Dave, you dunnit again. Thank you for the leap from reality to the farthest corner of avoidance. Again, as the Republicans drown themselves in Trumpitis, you have walked us ordinary readers as far away as possible. You have brought our self-knowledge to the crying stage: why oh why couldn't I (we) create new art after rolling through the planet to buy a building and fill it with art and artists? Why did we have to waste time in college and come out with nothing more than a degree and ignorance of all except how to read in English and follow the sports paging in the NY Times.
8
From the prior NYT coverage we learn "At the moment, Mr. Yellin is moving his studio and office into the new building .... His friend David Brooks plans to build an installation in the courtyard using flame and large-scale shrink-wrap."
David, how did you installation turn out?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/nyregion/the-artist-dustin-yellins-big...
David, how did you installation turn out?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/nyregion/the-artist-dustin-yellins-big...
7
Yellin seems to have assembled highly creative and highly skilled people in one place where they can interact and yet do as each wants. It make last for a long while or it might break up and not longer exist in a couple of years. What is interesting is that now it is stimulating people to consider each other's perspectives. Whether it actually initiates a lot of significant new endeavors has yet to be seen.
There have been communal creative institutions like this before and they have produced lasting results, like Edison's labs (which contributed a lot but was in the end controlled by Edison, alone), Xerox's lab in Northern California (which made all the participants rich and changed the computer industry, while leaving the Corporation unaffected because the business executives could not see what had been created), the Shakers who invented numerous ingenious everyday life innovations (only to be done in by the failure to reproduce themselves), etc.
There have been communal creative institutions like this before and they have produced lasting results, like Edison's labs (which contributed a lot but was in the end controlled by Edison, alone), Xerox's lab in Northern California (which made all the participants rich and changed the computer industry, while leaving the Corporation unaffected because the business executives could not see what had been created), the Shakers who invented numerous ingenious everyday life innovations (only to be done in by the failure to reproduce themselves), etc.
2
Mr Brooks is probably too modest to speak of his own anonymous $5 million funding of an artist in New York City or a Somali refugee school in NE Kenya.
3
Why is David Brooks writing this fluffy arts article, and why is it masquerading as an opinion piece? Good for Dustin Yellin for realizing his dreams before he turns 40, but I'd be hard pressed to believe the Yellin is as much a self-made man as this article suggests. I think there's some serious family money behind Pioneer Works and the rest. Another story that hides the truth about white male art world privilege.
29
His sculptures remind me of the children's video game, "Knack". Knack is composed of relics. Come to think of it --- this Yellen guy kind of reminds me of Lucas.
David, I feel like you're cheating with this column. As many people have already commented, it should be mentioned that Yellin came from a very wealthy family and thus had access to money and connections as well as an economic security blanket if he got in trouble, got sick, etc. Your failure to provide context (clearly because it would diminish the Wow factor of your story) is both dishonest and sophomoric.
43
There are peoplelike Mr. Yellin who are hard wired to be that way; they have to be in constant and creative movement. And they are a marvel to watch and to be inspired by. Good luck to the rest of us mortals who try to imitate them. They are unique.
2
Throughout history, 'current art' has defined and delivered the sensorial presentation (aka, visualization) of universal, archetypal architecture that reveals itself in the depths and the limits of human imagination; incorporated in that are the sensorial reflections of the physics of our universe as we currently understand and perceive them.
As with all things, progress is not always universally accepted with applause, but it has a way of marching forward and taking us along with it.
As with all things, progress is not always universally accepted with applause, but it has a way of marching forward and taking us along with it.
1
It's as if Brooks wasn't aware there was an internet on which the 'meta' of stuff he writes (and which is read, mostly, on the internet) might get probed.
Wake up and sniff the bath salts, David - people are on to you.
Wake up and sniff the bath salts, David - people are on to you.
8
Ah, another ADD guy who wants to change the world. As my grandmother used to say, "Gai Nischt."
2
As one commenter implied this article does kind of belong in the Arts section reviewed by an Arts critic. So why is it here and what is Mr. Brooks admiring? The fact that Mr. Yellin was/is financed by his millionaire family? Mr. Brooks is dishonest for not not letting us in on this reality in particular because his politics associate him with the privileged and wealthy. The column is misleading and makes no sense at all.
21
What I love about this is the way Dustin has created a platform for his fluid interests. With the turbulence in the economy, I suspect we'll be seeing more "studio" and "art house" models in the future.
2
Brooks has certainly penned a convoluted, back-door argument to end the estate tax.
10
Correct me if I am wrong, but young Yellin was able to drop out of high school and travel because of his family's wealth. He was able to move to New York, rent a loft, and experiment with art because he had security to fall back on, a place to go if he failed. He seems more Stella McCartney than Basquiat.
Most don't have that security to go off and dream. Most need to get a job and pay the bills. Or they have to live in Mom's basement when they create--not quite as cool as moving to NYC.
I admire his courage and generosity and ability to create community. That is hard to do even when you have the financial backing. And most with his type of wealthy upbringing don't have the courage to go out and do this.
Most don't have that security to go off and dream. Most need to get a job and pay the bills. Or they have to live in Mom's basement when they create--not quite as cool as moving to NYC.
I admire his courage and generosity and ability to create community. That is hard to do even when you have the financial backing. And most with his type of wealthy upbringing don't have the courage to go out and do this.
20
What do Dustin Yellin, Steve jobs, and the Beatles and many others have in common? Their greatest achievements occurred after exposure to hallucinogenic drugs. I'm sure Brooks did not intend this essay to suggest LSD is an effective road to creative success, but unfortunately the common experiences of those I mentioned as well as many other creative idols seems to have included experimenting, if temporarily, with those types of drugs which may have altered minds permanently in a way that is a catalyst for creativity and drive.
For that reason, I am very uneasy with this essay. Its first paragraph describes his pre-drug personality. The second paragraph describes what is reasonable to assume caused his personality change as described in the remainder of the essay. I fear Mr. Brooks unwittingly is giving encouragement to take a route he certainly is opposed to.
The potential damage that hallucinogenic drugs are capable of doing argue against such drug use, no matter what the possible benefits of their use. So one must ask this: exactly what is the actual point of the essay?
For that reason, I am very uneasy with this essay. Its first paragraph describes his pre-drug personality. The second paragraph describes what is reasonable to assume caused his personality change as described in the remainder of the essay. I fear Mr. Brooks unwittingly is giving encouragement to take a route he certainly is opposed to.
The potential damage that hallucinogenic drugs are capable of doing argue against such drug use, no matter what the possible benefits of their use. So one must ask this: exactly what is the actual point of the essay?
2
This is all very "interesting," as they say, but I've visited the place. The art is truly awful.
20
I apologize for my previous post about Dustin Yellin.
All the comments about Dustin Yellin seem to have concluded his life is not worth it because of psychedelics or crystals or eccentric physicists or if worth it maybe he's not enjoying it enough or maybe he's too manic and that it's a shame he was born into wealth so that discounts him and he certainly must fail because he's not a minority and certainly not poor and of course he must fail because his attempt is dilettante and of course he will probably burn out and of course he cannot ever possibly be really cool hanging out with billionaires and it's not community building he's doing because he came from rich community already and was financed by mommy and the guy's no Ben Franklin and did not do what he's doing "outside the system" and Yellin is so obviously "full of himself" and...
I was going to fill up another paragraph here with something or other, maybe some more criticism of Yellin by commenters posting here or give some thoughts of my own, but I guess I'll just say it was nice that some people commenting here were more along the lines of "What the hell, I hope the guy succeeds,--at this point in the lifespan of the human race (as always really) anything's worth a try at least, who knows what will come of it?" I guess I'll try to do some reading now (of a book I'm currently reading).
All the comments about Dustin Yellin seem to have concluded his life is not worth it because of psychedelics or crystals or eccentric physicists or if worth it maybe he's not enjoying it enough or maybe he's too manic and that it's a shame he was born into wealth so that discounts him and he certainly must fail because he's not a minority and certainly not poor and of course he must fail because his attempt is dilettante and of course he will probably burn out and of course he cannot ever possibly be really cool hanging out with billionaires and it's not community building he's doing because he came from rich community already and was financed by mommy and the guy's no Ben Franklin and did not do what he's doing "outside the system" and Yellin is so obviously "full of himself" and...
I was going to fill up another paragraph here with something or other, maybe some more criticism of Yellin by commenters posting here or give some thoughts of my own, but I guess I'll just say it was nice that some people commenting here were more along the lines of "What the hell, I hope the guy succeeds,--at this point in the lifespan of the human race (as always really) anything's worth a try at least, who knows what will come of it?" I guess I'll try to do some reading now (of a book I'm currently reading).
