36 hours and 72 revisions later...

...a few words about World AIDS Day. This should have, by rights, been posted yesterday...and I tried. I really tried. So much of what was written, though, looked like the rantings of a crazy woman, the delete key got a heavy workout. My job here is not to be controversial, it is to write about Art History in an engaging manner. My personal mission is to make Art History interesting and fun. AIDS and HIV, while certainly of "interest", are light-years away from "fun". But - and this is a big but - AIDS and HIV are a reality, and they've had a devastating effect on the art world. (Yes, the whole rest of the world, too! This is where that delete key keeps rearing its familiar head...)

So, I've kept coming back to this over the course of two days, alternating between sorrow and outrage that we have to have a World AIDS Awareness DAY - as if millions of people aren't aware of it every waking second. In keeping with my function as the Art History Guide, I've tried to eliminate most of my editorializing, and would ask that you redirect your attention here, to The Estate Project for Artists with AIDS. This is a list - a sadly long list - of a lot of artists who aren't going to get the chance to be immortalized in any history book. If you would, please, just take a moment to reflect on what we've lost, what we continue to lose and how ordinary people like us can speed up the fight against this horror. Heartfelt thanks.