Joyce Owens: Artist On Art

Does "Bad" Behavior Help Artists Have Good Careers??

From the very beginning, as an art student, I had been told about the obstacles artists had to overcome to make their art. My mother insisted that I study art education if I wanted to major in art in college...I changed later when it became a choice between me completing my degree and dropping out. I found out that I could major in Painting!!!  I quizzed my professor asking what I could do to make a living with a degree in Painting!  I was sane and focused and from my experience there would be more than one obstacle to me making a living as an artist.  The art history books explained the physical and mental issues artists had to manage. The poverty they faced without outside support meant a lack of materials, space and maybe even food and housing. The artists I read about, or my professors told me about, had difficult relationships, were reclusive, were surrounded by death, had tragic accidents leaving them impaired, and they probably  did not earn much, if any, money. They were drunk, high or crazy! and relied on the whims of patrons, gallery owners, curators and collectors who could make or break their art careers! (They still can.)

"United" detail 55"h x 10.5"w, Joyce Owens

Picasso was doing pretty well until he showed people his  African art influenced Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, the painting considered a seminal moment, ushering in modern art. One of his contemporaries declared he should commit suicide! Luckily collectors Gertrude and Leo Stein saw Les Demoiselles as revolutionary, if others in the contemporary art community at the time did not. But see????At the time, what he did was nuts!

"Retro-racing Picasso" series

 

"Retro-racing History: After Gainsborough" Joyce Owens

Neither this event, Picasso's infamous womanizing, etc. seemed to harm his career. As he and Georges Braque collaborated on Cubism the same gallery paid Picasso more for his work than Braque earned. 

If you can't do something crazy, being born with an affliction helps, too! I already wrote about the miniature artist who has microscopes to view his VERY pricey art. Can artists achieve monetary and critical sucess without being a carnival act like the bearded lady or the dwarf boy or the "Siamese" twins? I recently read about a young boy with autism, a serious issue, who was obsessed with making art! Well, I am, too, (obsessed with making art) as were both my sons who filled up sketchbooks and paper from the time they could hold a pencil and scribble! Kyle Anderson drawing.

They were "normal" kids, so no press for their art work. I am not saying these special people should not be noticed; I am saying other artists should be, too.

There are stories about so-called idiot savants who can't tie their shoes, but make art, or legends such as Lee Godie who hung out in front of Chicago's Art Institute selling work to those she liked for $25 or $30 dollars. I recently spoke to someone who had made one of those purchases, spending $25.00. After Godie died her works sell into the thousands at galleries such as Intuit and Carl Hammer in Chicago. 

Lee Godie left, her art, right on Art.net

So I still want to know why the "normal" artists don't get news stories and attention when they do good work, but don't act out! I make art because I love to. People say they purchase it because they feel what I put into it. According to Art Business we should all be able to make a living doing it - here's hoping you will be fine even if you don't feel like being crazy for your art!

Call for Artists: Mixed Mediums

I look for calls for artists on a regular basis. Many times it is so I can share with my students on our Facebook wall, and with artists who may be interested. Most calls require some kind of payment for entry regardless of whether you make the show. Yes, that fee is not usually returned if you are not accepted.

Every year nationwide artists apply to the annual Black Creativity juried exhibition at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. It is a show that artists across the country of African descent look forward to each year. The top prize is currently $3,000.00.

Paul Benjamin, prize winner left-Yashua Klos, right 1st Prize

In the late 90's when I won First Prize it was half that, $1500.00. No, the museum has not increased the prizes across the board, they created a larger cash prize by cutting back on the number of cash awards, now giving three and a small $250.00 award for a youth artist. For as long as I can remember the total cash awards have been $6,000.00 although the fees have increased from about $15.00 in the 1980's to, currently, $50.00.

Invitationals sometimes ask for a fee as well.  In this case, it's never quite clear what you are paying for. It's often described as a "hanging fee", but usually each artist submits one or two average to small works that could hang on a nail or rest on a pedestal. I think I would rather pay a  "curator fee " for the person putting the exhibition together. I often produce exhibitions that I don't get paid for, and think I may start charging that fee.

These open calls for art allow artists opportunities to build their resume, offer a chance to win some cash, and get a critique from a particular judge who indicates that they respond to what you submitted when they select your work. Of course there are many reasons for not getting into a show. That could include the judges preferential tastes in art (she likes abstracts) or sometimes, unfortunately, their limited knowledge...of course sometimes the work an artist submits is just bad, or the digital images submitted are bad.

OK, here's my pet peeve, and I implore everyone who posts a Call-For Art to pay attention to this. I have to search too long and arduously to find requirements and restrictions for these exhibtions.

I would like to request that all "calls-for-art" show requirements AND restrictions in the first lines of the call so we artists don't spend so much time uncovering this vital information, only to eventually find out that we don't qualify for some reason. Arts organizations, museums, galleries, art centers and artists/curators, please show the same information all good journalists include in a report:

WHO: Age, gender and race limitations, if any, whether students can submit, etc.

WHAT: include eligible media, scale, date completed limitations, fees and prizes

WHERE: include the city, state and country as well as the name of the venue. I don't know where some of these towns are.

WHEN: deadline for submissions, notification of inclusion dates, date artists should deliver or mail by, the duration of the exhibition

WHY: to showcase certain media, to honor a month such as Black History or Women's Month, etc.