1
Shouldn't this be the NYTimes' art critic's beat?
6
Brooks seems to be trying to fill a slot in the arts section of the National Review from the content of his last ten op-eds.
Come on David! The sixteenth person just announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential campaign today...Ohio Governor John Kasich--who seems to be the most moderate of all the GOP candidates. Hey anyone who quotes from Matthew 25 (Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for prisoners) is fine by me...and I’m “feelin’ the Bern!”
Yet Governor Kasich (R-OH) won’t even be on the first debate stage...in Cleveland, OH! Yes the brilliant minds at Fox News--sponsor of the first debate August 6- and internal organ of the RNC and apologist for all its crazies (Don’t forget Nee-gro expert Cliven Bunday!) have decided that the national polls will decide who will be the ten who will stand on the debate stage!
Which polls exactly? Who knows? Kasich is NOT in the top ten today and unless some miracle occurs he won’t be on stage August 6 at Quicken Loans Center.
Although Fox News HAS added a candidate forum (?) at 1pm ET the same day for candidates who don’t make the debate cut.
Why isn’t the Times’ lead conservative op-ed columnist talking about this out of control GOP clown train? The train that is about to de-rail at any moment with Donald “Mexicans are criminals, drug-runners, and rapists” Trump at the stick of this runaway train.
What’s up David?
Come on David! The sixteenth person just announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential campaign today...Ohio Governor John Kasich--who seems to be the most moderate of all the GOP candidates. Hey anyone who quotes from Matthew 25 (Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for prisoners) is fine by me...and I’m “feelin’ the Bern!”
Yet Governor Kasich (R-OH) won’t even be on the first debate stage...in Cleveland, OH! Yes the brilliant minds at Fox News--sponsor of the first debate August 6- and internal organ of the RNC and apologist for all its crazies (Don’t forget Nee-gro expert Cliven Bunday!) have decided that the national polls will decide who will be the ten who will stand on the debate stage!
Which polls exactly? Who knows? Kasich is NOT in the top ten today and unless some miracle occurs he won’t be on stage August 6 at Quicken Loans Center.
Although Fox News HAS added a candidate forum (?) at 1pm ET the same day for candidates who don’t make the debate cut.
Why isn’t the Times’ lead conservative op-ed columnist talking about this out of control GOP clown train? The train that is about to de-rail at any moment with Donald “Mexicans are criminals, drug-runners, and rapists” Trump at the stick of this runaway train.
What’s up David?
7
The human mind is capable of unlimited wonder and creation and the thrill of existing that accompanies that kind of psychic flow.
Now compare that seat of curiosity and wonder to the blunted imaginations of the indoctrinated kids who by the age of seven will always believe the Earth was created in a week by a guy in the clouds who looks over them and controls all being.
AND when they become adults you get about half of voting America!
Now compare that seat of curiosity and wonder to the blunted imaginations of the indoctrinated kids who by the age of seven will always believe the Earth was created in a week by a guy in the clouds who looks over them and controls all being.
AND when they become adults you get about half of voting America!
3
I wonder what sort of social capital Mr. Yellin has used along the way. I have friends who are trying to make it in the highly competitive NYC art world, I'm sure they'll be interested to learn how he defied the odds when they - perhaps with equal talent - are struggling.
Something tells me this guy is no Ben Franklin....even though he's appropriated his narrative.
Something tells me this guy is no Ben Franklin....even though he's appropriated his narrative.
6
It's always discouraging that the people behind the artist, the ones that do the heavy lifting, are never mentioned. Gabe Florenze, for example, is the heart of Pioneer Works.
16
“Yellin did this outside the system" what complete and utter rubbish born from the worst kind of pseudo-romantic; the Republican contortionist. Yellin, won a genetic lottery. I get so sick of reading about how someone got to where they are because of hard-work and inspiration only to find the real story is confirmation of how unfair and unjust our society has become.
Does Brooks have any clue how many lives in this country have beautiful art, passion, and life squeezed out of them by the weight of inequality? That’s far more important a story than the anecdote of a rich kid born into a realm in which he can exercise his dreams. And, that’s the story here. If you are rich in this country, you have a means to implement your desires, dreams, wishes, goals. Winners of the genetic lottery who can implement their aspirations. What kind of aspirations can a poor inner-city minority child seek? Please do not do yourself the disservice, as Brooks oft does, of muttering ‘anything if you work hard’.
In our society, the Artist at work, at play, via vocation or avocation, is a dying breed. The murderers hide in plain sight while drawing upon a wide range of disciplines to continue the lie that we all have a chance to implement our dreams. The reality is the next Picasso’ or Van Gogh or Einstein will never realize what they could have been. We, as a country, have decided we’d rather kill dreams to breathe life into the coffers of the Kochs and the Waltons. Community? Give me a break.
Does Brooks have any clue how many lives in this country have beautiful art, passion, and life squeezed out of them by the weight of inequality? That’s far more important a story than the anecdote of a rich kid born into a realm in which he can exercise his dreams. And, that’s the story here. If you are rich in this country, you have a means to implement your desires, dreams, wishes, goals. Winners of the genetic lottery who can implement their aspirations. What kind of aspirations can a poor inner-city minority child seek? Please do not do yourself the disservice, as Brooks oft does, of muttering ‘anything if you work hard’.
In our society, the Artist at work, at play, via vocation or avocation, is a dying breed. The murderers hide in plain sight while drawing upon a wide range of disciplines to continue the lie that we all have a chance to implement our dreams. The reality is the next Picasso’ or Van Gogh or Einstein will never realize what they could have been. We, as a country, have decided we’d rather kill dreams to breathe life into the coffers of the Kochs and the Waltons. Community? Give me a break.
71
Mr. Brooks has a never-ending tendency to miss the point. In a world of seven billion souls not only will Yellin exist but he will be well within the middle bounds of normal. Had Yellin been black, or raised in Baltimore, or born in Mexico, he would likely be in jail and even if not David would point to him as a signal that our society is deathly ill. But with the right breaks, a little talent and a barrel full of charisma he becomes the darling of the New York literati.
Would that David had as much empathy for drop-outs and unemployed youth from the streets of Harlem.
Would that David had as much empathy for drop-outs and unemployed youth from the streets of Harlem.
29
David Brooks is a journalist I trust and so it is extremely disappointing that he didn't tell us that Yellin financed his dream with $4 million of family money. Instead, we have the impression Yellin simply landed in New York and met the right people at bars. Readers only learn of Yellin's family investment reading "Comments."
46
You really trust a man whose philosophical meanderings start out by sounding like they mean something. Then, he invariably heads in the direction of "bootstraps", "self-reliance", hard work, perseverance, etc.? Really a cover for the plutocratic apologia. Ugh.
8
The subject is 'Community-Building'.
In the first paragraph we read the (supposedly poor) guy's a drop out from a jocks and cheerleader high school (there's a caricature for you).
But soon in the comments we find out Yellin is from an extremely wealthy and well-connected family and community already. Bingo!
This is just another Brooks' article of head faking one way and going another, in this case adding PR/marketing/product placement.
Oh, the road to character!
In the first paragraph we read the (supposedly poor) guy's a drop out from a jocks and cheerleader high school (there's a caricature for you).
But soon in the comments we find out Yellin is from an extremely wealthy and well-connected family and community already. Bingo!
This is just another Brooks' article of head faking one way and going another, in this case adding PR/marketing/product placement.
Oh, the road to character!
44
I agree. This column would be a joke except there's nothing funny about it. I'm grateful to the comments which alerted us that Mr. Yellin is bankrolled by his wealthy family. It is incomprehensible and infuriating that Mr. Brooks omit this fact and presents his subject as an enterprising self made hero. Steve Jobs, Bill Clinton, however one feels about him, were self made. Not this guy.
16
Today's spit-take on David Brooks's column came in paragraph 3:
"He would go to New York, become a successful artist and create a place where painters, scientists, writers, billionaires and other cool people could gather to try to change the world. . . ."
Really, David? Billionaires are cool simply because they have all that money? Shows which bath house you're worshipping at!
Then, almost another spit-take in the columns: the guy's family is super-wealthy, too. Oh, so rich guy gets a big leg-up from his family to become "successful." Trump, W, and others. Yuck.
I'll take *any* Peace Corps volunteer over any of these guys any day. Why don't you write about them?
"He would go to New York, become a successful artist and create a place where painters, scientists, writers, billionaires and other cool people could gather to try to change the world. . . ."
