The document explores the factors influencing career choices among graduating college students, highlighting the impact of indecision, age differences, personality, and gender. It outlines the research methodology, including a diverse sample of 200 participants and a probability sampling technique to ensure unbiased results. Ethical considerations such as informed consent and confidentiality are also addressed in the study design.

1. 1
Running head: EVALUATING METHODS OF RESEARCH
8
EVALUATING METHODS OF RESEARCH
Early Methods Section
Kelvi Evans
Argosy University/Professor Bustamante
Evaluating Methods of Research
Choosing career is not an easy thing for many individuals who
complete their college education. In choosing their careers,
there are certain factors that they influence them in choosing
their careers. Most of the students who complete their college
education are not sure of the field they want to work in. Some

2. of the students do not know how to choose the right career after
they complete their college education the reason being that they
do not have experience and expertise in the different fields
Cohen, C. R., Chartrand, J. M., & Jowdy, D. P. (1995). Some of
the students who complete their college education have some
disorders that make it easy for them to choose their careers. In
some instances, career choices may differ because of the
gender. The reason is that, different genders may have different
passions. The interaction in the environment within which a
person interact with others affects the way they choose their
career; this is because they are influenced by their parents and
significant others. Due to unclear understanding of the factors
that affects career choices among graduating students, this
research therefore aims at investigating factors affecting career
choices among the graduating college students.
To understand factors affecting graduating students in choosing
careers, an inclusive research must be conducted. Within the
research, the research question that the participants will be
asked include: “What are the factors that affect career choices
in graduating college students?” This is the research question
that will be used in gathering the different responses from the
participants. The question will be administered to different
students, including male participants and female participants.
Cohen, C. R., Chartrand, J. M., & Jowdy, D. P. (1995).
In the research, the hypothesis will be “Career choices among
graduating college students is affected by indecision, age
difference, student’s personality and gender difference”. This
Hypothesis will seek to investigate the factors that affect
graduating college students in choosing their careers. According
to Wang, Hasse (2006), the different personalities among the
students affect the way students make decisions pertaining their
careers. Because of the different factors that affect graduating
college students in choosing careers, the hypothesis will help in
determining some of the factors that primarily affects career
choices among graduating college students.
The research hypothesis may sometimes be null depending on

3. the past research findings. The null hypothesis states that there
is no relationship that exists between the phenomena under
investigation. Morgan & Sansone (2001). Null hypothesis is
derived from reviewing literature review; past research findings
that had been recorded by other researchers. From my research
hypothesis, the null hypothesis is; “Career choices among
graduating college students is not affected by indecision, age
difference, student’s personality and gender difference”.
The number of participants that will be used in the study will be
200. The number of participants will be both male and female.
Also, the participants will be of different ages. The reason why
I choose this number of participants is that, the big number will
give more accurate results since more different responses will
be collected. All the participants in the study will be given same
questionnaires that measures same variables that are
investigated. The reason for using both male and female
participants is to avoid gender biases that may result if
participants that are used in the study are of the same sex. The
participants of different ages will ensure that all the age groups
will be represented. Some of the characteristics that will
exclude some participants from participating in the study
include; when the participants do not understand the language
used in the study and those individuals with disabilities e.g.
blind. These two characteristics will eliminate participants from
the study.
In the study, the sample that is to be used should be diverse.
That is, the sample should be varied in terms of their
characteristics e.g. age, gender, race and different in terms of
their personality. The reason for using diverse sample is to
ensure that the results of the study are generalizable. Diverse
sample ensures that the target population is represented and that
the results of the study will be generalizable. Wessel, & Hoff,
(2003).
The sampling technique that will be used in selecting the
samples will be the probability sampling technique. The reason

4. for selecting the sampling technique is that, a random sampling
technique ensures that all participants have equal chances of
being selected for the study. Probability sampling techniques
eliminate researcher biasness in selecting the samples to be used
in the study (In Greenwood, In Mills & In Vrana, 2007). The
population that the study sample will generalize to is the
graduating college students.
Within the study, there are different types of variables. There
are dependent and independent variables. The independent
variable within the study includes; indecision, age difference,
student’s personality and gender difference. The dependent
variable is the career choices.
Operational definitions
Independent variables
The independent variables- this refers to those variables that are
not affected by other variables within the study.
Indecision – this refers to inability to make good decisions
Age difference- this refers to the variation in age that exist in
the participants
Student’s personality- this refers to individual characteristics
that each student posses
Gender difference- this refers to the differences in sex among
the participants.
Dependent variables
Dependent variables – this refers to those variables that are
affected by other variables in the study.
Career choices- this refers to the job that a student selects
In measuring the different variables within the study, there are
different measures that are used. When measuring the dependent
variables; career choices, it will involve analyzing the responses
that the participants gave and comparing them with the
characteristics that they have i.e. age, gender and personality.
In this, it will make it easy to understand if the independent
variables have impact on the dependent variables, that is, if
career choices that the students made depend on their
characteristics.

