7DaysInTheArtWorld

Chapter 6 : The Studio Visit

• Takashi Murakami
• I never knew that so many people could be involved with artwork that is only given one name for the artist.
  
• I don't necessarily disagree with it, but I think it's sad.
• They try to make up for it by writing the assistants names on the back of the canvas.
• So what.
• It would be nice, however, to have people paint the tedious shit for me.
• The shit that's, "not crisp enough" and "not dense enough."
• I like that fact that he is extremely involved, even in his studios in other countries.
• I also appreciate his dedication to the work - filing digital images of every layer in a paintings and applying 23 coats of gesso to get the painting just right.
• This makes me realize that I have a lot of things to think over in the process of making my own work.
  
• Oval Buddy - the budget of a small Hollywood independent film.
• This should happen more often.
  
• Either Tim Blum or Jeff Poe, I don't remember which one, said that Japan doesn't want people to stand out, so it pounds them back in.
• I could see that.
• I guess he got out.
  
• Meanwhile, Murakami is saying, "Dissemination is difficult."
• What is difficult, for me, is believing this.
• He is enormous.
  
• And so is anime.
• He makes the best possible version of anime.
• He has so many people following him and working for him.
• I'd like to know what about dissemination is so hard.
• I can't imagine how awesome it would feel to be at that point in your career as an artist.
• Being able to work on a thousand projects at once, having people do the meaningless tasks for you, having dealers that are super involved, and getting payed an absurd amount of money to live a more than comfortable.
• It's a beautiful dream.
• Minus the stress.
• I really like Murakami's standpoint on his Louis Vuitton paintings.
• He is flattening the distinctions between art and luxury goods, between high and pop culture.
• He's able say something pretty honest through one of the most worn out patterns.
• In conclusion...
• He's a very intelligent man, with what I imagine to be awesome hair.
• And he's very lucky to have access to a fingerprint scan code system machine.