From the International Herald Tribune, an article titled Dwindling art supplies generate blindness - and erratic prices. This interesting, if unfathomable, piece ends with this paragraph:

Art lovers with millions to spare, do not despair in these lean times. Even when there is not much left to sift through, great works of art can still be found, if only because so few buyers have the eye needed to recognize them.

The article basically laments how wealthy collectors bid up mediocre works by popular artists while overlooking better paintings by lesser known craftsmen. Regardless, the numbers being thrown around are the kinds of money I think of retiring on — after giving most of it away.

But I’m not writing this post in response to the numbers or to desperate connoisseurs shelling out boatloads of clams just so they can say they own a Monet. I’m writing this to ask whether or not we can we create more of a sense of balance in the art world, with more reasonable prices and local markets. This was where my mind went after reading the title of the aforementioned article.

It’s OK that galleries, museums and individuals express such desire, via their wallets, for certain works of art by categorically revered artists. But, and this is really just brainstorming here, isn’t there a better way for all of this money to be spent? Why can’t these cash laden art lovers do a little more research and help out the quality up-and-coming local artist by purchasing his or her canvases. Not just paintings by the dead ones. What if they spent a little less on antiques and a little more on new works?

Just a thought. A rant. An aspiring artist’s ramble. Sure I have a vested interest in how collector’s spend their money on the work of living painters and sculptors. But, seriously, aren’t the prices being paid for these masterworks more than just a little bit out of hand?

I fired the kiln yesterday, a very full load and a combination of functional and sculptural wares. I’m not sure how much I’ll end up liking by the time finishes are applied. I had some problems with the terra sig flaking off of a number of the pieces. I’m guessing this was on account of the very tight surface of the clay, Steve’s White, I’ve been using. This occurred on all of the 10 cups in the firing which I had high hopes for. I’ll redo them in a few weeks, after which time I hope to have built my very own kickwheel.

I’ve been thinking about building a wheel for a while now, but couldn’t figure out how to make the flywheel. For some reason I assumed these were fabricated out of stone. I finally found some instructions online, from 1970, saying to cast it out of concrete. Why I didn’t think of this earlier is beyond me; just last month I cast a small base of concrete for a future wood sculpture.

I also retain high hopes for these little guys:

They will be glazed on the bottom (not in the photo) and smoked on their sides. I don’t yet know exactly how they will be displayed, but they are intended to hang from something, somewhere. I call them funnels only because I followed them up with some tornadic forms — although neither of the forms were consciously meant to represent tornadoes when I began them, curiously enough.

Some mild frustration beset me this afternoon as I unloaded the kiln and commenced work on some line blends. This relates back to the very limited time I have to be pursuing ceramics, although I have more hours now than six months ago. When I graduated with my BFA in studio art, I figured I’d make a living as a graphic artist. Actually pursuing sculpture or pottery as a career wasn’t on my radar. Over the last couple of years I’ve warmed, perhaps I’ve been divinely wooed into considering this more.

But it’s a tricky step of faith, living off of proceeds from your artwork — when you’ve never really sold any of it up to now. My ideal life at this point in time would be to work half-time for the mission mobilizing ministry I’ve been with for almost five years now (I’m really enjoying the new project we’re working on), and be half-time in pursuing ceramics. I don’t know how this can happen financially though.

One idea that’s worth looking into a little further attempts to combine and monetize both my and my wife’s creative interests. This notion involves some kind of storefront, will probably require start-up capital we don’t have and would only work financially in the long-term if we were able to live and work out of the same space.

We’ll see where that goes, if anywhere.

I’ve spent a lot of the evening nosing around the internet looking for good ways to market the small sculptures I’ve been finishing in the last month. Without much success, I might add. I don’t need much in a website, but the top results in Google for the search terms that seem best to me are terrible. Maybe I’ll enlist the help of a friend and devise something simple. I’m not in a great hurry, but I need to start thinking about it.

During this search tonight I landed on Etsy, which I’ve known about and actually used in a very cursory manner. Looking for other ceramic artists, I found an Etsy user called Stepanka. This New York City artist handbuilds with porcelain, which is something I don’t come across very often. Her small works, most of which she refers to as “wall pillows,” are soda fired. I really like the end result. If I ever get the chance again I’ll be using porcelain in salt or soda firings in this way.

Something about these hold my attention. I like the contrast, the finish and the delicate yet lighthearted line work.

That’s about all I know of her. The one sentence in her Etsy profile doesn’t say much, and there are no outside links I can find either. Thought I’d share one of her works though. The above work is titled “Standing by the lake” and measures 3.75 x 2.75 x 1.5 inches.

