How Rare To Find The Shark Struck Dumb In Awe

I posted the following on Bad at Sports in reaction to the posts there following The Shark's appearance. I don't know if it really fits here, but I suggest that people listen to this weeks podcast at www.badatsports.com

Regardless of how anyone feels about how Wesley attacks anyone in the Chicago art world or how they may think that Wesley may be narcissistic, he does make some extremely important points of how as artists, we need to do something ourselves and we can’t rely on an established system, to maybe except us within our ranks and hopefully catapult us to artistic stardom.

Why do we look toward someone else to give us a chance? Because they have the connections and the communication network to make it happen. I thought his point about the lack of an infrastructure in Chicago was dead-on. There are no magazines here and as far as I’m concerned a lack of art education and coverage here. We do, however, have the tools at our disposal to do it ourselves.

Bad at Sports has been at the center of a new “infrastructure” as I think Wesley called it by introducing and reintroducing people in this art scene that really have something to say and have a stake in it to everyone.

Sharkforum is also a big part, but a more narrow focus. In a broader sense, though, Sharkforum is an example for others. Can another group of us with a common aesthetic or purpose do the same and can another? Together, these sites can form a virtual scene that can nourish a vibrant physical art scene in Chicago.

I do believe that a bunch of websites strung together isn’t enough. We are of course making physical work (though some is digital). Art events need to happen. It’s been tried before in Chicago, but we didn’t have the continuous online presence to support the efforts made. People forget, loose interest and don’t become involved in any dialogue because they are shut out or feel that they are.

Wesley has really stepped up to the plate on this one with the recent Sharkstock and future events. Opening his studio like that was very generous and certainly not narcissistic. I would like to expand on that .

I also applaud his ideas about including the music and theater scenes. I don’t know much about the theater scene, but I have been somewhat close to the rock scene in Chicago which faces much of the same challenges as the visual art scene. Paul Natkin’s Chicago Music Commission is trying to do something at a grassroots level as well. Despite all of the nay-saying we are in an exciting time and on the verge of something.