Joyce Owens: Artist On Art

Artists Make New Rules in the 21st Century

Once upon a time the main goal for any artist who went to art school was to find gallery representation.

"Joy" series by Joyce Owens series were acquired by a Sinai Hospital clinic.

Many artists are by-passing galleries these days.

The artists who skipped art school seem to have a natural entrepreneurial gift that some of the art school artists don't. My friend Marva Jolly has had sales in her Mudpeoples studio for years, some people leaving with 4 or 5 ceramic art works every time she has one of her open studios. She shows in galleries, too!

More and more these days ALL artists are trying new ways to sell their art. Some prefer studio sales where they can control everything and keep all their profits. Of course they must pay for the studio space. Artists are showing in boutiques and restaurants, not new, but some artists who now do so are new to this trend. I recently exhibited  two sculptures at Eye Emporium, an eye wear store on North Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago that has a very cool exhibition space. Tony Fitzpatrick, a noted Chicago artist followed my 3-person exhibition titled "The Dolls of J" and artist Wesley Kimler's art works graced the walls of the gallery even while the other exhibition I was a part of was up!  Wesley's largescale drawings and paintings are magnificent. He and Tony can, and have shown in very important art venues and they also exhibited at Eye Emporium, a place that features artists as a secondary purpose for their space. You get it? This is a significant change!

Artists have shown their work in art fairs for a long time; the profits are better if they sell, although it is hard work to sit and wait for customers, gather all the equipment such as tents and tables, and transport and set up for a weekend that could be unpredictable. They  pay the sometimes hefty entry fees and oh, hope no one gives them a bad check!

So times (and methods) of displaying and selling art are changing.

I think it is time for the gallery system to change, too, rearranging the balance of power so the artists get more say (input), and in some cases, more respect, and perhaps a bigger cut of the sales. . .The galleries hold the power, if you are an artist who craves the gallery system. The gallery is the "decider" and gets to choose their artists and not vice versa. Even in those "pay to play" galleries, aka cooperative galleries, where monthly fees ensure your spot to exhibit, artists may not fare too well monetarily.  I know artists who put up with worse treatment than they ever would, in any other situation, to be represented by a gallery, almost any gallery! And don't I understand that!

What is the alternative? If artists simply promote and sell their own work it becomes hard to establish pedigree. Somehow, no matter how wonderful the work is we still require "stamps of approval" from art critics, feature writers, collectors and yes, gallerists!

Here I am (2nd from right) with some of my friends at Eye Emporium, who are also beautiful dolls. (l to r, close up of "A Girl Like Me" doll, Lilian, Madeline, me and Carolyn. Wesley Kimler's work is behind us on the wall.

Let me stop here to ask some questions:

Is there a vetting system for gallery owners? I know there are local and national organizations of art dealers. If a gallery is not a member, who oversees commercial galleries to ensure they run fair establishments, requires them to pay artists on time and establishes general protocol and responsibilities for the gallery owners?And if they are a member, do these organizations check for problems?

Do gallery owners need the equivalent to the M.F.A., or any proof of professional training that is often a requirement for "serious" visual artists? I found this when I searched "gallery owners + training".

Can anybody open a gallery?

Does anybody open a gallery?

Will artists flock to anybody's gallery?

uh huh!

Make art, blog, tweet, Facebook, Plaxo, linkedIN, text , email and network...

Write, talk, socialize and have a full time job...and make your art.

Below from left to right:  Marva Jolly, Dr. Margaret Burroughs, me , Felicia Preston. Dr. Burroughs was honored at the opening of the exhibition.

Come on now!

I thought to be an artist I needed to work, hone my skills, work, be productive, work, and wait to be discovered by some art guru or patron or collector or curator. Well, I was wrong, as much as I hate to admit it.

First of all making art is not enough. You should hear me explaining to my students why they have to be able to write a cohesive thought and apply it to a page! What??? "I just thought I had to draw something or paint something" they say year after year. And when they hear there are rules for making art, the infamous principles and elements of art and design, they just FREAK!

THERE ARE RULES!!!

oh my god! Art has no rules! It is a gift. It is God's gift! It is art because I say it is. It is only art if it is "creative" meaning no observational practice is involved!

HUH???

You mean if I study and practice and I learn to capture an object on a 2-D support to represent a 3-D object, that does not take skill AND creativity.

