Janet Koplos

Janet Koplos came to my professional practices class today. Cynthia had us prep some questions for her in advance. In addition, she also gave a lecture last night at our school. This woman is genuinely funny when she speaks, and reminds me of my high school art teacher and BFF, Mary Kay Vangieson. This was funny too because Mrs. Vangieson was at her lecture. Anway, I got a chance to ask Mrs. Koplos some questions. She is a critic for a craft magazine< Art In America. Most of us cringe when we hear the word craft, us art school snobs. But Mrs. Koplos stated that she didnt care to write about some one like Matthew Barney, she "wanted to write about some one who has not been written about". She said that craft is enetering a fascinating, modern, and exciting time right now and the way she views craft is very similar to all other art. She observes it from the 2 dimensional and 3 dimensonal plane. She also stated that the minute craft becomes fashionable and a sell out, she's moving on. Later at her lecture she showed examples from artists that range from every protean part of the world. She gave anecdotes about a Japanese schizophrenic artist she met while in Japan and then it made sense to her why her work was so chaotic. I enjoyed this woman alot, who said she was "tricked into writing about art".