Joyce Owens: Artist On Art

Juried exhibitions: Pay to Play

So, you find out about a great juried exhibition. Your work is clearly meant for it.

I won Best of Show at this Chicago gallery and a solo exhibition.

My work is on the back wall. I entered because of the juror.

The juror (who will judge YOUR art) is a nationally recognized curator at a major museum. You can just see this accomplishment on your resume/bio/cv!

So you enter work that was produced within the timeframe designated, only work produced during the last 2 years or maybe 3 years is eligible. You are the age required and NOT currently enrolled in a college or university as a student and you reside whereever the exhibition requires. Could be local, regional, national or international...could be women only, could be victims of something or people with certain ideas that they are examining through their work, could be photography only or sculpture...

"My Own Eve" by Joyce Owens won a First Prize from Faith Ringgold

You learn to read the small print.

Your work can be rejected if you do not follow the guidelines. Now jpeg size is also an issue, 72 dpi, 300 dpi, size in inches and pixels needs to be adhered to and labelling is a big deal. Last name with initial, title of art, numbered, thumbnail list and on and on...I don't think there are consistent guidelines and requirements. Each time you have to resize, reformat and retitle your images for internet submission or by mail on a CD. 

If you are not technologically contemporary you may not even be abe to apply without some help.

One more thing:

After all the work and prep and following of guidelines you have to cough up some cash!

You might pay one fee for several submissions. You might pay one fee for the first entry and another fee for each additional entry.

Should you enter juried shows, and if you do, what is the money used for? These are tricky questions with a range of answers.  Especially when the galleries also take a commission on sold works. Some answers: Jurors usually get honoraria. That may come out of the fees. Cash prizes may. Not always. Receptions, print material and maybe a gift to the institution that holds the event may come out of the fees...The staff preparators and those processing paperwork and moving the art work gets paid.

But artists often ask for money when they curate exhibitions, galleries sometimes ask for hanging fees...There are all kinds of ways that monies are accrued by galleries and artists. How much do people now pay to be in the Chicago Artists Coaltion's Art Open? I know they have made it more desirable, but it is a sizable fee for a large group show (yes there are other useful benefits through membership). Co-op and artist run galleries charge fees for exhibitiors. I once won a first prize at a gallery that insisted I pay a fee to insure I would prepare the walls after the exhibition. The walls were not prepared BEFORE my show! I did them!

Recently I was included in a competition that I had not entered. The "rules" were vague and not applied to all the artists. The judges were not curators or art historians or art critics or artists.

"Life Support" by Joyce Owens, 2010 did not win at Gallery Guichard last week

Most of us will take a chance on our art and sometimes the outcome is worth the risk! I think that is what drove artists to compete on the BravoTV art show.  Just in case!

But remember, artists, you always have the option of saying 'No thanks'.

 

An Artist's Pain: Being Judged and Juried

"Survivor Spirits" (Joyce Owens) sold out (except for one) at Concordia University...

Of course selling out is no guarantee that your work is good. It means that you touched a tender spot in people's hearts, and you, perhaps, should have asked for more money for the work!

"Familiarity breeds contempt", and other dilemmas artists wrestle with are many...submitting to exhibitions may be at the top of any top 10 list of things we hate to do, but know we must! I will tell you what I know that could save you from too much pain.

Here are a few of the dilemmas:

If your work is too familiar, it is not challenging.

If your work is too unfamiliar, then it does not fit the current discourse.

If there is no continuum, a dialogue with previous artists, then your work doesn't address art history. 

If your work is non-traditional then you may be  unskilled.

If your work is highly skilled then you may be too traditional.

If you work with new media, you may have no art skills.

If you avoid technology in your work may not be contemporary.

If your work fits too well, it is trendy.

If critiqued by a person who just doesn't like your style, then your work will not interest them.

Is your head spinning?

  "Retro-racing History" series (Joyce Owens)   AFROcentric feel to portraits, after Titian, Gainsborough...

How do you know your work is good? Each person who sees it will have a different opinion colored by the viewer's personal experience and knowledge. Should you be discouraged when you:

1.never get into juried shows

2. only sometimes get into juried shows

3. when you always get into juried shows (probably not!)

Many artists produce work that gets routinely rejected by the mainstream. It has famously happened, repeatedly, to artists who are now considered world class. Van Gogh is an easy example. And then there are the artists who are here today and gone tomorrow...those artists like Georges Roualt, who is still known, but not as well as he used to be, relegated frequently to the study of Biblical art...not a bad thing. Jacques Louis David was the cat's meow and got down-sized. Here are underrated artists in an Artnews article.

With art it is a damned if you do, and damned if you don't proposition, with the possibility that if you "do" today, in 20 years, you might be a "don't", and there are multiple variations on this theme.

Possible solutions to rejection, and bad, or no reviews:

1. develop a hard shell

2. take what you can from the comments

3. believe in yourself

4. believe in your work!

5. ask somebody else

6. keep working to improve

7. find like-minded artists and see what they do

8. look at good art! (tricky, but you can trust some galleries and museums...)

Google the juror before you submit to a show

If you are submitting to juried shows there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Jurors have preferences. If you know they make abstract work or are the curator of contemporary art at a museum and you're a realist portrait painter, you may not get chosen (not a rule, but a possibility).

2. So if you research the juror, you could be prepared if you are not accepted, and happily surprised if you are.

3. Jurors don't know everything. I have been on juries where I discovered one or more of the others were not familiar with some fairly common  techniques. 

4. Take chances! You never know when you might be chosen!

5. Make sure you submit good images of your work

6. Follow entry rules and deadlines

Good luck!

Idiot or Artist? What It Takes to Create a Lucrative Art Career

So, all your intelligence is directed at one goal; does that make you an idiot, as in, the now non-p.c. phrase, "idiot savant!", or an artist?

