I wanted to follow Japonisme to its logical end. What happens when Western artists copy Japanese prints—and then a Japanese artist copies their copies? So I looked at Monet, [James McNeill] Whistler, Van Gogh. There’s something very humble in how Monet tried to absorb that influence. I was surprised by how sincere it felt. I could feel the admiration in his brushwork. So I copied those works in my own way—sometimes very closely, and sometimes with, you know, additions.
Additions like UFOs.
Yes. The UFOs are a kind of symbol. Not a joke, but a realization. They mark the moment of awareness, the moment of noticing something that was hidden in plain sight. For me, they’re a way of saying: “Look again.”
Demi Moore and Colman Domingo will star in Strange Arrivals, an epic romance inspired by the story of Betty and Barney Hill, an interracial couple who claimed to have been abducted by aliens in September 1961. Set to be directed by Roger Ross Williams, the film will reportedly chronicle the Hill’s rise to celebrity and the disquieting aftermath of their notoriety in the UFO community.
morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.
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