Canvassing

Let’s face it:

People in my generation only attend art fairs

So we can harvest ideas

for T-shirts, interior design and Facebook cover images.

As a career philistine, I find it difficult to assess art

as anything other than a consumer.

Would I want this in my house?

Could I photoshop this into something I could post online?

Could this be an investment?

This doesn’t mean I’ve never had a visceral, intellectual or emotional reaction to a piece of art.

It just tells me where my reaction is coming from.

I don’t think this is new, necessarily.

Humans have always regarded beauty only through possession.

That’s why when someone says ‘nice coffee table’ or ‘neat hat’, we say ‘thank you’,

As if we have participated in an act of creation rather than an act of commerce.

Sometimes it bothers me that this doesn’t bother me.

Everybody sees the world as something that exists only around themselves.

Some of us just have cooler T-shirts.