Really, David? Billionaires are cool simply because they have all that money? Shows which bath house you're worshipping at!
Then, almost another spit-take in the columns: the guy's family is super-wealthy, too. Oh, so rich guy gets a big leg-up from his family to become "successful." Trump, W, and others. Yuck.
I'll take *any* Peace Corps volunteer over any of these guys any day. Why don't you write about them?
50
Thank you for mentioning that Brooks and other Republicans worship at the altar of the almighty dollar.
9
Work burn-out catches up with neo-hippies, or at least with one of them.
A notable difference, setting Yellin apart from other hippies, is his productivity.
His success could be a rebuke to their aimless, shuffle-around lives and low-commitment to anything requiring effort and discipline.
A notable difference, setting Yellin apart from other hippies, is his productivity.
His success could be a rebuke to their aimless, shuffle-around lives and low-commitment to anything requiring effort and discipline.
1
fritzrxx
Perhaps a little harsh on your part? Here writing a short story in memory of a rich young man, whose grandfather invented something famous to be found in many American households. At this time of year, many summers ago, we would all hang out together in a spirit of democracy in a small European village by the sea, regardless of our nationality and social status, and if anything, it was the parents, who were our foes.
There was a hippy community of youths, independent and on recreational drugs in the 60s where some of us would spend time and some of us took one two many trips, never to return. The young man had a talent for painting, and I remember his enthusiasm in describing what he could see on LSD. He died on Rikers Island, a suicide in 1980.
Some of the poorest ones did make a break-through with their art, and their gift was recognized. Settling down with a large family of their own, they are now 'law-abiding citizens' with a creative background, looking back on the follies of their youth. Life sometimes has a singular way of falling into place.
The artist living in poverty in the garret exists too. Their work is often recognized after they have died hungry. One hears such stories all the time. Yellin is an original thinker with the backing of money, and his success may be envied by those less fortunate with a talent of their own.
We need our poets, our authors, our artists and welcoming Dustin Yellin on board, rain or shine.
Perhaps a little harsh on your part? Here writing a short story in memory of a rich young man, whose grandfather invented something famous to be found in many American households. At this time of year, many summers ago, we would all hang out together in a spirit of democracy in a small European village by the sea, regardless of our nationality and social status, and if anything, it was the parents, who were our foes.
There was a hippy community of youths, independent and on recreational drugs in the 60s where some of us would spend time and some of us took one two many trips, never to return. The young man had a talent for painting, and I remember his enthusiasm in describing what he could see on LSD. He died on Rikers Island, a suicide in 1980.
Some of the poorest ones did make a break-through with their art, and their gift was recognized. Settling down with a large family of their own, they are now 'law-abiding citizens' with a creative background, looking back on the follies of their youth. Life sometimes has a singular way of falling into place.
The artist living in poverty in the garret exists too. Their work is often recognized after they have died hungry. One hears such stories all the time. Yellin is an original thinker with the backing of money, and his success may be envied by those less fortunate with a talent of their own.
We need our poets, our authors, our artists and welcoming Dustin Yellin on board, rain or shine.
8
Mr. Brooks:
Can we assume that Mr. Yellin didn't ask for any gov. assistance in pursuing his dream? Can we futher assume that your interest in his work was stimulated by this fact? Perhaps I can offer a small contribution to this quest by suggesting that the hidden order of things is fueled by money and power.
The danger of dillitantism is made manifest in this column.
Can we assume that Mr. Yellin didn't ask for any gov. assistance in pursuing his dream? Can we futher assume that your interest in his work was stimulated by this fact? Perhaps I can offer a small contribution to this quest by suggesting that the hidden order of things is fueled by money and power.
The danger of dillitantism is made manifest in this column.
7
Most systems are fueled by money and power, but not all. There's also delight and curiousity. Go, Yellin!
2
Brooks probably should've mentioned a bit more about Yellin's wealth and background but I'm curious how many of the folks here who are yelling, "rich mama's boy" have actually made it out to Pioneer Works—and not just for their parties. If they had, they'd find a welcoming place (the door is unlocked, you can just walk in) where artists and scientists are working side-by-side. And if the deriders have ever spoken to Yellin about Pioneer Works they'd find that he really is invested and interested in creating an open space for conversation and collaboration around where and how science and art intersect.
Yellin could have just taken his money, purchased the Pioneer Iron Works building, and turned it into expensive condos for the rich but I much prefer what he's decided to do instead.
Yellin could have just taken his money, purchased the Pioneer Iron Works building, and turned it into expensive condos for the rich but I much prefer what he's decided to do instead.
9
These are two very different issues. Pioneer Works may well be fantastic, and it's great that Yellin is creating that. But the article is written to give the impression that he accomplished that all on his own as the result of sheer creative genius and energy is offensive and absurd--he was bankrolled by his family. He didn't "make it on his own." This is not some pull yourself up by your bootstraps verification of the "American dream." This is money and privilege transferring from one generation to the next. The notion that a multimillionaire can succeed in our society is hardly some great revolution. Telling the story as if he didn't have that privilege shapes a narrative about success that is simply false.
2
Ten years ago I visited the Living Museum on the grounds of Creedmore State Hospital is in a massive space in the former 19th century kitchen and dining area of the hospital. I was invited by Dr Janos Marton director, teacher and curator of the museum. Every bit of space was occupied by artist's studio space. Every open space used as studio space. Found objects hung from the ceiling. Art supplies everywhere. Works in progress and finished works filled every inch of the massive building. The artists expressed having a space to create art was a gift of healing thru art. The Living Museum is a trip well taken.
11
I've been there too. You are absolutely right about what you say about it.
1
We used to have this funky old story of 'Follow Your Dreams", use your love and initiative, etc. We never really believed that, did we? Nah....
It's encouraging that someone can use raw creativity to encourage young (and old) to 'follow their dreams'.
It's encouraging that someone can use raw creativity to encourage young (and old) to 'follow their dreams'.
2
It's not art and they're not geniuses.
Anything worth doing, artistic, intellectual, or practical, requires long training and concentrated effort. None of that here.
But they're awfully full of themselves.
Anything worth doing, artistic, intellectual, or practical, requires long training and concentrated effort. None of that here.
But they're awfully full of themselves.
47
That is your _opinion_, Mr. Katz. Others might disagree and find genius in the gestalt of the collective as well as the individual.
This is not a nation known for encouraging artists. We should be grateful that someone has taken on the challenge of providing a platform.
http://wifelyperson.blogspot.com/
This is not a nation known for encouraging artists. We should be grateful that someone has taken on the challenge of providing a platform.
http://wifelyperson.blogspot.com/
4
What is Art? 'Genius' is the only thing that Oscar Wilde had to declare at Customs on his first visit to America. The author Quentin Crisp was to say that he couldn't 'understand' art, to which I might have replied that perhaps art is meant to be 'sensed'.
Was having a fun exchange with a friend earlier about a 16th century lesser-known German artist who is causing a bit of a puzzle at the National Gallery in England. She remains doubtful after looking at some of his paintings printed in the NYT. I think he's great and having fun.
Anything worth doing should be done with some enjoyment, or it can become a sterile exercise, and some of us are born with a gift and what is known as an 'exquisite eye'.
They may be awfully full of themselves, but then many of us tend to takes ourselves too seriously.
Was having a fun exchange with a friend earlier about a 16th century lesser-known German artist who is causing a bit of a puzzle at the National Gallery in England. She remains doubtful after looking at some of his paintings printed in the NYT. I think he's great and having fun.
Anything worth doing should be done with some enjoyment, or it can become a sterile exercise, and some of us are born with a gift and what is known as an 'exquisite eye'.
They may be awfully full of themselves, but then many of us tend to takes ourselves too seriously.
3
That is your _opinion_, Mr. Katz. Others might disagree and find genius in the gestalt of the collective as well as the individual.
This is not a nation known for encouraging artists. We should be grateful that someone has taken on the challenge of providing a platform.
http://wifelyperson.blogspot.com/
This is not a nation known for encouraging artists. We should be grateful that someone has taken on the challenge of providing a platform.
http://wifelyperson.blogspot.com/
1
Nice he grew up in Aspen, a place that was ruined by real estate developers who saw the cash but not the spirit or content of that place. After reading a few comments I wonder did he have big bucks to create this, or was it simply talent. Sounds like a kid playing in a sandbox with enough money to pay for the sand. His big moment it says in another article was trapping an insect in resin. Wow, all the kids on my block were doing that in the late fifties. Then we put them in our parents cocktails, bugs in your glass. Interesting article though, I think I might enjoy his work, remind of my trapped praying mantis begging to be released from its shell of resin.
