Zero Sum Art Project

I read about The Zero Sum Art Project while digging around at diggingpitt. I had to look further into the situation and turns out this is quite an interesting project.
Basically, "The goal of the Zero Sum Art project is to create a financially isolated studio environment, in which every cost and every profit is documented and made visible to the viewer, and see if it is possible to create a self-sustaining studio practice." It is quite a fascinating idea, and the fact that Marc Snyder is turning it over and making it happen is very encouraging!
Even more interesting to me of course, is the fact that Marc is creating collages, and he is documenting is work on them with his blog, the internet, and ebay. I really like the documentation of the artwork. Cool idea.
Check it out. The details can be found here.

Zero Sum #12, Marc Snyder, 2007
pencil, charcoal, acrylic matte medium, acrylic paint, a NASA postcard, and 4 postage stamps on white BFK Rives paper, attached to a larger sheet of white BFK Rives.

The Art is Only Half of It

I have spent most of my lifetime learning and growing into the artist that I am today. I have experimented with media, techniques and ideas. I have a nice foothold in my own style, and I am just starting to fulfill the dream that i AM indeed an artist. Being published in a couple of books, selling my own independent works, the stacks of finished art in the corners of my apartment, are my evidence.
As I work to now try to bring my artwork out of hiding and into the spotlight and the hands of collectors, I am finding that even with all the learning and reading and creating that I have done, I still have so much more to learn. In fact, I am a babe in the virtual art woods. There is an entire side of art that I was unaware of. The business side.
How could it be that I have spent years in fact a couple of decades learning and growing as an artist, but yet I am totally clueless about the art "system"?? I know so little about it all! With the internet at my fingertips, I have been spending countless hours reading reviews, reading reports, looking at exhibits...and what a world of things I have found out that I didn't know!! There seems to be so much information out there. How could I be so naiive about it all?
Truly! I thought about the nice little family that makes a fairly decent living in their little middle class home, sitting in their living room with empty walls pining away for a piece of art. How they will "happen" across my artwork, fall in love with a piece, and just HAVE to purchase it for their home. Good grief, how could I have been so far away from the mark here? This scenario is NOT the way it works. As I read about the political part of collecting over at Ed Winklemans blog, it scares me. I read articles about artists being chosen by age (or good grief, gender!!! what century are we in?) over at Anonymous Female Artist, or the tale of art market rookie Susan Hancock and how she bought artworks because someone else did which I read on artnet. There is just so much going on behind the scenes in the business of Selling Art. I had no idea.
I am wondering about the real meat behind all this bullshit. The art. Doesn't that matter at all? Does it really come down to gender? age? or good grief, mass popularity??? How entirely depressing! And discouraging.
The art apparently is only half of it. The smaller half.
Well it's a damn good thing that money and fame are not what drives me to create! I end up not wanting to read anymore about it, and depressed, I go Make More Art!

Collage Workshops with Jonathan Talbot

I received this email from Jonathan Talbot this past week. Here is some relevant information:

Hi,
I have scheduled a 4-DAY COLLAGE INTENSIVE WORKSHOP called NEW EXPLORATIONS IN TECHNIQUES & CREATIVITY at my studio in Warwick, NY from Tuesday, July 31st thru Friday, August 3rd, 2007. Warwick is 1/2 hour from Stewart International Airport(SWF) and a little over an hour from Newark International Airport (EWR, one of New York City's 3 big airports).

The material to be covered during this 4-day workshop will be determined jointly by all the participants when we gather Tuesday morning. Possible topics for exploration include: Composition, Creating a Personal Style, Adhesive Options (including Collage without Liquid Adhesives), "Getting Started," Accessing our Creative Energies, "Paperless" Transfer of Printed and Photocopied Images, Preserving Found Materials, Collages on Canvas, Preparation of Substrates, Collage / Construction, Sources of Tools and Materials, Presentation and Framing of Finished Works, Marketing our Works, Copyright Issues, Computers and Creativity, and more.

The workshop is limited to 7 participants. The workshop fee for 4 days is $500 which includes all Materials, Lunches, Refreshments and Optional Evening Hours on Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday at no extra cost.

Registrations will be honored in the order in which they are received. For a registration form you can print out and send in visit this link. On the same webpage you can also find a link to accommodations information within the specific workshop description.

If you have questions please e-mail me at jonathan@talbot1.com. If you wish to speak with me on the phone put your phone number in your e-mail and tell me when it is best to call you.

Please consider passing this message along to others who might be interested.