This post has to be the winner for “Longest Title” among all of the entries I’ve made to this blog so far. From Bloomberg, this is an interesting article about American collectors being called on to purchase Muslim art. Most of the writing focuses on the business aspect of a venture by the al-Shroogi family, who owns the Cuadro Fine Art Gallery in Dubai.

More interesting, however, than the article’s discussion about marketing Islamic art to Westerners — and the fact that there are indeed modern Muslim artists — is some very brief commentary about art and culture:

“Imagine, Muslim artwork hanging in Naples [Florida],” al-Shroogi says through a radio headset. “We need to do more of this,” the Bahraini banker adds as the aircraft laden with modern and contemporary Islamic art makes its final approach on a family expedition to convince Americans that the Middle East is more than a terrorist hatchery . . .

It’s an undertaking born from the al-Shroogi clan’s passion for art, the patronage of Bahrain’s royal family and the conviction that the Islamic nation a few miles off the Saudi Arabian coast has the muscle to build a genuine cultural bridge between the U.S. and the Muslim world.

Can art actually bridge cultures, and what exactly does that mean? Will Westerners think differently about the Middle East if they look at a few paintings by Muslim artists? The possibility exists for this; remember my February post regarding a Jewish atheist deeply moved by a 600 year old altarpiece.

Painting by John Torreano exhibited at the Cuadro gallery in Dubai.

The tactile arts are important to culture and communication, despite the anaemic attitude towards serious artistic endeavors in the American Church, generally speaking. Significant new paintings and sculptures created by artists of faith intently pursuing careers as artists, engaging the culture and furthering their craft, are needed in the Church as an intentional witness to culture here and abroad.

I remember hearing a story at conference in Portland a few years ago about a couple who went into the desert of Africa as missionaries. The wife served as a doctor, and the husband worked as an artist. He set up a studio in a shipping crate and made art for a year or so. At the end of the year he held a show for the community. I don’t know how many pieces there were, what the media was or what they looked like. My impression, if I recall correctly, was that they weren’t simple Sunday School drawings. They were more likely contemporary works. Regardless, the media reportedly conveyed the Gospel to that community in an effective way.

Take note, pastors. Take note, Church leadership and parishioners. What can you do to help make the name of God better through the arts? First off, make certain your own attitude is positive toward the arts. Educate yourself as to the importance of art in culture and Christianity. You don’t need a degree to appreciate art. Understand that it is OK if a person wants to create abstract paintings that aren’t about Bible verses; understand that it’s OK if someone wants to be a full-time artist. This is not a cop-out, it’s not laziness. Yes, it’s hard to make a living at times, but if society changes how it thinks about art and artists this won’t so often be the case.

Further, encourage aspiring or practicing artists in your congregation, and make sure they know there are others like them. Organize exhibits of paintings and sculptures; organize small groups so creative people can encourage one another. Allow the artists you know freedom to push your own boundaries. Yes, there are appropriate limits, but creativity begs new ideas and reminds us of how we are created in the Creator’s likeness. Don’t poo-poo something just because it makes you uncomfortable or isn’t your own taste, and feel free to engage in significant and witty critique in order to better understand such works.

I have to laugh every time I glance in the youth room at our church, where a mixed media work I donated hangs. When I first saw it there — instead of in a more public space such as a hallway or foyer — I wasn’t in the least surprised, but I was disappointed. It’s well crafted and blatantly Scriptural. My hope was that it would be hung in a place visible to anyone in the church at any time as something to meditate on.

Moth Mend, 2006. Moth-eaten sweaters, new red silk, paint.

I can laugh at the typographical triptych’s placement within my own church because I expected it, sadly, but I hold no grudge and hope that the kids who see it on a weekly basis are encouraged by it. I also hope, however, that the American Church soon comes to realize that segregating the palpable world from the spiritual world is just bad theology. It is OK to be “in” the world, even if we aren’t supposed to be “of” it. It is OK to be a part of culture in a non-pious context — in fact, it’s good to be involved in this way. How else are we going to show the love of God to the skeptics, to the people averse to church or Christianity?

I originally saw the Bloomberg article on Iconia.

I just learned of San Francisco startup Ponoko via TechCrunch. I’m still trying to understand the details, but the concept rocks.

From what I can tell so far this is the premise. Upload your design for a product and Ponoko, which has a factory in San Francisco, will make it for you. You can sell your blueprints for other people to make and can also use the website to market your designs, which Ponoko will build and ship to you to ship to the purchaser — at least that’s how I’ve understood the process up to this point. The home page of their website shows links that direct to Your own personal factory (”How to make”) or and an Online showroom (”How to sell”).

