a cud to chew

I had a subscription to Art in America for a few years, but discontinued it, after countless perusals of new issues left me cranky, despondent and in need of a shower or a walk in order to re-examine why I make art. I mentioned this to a graphic design colleague, to which she responded, "Well, of course! It's designed awfully!" I don't know how much of my appreciation of Modern Painters is due to their clean and open design sense, but I sure have enjoyed having them around. A recent issue includes an interview with poet John Ashbery, who attributes part of his poetic style to his early interaction with Max Ernst and Joseph Cornell collages. "I realized that if you could make these wild associations of things in art, you could try it in poetry too." It also has a feature on artists around the world who work as collaborators, which is very interesting to me, since Zack and I have collaborated a bit and hope to continue to explore the possibilities. The issues are digested slowly for me-- one quick visual flip with subsequent revisits to read, usually with interest and yielding inspiration and rumination. Isn't that what you go to art mags for?

P.S. The name of the publication is a weird little misnomer-- it's about every medium in (generally) visual art. I think I remember reading an editor's note about this, but I don't recall the actual argument. In any case, above the title on each cover are these additional tags:
Art | Architecture | Design | Performance | Film