ASTIQUER LE BOURGEOIS

Turn your life into a work of fiction.

That was the message restated ad nauseam at the First Annual Artists Conference on 21st Century Personal Branding Practices and Techniques.

Imagine a redundantly illuminated, overly air conditioned, brown ribbed synthetically carpeted, low-ceilinged acoustic-tiled conference room in a mid-size corporate business center steel frame glass and concrete ediface in the shadow of LAX filled with aspiring MFAed avant gardists whose only common denominator was a complete lack of irony.

But yes, this nightmare was real. I was there! I was sent by my editors to cover this unfortunate event and have since learned that without a particle of embarrassment, artists have now entered into the consumer class of the Self-Help and Actualization Movement.

And why not?

The wave of the future is in the past. Warhol's dystopian prediction of fame's fugitive democratization has come to full fruition. In this new world of Bold NewLeaders who will be left to be led?

As they jostled their way toward their uncomfortable seats these young, name-tagged artists seemed untroubled by this inconvenient arithmetical paradox.

My conclusion after attending this three-day seminar is not only that Dada is dead but like Tiananmen Square or a post-traffic school moving violation, it has been scrubbed from the official record.

All that said, I did pick up a few pointers on how to effectively monetize my blog!!