Does mine look like yours, for example?

Does Rembrandt's look like Leonardo's?

Both were observing nature. Would we say neither is creative?

Me, Dawoud, Sabina Ott, Kerry James Marshall

Both Dawoud Bey and Kerry James Marshall are creative; both make a ton of observational works of art . Chicago native Tony Fitzpatrick who does not work from nature, he uses collectible match books and other memorabilia that he configures to express poetic ideas through a visual medium. So is he more creative than artists who work in others ways?

Anyway these, limited ideas about what art is, reflect juvenile, undereducated responses  I have heard over the years. Many times my students eventually get it but some folks never do and I guess never will.

Artists, you have to learn to write, too! If you cannot figure out how to write about your work, you are screwed! (Unless you are an outsider.) The aforementioned artists are some of the best writers I know. Tony has published books, he writes some of the best emails I get. Dawoud writes an exquisite blog. Kerry has published interviews about his work that are amazing to read and hear.

If you are a trained artist, you better be prepared to explain your work...I always thought the work should speak for itself and that the viewer should be allowed to bring their own experiences to the work without the artist spoon feeding how the work should be experienced or understood. I thought art writers, curators, historians and critics would explain the art. But if you are lucky enough to get someone to write about your work it is possibly because you were first able to help people understand your intentions.

And to add things on top of things, and get even more complicated, you had better Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, and all that jazz and not to forget email and text baby, text!  And make a website, darhling. 'though that is so 20th Century, you shoulda done that a LONG time ago!

And next. You gotta go to openings, and lectures and panels and schmooze, and also teach or something to make actual dependable cash and then get your artistic self into that studio and make you some masterpieces!

Can we get a "Oh MY GOD!"

"Always" above by Joyce Owens is spending time in Liberia at the United States Embassy for the moment

Art Education: Dead or Alive?

Not only is art education in public schools on a resuscitator that is malfunctioning, but regular education in America is a joke!

Frustrated with the lack of curiosity, commitment to hard work, respect for others, respect for time, inability to follow simple instructions and difficulty completing simple tasks that our students display, I have been trying to figure out what to do! I'm proud to say my hometown, Philadelphia has a plan.

I have been teaching in some capacity for much of my life. And I enjoy it very much,  especially seeing students develop self confidence as they acquire new skills. But I am appalled by the various deficits students arrive with from their high schools, and though I understand it can be embarrassing to be unable to produce  a result that others around you can, I am puzzled about the indifference to learning I perceive from some students.

I have never thought the schools had to teach EVERYTHING! But how to use a ruler! How to follow simple directions! How to construct a grammatically sound simple sentence! These are skills that many students do not have.

I think the problem is that people who want to teach go to public school and are not taught the basics because they have teachers who have not been taught the basics so they can only teach what they know and think is correct methodology. There has been created a perpetual cycle of mis-learning and bad teaching by mis-taught teachers, who don't know any better. The cycle spirals out of hand until the standards are lost into just teaching to the test.

So this is another reason why the arts are essential. In visual art there is always more than one way to achieve the goal. In art there is a possibility for personal expression, so students can purge themselves of every day stress. They develop problem solving skills that can be applied to all areas of their lives. There is also a need to be able to calculate and measure, for example if you work in watercolor and need a border on your paper or you learn to cut a mat for the watercolor when its done, or you draw in linear perspective. Students mix chemicals when they work with clay or paints and printmaking. They write about their work, and critique it verbally so they learn to speak in public. There is an opportunity to develop critical thinking as students learn to choose a way of working and method of evaluating what they have created.

Students can share their concerns, their anger, their confusion, their hopes, dreams and doubts through the arts (visual, music, theater, dance). That ability to release emotions through art might stem the high tide that brought us almost 30 deaths of school age students in the first 3 months of 2009 in Chicago.


So people, lobby for art at all class levels, bringing art teachers in to all schools, not just the rich neighborhoods, and the special schools for the smart kids!

If we want to build a smarter nation, with people who have skill sets that will help us progress as we encounter the various changes the 21st Century is bringing, we have to educate ALL!!!!!!

Top: CSU students learning about art by visiting the President's Gallery during an exhibition honoring Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month in 2008.
Bottom art: Allen Moore, a Chicago State student produced this 16" x 20" acrylic painting for a 2008 student exhibition on campus.

Who do you exhibit with, Where and Why?

