Keep listening and keep learning.
7. Take criticism seriously, but don’t let it stop you from doing what you want to do.
8. Be true to yourself.
Word Marc. Right frikin’ on.
