Monadology

Every since we did the episode on Danto I’ve been oddly making contact with actual artists, both directly and indirectly.  I consider this to be good thing, not just because the ones I’ve met or corresponded with seem to be excellent people, but also because – from a visual art perspective – I feel my life has been impoverished. 

Aside from visiting a lot of churches and museums in my youth, I don’t have a lot of art in my house and Austin, though it has a relatively vibrant local art scene, doesn’t have the museums or facilities to house a lot of traveling exhibits or Master’s showcases.  So I was thrilled when PEL listener, artist and student of philosophy Jay Bailey moved from Las Vegas to Austin and reached out to us.  Not only did we meet up, but he’s going to join us for another episode on Aesthetics, looking at Nelson Goodman (keep your eyes peeled).  You can check out his work here.

A little while back we also got a shout out from from Dennis Hollingsworth.  He indicated in a post on a work he calls Monadology, that he listens to us while working in his studio.  He’s the one who said I was ‘sad with a calm voice’.  Ha!  I sent him a note about that and we’ve corresponded a bit. 

It’s weird and fun that the interwebs have made it possible both for me to be a public figure and to have the opportunity to make connections with fantastic folks like this who I would otherwise have never known.  Go check out their work and hey, maybe even send them a note.  As an aside, I’m currently on vacation in Zurich and went to the Kunsthaus yesterday, which is an absolutely fabulous, world-class museum.  In addition to the permanent collection, I was fully absorbed by their special exhibit on Albert Giacometti.  Fantastisch.

Go get you some art,

–seth