October

Just updated my travel page to reflect a busy October, starting with a return visit to Washington, D.C., followed by stops at practically every museum within driving distance of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which I’ll be visiting for the first time.

Reliable Narratives, latlnr, 2012. Enamel, iron-on inkjet transfer, glass microspheres and acrylic on canvas

Then it’s a mad dash home to catch the Texas Contemporary art fair before it closes and get out the November/December issue of A+C.

Since that’s a double issue, I’m thinking about getting one of these and taking Amtrak around the country for six weeks once we get it out.

Mimi Swartz, Texas Monthly (Plastic Boxes)

Reliable Narratives, Mimi Swartz, Texas Monthly (Plastic Boxes), 2012. Glass microspheres and acrylic on canvas

Bad at Sports knows that ho

Wow. I just wrapped up a business trip to Chicago yesterday, and today the Chicago-based art blog Bad at Sports belatedly posted an interview its hosts did with me in December during the Miami art fairs about my wedding/performance piece The Art Gay Marries a Woman. Now I feel like a jerk for not getting in touch with Richard Holland and Duncan MacKenzie, the show’s incredibly patient hosts, while I was in town. Frankly, I’d thought the interview was such a clusterfuck I’d completely forgotten about it and assumed they had too. But it’s actually quite a bit more lucid and entertaining than I assumed at the time.

As weird timing would have it, after returning to my hotel in Miami that night I read reports about the vandalism of the tree discussed in the podcast, which is just over an hour long but flies by, if I do say so myself, perhaps because all of the participants, including artist Christopher Sperandio — who generously turned over what was supposed to be his interview time to me — were drunk. It’s a great audio snapshot of where my head was at 10 months ago and touches on many of the issues — including issues with the art world and the state of art journalism — that animated my performance and subsequent road trip. I stand by every word of it, although the rumor I mentioned about the Houston Chronicle planning to hire a full-time art critic apparently turned out to be just that.

For those of you joining this blog because you heard the podcast (or for any other reason), welcome. I don’t update it much these days, but you can follow what turned out to be an amazing 10,000-mile road trip by reading the posts from November to February. (For those of you looking to hire me, you still can. Please do, but read this first to see if we’re compatible.)

And an update to Richard, Duncan and their listeners: I’m now the visual arts editor of Arts + Culture Houston magazine and am scheduled to have a solo exhibition at Art League Houston next year. Its tentative dates are May 25 through July 6. I really appreciate Bad at Sports getting the interview online, as nearly all of what we discussed is still relevant and — behind the scenes, at least — still in play.