14
Just at the time Republicans have turned their own ADHD afflicted attention from gay marriage to defunding public education, we are getting a massive earful about dropouts, whether from college (Scott Walker) or high school (Young Yellin). No price to pay, success only one warehouse or abortion restriction away.
Can the one room schoolhouse with widwer Malloy sternly instructing grades 1-12 be far behind? Don't laugh. Newt Gingrich once proposed bringing back orphanages.
Can the one room schoolhouse with widwer Malloy sternly instructing grades 1-12 be far behind? Don't laugh. Newt Gingrich once proposed bringing back orphanages.
21
Great story about a young artist who used his talent and individuality to make it to the top. That, and 4 million dollars of his family's money. Glad to know that the 1% can buy their way into art world dominance just as they have in other areas. Nice how you just glossed over the details of how Yellin got that "bulk of his money", as though his artwork somehow made him wealthy. Really what we are talking about here is a trust fund kid with a warehouse full of perfectly good glass infused with stolen artwork embedded inside. No friends? No problem. Mommy will buy them for you. Ignored by the art world? No problem. David Brooks will write you up. As long as you qualify...
79
I found myself wondering how a young person could drop out of school and before he was forty, buy a property big enough to fit the description of it in the article.
But is reading the comments, the best part of a David Brooks' column, I find out that Mr Yellin comes from wealth; he paid $4 million for it.
Then I knew why David Brooks is championing this man. It's always the wealthy that we should admire in a Brooks' hit piece on the common man. Oh if only the great unwashed could do as Mr. Yellin does, all our problems would be solved. Following the wealthy's plan for success of their young, we can also drop out of high school and take hallucinogenic drugs.
Man was I a sucker for working all my life.
But is reading the comments, the best part of a David Brooks' column, I find out that Mr Yellin comes from wealth; he paid $4 million for it.
Then I knew why David Brooks is championing this man. It's always the wealthy that we should admire in a Brooks' hit piece on the common man. Oh if only the great unwashed could do as Mr. Yellin does, all our problems would be solved. Following the wealthy's plan for success of their young, we can also drop out of high school and take hallucinogenic drugs.
Man was I a sucker for working all my life.
91
Dustin Yellin's modern community?
I think high school dropout, psychedelic experienced, modern artist Dustin Yellin has some good ideas. His past of being an apprentice to an eccentric physicist who experimented on him with drugs and promoted "crystals and invisible energies from space", etc. is not as strange as the George W. Bush years where we had the son of a father who ran the CIA and was President himself unable to write his own speeches (when every high school student is supposed to be able to compose a piece of writing) and instead had them written by the likes of Michael Gerson (and of course behind the scenes we had all these strange characters like Cheney and Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld) but Yellin will do for now...
I'm thinking though the Republican party can outdo the Bush years for strangeness. I'm thinking the Republicans can hire Yellin and his crew and because Yellin is an artist who works with sheets of glass he can construct a number of bullet proof enclosures (like the Popemobile) in which Trump can be placed and the whole damn thing can revolve with flashing lights and Trump can talk about the glass tuning into frequencies of Christ and money, money, money and invisible energies healing the earth so we don't have to worry about climate change...
Of course David Brooks will write the speeches to be put into Trump's mouth. I really do think we should all do our part to have a really strange Presidential election. Maybe Hillary can introduce Yellin to Trump.
I think high school dropout, psychedelic experienced, modern artist Dustin Yellin has some good ideas. His past of being an apprentice to an eccentric physicist who experimented on him with drugs and promoted "crystals and invisible energies from space", etc. is not as strange as the George W. Bush years where we had the son of a father who ran the CIA and was President himself unable to write his own speeches (when every high school student is supposed to be able to compose a piece of writing) and instead had them written by the likes of Michael Gerson (and of course behind the scenes we had all these strange characters like Cheney and Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld) but Yellin will do for now...
I'm thinking though the Republican party can outdo the Bush years for strangeness. I'm thinking the Republicans can hire Yellin and his crew and because Yellin is an artist who works with sheets of glass he can construct a number of bullet proof enclosures (like the Popemobile) in which Trump can be placed and the whole damn thing can revolve with flashing lights and Trump can talk about the glass tuning into frequencies of Christ and money, money, money and invisible energies healing the earth so we don't have to worry about climate change...
Of course David Brooks will write the speeches to be put into Trump's mouth. I really do think we should all do our part to have a really strange Presidential election. Maybe Hillary can introduce Yellin to Trump.
7
Whatever this is it apparently involves consenting adults not living off taxpayers but their own resources. Maybe it will spark an advance of some kind, maybe not.
Whoa, Roy Rogers, that's lousy economics. Trump lives off hotel-visitors. Brooks lives off me and you. It's an economy, so we all live off whatever we can get from others in this economy and its kin around the world. Yellin? Lived off his folks. Now, we think otherwise because capitalism, state or private, uses that sham of "self-reliance" and "personal initiative" to crowncertain people, like Yellin and Trump. But as my dad used to say, show me a guy with $4 million (ok, he said "lots of money") and I'll show you someone with a thief in his past. The Kochs are billionaires from taking stuff -- our "own resources" -- from the ground, along with some lives of workers who work in it and breathe and drink its offal. "Consenting adults", as you'd term them.
14
He must have had some likely wealthy parents waiting in the wings, or he earned the respect of someone with money, because I do not believe any young man can do what he did on his own.
21
We all stand on the shoulders of giants.
It is always necessary to look at who is behind whom.
And now that you have read the comments, you know that Brooks conveniently left out the fact that Yellin is the child of millionaires.
And now that you have read the comments, you know that Brooks conveniently left out the fact that Yellin is the child of millionaires.
1
It is wrong question - whether Yellin will enjoy what he has created. A creative person's all enjoyment comes from his creation - not an after effect.
The infinite capacity of human mind is demonstrated by this type of story - sad part of our culture, most of the human race is not using this capacity. Till now, we are not able to create a human society where this potential of human mind can be nurtured and flourished.
Two points repeatedly comes out from the history of creative success both West coast and East coast - collaboration and inter disciplinary interaction.it is sad commentary, our educational institutions and corporate structures do not nurture this understanding and remains silos and turf battles. The hope is the Internet and social media to change this culture - allow human mind to reach its potential.
The infinite capacity of human mind is demonstrated by this type of story - sad part of our culture, most of the human race is not using this capacity. Till now, we are not able to create a human society where this potential of human mind can be nurtured and flourished.
Two points repeatedly comes out from the history of creative success both West coast and East coast - collaboration and inter disciplinary interaction.it is sad commentary, our educational institutions and corporate structures do not nurture this understanding and remains silos and turf battles. The hope is the Internet and social media to change this culture - allow human mind to reach its potential.
6
A book report on a man. It was ... interesting.
And one never knows: Yellin, and the rest of us, may still be inside one of those Colorado hallucinogenic experiments, bathed in saline -- remember the last scene of Men in Black II?
Incandescent, multi-disciplinary innovation as subsidized art, truly a "museum of progress". I wonder, though, whether all those participants realize that they're really there to provide the same effect that gargoyles, grotesques and chimeras provide at Biltmore House?
The sheer energy that seems wasted in the crapshoot-hope that by immensely increasing interactions among the gifted one might actually spark cold fusion or an interdimensional rip through which we might commune with Elvis seems ... fanciful. But fun. One almost can sense Mike Myers as Bahbra, diabolically exhorting them all to "interact!"
And one never knows: Yellin, and the rest of us, may still be inside one of those Colorado hallucinogenic experiments, bathed in saline -- remember the last scene of Men in Black II?
Incandescent, multi-disciplinary innovation as subsidized art, truly a "museum of progress". I wonder, though, whether all those participants realize that they're really there to provide the same effect that gargoyles, grotesques and chimeras provide at Biltmore House?
The sheer energy that seems wasted in the crapshoot-hope that by immensely increasing interactions among the gifted one might actually spark cold fusion or an interdimensional rip through which we might commune with Elvis seems ... fanciful. But fun. One almost can sense Mike Myers as Bahbra, diabolically exhorting them all to "interact!"
1
if i were his friend, and if he is as described? i would want to keep a close eye on him. he sounds manic and if so? it will come to an end and someone will need to be there. this may sound like dime (or less) store psychology but it is drawn from personal experience.
2
Understand what you have to say but we may be living in manic times; the stress of it all, impacting on the rich and poor. As of now, I have met only one person whom I consider a genius, who processes information differently. Tremendous energy, well educated from a working-class background, with a view to collecting abstract art from young artists.
