a love letter to the ARTgarage by gbartlover

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

 

This post was really nice to read, especially since I’m one of the studio artists at the ARTgarage. <–Really.  I make the disturbingly kawaii creatures that look like they might be interested in nom-ing people’s heads off…and other things.

 

Loads of other things.

 

*whistles*

 

So, go read the post, and in the New Year, come by the ARTgarage and see all the shenanigans. –>  Help Make the ARTgarage the Central Place for the Arts in Green Bay!.

 

As 2011 comes to an end, I have been contemplating what my New Year’s resolution will be for 2012.  I thought of the normal things, such as weight loss, exercise, giving up cheese (which will never, ever happen!), etc.  But none of them rang true…and I kept coming back to the same thought that I truly miss being plugged into the arts in Green Bay.  It has been three months since I’ve been unemployed by the non-profit arts world, but I still have this burning passion to help grow the arts in our community.

 

In my 5 past years as an Arts Administrator, I watched with great hope as the ARTgarage started out through grass roots efforts of some very devoted and talented folks.  As their website explains:

 

“Two art majors at the University of  Wisconsin – Green Bay didn’t want to lose the energizing ‘art studio experience’ once graduated. They shared their vision for working studios and a gallery with the owners of The Cannery on Olde Main in October 2005. By March 17, 2006, the ARTgarage was open.”

 

 

 

The ARTgarage is located in a 4,000 square foot space that used to be a cannery loading dock, which makes the space the perfect setting for art display and activities with its brick walls, cement floors and high ceilings!  Today, the ARTgarage is blossoming into the art central, place-to-be in Green Bay.  Their mission is encourage an appreciation for and participation in the visual, performing and literary arts.

 

The ARTgarage has a lot to offer the arts enthusiast!  Seven individual studio spaces feature talented, local artists who are eager to talk with visitors about their creative process.  Over 20 artists display their work in the gallery in all mediums.  The ARTgarage also hosts First Saturday Performances each month offering all performing arts, including music, poetry and vaudeville.  Classes are offered for adults and children, some through its partnership with NWTC and some through the ARTgarage artists themselves.  Art forums and community events are also offered at the ARTgarage as the Cannery offers a large space for gatherings.  Finally, the ARTgarage has a fabulous gift shop where you can find one-of-a-kind pieces for friends, family or even for yourself!

 

 

The ARTgarage is a welcoming neighbor to the diverse populations within our community and proudly displays “Everyone Welcome” on their front door.  Join me in helping make the ARTgarage the central place for the arts in Green Bay!  How can you help?  Go to their website, sign up for their newsletter, go to their weekly events, visit the gallery once a month, sign up for a class, sign up your kids for a Summer Art Workshop, reserve the space in Studio B for your next gathering/seminar/meeting, buy a gift at their gift shop, and tell your friends about this wonderful gem we have right here in the Olde Main Street District of Green Bay! Watch for the upcoming “Art Meets Heart:  Juried Art Exhibit” to open on Thursday, February 2nd at 12 Noon, followed by the opening reception from 6 to 9 pm. Exhibit closes  on Saturday, February 29th at 6 pm.

 

The ARTgarage is located at 1400 Cedar Street in the Cannery Building, Green Bay, WI 54301.  Their phone number is (920) 448-6800 or you can email them at info@theartgarage.org.  Their website is a “gold mine” of information at http://www.theartgarage.org.  Gallery hours:   Tuesdays 12-6, Wednesdays 12-6, Thursdays 12-8, Fridays 12-6, Saturdays 12-4 (Closed Saturday, December 31st for New Year’s Eve).

 

Don’t let me down fellow arts friends!  I am counting on you!  Hope to see you there!

 

P.S.  Photo credits to the talented photographer who took them for the ARTgarage website!  Cheers!

 

Courage.

shameless plugging. it’s all the rage.

So, as is usual, I’m running around completely late because there’s a zillion and five things that need to get done before I sit before my computer and type furiously for y’all.

 

I had a Marathon for Literature meeting this morning (of which y’all will be hearing more about in the coming weeks). <–See how I did that?  Shameless, shamelss squid.

 

*waves tentacles* Come to the Marathon.  Donate to the Marathon.  Sponsor a reader for the Marathon.  You know you want too.  All the cool kids are doing it.

 

*is ashamed at shameless plugging*  But it’s so fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!

 

*ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuns away*

 

Sorry ’bout that.  That’s the sleep dep speaking.

 

Really.

 

*whistles*

 

When I left y’all on Sunday, I had proposed a couple of questions.

But, a final thought/question:  what do y’all think the artist’s persona has been and is becoming and how has this been fostered/rejected by society?

Also, what are some stereotypes of The Artist?

 

It used to be that artists were eccentrics (occasionally stark-staring mad–Hi Vincent!  I see you over in the corner with Theo.), but they were still expected to (more or less) conform to deadlines, communicate well, run their workshops, and keep their patrons not-angry.

 

More or less.  There’s only so much you can do sometimes.

 

Now, we have the artist as flake–if not a full-on artist as elitist hipster correspondence.  If we’re really unlucky, artists (like chefs used to be) are social deviants who are artists because they can’t be anything else, because they are so far outside of what is socially acceptable that being an artist is the only way that they can have some position in society.

