Letter From The Editor

Dear Readers,

Are you from Dallas, Texas? Do you live in the hinterlands, somewhere off deep in the Iowa cornfields that stretch for miles? Or do you live in one of those majestic red brick houses in St. Louis, overlooking the Mighty Mississippi? If so, you're in luck. Starting this New Year, we're spreading the love. Artillery is going national.

People who live on the East Coast or the West Coast think there's nothing in between. They usually think that because they've never been to that in-between area. They've met people from there, they've read books about there, and they've seen movies around there. But they've never been there, so they really don't know what's it really like there.

It was in Kansas that I first read Charles Bukowski; it was in Fayetteville, Arkansas that I saw my first Andy Warhol movie; it was in an intimate art theater in Tulsa, Oklahoma that I was shocked and delighted by John Waters' Pink Flamingos; and it was in the tiny Missouri town where I was born that I read Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, peeking out of my bedroom window, knowing the crime scene was only 30 miles away.

Culture is everywhere, but, you have to really dig deep when you are in the Midwest. College towns serve for your basic training in underground literature and films, and they were the sacred grounds I ran for, to escape that in-between area supposedly dominated by flag-waving, bible-thumping, gun-toting people.

But now we're aiming to change all that. Beginning with this issue, Artillery will be delivering the world of contemporary art to bookstores and newsstands all across the country. All for the very modest price of five bucks a copy!

We're looking for new readers among you, my dear fellow Americans in that in-between space. I know you crave culture and have a deep desire for it. If it weren't for Middle America, the South, the Northwest, we would have no Tennessee Williams, no Ken Kesey, no Larry Clark. It's all those flavors in-between that we crave.

Keep in mind, we're not deserting our art-world friends here in Los Angeles. We will still deliver the magazine free to hundreds of art galleries around our hometown, answering the call from our loyal readers and advertisers. But we think the country is ready for a new voice, one attuned to the news and sensations of the contemporary art world.

For our first national issue, we've got an exclusive interview with groundbreaking conceptual artist Mike Kelley. A Detroit native who came out to Southern California and stayed, he returns to his hometown to make one of his biggest art pieces to date. Writer/artist Clayton Campbell visits New Orleans to check out its second biennial, Prospect.2. And we've got New York covered with Maurizio Cattelan at the Guggenheim and Carsten Höller at the New Museum.

If you're a first-time reader to Artillery, welcome, and if you're a veteran, I hope you'll stick around. There's plenty in store, and after five years, we're just getting started.

—Tulsa Kinney