5. The reliability of this measure is that, it will reflect if the
independent variable has an impact on the dependent variable.
That is, it will help in understanding if truly career choices are
affected by indecision, personality, age difference and gender
difference. This will be made possible by comparing the
different responses that the participants gave on the similar
question asked. On the other hand, this measure is also valid in
that, it will it will truly shows the effect of independent variable
on the dependent variable. That is, it will help in measuring
what it is supposed to measure.
In data collection process, the technique or the method that will
be used is the use of questionnaire. In this, the questionnaire
will be self-administered to the participants who participate in
the study.
The type of research design that will be used in the study will
be the correlation research design. The reason for choosing this
research design is because the study focuses on investigating
the effects of indecision, age difference, student’s personality
and gender difference on career choices. It will help in
explaining the relationship of these factors on the career choices
of the graduating college students.
Before the study, the first thing to be done is to seek permission
from the relevant people or agencies. After the permission is
granted, all the participants are supposed to be informed on the
reason for the study. Clear explanation enabled them to make
informed decision on whether to participate in the study or not.
The participants will then be selected probability random
sampling. Those selected participants selected will then be
given questionnaire to respond to. After, they have given their
responses, questionnaires should be collected and the date is
analyzed and presented.
Some potential ethical issues in the study include; maintaining
confidentiality and making informed consent. These can be
addressed in some ways. Informed consent can be addressed by
ensuring that all the participants are informed on the purpose of
the research. Confidentiality is addressed by ensuring that all

6. the participants are asked not to give any identification
information. Also, confidentiality will be addressed by ensuring
that the responses that are given are not given to unauthorized
persons.
References
Cohen, C. R., Chartrand, J. M., & Jowdy, D. P. (1995).
Relationships between career indecision subtypes and ego
identity development. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 42(4),
440. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/
Morgan, C., Isaac, J. D., & Sansone, C. (2001). The role of
interest in understanding the career choices of female and male
college students. Sex Roles, 44(5), 295-320. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/
Wessel, R. D., Christian, N. T., & Hoff, A. K. (2003).
Enhancing career development through the career success club.
Journal of Career Development, 29(4), 265. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com
Wang, N., Jome, L. M., Haase, R. F., & Bruch, M. A. (2006).
The role of personality and career decision-making self-efficacy
in the career choice commitment of college students. Journal of
Career Assessment, 14(3), 312-332.
Morgan, C., Isaac, J. D., & Sansone, C. (2001). The role of
interest in understanding the career choices of female and male
college students. Sex Roles, 44(5), 295-320. Retrieved from
In Greenwood, R., In Mills, G., & In Vrana, B. (2007). Passive
sampling techniques in environmental monitoring. Amsterdam:
Elsevier.
In Greenwood, R., In Mills, G., & In Vrana, B. (2007). Passive
sampling techniques in environmental monitoring. Amsterdam:
Elsevier.

7. Publts r
E ecu 1ve Pub lis her
Editor
g Editors
A~51S n Edi or
Co
D sign
Pr od c ion
Anthony Korner
Amy Baker
Ingrid S1schy
David Frankel
Germano Celant
Joseph Masheck
Jamey Gambrell
Charles Hagen
M eg Shore
Nancy Foote
Brent Saville
Tanya Weinberger
Cynthia Carr

8. Marian Conner
Stephen W Soule
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9. .
10012 Complete volumes index (1962·68) Laurence McG1lvery,
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ARTFORUM
The Gallery as a Gesture , by Brian O'Doherty
The Radiant Child, by Rene Ricard
A project by Nicholas Nixon

10. Absent-Minded Female Nude on Bed,
by Pete r Schjeldahl
Not Post-Modernism: History as Against Historicism ,
European Archetypal Vernacular in Relation to
American Commercial Vernacular, and the City as
Opposed to the Individual Building, by Dan Graham
Looking at Life , by Carol Squiers
A Conversation with Pontus Hu/ten About the New Los Angeles
Museum
of Contemporary Art
Reviews, from New York, Cincinnati , Bo ston . Los Angeles ,
San Francisco , London , Edinburgh , Bristol , Bonn . and
Baden-Baden
DECEMBER 1981
26
35
44
49
50
59
67
71

