Abandoned prairie schools as art center 30 April 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Christian art retreat, Fiber.add a comment
A lot of shorter entries the past few weeks. I go in cycles like this, if you haven’t noticed, between longer more ponderous posts and shorter newsy items.
My wife is all excited this week about a spinning (as in yarn-making) retreat in tiny Harveyville, Kansas, about 45 minutes southeast of Topeka. The host of this retreat is something called The Harveyville Project, which appears to be a two-person operation that includes four buildings: Harveyville Rural High School (1939), Harveyville Grade School (1954), Rural Dist. 5 Eskridge High School (1920), and Eskridge Grade School (1921). From the Project’s website:
Our overriding purpose is to provide an inspiring, energizing environment to foster creative output. Initially, we’ll focus on residents and small workshops and community projects.
Our residence programs range from two weeks to six months and cover living/studio space, utilities, and dinner. Try a short recharge to get past a creative or procrastination bottleneck, or take several months to concentrate on a major project or thesis. By removing your accustomed distractions (shopping, traffic, social commitments, work routine), you can unclutter your mind and focus more directly on your craft. We invite artists, writers, musicians, and craftsmen, both student and professional.
Stellar idea, turning abandoned country schools (likely victims of consolidation) into a retreat for artists. It’s also another potential venue for the faith-based (Christian) art center I have in mind. I’m guessing there aren’t too many vacant school buildings on the prairie, but there are some, apparently.
Screenshot taken from The Harveyville Project’s website.
Previous entries talking about a faith-based art retreat:
Christian art center downtown?
Faith, art and barns
Art, faith, missions and a retreat
More on marketing art with Twitter 19 April 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Business of art, Fiber, Sculpture.add a comment
Regina Anderson contributed a post to TwiTip titled Using Twitter to Market Your Art. She’s a little more specific than I was in my post earlier this week.
I am a handcrafting artist, so I made a list of ‘artsy’ cities, located their media names in Twitter, and began following them one at a time. Almost all of them followed me back. As I read through the tweets, I found business names, mostly shops and boutiques, mentioned in each city, so I started following them.
Since my tweets describe the project I’m working on at that moment, I was able to generate interest and credibility as an artist. This is in addition to the artists I follow on twitter who regularly provide me with creative ideas, venue possibilities, and trade show information. I’ve even been interviewed and showcased on two different sites as a direct result of my Twitter connections. As all these relationships developed, I started adding more city twitters to follow.
So far I have targeted six cities and identified at least two shops in each city as potential new venues for my handcrafted art. This Twitter technique has proved to be a very valuable marketing tool. I have products in two shops right now and I am discussing consignment placements with a few others.
I am really at the tip of the iceberg. The potential for business connections is unlimited.
Anderson uses crochet to create sculptures. My wife has done some of this as well, including the bamboo below which sits on her writing desk.
How a bad economy influences art & design 19 February 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Aesthetics, Affluenza, Beauty, Business of art, Design, Fiber, Handmade, Modern culture.3 comments
In this case, design refers specifically to fashion, though I’m thinking in broader terms. NPR’s Ari Shapiro interviewed Sally Singer, Vogue magazine’s fashion news and features director in a Morning Edition spot this morning.
I have a love-hate relationship with fashion — both practical fashion and runway fashion. Runway fashion is easy for the masses to deride. A lot of it appears to lack almost every practical consideration, and us rabble in the middle classes can’t remotely afford it. It rightly births satire such as Ugly Betty. However, artistically and aesthetically fashion design is worthwhile.
“In tough times, why not express yourself by how you dress — whether you’re doing it from what’s in your closet, what’s in a vintage store [or] what you made yourself?” Singer asks. What a person chooses to wear — or live in, drive in, read or listen to if we expand the discussion — communicates, whether we like it or not. Our wardrobe can say that we value our appearance, or that we don’t. It often identifies us with a certain subculture. For better or worse, it sets us apart as lower, middle or upper class.
from the fashion industry reflecting depression era chic.
And, perhaps, fashion serves as an indicator of an economy. Singer talks a little about “depression era chic” in the interview. A New York Post article elaborates on this idea:
The duds say it all — and it’s depressing.
Taking a cue from the grim economy, this fall’s fashions at Banana Republic, Gap and H&M are featuring a distinctly Depression-era trend of cloche hats, pencil skirts, conductor caps and baggy, vintage-style dresses.
