#talkingbarnacles

(12.29.15-12.30.15) Day 7/8 - Nara, Nagoya, Tokyo

As I travel I realize that my pictures are becoming more and more messy and more chaotic. I’m okay with this, because that’s what life is like. An artist whom I really admire once said this:

“I used to strive to take the perfect picture and occasionally I was able to... about three times a year, but what I eventually found out was that perfect pictures are actually fucking boring because they are just that – perfect- and there is nothing else to comment upon- people see them, automatically think “Oh, that’s pretty”, and then move on... There is no room for flexibility for seeing things differently. But like people, if there is a flaw, it is something you can hold onto and remember, whether it's good, charming, or terrible... and that in a way defines, at least for people, who we are and reveals the most about us… and that’s the beauty of it. I remember when I was a student in college, there was a substitute teacher who had a sixth finger protruding out of his pinky; and I’m sure that because of the freakishness of his finger, it eventually led him to raise a tank full of cockroaches in his office on the 7th floor of our building, which was really disgusting to see in person… but the cockroaches and his finger were also so strange and uniquely awesome that I could have never imagined something like that on my own… which is also why he is the only teacher that I remember fondly or with any excitement at all.”

The artist in question is Patrick Tsai. His work is below at