Artists love to be asked to participate in invitational exhibitions.

"The Medieval In America"

There is no submission of jpegs or slides, no nail biting wait until you hear if you are in or out of a juried show... you just get CHOSEN, and your work already has a stamp of approval by the
curator,  gallery owner or gallery director who feels your work will fit with other artists they have  selected. I entered  Black Creativity at the Museum of Science and Industry again this year.

It is considered a prestigious show by some local artists. Others totally ignore it. The problem is that  it is at a science museum that has no real interest in visual artists, but since the Art Institute and the MCA are not really a choice, either, because one does not appear to court living Chicago artists and one is for cutting edge art, the MSI juried art show still looks good year in and year out.  There is the chance you will win a prize. Last year I won one of 7 prizes out of 600 entries but the Honorable Mention came with no monetary reward. This year the fees for entry went up by $15.00 to $50.00,  but the prize money awarded did not increase.

I have won Best of Show and other monetary prizes in the past.

AND, it's a museum! It's juried! The jurors are knowledgeable and prestigious!

GREAT!!!! right?

Well, maybe...even in a juried show there is no guarantee you are in good company. This one admittedly takes amateur artists and students.Yes, they can be good, too, but it does change the dynamic.

Invitational or juried, do you ALWAYS  ASK who, what, why, where and when?

Do you ask who you will be with?

Why the particular artists have been selected to exhibit together is a question that you can tease out without sounding arrogant. 

Where the work  will be shown should be forthcoming but sometimes people want to first, put a show together and then, find a place to show it. 

You need to be clear about, and understand the purpose of the show. Make sure you ask particulars about the thematic stream attached to the show. Is it something you feel you address through your work? Is it something you really want to be associated with?

Many artists, including me,  are just happy to be in a show.  BUT.

I have found that sometimes it's better to respectfully decline an exhibition offer and wait for the next opportunity.

OK. So say you want to be in the show; please remember to find out the following:

1. Who the other artists are. Are they comparable to your achievement?

If they are emerging, mid-career or beyond is not so important to me; I mean are they "good" in your opinion.  (You may also care if they are new.) You just need to know one way or the other so you can make an informed choice. 

2. Do you like the work the other artist(s) creates. You may decide to show with an artist you don't care for because you know lots of other people do, or because you know your dislike is very personal. Or because the venue is exceptional.

3. Is it an established venue? Is it in someone's studio or home?  Think about the mailing list and who may come to the studio or home before dismissing this outright. This could be a nice intimate chance to bring more support for your work.

4. Is the exhibition raising funds for a project you don't support? Well, I rarely would do that, but you may feel that the company, the crowd and the venue, plus attendant publicity may make the show worth your while. Hey, I might re-think my original choice, but I would not support some issues, no matter what!

My point is to be conscious of choices.  Sometimes I show because I really like the other artists and would show with them anywhere. Sometimes I am thrilled to be with artists I respect, and I am meeting them for the first time in the exhibition.

Reasons you should exhibit are many and varied.

I want artists to also THINK about why they sometimes

should not show.

"The Medieval in America" by Joyce Owens was shown at the DuSable Museum in Chicago. When the curator, Jomo Cheatham,  asked me to create a painting about lynching ( a subject I had never addressed in my work) I jumped at the chance to be in The Citizen's Picnic: Lynching in America from 1865- Present.

WHY MAKE ART?

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It's hard work, it's relentless work, it is financially draining, it robs you of friendships and other relationships, it is psychically wrenching, and often leaves you feeling totally naked and exposed and, it's addictive!

A little black girl growing up in Philadelphia, the youngest of three children, living with a twice-divorced mom and two siblings, 4 and 8 years older than I and the children of the previous marriage, I tried to understand the world around me.  I didn't know what it meant that I made pictures, I just did. Not on nice paper or in sketch books (no one purchased them for me), but in notebooks that were meant for other class work.  As time passed I took myself to the local playground where they offered some art. I even won a blue ribbon. No one in my house cared about this as long as I was not in  trouble. So I rolled along, being a "good  girl" but feeling I was also an  artist.

I am sharing a statement I wrote years ago because it struck me as pertinent, especially in these stressful times, to remember the choice we make in taking the title "artist" and in hopes that you will share your stories as well. 

Of course there are hundreds of books about the urge to be creative, but who can tell those stories best are those who live it. And as we know, there is not ONE WAY to be an  artist; artists are all different!

