Here's one satiated problem solver. Later and have a good night.
The family jewels are hidden and I finished my first artificial heart transplant this morning. t took three and a half hours. My fingers are a bit tired, but the chest is totally constructed and loosely woven closed. You can still unwind it and slip your fingers to his left and pull out the heart. Best idea I've had in a while. Sorry no pics. I'll wait till the finishing moment. Meanwhile I got late notice to the opera and I'm skipping. I've been up since 5 am and have been cleaning, finishing, cooking and listing since then. I feel tired and I'm damned to hell no doubt. It is the Barber of Seville. Never seen it. Totally humming Bugs Bunny and the like. If I didn't feel the pull of the day so much, maybe I would. Boy I feel like a shit, but I refuse to ruin the show for myself and others by falling asleep in the Mezzanine. So it is me, tea and chocolate chip peanut butter cookies for the night. Maybe I can find a production on the Internet. That would make me feel better.
Here's one satiated problem solver. Later and have a good night. Couldn't resist. For a change: Art and Design.
Jessamity Jessamity #2 And yes, I am late come the dates of the post. Then again by all means I'm early. Dallas tends to be a few years behind New York's museums from what I gathered finishing undergraduate. That was a kiss and a wish ago. It mind be the same situation. Either way, enjoy and I'll keep my head sense about me for my lack of common contemporary culture. Sometimes I get called archaic for my work, but equally so I'm glad not to run after fads. Looking at where I am and where Mr. Finch is at, I can be appreciative and enthralled. I got land blasted with an idea and felt the good vibes tryin to find some perspective. Glad he's out there. Meanwhile back to the moleskin, experiments and such. To sooth the ego I might go out on a limb and to nothing but muslin with recycled fabric accents. I've got to get a grip and build a concept. Experience is not necessarily commensurate and my hands are not his and his not mine. Piecing a vision for now to pace with the original impetus. Yes, I'll remember. While taking paper making in graduate school, I remember birds I made from florists wire and casein. I kept them under glass and I kept them to myself. No one saw. I regret that after the loss and no photo to claim bragging rights. The meat market that sold the material is out of business, so I need to get with the librarian part of me and soon to find a replacement source. I'll remember. Yes, I'll remember the way to go. Satiated and placated, for now. ~N. What's New with Collage? Revolution and Art: The Arabist Art and about: Dubai’s design revolution Facing our revolutions: Shirin Neshat's pictures from Egypt I'll admit, some links are dated but it is always news to me if this is the first time I see it. Damn the clock I'll worry about being anachronistic and shamelessly archaic another year. Meanwhile you've got my top digs above. In a nutshell, I'm sick. Have been for about three days now and I'm about to mine the hell out of WebMD.com. From what I hear, there are others sick in the neighborhood and beyond as well with the same symptoms. I'm patient and drinking lots of fluids. I think it is a stomach virus and not complicated with much of a fever. Either way I'll be living a simpler life. Meanwhile I'm on to generating the creative card set and digging back into writing. Notes, notes and more notes to type up. I do not like it when I switch tasks mind stream or fail to type up a scene mind generated in color at 2am. I lose the point, direction and desire if I don't type it up the next day. It has been a few months and now I believe I have enough energy to tackle both sets of project notes. Farfetched possible, but I'll give it the ol' university try and make a compelling argument to my stomach. I may get somewhere today. Off to mark pages, edit and rest. I may slip out the blogging door for at least a day, but I shall return. As ever stay hungry and curious. Thought I'd share a bit, not much. Got a new lead. Well a reconnection to an old lead. Long before I had product and found a niche that it seems people are interested in the buy. Then I was making hats. Now I'm on to bags of all different shapes sizes, quilted and an itch for crazy quilting. Mom reminded me of a suggestion to create dream catchers a few years ago. I got other materials for other projects first so off I was onto another planet. I love making the inconventional dream catcher and harvesting like the ancients for the willow tree. These days, if not a revisit from the suggestion, I balk at sourcing from nature. Similar conundrum as the acorns for the wall hangings. I do not want to source too much and make a dent in my local environmental economy. I've got an idea, but that is hope beyond hope that JoAnn's or Michael's carries what I need. Beyond that the ethical thing being that someone has already found that niche at this store. I may be infringing on these water source, but at least I should ask at a face to face interview. The store was still underway to be organized that last time I was there. That was years ago. As were my dreams of selling natural sourced objects then late Fall arrived. Brrrr.
Meanwhile I'm working on art dolls, hoping to have at least three for sale by the end of April. It may be more after my machine gets back from the shop. I've decided to take that step as class starts mid-month April. I refuse to bring in the miniature motor mouth of a beheamoth of a machine. All you got to remember is that it is small and hellified noisy. The dolls can be billed as 100% handmade and 100% heirloom and 100% repurposed. That I like. I have at least two more patterns to design and hats to make for all of them. Got to find a jesters hat to mock down. got to. Also small purses. I'm wondering if I should kill two birds with one stone and prep for reindeer as well. I've built some idea sheets for that and am still struggling with price points below $15. When your skilled what do you do? I guess move on to another venue. Courage I must find and save enough for new shows. Time to research more, set aside dates and have more courage. Off to chill. Pushed it today: 5.5 hours. A mega no-no. If I am going to make rules I need best to stick to them. As ever, stay hungry and curious. ~N. Needing food not fodder. Told to research a tad bit and I'm in no man's land looking to understand art revolutions. Thought you might want to go for a ride with. So if you ride shotgun, I'll drive. I have a thing for off roads, usually on foot or in my truck. All that to tell you to be prepared for the unreputable citations and often colorful reads but lacking substance as electronic tomes. I'm printing off my lion's share as I look for the next curious thing, hoping for a glimpse beyond feminism, sexism and the economy. I'll add a link or more as the weeks dole out from the sky. Meanwhile something primitive to begin the hunt:
Art and revolution Throughout history, forms of art have gone through periodic abrupt changes called artistic revolutions. Movements have come to an end to be replaced by a new movement markedly different in striking ways. See also cultural movements. Artistic revolution and cultural/political revolutions The role of fine art has been to simultaneously express values of the current culture while also offering criticism, balance, or alternatives to any such values that are proving no longer useful. So as times change, art changes. If changes were abrupt they were deemed revolutions. The best artists have predated society's changes due not to any prescenience, but because sensitive perceptivity is part of their 'talent' of seeing. Artists have had to 'see' issues clearly in order to satisfy their current clients, yet not offend potential patrons. For example, paintings glorified aristocracy in the early 17th century when leadership was needed to nationalize small political groupings, but later as leadership became oppressive, satirization increased and subjects were less concerned with leaders and more with more common plights of mankind. Examples of revoutionary art in conjunction with cultural/political movements:
An artistic revolution can be begun by a single artist, but unless that artist gains some understanding, he becomes an iconoclast. The first Abstract Expressionists were considered madmen to give up their brushes and rely on the sheer force of energy to leave an image, but then the import of atomic bombs, all atomic energy, became realized, and art found no better way of expressing its power. Jackson Pollock is the artist best known for starting that revolution. Just checked my email and guess what? The quilt made it to Germany and it is well received. I had totally forgotten. Remind me of let go and let God. Don't forget getting out of the way. I'm happy and doing a little Snoopy dance in the chair. You know finding out that Ellen Gallagher is 47/48 and reflecting on what she has done and where am I has made me depressed. I am not supposed to compare. And not just because it is apples to sheet metal, but also because that sets me up for a big fall. Pride not included. I do as I can and that is that. Little markers like this make me to happy it isn't funny. If I remember correctly, the first show goes up in June.