This guy, Stephen Wiltshire,  can accurately draw a diagrammatic rendition of the buildings in Rome,  Paris, Tokyo and New York City, after one fly-through. People like him are called "savant", these days, and their trait is considered a form of autism. If not for the other limitations, one might be eager for the syndrome.  I am obsessive about my work, but there are variations within it. As I grow (and age) my work addresses different issues in different ways. The savants, I think, don't change much.

I am very impressed that Wiltshire can remember everything he has seen and record those lines and shapes to recreate a panorama of a city.  If you look at the link you will see he has been greatly rewarded for his condition.

I am also amazed by the miniatures Willard Wigan create and sells for thousands of dollars.  He also claims a mental deficiency provoked him to make the miniatures, but he is not a savant, he has dyslexia and learning disabilities.

Below are images from Nicole Gallery in Chicago where you can see his work.

 

Unfortunately, I am not amazed that these artists get more respect and news coverage than the artists who develop their "natural gifts" and may spend thousands in training and materials to produce art works that reflect their lives and culture.  Let me say that I think Wiltshire has what we like to call talent. I like his renderings of city streets and think he shows a definite point of view.  His quirk has taken him a long way.  Great for him.

There is no fairness when it comes to art.

The nutty lady who scribbles little pictures on the street is made into an art star because...she, seemingly, makes 3rd grade pictures? Isn't there a difference between an artist who can only do one thing, and an artist who could be a singer or an actor or a math teacher but chooses art. 

I admit I don't know if art chooses us or we choose it. I am surer everyone has had different experiences in that regard. But the key word is "Choice".  Isn't choice the word that separates man and beast?  I know, I know, your dog is really smart, and so's your bird, and your cat is a whiz!

... but you get my point. Shouldn't the definition of artist include the ability to make a conscious choice about what is produced?

American Landscape" Joyce Owens 2009-2010 (detail)

American Idol (type) Art Competition

I called for it January 2009. Now I will get the chance to see if I made a mistake! The show airs tonight on Bravo TV called "Work of Art".

•  
• 
• 

This is what I said back then:

The most easily accessible connection to current culture is television and computers. Where are the TV shows  about  visual  art; how about an American Idol-type Visual Artist show??  The scouts could find the next art star who is not an elephant, a "savant" or a child.

You know things are bad when we can rarely find shows about art on public TV!  Oh sure you can still find shows with the guy who completes a painting during a one-hour show and a great show called Art21 that features internationally known artists and more than on commercial TV, no doubt. Locally, ArtBeat features the arts in some segments during that daily "Chicago Tonight". There are wonderful travel shows that include the art of the region and do a nice job of explaining ancient treasures.

I have never seen a TV award shows  featuring  visual  artists, have you?  We get the Grammys, and The Country Music Awards. We have been hearing about the The Golden Globes, and the Oscars as the producers gear up the the awards season. The various Emmy awards programs honor day and primetime TV.

What about fine arts? Do we get dissed because we don't have unions?

Art publications, the few we have, are mostly national and only fleetingly acknowledge local artists...thank goodness Olga Stephen and the CAC got "Prompt" published.  Otherwise there is not much. Art critics are a disappearing breed, but sports writers abound!

Even the print version of The Chicago Reader, a free paper that we could count on for art has an "Arts and Entertainment"  section that  excludes visual art.  Those listings are  found in "Galleries and Museums".

Oh, yeah, everybody knows P-Diddy. Everybody knows Paris. And that's great, and a part of our contemporary culture. I am surprised by how many people have NOT heard of Kerry James Marshall, Preston Jackson, Faith Ringgold, and others.

If we want people to develop a need for art, a need to visit art institutions, to care about what artists think, the way folks care about Will Smith, Angelina Joli and Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Oprah (who I wish would switch from promoting only authors to including us righteous artists), we have to find a way for people to know about art and realize we are pretty interesting, too.  Even more than that, we are reflections of them! They can know themselves better by knowing us!

AND, that's why we need schools to teach art to all students from preschool through 12th grade!  If you talk to President-elect Obama's new education guy, Arnie Duncan, please let him know that we are ready and willing to teach! Let's resolve to honor our culture, better educate our students  and build artists bank accounts.

"American Landscape" detail, Joyce Owens 2010

Richard Hunt's studio reposted from Studio Chicago

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

A Creative Space: Richard Hunt's Studio

Guest Blogger:

Joyce Owens

Artist, Arts activist, Painting instructor, and Curator of the galleries at Chicago State University

I, for a long time, have envied sculptors...they change space by shoving their stuff into it, affecting everything around it, sometimes for miles around!

Recently, I spent a morning with Richard Hunt, the internationally recognized sculptor with more public works than any other living artist. It’s a given that he just blows me away. His charming and unassuming personality and his handsome good looks are enough, but add to that his enormous creative abilities and long-tested productivity and you have a contemporary artist who is pretty much unmatched!

If envy, like Dante’s Inferno, has circles, visiting Hunt’s studio takes me deep into a covetous crater. His studio is jammed with tiny maquettes, informally arranged like a collection of rare crystal, intermixed with huge electric tools and small gadgets used to form and transform the metals, Hunt’s preferred medium. Some items I see are old hand tools that chew into and cut metal, and lots of cords attached to the tools trail the floor. There are modern laser cutters and various metal fasteners and clamps that I don’t have names for, plus curly metal shavings (that I wanted so badly to graph onto some of my own art!) left behind when the huge sheets of steel and aluminum are cut. The hunks of scrap metal and new metal create piles of inventory taller than my 5’10” frame and probably taller than my 3-story house. Various wires and wood pieces, books, magazines, newspapers, catalogs and clothes flow like a river and its tributaries throughout this space.