 

*so totally trying not to over-identify here*

 

There’s this weird idolization of artists, but it’s also paired with an even odder not-quite anxiety.

 

I don’t know.  I’m just thinking out loud here, ya know?

 

We have these stereotypes of artists:  artists are disorganized, flaky, academically deficient (Okay, I totally blow this one out of the water and most of the artists I went to school do too.  We were all Honor’s Students.), depressed, have addictive personalities, schizo-typal (There was a study and everything.), can’t really communicate in anyway other than our art, yada, yada, yada.

 

Seriously, what’s with all of that?  I’ve know a bunch of artists, and while occasionally true, these kinds of stereotypes are largely inaccurate.

 

Honestly, it seems like, when these stereotypes hold true, it’s because someone took them too much to heart and decided it was a good way to get out of doing things they didn’t like (e.g., Maths for a lot of artists).

 

*head on tentacle* I think it’s kinda silly that this artist paradigm exists (And what’s the first thing that we all learned about paradigms?  They are made to be deconstructed.), and even sillier that we all seem to get sucked into them sometimes.

 

I know I do on occassion.  I don’t want to, but I do.

 

So, what do you think Interwebs?  Do artists=the stereotypes, or all they all hype and an extension of anxiety?

 

art and art-lovers unite!

So, I have been thinking awhile about how artists need community because we have a tendency to be alienated and isolated in our studios (and that’s just soooooooooo Abstract Expressionist and we don’t have to worry about McCarthyism and HUAC locking us up because we’re degenerates and subversives) and that people who love the arts need to be part of that community–since who else are we creating for but those that love art and each other–and I was talking to Miss Carrie at the Art Garage about this very thought.

 

She suggested that I take a look at Artini–Arts Management with a Twist written by the incomparable Ellen Rosewall–who basically is on every board of ever arts-oriented thing in Green Bay–because she had recently been voicing a similar thought.

 

My response to her post was

It seems like getting people into situations that they are likely to even start speaking to each other would be the first step–like Gallery Night, but Gallery Night has the draw-back of happening so infrequently and being kinda art-touristy. I keep thinking about the writing group that I used to be a member of before I moved to the Green Bay-area; we would get together a couple of times a month and talk about writing, exchange stories, and support each other. It’s not precisely what you’re talking about here, but it seems like we need to get ourselves-as-artists out of this removed, individuated-to-the-point-of-isolation mindset so that we can connect with audiences and help them to become something more than audiences.

I don’t see why an “artists group” should be just artists. Why not have something like these groups where anyone who is interested in art could come to play?

And isn’t this true?  It’s hard for artists to meet other artists and for artists to meet people who are interested in art outside of a Gallery Night  or an art school sorta context, and when you’re terminally shy like me, it’s even harder to meet other artists or, when you meet them, to talk to them.  <–If y’all haven’t realized this, “socially awkward” is my middle name.

 

(Okay, so this is something that might totally exist already around the country where there are huge-upon-huge art scenes, but what about Green Bay?  Couldn’t Green Bay totally use one [or seven] of these?)

 

So, this brings up the age-old questions:  what can we-as-artists and art-lovers do?

 

We can form groups!  Get anyone and everyone we know that has an interest in art and tell them to invite their art-interested friends and meet and talk and drink and just totally BS about life, the universe, and everything.

 

If we all set up groups and met even just once a month, imagine the art communities that we could build!  It could be a place for artists and the art-interested to trade ideas, concepts, and methods as well as receive critique (which is another one of those things that artists miss when we’re all alone in our studios) and form potential art co-operatives and find other artists working in similar concepts and/or materials.

 

It could even be away to bridge that huge gap that exists between the older generation of artists and the younger generation, bring arts to schools via the community, and get people to realize that, hey, you’re never to old or young to start making art; that, like everything, art takes practice and determination and critical thinking and someone to bounce ideas off of occasionally.

 

And booze.  Don’t forget the booze.  <–Okay, art really doesn’t need alcohol involved, but for the adults, it takes some of the sting out of critique.

 

So, artists and art-lovers, for groups!  Even if it’s just to talk about artists that you like or exhibits that you’ve seen.

 

Hey, if writers and poets can do it–why can’t artists?

…not Annette Messanger, but maybe even better

Ian, aka my lovely model, and I went and played tourist-with-a-purpose in search of the Ed McCullough sculpture, Song to Celan, on campus yesterday.

 

\o/

 

Ian standing in front of Song for Celan

 

me in front of Song for Celan 

(I’m so not as cute as Ian. *sulk*  That’s why he’s my model, right?)

 

Inside of Song of Celan

 

See, isn’t it shiny?

 

Ed is awesome and shiny and I love him muchly.

 

In squid-art news, I finished my piece for the ArtWear show.  I don’t have great pictures taken of it yet, but here are some preliminary pictures of it.

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

 

The idea behind it is an intersection between pierott from comedia dell’arte, a circus acrobat/clown, and kinda gestural to Prophecy with its crow-like angelic beings.  It’s deconstructed and destroyed.  I like it.

 

And, it jingles!  \o/