Thanks!

Every minute counts!

 

 "American Landscape" 30" x 40", acrylic and paper and fabric collage on canvas is at Koehnline Museum until March 23, 2012.

"The Art World" : Lottery or One-Armed Bandit!

I could have remained naive or maybe gotten lucky. 

Midnight mask...(sold)

 Most artists I know are unaware of how the art world works...that is, the international art market. Me, too! I just thought I had to learn how to paint. I thought that someone would discover me. Then I just had to get into shows and sort of work my way up. I always liked being in group shows with other artists. For one thing I could be with other artists I like, and for another, someone would show up to see various artists, if not just me!

My "Out of the Box" series, at the Museum of Greater Lafayette in a two-person exhibiton with sculptor Preston Jackson. Speaking is Purdue University's director of the Black Cultual Center Renee A. Townsend.

I didn't know I was in business like any company on the Fortune 500. I needed an advertising arm, too, articles in prestigious publications, placement of my product in certain forums, not just any gallery. I needed to apply for fellowships and grants, also prestige builders that would help my visibility and my sales. I thought I had coined the phrase "artist entrepreneur" but thanks to "Google, I discovered I am not the only one who has used the phrase for several years. I was not interested in the entrepreneur part, but maybe I should have been.

Fahamu Pecou top, Joyce Owens, bottom in the Paul R. Jones collection at the University of Alabama.

A colleague told me some years ago, flatly, with no exceptions, "solo shows are best!"

I had had solo exhibitions. Again, dumb luck! But I did not seek them, and I even turned some down!

Not sure how far away from naive, uninformed, ignorant or dumb I am, today, but I know what I missed and maybe even why.

 When I graduated from Yale I moved back to Philadelphia because I had to, not because I wanted to. I had interviewed for a job in NYC at a university and I had a job in New Haven, but my mother was hurt in a car accident. I went to Phila to help her as she regained her ability to walk and  take care of herself. Then I found a job at the local TV station that was owned and operated by CBS. After my mother improved I moved to Chicago, with no art job and continued to work for CBS, and of course paint. I had developed a decent work ethic in undergrad as I tried to learn to paint and develop ideas and, yes, get into art exhibitions, so juggling work with painting was no problem.

I did receive a call to come to NYC to work but I was in love and decided to stay in Chicago. I was an idiot! I had a lousy boyfriend. And I blew off a really good chance to be in NYC. But I thought I could make art anywhere and did not realize I had to be in New York.

I thought I could be an artist anywhere!  And I could, but not a well-known one. And making art was not enough. What I found out over time is I needed important connections. I have had them for years, but never thought of "using" people to further myself. I always thought that one works and eventually the work pays off in a meritorious society.   But really it is who you know and who knows and likes you.

That sad truth was reinforced in the reading of "Seven Days in the Art World".  I also see it when I look at artists like Geraldine McCullough. She was a wonderul sculptor but not as agressive with her self promotion (that's not a bad word) as say, Picasso was or Whistler.

I was always aware that there are many wonderful artists and I could only hope that someone would consider me in that number. (And, yes, I have been.) What I learned is..."good art" is not the same as "marketable art".  One sad key to this is that as soon as artists die, there is often a run on their work. Anna M. Tyler would often tell me, "You know, Joyce, I don't sell much work". But when she died there happened to be an exhibition that I had curated including her monoprints. Everything sold. Her silent auction piece sold for more than anyone's - not usual.

There is something rotten in the world of art, but there seems to be nothing artists can do about it except play. For me, I make art because I can't stop myself. If you are an artist with other motives, you might try selling cars instead.

 

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'.

 

To Mentors/teachers: Say the one thing an artist needs to hear

I will never forget this scene when I was still a teenaged girl.

Jack T. Franklin, photo

 
I was walking along Chelten Avenue near Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia and ran into Walter Lubar, who had briefly been my art teacher in public school until he was promoted out of teaching, a great loss for me. We chatted about what I was up to, as teachers do with students they like. We talked about me pursuing art in college. 

 

 A Proud Continuum exhibition in 2005 produced the Howard University catalog above (that features my work in the cover montage and inside, and on the website). Elizabeth Catlett, Alma Thomas,  David Driskell, Lou Stovall, Winnie Owens-Hart, Starmanda Bullock, Lois Mailou Jones and others also were in the exhibition.

 

Then he told me this: "you see well." I quickly responded, "Oh, no! I have been wearing glasses since I was very young".  He chuckled but explained that he meant I saw things in a special way, that I had insight, that I was able to translate visual images to paper or canvas in a meaningful way. Mr. Lubar said I see the way an artist sees things, that my observation skills were different from other people! 

That was a life-changing moment for me. He gave me an explanation for what I had been experiencing all my life. He explained why I often reacted to situations that others didn't notice, or care about, often seeing minutiae that others overlooked. My ideas were just next to the majority....but not in the center. I was not average. And when you are a student in high school that's really all you sort of want to be. 

But I was used to not fitting in. I was strange to my family too, who always said "Joyce is SO sensitive!". Or "Joyce and Mom are just alike!" So we were both sensitive? I didn't necessarily want to be like my mother!