My favorite of hers was at an exhibition in Asia to raise funds for under-privileged children at auction. We both had an eye on the same painting created by a child, and it was moved to the grown-up gallery where it came in first.
More to the point, you may be describing what is known as a 'safety-net' and there is no reason to believe that Dustin Yellin is not in possession of one.
My favorite of hers was at an exhibition in Asia to raise funds for under-privileged children at auction. We both had an eye on the same painting created by a child, and it was moved to the grown-up gallery where it came in first.
More to the point, you may be describing what is known as a 'safety-net' and there is no reason to believe that Dustin Yellin is not in possession of one.
1
When does this manic nonsense end --- it seems to be there is always someone out there to tell someone out there, they are manic. When do we start to look at life experiences as the reason for people being the way they are ----- they gave me this nonsense about my mother, who went from a somewhat wealthy cultured woman to a poor woman in love, miscarrying child after child, losing my sister at six months ---- I am so tired of this baloney!
1
Plus, I just had the Dickens frightened out of me, nearly overwhelming me, and a girlfriend has the audacity to bring up this "word".
"The only question is whether Yellin will be able to enjoy what he’s built." Really? Perhaps that's the only question inside some suburban Republican bubble, but out here in the real world there are many questions of much greater grit and weight and consequence that Dustin Yellin's work engenders. You may have done us a favor, though, by encapsulating the ultimate Conservative agenda: it's only about me.
11
Wow, David, you beat me to it with your own comment: the threat of dilletantism is real."
4
It's not mentioned in the article (pitch) that Mr. Yellin has just published a new book - but then - as David knows - many readers will google the subject's name and find that out. Me. Brooks you"re some book salesman!
4
Three cheers for all work that is seriously interesting and/or serious fun.
2
It's a wonderful article and in its simplest state reminds us all that politics aside, because that's not what it's about at all ~~~ if many of us had 25 million in the bank ~~~ we might imagine the same thing ~~~ save for the daily responsibilities of real life. Creativity is materially easier without a worry in the world and good for him; good for us, that he pursued these dreams.
9
Yelling lets chance building works of art, real chef d'oeuvre. If there is a God-Creator, he/she surely smiling.
I am dazzled by the cream, and am blind to the processing of milk it took to generate it, and to the curd that rotted for lack of creameries.
4
I would like to comment on the letters published today in response to your article on T. Coates' book. Many, including the two letters writers, believe respectful silence is the only appropriate response to his book, which explains his feelings and why he believes he has them. But silence is not the "conversation" we keep hearing must happen around race in this country. Someone writes a book, and silence is the only response deemed acceptable? Wow. Makes me want to be silent, that's for sure.
I wojld love to have seen David wearing GI issue nerd glasses, a flannel shirt and ripped jeans. Clip on provocative facial hair(ala The Foggy Bottom Boys) and temporary tatoos for total camoflage at the event. Only his tassle loafers would give him away! No worries, those folks wouldn't know or care who he is. Quel domage.
Hot and muggy in the city. Billionaires discovering Red Hook. What a miserable way to greet the day.
7
I am always impressed (and intrigued) by people such as Yellin whose path is uncommon. But I am also wary of holding such people as role models for others to follow. For most of us the traditional path is the most likely path to a "good life."
When people point to Steve Jobs and say "Look he's a college dropout who learnt calligraphy and went on to build the Apple empire" I cringe because that is not a path for anyone other than Steve Jobs. Same thing in regards your soulmate and colleague at NYT, Arthur Brooks, who often writes about how he wandered around and then found his calling.
For most of us our calling is in doing the normal boring things but finding ways to make them interesting. I am just as impressed by a high school teacher who takes the extra time to help out a child with disability who can build upon that to construct a more "normal life for him/herself. I am in awe of a veteran who comes back and helps out fellow veterans who are suffering from PTSD.
Geniuses stand out for that very reason and deserve all our appreciation but it is the everyday little acts of generosity that makes the world a tad bit better.
When people point to Steve Jobs and say "Look he's a college dropout who learnt calligraphy and went on to build the Apple empire" I cringe because that is not a path for anyone other than Steve Jobs. Same thing in regards your soulmate and colleague at NYT, Arthur Brooks, who often writes about how he wandered around and then found his calling.
For most of us our calling is in doing the normal boring things but finding ways to make them interesting. I am just as impressed by a high school teacher who takes the extra time to help out a child with disability who can build upon that to construct a more "normal life for him/herself. I am in awe of a veteran who comes back and helps out fellow veterans who are suffering from PTSD.
Geniuses stand out for that very reason and deserve all our appreciation but it is the everyday little acts of generosity that makes the world a tad bit better.
3
Brooks wandered into an area in which he has no expertise and got snookered. The consensus among artists is that Yellin's art is third-tier, he's a rich boy at play in the fields of Brooklyn.
23
Yellin's work is kitschy.
1
It is delightful and helpful to read all these comments from Art Experts, and you are all invited later this evening to see my sketches.
Yes the story is somewhat interesting but his art is about as interesting as Leroy Neiman's. A review here in the NYT in 2007 called it "highbrow kitsch" that "has to be seen to be believed, but once you see it, you don't need to see it again". His technique may be groundbreaking but the art he produces with it is anything but groundbreaking.
David Brooks loves the idea of someone ignoring the rest of the art community and just elbowing in, but there's actually some value to the filtering process of having a reputation among other artists and critics, and one glance at his art makes it clear that this is not something he was likely to achieve.
David Brooks loves the idea of someone ignoring the rest of the art community and just elbowing in, but there's actually some value to the filtering process of having a reputation among other artists and critics, and one glance at his art makes it clear that this is not something he was likely to achieve.
15
Painters, scientists, writers...and billionaires? Yep, all the cool people.
6
Yup! Yet...here are scientists who are willing to spend anything to go find aliens in outer space. You know out there! http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/science/yuri-milner-russian-entreprene...®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront
While Italy is blocking immigrants form coming in. Germany is making young immigrants like Palestinian Reem weep with heartache for being denied a chance to live in a more developed and resourceful country like Germany. Denied denied.
While Italy is blocking immigrants form coming in. Germany is making young immigrants like Palestinian Reem weep with heartache for being denied a chance to live in a more developed and resourceful country like Germany. Denied denied.
1
Well, at least this column isn't about Donald Trump.
5
"Yellin did this outside the system."
His tale is interesting, but nothing that extraordinary. Artists have long worked outside the system, and yet the act of doing so in collaborative spaces with others in turn being a bit of a system. Some (individuals, organizations) experience sustainable success; many do not.
His tale is interesting, but nothing that extraordinary. Artists have long worked outside the system, and yet the act of doing so in collaborative spaces with others in turn being a bit of a system. Some (individuals, organizations) experience sustainable success; many do not.
2
I invite you to compare DB's article with the one written in the Times in 2012:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/nyregion/the-artist-dustin-yellins-big...
1. Mr. Yellin has achieved his entrepreneural and artistic goals, no doubt aided by the real estate acumen of his mother. (There is nothing wrong with that--however not all young Americans have those resources.)
2. DB is dazzled by the results.
That's all I can glean from this. I am happy for artistic success, and we all know artistic centers in our towns that have sadly folded. So once again, I'm happy for his success. And then, what point does DB want us to take from this? Sometimes life is magic? Sometimes people willl pay alot of money for art?
By the way, I hope his nanotechnology researchers aren't rinsing their lab results in the sinks in the lab.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/nyregion/the-artist-dustin-yellins-big...
1. Mr. Yellin has achieved his entrepreneural and artistic goals, no doubt aided by the real estate acumen of his mother. (There is nothing wrong with that--however not all young Americans have those resources.)
2. DB is dazzled by the results.
That's all I can glean from this. I am happy for artistic success, and we all know artistic centers in our towns that have sadly folded. So once again, I'm happy for his success. And then, what point does DB want us to take from this? Sometimes life is magic? Sometimes people willl pay alot of money for art?
By the way, I hope his nanotechnology researchers aren't rinsing their lab results in the sinks in the lab.
5
The funniest thing in the linked article is the line that prompts a spit take:
"His friend David Brooks plans to build an installation in the courtyard using flame and large-scale shrink-wrap."
David has talents we never knew...
"His friend David Brooks plans to build an installation in the courtyard using flame and large-scale shrink-wrap."
David has talents we never knew...
2
There's one in every crowd, but rich or poor it's nice to have money.
If someone bought me a building, I'd also do something creative, like keep the hallways clean.
