Just got back from Europe; I traveled through England, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany. I looked at a couple graduate schools in London and tried to visit as many museums/galleries as I could in Berlin.
I realize I didn't fully comprehend the meaning of an "international art market" until this trip. Practically all the art I came across was from artists I'm already familiar with, or if it was someone I hadn't heard of, the work looked similar enough to something I had seen in NY. At first this made me feel surprised and more knowledgeable than I thought I was, I've never considered myself to be any expert on contemporary art. In the end I felt somewhat disappointed to go across the world and not see any artwork different than what I could see at home. I suppose I should go to a non-European country if something drastically different from the United States is what I'm looking for. Still, I thought I would gain some sense of what it meant to be an American artist but perhaps these boundaries don't exist anymore.

The highlights of the trip were all unrelated to art; eating at Nocti Vagus, a restaurant "by the blind, for the blind" where you eat in pitch darkness; and taking a scooter through the dutch countryside.

I realize that for me this has always been the case, I find the most value in non-art related experiences. I question what this means for my attempt to pursue a career as an artist. It's becoming more and more difficult for me to translate meaningful experience into painting. But without even attempting to do so, my experiences feel meaningless. Probably I'm over-thinking this all.