Hunt seems attracted to simple artifacts, the opposite of his own more texturally complex and curvy works, by American and African artists and spotted here and there in the studio and in his adjacent office. I see bolts to screw on the bases he is fabricating to stand his work on and metal rods, nails and whatnot. The cornucopia of sculpture-making delights extends from the floor to the ceiling with tiny aisles for walking and niches for working. I don't know how many works-in-progress are in this colossal former Chicago Transit Authority terminal. Many larger scale works shine beautifully in the muted light. They look complete and ready to go to a gallery, home, museum or corporation. I’d certainly welcome them into my home. Walking through Richard Hunt’s studio is like walking through a diamond shop with all the jewels out for anyone to touch!

I arrived at his Lill Street studio at 7:15 am this day to chat and have breakfast with Richard at his neighborhood hangout the Salt and Pepper Diner. It’s within eyesight of his studio, a place where he doesn’t really need a menu and where he doesn’t really need to state his order. The waitress already knows, but checks to make sure he hasn’t changed his mind. When we returned to the studio, passing by his sculpture in Jonquil Park that was being retrofitted for wheelchair accessibility, I realized that Richard’s space exemplifies the aspirations of many artists: We really want to get every idea we think we have into a concrete, ready-to-be-shown, form. Many of us have terrific ideas all the time, but many of those gems remain in our heads only. Some of us grasp our creative concepts and run with them to produce something, but maybe not scores of somethings. Has Hunt been able to actually remember the idea he had in the shower, or on a walk in the park or at dinner in a fancy restaurant, long enough to turn it into art? It seems to me he must. When I argued for the theme Artists at Work for Chicago Artists Month 2002 it was because I believe in what Richard Hunt lives, and I believe many other artists do, too: work. You work to make as much art as you can, for as many days as you can, for as many years as you can. Your natural creativity and the creativity you inevitably develop when you practice will show. Right now, I think the hardest job is mine, attempting to write about Richard Hunt’s glittering, magical space, holding treasures that easily compete with a gold mine, so that you can envision it.

Beauty aside, this is one studio that screams prolific. Richard Hunt states plainly, for anyone who looks, that he is the artist at work.

Artist Joyce Owens has a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from Yale University, a BFA from Howard University. She is an arts activist, and teaches painting and drawing and is the curator of the galleries at Chicago State University.

Posted by Studio Chicago at 11:45 AM

12 comments:

Martin Lindsey. said...

Wow, this is a guy I'd like to meet some day.

I took a welding class a few years ago to learn it as an industrial process when I was a practicing engineer. I fell in love with it just as much as an artistic process.

I hope to get back into it and learn to truly apply it artistically one day.

Great article. Thanks.

December 2, 2009 8:04 AM

ArtShows said...

Thanks for the inside images of his studio along with the article. Great great artist!

December 2, 2009 9:11 AM

Joyce Owens said...

@Martin: follow your dream! Thanks for the kind words. @ ArtShows, it was my pleasure. This guy works hard every day starting by 7am on most days...he is certainly a role model for me.

December 3, 2009 7:32 AM

CCamille said...

I checked out this guys webpage (www.artistrichardhunt.com). Do you realize his been exhibiting art since 1956? There's also video of him working in his studio.

I'm struck by your comments on Hunt's ability to set his ideas into motion . To actually create. I'm wondering what role space place in aiding the process of turning idea into actuality. Is it more than just the tools available to you? Is there something in the physical structure of a space that lends to productive creativity?

December 3, 2009 8:55 AM

 

Daniel Adam said...

Fantastic Studio

December 3, 2009 5:37 PM

Joyce Owens said...

@CCamille: Yes, Hunt was a prodigy while a student at the Art Institute.

The space Richard has is central to his productivity. His works-in-progress are available and he can work on multiple projects, rather than working on one-at-a-time. He can also establish a continuity from one piece to the next, so his body of work work is not disjointed. He can be inspired by his own sculptures that remain in his studio.

But artists figure out a way to get done what they need to... in large or small spaces. The space restrictions may dictate what one does and that, too, is interesting.

December 3, 2009 9:17 PM

Alex said...

Descriptions of the space - Wonderful! I feel like I was right there with you.

One thing I'm curious about is what your thoughts were about the space. How does it apply to your practice? How could this be applicable to others w/o easy access to such spacious studios - like myself? Besides fame and being a prodigy, what type of discipline and/or drive were apparent by mr. Hunt? You lightly tap into that towards the end though I realize your focus was on Hunt himself. Still would be great to hear your answers.

December 4, 2009 3:12 PM

Joyce Owens said...

Alex: Great questions. They merit another post, but, in lieu of that I can tell you I have never had a huge space. And it is limiting. It's hard to make large scale works, for example, so I work in series. Hunt is producing public art, naturally it needs to be large in most cases. And he fabricates some of the work in studio. You probably know that some sculptors create maquettes and send them to be fabricated elsewhere. )

What you can do is apply for residencies. I went to Ragdale this summer and worked in the largest space I ever experienced. I wrote about that on my own blog, Joyce Owens: Artist on Art and for Art Talk Chicago on Chicago Now...I'll come back with the link.

Hunt is in the studio by 7am every day. He is hands on, and does not have artists working from sketches only, etc. He has done drawings, prints, paintings and of course, sculptures. He seems to know everyone. He goes to receptions of artists he knows who are not famous like him! And all I said in the post! Any more questions? they are certainly welcome.

December 8, 2009 2:11 PM

Joyce Owens said...

Alex: here is a link to my blog.

http://monroeanderson.typepad.com/joyce_owens_on_art/2009/07/no-complaints-its-the-good-life-for-this-visual-artist.html

You may need to scroll down to the Ragdale post. There are lots of comments on the Art Talk version so click on that link if you want to read them.