Think how much it might help a young kid or teenager or even a young adult to know that we all feel uncertain, we struggle everyday about whether what we do is worthwhile to ourselves, let alone anyone else! And that good results often take hard work. But hard work does not guarantee anything.

I would love for you to share your story so I can post it to my blog so please add your story to the comments. If you prefer, you can email me and I can put it on another post.

Here's mine:

As a little girl I just wanted to organize my mother's house. I desired beauty and did what I could to accomplish it. I would go into my mother's room and arrange the perfumes, makeup and jewelry that sat on her dresser. I dusted the perfumes and other items that were, then, set down using good spacing to show off their lovely forms and colors. In our living room, I would diligently fluff and carefully place the contrasting, brilliantly hued pillows that adorned my mother's golden couch - strategically. This couch sat before heavy red drapes and on a mid-value violet carpet. I wanted each of the pillows just so, the red one next to the green one and not the gold one. The ugly ones were hidden in the back. I opened the drapes a certain degree to allow in the right amount of light. My mother received the same scrutiny whenever possible.

I did all this by instinct with no supervision. A divorced parent of three, my mother worked as a city employee and as an opera singer! I am the youngest and was raised by committee. As I did not misbehave much, I was often left to my own devices. I made neat the garden's grass and trimmed the rose bushes. I swept the front steps and polished our silver plate. I moved the furniture (as much as I could) to achieve the balance I knew it needed.

My vow to become an artist was made to Linda Chambers, my best friend at the time, in her bedroom in Philadelphia when I was still in elementary school.

As an artist my quest remains organization and beauty. I think I have always had the need to understand the human soul. For me, a pictorial analysis is natural. The first major painting I made in college was in response to my grandmother's death. The toll taken on my mother and the grief thrust upon us all had to be transformed to a tangible existence. My grandmother's death was the impetus for the painting. I understood..., and I also understood that the work affected other people who had no connection with my grandmother. The loss was a universal experience.

The themes that I continue to investigate include death (loss), love, joy, trust and other human mysteries and relationships, how we work them out with each other and our environment.

I am also quite taken with human protective camouflage. I believe we wear many "faces" to help us cope with our lives. I think about our many masks (disguises) and through my work I am aware that the truth is just beneath the surface. I hope to help people think about that. I hope that visual articulation of these concepts will make a difference. I am compelled to do the work. My hope, aside from making credible, esthetically viable works is to gain insight and truth via the process.

This is a statement I no longer use. It was more for me than anyone else, I think. If you need help writing a statement here are two sources :

link one:  Molly  Gordon

Link two: at CAR, Chicago Artists Resource.

 

Above: "Imagined in Marble: Found Myself"

Top of page: "Imagined in Marble: Figure on Pointe"

 by Joyce Owens

Visual artists stepping out of our comfort level...

WE have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

For artists negotiating the route to international, national, local and even community exposure is all tough and it is not comfortable getting told "no" or "not yet" or "you are not ready".  Ask any artist.

In the new world order ...

 

Should artists expect an easier shake?

Should Chicago artists expect preferential treatment?

Above is photo of Chicago actor Harry Lennix with Pres.-elect Obama and his first lady Michelle at the N'Digo gala a couple of years ago. 

Can we expect a change from our new president who lives in the liberal Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago, the same neighborhood where my Hyde Park Art Center talk took place on Nov.3. (I had to circumvent my usual route to the center because at a point, cop cars no longer allowed cars down 51st Street, keeping us away from the Obama home.) 

That was a change I didn't expect. But I turned right and just took another street, still making it to where I needed to go. Maybe we can't be prepared for change that is imposed on us, but we can learn to  ask for the change we want! 

Strategy may seem antithetical to creativity, but of course it is not.  We have to negotiate and maneuver,  struggle and prepare, and then we have to do more in order to make art, don't we? From the  process of producing a work to getting it shown, not to mention getting it into a collection of some sort takes a ton of work.  Most of us don't have assistants, publicists, managers or p.r. agencies, not to mention a dedicated gallery dealer. Most of us lug our work to exhibitions and art fairs.  We prep canvas or watercolor paper, go through all the steps for pulling an etching or linocut  and figure out where we might display the works. We set our price lists and write our bios and artists statements.