But, seriously the people and culture of NYC deserve much of the credit. If he tried this in another city, they might have accused him of taking salt baths and hallucinogenic drugs.
If someone bought me a building, I'd also do something creative, like keep the hallways clean.
But, seriously the people and culture of NYC deserve much of the credit. If he tried this in another city, they might have accused him of taking salt baths and hallucinogenic drugs.
12
Ok, great story, and the man is too be admired. However, how many Dustins, odd balls who don't fit, are living on skid row or crushed the machine, working at a mindless, dead end job? I see this as a typical David Brooks piece. A one sample story, an extreme outlier based upon anecdotal evidence and homilies. The best part of this story is he isn't focused, at least according to the story, on just amassing wealth so he can buy way over priced lunches, get interviewed on the financial networks and be a blowhard, sugar daddy to some crappy political candidate. At least not yet.
3
What Brooks fails to note is that Yellin came from a wealthy family that allowed him to follow his muse. The first warehouse cost $3.7 million, that wasn't provided by his hallucinogen sharing physicist friend...
2
One ought to be very careful when reading this essay. Yellin may have been a high school dropout but he had a very wealthy mother who enabled him to follow his whims. This is not to diminish his art and creativity in any way. However, there are many supremely talented kids who never get the chance to develop their genius because they are poor. The question remains. Could Yellin have achieved what he has without a wealthy mother? Would Trump be Trump without his wealthy father?
34
A lot depends on 'The Wheel of Fortune'.
1
No. No. But David Brooks would have you think anyone could do it by their bootstraps. What a shill for the plutocracy.
1
CURIOSITY TRUMPS I.Q.
I took a graduate course with (the late) president of Teachers College at Columbia University. He posited that that most "geniuses" were self taught rather than having earned a formal education.
Great accomplishments were the results of having wide and passionate interests in many aspects of the human and universal experiences.
Having taught at CUNY for over 25 years, I found that many students had an encyclopedic knowledge of sports but many graduates didn't know or have any interest in current events, history, the arts and sciences. They had never been exposed. If thee are no bodies of water, would anyone be interested in swimming?
Then there seems to be the dichotomy of the arts and sciences. C. P. Snow wrote about the seeming dichotomy that most people ... take your pick and ignore one of them (at one's peril).
Snow implored that both were needed to build a viable intellectual framework. Now, years later C. P. Snow's admonition seems to have faded.
To view the world fully and understand with nuance all that is happening we need a synthesis of both. And, our lives can become far more fulfilling.
During the past half century as our public educational system has deteriorated ... in both academics ... and the arts have been considered unimportant from K to graduate school...
It is no mystery that Mr. Yellin left the impotent high school in favor of a far broader approach via his abundant curiosity.
The implications are potentially infinite.
I took a graduate course with (the late) president of Teachers College at Columbia University. He posited that that most "geniuses" were self taught rather than having earned a formal education.
Great accomplishments were the results of having wide and passionate interests in many aspects of the human and universal experiences.
Having taught at CUNY for over 25 years, I found that many students had an encyclopedic knowledge of sports but many graduates didn't know or have any interest in current events, history, the arts and sciences. They had never been exposed. If thee are no bodies of water, would anyone be interested in swimming?
Then there seems to be the dichotomy of the arts and sciences. C. P. Snow wrote about the seeming dichotomy that most people ... take your pick and ignore one of them (at one's peril).
Snow implored that both were needed to build a viable intellectual framework. Now, years later C. P. Snow's admonition seems to have faded.
To view the world fully and understand with nuance all that is happening we need a synthesis of both. And, our lives can become far more fulfilling.
During the past half century as our public educational system has deteriorated ... in both academics ... and the arts have been considered unimportant from K to graduate school...
It is no mystery that Mr. Yellin left the impotent high school in favor of a far broader approach via his abundant curiosity.
The implications are potentially infinite.
13
He is like a sociointellectual Modigliani in that, he is not going to behold or collect on it.
This was done a decade ago on the corner of Nevins and Union at a place called Proteus Gowanus by people who were not of the "internet age". Unfortunately they also were not independently wealthy so, sadly, they just closed their doors last month. That they lasted 10 years was something of a small miracle. Brooklyn lost something very special; so special even the august New York Times took note of the loss. A piece such as this could have helped them quite a bit.
31
"Mr. Yellin grew up wealthy in Aspen, Colo., and was raised by his mother, a real estate developer and entrepreneur." -- The Times.
Well, bully for him.
Well, bully for him.
55
We have real estate developers to thank for urban sprawl encroaching on wilderness and forests and for the corruption of local governments. They amass great wealth and their offspring become members of David Brooks' elite circle of friends.
5
Dustin Yellin: "I think we’re trying to break the mold of what would conventionally be called a museum to create an almost school laboratory-like environment that still functions as a museum but also exposes process to an audience. At Pioneer Works...you can see an art show ... then from there they can go upstairs and walk into a physics lab and talk to a physicist at work, or encounter a neuroscientist, a material scientist, or a geneticist. We’re putting an observatory in, so you can come across an astronomy lecture and look out of a massive telescope."
"As an artist, I really want to get into a room and talk to a scientist who inspires me, and most of the scientists I know are musicians because of the math, and most of the musicians I know want to be making paintings when they’re not making music because it’s cathartic. This is the mission, to break down these walls, but it’s very difficult because there’s a lot of simultaneous programming. At any given moment within our residency program you have disciplines of the arts represented simultaneously and disciplines of the sciences represented simultaneously."
"No one can do this alone, it really takes a village."
http://thewildmagazine.com/blog/psychogeography-an-interview-with-dustin...
Art-science-creativity-nuance-intellect- community - the very heart and soul of liberal arts and liberalism.
You continue to champion the liberal cause with your columns, David Brooks - why not just admit that you are a liberal ?
"As an artist, I really want to get into a room and talk to a scientist who inspires me, and most of the scientists I know are musicians because of the math, and most of the musicians I know want to be making paintings when they’re not making music because it’s cathartic. This is the mission, to break down these walls, but it’s very difficult because there’s a lot of simultaneous programming. At any given moment within our residency program you have disciplines of the arts represented simultaneously and disciplines of the sciences represented simultaneously."
"No one can do this alone, it really takes a village."
http://thewildmagazine.com/blog/psychogeography-an-interview-with-dustin...
Art-science-creativity-nuance-intellect- community - the very heart and soul of liberal arts and liberalism.
You continue to champion the liberal cause with your columns, David Brooks - why not just admit that you are a liberal ?
81
He's not a liberal--not even close... rather, he's an apologist for those who find comfort in turning a blind eye towards others' economic plight.
7
M.Brooks seems about ready to "turn on, tune in, drop out".
Yesterday was Roger Cohen's inner hippie, today it's David Brook's.
Curiouser and curiouser!
Yesterday was Roger Cohen's inner hippie, today it's David Brook's.
Curiouser and curiouser!
1
It was this New Year last that a young Russian, whose father was a minister in the Ukraine, invited me to see the work of Dustin Yellin at a gallery in Chelsea. Describing herself as a 'Sky Watcher', she gave me a warm welcome, and I found his sculptures to be quite extraordinary both in time and beyond.
Passionate, he is gaining in momentum, and like many creative people with a gift, he is racing ahead with no moment to reflect on his latest creations. He is too busy in search of new ones, leaving some of us behind to enjoy what is on display for the public and people who come and go speaking of Michael Angelo.
Passionate, he is gaining in momentum, and like many creative people with a gift, he is racing ahead with no moment to reflect on his latest creations. He is too busy in search of new ones, leaving some of us behind to enjoy what is on display for the public and people who come and go speaking of Michael Angelo.
9
A story of art and individualism. (Isn't art driven by individualism?) This story belongs in the category of "don't despair of humanity; some people are wonderful; never mind the rest."
But Brooks strains to make of it... what? "Artists from as far away as France..." (My granddaughters have visited from there. All it takes is a big jet.) But wait... Yellin is not just a successful artist, he's a small-businessman, and like small-businessmen all over America he has created jobs. (Will he refuse to cover contraceptives in health-insurance?)
And DB tells us not that Yellin had a dream... that would put his genius in category beyond the plodders. No, he hatched a plan, something any of us can do if we only try.
DB tells us with great honesty that the danger of dilettantism is real.
But Brooks strains to make of it... what? "Artists from as far away as France..." (My granddaughters have visited from there. All it takes is a big jet.) But wait... Yellin is not just a successful artist, he's a small-businessman, and like small-businessmen all over America he has created jobs. (Will he refuse to cover contraceptives in health-insurance?)