My message  is that it is important to validate that strange, different kid who may live inside his or her head and doesn't march in lock-step with the others.  There is possibly an artist, musician, actor, scientist, computer programmer or other creative type living there figuring out the world as they see it! Give him or her permission to come out!

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!

MFA is a bad word to some artists

There is a strong anti-grad school theme that I see emerging.

Perhaps it's always been there, but I have only rarely been around the people who express their true feelings about educated artists. Kerry James Marshall has made pronouncements about going to school in a Bad at Sports interview. He did go to art school and studied with artist Charles White, and I have never felt that he thought MFA artists did not work hard and encourage our students to become successful artists, another claim against trained artists I have read on Facebook.

Recent chats on Facebook expressly denigrate art schools, art teachers and artists who teach! According to the chats people with formal art education can only teach students to teach because that's all we know! We don't know how to make a living being an artist.

Damn!

It's hard enough to have to struggle with being an artist, figuring out what you can contribute that some other artist hasn't already done, developing skills and figuring out about getting exhibitions, etc. Not to mention the idea that much of the world seems to believe dead artists are better artists than living ones. But I never expected to be put down by artists who don't have degrees, specifically, MFA degrees. because I have one.

My first experience with this was minor, but memorable. 

In about 2005 Nicole Gallery wanted to do a series of Salons. I suggested they be called "A Month of Sundays" for obvious reasons, after she told me when they would be held. I asked several folks to participate for free, sharing their expertise with anyone attending. I spoke, too.

Among the participants I asked was a friend who is a professional framer and conservator, Melanie Janulis, a lawyer and art collector named Clarence Wilson (who has donated art to the Art Institute of Chicago), and Claudette Roper, a documentary filmmaker, writer and artist who teaches at Columbia College. 

During a discussion about what artists do, one of the artists attending said it was easy for me because I had gone to Yale!

Huh?

Other people, on rare occasions, indicate that they believe I have it easier because I have degrees and went to art school. In other posts I will try to explain the process from my perspective. Maybe that will help artists who care to hear from both sides of the issue.

The problem with not going to art school is that you don't know how it works! 

The result of lumping everybody into one thing is stereotyping.

Jim Alexander photo above:

After Yale graduation many years ago. My mother had been hit by a car and I wasn't even going, but my sister came to see me march and I was also chosen as class marshall and carried the class banner in the ceremony and enjoyed myself. Then I packed up and my brother moved back to Phila. to nurse my mother back to health. My parents were divorced and my sister and brother were married so I was the one "available" to help out. I was broke and as soon as she recovered I got a job. As a new graduate I would have had to win the lottery to NOT work.

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 artists still face segregation...

I recently read about a gallery in Delaware that has a wonderful show up of American art.  I would love to see it, but being in Chicago I looked at the images on line. There's a lovely Mary Cassatt drawing of a mother and baby, a couple of Milton Avery's, reminding me why he had to grow on people, but when you get him, he sticks! and a variety of paintings by a variety of the Wyeth family, and much more, including Thomas Hart Benton and Georgia O'Keeffe. Many of these are my favorite artists. And I was certainly grateful that it wasn't another list of all male artists!

Georgia O'Keeffe

My issue: I keep finding books, articles and galleries that promote American art  produced by only one group of Americans. I know there are galleries that show specialized artists, African American, Haitian, Cuban, Latino, many of which also show artists of European descent. I understand a niche gallery. I don't understand saying a gallery is showing American art and then only shows a segment of American artists that seem to exclude artists on racial terms, probably without a second or even first thought about it.

Please go to the gallery website to see the work, but remember there were/are other American masters, such as Joshua Johnston, Henry O. Tanner, Edmonia Lewis, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Geraldine McCullough, Margaret Burroughs, Charles White, Faith Ringgold...not to mention all the current living artists like Kerry James Marshall, Dawoud Bey, Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, and others too numerous to list! Why are these artists often excluded when mounting exhibitions featuring  American artists?

I don't see any evidence that this gallery thinks there were/are artists of color who are masters, or maybe they can't get their hands on the work. Not sure, but since this is no isolated incident, I wanted to just point it out. Wikipedia only lists Sam Gilliam and Martin Puryear, no Kerry James Marshall (MacArthur genius), Kara Walker,  Fred Wilson (Venice Bienale), Robert Colescott, Richard Hunt and on and on...Most of the time you probably don't think about who is left out, or do you?

Catlett's "Two Generations" is in my art collection.

Yale University teaches a course on American masters.

http://www.somervillemanning.com/exhibits/AmericanMasters.asp

 

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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

Haiti fundraiser @ Nicole Gallery Chicago benefits Haitian artists

"In Haiti, Art Feeds Millions ” - Tiga (Jean Claude Garoute-Haitian Painter, Saint-Soleil School)

"Mirielle" by Arthur Wright expressly for this benefit; acrylic on canvas: 16" x 20"

Candace Hunter (Chlee) sent this information as she and others organize a fundraiser at Nicole Gallery in Chicago for the benefit of Haitian artists...

Dear Friend,

The Nicole Gallery, the oldest self-sustaining Black-owned gallery in Chicago, is coordinating a weekend-long benefit for the Centre d'Art Port au Prince, January 29 - 31, 2010.

Nicole Smith, the proprietor of Nicole Gallery, Chicago gained her knowledge and thirst for art from Le Centre when she was a young woman in Haiti.

