I have been "EVICTED"!

"Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice." ~Henry Louis Gates

Well, I can't believe it but I have been artistically evicted from Libertytown Arts Center....through a two sentence email.

My first reaction was that I was totally EFFING upset! I mean, it really felt like 5 steps backwards. I remember feeling so excited when they offered me a hallway spot at Ltown. My second reaction was a slight bit of feeling flattered...but I am left now with some unbridled anger.

Now, after several months; I get an email simply stating that there were "multiple objections to subjects depicted in my works" and that I am "way edgier than what is appropriate". I never considered my stuff edgy so yes, this was a shock. Different, maybe? But edgy??

So I am back on track to getting another studio. A REAL studio this time though. I had always been interested in the Workhouse, they had much better studios, more traffic, more opportunity, more open-minded, etc but the drive wasn't convenient.

I am a little upset that I don't know how much I will appreciate the art scene in FXBG anymore after this. I mean, I shouldn't really be all that surprised with a town that has about 100 antique shops on every street but come on! I feel like I am living in 1940's Germany right now. What's next? A book burning? How can I go and give into the FXBG First Friday's knowing that each piece of art hung is one that has been frigidly selected for my viewing "pleasure"? I don't want to be censored and I don't want the public at large to be censored either!

I don't understand that if there is art that is bothersome for you to look at, why you can't close your damn eyes and move on? I KNOW there are people who did in fact appreciate my art since I received several commissions in the small amount of time I have been at Ltown. A few old, sexually stunted, sheltered, goody two-shoes complain and it's blackballed?

I am more pissed for what this means for art in the town I live rather than personally.

So, it's off to the Workhouse. I will be working on my submission very shortly. If driving an extra 30 minutes gets me away from censorship and misunderstanding, then it'll be worth the drive.

"The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship." ~George Bernard Shaw