Art Fiesta

This  past Sunday I was part of a posse of twenty or so artists all trying to sell their work. This was the first time I have done anything like this and I am not sure if I would do it again. I did have some wonderful conversations with lots of people and received some great comments. The best one was "yours is the best work here".

 I was situated opposite a man who had taught high school for thirty years and his son. They carried on a very charismatic performance piece chatting and showing their work. They did gather quite a crowd and were certainly entertaining to watch. Next to me were two landscape painters, rather accomplished and  they seemed to be successful in selling their work. I have to admit no one bought anything of mine, not a sausage sold.

This of course makes me wonder if this is a good way to sell art? We are all competing with China and IKEA , not directly because they sell reproductions, but by comparison, a sort of cheapness has entered the culture. I wonder if people really understand what goes into making art, the studio rent, the materials, the years of art school, the time spent looking and making.

It was interesting to watch people as they chanced on my work, they either glazed over, onto the next thing , not really looking or occasionally, someone's eyes would do a double take as they spied my work, a look of visual surprise on their faces. I tried to talk to these people and give them one of my cards.

I know from experience art can be a slow burn, especially new work that defies categorization , as I hope mine does. So I am trying not to be too discouraged , I know its all part of the process. Below is a drawing from the "Lotus Series".

"The Eye Behind the I Am"

Earlier this year I had finished this piece, "The Eye Behind the I Am" or so I thought, but it just wasn't right, so I put it away. Sometimes my work has a gestation period, and I have to wait until its ready. I loved the way the piece could be looking outward or inward through the eye shape. My question is am I looking outward to the cosmos or inward to the universe within? When I added  powdered graphite to the drawing it all went south for me. As I reworked it, I decided to cover all the graphite with white paint to lighten it up, this started to look like flashes of energy or fireworks. The central eye always reminded me of a whale,  the way there is such intelligence within a huge creature all contained within a small eyeball ,or is the eye the  universal consciousness. This part needed more dimension so I added tracing paper and more white oil pastel.

The drawing is finished now, at least I think so. I like the additional dynamism of the marks and the stoical eye. Interestingly someone I know who meditates everyday said she sees an eye within and was very interested to see my piece.

Ownership

So who owns us, first thought that came to me is Corporations, I saw a really good quote by Banksy about advertizing that really says it all.

" People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. they make flippant comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have  access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are the Advertisers and they are laughing at you. You, however are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say whatever they like with total impunity. Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. they never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs"

March 1st 2012 Banksy

Lets all stop being sheep. Here is a recent drawing.

Tracy Emin

I saw a conversation on Facebook, consisting of a bunch of men slagging off this eminent British artist, Tracy Emin. The question I posed to them is, would you do the same if the artist was Damien Hirst? A small disclaimer here I have never seen any of Emin's work in the flesh , so to speak. I did see a BBC show, where she talked about a collaboration she did with Louise Bourgeois right before she died, which seemed very sensitive and interesting. Emin has risen up through the male dominated ranks as an artist ,who courts notoriety.

As I look at the distinct advantages male artists seem to have, in the history of Western art, it seems as though the women who do gain attention, use their sexuality to do so. Why not I say, whatever it takes ,until we have the luxury of being given the automatic respect for quieter work like Brice Marden or Barnett Newman. Wait I hear you say what about Agnes Martin, yes she is one of the few women that show up in a list, if you Google "artists minimalist", yes great ,one women for 14 men!

I am so sick of being in the minority in terms of representation . I am also sick of seeing the few women that do rise up to fame and fortune being slammed and critiqued way more than the men that "make it". This applies to the Hilary Clinton's, the Lena Dunham's, the Tracy Emin's, the fact is there are still so damn few of them, they stand out like sore thumbs. Below you will find my latest series of drawings.

The Balance between doing and being

How do we as humans, balance, being a human being and being a human who does stuff. Before this latest new phase where I am moving into the light, literally in my drawings, I was having a very difficult time in the studio. I was attempting another series of Chakra drawings. From the beginning this particular series did not come easily in fact I was  really being persistent, trying to make the drawings work.  As the months went by I realized I would be better off putting the whole series away for a while. Sometimes work cannot be forced, this is a tricky balance, when to ease up and when to persist.

As humans we get so caught up in all the doing and forget we are complete beings who sometimes need, to just, be. This for me is another lesson of letting it come to me. I don't have to always be slogging away in the trenches. Follow the example of the seed, patience, while all the growth happens underground in the dark fertile soil, ready to burst forth in its own time. Go with the flow, is the lesson here.

Below is the seventh Chakra piece from the series, I managed to finish it, its called  'Seventh Chakra--walking in the light"

Work Ethic

When I was at Trent Polytechnic, doing my BA in Fine Art, there were quite strict hours , we had to sign in by 9am and 5pm was the usual going home time. We had a lunch hour and in the sculpture department ,we had a kettle and tea to make  a morning and afternoon tea break. I remember one late night a week when the college was open until 8pm and it was definitely closed at the weekend, we were told this was a safety issue as no tools could be used unless the wood and metal technicians were present.

When I did my MFA in sculpture at RISD things were quite different, the college was open 24 hours a day and technicians were present only during 9-5 hours, no  safety was an issue at times. I explained some of these differences in detail ,as I have noticed a vast difference between the work  ethic  of my homeland and my adopted land. The most interesting question to pose is did this difference result in better work. Comparing the standard of work at Trent Poly with the undergraduate work at RISD , I would have to say no. Having unlimited access to making work does not result in better work.

