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?

This is the piece that never ends. It goes on and on, my friend.

Okay, I’m still buried (no pun intended) in my sculpting. The unnamed friend that I’m building for the Art Garage competition has eaten around 14 lbs. of poly-fill, and I’m not done sewing him all together yet.  *laments and tears my hair*

 

Toss into the mix that I’m still building the other sculpture (tree stump-ish creature), and my hands really, really hurt.

 

One day, I will  have a sewing machine that doesn’t hate me so that I can do some of my sewing on it.  <–Okay, that really wouldn’t work with the way my critters are built, but I can dream, can’t I?

 

So, I promised some out loud thinking about ecology and world building as it relates to my conceptual process.

 

Be prepared.  It isn’t fully developed yet.  Mostly because it was a typical-for-me shower revelation.  <–My best ideas either come out of taking a shower or insomnia.  When I can get them to work together?  Pure magic.

 

I’ve always know that I was building creatures and habitats that exist in the same sort of world, but I’ve started to suss out where they exactly fit into that world building.

 

The taxonomy series really come out as the insectoid creatures of the world–which makes sense since, in my head, taxonomic structures are connected to insect collections.

 

I had one when I was a kid.  In a cigar box.  Grasshoppers were the hardest to catch.

 

The chimera series are almost like the old gods of the world.  Giant, eyeless, removed from the rest of the inhabitants of the the world, and totally without compassion for the other creatures that live there–which probably explains why a lot of the references in this series are dependent upon popular culture, fairy tales, and archetypes.

 

The scrump series would be the algae of the world.  Especially, since the amorphous ubiquity of the scrump comes from the mass in Tenchi Muyo, although the name and grotesque nature of the scrump comes from Lilo and Stitch.

 

The habitat series are the places that some of these creatures live (mostly the taxonomy insects).

 

It’s not eloquent or complete, but it was nice to have some of this world building situated more firmly in my head.

 

And, now, I must be away to sew more on the Sculpture That Will Not End.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow.

Hey, y’all.

I’m tentacles-deep in my sculpting for a competition, so there’s not going to be a post post today.

Tomorrow. Promise.

A preview of what that post shall be–ecology and world building as my conceptual process. I had a monkey-touching-the-monolith revelatory epiphany. I’m excited about it, le me tell you.

Obviousness.

Okay, obviously, I didn’t get this posted yesterday.  After I turned in the competition pieces, I spiked a temp and was essentially useless the rest of the day.

 

I’m not really sure today has been better, but I’ve been productive:  made three pendants, a morgue-board, and cleaned the house (including changing the bedding).  <–I am a super-exciting person, aren’t I?

 

The competition that I entered into is hosted by College of Menominee Nation‘s Sustainability Institute; it’s called “The Voice of Water.”  I entered two pieces:  one photograph and one painting.  The photograph y’all might be familiar with since I’ve posted it over on my Flickr-stream and my Facebook photos.  I took this photograph on a super foggy day and then manipulated the contrast and color so that it came out in blues rather than greys.  For me, this photo typifies water:  not only does it gesture at fog and cold, but it also has the murkiness and reflectivity of a lake or a swamp.

 

I really think this is my favorite photograph of the ones that I have taken up here.  It makes me think of mangrove swamps and lurking crocodilians.  Two of my favorite images.

 

The other “Voice of Water” pieces is a painting that incorporated a polymer acrylic image transfer of the above photograph.  This piece is painted on a piece of random cardboard I had.  I was originally going to paint it on a piece of  book board and frame the piece in a vintage frame that I had spray painted pale blue (it has since become my morgue-board), but I didn’t have any book board that would fit the frame.  This piece was painted with spray paint, acrylic paint, modeling paste medium, illumination medium, and polymer acrylic medium with a polymer acrylic digital transfer.

 

The piece itself tries to encompass all the qualities of water from fog to ice to white caps.  It also expresses the patience of water, the destructive/regenerative nature of water, and the danger of water.

 

I like the concept behind it.

 

There’s something like 20 hours of work in that painting and a whole lot of drying time.  But, they’ve been submitted.  Hopefully, the judges don’t think they suck out loud.  <–Welcome to the insecure-artist section of the day.  *eyeroll heard ’round the world*

 

I’d feel more confident about this piece if it weren’t so completely Impressionistic to me, and I’m like the only person in the history of the universe who really dislikes Monet and the Impressionists.

 

Yes, I am that person.  *hangs head in not-shame*