And DB tells us not that Yellin had a dream... that would put his genius in category beyond the plodders. No, he hatched a plan, something any of us can do if we only try.
DB tells us with great honesty that the danger of dilettantism is real.
21
Does he provide health insurance at all? Out in the real world, away from self-indulgent fantasies, people need health insurance for themselves and their spouses and children.
1
"danger of dilettantism is real"- ha ha
Is it possible, David, that after touting Republican presidential candidates whose minds and platforms are near the outlandish, that you have to wrench yourself back into some semblance of reality and in this case it happens to be Mr, Yellin?
1
Love those sculptures! Sounds like a fascinating place to visit.
1
Good for Yellin . . .but so what?
I respect Yellin's realization of an intensely personal vision, but such realization has limited impact or relevance to those just struggling to survive day to day.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is still looming--such a self-actualizing drive, for most, is only possible when the basic needs are met. Very few can make complex sculptures while starving or dodging bullets.
I respect Yellin's realization of an intensely personal vision, but such realization has limited impact or relevance to those just struggling to survive day to day.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is still looming--such a self-actualizing drive, for most, is only possible when the basic needs are met. Very few can make complex sculptures while starving or dodging bullets.
31
With respect to Mr. Yellin, whom I have never met nor have I visited what sounds like an interesting place he's created. Much of what is described sounds like a guy who simply doesn't want to be alone. Those community art terminals sound wonderful, but on closer examination are not much more than people lured by cheap rent or a study in how many people one can get to follow them to the middle of the ocean without a raft. Perhaps there's no harm, but in its zeal of being "outside the box" it's created a new more concentrated box. One small thing mentioned, where does a guy get the capital to buy a building? I laughed at the causal mention, "the vast bulk of his money" And where may I ask does any guy at any age for that matter acquire the money to buy a building? This isn't 1972. The entire city is expensive. A building in Red Hook is 2 million easily. Cheap by Manhattan standards but a fortune that most people could never scrape a downpayment together to buy, while also paying for living costs. Renovations, permits, taxes and monthly bank payments and so forth...There's no crime if he comes from money or has family help, it doesn't make him less talented or less interesting, but please say so, it matters when most of us read this story. It's too big a fact to "casually" leave out. Sounds like another privileged guy creating a Oliver Twist story. Not all of us can be Andy Warhol, who truly came from poverty and changed the world.
68
There is an online article elsewhere indicating that a very high percentage of entrepreneurs have significant financial assistance from family and other networks of friends to launch their ventures.
3
"He would go to New York, become a successful artist and create a place where painters, scientists, writers, billionaires and other cool people could gather to try to change the world."
Yeah. Yellin's really changed the world. This little community sounds unique to New York? Or Berlin? Or any other city full of hipsters, money and wannabes?
If Brooks thinks Yellin's community is somehow unique, Brooks need to either get out more, or get out less. I'm leaning toward the latter suggestion.
Yeah. Yellin's really changed the world. This little community sounds unique to New York? Or Berlin? Or any other city full of hipsters, money and wannabes?
If Brooks thinks Yellin's community is somehow unique, Brooks need to either get out more, or get out less. I'm leaning toward the latter suggestion.
15
The story of Dustin Yellin seems noteworthy because it is rare, and rare things have more value. However, I'm not so sure that this type of story will remain rare given the changing nature of our economy.
The path from school to work, to marriage and kids, to retirement is not as attractive anymore because it's not as possible anymore. Many college grads are unemployed. Online service businesses, where "proper" qualifications aren't as important, are becoming more viable. Unions are under attack and pension systems, with their promise of security, are being mismanaged or deliberately under funded. Human resource departments are micromanaging employment, weeding out people with even slight personality issues as if they had criminal records.
I wouldn't be surprised if many of the jocks and cheerleaders will be heading off to New Zealand in the next few decades in search of life's possibilities since the "appropriate path" will be far less viable for our youth. In this sense, Mr. Yellin's story should be seen as less of a novelty, and more of an exemplar.
The path from school to work, to marriage and kids, to retirement is not as attractive anymore because it's not as possible anymore. Many college grads are unemployed. Online service businesses, where "proper" qualifications aren't as important, are becoming more viable. Unions are under attack and pension systems, with their promise of security, are being mismanaged or deliberately under funded. Human resource departments are micromanaging employment, weeding out people with even slight personality issues as if they had criminal records.
I wouldn't be surprised if many of the jocks and cheerleaders will be heading off to New Zealand in the next few decades in search of life's possibilities since the "appropriate path" will be far less viable for our youth. In this sense, Mr. Yellin's story should be seen as less of a novelty, and more of an exemplar.
23
Actually, they will head to Detroit, not New Zealand.
1
Your average jock and cheerleader probably can't go off to New Zealand since in order to do that at 17, then come home and buy a big brick warehouse in New York, you need a huge pot of cash that, at 17, you probably didn't earn in your own job. "Eccentric rich kid makes good" could be the not surprising headline--another young "entrepreneur" whose family has deep pockets--he's just the artistic variety?
2
Mr. Brooks, perhaps Mr. Yellin's enjoyment is in the full creation; that accomplished, he races of to the next thrill "of creation." You complain that he can't sit still. Well, he's different; is that a problem? I am reminded of Wagner, who, when putting his musical ideas on paper, was indifferent to everyone and everything. He was ruthless in the pursuit of his artistic grail. Why not simply appreciate Mr. Yellin's oddities and be pleased with his success instead of finding fault with it? Your column is replete with praise for his eschewing of orthodoxy, but then you level him out at the end with faint praise. You do Mr. Yellin, and your readers, a disservice.
Interesting (to me at least) that Yellin immobilizes in his sculpture and facilitates movement in his "museum of process."
2
I live in Peterborough, New Hampshire, home of the MacDowell Colony, the oldest artists' colony in the U.S. It was dreamed of by composer Edward Macdowell, who believed that interdisciplinary associations among artists are valuable, and started by his wife Marian in 1907.
While it was conceived by one couple, it was built and sustained by donations from sources as diverse as Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan to women's clubs and professional music sororities.
You say that Yellin's community was established outside of the system, a remarkable example of community building. Forgive me if I see in this as another attempt to show what an individual, freed from government control, from the system, can do. I feel a need to point out that while individual strengths and creativity should be allowed to flourish freely, sustainability comes from recognizing that community goes beyond the individual artists involved and depends on the support of the rich and not-so-rich.
MacDowell and other artists' colonies survive because of the many who believe in their missions. Started outside of the system they have become part of the system. Would that we could sustain our national community by making clear that the system is not the enemy if its mission benefits both the rich and the not-so-rich.
While it was conceived by one couple, it was built and sustained by donations from sources as diverse as Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan to women's clubs and professional music sororities.
You say that Yellin's community was established outside of the system, a remarkable example of community building. Forgive me if I see in this as another attempt to show what an individual, freed from government control, from the system, can do. I feel a need to point out that while individual strengths and creativity should be allowed to flourish freely, sustainability comes from recognizing that community goes beyond the individual artists involved and depends on the support of the rich and not-so-rich.
MacDowell and other artists' colonies survive because of the many who believe in their missions. Started outside of the system they have become part of the system. Would that we could sustain our national community by making clear that the system is not the enemy if its mission benefits both the rich and the not-so-rich.
93
You nailed it. Here in Madison Wi. home of UW, 3rd largest research University, we have the same brew of diversity that spawns innovation, creation and new ways of balancing the system of Democracy. A short 5 mile ride outside Madison we have a high tech Company that employes 8 thousand highly paid, well educated people from all over the world. The campus,with a variety of innovative buildings and creative working environments would perhaps exceed in ROI and good of the whole, what David has described here. The woman who founded and guides this company is Wi. born and was educated at UW. This is just one of many stories I could write. Scott Walker had the opportunity to be educated in the same brew of creativity at Marquette U. And dropped out from boredom?, to become a politician who could change the world . His first "bold" move to accomplish this ? A step by step destruction of the teachers, standards, and structure of both our public school system and UW System. Our State is now experiencing a brain drain, 37 in job growth, largest drop in middle income jobs in the Nation all to satisfy the Republican Model of Change The World, destroy the engine of opportunity and growth for children. The other side of the story.
4
I wonder if Yelling is a Republican like Brooks. Somehow, I highly doubt it.
13
Kirk: The material for one set of Yellin's "paintings" was provided by putting $10K through a wood chipper.
10
Elizabeth: thanks for this historical perspective. As I read DB's piece, I kept thinking of coops I'd visited in Denmark and Sweden. But those places are irrelevant to most Americans.