I read a piece about how overworked and overstressed most Americans are, with their barely 2 weeks of vacation ,compared to most Europeans normal 6 weeks. Basically the piece said its very short sighted to think more work gets done in a 12 hour day rather than an 8 hour day. People need to recharge their batteries and thanks to the Puritans, the US is stuck with an inhuman work ethic. Give me a British tea break any day!

Light

In my studio today I feel as though I have taken a step on a new path. I have been traveling for two weeks, visiting my son in Oregon and going to Utah to see Bryce and Zion with TB. It feels good to be contemplating a new start. I have no idea really what I will do next, all I can think about is this luminous violet colour- I saw this colour in some rocks on sale in a farmers market in Oregon.

A friend of mine recently said that my work is all about light. I hadn't thought of that before, I realized that I often use the circle, as a way to show a layer of illumination in my work, a window into another world.

Right now I am feeling I have come through the window, into the light, its no longer something to look at from a distance. I want to be in the light. The process I have developed where I start a drawing using black ink  feels redundant. I have started a few small drawings that feel free of this darkness of an overused process. So here goes, its scary!

Below is an older drawing that shows clearly this window of light.

We are all Labelled

I was having a conversation with a lady the other day, describing a quite complex thought. She suddenly said she though that my parents probably found me difficult. I was a little blindsided by this comment, considering she has never met my parents, so where do I go with this comment. I had to look at myself to see if there's any truth to this or whether its her projection. I realized that this was a lot larger of an issue than us two female human beings.

Women are subtly and not so subtly told their whole lives, don't be a bother, not much of a leg up from the "children should be seen ,but not heard" from the Victorian era.  You can see how quiet women can be ,particularly in mixed company , we often let  men dominate the conversation. This has developed into a silencing of the female voice. Of course when we do speak up, we are given so many labels "shrill", "bitch", "nag" and "feminist" to name just a very few.

I am proud to be a feminist (one who advocates or supports the rights and equality of women) As Jimmy Carter famously said "Violence against women is the most pervasive human rights violation in the world" .How you may be thinking, did I get here ,from name calling  to violence. Well that's exactly how it works, labeling is the first step in dehumanizing, then violence follows.

Having complicated thoughts about large issues I will freely own up to. I will bear this as a badge of honor, being difficult however is just not me. I will continue to voice my complicated opinions, in fact I will shout them from the rooftops. I will not be silenced, as I see so many women being silenced throughout the world, recently women have been  told not to laugh in Turkey. I will sing and laugh and talk for all those women whose  bodies are covered up to hide who they are. I will not submit to the kind of  living death, silence brings  many women around the world. So laugh and talk with me, and lets change the world.

I think I may have finally finished the 4th chakra drawing from this elusive series, this is the third attempt. The colour in this image is not true, the reds are washed out a little.

Nebula

At the 3D World Expo that I attended earlier this year in Burbank, there was a medical booth, showing how 3D printers could be useful for many medical applications. An interesting use is the external cast for a broken limb, these are custom made to fit for the patient ,the huge advantage being, you could wear them in the shower. Anyway I digress, the lady manning the booth saw me looking at some of the images  in the booth and started to talk about nebulizers. I had never come across this term before and automatically thought of a nebula ( a cloud of interstellar gas and dust). a nebulizer it turns out  is a gaseous cloud for use in the nasal passages to help asthma for example.

As I was doing this drawing of the 5th Chakra, it struck me that the Breath is our human link with the Divine. Every time we breath , we breath in life, how much more proof do we need that  the God-force exists. Its our link with the Nebula, "from the stars we come" and up the nose it goes to oxygenate all our cells. Its a bloody miracle , we reenact thousands of times a day.

Below is number four of a series I have just finished.

Mike Kelley

I went to see this huge retrospective Kelley show at the Geffen Contemporary Museum, coming straight from the refined precision, of the Calder exhibit was probably a mistake. On show, was a huge body of Kelley's work that was very varied,encompassing many genres and mediums. Some of the work was very intriguing, the Bell Jar pieces particularly. A whole room full of pieces, with  a small screen in the corner showing Superman reading Sylvia Plath's poems "The Bell Jar". I especially like the exotic town scape made of what looked like colorful sandblasted glass ,inside a huge jar.

I didn't care for his assemblage pieces upstairs, using beads and other found materials, spray painted with metallic paint. The arbitrariness of the placement of each object really struck me after Calder's precision.

I loved the piece that looked like a giant bedspread lifted in places with what could have been buckets, impossible to know as they were covered up. In the distance on one wall was an iconic western landscape, colors all purple and yellow ocher reflected in the colors of the gigantic spread of cloth.

Some of his video pieces showed a wry humor, one piece with three screens that  alternated colors and short clips showing children having  misadventures, falling out of a tree for example. This video made two viewers laugh out loud initially until a feeling of tragedy seemed to strike and silence set in.

Generally I don't respond well to work that includes a lot of video or a lot of writing, and this show has both. I feel as though the artist is asking for an investment from me, and I sometimes feel resentful of this demand.The clarity of the Calder was so meditative, I could have looked at his pieces for ever, when I had to tear myself away I was left ,with a deep feeling of joy. The Kelley left me vaguely troubled, maybe it was wondering how a successful artist could have committed suicide, as Mike Kelley did in 2012. I wondered if I could see the seeds of his troubled life in his work and I think I could. I was  left with a more melancholy feeling.