I think what sometimes stops me, when it comes to doing new tasks, is that I don't translate one way of working that I already know to the possibility of doing something else. For example, writing. I have always been a writer for my own satisfaction, and I love to read. I love books.

My Philadelphia home where I grew up, and later lived during holidays through my college years, always had books, periodicals and daily papers around. None of my family went to the Broad Street subway or the Chelten Avenue bus to go to school or work without something to read.

I don't know when I fell in love with words. I will read a passage and get stuck on a great sentence...turning it around in my head, savoring it like a rich dessert. I hate for the good books to end. I read through the terrible books to understand what in the world went wrong! For years I stayed away from novels but I am back. Finally read Audrey Niffenegger's "Time Traveler's Wife"  after winning the Ragdale. (She won one, too.)

I assume all my reading led to writing my own thoughts, just for my own consumption,  and as my way to think and figure out what I was doing. My mother told me I inherited my interest in writing from my grandmother, but my mother, Eloise Owens, wrote too, letters to the editors to the Philadelphia newspapers, letters to me when I was in college and probably to her friends and family.

In college I wrote in sketch books stating that I had no idea what I was doing or what an artist did, etc.  I anguished about my life, my relationships and my hopes that I would someday know who I was.

In recent years I  had a piece published about my uncle, Jack T. Franklin, on the Museum of the African Diaspora website because I really wanted his record to be clearer. After hearing his name in reference to a Smithsonian Museum exhibition mentioned on CBS Sunday morning I  Googled him and found misinformation. I wrote the website to try to get it corrected. They thanked me and didn't change anything.  So I took it upon myself to write a piece about him. The Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco came along at the  right time.

I did not stop to think I could not do that. Only when I saw the level of professionalism the other writers had was I humbled that my little narrative had been accepted.

Allan Edmunds brought up a great set up ideas in his comments on a recent post. That artists need to take advantage of international opportunities during the Obama administration.

I can tell you, he's right!  The only way to find out what will happen is to try.  Artists in  the 21st Century have so many advantages. For one, the Internet!

So if  there is something you don't do because it is out of your comfort level, let that  go, and Just Do It!

Barack Obama did!!!!!

The photo above of my mother, Eloise Owens,  is a proof shot by Uncle Jack T. Franklin. The painting is one I felt uncomfortable making, "Imagined in Marble: Figure with Hand", my on-going attempt at abstraction turned into a figure!  Below is a small group of these works. I saw the images in the veins in marble.

Fundraiser auctions: promotion for artists?

How many times have you been asked to donate work to a not-for-profit annual gala and auction?

I personally cannot count them.

How many times have you been contacted AFTER  the event  because someone saw your work and wants to add a piece to their art collection?

I'd say  NEVER to that.

I have had people tell me that they really like my work in an auction; the work does sell, usually for my  established price point, but nothing else has ever happened. 

Does fine art  mix with spa and travel?

I am fed up with donating one-of-a-kind art to fund raisers that position the art on a table next to a spa weekend from a hotel or a two round trip tickets to Las Vegas package or a trip to London! (Art needs to be displayed well, also!) The art work may sell into the hundreds but the Vegas trip makes $1,000.00. The London trip goes for $5,000.00 and some other artist's work doesn't make the $50.00 opening bid!

The work is undervalued and  you  don't even get a portion of the sale.

So this is what I decided:

1. I give to charities I would give to anyway.

2. I ask for a portion of the money, if possible, to pay my expenses.

3. If I don't support the charity I won't give unless the representative has  already purchased my work.

4. If I will get a portion  of the sale price I will probably be willing to donate  a larger work that will bring in more money than a small work for the charity and for me.

Most important, I am  starting to ask if it is an art only auction.

If not,  I  regretfully decline the new requests.

If I do not honor my own work, who will?

"Young Lois" (above) a tribute to Lois Mailou Jones, by Joyce Owens was in a gallery auction and sold at 4 times the opening bid.

BEYOND the BLUES: Taking art to the street

WHERE can artists present their work besides a gallery?

We have Lowell showing up  after the Barack Obama interview with CNN at the tail end of the recent Unity Convention in Chicago's McCormick Place to exhibit his work and make contacts with the working press. I trust we will get updates on this from L.T.

Turtel, you have created your own way for years, doing the comic book convention and more.