Friday, January 29 - 4 until 8 pm

LIVE AUCTION/Entertainment/SALE...Nicole will be auction, "The Wash" by Haitian born and celebrated artist, Fritz Millevoix and "Two Kids and a Dog" by Chicago collage artist, Allen Stringfellow (died, 2005) and other art.

LIVE auction at 6:30!

Art for sale by some of Chicago's most loved artists, including: Joyce Owens, Shyvette Williams, Dayo, Candace Hunter (with Kendall Glover), Arthur Wright, Juarez Hawkins, Melvin King, Felicia Grant Preston, Marva Jolly, Sonja Henderson, Jesus Macarena-Avila, Gamiel Ramirez, Shahar Caren Weaver, Laurend Doumba, Nicole Malcolm, Efram Beltran, Greg Bray, Rose Blouin, Fabio Rodriguez and more!!!    Most of the art for the benefit is priced at or under $1,000.00 - savings of up to 50% off gallery prices.

SATURDAY, January 30     Viewing and Sale    11 - 5pm

SUNDAY,  January 31    Viewing and Sale    2 - 6 pm    Special Guest Artist

Make a party of it and bring your friends!!!!!

 

Nicole Gallery

230 W. Huron

Chicago, IL 60654

www.nicolegallery.com

312-787-7716

[email protected]
 

********************************************************************************************** 

more info on Le Centre...

The pressures that threaten survival also produce extraordinary creative talents, evidence of the determination that is in the human spirit. Haiti exemplifies this truth. Her tremendous creativity is evident in many ways - music, performance, crafts and writing - but above all painting and the visual arts. Haitian art first began to influence world culture in the 1940’s when exhibitions of Haitian “naïf” school painters were unveiled in the US and France. Today, Haitian art is found in the world’s great collections and is the subject of scholarly study. But its greatest meaning is the economic miracle art performs for the Haitian people. The Creole proverb “In Haiti art feeds millions” points to the parable of humanity’s need for beauty and ideas to triumph over misery.

The modern movement in Haitian art, often referred to as the Haitian Renaissance, arose in the 1940’s. More precisely it can be dated to May 14th, 1944, when DeWitt Peters, an American painter then teaching in Haiti opened an art center, Le Centre d’Art, in an old house in the center of Port-au-Prince. The Centre provided exhibition space and art instruction for the full range of Haitian artists - from completely untrained peasant artists to educated artists of the Haitian elite. The first exhibition was of twenty-five trained artists, but increasingly the center drew artists who were completely self-taught and worked in the 'naive' style for which Haitian art was to become known. The first of the ‘naive’ Haitian artists to bring his work to the Centre was Philomé Obin, who had actually been painting images of Haitian history and life in his home town of Cap Haitien since 1908! Certainly the most celebrated of Haitian artists was the hougan, Hector Hyppolite. He attracted Peters' notice in 1943 for the intriguing paintings on the doors of a roadside bar prophetically named "Ici la Renaissance" in the seaside village of Montrouis. Other notable early members were Rigaud Benoit, Wilson Bigaud, Prefete Duffaut, Micius Stephane, Montas Antoine and Castera Bazile. The Centre d’Art was an immediate critical, if not financial, success. It has weathered the many storms of Haiti’s politics and history.
Without pretending to a comprehensive synopsis of modern Haitian art history, some other landmark events in modern Haitian art history are as follows: 1945 - The visits to Haiti by French surrealist Andre Breton with Cuban painter Wilfredo Lam, each of whom bought several paintings by Hector Hyppolite. While somewhat self-servingly claiming the Haitian artists as fellow surrealists, Breton did a geat deal to legitimize and promote Haitian art in Europe and Latin America. That same year the Pan American Union hosted the first museum show of Haitian art in the United States. 1947 - The first purchase of a work by a Haitian naive' painter by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Museum president René d'Harnoncourt had first taken notice of the Haitian work in 1944. 1948-1949 - The painting of the magnificent murals at Port-au-Prince’s Episcopal cathedral of Sainte Trinité by Wilson Bigaud, Philome Obin, Gabriel Leveque, Castera Bazile and others, directed by Peters and the late American artist/poet/critic Selden Rodman.
The early 1950's saw the emergence of the uniquely Haitian art form of steel drum sculpture. A blacksmith named George Liautaud hammered out wrought-iron grave crosses for a living until Peters and others encouraged him to try his hand at figurative sculpture. His students and followers, including today's masters, Serge Jolimeau and Gabriel Bien-Aimé, further refined the art of hammering sculpture out of recycled oil drums. 1957 - The accession to power of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier. For the next decade he and his tonton macoutes terrorized Haiti. Most tourists and buyers of Haitian art stayed away. In spite of this several fresh artists emerged, including André Pierre, Gerard Valcin and Salnave Philippe-Auguste. 1972 - The opening of the Musée d’Art Haitien in Port-au-Prince, the first museum devoted to Haitian Art. It was dedicated tthe memory of Dewitt Peters, who had died in 1966. The death of Papa Doc Duvalier and the succession of his marginally less repressive son "Baby Doc" encouraged a new era of tourism to Haiti and greater exposure for Haitian artists. 1975 - The visit of French writer, critic and Minister of Culture, André Malraux, to the mystical artists’ community of Saint-Soleil. He became a champion of this group which included Prosper Pierre-Louis, Dieuseul Paul and Louisiane St. Fleurant. Another artist who began to work in this period was the ever-playful pastry chef turned painter, Gerard Fortuné. The 1980's brought the wider recognition of the art of the sequinned "voodoo flag" or vodou banner (dwapo in Kreyol). Previously regarded as a relatively obscure liturgical art it came into its own with such innovative artists as the late Antoine Oleyant and Josef Oldof Pierre. These and more traditional artists such as Clotaire Bazile, Sylva Joseph, and Yves Telemac were celebrated in the seminal 1995 touring exhibition The Sacred Arts of Haitan Vodou organized by UCLA's Fowler Museum of Cultural History. In the last decade the innovation has been led by woman sequin artists as Myrlande Constant and the late Amina Simeon. 1986 - The departure from Haiti of the dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc" Duvalier which unleashed forces in Haitian art as well as society which have yet to settle down. The 1990's brought the inspiring rise of slum priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the presidency in Haiti's first free election in 1991, followed by his overthrow by a military junta. His reinstallation by the US and the UN in 1994, and his recent ignominious fall are the latest chapters in this period of turmoil. ...and then came 2010 and the earthquake...the Centre is now broken bits of brick...and yet the story of Haiti will continue victoriously through Her artists and those who love Her...