Mind you too, I've been having at least three breakthroughs in the middle of the night. So far ever night for two weeks. Keepin the note book and moleskin at the head of the bead. I refuse to miss a beat. Sundown approaches. I may not be Jewish, but some practices keep my inner timing well and at peace. Chat in ta few days... Have a great weekend! Taking it out on a tuna fish salad sandwich is not going to change the problem. It may delay consideration thereof, but it does not solve the problem. So what now I've gotta be an engineer? I'm sad and jumped ship before I could really screw things up. Tension. The bloody tension on the sewing machine keeps giving sway to loops and more loops that have no end. I thought I was going to cry when I was in the middle of besting this problem while figuring out satin stitching on my relatively new model. Well, to be honest, it is new to me and relatively old to the 1965 cutting room floor somewhere gone in Texas. I printed the users manual out a few months back when I was having no trouble and I'm trying to adhere to the correction, but I can't sit idly by when there are so many nobby nob nobs and levels to raise, dangle and fall. Basically I clean the bad boy out before dinner and the day come Sunday, when I'm back in the groove is when we shall see. Chilled applesauce waiting and I think I'll put my burdens down. Who can refuse when the rest of WSJ is waiting for me to linger.
So I've been bothered on an off since I put down my trails between museums and my home a few years ago. I always came and went with pencil and journal in hand headed off with long afternoon and a promise of homemade chai at the beginning of the evening. Even if it rained I had my notes securely under arm with a feeling of accomplishment and a large resource to start the real work. Digging in and learning fromthe ancients, the moderns and my contemporary. I often cut my work to the core trying to find something, anything that pushed beyond the obvious and did more than cherish nuances and fine brush work and the end of the day.If you are joining the conversation as of late you must know now that I've been resorting to those old notes, drawing and journals date mid 1990's forward. I've forgotten some of my direction then, but slowly it creeps back as I type the notations into Google and find the work I was attracted to with such fervor. I have new eyes now and new tools. So now I look for those and them that can spark that interest in pushing the evelope. I'm not partial to taking political stances in the work. My knowledge base is so shallow there, the work would be a tour de force of farce. So I leave you with my research bits and bones as I figure where I am going and yet to be hyped or anguished about getting there.
So the paper boy left the Wall Street Journal at our door this past weekend. Mom started it, but let it go and I grabbed on for dear life seeing the back of the section for the arts reviews. This I was introduced a few days ago to Ellen Gallagher. I pulled a few links below for your perusal. A bit in the article mentioned she cut, wove and carved paper early in her career, so of course the references to collage had me diving in for dear life. I'm still after more pictures of her early sea series. I'll be looking for more to post on other artist. I should get in Kara Walker in the least, but also more artist of non-African descent. I've been anxious to see what drives other black female artists. Not that that is what I want to be typed for. There is more to me and my work than reflecting social history through my skin color. But some issues do get worked out in oil, wax and paper. Ellen Gallagher The Independent The Wall Street Journal Ellen Gallagher Art The Interview #1 The Interview #2 (50:53 courtesy of Youtube) I am back in a mood where looking at art has to be more compelling than a sum total of supplies burdened with a price that signifies more emotional attachment than a balance of labor, supplies and overhead. Art was never meant to command the economic marketplace in my outrageous opinion. It was not to be the ethical balance of market value and respect for the deep involvement of the human hand. I sheepishly stand at the gateway where art plummets into religion foils and falls open in the deep recesses of the human mind. Hey, yeah it used to be only about the sacred and even I grieve for when I fall into the profane ways of technology and advancement. If there is an e-shaman for technological territory, I am humbled to learn the rhythms.
I'm back it seems from a dark place wondering for whom do I an we, as the artistic collective, make art for. Totally not barring argument of worth and customer base, please consider to whom do you make art for and why it is not for the masses? Altruism, faith, religion, art, clout and selfishness all considered in the final throws. For whom do you make art for and do you know why? I went of the deep end while I was in the studio today. I was completely not grooving on the ars gratia artis which I love to spout when I'm in no man's land creating just for the sake of getting off of my mental screen. I remembered somewhere low where Hecate creeps in my blood that Art need be for the masses. What is the point of driving the economic machine by painting Mr. Industrialist's wife portrait every few years. No one sees that and I seriously doubt any significance till the historical commission stops by the big house on the hill long after the family fortune has been spent. Do we as artist spend that much time dreaming of a commission like that? Do we then sell ourselves out to cater to all of the family friends who may or may not like the work you hide in you studio on the other side of the tracks. The stereotype I am trying to paint all comes down to not making a buck at all costs through shameless networking but for all the joy and hope we as artists have in our heart to be seen in public venues and be known for it, why do we target a smaller market for the sake of cash. I get angry when I can't see the work of masters long gone because they are holed up in a mansion on Nobb Hill and other like places. I render the kool-aid jar dry when the goods are finally exhibited only for a small time and for a price that I can't pay. It feels like I've been forgotten, I as a part of those who could benefit from the opportunity immensely. Then I scream for the museum to look at what generations past sought to endow but for a time till more who can give do. I am indebted to them all. And here I think of the days I paint, paper and paste for the museum. Not for my ego, but to know my worth in a larger scheme. Social movements and history get built his way. For the people to be seen or had forever. At least till deaccessioning raises its head and off to minor collections I go. I'm in a conundrum. I create out of drive and fear. Someday I seek to create a sound picture that emulates both truth, beauty and poses questions. Maybe I'm caught alive struggle through process day by day. Still even the writer in me know I have to have an audience. That is another reason to create. Having a place to reside in the image factory of others minds. I may see I create for some intellectual body. I may see I need to broaden my perspective in my appeal, but stay true to my visions for fear of losing them. I see now I work for the intelligencia in this democratic republic, not shielded or swayed by colors or slogans. I wonder more now than ever what is art for the masses. Too communist oriented? Too much socialistic pander? I wish so much that art was not just for the educated. I have not read everything, but in the least scanned for good info. From the looks of it the AMA works with European artists. Even so, it looks chock full of good info to know. Enjoy!