December 8, 2009 2:18 PM

Peggradyart said...

Joyce, I love your philosophy that artists work to make as much art as we can for as long as we can, and that's our job, our lives. Would love to hang out with Hunt (and you) at the Salt and Pepper Diner.

December 9, 2009 8:55 AM

Oscar Arriola said...

Thanks for writing this Joyce. I think I first encountered Richard's work through the commision he completed for the Evanston Public Library. I was glad to see some pictures of his studio. I've passed by his building before and have wondered what it looked like on the inside.

December 26, 2009 11:08 AM

Joyce Owens said...

Thanks Peg: we are geographically incompatible to go for breakfast, but when you are in town, let's do it!

Oscar: Glad to give you a peek into the magical studio of Richard Hunt! Let me assure you that the real things tops my puny photos!

January 7, 2010 10:35 AM

Studio Chicago

Studio Chicago is a yearlong collaborative project that focuses on the artist's studio through exhibitions, talks, publications, tours, and research. It is a collaboration between core partners: The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University Museum, Gallery 400 at UIC, Hyde Park Art Center, Museum of Contemporary Art, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and threewalls.

The project's website is www.studiochicago.org.

The Studio Chicago blog is a forum for discussion about topics generated by the project over the course of the year. Guest bloggers are invited by Studio Chicago Core Partners to post for one week, and these posts are moderated by Core Partners.

Comments are encouraged and dialogue is welcomed. Inappropriate and off-topic comments will be removed at the Core Partner's discretion.

For any questions, please email us at info.studiochicago@gmail.com.

Mickalene Thomas @ Columbia College

I met the artist, and fellow Yale graduate, Mickalene Thomas  at Columbia College Chicago.

Joyce Owens stealth photos, not wanting my flash to distract.

Dawoud Bey (above right), the photographer, has brought amazing, informative programs to the college for years, now. I was able to attend a Bearden Symposium a few years back and recently meet Deborah Willis, a MacArthur Fellow (who included my uncle Jack T. Franklin in her book on African American photographers),  and heard her and her son Hank.

I have been aware of Mickalene's work, of course. I saw examples of it at Art Chicago and was aware that Rhona Hoffman is her Chicago Gallery. And I had all kinds of ideas about Mickalene's work. It looked trashy, photography-based in a way I would tell my students is a no-no, and all that glitter and mix-mashed array of materials just freaked me out, to use a 70's term that fits her 1970' sensibility!!

Meet Qusuquzah (above). Mickalene Thomas accented this 2008 portrait of her with hundreds of rhinestones. "I'm always looking for strong, beautiful, and complex women to model for me," says Thomas. "Qusuquzah embodies the allure of glamour." Image from Unbeige Magazine.

She blew all my misgivings and criticisms out the window during her lecture. My friend Derrick Blakley called in the middle of writing this post. He and I talked a while and I eventually mentioned the lecture, and how my response to her work had changed! A veteran Chicago reporter, currently at CBS2 Chicago, he asked the reporter's question:

"Does it make the work better ?"

"Well yes", I answered, thinking "great question"!

He continued by asking how the back-story makes a difference. I have added my quick response here. Examples of how the passage of time plus changing points-of-view about art revised how the Impressionists, the Fauvists, Picasso's Les Demoiselles D'AVignon (below right) and other artists and art works were thought of by the majority at first, including critics and art collectors, and over time how the same works became iconic, making for blockbuster exhibitions, and winning top auction prices.

Well, I still think the hairy mass of glitter under the legs and arms of some of her images is off-putting, but that may be the point!

The woman is very successful. That alone is enough to admire her for, 'cause we all know that only a few rise to the top. It's not "talent".  Plenty of folks have that. It is based on trends, proximity to people who can help you, luck and clearly, hard work.  Mickalene discussed some of the surprising coincidences that occurred during her life relating to her going to Yale at the time she went, meeting master curator and fashion icon Thelma Golden and becoming a resident at the Studio Museum in Harlem after graduation from Yale.

Thomas has a compelling story. She is a lesbian who was estranged from her mother. 

Her mother has become her model and muse, the only person, according to Mickalene, who will pose fully nude for her. Thomas has the courage to work her stuff out in public through these canvases that include painting, photography and collage as her primary means of image-making. She has done installation and video.

Mickalene is a dark-skinned, nappy-haired, big thighed girl from New Jersey! 

Mickalene Thomas is a pretty woman

I wanted to cry when I heard her. I am tall, light skinned and kinky-haired, and always wanted the skinny-from-the-knees-to-the-crotch-no-touching-thighs the white girls had, I thought those thin thighs were a signifier of beauty, like straight hair and blue eyes.  Light, dark or medium most of us black women have felt inferior in America. Neither Ms. Thomas nor I saw ourselves as beautiful, and no one else said we were either, not that I knew of.

My mom and I were never estranged; she saved that for her three husbands. The other stuff is enough stuff. The other insecurities, many brought on simply because we are black is enough.  The pain felt by the sensitive girls like me and Mickalene is enough.

Thomas makes glaring, in your face pictures, co-opting and transforming historically famous images that artists such as Manet (a long line of other well-known artists produced similar images of white models), and Modigliani first made. It's a perfect choice. I hate that she had to react to racism and sexism at all! But I think Mickalene is making the perfect art in response to her life, and making a life that was not perfect, perfect. Hers is a body of work I respect.  I meant it when I told her I am proud of her!

If it's not one thing it's another!

For artists there is always another challenge.

Not like slavery and lynching, of course: "The Medieval in America" by Joyce Owens

I started writing about artists' issues in May of 2008 and I really haven't seen a lot of progress during these past two years.  Hamza Walker just won a major honor and cash prize of $100,000.00 that he can use as he pleases. As a curator at the Renaissance Society in Chicago he has addressed issues significant to a range of artists, including artists of color. Kerry James Marshall is part of a major exhibition at Chicago's MCA on the artists studio a citywide project that I wrote for about Richard Hunt's studio.