11. 1 l i t' · •" •'> f'/t-; J'v Ar111,..re #-1 7 1 81
, , • 1r:•. 11, ,,
Rene Ricard
I emember he 1rst Tags (where is Taki?) , Breaking
(whe e you spin on your head) . Rapping (where I first
he rd 1 ) I know the names . but are the names
1rn or an? Where is Taki? Perhaps because I have
seeri gr 1 1 hen seen someth ing else. thrown myself
on he dance Joor . hen gone on to dance another
wa I say tha the reason for abandoning so much
dur ng the 70s was that each fad became an institu-
1on Wha we can finally see from the '?Os buried
among he revivals and now surfacing (Tagging,
Bre king Rapping) was at least one academy without
Program Dis inc to the '?Os , graffiti , in particular, was
the ins 1 u 1onal1zat1on of the idiosync rat ic that has led
o he need for 1ndiv1 duation within th is anonymous
Ver acular This 1s why the indivi duals (Crazy Legs)
fT!us d1st1ngu1sh themse lves .
Ar is s have a responsibility to their work to raise it
above he vernacular. Perhaps it is the critic 's job to
sor ou rom the mele e of popular style the individuals
who define the styl e. who perhaps inaugurated it
(where 1s Taki) and to bring them to public attention.
The communal exh1b1t1ons of the last year and a half or
THE RADIANT CHILD
Jean-Michel Basqu1at. Gnngo Pilot. 1981. mixed media on

12. seamless paper 81 , l 03" .:it w1dC's'. p{wi•
Jean-Michel Basquiat. World Crown . 1981 , mixed media on
canvas. approx 60x 72"
so, from the Times Squ are Show, the Mudd Club
shows, the Monumental Show, to the New York/New
Wave Show at P.S. 1, have made us accus tomed to
looking at art in a group, so much so that an exhib it of
an individual's work seems almost antisocial. Colab,
Fash ion Moda, etc ., have created a definite populist
ambience , and like all such organizations. from the
dawn of modern , have dug a base to launch new
work. Th ese are vas t communal enterprises as amaz-
ing that they got off the ground as the space shuttle
and even more , fly-by-nig ht, that they landed on solid
ground .
The most accessible and immediately contag ious
productions in th ese shows we re those of the graffiti
stylists. The graffiti style , so much a part of this town .
New York , is in our blood now. It 's amazing that
someth ing so old can be made so new. There is an
instant appeal in the way spray paint looks , ditto
markers. Any Tag by any teenager on any train on any
line is fairly heartbreaking. In these autographs is the
inherent pathos of the archaeological site , the cry
down the vast endless track of time that " I am
some bod y," on a wall in Pompeii , on a rock at Piraeus,
in the subway graveyard at some future archaeologi-
cal dig , we ask, ''Who was Taki?"
Graffiti refutes the idea of anonymous art where we
know everything about a work except who made it:

13. who made it is the whole Tag . Blade , Lady Pink , Pray ,
Sex, Taki, Cliff 159, Futura 2000, Oondi, Zephyr, Izzy ,
Ha ze , Daze, Fred, Kool , Stan 153 , Samo , Crash.
(Crash is still bombing .) But trains get buffed (the
damnatio memoriae of the Transit Authority), and with
the need for identi ty comes the artist 's need for
identification with the work , and to support oneself by
the work is the absolute distinction between the
amateur and the pro. Therefore , the obvious was to
raise oneself by the supreme effort of will from the
block, from the su bway, to the Mudd , to the relative
safety and hygiene of the gallery. Because an art ist is
somebody. Say what you will about group shows and
collaborative enterprise: Oas Kapital was w.r itten by
one man . This is no graffito, this is no train, this is a
Jean-Michel Basquiat. Th is is a Keith Haring .
Both these artists are a su ccess in the street where
the most critical evaluation of a graffito takes place .
Jean -Michel is proud of his large Samo Tag in a
schoolyard , surrounded by other Tags on top of Tags ,
yet not marked over. Th is demonstrates respect for
the artist as not just a graffitist but as an individual , the
worth of whose Tag is recognized . There's prest ige in
not being bombed over. There are also fake Samas
and Harings as well as a counter-Haring graffitist who
goe s around erasing him. The ubiquity of Jean-
Michel 's Samo and Haring 's baby Tags has the same
effect as advertising; so famous now is that baby
button that Haring was mugged by four 13-year-olds
for the buttons he was carrying (as well as for his Sony
Walkman.) The Rad iant Child on the button is Haring 's
Tag . It is a slick Madison Avenue colophon. It looks as
if it's always been there . The greatest thing is to come
up with someth ing so good it seems as if it's always
been there , like a proverb. Oppos ite the factory-fresh

14. Keith Haring is Jean-Michel' s abandoned cityscape .
His orototvoe. the spontaneous collage of peel ing
MUN f> I A i--
Jean-Michel Basquiat. Respo Mundial, 1981 , charcoal and
marker on rag paper, sox67"
Aaron Srskmd, Chicago, 1952. silver print. 15 V•x 19'!11'. The
Museum of Modern Art , New York , g ift of Edwin A.
BerQrnan . Who was "10 '"?
posters , has. been there for everyone 's ripping off. His
earlier pa1nt1ngs were the logical extension of what
you could do with a city wall . (For the moment he's
stopped the collage.) His is a literal case of bringing
something in off the street but with th e element of
chance removed . I'm always amazed at how people
come up with things. Like Jean-Miche l. How did he
come up with the words he puts all over everything ,
his way of making a point without overstating the
case , using one or two words he reveals a po litical
acuity, gets the viewer going in the direction he wants .
the illusion of the bombed-over wall. One or two words
containing a full body. One or two words on a Jean-
Michel contain the entire history of graffiti . What he
incorporates into his pictures , whether found or
made , is specific and selective. He ha s a perfect idea
of what he's getting across , using everything that
collates to his vision.
Where is Taki. When writing or just thinking about
say a movement or a style , we automatically attach
progenitors of common appearance , attributes of an