ARC,  an alternative space in Chicago that has been around for about 34 years, established for and operated collectively by women to exhibit, educate and promote mainly  women artists. Nancy Charak (a regular commenter)  is a member.

I am a member of  Sapphire and Crystals, a collective that has been nomadic for the past 20 years and put on our own exhibitions in spaces where we are invited. Our goal is to promote professional African American women artists. Twice we were featured during Chicago Artists Month.

Traditionally artist salons were hosted in the homes of collectors.  We know about Gertrude and Leo Stein, for  example.

Open studios are routine for many artists. Artists have been rejected from major venues and made their own way for at least 150 years, sometimes coming out on  top!

Do we really need the cachet some high end galleries afford us?

STUDIO SHOW: If I show my work in my studio it might sell at one price point to a friend or acquaintance. If I show  it in a reputable, established gallery, it might sell at a different price point to someone I don't know, and get a review. 

GALLERY SHOW: Same work, why not the same authority? Because of human nature.  Some people want to be assured that they have good taste.  Not quite mob action, but similar. EVERYBODY loves ...fill in the blank. Could be the thing everybody loves is actually the BEST thing.  Could be everybody was kinda brainwashed.  Could be many people don't trust their own taste. That's one reason Martha Stewart, Oprah and  others  have become rich, telling people what they should like.  People  need someone to tell  them what is GOOD. HOW about an art guru TV program?  Art offers all the  stuff Oprah offers and lasts  a lot longer, I bet!

TRUST: Collectors trust June Kelly, George and Jumaane N'Namdi, Norman Parrish,  Mary Boone, Susan Woodson, Isobel Neal, Ann Nathan and other gallerists in Chicago and around  the  country. Collectors believe these folks assure the work has guaranteed value. Critics believe these galleries have the education and experience to select the best artists for their reviews. I insist my student study artists on line by seeking out websites that are not the artists'.

ART DEALERS: Paul Klein, who no longer operates a standing gallery, has more clout than just about anybody else in Chicago through his Artletter, preceded by his extensive experience with art and artists. (click on Paul's name to hear a recent "Hello Beautiful" interview.) So, if Klein or Madeline Rabb like your work, neither of whom run a traditional gallery space, but both of whom are often asked to place art in major collections, you could have it made in  the shade. Well, sort of. You may have to do abstract art to get into most collections or be such a big name that they are buying your signature as much as your art.   

painting above by Joyce Owens

 

It's your culture that could be lost!

What do we know about any culture?

What happened in 15th C. Italy? What happened during The Great Depression?  What happened during the Civil War?  What was up in ancient Greece?

"What Happened?" in history is often etched in our heads in pictures. Take a look at Michael D. Harris' book that deals with the manipulation of black images.

We learn about historic periods by the art and artifacts left behind.

The monuments
The buildings
The murals
The sculpture
The paintings
The photographs

The tangible and visual can tell the story of a civilized people and their lives.

Art work found in a special place will indicate a certain  status.  King Tut had that tomb, discovered finally in 1922,  intact because the looters had not removed and sold everything, although they had tried (then some other pharaoh built  housing for the workers building his tomb over Tut's, so the boy king's loot was hard to uncover). But Tut, a lesser, younger,  short-lived pharaoh has become the best known because of the booty found in his final resting place.

He can be studied. He can exemplify a period.

So, in what special place do we find art by African Americans, today? How will the future folks  understand our integral importance to and contributions within our culture? They can learn about our separate culture resulting from enslavement, Jim Crow, segregation, redlining, poverty and mis-education, etc. in separate institutions.

We may not seem  to have been that important to future observers. The museums and galleries not totally devoted to African American history and art will not show much. Go see for yourself. 

Maybe you don't have time to get to a museum. Pick up some books on "American Art". You will be hard pressed to find artists  of African heritage included.

No books? Check us out on line, then. Google "American Artists" or "famous Artists" and  see what you discover if  you play a favorite game of mine, " Find the black artist". Try it! You may be surprised.

I usually look for artists:  Elizabeth Catlett, Henry  O. Tanner, Joshua Johnston, Samella  Lewis,  Lois  Mailou Jones,  Richard  Mayhew,  Chakia Booker,  Robert Colescott,  Richard  Hunt,  William H. Johnson,  William  Carter, Philomena Williamson, Nannette Carter, Fred Wilson, Ed Clark, Sam Gilliam and some others. If you research "American artists", "American Art", etc. you may find Jacob Lawrence, Basquiat, Romare Bearden and Martin Puryear and a few others.