On the one hand this news is good news. We have a toe in, but the possibilities available have barely been tapped.

At least, in my opinion.

Clearly I think challenges are what art is all about! Dealing with personal and global issues, finding a way to make art, all of that!

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the challenges women artists face and why there are not more famous women artists who are household names, like Picasso or Van Gogh... I lie; I have thought about this for quite a while. Women artists of African descent have an even harder road to hoe!

And you may know that I wonder, and have not yet found the answer to, why EVERYBODY who is creative is called an artist, from chefs to bricklayers to politicians! Not to say these people aren't creative. George Washington was certainly creative, but not an artist. Call them creative, call them artistic, but for language's sake, let's not call them artists!

George Washington portrait saved from the fire of 1812

An artist is someone different than what these other folks do and we visual artists deserve to own this.  If the title "politician" had a better, more agreeable, more generally positive connotation maybe everybody would say, "I'm a politician" as so many describe themselves as an "artist"!

OK< I have ranted about one thing, so let's get to the other! Not just making the art, but  promoting the art.Like I said, if it's not one thing, then it's another!

If you are famous, you may be stuck doing one kind of work, if you are struggling you may decide to do too many kinds of art trying to find your voice, your audience, your money for rent. So in the early days you are finding your voice, right? You learn about a variety of mediums and about supports and the basics of art and design, how to balance a picture, the Golden Mean, the value scale and all about color harmony.

Then you get to the expressive part and imitate others. As time passes you, hopefully, notice your preferences and start developing your own style. And you can't wait to be an artist! For some, they consider themselves artists from the giddyup as they used to say when I grew up in Philadelphia (it's a horsey term, meaning from the very start).

Artistic egos are amazing and intriguing, like people, in general. Some are quiet, introverted and shy and some are loud,  forceful and believe in themselves, insisting that everyone else does, too. Lots of artists exist somewhere in between!

It took quite a while for me to believe I had the skills to consider myself an artist, even when others cheered me on. I still constantly question what I do. I always want to make it better; that only seems natural, though, right?. Some people think, or at least say that their work is great; when I look at it I can can only shrug! It's also shocking hearing folks do that.

Does the public, including art critics, curators and collectors believe an artist is good because the artist him/herself insists he or she is? And is the quiet, non-tooter of his or her own horn likely to be overlooked for the same reasons, that he or she does not toot?  How much is too much. How much should we believe when reading someone's personal website? Where can you go to find out if an artist is good besides hearing it from his or her own mouth, especially since a lot of people don't get an art education?

   Got any ideas, Mr. Washington?

What Do Women Artists Want, Anyway?

Do women want more, and/or better quality exhibitions?

Do women want fame?

Do women want wealth?

Aren't women artists already achieving these goals? If so, what's still missing for women artists that suggests this conversation holds merit? Why are some women still complaining that the art world is not fair to us? 

After all, Faith Ringgold, Judy Chicago, Camille Billops, Louise Nevelson and a slew of other women paved the way and fought these same battles ALREADY back in the 1960's and 1970's. What should we have in 2010 that we don't have yet and why does the fighting continue?

Hey, maybe we just don't deserve more attention.

Is our work good enough?

Do we work hard enough?

Maybe we work hard enough on our art, but not hard enough on networking and schmoozing people who can help us! Maybe we just don't have the right connections!

Maybe we don't help each other when we get those connections!I Often I hear that African American artists segregate ourselves, not going to the "right" discussions, panels, and openings. Not sure this is true, but if so, do women do the same thing?

Sometimes I am told that African American artists are behind the trends; we are mostly working in traditional, figurative styles from the past, and are not contemporary, so our work is not as challenging.

I think this is crap and a lame excuse for excluding segments of artists from a sometimes, lucrative but highly competitive endeavor, especially when I see artists doing figurative work who are not considered not contemporary.

Is this what's holding back women artists? Is the work cliched and traditional?

I don't think so!

The top women artists don't get the money at auction or in gallery sales male artists get, not to mention the fame! 

More and more women's traditional arts are in play on the contemporary scene, from crocheting to quilting to collage and other forms of handmade items that women historically have made...so, it should follow that women would be in the forefront of recognition around this trend. 

Right?

Let's look at another possibility. It's NOT the work but the opportunities to exhibit that work that keeps women artists on the back of the bus.

Should we cast our eyes towards being in charge of the mainstream venues, instead of women only venues and bringing in women artists?

here are some top international museums. How many women run them? National Museums Directors (Smithsonian, etc.), Guggenheim Foundation and Museums director, Tate Modern director, Vicente Todoldi judged this 2009 competition.

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in L.A recently chose a new director  for their facility. The Art Institute of Chicago's director is male.

OK I am now looking at random museums. Found my first women director in Minneapolis . We know the director of the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art is a woman as well. 

So should the women who run museums and galleries be approached with this concern about leveling the playing field for women artists?

Where is our Michelangelo, our Leonardo, our Kerry James Marshall, our Lucien Freud, our VanderZee?  Yes, the work they produced is undeniably amazing, but women artists are on par both then and now.

The women-only institutions have been around for 40 or 50 years, already. When will this job be done?

Want to be a museum director? Job listings here; check often: http://www.museum-employment.com/jobdir.html

Here is panel member for the CAA conversation on women artists.

