works in progress

It's official!

2008-05-11T13:21:00.003-04:00

For all your favorite art commentary, I have moved the blog to its new home: http://www.evemosher.com/blog/
I will leave this blog alive on blogger for a while since there are still outside links pointing here, but for updated content, see above. The new feed subscription is: http://www.evemosher.com/blog/index.php/feed/atom/
See you real soon!

There is no scarcity.

2008-04-30T17:31:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I posted about some bigger discussions to have when engaging in the discourse on funding for the arts. I spoke about communities and artist support & integration. Today, as promised I want to talk about the power of the arts community and the myth of scarcity.

The myth of scarcity in the arts is the long held belief that there's not enough X to go around. Where X represents one patrons, audience, venues, whatever. This myth creates a sometimes vicious competitive environment.

The myth is detrimental to both individual artists and the community.

The good news is that it really is BS. But that does mean coming to terms with some understanding and reality checks. The first concept to grasp is that the current system of the arts industry is broken, the pyramid is inverted. Artists, who should be at the top of the pyramid (all other services should be in support of artist) are currently at the bottom (playing the support role to all the services). This is not a complaint, just a statement of (important word choice coming up) current fact. In order to change this, artists will need to begin with reconsidering how to succeed in the art world (more on that later).

Another reality check is that there is only a minuscule number (I've heard rumours that it is 1% of 1% of all artists) make a large amount of money off their artwork. And by large amount of money, I mean rockstar lifestyle. We could probably figure out who they are right now, ummm, Damien Hirst, Olafur Elliasson, maybe Jeff Koons and tangentially Christo & Jean Claude (tan. because they make money off sketches of their work). Am I missing anyone?

Here's the secret, everyone else is making money off alternative sources of income which are funding their work (teaching, speaking, working in the arts, etc). Now, there are probably quite a lot of artists who make a reasonable amount of money off their work (as opposed to the rockstar levels of money), mostly these are artists who can create easy to market & sell work, which, often is not even the work they would consider the most important or interesting. Like the e-bay and painting-a-day people (there's a lot of merit in these methods of funding). If you are doing large scale public projects (say a chalk line around NYC) then your funding might come in a small part from grants and individuals, but in a larger part from speaking opportunities, image rights and some amount of commodification. My painter friend is pursuing painting portraits as a means to fund his work, a couple of my other friends who create non-object based work subsist on teaching and occasional fellowships. It's a good idea to understand that you will be the biggest funder of your own work, so you should find something you can do to make money that will make you happy.

So, about how this community concept can help. It's quite simple actually, so simple in fact that there is a cliche already made for it: a rising tide lifts all boats.

If as a community we decide that we are going to help one another, whether that is sharing knowledge, resources, experience whatever, then we all rise up together. Don't even think it isn't selfish, don't you think that if I help my friend the painter get a show in a gallery or out at Coney Island, well one day he will turn around and help me when I need it. Sharing is a way of creating greater strength in numbers. (What you give is what you get).

Yes we should all be talking about money too. It empowers us all to know what people are paying for services and products so that we can price our own products and services accordingly. (For example, in my experience speaker fees can range anywhere from $200 [for local panel] to $1000 [for individual presentation outside NYC], and stipends for showing work that is documentary in nature [documentation of a project already completed] is about $300). It also helps us all present a more united front, sure there are lots of artists doing things for free (even I admit to that for a select situation), but the more we all ask for the money we rightly deserve, the more likely people will pay for it. The power of a positive no is a great thing.

So think about it, and figure out what you have to share with your fellow artists, and go out there and give that away (while simultaneously asking to be paid for your creativity).

Photos all creative commons license, courtesy of flickr and: (top to bottom)
"Support Starving Artists" by dltq
"Inverted Pyramide" by megafon (ironic that it is at the louvre no?)
"community kitchen" by smallestbones

Speaking of funding...

2008-04-30T16:57:00.007-04:00

I was invited recently to participate on a panel regarding fundraising in the arts. I was told by the organizer that I was being invited for my experience in fundraising for the HighWaterLine project. I told them, you know I only raised about 30% of the cost of the project and funded the rest of it independent filmmaker style (credit cards) and am still working on ways to recoup, so I'm not sure I am the best representative. They said, actually that's the other reason we have invited you, we want someone who is honest about their fundraising achievements and challenges.