I wouldn’t have expected this kind of a trend from the fashion industry (had I been thinking about it). In other artistic segments, possibly: Painting has historically reflected social hardships; film and photography possess similar track records as I recall. While any observant twenty year old is old enough to realize that styles recur, this years’ shift in clothing design is more intentional than what generally appears to be a more simple ebb and flow to this common observer.
That said, props to the fashion industry for taking a culturally relevant direction. I’m not sure, off-hand, if it’s the right direction; one might worry that mimicking the styles of the depression might result in even more dire attitudes. The flip-side — to create elaborate clothing that defies a cultural climate — could instead instill hope.
Then again, it might also create some kind of complex in us, causing us to believe things are better than they are whereby we spend more than we actually have to spend. This is what Singer seems to refer to as morality. Towards the end of the interview, she states that “Not shopping is not a moral act right now.”
There’s actually no indication of whether she expects us to actually spend more than we have, but in the context of American consumerism the inference is believable. And such reckless spending is more-or-less what landed us in this so-called economic mess in the first place.
Photo from the Retro Radar.
The elegant closet 3 January 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Aesthetics, Fiber, Northwest Arkansas.4 comments
I’ve become lazy in how I dress since moving to a small town in Arkansas from Lincoln, Nebraska, a city of 250,000.
Part of the laziness is a result of a general trend towards more casual attire. Another reason is the distance between our home and anywhere decent to purchase clothes (about 40 minutes). In Lincoln the mall was always 15 minutes away, and even though we aren’t necessarily mall people the opportunities to peruse the sales were abundant.
Also complicating matters is a daily routine that includes time in a garage studio and an office. I usually end up dressed too well for the studio (where I end up ruining clothes before their time) and too casually for the office.
I miss dressing well. Arkansas, even if it’s Fayetteville, just doesn’t seem to present the need for attention to attire. The first time my wife and I went out to a nice restaurant we dressed up — as would have been expected in Nebraska. It was for our anniversary and we put on our good duds to eat at James at the Mill.
We were significantly over-dressed. We understood this restaurant to be one of the nicest, if not the nicest in Northwest Arkansas, but other patrons wore khakis or even jeans.
Bohemian rip off 27 October 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Affluenza, Business of art, Craft, Disposable culture, Fiber, Handmade, Sustainable living.add a comment
After a crazy weekend (following two very busy weeks, which followed a week of illness, which followed a week traveling . . . ) I’m looking forward to a week of cooling off, hopefully being able to take a comp day Friday and show some friends a few ceramic techniques in the studio. Then one more week till a ten day trip to Nebraska visiting two supporting churches. That should be, in comparison to the last month, a leisurely jaunt.
I’m scrapping a brief post together here from our shopping trip this weekend. I captured this cameraphone photo of a scarf at Kohls.
I’m sure most every other department store is selling one just like it this season. This style caught my eye, though, because my wife is an avid knitter/crocheter. This looks like a lot of the ideas she comes across as a way to use up scraps of yarn. You’ve got short pieces of yarn laying around from past projects, but none are enough by themselves to create a new project from. So you patch something like this together.
I’m amused that this scrapped together idea borrowed from handicraft is being marketed en masse. Why pay $30 for the scarf in a style that’s made to look like it’s something unique when you can ask your grandmother (or wife) to whip one up that’s truly original?
Something like this would take my wife about three hours to crochet, maybe a little more considering the fringe. I suppose there are people out there who don’t know any knitters or crocheters or sewers. I suppose there are people out there who wouldn’t even think of wearing something that they didn’t purchase from a store; they wouldn’t know where to start.
Both scenarios are pretty depressing to me.
Friday Fare: Instant art grants, installations 10 October 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Artist profile, Business of art, Fiber, Found objects, Installations, Modern culture, Photography, Sculpture.add a comment
ThinkChristian points out a post at the Urban Prankster which elaborates on The Federation of Students and Nominally or Unemployed Artists’ instant art grants of $10-$60. From the Federation’s website:
The FSNUA aims to re-inspire creative thinking and action in everyday people by removing a small barrier and providing encouragement. We give small, unsecured grants in the form of $10-$60 for creative projects thought up on the spot by everyday people. In the past this has included a merchant marine, two 10 year old girls, a US soldier on leave from Iraq, an accordion player from Alaska, and around 40 others. We funded their new paintings, drawings, knitting, and photojournalism projects, and the repair of one accordion. Projects that may not have happened had they not come across 10 people in the park to support and inspire the thought.
