You popped up in my Instagram reels maybe a month or so ago and started following. In just under three weeks I will be 68. I have a love hate relationship with the art world, I feel into it in London in the 70s via the Outsider art world ( I have never been to Art school/college.) I was young and still felt I had things to see and experience and so drifted away from it but always kept drawing.
The irony for me in reading your article was it described how I felt about the world of books and literature. I ran an antiquarian/second hand bookshop on the Portobello Rd in London. Again something I fell into almost by accident but like you with art I knew nothing about the book world but i became obsessed with it. Devoured everything I could get my hands on regarding it. Thats why your post resonated so much with me and I felt compelled to respond. Looking forward to reading more of your insights and experiences.
This hit like a velvet sledgehammer. The quiet melancholy at Keens, the hunger for something real in the art world, and the poker-honed instinct to bet big on intuition—it all reads like a confessional with teeth. There’s something deeply human in what you’re doing here: pulling back the curtain not just on the art itself, but on the rooms, risks, and restless souls behind it. Can’t wait to read more of these stories from the felt to the white cube. We need more voices like this—unpolished, obsessed, and actually in it.
Keens! Also I’m surprisingly enjoying “How Painting Happens” by Martin Gayford. I’m only a few nights in but so far it has the rare ability to keep me awake reading. It might be a good chop companion - although it’s so big it might look douchey.
Ok I'm hooked. I peeked into the "art world" when I got into a show in the Hamptons 3 years ago. I saw just enough to send me back to my backwoods town--feeling not just that I didn't fit in and never would, but also that it was all an elaborate game where no one could tell me the rules, and the odds of "winning" were dire.
But this morning you came up while I was scrolling TikTok, and now here we are. I haven't cared to try to participate in the gallery scene anymore because of a couple of unsavory (even predatory) experiences, so I decided to just make my own art world in rural Idaho.
BUT the truth is, I am curious about that elusive art world out there. So thank you for allowing me a glimpse in!
You popped up in my Instagram reels maybe a month or so ago and started following. In just under three weeks I will be 68. I have a love hate relationship with the art world, I feel into it in London in the 70s via the Outsider art world ( I have never been to Art school/college.) I was young and still felt I had things to see and experience and so drifted away from it but always kept drawing.
The irony for me in reading your article was it described how I felt about the world of books and literature. I ran an antiquarian/second hand bookshop on the Portobello Rd in London. Again something I fell into almost by accident but like you with art I knew nothing about the book world but i became obsessed with it. Devoured everything I could get my hands on regarding it. Thats why your post resonated so much with me and I felt compelled to respond. Looking forward to reading more of your insights and experiences.
This hit like a velvet sledgehammer. The quiet melancholy at Keens, the hunger for something real in the art world, and the poker-honed instinct to bet big on intuition—it all reads like a confessional with teeth. There’s something deeply human in what you’re doing here: pulling back the curtain not just on the art itself, but on the rooms, risks, and restless souls behind it. Can’t wait to read more of these stories from the felt to the white cube. We need more voices like this—unpolished, obsessed, and actually in it.
Keens! Also I’m surprisingly enjoying “How Painting Happens” by Martin Gayford. I’m only a few nights in but so far it has the rare ability to keep me awake reading. It might be a good chop companion - although it’s so big it might look douchey.
Ok I'm hooked. I peeked into the "art world" when I got into a show in the Hamptons 3 years ago. I saw just enough to send me back to my backwoods town--feeling not just that I didn't fit in and never would, but also that it was all an elaborate game where no one could tell me the rules, and the odds of "winning" were dire.
But this morning you came up while I was scrolling TikTok, and now here we are. I haven't cared to try to participate in the gallery scene anymore because of a couple of unsavory (even predatory) experiences, so I decided to just make my own art world in rural Idaho.
BUT the truth is, I am curious about that elusive art world out there. So thank you for allowing me a glimpse in!