Click on the link: MoMA Hands You a Heinecken and Says the Medium Isn't the Message 9 Post-Internet Artists You Should Know Finding one’s feet: a study of artist funding Paris, 6 March 2014, Art Media Agency (AMA). The title of “artist” has never been associated with a conventional career path. Far from the hum-drum security of contracted jobs – whose concrete objectives fit within predetermined hours, and are rewarded with a predetermined salary – art represents the indefinite and the unknown. Where artists are without secure gallery representation, the possibility of exhibiting their works remains uncertain; when they do exhibit, sales are not guaranteed. This sense of being outside the conventional rat race has always had a certain romantic appeal: many esteemed artists having been represented romantically as starving mavericks, sacrificing their immediate needs in pursuit of a broader creative “vision”. Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, authors of the Van Gogh biography The Life, describe an artist who “took to mortifying himself like a medieval saint, scarcely eating and sleeping rough” – whilst nevertheless maintaining a seemingly inexhaustible appetite for “expensive materials”. Yet, whilst it seems hard – even bathetic – to reconcile the pursuit of a unique artistic philosophy with paying taxes, renting a studio, and maintaining a budget, the latter are vital components of the trade. Contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst – whose two-day auction at Sotheby’s in 2008 famously realised £111m – are an exception, not a rule: structures which enable artists to retain a degree of financial stability and to develop their career are therefore hugely important. We considered some of the systems which aim to act as an incubator for artists in search of financial support, questioning the extent to which art might be considered a career, and whether the cliché of the “starving artist” endures. For the majority of contemporary artists, educational establishments act as an initial, incubatory structure, providing artists with the technical training, and – in the case of some institutions – the studios and materials essential to the development of their practice. For some artists, educational institutions have provided connections or exposure to modes of thought which later proved profitable – even if their original intention was the pursuit of an idea, not money. In the example of artists in the group of YBAs, Central Saint Martins served as a meeting place and ground for experimentation. A common denominator in the group’s careers, the school eventually became synonymous with a certain approach to artistic production – its presence on a CV legitimising an artist’s exclusive YBA status. Though the names of prestigious educational institutions might later translate into value, their initial impact upon the financial status of an artist’s career is overwhelmingly negative. Schools such as New York’s Cooper Union – which, until this year, had offered a full-tuition scholarship to every student since its inception (it now offers half-tuition scholarship) – are increasingly rare. For students applying to the most esteemed educational establishments, fees are invariably high, presenting a not-inconsiderable factor in the early development of an artist’s career. In the United Kingdom, recent changes in funding structures have made the issue particularly prominent, with fees across the country unexpectedly tripling in 2010, from £3,000 to £9,000. In the US, fees for arts students sit significantly higher: for those accepted to study at the Yale University School of Fine Art, annual fees – including books, tuition fees, materials, living expenses, and materials – are $55,000. For this, the school promises to “routinely expose” students to “many aesthetic positions through encounters with faculty members and visitors”. The promise of this pedagogical (or networking) element is, however, presented alongside a statement which acknowledges the importance of independent study and natural talent. According to the Yale site: “Students must bring creative force and imagination to their own development, for these qualities cannot be taught – they can only be stimulated and appreciated.” Whilst this statement contains the reassuring assertion that artistic ability is not dependent on external factors, some might – rather cynically – see it as an attestation of an art school’s limitations. And though the notion that original thought might be purchased is naïve, fees which run to several thousand dollars mean the question is nevertheless far from unreasonable. In stark contrast to these high-investment education programmes, free or funded residencies pay artists to produce work, often promising to contribute to an artist’s development by offering feedback or arranging interactions with academics, philosophers, or other artists. Opportunities exist internationally, though amongst the most recognised and comprehensive schemes is the Berlin Artists-in-Residence programme, the Berliner Künstlerprogramm, run by DAAD. Open to visual artists regardless of nationality (as well as writers, musicians, performers, and film makers), the programme offers 20 grants each year, funding a one-year stay in Berlin, German language courses, and travel expenses. Whilst international in scope, the programme’s focus on funded support for visual artists is intimately tied to the history of the city in which it is based, with the DAAD website stating: “The year 1989 and the Fall of the Wall are viewed by the Berliner Künstlerprogramm as a commission to reinforce the freedom of art and the word. At the same time, the program therefore opposes the economic takeover of cultural values by liberating artistic creativity from the dictates of the market.” Yet, though market-opposed, the Berliner Künstlerprogramm would not exist were it not for financial support. Founded in 1925, DAAD has grown to become the largest funding organisation in the world, its central aim being to “support the international exchange of students and scholars”. Its budget is derived primarily from the German Federal Foreign Office, though – perhaps due to its international focus – the programme has also been able to gain funding from the EU and from the foreign governments of certain partner organisations. Now in its 40th year, the programme boasts an alumni of almost 1,000. Funded projects don’t always offer artists this freedom. Whilst art schools and residency schemes endeavour to provide platforms for an artist’s individual development, commissions provide funding whilst dictating the form of the work produced. Here, art is not a philosophical pursuit, but a practical service with a pre-determined function. Somewhat eccentrically connoting the practice of artists during Baroque and Renaissance periods – when commissioned portraiture flourished as a viable form of income for artists – recent projects in the UK have seen artists paid to depict buildings or renowned figures. In 2011, the luxury London hotel Claridge’s asked David Downton to be its first ever artist-in-residence, with general manager Thomas Kochs commenting: ”Some of our particularly distinguished guests are regularly captured by photographers and paparazzi. We wanted them to feel that this was a more special one-off occasion, being drawn by a skillful and talented artist.” This reactionary statement against the proliferation of images in contemporary media was not without its contraints: Downton was ordered to target a “secret” list of particularly eminent hotel guests when producing his work, providing the hotel with images which were not only special and one-off, but which cut out the undesirables. This record of the upper-echelons of British society perhaps reaches its zenith in a project run by Prince Charles, who continues the long tradition of employing a “Royal Tour Artist”. Pointedly described as “an engaged patron of the arts” – and even more pointedly noting that the project is self-funded – the Prince commissions (generally traditional) artists to “create a record of a tour that goes beyond the limitations of photography”. Other structures combine a notion of the artist as service provider with the commitment to artistic liberty ordinarily characteristic of academic institutions and government-funded residencies. In 2008, fashion house Hermès established the Fondation Hermès, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of traditional craftsmanship, providing visual artists with four-year residencies. Those participating in the Fondation’s programme are given a “blank slate”, but must produce any work they conceive with “Hermès manufacturers” – who, the programme’s website notes, are “renowned for their quality product”. Despite the potentially commercial connotation of this statement, former participants have gone on to be the subject of exhibitions in major national institutions: later this year, Oliver Beer – who recently joined Galerie Thaddeus Ropac – is to feature in shows at