15. ind ivi dual or stylistic precursor to the object of con-
templation . I bought an assortment of Wild Style and
Plain Style (Daze Rocks , etc.) Tags done in marker on
a piece of newsprint at the Mudd Club graffiti show
because it looked like a late 18th century Chinese
literati-type thing , no , maybe more Japane se, yes
Japanese . Even the names of the different scripts are
like Japanese calligraphic distinctions. (The underly-
ing discipl ine is getting a character down so good you
can repeat it exactly .) Th is of course leads one into the
Zen calligraphic renovations of, say, Mark Tobey ,
Brad ley Walker Tomlin , and just about everybody in
the late '40s, early '50s. And you have no choice but to
look at th ings this way because .. . " Doe s His Voice
Sound Some Echo in your Heart. " (Source available .)
Th is is the double-headed monster of erudition , half
seei ng too much and half of it blind .
I asked Jean-Michel where he got the crown
"Everybody does crowns ." Yet the crown sits secure-
ly on the head of Jean-Michel 's repertory so that it is of
no importance where he got it bought it stole it ; it 's his.
He won that crown. In one painting there is even a ©
copyright sig n with a date in impossible Roman
numerals directly under the crown. We can now say
he copyrighted the crown. He is also addicted to the
copyright sign itself. Double copyright. So the inven-
tion isn 't im portant ; it 's the patent , the transition from
the public sector into the private , the monopolizing
personal usurpation of a public utility , of prior art; no
matter who owned it before , you own it now . After all ,
Judy Rifka did not invent the artist's dilemma I think
it's hers for the time be ing, however
But influence , when we reach the peak and look
down at what we 've come fro m, see mists and clouds

16. under mist, not the base of the mountain . As much as
one would like to escape the idea of generation and
decade in favor of something better, thi s provides an
easy common way to track development. Where is
Taki? Graffiti has been around in th e way we recog-
nize it now for about ten years and whether one
considers this a long or a short amount of time (the
John Ahearn. life-size painted plaster c asts. 198 t_
entire High Renaissance from the painting of the
Mona Lisa to the Sistine ceiling covered exactly ten
years) it is already in its second generation. The
transition , however , was neither sudden nor unex-
pected because in the past te n years we see the full
exchange of graffiti from trainstyle to museum candi-
date. What's unusual is that th e gallery bid was not
made by the innovators but by the second generation _
Graffiti has had a dyslexic development in that the
secon d generation is capitalizing on territory pioneer-
ed by its lost innovators_ More interesting and more
possible to scan than the movement leading up to the
picture is, rather , the picture 's life after it leaves the
artist. The picture must be protected. (I 'm not interest-
ed in the prestige of discovery_ Part of the artist's job is
to get the work where I will see it_ I have to be aware of
it before I can hype it _ I consider myself the metaphor
of the public. I'm a public eye. And I only hype the
sureshot. The possibility of life without galleries? But
how much time , when you really get going , can you
spend crating, carrying on correspondences, hiring
secretaries , negotiating your appearances in Europe-
an museums , in fine all the little labors that galleries
are supposed to do and that keep you away from your

17. work? There is a place for responsible representation .
Th is is an enormously important season in New York
and to make a false step could have severe repercus -
sions fo r years_ In a city comprised of individuals it is
important at some point to form the right connections;
fo r your own protection you have to trust someone.
Someone else has to have a personal commitment to
your work so that it isn 't shopped like merchandise_
It's cute to be 20 and be pursued when hundreds of
young artists are dropping their slides off at these
same galleries, but the crass fast-turnover specula-
tors ' market can have a deleterious effect on an
artist's future career if you don 't have protection we
are no longer collecti ng art we are buyin g individuals .
This 1s no piece by Samo _ Th is is a piece of Samo .
Whe_n the work tops a certa in mark and the collectors
begin their wholesale unloading of your old work in
direct compet1t1on with you r ne w wo rk you 're in trou-
Mimmie.
ble with no protection Every time one of your old
paintings is bought one of your new ones isn 't. Plus ,
old more famous pictures always cost more and you
don't get a cut off the resale . Of co urse a record price
a/ways helps an artist, but what if the artist has
radically changed sty/es? In any event, it's clear that a
good dealer is ve ry ca reful about where the things
land . If the re 's no personal commitment the chances
are that the dealer-as-just-buyer will unload the stuff
anywhere for the money, why not, without thought to
possible repercussions it could have in th e long ru n .
Whereas if th e dealer has a stake in your dev elopment
they will , for example, save the best picture fo r a
possible museum sale rather than j ust anywhere the
cash is flowing_ Besides , when anything goes wrong