Beyond the small amount of money, the project encourages people to see themselves as something other than workers or consumers even if it just for the length of time required to apply for the FSNUA grant. We also hope to re-inspire dormant desires to create while presenting an example of generosity without an ulterior motive.
I’m pretty fond of the idea, especially the last paragraph’s hope that they are encouraging people to “see themselves as something other than workers or consumers.” Here-here!
A friend forwarded me a link to photographer Magdalena Bors’ website. As much as a photographer she appears to be an installation artist, turning common household objects into miniature landscapes. The following image from her photo-installations is for my knitting wife.
She was born in Antwerp and has a photography degree from Melbourne, but there isn’t much other information about the artist on the website.
Genius Grants 2008: Weaving straws and grass 24 September 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Art vs Craft, Artist as genius, Craft, Fiber, Found objects, Installations, Sculpture.add a comment
I suppose I should mention this year’s genius grants, awarded this week, since this blog contains a category called Artist-as-genius. Regular readers know that I hold a certain disdain for the term. I haven’t entirely fleshed that disdain out properly, but a very good example of where it came from can be seen in the somewhat raunchy film Art School Confidential.
Looking at the list of winners yesterday afternoon I was a bit surprised. They’re all over the place. The stage-lighting designer, music critic and architectural preservationist were pleasant surprises.
Two artists will be taking home the $500,000 purse, a sculptor and a fiber artist.
The fiber artist is another surprise. Mary Jackson is a basket weaver. How wonderful that such a traditional and humble craft is included in this list, a list that might commonly include the rocket scientists we so like to mock.
In contrast to that is Tara Donovan. I mentioned Donovan with some skepticism in this January post. Donovan’s work is sometimes mass-produced and makes use of common household objects.
I like the above work by Donovan, titled Haze. It’s made from drinking straws. I wonder what Mary Jackson could do with drinking straws. Weave them, I imagine, as she does with grass. An interesting connection between two very different artisans.
Northwest Arkansas art update 12 September 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Art, Fiber, Handmade, Northwest Arkansas, Sculpture.add a comment
The first sculpture for the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art arrived this week in Bentonville. It’s a large bronze by Paul Manship titled Group of Bears. Quite a few paintings have been purchased and announced by the Walton backed project up to this point. This is the first three-dimensional work to grace the grounds. The museum’s opening has been pushed back to 2010 according to their website. Photo from Crystal Bridge’s blog:
I tagged along with my wife to Ozark Folkways in the sleepy Boston Mountain community of Winslow, Arkansas. She was dropping off her first sculptures — of crocheted bamboo — for an upcoming fiber arts show. Folkways sells a wide variety of local crafts and regularly hosts workshops. Among the paintings and carvings were a number of vessels, including this group of hand-built, smoked pots.
They were signed by one Ginger Mathis, so far as I could read the tiny scrawl on the bottom of the pieces.
Celebrating Nature: Sally Metcalf 17 March 2008
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Artist profile, Fiber, Sculpture.add a comment
A friend gave me a book of sculpture this morning which, at this point, I’ve only been able to page through in a cursory manner. The book is called Celebrating Nature: Craft & folk art. One of the featured artists, Sally Metcalf, caught my attention as I scanned the album. Metcalf’s sculpture titled Treasure Trove, featured in the book, is very similar to certain ideas that I’ve worked on recently.
This piece is, frankly, much more dynamic than anything I’ve attempted up to this point, and since I now have a kiln I’ve turned most of my attention away from wood and towards clay. My own wooden wall pieces lack the depth and movement of this freestanding work. The most significant similarity is the repetition of the “dots” which are apparently fabricated with “waxed linen, cotton, hand forged copper pins, copper washers” according to the description on her website. The pins, it seems, are actually what holds the work together. I’m fascinated by the thought of hand forged copper pins, assuming the artists forges these herself. This deeply tactile act in the process of creating a sculpture is something I can very much admire.
Even in my own ceramic sculptures I’ve often lined up objects pressed into the clay, most often semi-precious stones. I seem to use repetition in a lot of my own work. This is, in part, a tactic to draw attention to more organic forms or materials by creating contrast with a more geometric visual.
All of Metcalf’s work featured on her website combine wood and fiber. Other than Treasure Trove, I’m partial to a smaller work called Come In.
Adding: On the art marketing side of things, take note of the very professional photography on her website. This is the same look I was taught to strive for, although, frankly, it’s not always that easy to achieve. Her website gives credit to the “Jordan Schnitzner Museum of Art & Department of Art, University of Oregon” for the photography.