Paris’s Centre Pompidou and New York’s MoMA PS1. Structures such as these, however, are not universal: for young artists unable to afford a paying arts education, or who have neither a residency nor gallery representation, public funding remains a vital factor in their ongoing capacity to produce work. In France, the FRAC system – Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year – provides state-funded support for artists, purchasing works by those at the beginning of their careers which then form part of a touring, national collection. Though the FRAC system is not without its critics – the former Minister for Education Luc Ferry described it as an institution which supports artists “without art and without talent” – others praise it as a platform which places an important focus on contemporary art at, most importantly, both a regional and national level. Bernard de Montferrand, president of the FRAC Aquitaine, states that the system “accomplishes a public service in supporting creation, the democratisation and decentralisation of cultures”. In the UK, the Arts Council is the FRAC’s closest equivalent , supporting arts projects both regionally and nationally. The recent financial crisis, however, means that the extent of its reach is becoming increasingly compromised: in 2014, a cut of 1.17% is planned – a figure which, though negligible, follows a steady trickle of reductions to its budget. The effect of the recession on culture across Europe is increasingly being cited as a cause for concern following recent difficulties in Spain and Greece: between 2009 and 2012, the latter cut its arts funding by 35%. In 2012 Spain’s Fundación Caja Madrid closed the 48 cultural centres it maintained around the country, a drastic move indicative of a broader diminuation in artist platforms across the country. Yet whilst residencies or awards, or foundations, might offer temporary bursts of income for selected participants, very few structures exist which offer practicing artists a stable source of income with a long-term view. The Artist Pension Trust (APT) is an exception, offering both “long-term financial security and international exposure” to an admittedly select group of artists who are accepted to participate in the scheme. According to Serge Tiroche, a shareholder of the company who served as Chairman of the Board in 2009-10, the organisation remains “the only globally available structure that I am aware of”. According to Tiroche, financial security is not something which all artists can achieve: “Some artists work well with a strong gallery who looks after their needs and helps them plan ahead for their own financial security.” The former chairman adds: “Many artists choose to join the Artist Pension Trust, which I find is a brilliant idea and a wonderfully practical solution for artists who make the cut.” For those who are accepted, Tiroche states, “APT structures a savings scheme for the artists and diversifies the individual risk to a much broader pool, thus ensuring some future cash-flow for all contributing artists.” Far from offering the fleeting rewards of gallery sales, APT attempts to structure a funding platform for artists which places a focus on sustainability. Tiroche confirms: “It is a great alternative to pension schemes for salaried employees.” Whilst APT may be remarkable for being the exception, the absence of other platforms which similarly seek to establish financial security for artists is disconcerting – and, for many, renders a career in the industry without additional work unfeasible. Tiroche shares this concern, rounding off our conversation on artist funding by saying: “I believe it is primarily the artist’s responsibility to look after their own interests, but it is also very important to provide funding to the arts by both government and private initiatives, especially for artists in the early days of their career.” It is a responsibility which might also lie with educational establishments, where an entrepreneurial or business-focused understanding of art may establish the industry as one which is synonymous not with anguished struggle, but economic – even if this doesn’t correspond with a romantic notion of the artist as outsider. Tiroche adds: “I also think art degrees should include some basic management, economics and finance courses. But until that happens, incubator projects (such as the one I created in Israel: ST-ART) are important postgraduate stepping stones providing the guidance and training necessary to understand what it takes to choose art making as one’s profession. Residency projects, institutional grants and government funding are critical for young artists.” For those who choose to dedicate a life to artistic production, a secure career trajectory remains elusive. A little compensation is perhaps to be offered in the knowledge that, while not always financially rewarding, art is a field which nevertheless offers scientifically-proven levels of satisfaction. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Bruno S. Frey, a research director at the University of Zurich who has done “happiness research for some time”, found that “artists generally are happier than the rest of the population”. Tags: artist, Artist Pension Trust, FRAC, funding, grant, Prince Charles, school. Dropped off the radiation quilt and feeling fine. Found out I'm not the only one finished a few minutes ago and I'm happy about that. The person in question is an excellent quilter. I have a problem with comparing myself to other quilters. Sometimes it is damaging to my spirit. For me, I abide in my own atmosphere it seems. Even if there are no hard and fast rules to quilting arts I tend to be hard on my work. Yes of course just like any artist, we are our own worst critic.
On the other side of life, I've hurt my wrist and arm badly enough that I'm taking time off of artistic and daily life pursuits. Honestly though, it is bordering on depression. I have a bad tendency to live by the mantra that I am what I do. My work is my life. The day I truly have nothing to do I believe I will be in trouble. I went over my three hour limit a few times in the past two weeks. That and sleeping awkwardly on and around my arms. The pain has defined a new level of blinding, and I'll need more naproxen sodium soon. I've gotten better in the past week, but what hurts more is daydreaming about creating and not been able to bring the designs back from the edge of consciousness. Being patient, mindful and exercising my visual memory comes into play every night it seems. BTW: I'm slowly retyping my journals. Right now I'm at an impasse, but that will resolve itself soon. Yet, I digress, I've started looking at my art journal from 1995 when I enrolled in Texas Women's University for graduate school. As long as I can find a pic of the piece I'm referring to, I'll post what I wrote. If it leads you to scholarly inquiry, go for it. I'll post more unedited entries, as it strikes me. Even back through undergrad. I like going through museums and galleries and writing notes to myself about what I saw. It was a entrenched exercise to build my visual and painting vocabulary. There was a time in my career that I did not know what to paint or have an issue about making art political. I was, brief put, lost. Working through gallery after gallery sparked a temporary flame that sustained me for a quarter or a semester or two. Then come graduate school taking myself seriously had to birth out of technique somehow. From there the writings, the ignorance and the epiphanies. This time I'll share some of them here. News: For the gracious and kind who do not check up with me on Facebook: The Dallas Quilt Show 2014went just fine even if I got down there on the last day with a half hour to spare. Talk about power walking and speed reading. To bad I did not see the whole show, but a few friends got accolade and I was truly happy for them. I keeping kicking myself that I should by a poster. Lucky me got enough time to see my favorite vendors and buy stuff. A few fat quarter here and some Japanese silk remnants over there. Good news: The husband of the woman who invited us to participate in the international salon in Geneva for the radiation exhibition, her husband is in town. Problem is, I'm the only one finished with their quilt. And now it seems there are only three of us participating. So, I'm dropping off this week for him to take it back to Europe with him. I hope my friends are able to finish some thing in time to get it in the mail to reach Geneva. I don't know if any one else in the states is participating. If not I might be the only representation from the U.S.A. I don't think that will happen, but the thought graced my head. Other news: No response yet from the art dealer. It has been about two, three weeks. Either way it is exposure and I could definitely use that. Journal: March 8, 2014 3:04pm March 10, 2014 12:02pm Before reading a Wikipedia article I thought my issues of copyright and original art where back biting and I had to hide my