Max's questions

1. How did Albert fish come to meet Grace Budd?
Albert met Grace when he went to her brothers house to “hire him” but when the brother was larger than Fish expected he turned his sights on Grace.

2. What are the details that led to Fish’s first incarceration?
He was arrested for embezzlement.

3. Give a brief description of the history of mental illness amongst Fish’s family.
He had an uncle who suffered from religious mania, a brother in a mental hospital, another brother died of hydrocephalus, and his sister had a mental affliction. His mother is also said to have hallucinations.

4. What religious activity did psychiatrist Fredric Wertham claim that Albert Fish associated with cannibalism?
He associated cannibalism with the idea of communion.

5. What do you think about rituals involved in making art? Your art? My art?
I think ritual in this instance is really only relevant as its definition of regular behavior, maybe repetition would be a better word. I don’t have any particular ritual when I make my art. I do similar things to get my ideas but I think that is just part of how I work. Your art from what I know about you which isn’t very much is that you just draw to draw. Maybe for you drawing is your ritual.

6. What do we gain for knowing someone’s motivations?
Knowing someone’s motivations helps us to further understand our surroundings. In the case of Fish, knowing his motivations could help to identify persons of the future with a similar ailment or just like I said understand our world. People are generally morbidly curious. This guy definitely falls into the category.

7. What role do chance/coincidence play in our intentions?
They can radically change our intentions. I would like to point out however that not everyone believes in chance or coincidence. Since not everything can be foreseen in our lives we are governed by chance. We are required to re schedule and re plan constantly.

8. Do you think more importance is placed on an artist or on a specific work of art? Why?
This is dependant on the artist. A print by Picasso is worth a ridiculous amount of money and it super important just because it was done by Picasso. It has noting to do with quality or anything like that. For a lesser-known artist however the work holds the importance.