I'm pretty excited about the panel, since, as you may have noticed, I am really interested in talking about new funding models.
I think there are a couple of important parts of the conversation around fundraising which need to be addressed, I will look at value/integration and support of artistic communities today...

First, how we talk about value of the arts in a community. The argument on the monetary value of the arts, while valuable and of great merit is overused and doesn't fully address all of the facets of a strong arts economy. I just read a good article in the New York Times Magazine about arts in education, it profiles a report which debunks the power of the arts in strengthening skills in the "tested" subject areas. (I've had a problem with this argument for a while). Instead it notes that what was witnessed was: "persistence in tackling problems, observational acuity, expressive clarity, reflective capacity to question and judge, ability to envision alternative possibilities and openness to exploration." (Nowhere has this been made more visible to me than the week I spent at ACPA, where high school students undertook a week long art project with me where they solved problems, collaborated, focused and expressed).Similarly it is important to find ways to talk about the broader impact that the arts has on our community psyche and collective consciousness. What does it mean culturally and socially to be a creative community?

And what does all this have to do with arts funding? It's re-framing the argument and looking deeper at the value of the arts and encouraging broader support, which gets us back to the other facets of a healthy funding environment for the arts. While city, state, and federal support of the arts combined with private support giving money or resources to both organizations and individuals provides fertile ground, an active patronage also needs to exist to help create a sustainable environment (somebody has to buy the work/tickets/etc).

The final (and possibly most complicated) pieces are both government regulation in support of arts (low rent/tax breaks for venues and orgs, housing subsidy for artists, open permitting and city agency support) and integration of arts and artists into private sector economy.
The integration could occur in a variety of ways - one idea I like is to hire artists within the corporate community to inspire creative thinking. I guarantee that if you put me on your board of directors that I would be able to see things from a different point of view and come up with creative solutions. Within the private sector artists have the ability to inspire the creativity necessary to advance companies. I would also advocate for institutions to host, essentially, artist residencies. I could provide a number of inspiring community based projects to help with any variety of Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club or NRDC initiatives.

Tomorrow I will write about creating a supportive artistic community, as an artist, and how we can help each other overcome the scarcity myth.

Images courtesy of Creative Commons on Flickr (from top to bottom):
"Fund Public Art" by bourgeoisbee
"Funds Please" by otherthings
"Creative Hands - Mindy" by Dalydose
"fuck it i'll fund that." by yatta

2008-04-26T10:27:00.001-04:00

Philly in the fog

2008-04-26T10:21:00.001-04:00

NJ burner, kinda far away

Thinking outside the box

2008-04-24T09:04:00.002-04:00

crossposted from seedingthecity.org

I like to approach projects from an "outside the box" (boy, thats an overused term) point of view. When I mentioned the "Seeding the City" to a friend who works with green roofs, he questioned the value of planting such a small plot of greenery - how is that going to have any real affect on the Urban Heat Island Effect?

May answer, "Each individual module may have a negligible affect, but what would hundreds of modules spread across the city do to both our environment, our awareness and our social fabric?"

When you consider the potential of the project, creating potentially enough greenery on rooftops to recreate a Central Park in the sky? Now it gets interesting.

I have also been considering how to raise money for the project outside of the "normal" channels (i.e. grants). A couple of things have come up recently which I am investigating:

ThePoint.com is a tipping point model for fundraising and social action. Get enough people to commit to something, and then it can happen. I posted the project on there with enough funds to launch the project, its a pretty high price, so we will see how close I get, but it does allow many people to be involved at a small level - it is a further exploration of microfinancing.

Another idea is to exchange money for experience or special commodities from the project, this is based on the model of artistshare.com. The funding is given up front and then the funders are invited to participate in interesting ways throughout the project.

Finally, my own thought of allowing people to "sponsor" grm's throughout the city. Pay $50 and you would sponsor a grm in your choice of one of the neighborhoods. This wouldn't be on your own roof, but would include your sponsorship information on the signage and website.