They claim the process of on demand creation will cut down on the waste of overproduction, and also grants the desires of shoppers who may not find exactly what they are after in the aisles of big box retailers, lined with mass produced products. A service definitely worth checking out. I might try it out and see if I can’t successful plug my table design which I referred to earlier this week.

Costa Rican artist Guillermo Vargas Habacuc recently used a dog in a gallery exhibit. The internet is aflurry with protests. I noticed in Facebook today some friends joined a group encouraging people to sign a petition against such future exhibits, which is where I learned of the artist in the first place.

I did a little digging — namely following link to link from the Facebook group page — and was quickly confused. Information just isn’t matching up here. For starters, some people are saying the dog, reportedly a stray from the streets of Managua, Nicaragua, was starved to death as part of the original exhibition (which is what the Facebook group in question purports). A number of other resources, including the gallery owner, claim the dog was only on display for three hours and was fed regularly by the artist himself when not part of the exhibit. Further, the Wikipedia page on the artist says that he was born in 1975. Another link I found — a dubious URL at http://GuillermoHabacucVargas.blogspot.com — complained about the artist changing his statements, the most recent of which quoted him saying “I am 50 years old.”

At this point I decided the chance of finding any really reliable information was unlikely (Although I do put a lot of faith, personally, in Wikipedia, and believe this is probably the most accurate representation of the circumstances that I read.), and had become more interested in how a story could spread so quickly and inaccurately via the Web. I fear people become too emotionally involved. When presented with a certain kind of story or anecdote, they believe the first thing they hear.

I don’t know what happened in that gallery, but at this point (sadly) it doesn’t matter. If the artist was after publicity, he got it. If he was trying in earnest to make a point, it’s been lost in the impassioned pleas of dog lovers who don’t seem to be remotely concerned with factual inconsistencies surrounding the event.

I really like the internet, particularly email, Facebook, blogging and live radar on Wunderground.com. But above all I love the internet’s ability to bring people together. The aforementioned group is bringing people together, more than 500,000 so far. Unfortunately, the cause isn’t verifiable. People may be putting a lot of energy into a whole lot of nothing.

In a world where information is more and more prevalent, it’s more and more difficult — regardless of the source — to determine what is the best kind of information. One week eggs are bad for you, the next they’re not. Atkins diet this month, South Beach the next. You get the picture; you’re probably living it. Trying to make sense of the massive amount of information presented to us on a daily basis is a real talent.

Who pays for environmentally friendly design? asks Architecture + Morality’s Corbusier:

“As I seem to be inundated with new information, advertisements or appeals to make buildings in a green-friendly manner, I find it more and more difficult to ignore the aspect of money in evaluating it all. Somehow I fail to suppress my sneaking suspicion that there’s more than just simply wanting to use resources more efficiently or limiting a building’s carbon footprint - that in reality the green movement in the industry of architecture is eyeing for potential new sources of fees and income. I admit it’s a cynical posture, but om so many places one looks, money is an important consideration when practicing the green way of life, especially when it comes to who is expected to pay for the extra expenditure.”

MoCoffee has opened an Etsy store. See his wares for sale at Mo Coffee’s Art Cafe, such as the following plate titled “George has brains.”

Adding: Coincidental to see the Sally Forth cartoon today (25 April 2008) suggesting part of the reason everything’s going green is because business has discovered how to profit from it.

The Guild is a very professional looking website that sells artists’ art. I was glad to see they offer a variety of ceramic works. Via TechCrunch, who reports that the “Madison, Wisconsin based The Guild bills itself as the ‘leading source for artist-made home décor products shipped direct from artists’ studios to customers’ homes nationwide.’”

A green remodel in D.C. Real Estate agent Amy Levin remodeled a historic home in Washington’s Mt. Pleasant neighborhood, and is hoping for a platinum certification from LEED. While gutting the house, she uncovered a hidden fireplace which is now the centerpiece of her living room, as shown in Heidi Glenn’s following photograph from NPR.

[The photograph mentioned above has been removed per the request of a representative of NPR. I didn't expect this at all, especially since I made a specific effort to give credit to the photographer. This is a personal web diary of my own, and from what I understand I was in the right despite NPR's protest. Regardless, I have no desire to argue over such details with the blind, "old media" and removed the photo immediately. I'm very disappointed, however, in NPR's reaction to what was basically free publicity. Do the marketing and legal departments not talk to each other in their organization?