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.

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!

Artists' Stories Contribute to Bottom Lines

I have to Google "mall art" when I try to remember his name because I have a mental block about Thomas Kincaid and can only remember that he has galleries in malls and he had made so much money he was listed on the stock exchange, creating bucolic images of light houses and country cottages! I visited one of these mall galleries and I felt I had walked in on a cult of true believers. You may have seen stories about the people who buy tens and more of his works, even though they are not even all originals. Some only contain a few brush strokes of paint.

Nicole Smith, left, owner of Nicole Gallery with Wigan, center, and guests.

The latest guy who is attracting international attention makes microscopic art that fits on the head of a needle and must be seen through microscopes.

Fascinating and novel, Willard Wigan has a compelling back story about why he makes these tiny sculptures of the "The Incredible Hulk", "Wizard of Oz", "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", Rodin's "The Thinker", a golfer, a line of camels heading toward the pyramids, "Peter Pan", and "Elvis"!

I thought about artist-as-carnival-performer after seeing a bit of the movie Pollack recently.  See Jackson Pollack abusing his wife, who has devoted herself to promoting his genius. See him sleeping with Peggy Guggenheim because he was falling down drunk. See him being late for his own career and being generally disorderly except when it came to his craft. Then when  his genius emerges he dies prematurely in a drunken crash. But he, like Basquiat and Warhol, is as much performer and (literal and figurative) car wreck as master artist.

Nicole Gallery features Willard Wigan, Art in the Eye of a Needle, in Chicago at 230 West Huron until October 1. This guy makes microscopic sculptures. I think that is an original idea.

 

The other original part of this event is the $3.00 admission fee the gallery is charging to see the exhibition after the opening night, which was free. At first I thought, "this is crazy", but only for a second. Then I thought, it's about time people pay to see us visual artists. The galleries don't pay us, except if we sell something and they get 50% of that. If they do pay, you probably are such a a big name, your income is fairly secure anyway. I have been asked, so many times I can't count, to display art for free to gain exposure, or opportunities, that rarely come to fruition. Getting some bucks up front is a new idea, and I think it's not so bad. Wigan also gives a portion of the sales of work during the reception to charity, according to my invitation. 

What else can you buy for $3.00? You certainly can't buy a ticket to the circus!

If you missed the exhibition you can catch the free closing reception:

Wednesday, September 30th, 5pm - 8pm

Nicole Gallery, 230 W. Huron Chicago, IL 60654

Please rsvp by Sept. 29 to [email protected] with your full name and number of guests.

Whistler's Mother, Picasso's Mother, and My Mother

Is it really possible to survive and prosper as a visual artist?

This is a question  that keeps raising its head, scratching for an answer.

One thing I have come to believe is it really helps when they love you at home!

Whistler's mom posed (well, she sat after she injured herself), and made him famous. Picasso's mom and the other women in the household spoiled little Pablo Ruiz like crazy. Kara Walker's dad, Larry Walker, is an artist and academician, Picasso's dad was also an artist and teacher.

My mom was always my best cheerleader, and preserver of my work!

At least some of us have that.

I went to an awards event at Columbia College on April 16, The Fischetti Awards, and watched political cartoonists showing and telling about their work. The top winner this night, Lee Judge, had won the first award given 27 years ago. He also recently lost his job for four days, but was re-instated when the readers of his paper complained loudly. He said, in his acceptance speech, that he realized he made enough money to pay his bills with $20.00 left over for the month which meant he had $5.00 a week to spend!

And he's not sure he will have a job next month!

That's the way it is for most artists.

And to make it even worse, a lot of the time family turns on you, too and say things like "get a teaching certificate", "become a cop or a probation officer",  "make art your hobby and earn a living" or more to-the-point, "get a real job"!

For me, having a mother who was an amazing artist herself, singing with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Duke Ellington,  The Playward Bus Company in Philadelphia, and Grand Songbird of the Elks (I.B.P.O.E. of W.) among other gigs, was a perfect (nearly) role model and mentor.