Beate Minkovski 

Beate Minkovski is co-founder and Executive Director of Woman Made Gallery.
From 1992 through 2010 WMG has organized 163 group shows, 104
invitational/solo shows, 36 Artisan Gallery exhibitions, and eight off-site
shows. More than 6500 women artists have exhibited their work since WMG was
established. Active with neighboring arts organizations, Intuit and ARC
Minkovski has served on the Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) Panel
for the Chicago Cultural Center from 2005 to 2008. She is part of the
Special Service Area (SSA) #29 Commission jury panel for public art in
Chicago's Westtown, and has curated exhibitions for various arts
organizations including the CWCA, The Women's Art Registry of Minnesota,
Women's Work in Woodstock, Illinois, and The Art Center in Highland Park,

Illinois. She is the 2006 CWCA award recipient for achievements in the arts.

Amy Galpin

Amy Galpin is Project Curator for American Art at the San Diego Museum of Art. She worked with Woman Made Gallery for three years as Gallery Coordinator and served as the Illinois Regional Coordinator for the Feminist Art Project. She received her B.A. from Texas Christian University and a M.A. in Latin American Studies from San Diego State University. She is currently finishing her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Her recent and upcoming exhibitions include: Translating Revolution: U.S. Artists Interpret Mexican Muralism (at the National Museum of Mexican Art), Women Imaging Women: A Study of Female Portraiture (at Robert Morris University), and Brutal Beauty: Drawings by Hugo Crosthwaite (at the San Diego Museum of Art).

The Panel

Women's Caucus for Art

Investigating the Need for Women's Art Galleries, Exhibitions, and Organizations: From Our Center

Thursday, February 11, 5:30 PM–7:00 PM

Regency B, Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

• Chair: Janice Nesser-Chu, Women's Caucus for Art and Florissant Valley College
• Melissa H. Potter, Columbia College Chicago
• Amy Galpin, San Diego Museum of Art and Woman Made Gallery
• Joanna Gardner-Huggett, DePaul University
• Beate Minkovski, Woman Made Gallery
• Dena Muller, ArtTable
• Joyce Owens, Chicago State University and Sapphire and Crystals Artist Collective

21st Century: New Rules for Artists

Tom Lucas, Preston Jackson, collector Robert Derden, Joyce Owens, Barlow at our 2007opening, Nicole Gallery

No artists = No galleries!

Can you imagine? NO art on the walls. No sculptures on pedestals. No installation work or videos on display in an art gallery?

As a conceptual idea, OK. It could signify the death of art. Again! On various levels...suggesting various ideas...but that's not where I'm going with this. And even with much art being virtual, another possible implication that art (as we know it) is dead, I'm not going there, either.

ARC Gallery, my work on back wall.

Taking this out of the conceptual realm, I have noticed a dynamic between some artists and galleries that suggests there is a deep pathology that needs surgery, or at least, "meds" in order to stave off some sort of art gallery tragedy! As they close one after the other, now may be the time to think about what we can do to improve conditions and make them artist-friendly.

Artists have other choices, so I hope the galleries will listen up! Most artists I know do prefer to show in galleries, at least, sometimes!

I just don't get why some galleries persist in treating artists as if they are secondary and not the reason for a gallery's existence! Here is my partial list of the "how comes"  that artists (and galleries) can consider:

1. Why are artists made to quake in their boots when they approach some galleries?

2. Why don't all gallerists divulge the names of buyers to the artists?

3. Why don't all galleries consult with and/or respect the wishes of artists on how their work is displayed?

4. Why do some galleries discount from the artist's portion of the sale, too and not from the gallery commission?

5. Why do some galleries not publicize the exhibitions and promote artists they show?

6. Why do some galleries ask artists to pay for photography and publicity on top of the commissions?

7. Why are some galleries not run as other businesses are, keeping regular hours, etc.?

8. Why do some galleries delay paying their artists when work is sold? 

9. Why don't artists get paid interest on monies galleries have held back over 30 days?

We have established that anyone can open a gallery with no training in art or even business, so maybe we can address a couple of other questions:

1. Should galleries be rated on the care and handling of the art and artists they show ?

2. Should there be a system to rate galleries such as the Better Business Bureau or something like Angie's List or the equivalent of Rate Your Professor/teacher sites for college professors? Artists could then anonymously give galleries a thumbs up or down.  Services such as these would forewarn other artists if their brethren didn't get paid for sold work, were not treated well in general, had work damaged or stolen and other atrocities that have been reported in the press and shared word-of-mouth.

One game some galleries play is the same one that some mothers tell their children. If you miss one train (boyfriend/girlfriend) another one always comes along. Just wait. Galleries know that there will always be artists willing to put up with, and be grateful for, gallery exposure, so if one artist stomps out in anger and feeling mistreated, another artist is waiting to be next!

OH NO! Bad behaving artists?

This had to come up next! Difficult artists give gallerists and curators the blues. They should also be outed, although as we all know, difficult artists often get rewarded, not restrained. The "talent" is enough to make excuses for bad behavior and the audiences are mesmerized by behavior outside the so-called norm. That's why we fixate on these reality show folks and other train wrecks (don't want to get sued so I won't name names...) that we can't keep our eyes off...actors, politicians, golfers and others who misbehave mesmerize us!

Professionally run, artist-friendly galleries should be rewarded! And there are a lot of those; Parish Gallery in D.C. is one. Nicole Gallery in Chicago is one. Homewood Studios in Minneapolis is one, Woman Made Gallery in Chicago is one, and there are many others! I hear Packer Schopf is one and Ann Nathan, too. I know Robert Henry Adams, now closed, was one. June Kelly is one.

Collectors, you have the power to change this bad behavior as well. I know the artists tell people about the bad behavior. So supporting the "good" galleries to buy could help; artists look for representation at the good galleries and respectfully speak out when a gallery treats you or your work badly! Sometimes the ONLY education people running these places get is from their artists! 

So many guests at Richard Hunt's N'Namdi Gallery opening it was hard to see the art...