Cordially,

Jonathan

the gateway keepers

the gateway keepers
Originally uploaded by misphit

I really have to wonder about my muse. There are 2 projects going on for me at the moment (besides moving and a full time job!!). One is a super hot project, 3 small collages for the Mini Artefakts exhibition. This is due in 2 days. The other is a large piece that I started last week, not with a deadline--it is "just" a personal work. So which one do you think I keep working on? Well of course it isn't the project with the deadline. You know sometimes the muse is uncooperative with such things. I WANTED to work on the big work. I kept finding the right pieces, I was in a green mood, I was FEELING the gateway...I know I was supposed to do the smaller ones that are due. But why is it that I couldn't tear myself away from this one?
I seem to work under this semi-rebellious mode.
"What???!! I am doing art!" I say to myself, "As long as I get something done, I am okay."
So now tonite, I have to be right on my game and get to finishing those 3 little mini pieces. No procrastination.

Charles Farrell Blog

I got an email from Charles Farrell the other day in which he shared the link to his wondrously colorful blog. I really do like visual blogs. Of course, i like to read stuff, don't we all? But there is something nice about browsing through images...
Looking through Charles' work I felt as though I was going thru layers of time. The people he uses in his work are from disparate centuries, places and times. Seeing them posed together seemed to make the specifics disappear. Underneath, I found commentary on the human condition.

Clearing House

I must apologize to any faithful readers who may have realized that the clearinghouse is slow these days.

I am Clearing House!
I am in the process of moving to a new personal residence. This means the usual packing, sorting, throwing away, and moving of many boxes, but also it involves the massive movement of an art studio full of unorganized and unwieldly ephemera. I have an extreme and vast collection of old papers. Some are all neat and precious and in white folders which are like huge security doors to me when i am working. They scream at me when I open them....DONT CUT THESE UP! Others are boxes that are falling apart and busting at the seams with paper dripping over the edges. Then there are not 1 but TWO cabinets full of vintage magazines in various states of disarray some with covers missing, pages in signatures. There are boxes and boxes of cut up papers and good pages that were never used that i might use some future day. There are paints, brushes, and collage mediums, pencils rulers photos food labels Did I mention the 2 bookshelves full of books I am destroying? The other 2 bookcases of reference books? The roll of tyvek, the yupo, the paper moose signs I picked up at the lumber yard, boxes of beads, fabrics lace and birch bark???...um, The list seems endless. Organizing all this is a major undertaking and it has me stretched to the limits...and at my wits END! it is tantalizing to handle all these wondrous textures but not be able to address them. I get a strong pull from the ephemera as I sort thru it. It wants me to express myself!!! I fight the urge, but I am saving up a huge creative burst for when I get situated. That is certain.

The time needed to devote myself to seeking out endless collage fodder online just hasn't been there as of late. On August 1, the move will be officially over and at that point I will resume my quest to report collage items of interest. For now I will continue to post simple things....images....but not with too much commentary!

First Friday Collage in Burlington, VT

There is a First Friday Art Walk in Burlington, VT on July 6, 2007. Included in the art walk is an exhibit by Sara Altieri at One Wall Gallery of her paintings and collage work. More info can be found at her site.
Studio D-3 and The One Wall Gallery
420 Pine Street, Second Floor
(802) 922-8005
The One Wall Gallery: “Beautiful Faces”: Acrylic collage and paintings on canvas by Sara Altieri; Marie Davis: polymer clay jewelry and sculpture; Aaron Stein: license plate art; Ginny O’Reilly: watercolor paintings; Carol Norton: paintings in watercolor and oil. Open for First Friday Art Walk and by appointment.

The Collage Journal

I look at Peter Jacobs work and I can understand how absorbed in his collage art he really is. When I see so much art, such a bulk....I know this person is living and breathing thru the pictures. I can identify with the pile of scrap and papers that he must have in order to achieve such a colorful depth and breadth in his work. There is an evolving that happens as you continue to work day after day on a particular technique and as I look thru the pages of The Collage Journal, I can see this unfolding characteristic clearly.
I like the relevance of his work, also. There is a lot of reference to politics and things affecting us on a global scale, like war...I usually avoid these topics for some reason. I do enjoy seeing the expressions of others tho, and in this case, there is so much to see.
His site is here.

quote by Spiegelman, Lon

BUT, THE BOTTOM LINE IS, 'We in the east have to make friends with those in the west' if we, as a people, are ever to convince our respective governments into the realization that we are family, living on the same speck of creation, and when the toilet flushes, it flushes for all.'" (July 2, 1984)

Art as Technique by Viktor Shklovsky

The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects "unfamiliar," to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged. Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object: the object is not important...