She prepared me for most of what I would later face as an artist. She was limited by her race; she continued a career while raising 3 kids,  and she had the mother telling her that another career might be better for her than singing. My mother sang because she loved to and could not live without singing. She did work for the City of Philadelphia, too,  so we could have health insurance and a home and she could provide for us in all ways.  She simultaneously built her singing career, practiced and continuously took voice lessons and took care of her children, purchased our home, cooked many meals, shopped for our clothes, made sure we got to church, and made sure I went to college.

Her determination to practice her craft, despite obstacles set the bar for me. Her willingness to explain what she experienced to me was my best teacher. I did not translate it to an art career at first, but little by little I have.

I am reminded of when I invited her to lecture my music class at Yale, not thinking anything of it, except I knew she would contribute to the class.  She blew everyone away! My professor, a professional musician, Willie Ruff, and all the students, many of whom were trained musicians, were amazed by her voice and knowledge about the history of American and African American music! She told me later that showing that I believed in  her meant a lot. And although she was very nervous, and couldn't believe she was lecturing at this school, she did it anyway.

So through my mother's example I learned to do what I love and find a way to support myself. But I am still not convinced this is fair to artists. I am still not convinced that there is NO way for talented and committed artists to do their job and earn a living.

I wonder if what we need to do is define the job. What are the actual skills and talents an artist should have and what is each worth in dollars? If the job specifications are articulated will we discover that artists can make a living after all, maybe earning, minimally, a living wage?

 

Survivor Spirit: Marshall is a South Side Community Art auction piece, May 16 at the Parkway Ballroom. The photo is probably by Jack. T. Franklin, my uncle and well-known photographer.

Racism and Segregation Still Hurts Artists

Chicago has had the dubious distinction of being the most racially segregated city in the country. I think it still is according to racial distribution maps I have seen produced by the Census Bureau. The Chicago Tribune even reported on it in 2008!

I live north and I can go for days in my neighborhood without seeing a dark face that doesn't reside with me! And I get questioned about whether I live here on occasion, and often get inquiring looks.

The latest racial snub came from the Chicago Tribune Magazine last week. The Chicago Artists issue  called "Art in Chicago" only seems to mention one African American artist. Richard Hunt's exhibition was named and not the one at the black-owned and renowned N'Namdi Gallery!

G.R. N'Namdi Gallery 110 N Peoria Chicago, IL 60607 Opening Reception Friday, May 1, 2009 6-9pm Artist Lecture Saturday, May 2nd 2pm Born in 1935 in Chicago, IL, Richard Hunt formally studied sculpture at The Art Institute of Chicago, from 1953 to 1957.   Throughout the years, Richard Hunt has received numerous accolades including the Guggenheim, Ford, and Tamarind fellowships, various awards from the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Academy of Design, as well as being the 2009 International Sculpture Center's lifetime achievement honoree.  Hunt holds thirteen honorary degrees, and his work can be found in  museums around the world, including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY;  Whitney Museum of American Art, NY;  The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; The Art Institute of Chicago, IL.  and he was also accorded a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, NY.  Richard Hunt has completed more public sculptures than any other artist in the country.  Notable public-site sculptures include "Flight Forms" at Chicago's Midway Airport, "Candelabra" for St. Matthew's Methodist Church, "Jacob's Ladder" at the Carter G. Woodson Library in Chicago, and "Flintlock Fantasy" in Detroit.  He was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson as one of the first artists to serve on the governing board of the National Endowment for the Arts and he also served on boards of the Smithsonian Institution. Continuing to experiment throughout his career, hunt employs a wide range of sculptural techniques. Through his work, Hunt often makes comments on contemporary social and political issues.  He is famous for his abstract works, suggesting recognizable human and natural forms. His works will be on exhibit at G.R. N'Namdi Gallery in Chicago until June 30, 2009.  For more information about the artist and exhibition, please visit www.artistrichardhunt.com, email [email protected], or call 312-563-9240.

In an article about buying art on line, no Chicago based sources for art were mentioned. The Chicago Artists Coalition was the first to come to my mind, as it showcases artists work and has for years!  The Artslant site (www.artslant.com) has a Chicago section along with other major cities.  Fine Art America presents artists from across the country and the world, allowing you to determine if artists live in Chicago.

The Trib is a national/international presence, but does it have to ignore the city and a large portion of its population? Congrats to Angel Otero for the cover photograph. I am happy that a Latino artist was included, but I personally know a lot of terrific artists who were left out.

How many copies of the paper would have sold if there had been a few local African American artists included? Guess we won't know! Read some of the articles for yourself. Below is a link from my search for the mag. I highlighted the phrase "brings you all things Chicago".

Chicago Tribune Magazine -- chicagotribune.com

Chicago Tribune Magazine brings you all things Chicago, including living, ... Art Institute President James Cuno recommends 5 can't-miss works in the new ...
www.chicagotribune.com/features/magazine/ -

Artists Want to Make it! In more ways than one.

One thing I know for sure: art is a competition.

Oh, you say, it isn't? Then, what is it?

Don't artists have to do the same things any professional in any field has to do? Make connections? Hope the "right" people know who you are? Getting written or verbal recommendations are the equivalent of good reviews, right?