I own various books on American Art most dating from the 1960's to present, art textbooks, catalogs, books I find here and there at estate sales, etc. and notice we are usually not represented. At best, out of 100 famous American artists one or two might be African American.

And women, we tried for equal rights through a feminist movement and a Civil Rights movement and women are still sparsely represented  in the mainstream.

SO, What do you think? What can we do to change this?

image:
From the Crying Man series
by Joyce Owens

Neo-Style, Post-Media, Neo-Aesthetics, Neo- Ethnic, Post-avante garde, Neo-modern, Post-classical, Neo-postmodern-black

S o does the passion, the personal experiences of the artist, the artists' idiosyncrasies, and her desire to create a personal mark or signature art form, the gender and race of the artist, the access to technology or lack of it,  his articulation of sexual preferences through his art, her sense of isolation,  his longing, his awe of nature, etc.   need to take a back seat until and unless the artist assesses his or her niche  (aka market)?

Maybe the art schools, the basic training platform for many artists,  should not prepare students to  make art, but to deal with the " Artworld", meaning  national and international art dealers, curators, historians and critics.  Teaching grant writing,  training students to complete successful applications for residencies, etc. should be priorities.  I'm suggesting that the art schools should go the opposite of what I experienced, and  teach the politics and business of art, exclusively.  Students can research current trends before making a first mark on a drawing pad. They can learn to network by taking field trips to art openings, and schmoozing with the clientèle present. Freshmen would go to local galleries to learn what the gallerists are looking for. What sells well could be a 3rd week assignment on the syllabus. Students would attend panels on current pricing practices,  meet with bankers, auction house personnel and art insurers.

Second Year students would be taken to contemporary art museums  where they get  the benefit of  behind-the-scenes tours featuring a talk on recent acquisitions to the collection and  current demands for it.

Art students would be taught to gear their artist statements to include  one of the  top 25  story lines  that  move  collectors and museums  to acquire   art works. And learn where movers and shakers have lunch.

I have become aware of a real-life class of artists I call "Artist-entrepreneurs".  I define this group of people as those who have no significant, inherent attachment to art, they are trying to determine the best way for them to make a lot of money. And they conclude that making art and using promotional techniques that might be used to market any product will make that cash! Their spiels leave me with an infomercial vibe.  And also, amazed!   These folks sell art and lots of it based on their amazing force-of-will.

So, do you think we should forget teaching students  the traditions and teach them how to research and market a product? Why reflect your culture, your concerns, your preferences?

Students are still flocking to art  schools, but why since the internet makes it possible to teach yourself many techniques if you can read and follow directions?

Both my sons are decent artists. Neither has gone to art school. They had all the toys the neo-pop artists portray in their works. My kids played with Ghostbusters, G.I. Joe, He-Man, Transformers, Star Wars and of course saw the omnipresent Disney tales.  I always rushed to buy the recently released movies that were going "back into the vault" after this sale,  making sure my sons had the "experience" of seeing Bambi and Show White and the Seven Dwarfs. 

They learned to make art because I gave then materials from when they were little and I took them to places where they could see art (and other things) from before they could walk.  I took them to the Contemporary Art Workshop, The Lincoln Park  and Brookfield Zoos, The Museum of Science and Industry, The Aquarium, The Field Museum, the Children's Museum and the Spertus Museum for the digs. They went to galleries when they were still in the snuggly and stroller . When they were old enough to talk, they let us know the Museum of Science and Industry and the Children's Museum were among their favorites.  The Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Art were visited rarely until they were older. And they went to the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum. 

My son, Kyle, draws constantly.
(that's his pencil sketch, above, of Samuel L. Jackson)
He is creating a comic book with a friend, a student at Columbia College.  My son understands computers and can use technology along with hand drawing to produce his work.

Experts of computer and video games and things Japanese,  my sons probably already know about  Kijima and  her work. My other son  is a computer engineer and a game developer who is programming a new game as we speak  at a company in Mesa, Arizona.

These two guys collected Pokemon, started the Anime Club at Whitney Young H.S., with some like minded friends, have owned every game system and major game that has come out since they were  tiny and we had to make the midnight runs to Toys R Us in hopes of finding the one  they HAD to have for Christmas. One son went with a Chinese friend to visit Japan already. 

