I was a weedy kid not like one of those working-class men who can accommodate not being academically clever by physical strength and prowess.
I thought I was gonna be an attorney so I went to Dartmouth and I was a government major and I minored in environmental policy and I didn't do anything academically around the arts.
I also take pleasure in the so-called negative power in Grotjahn's work. That is I love his paintings for what they are not. Unlike much art of the past decade Grotjahn isn't simply working from a prescribed checklist of academically acceptable curator-approved 'isms' and twists.
I still believe that capitalism is too harsh and I believe that even within that there is a lot of satisfaction and beauty if you happen to be one of the lucky ones although that doesn't eradicate the reality of the suffering. It's all true at once kind of humming and sublime.