I think artists hope that having something that is compelling in your work is what propels artists forward to broader audiences and SUCCESS. I am not so sure.

WHAT SCENARIOS = SUCCESS?

If you exhibit at a local co-operative gallery you have made it!

If you get selected for a national juried exhibition curated by the former lead curator at MOMA, you have arrived!

If you are the featured artist for a major, though non-art event, then WOW!

If your work is published in a catalog? YES!

If, if, if....

What is your "if"? What is the thing that lets you know an artist is successful?

If you do __________then you have made it as an artist!

I forgot to mention money...lots of artists expect to sell their work at high prices. That, of course indicates their success, right?

And what about the locale of your exhibitions? "I have a show in New York!", I've been told by artists more than once. I ask, "Where?" If your auntie hangs your work during her garage sale, then so? Or you hang your art in the studio of a friend who lives in Brooklyn. That's nice, but...

I  think most of us have goals.

I was in 3rd grade when I said I would become an artist and  had no idea what that meant.  I have concluded that being an artist means different things for each artist and I know I am still working at it.

When you get the M.F.A. from Yale, as I did, the expectation is that you teach at a university. I finally got around to doing that. And I have always produced art. But I have not always pursued exhibitions. I was an artist whether I had international name recognition or only my mother showed by work in her house. But that's me!

My goals were and are to make good art, and then make more good art and then make better art and show it as much  as I can! Yes, I want the New York show beyond the Black Fine Arts show. Yes, I want international venues. NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium is great, (and the other countries where I have work now) but I would love to be included in international galleries and art expos.

So, the art is political. You have to get out there, and network, work the room, build relationships, contact the "right" people and make the "right" friends to succeed in the art world. We already know about the art "tiers": international artist, national artist, and local artist are a few. It's hard when you don't run in those circles. Like getting into the segregated country club, we can't all infiltrate those closed rooms.

We want reviews in Artnews and the New York Times reviews, but the reality is only a small minority of artists get that.

By the way, the new Venice Biennale artists have been revealed.... 

What does, "I have made it"  mean for you?

The paintings are from the "Out of the Box" series by Joyce Owens.

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.

Invisible Artists? Panel, Mar. 26 @ School of the Art Institute Chicago

WHO Can't See Us?

I was told that some students at Chicago's School of the Art Institute believe there is not art on the South Side of Chicago. My immediate response was, "HUH????"

It reminded me of people who say, "He's has NO personality". I wonder if they have looked!

Anyway, this should be an interesting chat. Hope you will come, and if you have advice in advance, please add to comments or come out and voice your thoughts!

6:00 PM-8:00 PM

The School of The Art Institute of Chicago Ballroom

112 S. Michigan

Chicago, IL 60603

312.629.6868

Click For Larger Image

Suffering from a long history of negative stereotypes and the harsh realities of urban living, Chicago’s Southside community & residents have struggled to gain the many benefits afforded to the larger Chicagoland area. This “invisibility”, has also affected the artistic community in such a way, that  internationally recognized artists have struggled to make their mark in their own city.
 
This program will explore the areas social & cultural history, as well as the numerous creators & institutions from within the community that have been active participants in dispelling myths about the Southside of Chicago.
----------------
 
March 26, 2009, 6pm 112 S. Michigan SAIC Ballroom

The Invisible Artist Panel Discussion
Panelists:
Joyce Owens, Artist, Chicago State University faculty & curator
Lowell Thompson, Artist
Natalie Moore, National Public Radio
Andre Guichard, Owner of Gallery Guichard
Patrick Rivers, SAIC faculty, Visual & Critical Studies

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

[email protected]

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.

Time to Buy GOOD Art!

Renee Stout, "House Guest from Hell" installation (art)

With the economy tumbling, the bubbles burst, the air of frivolity contaminated, the money to buy the bad art that people have been pretending is good art  is drying up.

The multimillion dollar B.S. art market is falling, falling, falling.

In value. In popularity. For Real!

I'm talking about the kind of modern art, avant garde, ahead-of-its-time art, for-the- elite-only-art, the art-connoisseurs-art, the art-sought-by-some-of-the "well-educated", world-traveled, that-art-the-regular-folks-just-don't-get-and-aren't-capable-of-figuring-out, they're told.)

That tells me that ALL is not lost for most artists during these hard knocks times.

This is the time to cleanse our palettes (perhaps in more ways than one!!

Apparently, economists are calling this looming depression a "reset". That word actually rung right for me! I felt the air of understanding flow over me, and expelled a sigh of  relief when I heard it.  Yes! we are reevaluating, restructuring, reformulating the system.

What do you do when your computer just won't act right? You reset. You close it down and start again. When I discovered turning it off would make it work again I was thrilled! That seems to be what our economy is doing, purging the trouble areas so we will work again.

Many of the businesses that are folding need to go. As you know many seemed (and were) mismanaged.  We're lucky our entire country did not get shut down as a result of the shenanigans Pres. Bush's people engaged in. 

So, now we are in "reset" mode!

The car companies that are avoiding green technology still selling gas guzzlers and road hogs will have to reset! The fashion stores that are selling the same made-in-China items that Kohl's, Target and Walmart sell, at a fraction of the price, need to reset.

And yes!

The art market that went off the chart in the 1980's and 1990's and created the wealthy artists that are name brands, similar to the Hummer, have to reset and rethink the rationale for some of the work they have produced.