work from public view. I harbored fears of members of the legal profession chasing me down. Now I know I am in good company with the same acolytes and masters of my chosen technique. Recontextualization and transformation of your base imagery is key. Being unaware can be a boon as is said “ignorance is bliss”. Still that state can only be held for a brief time, before you seem a hack making blind successes by stumbling through the pre-education’s darkness. (An informed intellect makes good of dexterous and detailed hands.) Where a master sits is the place where archivality and sound composition rests and you are taken seriously. “Art is the point which growth of the mind reveals itself”. All I’ve made up through the past few years falls away. Intent, not play is the order of creation. I’m willing to stand behind my work with more assurance than half-assed attempts at beauty and significance. Here I am now figuring thoughts, principles and beliefs connection to the cannon. For this step, I open Pandora’s Box to understand what I’ve hidden away. This is my confession which is accurate to my misgivings and reflecting a lack of understanding amongst my peers. With all this said one cannot forget the drives of competition and learning the business of art. I confess between God, man and nature that I am a cultural appropriationist. I am ever hardened to find the piece that will push me to recontextualize my works simplicity. I am that thief, that liar and cad of a vulture on the cultural heritage of nature’s bounty. Foremost, I am fixed on the ancient, nomadic and native neighbor on this planet. I am surrounded and drowning in industrialization’s grandson, named contemporary culture. Holding fast to synthetic cubism, Switterz’ “merz” constructions and collage art history before 1945 has been a fountain of resource for my work. Seeming trapped, I have not moved on to the common links of mass popular culture, fearing alienation and uniformity with the work. What I have done is surrender to machine, ink, needle and measure. Furthermore, I have given into the sleekness of design and programs of computers. My longings of pencil driven draftsmanship have started to fall away. Seeking out all these means of electricity and light have succumbed to produce substandard works in my romance with art history and adherence to the significance of an artist to make their mark. An authenticity as such can only be done by hand. Trying to articulate welled feelings produces a few words in the vein that I have given up my voice and hands course to be a popular choice in gallery and department store. A friend suggested I move more in commercial circles, graphic design and clean form. Make money with Pop and commercial approaches and save your impassioned work for when the stir you make is profound. On the flip side, other told me that if I turn tail and commit to popular approaches to kiss my reputation good-bye. Truly I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t. My soul screamed for years at my lack f care and self-discipline. Back then, not being in the studio killed my heart over and over again for three years. When I started to pull out of managing in the government marketplace, I regained my soul’s health, but mourned severely for the years wasted away from not being in an art studio. I lost all concern for my spirit’s buoyancy and life of joy by becoming laden and pained to enact and sustain the artist’s life. To find my existence, I sought help from those of more grace and understanding of the world that is eternal. Maybe it is the way of a shamanic thinking, but as of now I intentionally turn to the native, I bow to nomadic, and I humble myself to the rawness of art brut. I find the well of creation that sustains my hand and mind in tune with each other. Still in the sourcing of Native American and world tribes, I feel I have stolen someone else’s birth right. For that violation I make up for it by feigning my own ethic history. There may not be a direct blood route for connecting to the people I reference in my work, but respect and intellectual genealogy makes a clear direction to source. I still am 500 years after the mast of landing on America’s shores. I am still carrying Caryatid-like boulders on my human failings. The wait to find my own voice and hands seems a far gone notion to finally grip identity, soul and sight. I am a cultural appropriationist because I choose to use history’s products a personal healing not confined to building strengths in the work. Questions of weakness from perceived fears in the work arise. One significant one is the concern of a lack of authenticity arising if the sourced image was not used. I stand on the practice of repurposing, redirecting and recontextualizing out of an obligation to make the work your own. Contrary to Pop-art I devoutly believe in the artist’s hands being apparent to the viewer. Belief in marksmanship sticks with me like the cave painting of Lascaux, France. One of the rock painters made his mark with an open hand next to the painting. To me it speaks of the importance of identity and not becoming a number in this fast paced society we call home. March 10, 2014 6:15pm
March’s early journal writing may have been a bit too intellectually written. I jostle my pen and paper to reflect more substance, but what I really need to do is surrender to the eyes and ears of my emotive and experiential self. Here you will hear the penny strike shale at the bottom of the well and watch crude oil flow up, over and out. Movement reverberates above and below while basic human cognition and pulls us into the story more quickly than a savvy actor’s gait on the center of the stage. Cultural appropriation is a mind terror that I came to outside the realms of art. Hiram College, nestled on the second highest hill in Ohio, was where the first introduction was made. Back in the early 1990’s political correctness was the order and rule of the day. As multicultural consciousness raising was taking sway in the dorms, academia and administration; much time was spent learning how to communicate across racial and ethnic lines without creating offense or disrespect. For example, for some the old adage of why whites would get confused at not calling blacks the word “nigger”, while those of color would use it as in-group recognition. Another instance of cultural offense is for blacks to see other cultures in African garb or Malcolm X t-shirts. With power in language use and cultural artifact beginning to define a new ideology for blacks, some blacks would find others use disrespectful by making a choice to wear African garb as a purely trend setting notion or a byproduct of conspicuous consumption. The prevailing accusation is that no person other than an African American could understand the pain and grief associated with wearing these object. It is a matter of claiming your history and identity for many, while others outside of that racial construct could never make a complete connection. “Why can’t they get their own stuff,” I’d hear from other African American’s on campus. I also think of the baseball team, the Cleveland Indians, as having a similar issue. For years Native American tribes petitioned and eventually took the team to court to remove the caricature and seek something more engendering of pride and nobility of such a great peoples. Here is where I lay in on my quilting. Not in caricatures, but in appropriating designs from trade blankets and fabric remnants into new works. The point is not to steal, but to integrate into an overall successful piece. Then and now I have not thought much about cultural appropriation till I felt pained to rationalize and explain my work to others. Whoever challenged me to take that journey, I do not know, but I am thankful for the encouragement. I will say with every time I plunge under the microscope by choice I’m closer to knowing myself and the pieces intrinsically. “A life unexamined is not worth living” --that includes the artifacts we lay down at the end of the day. Dropped of my entry for the Dallas Quilt Show 2014 yesterday morning. (Yes, this is an endorsement that if you are able, please check it out. Not just for me, but for the beautious yield of other creative hands.) I'm in the non-competing category, so for now I'm not fretting any disappointment. I entered what I wanted to enter last year. Unfortunately, if you remember my rant, I looked for the submission guideline to late and missed the open calendar for submissions. This year, I read in detail what qualifies for judging; a minimum of 20" square if I read correctly. Mine runs 17" by 70" so I went for the open category. I'll be displayed, which is all I really want. Maybe it'll generate some buzz and more interest. I'm still nose to the grindstone. Meanwhile I'm preparing to quilt on the long arm. Got backings in the fabric district. Most of the stores had 20% the total. I turned out twice at $.80/yard. Joy unto you as well. Meanwhile the stash gets smaller and the shop gets a little more fuller.