Cless

Collage by Cless
I found him on flickr and his collage work is loose and mesmerizing.

The End of Living The Beginning of Survival

Collage by Dash Snow. What can be said of his work? There is a shock value to his work. The themes are raw.

I read commentary about him online awhile back and decided I would have to reserve judgement on him. I had not seen his collage work, only his photography. His collage work is really quite communicative. Actually, I hadn't thought of him as much of an artist until I had seen his collages....

I know life is raw. Hell, my life is raw. I just don't photograph the partying, the criminal stuff, I keep that to myself and my close circle of friends.... It is refreshing that Dash Snow doesn't try to hide it tho...he rather tries to get it and bring it in your face. For that raw honesty I do envy him....

He is exhibiting in Berlin.
Contemporary Fine Arts
OPENING HOURS
Tuesday - Friday 10 - 13 and 14 - 18
Saturday 11 - 17

ADDRESS
Sophienstrasse 21
10178 Berlin

White on White

white on white in progress
Originally uploaded by misphit

In progress.

time

Sometimes life gets in the way of my art. I know I have to eat and sleep to survive. And to eat, I have to cook since going out is not affordable. And if I cook and eat, there are dishes involved which I have to wash. And after the dishes are washed I will realize that I need to get more dish detergent and I will have to go shopping. To go shopping, I need a car. To have a car, I need a job. To do a job, I need 40 hours a week of my personal time. Of course, a job and shopping and eating make me tired. So I sleep, which takes up even more personal time. Then there is shower time, essential if you want friends in this world. And computer time for this blog. And what about laundry? Cleaning? balancing the bank account???

All the time that is left is for art. What is there...maybe 15 minutes? Not enough.

So I don't always eat. Cut back on my sleep. Wash dishes after they sit in the sink after 3 days. Shop online. Do laundry every 10 days instead of 7. I still have the full time job, the car payment and laundry. And i shower everyday.

By using these time saving techniques, I am able to get a couple of hours a day doing the thing i love most.

BUT still --it isn't enough. I sometimes get frustrated.

Robert Tucker

Taking a look at Robert Tuckers' Nature's Naughty Bits Series, somehow I was reminded of Magritte's "Ceci n'est pas une pipe."
The objects appear to be floating...

Art on Lark 2007

One day Travis and I were discussing the art scene in Albany and the topic of Lark St. came up. I was in a pretty bold mood....and he had mentioned that it was a pretty diverse and busy art event...so I got online and ended up very impulsively signing up for the Art on Lark show on June 9. I really had no idea what to expect, except for what I saw on the web for photos of previous shows. I spent the last few weeks working on a bunch of smaller book projects and prints, so I would have something for the buyer with the smaller wallet to buy, assuming most of Albany is almost broke as I am. I was stressing over it, cuz i really had no idea what to expect, but finally I chilled out and decided just to wing it.



I made up a price list, and created some displays out of old window frames hinged at the top. I packed up Chris' EZ-up tent, gathered a few of his more choice card tables. I gathered up a cross section of my smaller works. I borrowed the van from work to hold it all, and headed off to Albany to sell some shit!! (sorry, but this is my blog, and sometimes I have to type it just like I would say it).



Setting up an older EZ up tent without help is just plain foolish. The first stage of pulling out the corners became a quiet riot, as I walked around and around the tent till I was dizzy. So Jul the Fool attempted to do it for about 15 minutes until enlisting aid from innocent and only semi-willing bystanders. After the tent was up, I made quick work of setting up a booth. I had to concentrate, since I hadn't done this before. I ended up doing things so differently than I had planned, but I had to adapt to the spot that I was given. And deal with the sidewalk folks, people who actually had to use the sidewalk for more than browsing the art.



The show started at noon. I was nervous as hell. I don't do well at selling myself. I am an expressor...a creator...a communicator. Until I have to communicate the archaic and subtle ideas behind my art to someone I haven't met! I remembered all the antique shows that Chris and I did last summer, and tried to copy his sales pitches and his routine of saying hello to the customers. Instead of sitting in the camp chair and reading the "Secret Life of Salvador Dali" I stood up in the heat and talked with folks. Anyone who took more than a mild interest, I spoke with them about what I do. I ended up after awhile coming up with a loose sales pitch and I was giggling to myself at how silly I sounded at times. But I didn't let the nerves get to me, and there were SO MANY people walking around it wasn't like I had time to pout about my inadequacies.

