What is The Art Life?

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 15:13:47 -0400
housemusic, theartlife

Involvement Fest has passed, so has the mandatory trainings one must do to become equipped with the proper skill set to maintain a student organization. The question of “What is The Art Life?” has been asked time and time again. I refuse to change our myUMBC biography, so I will explain it here, as succinctly as I can, as I fear in the process of being as clinical and commercial as possible something deeply magical will become victim to reductionism.

David Lynch, the filmmaker, had a documentary made of him in recent years, before he passed some months ago. He described in it, “The art life… you drink coffee, you smoke cigarettes, and you paint, and that's it. Maybe, maybe, girls come into it a little bit, but basically it's the incredible happiness of working and living that life.” As a great inspiration to me as an artist, the words got me hooked on a certain kind of poetic methamphetamine for life.

The thing about The Art Life is; you can’t exactly place it… it’s a way of maneuvering in the world, interacting with it. Rendering its shapes, colors, and possibilities. It’s not about the kiss itself, it’s about the romance of it. And each cup of coffee is about the simple act of sipping and relishing; not the caffeine rush that comes with it, although that has its charm as well. And the consumption of art has to do with feeling more deeply in touch with the sensitive things; the surreal and visceral. The Art Life is a beautiful life.

At this point, if it isn’t clear what it is I am exactly getting at, here it is: we are not an arts organization. We care about the being an artist and the creation and expression of ideas. Of resisting a system that often suppresses such precious ways of being. We care about community, people sharing that precious way of interacting the world; being radically thoughtful and together. It’s about the uplifting ideas that can cure aches and groans and loneliness of our social order and our environment.

Our way of doing this just so happens to be by acting as a conduit for people to express themselves- whether by submitting their art to our website or to be featured in our newsletter or by re-imagining spaces on campus as punk rock venues for showcasing bands, musicians, and eccentrics. Or by organizing GBMs which are proposed to host various speakers to share art they see as vital and to discuss with others in The Art Life.

Think of us as a way to share your art with the world and find others who might feel on the fringes of this world barely holding on. Think of us, maybe, also, as a place to go dance at one of our DJ sets and get lost under the disco ball amidst a crowd of people entranced by house music. All of these things are true.

Everything that we host and every event we plan is organized to fund raise for different Baltimore charities relevant to the artists we work with and students on campus.

So, friends and travelers, does The Art Life make a tad bit more sense? Will you come out to one of our shows? Embrace your eccentric side, stumble into community, engage with the world in a beautiful way? We surely hope you will. We’ll see you in the shows… and around.

Namaste,
Jason Blanco
The Art Life, President