Inspiration and art

Last night I received a very nice email from Jason Hackenwerth, an artist from the St. Louis area. I had written a review of his exhibition at Webster University for the Riverfront Times in October. He thanked me for the review and said it was his favorite review thus far. You can't imagine the amount of happiness I felt when I read his email. I love art and while I have never gone out to a show thinking I want to write a positive review about this artists, I usually find that the artist has done either beautiful work or it is based on an interesting concept. Jason's show was one of those. It was my first piece I wrote for The Riverfront Times (a Village Voice publication that I had always loved) and when my editor asked if I wanted to review work by a balloon artist, I must confess I laughed.

But I loved his work and loved even more promoting not only the work of an artist but a Missouri artist. It is one of the pieces I am most proud of and in this moment I deeply wish some art magazine would scoop me up and let me trapse around an gallery, translating images into words, describing aestics with letters and concepts with small sentences.

While this blog has served as what I call "therapy," the simple, one line email sent to me last night made me realize how much I love writing and art. I have been so discouraged about writing, journalism, and my professional career in general lately that I had just tried to forget about writing and art. Inspiration and encouragement has come from an unexpected place — the heart of a former clown.