Last year, when I joined the Art & Social Practice MFA program at PSU I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to be doing. I knew I really wanted to be producing work that was accessible and philosophical, and that spoke to the many concerns I had around sustainability, community and capitalism. Seeing the work of my professors, Harrell Fletcher and Jen Delos Reyes, and meeting with them solidified my interest in the program and made me realize that my various past experiences really had useful application in this new world I was about to enter.

Now, over a year later I realize that it wasn’t some new world I was entering but learning to be more present and actively engage with the real world through my work. I also learned that this work wasn’t far off from what I had been doing on my own, I just didn’t have any reference points to make the connection…but over the course of the first year I became fully immersed in research into people living and breathing a socially engaged art practice. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, one of these discoveries would have a profound impact on the way that I think about art and what it can be…and how it relates to the work I’ve done in the past and what kind of work I’m looking to be doing in the future.

The person I’m referring to is David Greenberger and his project The Duplex Planet. David Greenberger got his BFA degree in painting in 1979, shortly thereafter he took a job as an activities director for a nursing home…the Duplex Nursing Home. One would think the logical direction for someone with a painting degree that goes to work at a nursing home as an activities director would be to organize activities around traditional art making. David, however, quickly became captivated by the art and activity of conversation that he involved himself in with the residents.

These conversations eventually led to the DIY publishing of a zine called The Duplex Planet and has expanded into books, movies, albums, radio programs, exhibitions and more. Through this project he’s also worked on a comic series with some of my favorite people, including Daniel Clowes, Ron Rege and Robert Williams. To say that David Greenberger has defied convention as to what it means to be an artist is an understatement. David’s work has also allowed me to view some of my own past experiences in a new light.

I started the wurst gallery in 2003 while working at Wieden+Kennedy as merely a hobby. It was my excuse to work with some of my favorite artists while at the time I would have never counted myself as one of them. As I look back now I realize that the wurst was my art making. I created shows that had their own ideas outside of the physical work that was produced for them and therefore created their own meaning.

Becoming aware of artists like David Greenberger has helped me figure out a new context for my work and a way to frame the projects that I’m currently working on.

Tomorrow I will take a look at one last example of an artist working outside of the traditional art role and begin investigating how looking to these artists might help inform the role of artists in the future.