18. you can blam e it on your gallery_)
"What's with artanyway ,thatl We give it such prece-
dence?" (Source available.) Most basic is the com-
mon respect , the popu lar res pect for living off one 's
vision. My experie nce has shown me that the artist is a
person much respected by the poor because they
have circumvented the need to exert the body, even
of tim e, to live off what appears to be the simp lest
bodily act. This is an honest way to rise out of the sl um ,
using one 's sheer self as the medium , the money
earne d rather a proof pure and simple of the value of
that ind ivi dual , Th e Artist. Th is is a basic class di stinc-
tion in the perception of art whe re a picture you r son
did in jail hangs on your wall as a proof that beau ty is
possi ble even in the most wretched ; that someone
who can make a beautiful thing can 't be all bad ; and
that beauty has an ability to lift people as a Vermeer
co py done in a tenement is sure ly the same as the
greatest mural by some MFA. An ob ject of art is an
honest way of making a living , and this is much a
different idea from the fancier notion that art is a scam
and a ripoff . The bourgeo isie have , after all , made it a
scam. But you could never explain to someon e who
uses God 's gift to enslave that you have used God 's
gift to be free .
What is it that makes something look like art? I can 't
answer that. I asked someone once why he liked
Antflonv
Jean -Mic hel's work and wh y 1t was being singled out
for acclaim and he said . "because tl looks like art."
But then again art doesn 't always look like art at first.
The way the space shuttle that lifts off doesn't much

19. resemble th e space shuttle as 1t lands .
My favorite Franc esco Clemente. for instance.
looks just like something 1n a 1unk store. It's even
painted on one of those premade stretched canvases
that are the stock in trade of amateurs. The direct and
a rtl ess oil paint here, however it looks like a 13-year-
old painted it . is ve ry much about be in g 13. I remem-
ber still green ponds like that where I'd go . . . and the
anomalous sexuality of the frog , that . no matter what
sex it is. a frog 's crotch . belly , and thighs, when
viewed together , look like a woman . It was brought to
my attention that the very th ing that freezes this
picture compos itionally , the flashbulbl ike shadow of
the arm . is what keeps it from being the work of a child ;
children don 't depict cast shadows . Clemente has
frozen an instant here. and the sex object of the
paintin g , the frog 's crotch . is already underwater. This
preservation of a lost moment from child hood , per-
fectly seen and remembered in a flash. sets th is
picture apart as art , yet it looks like something in a junk
store .
Everybod y wants to get on the Van Gogh Boat.
Th ere is no trip so horrible that someone won 't take it.
Nobody wants to mi ss the Van Gogh Boat. The idea of
the unrecognized gen ius slaving away in a garret is a
deliciously fool ish one _ We must credit the life of
Vincent van Gogh for rea lly send ing that myth into
orbit. How many p ic tures did he sell. One. He couldn 't
gi ve them away. Almost no one could bear his work ,
even among the most modern of his colleagues . In the
movie Lust For Life there is a scene of Kirk Douglas
(as van Gogh) in front of La Grande Jatte being
treated rudely by George s Seurat. When I went to the
Art In stitute of Chicago to see the GrandeJatte , it was

20. having a hard time competing with the wh ite walls of
the gallery _ Th is habit of putting old pictures up
against the white walls is deadly , the wal ls reflecting
more light than the p ictu re , but van Gogh's Bedroom
Lws. wilh bite in forehead . Ephram
Alain Jacquet. Bathroom Gra ffrt1. 19 71 ball bearings on
Masoni:e 18 · 32"
Judy R1fka. Close-ups From Vickie's Dance , 1981. oil on linen.
24 x 30" each .
the comment is that it looks like our expectation of art;
there is observable history in his work. His to uch has
spontaneous erud ition that comforts one as the ex-
pected does. In the first gallery piece I saw by Jean-
Michel (as distinct from his Tag Samo) the observable
relat ionship of his drawing to past art alienated me as
immediately as it gratified. The superbombe rs in the
same show, with their egreg ious lack of art history,
had the repe llent appeal that commands self-analysis
in the viewer (me)_ I did n't want to miss the boat. When
you first see a new picture you are very careful
because you may be staring at van Gogh's ear_ Th en I
stopped caring about what the pictures should (and
might later) look like; regardless of what Jean- Mic hels
look like now, they are transmitting signals that I can
receive , that are useful, and final ly the graffiti bomb
style looks like what it's about and what it's ab out is
packag ing.