I ended up doing quite well. I sold 3 original works, almost all the prints, and some of each of my books. The show made me more money than I had estimated as my goal...I met a bunch of interesting people. I got to watch people ponder over my stuff, smile at the books, and feel the textures of everything I had on the table. I was really psyched to see that there was almost an equal distribution of men on-lookers vs. women. I had the preconceived notion that my audience was predominantly female, but I may have underestimated my male audience.



I wasn't overly impressed by the other art I had seen in the show, but then again, I was very much rooted to my little booth and didn't get the chance to go and look at others. In the afternoon, the sun rose up high in the sky, leaving me pleased to be on the shaded side of the sidewalk. I was watching the other side of the street fanning themselves to keep cool...But the heat I couldn't totally avoid. I ended up standing barefoot on the sidewalk for most of the afternoon.

All in all, a positive experience. I should do it again.

Good Copy Bad Copy

GOOD COPY BAD COPY is a documentary about the current state of copyright and culture, from the folks at goodcopybadcopy.net. This looks like a seriously interesting documentary about our current copyright culture. There is a link to a bittorrent for the documentary on their site.

Matthew Rose Podcast

I recorded the talk that Matthew Rose gave this weekend at The WHOLE TRUTH exhibit. Listen.

The WhoLE TRUTH: The Exhibit

I had a long drive to prepare myself for the Matthew Rose show at Gallery-in-the-Field in Brandon, VT. What a beautiful ride from my hometown of Fort Plain, NY in the lush Mohawk Valley, past Lake George and Lake Champlain locks...to the rolling farmlands of Vermont. Sleepy vintage towns with extreme church steeples and tiny schoolhouses, quiet vacation lakes with sparkling waters, and busy operating farms finally gave way to the beautiful setting that belongs to Gallery-in-the-Field. By it's simple, white picket gateway, you would never guess that such a color explosion was only a few yards away.
I was surprised to find this gallery off the beaten trail, almost an oasis in the middle of Vermonts' rich, coifed farmland. I couldn't believe anyone would find it, let alone travel to this place in the middle of nowhere! This gallery is truly a hidden treasure.



I arrived early and had a chance to meet Matthew before the exhibit. He was in and out of the gallery, checking on his arrangement, re-arranging, and then after that re-arranging and then arranging some more. On the wall were literally hundreds of detailed collage works. I was taken back at the amount of pieces that he assembled for this exhibit. I thought of the hours that were represented behind the scenes, the many nights of dazed eyes and painting and gluing, the endless cutting that was required to prepare all of these pieces. This was a cross-section of Matthew Roses' reality, a splaying of thoughts and cross-references, a series of symbols, suggestions and subtle or blatant commentary. This was The Whole Truth. period.



The works were arranged loosely on the wall into categories that only the creator of such a large amount of things could understand. Sifting thru them slowly I got lost in his world. Fascinating color combinations, surreal situations, and the surface texture of Matthew Roses' pieces kept me enthralled for over 2 hours. It took time to absorb the feeling behind it all! Sensory overload!


The talk Matthew gave enlightened me as to the amount of information reeling around inside his head. He spoke of Paris, the US, collage, and a bit about his life. This lecture did not clue me in about his ideas and thoughts nearly as much as the myriad of images hanging on the walls around me. No amount of talking could clarify thoughts that seemed to be better explained by the graphic imagery and symbology used in his collage work.
After the talk, people gathered around Matthew to ask even more personal questions, and others took advanatage of the fantastic spread of food goodies and wine that was provided by Gallery-in-the-Field. Who could resist the tempting pastries and appetizers???


I left Vermont full and inspired. The food settled in nicely on the ride back and I spent the next 3 hours mulling over the various works that I had scene, and the words that were spoken, and new ideas to consider
The show will be hanging in Vermont at The Gallery-in-the-Field through July 8, 2007. You won't be disappointed.

Current Exhibition: The 9th Annual Collage, Digital, Mixed Media Juried Online International Art Exhibition

Joan Fitzgerald
Athol Springs, NY
"She Knew He Was Dangerous"
Collage
31" x 28"
$800







The Upstream People Gallery now have the 9th Annual Exhibit online. I was really intrigued by the work of Ryan Cummings. I like the photos incorporated in his work. Joan Fitzgerald also had a unique way of collaging photos...Garrin Horner of Ann Arbor did some bizarre prints of collaged negatives!!! I really thought this was a creative thing to do!







Garin Horner
Ann Arbor, MI
"Photomancy: Weights and Measures"
Photographic Print from Collaged Negatives
14" x 11" x 1"
$100






This is definitely worth some of your viewing time.