Dabbling versus specialization

Recently an uptown gallery in NYC (Anita Shapolsky gallery) held a very special show – an exhibit that showcased the work of writers who in their part time became artists and went ahead and created some very compelling pieces of art. Comments on some online forums covering this event seemed to deride this as a wannabe attempt by non-artists at producing art and hinted at the fact that writers should stick to what they do best – writing. They also gave the example where exactly zero publishers would flock to publish a novel if written by a major artist (which I very much doubt). Though not related, take the recent example of moviemaking by Julian Schnabel as a supposed exception.

In a short piece for Art and Perception due to be published later today, I hope to delve deeper into this perception that we are live and breathe in a specialized society so much so that one must not stray too much from ones roots. In the odd case of such hucksterism, transgressions may be met by the threat of being proclaimed as second rate.

Hmm, coming to think about it, I have an engineering background…

Also, I take this opportunity to let you review the work of a writer Patrick Woodroffe, one of whose oil paintings are depicted below.