Features February 2006
Canon Fodder By Alexandra Peers Posted 02/01/06 What’s wrong with art-history textbooks? As publishers churn out revisions, the College Art Association is asking if the old standards are relevant to today’s students. 0 1 331 Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, 1979, makes it into Janson’s upcoming seventh edition. DONALD WOODMAN/COLLECTION BROOKLYN MUSEUM, NEW YORK/GIFT OF ELIZABETH A. SACKLER FOUNDATION Cassoni, the richly decorated bridal chests used in Italy during the Renaissance, will make an appearance in the seventh edition of H. W. Janson’s History of Art, the best-known art-history textbook in the United States. A few paragraphs on painted furniture inserted into a survey of 30,000 years of world art might not seem like a major development, but it’s big news in the academic community: the decorative arts, hitherto almost universally ignored, have finally made the cut. College art-history textbooks are undergoing an extreme makeover. Publishers and editors, stung by criticism that they have lost touch with their young readership and driven by market forces that may have little to do with fresh artistic scholarship, are literally rewriting art history—more often and more aggressively than ever before. Recent revisions of major textbooks as well as those still in the works give greater historical significance to a long list of subjects from Islamic sculpture to pre-Columbian art to photography to video. And forget art for art’s sake: the editors of the twelfth edition of Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, a 1,179-page tome that came out last year, said that they sought to include the intended purpose of every work of art featured, the physical environment for which it was made, its historical context, and even the patron who commissioned it. While some professors applaud the changes, others argue that they are merely cosmetic and don’t address the difficulties of teaching Art History 101 today. Critics say that the revisions endorse a “what’s in/what’s out” culture of art history, anoint undeserving contemporary stars, overwhelm students, and endorse what may turn out to be fads in art scholarship. Is “contextual analysis” the new “deconstructivism”? they ask. To consider these problems, the College Art Association (CAA) is about to begin an assessment of as many as 40 or more textbooks. In a break with tradition, some will be reviewed by a student as well as by a scholar. The project, which will be announced this month at the group’s conference in Boston, is already creating a buzz and is likely to raise eyebrows—and hackles. In a preliminary salvo—a sweeping review of a handful of leading textbooks titled “Quo Vadis, Hagia Sophia?”—former CAA president Larry Silver, of the University of Pennsylvania, and David Levine, of Southern Connecticut State University, argue that Janson’s “tasteful page layouts… exude a Martha Stewart elitism” and that the book lacks social and historical references. The report faults other major textbooks for “terse and dry” writing, “paltry coverage of non-Western” themes, and “turning art history into an arid affair.” The “available array of art history surveys leaves us wanting,” the report concludes. Janson’s book, first published in 1962 by Prentice Hall and Harry N. Abrams, and by far the most widely used art-history text during the baby boomers’ college years, has long been the best seller in America. But a number of rivals that pre- and postdate Janson are battling for a larger share of the lucrative market. They include E. H. Gombrich’s classic The Story of Art, first published in 1950 by Phaidon and now in its 16th edition; Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, first published by Harcourt Brace in 1926 and still going strong for Wadsworth Publishing as the recent recipient of two awards for textbook excellence; and Marilyn Stokstad’s Art History, first published by Prentice Hall in 1995, which has become popular as the “anti-Janson,” with its inclusion of female artists and its colorful magazine-style design. The most influential text was Janson’s. It was Janson (1913–82) who, more than any other art historian, pioneered the “in and out” celebrity model of art history. There were artists who mattered, he argued, and those who didn’t. Among those who didn’t matter in the first edition of his textbook were women and photographers. Asia was relegated to a chapter uncomfortably titled “Postscript: The meeting of East and West.” Janson’s patriarchal model of art history, in which style and innovation descend from one great artist to the next, became the model for all textbooks, along with his arrangement of artists in chronological, encyclopedia-style entries. His book, with its passionate prose about art, spurred a revolution in the teaching of art history. The State of Art History 101 Today, professors say, Art History 101 is a popular class, filled with students, mostly female, who think that newer media, outsider art, and their own cultures are underrepresented in their texts. These students tend to know less about history and classical mythology than the students of Janson’s era, and they are telling their professors that they feel completely overwhelmed by the amount of material they have to memorize. “The standard textbooks do not begin to address our needs,” says Silver. Despite the reprintings and the minor changes to the canon, “the art-history survey text has remained virtually unchanged for half a century or more. In the meantime, students who take art history have become increasingly diverse—with interests more engaged with gender or social issues than a generation ago—and they have wider backgrounds.” At Penn, the art-history survey class has been reworked to include not only painting and sculpture but prints, maps, photography, and cinema, “to highlight the rise of a public sphere of visual culture, culminating with TV and the Internet,” Silver says. Some schools, such as Columbia and Wesleyan, have thrown out art-history textbooks altogether. Other schools still use them, although they find them seriously lacking. “Over the past 12 years, we have worked with, and been dissatisfied with, almost all of the major survey texts—we flood our students with too many places, titles, subjects, and dates,” says Levine. We hear you, say the textbook publishers. The upcoming seventh edition of Janson, for example—Janson’s History of Art: The Western Tradition—which will be released in time for the fall semester, was written by a team of six authors. It will have “a lot of changes” beyond the added discussion of cassoni, says Ann M. Roberts of Lake Forest College, Illinois, one of the coauthors. For example, it seeks to put works “in cultural context in a more profound way.” She adds: “I don’t know how much of the original Janson prose will survive.” Is that good? Consider Janson on Jackson Pollock in 1962: “Pollock does not simply let go and leave the rest to chance. He is himself the ultimate source of energy for these forces (within the paint), and he rides them like a cowboy might ride a wild horse, in a frenzy of psychophysical action. He does not always stay in the saddle, yet the exhilaration of this contest, that strains every fiber of his being, is well worth the risk.” The planned redo of the text may or may not include this passage. According to Eve Sinaiko, CAA director of publications and a former editor at Abrams, the new edition may discuss Pollock in the context of the cold war—even though Janson deliberately chose not to include that kind of analysis. Would he mind the revisions? “I don’t speak for Janson,” says Roberts. People are always critical of surveys, says Marilyn Stokstad, a professor at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. By their very nature, they exclude some objects and ideas and anoint others as important. Nevertheless, criticism and, more important, feedback from her own students have prompted Stokstad to try “reinventing the wheel” in the new edition of her book, which is due next year. Changes include a greater presence of “Indian—not ‘Native American’—artists” in the book, she says, and a magazine-like format