21. Bomb style packages itself. At its purest, it's a Tag ,
a perfect auto-logo, not the artists ' names but thei r
trademarks. Desig ner jeans? You are buyi ng the label
proper: the essential iconic self -representation In any
event, the bom bers in the show cl early defined a
vern acular and made me wonder how long this would
take to g et off the grou nd in a b ig way_ Here was, as
much as it was predicated on commercial art of the
past , the commercial art of the future. Here was the
look of the times, thi s is what packag ing should look
li ke: kid s would buy it. These guys should get them-
selves design jobs , before they get ripped off. Several
have alread y worked their way into the appli ed arts,
where th ey belong: on record covers , doing the art
direction fo r movi es , slides behind Rappers, back-
drops for Breakers. Sitting by yourself on a wall is
different.
An arti st's attitude toward the work is telling . It's all
hype , sure , but there can be quality in hype and I've
caug ht some sleazy acts _ A guy came to my house to
deliver a small picture _ With a friend. No picture
Broke. " Give me the money I'll come back later with
th e picture _" " OK ." While he was there he told methat
he was entertaining the idea of giving Andy Warhol a
pi ctu re _ Well , And y is everyone 's culture parent, it's
true, but I'm just a poor poet and Andy 's turnover must
be thousand s and thousands a week in prints alone ,
and it hurt my feelings that I had to pay 50 clams and
An dy would get it free . I could see , though , that this
boy's climb was on . This was my advice: don't give
him th e picture. Kids do that. Trade. That 's what real
artists do with each other . Since Andy 's a press
junkie , and I see you 're getting the taste , call up page

22. si x of th e Post and get a photographer to the Factory
on the " Graffiti goes legi t/street kid trades Tag for
Soup Can " angle. You both get your picture in the
pap er, An d y comes off looking li ke friend of youth , you
get a press clipping , and it's gravy for all parties.
Easily $50 wo rth of advice. So he left with the money,
and , li ke co p ping drugs in the street, beat me for the
picture . A month or so late r, after some fr iends put on
a little mu sc le , I finally got the doodad , and promptly
gave it away. Foolish way to hype yourself. When
you 're climbin g a ladde r, don 't kick out the rungs .
As muc h as undervaluation can kill , so can a false
sense of th e va lue of your wo rk. Jean-Michel was
advi sed to stop givi ng it away . But if your friends can 't
have it , wh y live? Overprotection is deadly; the stuff
has to get o ut there to be seen . Making money is
something b etween artists and their stomachs. To
turn one 's work into fetis h that is almost indistinct from
oneself , to ove rpersonal ize and covet one 's own
work , is profes sion al suicide . Fear of rip-off is paraly-
sis . One is always ri p ped off . Keeping work a secret is
the p sycholog y of the ap pl ied artist , not the fine artist
who must live in a dialog ue.
Is innovation importa nt? Wh en one compares Jack
tedium of Byars and Beuys , authorship as object , is
th e precedent fo r the leg itimacy of th e Tag. Thi s is the
rnd 1v1 dual as archetype, where we order a " Bud ,,
where every bleach blonde is called " Blondie ," th'e
Tag name f.or the individ ual Deborah Harry. If Andy
Warhol cant be used as an object lesson in how to
become iconic then his life has been a waste. We

23. become our name . I have spent my life becom in g my
name. so that it would somehow protect the radiant
chi ld it ha s been created to arm .) Judy's perception of
thi s is accurate . Her multip le-panel pictures are like
movies: She has spent the las t few years evolving a
recog ni za ble cast of c harac ters to people her work .
She is the eponymous lead. This is about her life in art
the frustrations and mome ntary ecstasies of painting
a picture ; the sub-mafia of artist's assistants ; the
domes ti cation of pet boys refined into their specific
types that become at once th e original and the
archetype .
Wh e re is Taki? We can't escape the etymology or
genealogy of art. It's not co in cidental that the time that
saw the gestation of graffi ti was the period of gal lery-
re fer e ntial art that flouris hed (wrong word) in the early
'70s . During the era of the w hite wall , what would have
the greater effect on us now was being produced by
guerrilla artists bombing trains during their mechani -
cal slumber in Queens. Those teenage prophets are
lost in the mists of their own maturity, remin iscent of
the way the origin of the blues is lost , the simple
expression of the individual followed much later by
full -sc ale commercia l exploitation. Contrary to the
rul es of modern art that hallow the innovator, here is
the se cond generation capital izing on the innovations
of the first. Th e com merc ial exp loitation of innovation
is, conversely, the primary logic of commercia l art.
Even as I write , the Transit Authority has unleashed
police dogs around the Corona yard , so perhaps
there is still hope . Bom bing will cont inue even with the
dogs. When it stops you 'll know it 's played out. If it's
stil l al ive the autopsy will kill it. What wou ld happen 1f

