The Secret Lives of ArtistsFollow

Putin looks like he got the Steve Buscemi Eyes treatment.

It's from wrestling all those tigers.

Don't think so! I will look for it.

I've never boycotted an artist because of non-artistic aspects of their lives/opinions/whatever in the sense that if I enjoy their works and later find out about said aspects, it doesn't eliminate my enjoyment of their works, nor affects the likelihood of my viewing/reading/whatever future works of theirs. However, I'm reasonably certain that knowledge of some aspects of an artist prior to encountering their work will put me off of going out of my way to experience said works. I don't view that so much as a boycott, in the traditional sense, but more that there are tons of authors/artists/directors/whatever putting out more stuff than I can read/view/whatever anyway, so why start out picking one that has some personal opinions/actions/etc that I disagree with?

To be fair though, artists that I come to dislike or disagree with usually put the things I dislike or disagree with into their art (and that's usually why I dislike or disagree with them), so it's not that much of an issue. I tend to avoid watching Michael Moore documentaries, because they are chock full of the very things I disagree with about his positions. Kinda can't avoid that. On the other hand, if Rachael Maddow were to write a sci-fi book, I wouldn't pick it up in preference to the dozens of other books in the same genre that I haven't read sitting on the shelf at the bookstore at the same time, but if someone handed me a copy and said it was a good book, I'd read it and not care that I disagree with virtually every political position she holds (and can't stand her constant smirking). Assuming the things about the artist that I dislike are not present in a given piece of work, I really don't care.

Edited, Jul 3rd 2014 1:16pm by gbaji

why start out picking one that has some personal opinions/actions/etc that I disagree with?

Why, indeed? Why ever take in any sort of information unless you know in advance it will blindly rubber stamp your existing world view. That's what art is about, after all, comfort and banality. I bet you're a big Thomas Kincade fan, aren't you? Thomas Kincade has been called "the painter of light!" by Thomas Kincade. Tell the truth, you have a framed "footprints" poem and picture of a beach on your wall, don't you?

We had three of this series hanging on the wall of the bedroom that that I shared with my sisters.

Well, that's just creepy.

I don't take a drink every time my team scores! I just don't drink until they do!! Surely, even you can see how those are not the same thing.

It's funny because you're not even consistent on that.

Lol! Um... They're still not the same thing though. The fact that you only drink when your team scores does not mean that you drink every time they score. You could, for example, drink every other time your team scores.

Similarly (and at the risk of bringing this back to the original point), the fact that someone avoids information they know they disagree with, does not mean that they only seek out information they know they agree with. There's a huge middle range called "things I don't know if I agree with or not" (or just don't know what they are about period). You could also choose to avoid information you agree with as well. One does not automatically exclude the other. Maybe you prefer to explore new things, and avoid *both*. Smash completely mangled any sort of logic with his response.

Edited, Jul 7th 2014 5:54pm by gbaji