By the way, I think we are aware that the richest country dominates the global culture. It has been  us , Coke and Rock and Roll, jeans... and it is shifting to Asian culture. Alongside that reality , we all understand that there is a generational divide that demands that the youth breaks from the previous one. So getting into a culture that was our enemy a couple of generations ago is a good break from the immediate past. Not the first time folks were enamored of Japanese art and culture; you can see it in  the art by Toulouse Lautrec and Van Gogh among others, and maybe in your grandmother's stuff depending on your age.  Nipon collectibles probably have  some value.

So I guess I am asking two questions that you can pull out of my meanderings.

1. How can art schools change to serve the needs of our students?

2. How can the international cultural  systems change to be inclusive of  culture that does not reflect a Eurocentric mindset?

Or have they already?

Would love to hear your thoughts...

p.s. Below is an excerpt from a book review of a VERY rich artist. I went to one of his "galleries" and was stunned by the mediocrity of the work. But he has been covered my most major media and sometimes sells dozens of paintings to each of his collectors. Click here to read the entire review.

"Thomas Kinkade is reportedly the most collected living artist in the world, yet I am compelled by both space and time constraints to list above only two of his larger coffee-table art books. A list of all the Kinkade collections, gallery catalogues, co-authored religious inspiration books, home décor spin-offs, architectural plans, etc., ad nauseum, would match the size and content of the Asheville phone directory".

Clay Goss, Writer, playwright: sends creative models

Sharing with you author and playwright Clay Goss' email 
on the discussions that he sent a few days back.
(with his permission).



 

He and I have known each other since 
birth. My mother, Eloise Owens and 
his mother, Alfreda were best friends.
My mother was Clay's godmother. We 
all called him Sonny. We were dragged 
to each other's homes when we were 
growing up and just kinda stared at 
each other until we could go home.

Turns out we went to the same high school in Philadelphia 
and then the same college, Howard University and became 
friends.

Sonny was a big man on campus in high school, playing 
football at Germantown High and doing important literary
stuff later at Howard and beyond. 
He invited me to my first high school party. And he is 
married to a professional story teller and writes and 
teaches in Phila. 



Joyce

        Thanks for the comments. I wrote my thoughts
down as fast as I could. It was very late and I had
just reviewed a master's thesis defense essay and
poems for the umpteenth time. So I know the grammar
and spelling must have been somewhat whacked. I just
wanted to give two models from the past that seemed to
go somewhere.
         Interestingly, there are two other models I
have dug on over the years. One is right there in
Chicago: The AACM(The Advancement of Creative
Musicians). In the latter half of the 70's I spent a
blizzard cold year at Ohio U.in Athens. somehow they
invited Muhal Richard Abrahms, the founder of that
group, for a solo concert. I spent a part of the day
with him(he was like Ornette/a country/east
texas?/sort of guy/which shocked me because of the
experimental range of his music and the depth of his
"jazz" ability. and, I've always been open to the
sounds and artists of the Art ensemble of Chicago, his
group. 
           Anyway a book by the Columbia (university)
Prof and trombonist George Lewis covering The AACM 
and Abrahms over the last forty years is about to 
come out(a mustread since they have 
lasted so long, put out a zillion groups, individuals, 
and have influenced avant garde music worldwide over that 
period; doing so without going the
"commercial" route. You should look him up!!
I doubt he'd remember me or Athens but I do know he
was a very approachable and congenial cat.
            The other model was from Japan. Led by an
art school graduate/entrepenuer, Takashi Murakami, this
group following the Warhol model and innovating it
from a Japanese artistic and business point of view
have created a MOVEMENT that extends worldwide and
makes a fortune. Last summer I went up to NYC to see
their blockbuster exhibit at The Japan Society. This
cat centered a group of people/notions called Otaku Culture 
and took off with it. 
Regardless of how one feels about the art,this
stuff is spreading like hip hop. You have to look in
to it. Murakami has a studio/factory in Brooklyn/an
extention of his operations in Japan.
                Look, do what you will with the stuff
I sent you...remember I sent it to you (and not)"going 
outside" 
even though I knew the potential of it since I read some 
blogs now and then.
                 Again, your movements and activities
are inspiring--keep dancing and moving on up!         
                sonny

Thanks Sonny. 


"Pillars III"    
by Joyce Owens