[Note from Jerome: Our comments section is still disabled, and I'm not about to try to fix it again; when I tried the blog went to bazongoland and I lost a couple of posts when it was restored, including the one about nasty nicknames, which Chris Santa Maria refers to in the copy below. If readers want to comment, they can email us, and if they advance the conversation we'll post them as updates.]
by Catherine King
Phoenix artist Chris Santa Maria posted a short piece about us on his blog on Monday. I've reproduced it below, followed by a fisking. I have also left the fisking as a comment over there. Here is what he wrote:
It seems I stirred up a bit of attention from some local players regarding my recent interaction with Jerome Du Bois and Catherine King of The Tears of Things. I met them in person at eye lounge last month for a thorough conversation on the process of making art, the local vogue, and blogging. It was quite earnest and memorable. A few people went as far as describing their lovely post about my work as "historical." I've never had any trouble understanding why a certain level of hate floats around their contentious reputation. Their articulations are often overshadowed by the inane surliness of caustic personal attacks. Du Bois has sort of admitted to these polemics, in a recent post that seems to be removed, calling some of his remarks "lame." Showing some timidity from passing controversy off as content or bringing the mediocre to the forefront can only help him. However, I enjoy the tears of rage because of its fervent consistency. My question is always: "Where are they coming from?" "How do they fit in?" "How can they hone their energies to change the community in a meaningful way?" The answer isn't easy. The intention is always clear: not "Everything is okee dokee." but "We are here, check us out, let us all strive for dignified greatness!" Phoenix boasts a small handful of individuals that are sincerely interested in dialogue about the visual arts. It's a fundamental issue of dynamics between those that feverishly engage in meaning and those that lazily encompass posturing. I think that both of them are in the circle of engagement.
Let's begin.
I stirred up a bit of attention from some local players regarding my recent interaction with Jerome Du Bois and Catherine King of The Tears of Things.
Aren't you lucky, Chris, to have actual "players" for friends. Just shows how popular and important you all are.
A few people went as far as describing their lovely post about my work as "historical."
Before I corrected you, though, you were going to take the credit for "making history," as I cast my memory back there. I was the one who stuck my neck out. Something brave and generous that you, or they, never would have done, or else it would have happened by now.
I've never had any trouble understanding why a certain level of hate floats around their contentious reputation.
Surely you haven't failed to notice how much fun your players are having with all their hate. In the interest of fairness, consider what that says about them.
Their articulations are often overshadowed by the inane surliness of caustic personal attacks.
Not that any of it was true, of course. And then when Stephen Lemons of New Times said worse things about me than have been said about any woman in this town, nobody held it against him, did they now? Do me a favor, Chris, and just take an honest look at what people WILL defend, on the other hand. You might learn something.
Du Bois has sort of admitted to these polemics, in a recent post that seems to be removed, calling some of his remarks "lame." Showing some timidity from passing controversy off as content or bringing the mediocre to the forefront can only help him.
You really need to be more clear, Chris. Finish that thought. Help him what? Be popular like you and your player friends? I wonder what you tell them about how they can improve themselves.
My question is always: "Where are they coming from?"
Jerome and I are both tired of explaining. As if a million words and five years of tears aren't enough. You really should have picked up on our meaning, while you were noticing the consistencies in The Tears of Things. How in the world can you notice one and not the other?
"How do they fit in?"
Come on now, Chris. You know we don't fit in.
"How can they hone their energies to change the community in a meaningful way?"
Are you trying to hurt my feelings? You sound like a gol durn teacher or counselor. "Hone our energies"? I've been doing nothing but honing my energies since I was a kid. And look where it's gotten me. I would have gotten farther with lazy posturing, like your players.
And as for changing the community in a meaningfull way, at the risk of being accused of crassly attacking your person, I submit you really are naive, Chris. Don't hold your breath waiting for the local scene to change in a meaningfull way. Because it'll be a million years before anything that I do makes any difference at all, man. Later.