I wish I had a top ten artist-friendly galleries in every US city, if not globally. I found this post on Art business.com that explains the ideal gallery and artist/gallery relationship. If you're not getting this you may be getting the short end of the stick!

A Creative Space: Richard Hunt’s Studio

I, for a long time, have envied sculptors...they change space by shoving their stuff into it, affecting everything around it, sometimes for miles around!

Recently, I spent a morning with Richard Hunt, the internationally recognized sculptor with more public works than any other living artist. It’s a given that he just blows me away. His charming and unassuming personality and his handsome good looks are enough, but add to that his enormous creative abilities and long-tested productivity and you have a contemporary artist who is pretty much unmatched!

If envy, like Dante’s Inferno, has circles, visiting Hunt’s studio takes me deep into a covetous crater. His studio is jammed with tiny maquettes, informally arranged like a collection of rare crystal, intermixed with huge electric tools and small gadgets used to form and transform the metals, Hunt’s preferred medium. Some items I see are old hand tools that chew into and cut metal, and lots of cords attached to the tools trail the floor. There are modern laser cutters and various metal fasteners and clamps that I don’t have names for, plus curly metal shavings (that I wanted so badly to graph onto some of my own art!) left behind when the huge sheets of steel and aluminum are cut. The hunks of scrap metal and new metal create piles of inventory taller than my 5’10” frame and probably taller than my 3-story house. Various wires and wood pieces, books, magazines, newspapers, catalogs and clothes flow like a river and its tributaries throughout this space.

 

 

Hunt seems attracted to simple artifacts, the opposite of his own more texturally complex and curvy works, by American and African artists and spotted here and there in the studio and in his adjacent office. I see bolts to screw on the bases he is fabricating to stand his work on and metal rods, nails and whatnot.
The cornucopia of sculpture-making delights extends from the floor to the ceiling with tiny aisles for walking and niches for working. I don't know how many works-in-progress are in this colossal former Chicago Transit Authority terminal. Many larger scale works shine beautifully in the muted light. They look complete and ready to go to a gallery, home, museum or corporation. I’d certainly welcome them into my home. Walking through Richard Hunt’s studio is like walking through a diamond shop with all the jewels out for anyone to touch!

I arrived at his Lill Street studio (above from his website) at 7:15 am this day to chat and have breakfast with Richard at his neighborhood hangout the Salt and Pepper Diner. It’s within eyesight of his studio, a place where he doesn’t really need a menu and where he doesn’t really need to state his order. The waitress already knows, but checks to make sure he hasn’t changed his mind. When we returned to the studio, passing by his sculpture in Jonquil Park that was being retrofitted for wheelchair accessibility, I realized that Richard’s space exemplifies the aspirations of many artists: We really want to get every idea we think we have into a concrete, ready-to-be-shown, form. Many of us have terrific ideas all the time, but many of those gems remain in our heads only. Some of us grasp our creative concepts and run with them to produce something, but maybe not scores of somethings. Has Hunt been able to actually remember the idea he had in the shower, or on a walk in the park or at dinner in a fancy restaurant, long enough to turn it into art?

It seems to me he must. When I argued for the theme Artists at Work for Chicago Artists Month 2002 it was because I believe in what Richard Hunt lives, and I believe many other artists do, too: work. You work to make as much art as you can, for as many days as you can, for as many years as you can. Your natural creativity and the creativity you inevitably develop when you practice will show. Right now, I think the hardest job is mine, attempting to write about Richard Hunt’s glittering, magical space, holding treasures that easily compete with a gold mine, so that you can envision it.

Beauty aside, this is one studio that screams prolific. Richard Hunt states plainly, for anyone who looks, that he is the artist at work.

I first published this post here...where you will find interesting comments you might like to read and other blogs on artists' studios.

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

Ms. Faith Ringgold Works: Her motto, "Anyone Can Fly"!

Ms. Faith Ringgold, center, continues to work hard at being an artist! She has been awarded 52 commissions (see below for details).

Faith Ringgold was in the forefront, fighting for equity for women artists, in the 1970's. We still have a ways to go, but she and other artists in New York City raised their voices to complain that women were not in exhibitions at the major institutions such as the Whitney Annual.

The Hatch-Billops website presents an amusing clip of Ringgold (preceded by an intro to the collection...it's worth looking at this). In the video done by the archivists, she comments about conditions for women in the 1970's and the satisfaction some women were feeling about their progress. I paraphrase:

"The white women were getting into shows, and showing with the guys and selling their work. But I wasn't!"

But she kept pressing forward. She found a way to make her large scale work portable and mailable at affordable costs, by creating paintings that were decorated using quilting on the edges that did not need framing (her mom, Willi Posey Jones, a clothing designer showed her how). And by the way, through this process of solving a problem, she invented her signature style.

She made soft sculpture, and wrote successful books, another great way to have her art seen by a large part of the population.

My personal connection to Ms. Ringgold is that she juried a show I submitted to in Chicago at Woman Made Gallery in 2005. I won First Prize out of about 1200 pieces submitted by international artists, to the surprise of the gallery folks! I will always be grateful for that stamp of approval!

The gallery may or may not have thought it a fluke that I won until I repeated a win when I was awarded First Prize from ArtNews correspondent Margaret Hawkins a few years later!

I have been following Faith Ringgold for years.

Faith Ringgold in front of her quilt, Tar Beach, 1993.

AP Photo from Encyclopedia Britannica

She is an inspiration. She is an arts advocate, a supporter of women artists and a very generous and nurturing woman who teaches and encourages. And she works harder than many people I know who complain that they are not getting their share! Work like Faith Ringgold and then complain! After you produce a TON of work, write a few books.

About the commissions; here is information sent by Grace Matthews:

Faith Ringgold received a commission to design 52 mosaics for the Civic Center Metro Subway Station in Los Angeles, California. Mosaika, the fabulous company in Montreal is fabricating the designs. Here are photos of Faith's recent visit to check on the progress of the mosaic panels.

