John McCallister @ Richard Telles Fine Art

Honeyed Amber Rust, 2019

Oil on canvas

47 x 35 inches

Queries Lofty Longed For, 2019

Oil on canvas

47 x 35 inches

(Missing Data)

(Missing Data)

 

dayoutlast statement revision

Every so often, it seems I need to update the terms of this blog, my relationship to using it, as well as, ultimately, what it represents, what unfolds.  When I started using dayoutlast (January 2010), Contemporary Art Daily (December 2008), for example, was young and relatively unknown, There was no Instagram (October 2010); it came slightly later the same year and took a couple of years and then some to really get going.  Gallery and art institution websites in 2010 were often non-existent and mostly scant at best.  It was a very different world then.  At the time, I was just thinking about the fun of sharing images of my art-viewing experiences. It was a way to get the lay of the land myself while sharing that with others. I also liked developing a database of my own interests that would track notions about site and medium.

As time has gone by, I have started to realize a few things.  One, I was inadvertently building an archive through these accumulated posts.  Two, my art-viewing began to change becoming much more focused and limited. This I see as a good thing as I think it also starts to illuminate a kind of default criticality, criticality in the most literal sense of the word, the cutting sense, which is to say editing, perhaps the only way that exclusion may be a positive, especially about something negative, a literal denial of information.  Three, the shift in technologies, namely the use of my smart phones and upgraded ones, to record and share improved immensely, as platforms broadened in scope and availability.  The quality of the images went up as did, I believe, the quality of the compositions and the sites of reception. I also view the composition as a literal focus of the endeavor. Again, editing by exclusion, the very shot choice (installation, detail, etc) began to evolve the flow of images.  Four, what was once meant to be very exact replication of the viewing experience, sharing images in the exact same order as they were shot seemed important, a bit like stills from a moving picture.  Over time, this gave way for the need to reorder the sequence, to clarify what was important. Of course, depending which way you scroll, the sequence works one way or another.  Five, the use of text and description to augment the images has become increasingly important.  I could see how the shared image alone could not communicate my full intent. This need alone, has slowed down the frequency of posting as I have wanted to write more alongside the images.  Six, at the same time that dayoutlast has been developing, my life, and more specifically, my own art practice, began changing, partly as things evolve typically and also as other endeavors have taken up more and more time, particularly the duties of family life with children, their activities, and my involvement with them. Thus, the focus of the blog has been influenced by numerous factors of time and technology.

Now, with nearly a year gone by since I have posted something, I begin to wonder if I will continue or in what capacity, if I will attempt to catch up, or what will happen? What will be the sequence if not chronological?  Social media platforms are thriving, gallery and art institution websites are complete, in fact so complete that I am now able to augment my own photos and viewing experiencing by including other photos taken by others elsewhere. I kind of enjoy this aspect of it, and do my best to credit sources when and where possible. Along with that, it has also occurred to me, and I can’t believe that I am about to say this, but in some rare instances, I think viewing the work on a gallery website, for example, is just as good as seeing it in person, as if the work is made for such a viewing condition; in fact, I believe, in many instances that’s actually true. It’s really not that hard to imagine artwork made to be photographed and disseminated at whatever scale that a device/computer will allow. Kind of interesting actually if intentional, but not quite the same as the primary viewing experience once argued so hard for in the past here on this blog. Knowing what context art is meant to be seen is absolutely critical to this point.  And, at the same time throughout the process of dayoutlast, I have always been aware of my own complicity in posting photos of art work that may or may not traffic well as such, which is to say much of it is secondary viewing experiences.  As I sort these questions and challenges out and continue to draft posts, I am aware that only time will tell.