24. subway graffiti were recognized as the native art it is?
Would they find Ta ki and declare him a Nat ional Living
Treasure as the Japanese do the ir keepers of the
flame of nati ve craft? Or if the TA legitimizes it, 1. e.
encourages it with NEA fund ing? What happens when
the revolution is tel evised? It bombs out. Train paint -
ing has already been severely formalized almost
to decadence . It has become historicall y self-con-
scious , the progre ssion from expression to Pop; there
is a Campbell 's Soup can tra in; sophistication to
boredom.
Looking through th e Mailer book on graffiti from
1974, was it photographer 's opt ic al bias , editorial
selectivity, or was the classic period of graffiti as
"abstract expressionist ," '50s , as the book makes it
look when com p ared to the Pop psyched elic '60s of
the train I was on today? It looks so much more severe
in the book , metalli c style , less balloon style : tou gher ,
muy switchblade , mas barrio . But who remembers
what it looked like? I remember that it was very sexy,
the feeling ; I don 't remember the look . Eidetic ove r-
lays can 't be trusted . What did it look like?
Jean-Michels don 't look like the others . His don 't
have that superbomb panache that is the first turn -on
of the pop graffitist. Nor does his marker have that tai-
chi touch . He doesn 't use spray but he's got the dope.
and right now what we need is information ; I want to
know what is going on in people 's minds and these
pictures are useful. This article is about work that is
information , not work that is about information . No
Fake "Samo" crown on wall. Photo · Mary Bachmann

25. Ronnie Cutrone. R & B Ants . 1981. acrylic on raw canvas , 60
x 80" An incident from human tile entomorphosed
Joe Zucker . Round 14, 1981 , acrylic. Rhoplex . cotton. on c
anvas. 72 /::, 72 ''!'
matter what the envelope looks like to get it there , th e
dope's inside . Let the Parisians copy the athletic togs
le look americain Je une Puma sneakaires le graffiti
mignon , style is spin-off; what the pictures are inter-
nally about is what matters. If you're going to stand up
there with the big kids you 've got to be heavy, got to sit
on a wall next to Anselm Kiefer next to Jonathan
Borofsky next to Julian Sc hnabel and these guys are
tough they can make you look real sissy. There 's only
one place for a mindless cutie and it ain 't the wall ,
Jack.
Judy Rifka and Jean-Michel Basquiat have both
evolved a vocabulary , and so in his way has Keith
Haring . In his gray eminence enterpreneurial capac-
ity as director of the Mudd Club shows he was of
particular importance in the general dissemination of
work by other young artists, and not secondarily his
own. His work is faux graphic and looks ready-made ,
like international road signs . This immediacy is his
trump card . It is the already-existing quality of his
characters that deceives one into accepting them as
already there without the intervention of an indivi du al
will. But he did make them up. In thei r impersonal
code they are transmitting a personal narrative. The
code is here to be cracked. These poor little cha rac -
te rs wigging ou t from the radioactive communications
th ey are bombarded with are superslick icons of
turmoil and confusi on. Th ey are without will , without
protection from im pulses of mysterious sou rc e. We

26. can laugh at their in vol untary couplings an d tiny
horrifie d runn ings aroun d because we see them as
we cannot see, as the fi sh cannot see th e water ,
ourse lves.
Of cour se what artists se e us as can tell us more
abo ut themselves than about us. The second-genera-
tion Pop artists who 've been popping up behind the ir
more in novative c ontemporaries show more interest
in the(i r) poor victims of cocktail dresses , in the trials
and tri bulations of dressing up and going out, en-
chai ned by our fashion sl avery, in Soci ety , than in
society. Ch ief of the C lubbists is Robert Longo who in
his own way is concerned wi th our contemporary
soli psi sm . As an undercover agent of the Fashion
Po lice I am reluctantly placing him under arrest partly
fo r being two years behind the times but real ly for
fo rgetting that fashion imitates art , and that art that
imitates fash ion is two removes from the source. Art
Deco com es after Cubi sm. On the subject of Troy
Braun tuch , and the use of pictures , his work seems to
have been antic ipated by an Ed wardian novelist:
" 'That habit of putting glass over an oil painting ,' she
murmured , 'makes always such a good reflection
particularly when the picture 's dark. Many's the time
I've run into the National Gal lery on my way to the
Savoy and tidied myself before the Virgin of th e Rocks
.. .' " (source available) .
We need to see ourselves now but not thi s literally.
For some reason we need recoani zable evi d enr.e nf
our existence . Something has happened and we
need , if not advice , at least a demonstration of the
sit uat ion and many of our fears are in the words

27. co ntained in Jean-Michel 's pictures- Tar, Oil , Old
Tin , Gold-we don 't need a lexicon to know what
th ese mean . These morp hemes are self-evide nt.
Ph aed rus : Whom do you mean and what is his origin?
Socrates : I mean an intelligent word graven on the soul of
the learner , which can defend itsel f, and who
knows when to speak and when to be silent.
Phaedrus : You mean the li ving word of knowledge which
has a soul , and of which the written word is no
more than an image?
Socrates: Yes . of course that is what I mean.
- source available.
I'm always amazed by how people come up with
thin gs Like J ean-Michel . How did he come up with
those wo rds he puts all over everything? Their ag-
gre ssive ly handmade look fits his peculiarly political
sensi b il ity. He seems to have become the gutter and
hi s wor ld view very much that of the downtrodden and
di spo ssessed . Here the possession of almost any-
thing of even marginal value becomes a token of
c orrupt material ism. Th is is the bum coveting a pair of
Gu ston 's s hoes . When Jean-M ichel writes in almost
sub literate scrawl " Safe plush he think" it is not on a
Park Avenue facade that would be totally outside the
beg gar's venue but on a rusted-out door in a godfor-
s;:i kP. n nP. in h h nrhnnrl Pl11sh tn whnm srif P. from what?
42
I c nc o h cloch rd who Ii hts up

