Artist Spolight: A Young Artist Who Prefaces His Artwork As 'Not Very Good'...

Because It Isn't Very Good!

For this week’s artist spotlight, we look at a piece by Maxwell Meyer, who prefaced his art as ‘not very good’. I spoke with Maxwell’s mother, Laura Meyer, who expressed relief that her 24-year-old son seemed aware of his own artistic shortcomings. “He gave me a little preface about how he hadn’t had much time to work on it, and he was still in the stage of getting a lot of feedback. I originally assumed he was just trying to temper expectations, or that he was a tortured perfectionist in his art things,” said Laura Meyer, whose son warned her that his art was likely going to change a bit before he considered it finished. “I’m not sure if he was trying to be funny or provocative,” Mrs. Meyer said. “As he showed me his art project, the TV was on in the other room playing a Parks and Recreation rerun. I laughed at a punchline on the show, but my son thought I was laughing at his art stuff. He seemed encouraged though, so I think his little thing was supposed to be funny.” Mrs. Meyer told me that she did not explain the mix-up at the time because her son had already said he did not think his art was good. Hopefully he won't keep showing the piece to people until it's more insightful or aesthetically pleasing depending upon which he's going for.