Faiths visit to Mosaica.

May 17 - June 26, 2009

A Declaration of Independence: 50 Years of Art by Faith Ringgold

Mason Gross School of the Arts Galleries, Civic Square Building

Sunday, May 17, 2009 from 4:30-7:30 p.m.

IWA Gala Celebration honoring Faith Ringgold

Mason Gross School of the Arts Galleries, Civic Square Building

Rutgers Exhibition Information and art sales: ACA Gallery
Dorian Bergen 212 206-8080 529 West 20th street, 5th floor NYC 10011

Literary Agent: Marie Brown & Associates, NYC 212 939-9725

For Copyright permission or to book an appearance contact Faith Ringgold's Artists assistant: Grace Matthews Office hours M-Th 9-4pm Pacific Time

(858) 576-0397 ph/fax San Diego, California

ringgoldfaith@aol.com

Mailing address: Faith Ringgold Inc PO Box 8082 Englewood, NJ 07631
(201) 816-1374

Blog: http://faithringgold.blogspot.com
Web site: www.faithringgold.com


I did a review of Ms Ringgold's autobiography, We Flew Over the Bridge. See an excerpt below
from my down-to-earth review for the Journal of African American History in red...notice the other writers! I first saw this today as I wrote this post!

"Faith Ringgold has already won my heart as an artist, as a woman, as an African American and now with her entry into the world of autobiography (where I dwell), she has taken my heart again. She writes so beautifully."--Maya Angelou "Faith Ringgold has created a rich and highly informative work not only of her own life as an American in general but as an African American in particular. These memoirs are a part of American history--of what it means to be an artist, a writer, and a philosopher in our society."--Jacob Lawrence "In words that are as direct, honest, full of color and life as her paintings, Ringgold gives each reader the greatest gift of all--courage to be one's own unique and universal self."--Gloria Steinem "The story of Ringgold's triumph--achieved through sheer determination, savvy, and self-conviction--is both accessible and inspiring."--Lowery Stokes Sims, Executive Director, The Studio Museum in Harlem "Faith Ringgold's exuberant and original art has made her one of America's more important artists and a feminist heroine. Now her wonderfully honest memoirs will resonate with all political and creative women who are still fighting the battles Ringgold has won."--Lucy Lippard, author of The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Essays on Feminist Art "Bridging is the major motif of Ringgold's life ... She is a bridge between the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights era. She is a bridge between her mother's applied art of fashion design and her own fine art of painting and story quilts. She is a bridge between the black power movement and the women's movement. And she is a bridge between the abstract art that dominated the '60s and the issue-oriented art that connected with viewers' hearts--and lives."--Carrie Rickey, The Philadelphia Inquirer "A memoir is revealing on two levels: since it's selective remembering, what the author chooses to tell us about herself ends up telling us something additional. WE FLEW OVER THE BRIDGE is candid, sometimes humorous, sometimes bordering on bitter, and almost quilt-like as she pieces together a wide range of topics, from the intensely personal to political and professional. Harlem at the close of the Renaissance, the art world's resistance to nonwhite artists, Black Power's resistance to feminism, combining marital life and parenthood with a career - all are viewed through her unique lens." --Gerri Gribi, www.AfroAmericanHeritage.com "Part cultural history, part coming-of-age story, part romance and part portrait of perseverance..."--Diane McKinney-Whetstone, Essence "One of the country's most preeminent African-American artists and award-winning children's book authors, shares the fascinating story of her life, complete with family pictures."--Ebony "This story told in numerous engaging family photos, art work reproductions and lore, is now getting a much-deserved, broader distribution. The story artist Faith Ringgold tells is one of warm family relations, sustaining friendships, and the challenge of overcoming prejudices. The book also is a visual chronicle of African American fashion and style."--The International Review of African American Art


"Ringgold provides juicy autobiographical stories, supplemented with personal photographs as well as ample illustrations and descriptions of her work. It is a memoir every artist should read... The book is informative, forthright, and fun, and is a great teaching tool for both emerging and established artists."--Joyce Owens Anderson*, The Journal of African American History


*I am also known  as Joyce Owens Anderson.

Style = Art

Do you have a style?

Do you need one?

Do you just paint, draw,sculpt, weave, make prints,  etc. of whatever you want?

One day abstract, one day  photorealism, one day conceptual, one day photography, one day sculpture?

I have been told this is "NO GOOD!". 

Did anyone tell Gerhard Richter "NO"?

Or should you only vary your styles when you invent them like Picasso? or when you are so  famous you can do anything you want and folks are buying your name as well as your art?

I work in series,  and have told other artists to try that, too; they say they like it. 

I think I am a cyclical painter. I work on something  for a couple  or more years and that leads me to something else, and then I may wander back to an earlier train-of-thought with the idea to expand it.

I can also work  on various different concepts using various materials at  the same time!

Kinda like this blog. I revisit ideas but hope I layer the discourse and push it forward. Same with my art. I see the connective thread even when producing, on the surface, different results.

Just think about some well-known artists styles?
Georgia O'Keeffe's work looks  one way. Bearden's look one way.   Catlett's look one way, Leonardo's look one way. Mondrian,  Giacometti,  Van Gogh, Pollock, Chuck Close, Henry O. Tanner, Edward Hopper, Kiki  Smith (who really does a lot of different things) and on and on....we recognize the line, the form, the color, etc. that seemingly identifies each of these artists.

Not only do  I wonder if it's true that  artists have one style or need to, I wonder if some artists freeze in time and want everyone else to? Do they run out of ideas and get into  repeating themselves? Or do they just never get bored with the style they have developed?

At some point do some artists stop evolving?

All the art on  this post was produced by me.