Andrew Schroeder

Title taken from a post written by Eireann Lorsung.  Work with the stuff that is right in front of you.  No more planning, no more goal-setting, just work with the things that are surrounding you right now… it is the stuff of good work.

I have come especially to talk to those among you who recognize these failures. I want particularly to talk to those who recognize all of their failures and feel inadequate and defeated, to those who feel insufficient – short of what is expected or needed. I would like somehow to explain that these feelings are the natural state of mind of the artist, that a sense of disappointment and defeat is the essential state of mind for creative work.

 In order to do this I would like to consider further those moments in which we feel joy in living. To some these moments are very clear and to others of a vagueness that can only be described as below the level of consciousness. Whether conscious or unconscious they do their work and they are the incentive to life. A stockpile of these moments gives us an awareness of perfection in our minds and this awareness of perfection in our minds makes all the difference in what we do. 

Agnes Martin
Lecture, 1973

This lecture was originally given at the ICA on February 14, 1973 on the occasion of the exhibition, “Agnes Martin”

So, I decided to do some exploring of Green Bay today. I thought it might be a good idea to go for a walk by the lake… so I picked one of the parks along the waterfront and headed out. Maybe I should have turned around when I hit the gravel road, but I kept going… listening to the shrill voice of my GPS. I found the park and headed out… noting there were a lot of cars parked in the parking lot but no one around.

Tall grass.

I started walking and heard a very peculiar sound.

Kind of like wheezing.

Then… through the grass I saw it.

Two, elderly men going at it.

Yup. On my first day out and about in Green Bay I found the desperate men hookup park. I turned around and got my ass out of there, realizing that, with my giant camera on my shoulder, I looked even creepier than those engaged in dirty dirty park sex.

Kudos me.