with colorful sidebars, a direct response to student requests for a “not New York Times but a USA Today approach” to art history. “They want something lively, instant,” she says. History’s History The United States has been the acknowledged center of art-historical scholarship since the middle of the 20th century, which is when it became the center of the art world as well. Until the onset of World War II, the intellectual headquarters of the field were in Germany and Austria, where the first art-history surveys were written in the 1840s and ’50s. Hitler drove many of the finest European art historians abroad. In 1935 Erwin Panofsky led the exodus of art historians from Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe when he was fired from his position at the University of Hamburg and immigrated to the United States, settling at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton. The high priest of the group was Janson, who is credited with bridging the gap between European and American art history with his influential textbook. His chief rival was the Vienna-born E. H. Gombrich, who immigrated to England and taught at London University. Gombrich (1909–2001) had a gift for clear, conversational language, a narrative approach, and an interest in pop culture—he included mass media and cartoons in The Story of Art. The book, which receives high praise in the CAA report, is today the world’s best-selling art-history textbook, with total sales of 8 million copies. Helen Gardner, a teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, predated both Janson and Gombrich. Shortly before her death in 1946, Gardner radically revised her book, organizing the material by period rather than by country, and bringing together European and non-European developments. That scheme didn’t last. A subsequent revision issued after her death returned the chapters to “a more normal order,” according to the editors of the fourth edition in 1959. Gardner’s choices had “obscured the intrinsic qualities” of different artistic styles, they concluded. Stokstad—a specialist in Spanish and medieval art, a former CAA president, and a prizewinning teacher—is a newcomer to the party. After market research showed that art historians wanted an alternative to Janson written by a well-known midwestern female professor, she was approached by Pearson/Prentice Hall in the early 1990s to write Art History. Publishers decline to disclose sales or royalty figures, but these four authors and their coauthors together have sold more than 17 million copies of their books. Writing the History of Now All textbooks are revised and updated from time to time, but in recent years the pace has picked up markedly for art-history texts. Stokstad’s contract, for example, calls for an entirely new edition of her book every three years. New editions make earlier ones obsolete, stimulating sales of new books at the expense of the used-book market. Market forces are behind a surprising number of other changes in art-history texts. If you have room for one German Expressionist, explains Sinaiko, the nod may go to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner rather than Max Beckmann, in part because the Beckmann estate usually charges more for reproduction rights. Nowhere has the fickleness of art-history texts been more conspicuous than in their treatment of contemporary art. Consider Janson on Don Eddy, for example. According to the 1991 edition, the California-born painter saluted Matisse in his New Shoes for H (1973–74), a view of reflections in a shoe store window, which was cited as a prime photorealist work. But Eddy is gone by the sixth edition, a decade later, to be replaced in almost the same section of the text by Kay WalkingStick, the first Native American artist to make the cut. She in turn is omitted from the current edition. So who’s in now? David Hockney, Barbara Kruger, Maya Lin, and Mark Tansey entered one or more of the textbooks more than a decade ago and remain in most or all of the new editions. Judy Chicago will be included in Janson for the first time in the new edition. Larry Rivers and Robert Indiana were grouped prominently with Lichtenstein and Johns in the 1991 Janson, with Rivers credited for the transition from action painting to Pop art. Rivers and Indiana were both passing mentions by the 21st century. Richard Long and Douglas Hollis are out. Photographer Annette Lemieux was featured in the 1991 Janson but lost page space to David Wojnarowicz in 2001. Audrey Flack made the fourth through sixth editions of Janson, but is missing from the seventh. And almost all of the historians agree that Cindy Sherman is the most important female artist of the postwar era. One final proof that art history is mutable, if not outright cruel: in a 1981 speech at the Washington University Gallery of Art in St. Louis, Janson singled out two “younger” artists as important—William Baziotes and Rufino Tamayo. He had died by the time the next revision of his text, the 1986 version, came out, and neither Baziotes nor Tamayo was included. Alexandra Peers writes on art, culture, and New York for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Copyright 2014, ARTnews LLC, 48 West 38th Street, New York, N.Y. 10018. All rights reserved. Revising Art History's Big Book: Who's In and Who Comes Out? By RANDY KENNEDY
Published: March 7, 2006 In some ways, art history is like an episode of "The Sopranos." A relatively small number of artists are welcomed into the family of the famous, their works immortalized in museums and on postcard racks — in other words, they are made. But hit men, otherwise known as critics and scholars, are lurking around every corner, waiting to whack even the most sterling reputation. Enlarge This Image National Gallery, London Whistler's portrait of his mother is not included in the new "Janson's History of Art." Top, Tate, London; bequeathed by Arthur Studd, 1919; above, Dawoud Bey/"Janson’s History of Art," Seventh Edition THEY MADE IT Now appearing in "Janson's History of Art": Whistler's "Symphony in White No. 2," top, which replaces the portrait of his mother and shows the Japanese influence on his art; and David Hammon's "Higher Goals," above. Top, Staatliche Museen, Berlin; above, Metropolitan Museum of Art ON THE CUTTING-ROOM FLOOR Van Eyck's "Crucifixion, the Last Judgment," above, has come out to make room for works like his "Madonna in Church," top, considered more representative. Almost no one is safe. Not even, as it turns out, Whistler's mother. This month, the publisher Pearson Prentice Hall is introducing the first thoroughly revised version of "Janson's History of Art," a doorstopper first published in 1962 that has been a classroom hit ever since Horst Woldemar Janson wrote it while working at New York University. For a generation of baby boomers, it defined what was what and who was who in art, from Angelico (Fra) to Zurbarán (Francisco de). But in recent years it has lost its perch as the best-selling art survey and has been criticized for becoming a scholarly chestnut. So its publisher recruited six scholars from around the country and told them to rewrite as much as they wanted, to cast a critical eye on every reproduction, chapter heading and sacred cow. The result, at more than 1,100 pages and 1,450 illustrations, will undoubtedly surprise many Janson loyalists, especially instructors who have taught from the book so long they can almost do so without cracking it open. The new edition drops not only Whistler's portrait of his mother but also evicts several other longtime residents, like Domenichino, the Baroque master, and Louis Le Nain, whose work is in the Louvre. The sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac, for example, has been erased with a vengeance; even a portrait by another artist of Roubiliac posing with his work has been dropped. And some full-page reproductions that had become permanent fixtures — like the Metropolitan Museum of Art's van Eyck diptych, "The Crucifixion, the Last Judgment" — have been replaced with others seen to be more representative of an artist's work. Although the publisher has now incorporated the name "Janson" into