Tim and Rick Rubin on beauty and rat people.
“As artists, we aim to live in a way where we see the extraordinary hidden in the seemingly mundane, then challenge ourselves to share what we see in a way that allows others a glimpse of this remarkable beauty.”
– Rick Ruben
It’s encouraging and upsetting to see this quote. Encouraging because it’s a famous person very clearly articulating what your aims are as an artist and upsetting because it’s a famous person very clearly articulating what your aims are as an artist. I have used so many words trying to illustrate the same point but not nearly as clear and obviously not nearly as pithy. There is another reason I find it upsetting though.
Unearthing and sharing beauty, beauty defined in any way you see fit, has been a compulsion of mine since I first picked up a camera and I’d love to explore that idea a bit more but I have Rick Rubin stuck in my craw. It’s not him exactly but also it very much is. There is an idea that Lisa and I have mused about in the past, which is, do you have to know someone's personal politics or intentions to enjoy what they do? We certainly advocate for not doing business with rascals, miscreants, and cheats but what about listening to Morrissey? Was his calling a certain race of people “subspecies” for their treatment of animals a deal breaker? Can I no longer listen to The Smith? Is it different to draw clear lines when someone is selling environmentally devastating skin care products and not when you only have deep and unrelenting suspicions that they are a rrrrrrrrrrr-rat person!?! An absolute creep? Sometimes I really don’t want to know and sometimes I must. It’s a push and pull.
Obviously, I have more questions than answers but the murmurs that Rick Rubin is enchanted by far-right extremism and the limp fascism of say Mike Cernovich is disheartening, to say the least. He introduced Kanye West to Candice Owens and that is not a good thing. Candice Owens and Mike Cernovich are not good for anyone. That is belligerently straightforward and maybe a tad lazy but it is also true. I could detail their parade of awful but it would be very long-winded and maybe that is for another time. There are more little nuggets about the behavior and predilections of Rubzies out there and they are bad omens. It makes it hard to see that quote and be as moved by it as I should be. The questions I have about him definitely caused every post on social media I saw about his new book to make me say “Pfft yeah right guy” very, VERY! dismissively to myself as I lay in bed not sleeping. Take that Rick Rubin you…maybe…I'm not 100% sure…fascist little troll baby.
The quote to me is on point, there is astonishing beauty in championing the unseen, dismissed, or overlooked but something gets blocked reading it and I’m wondering if I need to know everything about Rick Rubin to just hear those words and say “that checks out, I dig it” and move on. If he was selling sham pots and pans that derived their nonstick coatings from the skins of kittens, and it could be proved, it would be easier.
Much love, Tim, Rick,
and Lisa (who did enjoy his book)