1
You had to get that judgement in there didn't you..that last sentence? Welcome to the way things will be David. This guy is brilliant and thank you for writing about him as I didn't know about him before. When those shut out of the mainstream of things do this, what you are seing is the sharing of everything. It is the death knell of capitalism as we know it now. Information and practically free energy is what our future looks like. The system we look at now, is being replaced and it is happening in a million ways. It is very hopeful, because in its very core, is pure democracy.
13
A heartwarming story of one young man fighting the system to create something fresh. He really did hit a triple in the game of life. If only more young people pulled up their bootstraps like this guy. He never let being born on third base hold him back.
71
He is very connected and from an extremely wealthy family..….He picked up that warehouse for almost $4 million dollars… cash, like any drop-out could, if only they had the gumption..
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/nyregion/the-artist-dustin-yellins-big...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/nyregion/the-artist-dustin-yellins-big...
193
Ahh, that would explain how a Colorado kid has the funds to _get_ to New Zealand so he can hitchhike around. If only all high school dropouts had such freedom.
59
Its physically impossible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Is it true he came from money? The art world is foreign to me, I understand its rife with fraud. Trying to figure out whether I'm missing something or if this article is really just uninteresting.
10
Only in a nation like USA these kind of experiments possible. Imagine if AMERica is not their will this world exist in order . American has given so much to this world to live and enjoy still many billions islamic followers and Communist hate USA.
4
Let us not forget Gauguin, a French business man sitting at the head of his table in silence, who stood up at the age of 40 to the surprise of his family and friends, leaving them behind in Paris, and spending the rest of his life, painting with fervor and passion in Tahiti.
3
Artist co ops like this are pretty common place in Europe. It was/is called the Bauhaus movement. It has been around for decades.
7
David, thanks for a straight news story that I probably wouldn't have read had it not been under your byline. I suppose your point here is that the private sector not only can do wonders that are unavailable via the public sector but also that we should starve the public sector sufficiently so that such wonders become even more startling anomalies within a society where we have to embarrass lawmakers into funding poor children's nutrition and health care at the level we do Israel's military.
Together with Roger Cohen's memorial to artistically ecstatic youth in this edition, your story reminds me that for every Yellin there are thousands of the rest of us who started little theaters, art studios, and musical groups, only to be banished from that field of dreams by nagging reality and conventional ambition.
Good for Yellin. He should enjoy this moment. Some of us aren't cut out to be the best of boyfriends, and who says that consistency and conformity are traits that appeal to every woman anyway?
Together with Roger Cohen's memorial to artistically ecstatic youth in this edition, your story reminds me that for every Yellin there are thousands of the rest of us who started little theaters, art studios, and musical groups, only to be banished from that field of dreams by nagging reality and conventional ambition.
Good for Yellin. He should enjoy this moment. Some of us aren't cut out to be the best of boyfriends, and who says that consistency and conformity are traits that appeal to every woman anyway?
65
Huh? Focus please.
4
Should we assume private? There is no indication of how much of the (and more) funding is from public money.
1
Jack,
You are probably right that David gave us a straight news story. I'm so use to the Brooks fantasy land of the GOP that I assumed David had taken the day off.
You are probably right that David gave us a straight news story. I'm so use to the Brooks fantasy land of the GOP that I assumed David had taken the day off.
2
Cool. I can't help but feel, however, that our culture hit its pinnacle when most people did little but plow the fields by day and pray to God at night. After Robert Burns, it's all gone down hill.
4
The Yahwist taught the lesson, but we didn't heed it: Cain killed Abel, but Cain's money-grubbing commerce won out even onto this day.
1
I like this piece. It's a refreshing alternative to the tedium of reading about small people working feverishly to attain high office so they can do even smaller things. I'm interested. I will have to take my late middle aged self to see it, and try to blend in with "the hundreds of intimidatingly hip young people". Creativity is contagious, and it appear that whatever Yelin's flaws might be in sitting still, he's accomplished something worth experiencing.
13
Hold on just a darn minute. The only question is whether Yellin will be able to enjoy what he’s built? I’m more interested in the anonymous eccentric physicists who are giving juveniles salt baths and hallucinogenic drugs. This sounds like the answer to the problems we’re facing funding public education. And look at the results! There doesn’t appear to be a down-side. Sure, the trauma seems to have created some sort of artistic hyperactivity disorder, but the results are clearly worth it. Those of us who went through “normal” school are clearly clods by comparison.
So maybe we should listen to the Republican candidates when they talk about closing schools and attacking teachers’ unions. That’s half of the solution to our education woes. The other half is to find enough physicists who believe in crystals and free space energy to mentor our 17-year-olds. We can only hope that president Trump will pursue this initiative in his first term.
So maybe we should listen to the Republican candidates when they talk about closing schools and attacking teachers’ unions. That’s half of the solution to our education woes. The other half is to find enough physicists who believe in crystals and free space energy to mentor our 17-year-olds. We can only hope that president Trump will pursue this initiative in his first term.
227
I can't tell if or when you are being sarcastic.
17
You're onto something here...I can see that. But quite possibly the key to it all was the hallucinogenic drugs! lol
6
Filo, Gemli realizes that the success of the Centrally Planned State directed by the usual social elitists needs to be able to tax whatever Yellen creates. Nobody gets to stand on Lenin's Tomb and order the little people around until the State reaps the output from such eccentric groups as this.
PLUS, to be honest, our Big Government thinkers crave Control and Power. How will Those Who Always Care The Most control the outliers? The Statist never fears anything as much as the New and Original.
THEN, which politically protected class will reap the identity of this new thing Yellen is building? Everything has to have its connection into the liberal circle of interests. As they say in Chicago, ''We don't talk to you or hire you until we hear who sent you.''
PLUS, to be honest, our Big Government thinkers crave Control and Power. How will Those Who Always Care The Most control the outliers? The Statist never fears anything as much as the New and Original.
THEN, which politically protected class will reap the identity of this new thing Yellen is building? Everything has to have its connection into the liberal circle of interests. As they say in Chicago, ''We don't talk to you or hire you until we hear who sent you.''
"The only question is whether Yellin will be able to enjoy what he’s built. He’s created a new institution and brought his life to a coherent point — hard things to do in a scattered era. But he can’t sit still..."
Ahh, another Brooks's life - paradox...(as always revealed in the last several sentences)...viz: Even those who are extraordinarily successful by dint of sheer personal energy, both creative and physical, can never be satisfied... now aren't you much happier, dear reader, knowing that your pedestrian life, achieved through a far more average journey toward adulthood isn't plagued with a passionate desire to create and achieve much more than your self-satisfied existence?-- you're happy, well fed, and happily not edgy, creative, and driven to do more... vote Republican.
Ahh, another Brooks's life - paradox...(as always revealed in the last several sentences)...viz: Even those who are extraordinarily successful by dint of sheer personal energy, both creative and physical, can never be satisfied... now aren't you much happier, dear reader, knowing that your pedestrian life, achieved through a far more average journey toward adulthood isn't plagued with a passionate desire to create and achieve much more than your self-satisfied existence?-- you're happy, well fed, and happily not edgy, creative, and driven to do more... vote Republican.
49
I think the point was that significant innovation, creations, and progress often comes for hard, tedious, life-long work that utilizes focused energy and attention. I recall a complaint from a science professor who is not alone in noticing that promosing students in the past decade or so are more inclined to believe that they are destined to be a great scientists before even stepping foot into a laboratory. It doesn't take long for everyone to realize they are not cut out for lab work and that it is tediously boring to them. The same professer noted that real scientist do not make great discoveries and awards as there goals, but rather it is the process that is more fulfilling. Likewise, I met so many kids who dream of being progammers, especially for games, but once they try to learn to code, it is just too tedious for them. So is this place the next Menlo Park? I don't know. Edison was a multi-tasker too, but he was also a stubborn SOB. He spend like a decade focused on one project - creating a way to process low-grade coal. It was failing. Investors backed out. But he kept funding it himself. Eventually, he admitted it was not going to work. But he did not consider it a failure ever. What he learned from that time would be important and influential in his later work.
4
Not all of us are in pursuit of happiness. A small tin of tuna eaten with a silver fork is a delight. The joy of quiet with a busy mind is treasured, laced with some imagination, while standing at the window watching the sun at early dawn, letting some daily dust cover one's chair.
3
hilarious comment!
3
Inequality has no place here,
A structure that Brooks can revere,
Life despite climate change
Seems to be subtly strange
With everything that Brooks holds dear.
A structure that Brooks can revere,
Life despite climate change
Seems to be subtly strange
With everything that Brooks holds dear.
35