Some inane, for the sake of the times, installations are becoming as meaningless as we thought they were.  Move a library reading room to a gallery and KaZAM! IT'S ART!

Stick enough styrofoam cups together and give it a poetic title and KaPOW! IT'S ART!

Renee Stout (below) is an artist who creates meaningful installations.

Renee Stout's, Fatima's Room"  from a Washington Post interview, David Graham photo.

Listen, I love the lyrical non-objective sculpture that Judy Pfaff started producing years ago. Renee Stout is one of my favorite artists. I remember her pre-Katrina installations dealing with Voudou apothecary in New Orleans. She adds amazing touches of trompe l'oeil in her work that kills me because they're so gorgeous! !

Obviously I cannot name the "ugly art is good art" folks. They know who they are.

But, ding-dong! I think we are about  to "reset" the art market and with that, tastes, 'cause the buyers with the big bucks are thinking maybe they should think more about quality than art trends that may evaporate (literally).  Ephemeral art is fine, and has a place, but it may be a metaphor for our economy. It seemed good for the moment, but how much is it worth when it's gone?

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.

GOOD NEWS from artist Bob Ragland! Artists Don't Have to Starve

It's not written anywhere that an artist should starve.

(Bob Ragland quote)

I heard about this guy, Bob Ragland, on NPR today (click on NPR link to hear the story). He was just mesmerizing to me. When people ask him "what  else he does, besides being an artist, to make a living" he answers he makes his living making art!

He promotes selling work at affordable prices, selling work on the payment plan and most of all, self-promotion.  He eschews galleries and is proud to have several works in a museum. He seems to have a range from portraits to landscapes to sculpture. Check out the links to see this guy. And yes, he teaches art.

He's not much of a blogger with only two entries that I found, but they are useful. I am thinking he found the blog did not help with sales so he is spending his time in other ways... here is his website. You can get to it from his blog. I did more research and found another blog by Bob here.

So I agree with Ragland that artists almost have to be outgoing! That is really hard for many artists. Tooting one's own horn is tough. My mother had to lecture me about both being outgoing and claiming my talent when I was growing up in Philadelphia. I struggled, and practiced, overcoming my shyness. A child of divorce I was confused about a lot. But over time I learned to speak out. 

I agree that artists have to know their market. When other artists gasp that such-and-such priced a work at say, $24,000.00, I usually reply "that's great, but did it sell?".

I have often sold for below what I thought my work is worth. When I look at my contemporaries and other works in the same size range, and other artists on my "level" (that's another blog to try to tease the concept of "artists levels"out!)...many artists, I think, price too high and some too low. I am usually on the lower end. Even collectors who purchase my work have told me that.  There are "newer" artists who have figured out that art is a business and they price pretty high for their experience and the quality of their work. Art has always been my passion that I did not consider my business. But I am learning! One's passion can blind one to one's business...

Paul Klein, a well-known and extremely knowledgeable arts advocate and Chicago-based artist Tony Fitzpatrick discussed pricing during a panel discussion convened by Paul Klein that included artist Juan Angel Chavez, and photographer Dawoud Bey and me.

The consensus about pricing was if you sell out you priced your work too low.

I have sold out only twice. I sold some pieces that I had been selling for around $600.00 to $1200.00 for $2100,00 to $2400.00 at an auction and realized I needed to adjust my pricing.

But the good thing about pricing low is more folks can find art they can afford. The other problem for artists is that some people consider art a luxury for rich  folks. The potential art collectors may come to your exhibition wearing exotic jewels and expensive clothing that they may throw out in 6 months and want you to come down on your $1200.00 painting.

I think it comes back to everyone getting educated about the arts and respecting our contemporary culture.

Mr. Ragland represents one set of thought that you may agree with. For sure he presents ideas around self-determination that are vital for anyone, not just artists!  

"Wonder Woman" mixed media by Joyce Owens, left, sold fast!

WHY MAKE ART?

_{^{I DON'T KNOW!}}

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.

A New World Order! but same old same old for artists

Hey, I am ecstatic about the election.

I didn't think I could look at McCain's painful arm gestures for 4 years, not to mention Sarah Palin.  I would be terrified that something would happen to McCain and  we would be stuck with a president who is clearly so inexperienced.

So we dodged that bullet.

I have been wondering about other things...

What can artists expect from the 44th President?

I personally know that most of us are worried about making a living from our art. When spending is curtailed wouldn't it follow that art sales may diminish on the local level? If so, then what? Will the next president's education package include bringing the arts back into every classroom, meaning more steady jobs for artists in teaching? 

Or will  he replicate the programs similar to the Works Progress Administration providing work for artists doing what we have trained for, painting, sculpting, producing plays,  making films,  shooting photos, etc. ?

Will his economic stimulus plan include stimulating programs that promote living fine artists, such as additional funding for the NEA?

I maintain that it is an essential component of the education process that starting when every child is young she or he needs significant exposure to, and participation in, all the arts.  Public school is the perfect place for this exposure to take place.

Artists, we have to decide what our community's needs are, as well as identify our individual  needs, and let them be known. What do you want???? Find your congressperson and contact them with your ideas here.

The sculpture shown above is by Joy Kessler and is called " Inspected, Dissected, Suspected".