Surfacing

I missed you too. So much that I got off my behind and took pictures to share. That's my dad and me at our first LA beach trip, after my family moved from the East Coast. Love the 70's square Afro my dad's sporting? Of course you do.

Right after I decompressed from Art & Soul Portland, I made some progress on the Illuminated Vision artist book I started in LK Ludwig's class. You'll remember my "poem" was the song Someday by Sugar Ray. These are the hard pages I was approaching with a bit of anticipation and hesitation. They're the ones inspired by these verses:

Just close your eyes and I'll take you there
This place is warm, without a care
We'll take a swim in the deep blue sea
I go to leave but you reach for me
Thoughtful of me to close my eyes in that picture, 25 years before the song hit the radio. (Damn! 25 years?!) And yes, the shore of Santa Monica was quite warm that day, in English or in Greek.
I knew these foreign-language flash cards would come in handy... snapped them up at Vendor Night.
Wasn't sure if I should make a transfer of the image of my father and me. The original is not as sharp as a digital photo would be, and the transfer would only be less distinct. But then I thought, it's kind of appropriate that the image is reversed and difficult to see, what with this being so far in the past. And the viewer's memory of the clearer image should hold, as long as the transfer is on the next page. So, before...
... and after.
Also highlighted each head in the transfer, and finally got to use another one of those sacred hearts I picked up I don't know when.

More later on the craft fair production, and Thanksgiving with half of the in-laws.

What I've learned from Mija

A shout-out to Mija, whose comment in the first What I've learned post tickled the better impulses in my brain [emphases mine]:

it's seems a matter of how we choose to react. if we think someone is copying our artwork, we can be flattered, or we can see it as a way to challenge ourselves in a new direction or we can choose to be angry and bitter and rant about it on our blog.

I think she's better at detaching herself from the crazy-making things in life than I am. Clinging to an idea/way of thinking/person/job can be useful... but... you do run the risk of squeezing the life out of it as well as yourself. I'm better at letting go than I used to be, though. When I finally let go and go with the flow, I'm done with it pretty much forever.

as for the "sharing" implosion... one way we can protect ourselves from creating copycat art, is by taking a hiatus from Somerset Studios for awhile. let's go to another section of the periodicals and let something else inspire us for a change.

Which is what I'm doing, for various reasons. I thought of the above musing when I saw this interview by sfgirlbythebay with Anahata Katkin:

When I get emails from people who are in isolated communities who ask how to begin and feel frustrated- I always tell them that they have an advantage because of their isolation. Not being able to rely on inspiration from others or from the culture means that the stuff is pure and can have a deeper impact on people once you find your groove.

Well, living in the 'burbs of Increasingly Diverseville should make that easier!

A little ahead of the game (which is to say, not quite as late)

Herein lies a smidgen of a design for the altered notebooks I'm making for the holiday craft fair. My manufacturing pace is going relatively well. I've gotten all ten of the regular-sized ones done! and now I've got to do the ten mini-notebooks. I'm getting a little better at the on-again part of my on-again-off-again cycle, but deadlines will do that to you.

Last year I altered mini-phone books as well as the notebooks... they sold, but a lot of people pointed out they store most of their phone numbers in their phones now. Fortunately, I had a reply that seemed to knock down that argument: "But this phone book will never crash." But even so, I figured it probably wasn't worth the effort to do the phone books again. It was a good experiment, though. The craft fair organizers had suggested that I offer two or more options so people could choose a less-expensive, stocking-stuffer type of item, or a full-sized, full-price item. So I did the phone books for my buyers (I still get a kick out of that. "My buyers.") as well as the notebooks.

I sold three-quarters of my stock (stock! hee hee) at the fair, and then my boss' boss, who gets all card-crafty at the holidays, bought the rest. She and another coworker who bought two items said my stuff was a real hit with the gift recipients. So this year I'm actually hoping that one or two will be left over, so I can put them on my soon-to-be-established Etsy site. (I think I could set it up this weekend, if I'm on the ball.) I should've gotten it up and running by now, but it will be done -- I'm not going to let that fade away. So the Demons of Malicious Criticism are keeping things down to a dull roar in my head. Going to make some other stuff too, maybe a little less (gasp) practical than the notebooks... you know, just like, art. Stuff someone might want to put somewhere they can look at it and go, "Cool."

What I've learned

This is a great discussion we've got going here about the search for something new, in our own art and in that of our art heroes. Ricë is also struggling with this in her own way, which is to say she's kinda horrified and fascinated at the same time. As am I.

Of course we all copy something from time to time, either as we're learning in a class, or sometime down the road when we don't even remember the original source. And that's because, as Kecia said in the last post's comments, we're human and as mixed media artists we do tend to like some of the same things. (On a totally random tangent: that's one reason why one local newscast tends to have the same content and look as the next.)

But I think one of the most frustrating things for people who've been artists for a long time (say, more than ten years) is a lack of control.

You've worked really hard to figure out your Thing, and then here come hordes of people trying to do exactly what you spent years noodling with and imbuing with your personal meaning. It's diluting your brand, as the marketing people would say. What's so great about the Sistine Chapel ceiling if anyone can buy something similar -- and even worse, watching them replace it once they lose interest?