the title, the new edition, the seventh, is the first to have no Janson associated with it. H. W. Janson died in 1982, and his son, Anthony F. Janson, who took over and revised it several times, retired as the book's guiding light in 2002. Sarah Touborg, the current editor, said about a quarter of the contents had been changed. "To have done less than that would have been tough, given our vision of renovating Janson," she said. "And doing more than that would have risked losing our very loyal base of customers." "There's a strong affection for this book among teachers," she added. "It's their book." But in many colleges, the book, while as familiar as furniture, had become something to teach against, its clear narrative of art's development, focused mostly on Europe, muddied considerably since the early 1960's by changes in scholarship that began to place art more solidly in a social and political context. The first editions included no women artists; even through versions published into the mid-1970's, Mary Cassatt, for example, went unmentioned. Oddly, Jackson Pollock was in the first edition, only six years after his death, but photography was not included until relatively recently. The new book adds many more women, and for the first time, decorative arts are included. And it uses art much more as a way to discuss race, class and gender. In the introduction, on pages that once used Dürer and Mantegna to examine the concept of originality, Chris Ofili's "Holy Virgin Mary" — a painting that rested on clumps of elephant dung and created a furor when it was shown in Brooklyn in 1999 — is used to talk about differences between Western and African ways of seeing. "Art is never an empty container," the introduction states. "Rather, it is a vessel loaded with meaning." The book's new authors warn that because their approach diverges from the model H. W. Janson pioneered — the showcasing of individual geniuses and masterpieces — the exclusion of works should not necessarily be looked at as beloved artists being unceremoniously escorted out of the canon. But because Janson, as it is called, was so influential in undergraduate courses for so long, some teachers say they cannot help but view the revision that way. "I can see the reasons, artistically, for dropping Whistler's mother," said Mickey McConnell, an instructor who until recently taught a survey course at the University of New Mexico and has used Janson for years. "But it's become so well known, such a part of the culture. What if there's a cartoon in The New Yorker that uses it as a reference? Younger students aren't going to know what it's talking about." Joseph Jacobs, a curator and scholar who wrote the modern chapters of the new edition, said he often struggled with the question of what he could dare to take out. But when he decided to replace Whistler's portrait of his mother with his "Symphony in White No. 2," Mr. Jacobs said, he didn't think twice about it, "which is terrible, I guess, isn't it?" "Yes, it's a famous piece and everyone teaches it," he said, "but the 'Symphony in White' — you can just do so much more with it, talking about the Japanese influences on Whistler's work and a lot of things that allow you to see how fantastic a painter he really was." He also added some works that have long been cultural superstars, like Grant Wood's "American Gothic," which surprisingly had never appeared in Janson. (This might have been because Wood and H. W. Janson once taught together in Iowa and were said to have disliked each other.) As with all renderings of history, deciding who made the cut and who did not often came down to the mundane realities of publishing: page counts and deadlines. "There had to be tradeoffs," said Frima Fox Hofrichter, chairwoman of the history of art and design department at Pratt Institute, who wrote the chapters on the Baroque and Rococo. She enlarged sections on Judith Leyster, a Dutch Baroque painter, and added women like Clara Peeters, a 17th-century Flemish still-life painter, who had never been included. Mr. Jacobs said he would have liked to include Audubon and was disappointed that he had to leave out the photographer August Sander and the performance artist Ana Mendieta, among many others. But he was able to beef up both Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg, moves he said were long overdue. Stephen F. Eisenman, a professor of art history at Northwestern University who described himself as a longtime critic of Janson, welcomed many of the changes. "It's clearly a liberal version of a cold-war classic that will pass muster in most of the U.S.," he said. But he added that it would probably never regain the dominance it once had, simply because the whole idea of a book like it, or other supposedly all-inclusive surveys like "Gardner's Art Through the Ages," first published in 1926, had become outdated. "The main problem, I think, is that there's no longer a general belief that there exists a single canon for art that should be taught to all students," he said. Dr. Hofrichter, who has taught from Janson for many years, counters that teachers and students need a book to use as a starting point and basic guide to what should be considered important. But she said she had also often "taught against" Janson during her career, which leaves her in a strange predicament. "Now," she said, "I'll have only myself to teach against." Wangechi Mutu
Looking through an old Flavorwire.com article and there she was. Follow the above link and browse if you have time. Off to find what contemporary collage looks like out in the ether. Wish me luck. In case I did not post before the source is at Flavorwire. The article is on 24 Contemporary Female Artists to watch. Choose the display all function, it'll be easier to view. I was laying down a minute ago. I can seem to fall into sleep like times over before. Midnight is a welcome partner laying there in the dark letting the images and sounds rise and fall as they may. I, I, I must confess I've been at work on this Friday-Saturday chosen Sabbath and I regret it once more. My body regrets it. Still how can I not call changing gears joy and playfulness while the week holds sewing tasks from latter dawn to crisp, cold winter sundowns. Solstice has passed, the King is on the return and I roam the aisles of lost ideas and shadowy starts to find momentum. So there, I admit it. After proffering quilting as the only past time this year, I have broken a code in my heart and found resolve in collage. I had to tell you for fear of disappointing you. Still I have not given up on the prime goal as said and written. Making a few changes and not shouldering a great weight has given me freedom to breathe.
I should also tell you, I've found another direction. Memories of bookmaking in college and university bounce back and forth in my head. Now I have a taste in my mouth for photographs. Revisionaries in Dadaism seem to strike between the exacto knife and paper. I've been browsing from Texas Highways to ELLE and Good Housekeeping. I see what I did not see before. Before I shun it all commercial and advertising opting for boxes and handmade papers, looking through vintage labels and ransacking through recycled garbage. Not to mention the found object collect in the wild and 2nd hand stores. What it comes down to is finding a former fire still burning inside to make a narrative or vingette come alive in less the three lines. I'm remembering method now and not grieving for the right picture, the right backdrop or the right colors. Make a story evolve from what is in my hand. No extra purchases 'cept a few photocopies when needed. Memories of working at a library learning the art of the children's book illustration. Eric Carle first, then finding Nick Bantok for adult pursuits in the form of a postcard. Breakthroughs and my mind as a resource. Can't wait to find a set of vintage college year books again. Telling stories with those expanded mind, body and soul for me. Graduating into publication such as chapbooks or hard cover would be a whimsy worth pursuing. |
N.A. JonesPicking up where I left off. Archives
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