Fuck you Claire!

I love movies. I love going to the movies. I love watching movies from home. I love writing, reading, and making art. I can watch movies alone or with an apartment  full of people. I can disagree with an actor’s politics but still enjoy his films. 

If we’re hanging out and there’s an opportunity to jokingly say with fake tears, “Fuck you, Claire. Fuck you.” And you don’t know what John Hughes 80’s movie I’m quoting, we might have to redefine the nature of our association. 

Imagine my surprise when Facebook banned my good friend Patrick for 24 hours simply for playing along with my “quote this movie” FB game. 

The movie in question: The Outsiders

There’s so many good quotes in this movie. Like... 

"You know what a Soc is? White trash with Mustangs and madras." 

Which was the quote Patrick posted playing my game. Resulting with Facebook banning my friend for 24 hours. 

Big brother 

How sad. This is where we are now? Banned on social media for quoting a movie. 

None of his friends are entirely sure which word/s in the quote offended Facebook.

Trash?

White trash? 

?

Patrick Blaine is an amazing artist. We met in Los Angeles waaay back when LA was still good for artists. We both draw the male form but in different genres. He’s more fantasy art, I draw figures. Patrick has always been like a brother to me supporting my artworks through the many years, to which I’m greatly appreciative and humbled even though I write more these days than draw. 

I stay on Facebook because that’s where all my friends are to keep in touch. And for you artists who still showcase, you guys know the ridiculous politics of doing gallery/museum displays. Aside from ever changing deadlines, attitudes, egos, who you know, matching genres, there’s also censorship. You make 20 pieces and (maybe) 12 will be accepted for consideration. But in the end only 5 pieces will actually be displayed if you’re lucky. And a lot of that has to do with censorship and not always in the way one might think. 

EXAMPLE: One LA gallery curator told me, “These pieces are beautiful but they’re too out-of-line for my upcoming exhibit. I’ll contact you when I have a show that’s more fleshy.” 

Fleshy?

Apparently my male nudes didn’t fit in with his exhibit of nudes?

Strange

But after seeing the artists/pieces this curator selected for the upcoming show I understood why. All the pieces on display were of women, nude, contorted, and made for shock value rather than skillset and hard work. Every piece looked like something that was randomly sloshed together within fifteen minutes. I was so disgusted that when this curator contacted me years later I politely declined exhibiting in his show. Not because of the content of his previous shows like this one particular exhibit, I just didn’t want to be associated with someone who’s chose shock value over skill, hard work, and talent.

It takes longer than fifteen minutes to draw a decent hopscotch board on the sidewalk. Paintings/drawings should look like it took longer than fifteen minutes to make. 

Yup. I’m a snob. Talent and effort matters. 

People ask how long it takes to draw large scale, 18x24, 24x32, and the answer is, if I were to draw nonstop it takes up to 100 hours per piece. 

And while FB and others criticize and censor the language used in The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton was only 17 years old when she wrote that book. What were you doing when you were 17 years old? Criticizing and censoring other people’s hard work and talent you don’t have?

I may not like someone’s work, but when it’s evident I’ll still appreciate the struggle, labor, discipline, and accomplishment. 

Recognize people for their work 

Or lack thereof.