The NPR rep offered up a "passive link" in place of the photo, which is amusing on a number of levels, not the least of which is that this post already contained such a link. Further, if I recall correctly this isn't the first time I've used an image from NPR's website. Oh well. Eventually big media will realize they won't be able to fight the changes the internet is making to information creation and dissemination. A reminder of this from an older TechCrunch post:

"Societal ideals around what constitutes ownership over art are changing. People who try to protect and silo off their work are simply being ignored. Those that embrace the community, and give back to it not only allowing but asking for their work to be mashed up, re-used and otherwise embraced are being rewarded with attention. At the core is a basic implicit understanding - if you want to be part of the community, you have to give back to it, too."

I expressed my strong disappointment in a reply to NPR's email. We'll see if they respond. Also see a post of mine from December on the ownership of art (photography, in this case) along a similar vein.]

An interesting excerpt from the story:

Green means easy on energy, durable and efficient, but not necessary natural. There are many synthetic materials throughout Levin’s home.

“There are some natural materials that are very appropriate for use in 21st century houses, but there is a lot of neat stuff we’ve made, particularly as it relates to energy efficiency, that does a better job than Mother Nature does,” Yost says.

Of all of the green virtues, the greenest is durability, he says. For people looking to build more environmentally friendly homes, Yost advises installing something that lasts a lifetime and consumes less energy, rather than something that’s more efficient in the short run but must be replaced several times.

I personally hope for the best of all worlds: Natural materials, durability and sustainability.

I was flattered, albeit slightly confused, yesterday to receive a call from the Better Business Bureau. Apparently someone had made an inquiry as to my business’s credibility and they were following up for that person. This website was originally begun as a front for freelance design I intended to do, but never really got around to other than three or four random projects. In fact, I was surprised when I caught the blogging fever. My first idea for The Aesthetic Elevator was to be no more than a portfolio with some contact information. I do maintain a page whereby people visiting the website can contact me for freelance design work, but I don’t push it and, in truth, am much more interested in pursuing my tactile art than doing any more graphic design at this point in my life.

Although the money is good in freelance design, and sometimes that’s hard to pass up.

A while back I found LeAnne Martin’s blog titled Christians in the Arts. I followed it for a short time without being interested in much of the content — her interviews weren’t usually with visual artists — but for some reason I re-added it to my list of blogs a few months ago. I’m glad I did; a number of her recent posts have been with tactile artists.

The most recent entry is part I of a conversation with Stephanie Tumney. Tumney is a gifted stone sculptor. I don’t find many people working in stone (or other traditional sculptural media such a bronze, for that matter), so I was intrigued. Her website is a bit scant in the gallery department, containing images of only five works, but these works are quite nice.

I like the scale and style of the abstraction she’s using with the figure. It’s reminiscent of Leonard Dufresne’s characters, which I’m quite fond of. They almost seem more human to my eye despite being slightly out of proportion. The exaggerations somehow increase a viewer’s affection towards the people being portrayed in the stone and pigment and, if you’ll allow me to extrapolate even more, give us hopeful perception of humanity.

It’s a thrill to come across artists of faith like Tumney, whose works will endure aesthetically and physically.

A small town in Kentucky has a program called The Paducah Artist Relocation Program encouraging artists to move to their community. From their website:

“The City of Paducah and Paducah Bank have made this project a front burner priority. The Program, still welcoming artists and arts related businesses, has transformed a down-and-out area of town into an up-and-coming, city supported arts and gallery district. Paducah’s Artist Relocation Program has brought in over 70 artists to date, is nationally recognized for using the arts for neighborhood revitalization and is fast becoming a national cultural destination.”

From what I can tell this program has already been successful, in its own rights, at least to a degree. Why aren’t other communities doing something similar — or are they and I just don’t know about them? I was under the impression at first that the city paid for relocation expenses, which is a good idea, but this doesn’t seem to be the case according to the program incentives:

• Lowertown is dual zoned for commercial and residential use. This enables residents to have gallery/studio, restaurant/café, etc. and living space all under one roof.
• 100% financing for purchase and rehabilitation of an existing structure or the building of a brand new structure.
• Basic loan package is 7% - 30yr. fixed rate up 300% of appraised value.
• Free lots for new construction as available.
• City will pay up to $2500 for architectural services or other professional fees.
• National marketing of Lowertown Arts District and Paducah.

More details about the program on on this page. A number of properties for sale in the city are listed here. I don’t know how affordable some of these structures are for aspiring artists, but enough people have taken the bait to make Paducah a surprising art destination.

Adding: I’ve made some important edits to this post, particularly correcting my statement in the first paragraph suggesting artists’ relocation costs are paid by the town.