Broken news

Just as art to the artist is like an unpeelable truth, news for me is like a daily tattoo, and can be very painful. It is on everyone's watch but for some reason always feels like my watch. Sometimes when peering out at the world, it is as if the body politic and human body are one. An explosion in the north for example is like a bloodclot to the shoulder, only worse; arrests in the west are like water on the elbow, and so forth. (A feeling of doing nothing is like a kick in the balls.) This must be what it is like being an artist. Everything connects when watching the news. This must be how she feels. Henry Moore said there is no retirement for an artist, it is your way of living so there is no end to it. While this must be perversely reassuring for an artist, it is exactly how I feel watching the rollercoasters of faith steaming into each other. And knowing the enormity of the situation is like predicting the news, though there is no pleasure in anticipating outcomes. Nor is a bloggish intimation of art being like the news a means of saying art needs to be hostile or truculent. Art is a friend especially at times like this. For most people life begins and ends at home and the rest of the world doesn't exist. Furthermore the insularity of greed is punished only when obliged to admit the rest of the world exists. This is something I supect many artists have always known. Could admitting the rest of the world exists now save lives? I ask the artist. She suggests tomorrow's entry be lighter.