For me, the '80s were like the drawing by Botticelli of the nine rings of hell. Mark Bradford More Quotes by Mark Bradford More Quotes From Mark Bradford I always made stuff but never thought, I'm going to be an artist. Mark Bradford artist stuff art Often culture gets stuck in static, traditional narratives. Contemporary ideas give culture elasticity, flexibility, which is always a breath of fresh air. But these ideas shouldn't only be for people who can afford to go to a museum or a symposium in the "better part of town." Mark Bradford giving culture people My art practice is very detail-, labor- intensive and I think that that's a way of slowing myself down so that I can hear myself think. That quieter voice has sometimes the more interesting idea, if I can get to it. Mark Bradford practice art thinking I remind myself that we need to continue to do the things we believe in and be even more vocal about asking people to do more. This might be my Scorpio talking, but everything feels more intense than before. I'll probably keep doing what I'm doing and shift gears if something comes along. I'm pretty fluid. Mark Bradford intense believe people I never have a problem with being black. I have a problem with the easy association of what that means to some people. Mark Bradford black mean people The most important imperative to be questioned is the one that tells you to go the the art supply store to be a painter. Mark Bradford stores important art If power is abstraction, which many black men, black women, and people of color have very little voice in, well, then I want to sit at the table. Mark Bradford black men people That's how I am and how I've always looked at the world. I understood what the pavilions were before I came to Venice, and I knew that wasn't going to be enough for me. I wanted to extend this conversation into something I call urgency. There is urgency with people in crisis. Some communities - often the black community - just live in this urgency. Mark Bradford black community people A Scorpio, it's just about peeling back the layers. And I'm always surprised at myself-there's a lot under there. Mark Bradford Tobacco and religious organisations. Mark Bradford organisation tobacco religious When I was 18 years old, there was no internet and no gay teen nights. Instead, you went to the clubs and talked to grown men and did grown-up things. Mark Bradford gay men night Life, work - it's all very organic and fluid, a laboratory. I always tell people: whatever your thing is, you just have to be in it. Jump in; you'll figure it out. Mark Bradford you work life people I am fully present wherever I am. Why bother being in a community or neighborhood and not being fully present? I think that's colonization. I'm not interested in that. Mark Bradford i-am think not-interested community My mom was an orphan, and there was never anybody to tell her what she could or couldn't do. At the core, she's probably an artist - an artist and a feminist. Mark Bradford she never mom artist My mom was a free spirit, and she brought me up to be a free spirit. Mark Bradford free me mom spirit That's how I make work. Along the way, I take notes, I read about history and popular culture. Sometimes I act out things in the studio. I go back to my mother's hair salon so I can hear three voices going all at once. I pull inspiration from everything. Mark Bradford mother work culture history At the end of the day, I'm an artist. I may make work and decide to do something political, but it will come out of an artist's position. It won't come out of society telling me I have to. If I do, it's because I choose, as an artist, to do it. Mark Bradford day me society work The police pull up in back of my car and run my plates - they don't see you as you are; they see you through a racialized negative gaze. I think the best thing is not to internalize it too much, or it'll make you crazy because you know it's going to happen again. Mark Bradford best you car crazy I figure if you have one person that loves you, that's enough, growing up. You just need one person in your corner. Mark Bradford person you growing-up enough I look at art as a container. You can't get inside it, so you have to ask all of these questions. Mark Bradford inside look you art
