Artist Friends Lend Me Your Ear

 I believe it's necessary for artists to have artist friends. If nothing else for than a support system because who else would know better your struggles, your ideas, or the art life. While I communicate with a lot of photographers most of my in person conversations are with painters. Painters talk about the art itself and not obsessively about brushes, canvases, and paint, while it's rare to engage with photographers where equipement doesn't dominate the conversation. One of the photographers who I miss talking to is Philadelphia's Ted Adams. Ted ia not only a great photographer but also has a very interesting personality. As for painters most of my conversations are with Mikel Elam. I have yet to come away from a conversation without learning something. Several times I've tried communicating with the under 35 artist but came away with a headache. First it was almost impossible for them to not play with their phone during the conversation and they didn't seem interested in artists outside of their generation.