28. 11 Kt r- 1sed I C Tw om bly and
ab b nd ve 1 up for adoption.
1chel The ele nee o Twombly 1s
•ro he sa e source ( raff 1t1) nd so 1s the
txu o e oung Du u e [ ce p h e pol itics of
Du u'!e• needed a lee ure to sho w needed a sepa-
s in Jean- 1chel hey are integrated
he 1c 0 s necess1 y I d ra he r have a Jean-
~ 1chel han a Cy Twombly I do no live 1n the class1c al
ne1 hborhood 1s unsa fe Also I wan t my
orne o oo like pile o 1unk o burg la rs
Poh '1cs can come up by 1n erence 1n a work . wi th out
pot ng 1 hou over d1alec 1c by the simples t d e-
1c ion (as 1n he case o John Ahearn) of an indivi du -
al hen one looks a Ahearn s p ieces. the sensi b ili ty
1s so spec1 1c and acu e hat we feel we woul d g et the
same eehng even 1 1 looked en 1rely di ff ere nt. And
his people are abou eel1ngs I don 't know how
anyone who could af ord hem would put them 1n the ir
homes hy would he boss wan to be remin ded at
home o he people wh o kee p ask in g h im for a ra ise? "
(source available) They are obiects o f devotion , of
love and 1 s ennobling abil1 y . and a re among th e
rares and mos moving 1n he h is ory of art. They will
command and dom1na e wherever they a re hung and
make all art ha 1s anterior to 1t or that bea rs a
resemblance seem like 1t was iust lea ding up to
Ahearn They wipe out Segal They m ake Duane

29. Hanso n seem like a snob and an insensitive jerk.
When we look at Hanson 's lumpen proles and their
dazed stupefaction we feel superior. Ahearns , like
mos t physically dominant art , don 't reproduce well .
The ac tual confrontation with the work is overwhelm-
ing . They are made to be seen from quite specific
angles . Ahearn 's work is hung high , and these people
up aga in st the white wall of a gallery are looking down
at th e vi ewer with dignity , sobriety , querulousness ,
pe rf ec tly prec ise and specific expressions , fleeting
and miraculous ly caug ht. The man seems to be
loo king into the future with intense responsibility as
the wo man , with her arms around his neck, trusts his
abil it y to confront the world . I am that woman . Ahearn
wo rk s in the South Bronx the way Caravaggio prob-
ably would . He gives his models the first cast . They 're
poor and they 're owed the grace of their image . Th is is
no exploitation and yet I have heard him referred to
(b y an artist) as a racist , exploiter of his sitters. If going
into the ghetto and commemorating its inhabitants is
raci st, then what do yo u cal l people who segregate
themselves and plot genocide?
To Whites every Black hold s a potential knife be-
hind the back , and to every Black the White is
c oncealing a whip . We were born into this dialogue
and to deny it is fatuous. Our responsibility is to
overcome the sins and fears of our ancestors and
drop the whip , drop the knife . In lzhar Patkin's parable
of racial cannibalism we see that when a man with a
.45 meets a man with a shotgun I guess the man wi th
th e pistol is a dead man .
Where is Taki?
I th ink now about Anya Ph illi ps who so briefly

30. illuminated thi s fleeti ng world . I th ink about clothes
worn by people so re ce ntly and yet how long ago it all
seems that Anya wou ld show up in those cocktail
dresses and of all things, a Ch inese girl in a b londe
wig . And now all the gi rls in the ir cocktail d resses who
never heard of Anya an d how quickl y eac h generation
catches the look of its creators and forge ts the moral
underneath . I think about how one mus t become th e
iconic repre sentation of oneself if one is to outlast the
vague definite ind ifferenc e of the world . I think about
how eve ry b leach bl onde is ca lled Blondie in the
street and Deborah Harry 's refutat ion of her iconic
responsibility to reify her name as a brun ett e. We are
that radiant chi ld and have spent our li ves de fending
that li ttl e baby, co nstructing an ad ul t arou nd 1t to
protec t it from the un listed si gnals of forces we have
no control over. We are that litt le baby, the radian t
chi ld, and our name , what we are to become . is
outside us and we mu st become "Judy Rifk a" or
" Jean-Mi chel " the way I became " Rene Ricar d." •
Rene Rica rd's new book of poems 1s scheduled to appear 1n lhe
s ring
Keith Haring. 1981, button