Another aggravating thing: you don't even know if someone's just sincerely attempting to learn and grow, or if they're just ripping you off because what you do is hot right now and copying is easier than innovating.

But you'd never stop everyone from putting dunce caps on every vintage image (for example), even if you wanted to. Unless you're Disney, and you have an entire division of people who do nothing but hunt down copycats and copyright infringers.

Second, if you're a Name, you never know if a similar artwork really is generated independently from your own work. It does happen all the time, but the chances of that drop in inverse proportion to your renown, don't you think?

That's why some lawyers make a lot of money defending Famous Person X in lawsuits that say he swiped someone else's original work and made millions. (Also why other lawyers make a living just by convincing FPX's lawyers to give them lots of money to drop the lawsuit. And why music sampling in hip-hop was such a huge deal in that business.) Even if it's settled in court, you just never know for sure.

And third, as Kecia said, the retreat business exists because we want to learn how someone else does what they do. Retreats wouldn't exist without newbies -- 'cause there just ain't enough artists out there on the level of a Lynne Perrella or a Michael deMeng who have the time to just get together for a convention.

This is another reason why I think a Room of One's Own is necessary for artists. (Thank you, Virginia Woolf.) You can hear yourself think, so to speak, on more than one level. Once you know what you want to say, you seek out others to share it with them. You sell your stuff, or you teach your techniques, or whatever. But it doesn't get a chance to emerge without the isolation. Without a Room of One's Own, I think you're forced to take over someone else's Room just to be fed creatively -- to search for the Next Big Thing, because you have nothing else. And that's no fair -- or fun -- either.

I think we'll all be fine, even the Name artists who teach. Someone may have taught you everything you know...

but that doesn't mean they've taught you everything they know.

Malaise

I've noticed more and more a frustration in the art blogosphere. Maybe it's just the aftermath of big ol' events like Art & Soul, where you're flooded with the sight of other people's art. Maybe it's the profusion of art blogs (guilty, mostly) that cram even more art input into your brain than usual.

Maybe it's the rush to put together art in time for people to buy holiday gifts. Maybe it's just the damn holidays themselves.

But there's this continual, insistent thread that says, "Get your own damn art! Find your style and stop trying to bite mine already!"

Sometimes it's pretty literal. Sometimes it's a little more indirect. I was going to link to a couple of rants in particular, but I changed my mind. I don't want to make anyone feel like they're being watched through their studio windows.

Nonetheless, there's been quite the hullabaloo at the A&S Yahoo! group recently, for example. People have been discussing the use of photography during class, especially to take "notes." The kind of photos that could end up as the basis for someone else's "original" class.

Jaysus, you'd think posters would say to themselves, "hey, someone's already said pretty much what I've said. I'm going to keep silent." Oh no. Not really. Which leads to this: A couple of people seemed on the verge of lynching one particular artist because her artwork seemed too similar to that of Nina Bagley for it to be mere coincidence.

And it makes me a little nervous too, because I do have an artistic point of view... I do things a little differently from the next artist... but I can feel myself Looking For the Next Big Thing, too. There are wings on all sorts of pieces I've made. Shoot, just look at this. (But I had to use them! They're so pretty, and I'm just trying to stop hoarding my Good Stuff!) I'm just not at the point where you could blindfold yourself and still pick out my stuff from everyone else's. I know I have my thing, but it's not yet my THING.

It looks like we're all suffering a bit from Too Much Information, even the good kind. The studenty types are ravenous for more of anything from the instructory types -- more posts -- more online gallery pics -- more class samples -- more projects more more more. I think the professionals are feeling like they're being eaten alive. The scene is eating itself, and not in a good way.

And the same zines/magazines much of us read -- or are featured in, you-know-who-you-are -- feed the mania. I used to write for a teeny weeny trade magazine (totally different industry) and then for TV. These days, all sorts of media, from TV to magazines to online publications, spend much of their time repurposing stuff. It's not labeled that way, but that's what you're seeing. And it's possible, in this milieu, because so many people are creating so much that there's a niche for every last piece, it seems. And we devour it. So another Special Publication comes out. And another.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to interfere with anyone's livelihood. But I wouldn't be surprised if we see a slowdown in some of the more informal artistic output, like blog posts (or maybe we'll see posts that are more about The Part of Life that Gets in the Way of Art).

Maybe, just for the sake of sanity, maybe we need to keep some stuff secret for a while.

UPDATE: The lovely and insightful new reader Kelly made some interesting comments on this phenomenon. Go see how clever she is.

Jesus Christ. What kind of foulness is this?

I can't even bring myself to post fully about this. Just go to Brainhandles and read about it.

I emailed A&E to register my disgust, and also emailed To the Point (a Public Radio International show) to suggest that they cover this in light of Don Imus getting back on the radio. Everyone needs to know about this -- not just because it's an outrage, but also because people need to know what to look for. And this is just the obvious racist crap!

This shit makes me sick. The only good thing about it is the son who outed that repellent excuse for a humanoid.

I'm done.