So, does anyone have any thoughts on any of this? Are there ways you would want to participate financially? Would you give a small amount for nothing in return or prefer a larger amount and a unique experience or commodity (if so what would that experience or commodity be?) or would you prefer to know that your funds are directed at a specific piece of action?

Artists Pivotal in Art World

2008-04-11T10:21:00.002-04:00

I was scheduled to participate in the show "EcoAeshtetics" at <>Tag in The Hague. As I mentioned, they invited me to do a project which would activate people in the streets and were interested in flying me out to create a citywalk next weekend. I wasn't interested in the ecological footprint of the flight, so had developed and entirely new and exciting project, Insert ___ Here, which would require them to do the printing of the materials and organize the citywalk and uploading of images. I had also allowed them to (if they wanted) recruit some local designers to work on the remediation images.

Today it was canceled due to their very busy schedules.

I am sad about that, but it also brings into stark reality something I have talked about before (I don't mean to disparage <>Tag at all, they were very supportive of the artists in the show - offereing airfares, stipends, etc, so please don't think I am speaking badly of their decision), the role of the artist as the hardest working in the art world. Without me producing the materials, flying out to lead the walk, managing the upload of images, searching out designers and managing their work and reposting of all of the images, well, the work just doesn't get done. This on top of already thinking through the idea, writing text, designing signs, creating a website, researching materials... As so often happens, the artist not only must create the work, but also do all the work to get it shown. Often without a living wage renumeration. This while all the other people who work in the gallery system are getting paid either a stable salary or an hourly wage which covers all their time.

Not to worry though, Insert ____ Here is launching next week with the help of PS58 in Brooklyn (check out the kids blog on climate change - Little Grassroots!) and will be at the Sustainable South Bronx Block Party on May 17th. If you are interested in getting a group together to do "Insert ____ Here" in your city, email me at eve at insert-here dot org!

Flights of Fancy

2008-04-08T11:08:00.002-04:00

Another blog I read just turned me on to RAF-Reduce Art Flights, a project launched at the Venice Biennial. The project aimed to highlight and promote the reduction of travel in the art world. With all the art fairs there's been an increase in not just in travel, but an exponential increase in shipping of artwork.

This project hits close to home, especially given a couple of recent experiences. As I would hope, as my career grows, I have more opportunities to travel with/because of my work. On the other hand, I don't want to create a negative environmental impact with the work. And airline flights (if you didn't already know) have HUGE carbon emissions. So how to keep the career growing, spread the work and minimize the impact?

Recently I was invited to the Wexner Center to present my work as part of the Art & Environment program. It was a one afternoon engagement. I explained the quandary to the director, and asked if there was a way to broaden my (positive) impact while there, could she work with the school or other organizations to fill up a week? She was happy to oblige. I spent a week working with a local group of extraordinary high school students (more on that later), spent the afternoon at the Wexner, and met with local artists. Believe me the week was packed full.

(I was also reminded - again - of our desperate need for better rail. The only train was a 12 hour trip arriving at 3.30am in a city two hours away, the bus left at 4am. I was totally up for taking on the long trip and early arrival, but as anyone who has ridden any distance knows, the freight trains are given priority and passenger trains are notoriously late. If I missed the 4am bus I would have been awkwardly stranded).

So in the case of Wexner it opened up lots more opportunities for me to meet with and work with people.

The other instance was that I was invited to participate in the EcoAesthetics exhibition at < > TAG platform in The Hague. They were interested in bringing in an artists who would get out into the public space and create interventions or activate public participation. Well, thats me for sure! Unfortunately I *really* couldn't justify a flight to The Hague for a weekend project*. So instead I suggested that I create a project that could occur in the public realm, but which they could produce, organize and promote all themselves. I would provide the creative idea, the structure and the electronic files, everything else was (mostly) up to them. From that was born the "Insert ____ Here" project which will launch in The Hague this weekend, Brooklyn next weekend and then Miami and the Bronx soon after. I would love to see it happen in neighborhoods around the world, so certainly contact me, or watch the project site (totally in progress- just a theme place holder for the moment) for more information.

In light of this, I have been talking with Michael Mandiberg and Tiffany Holmes (of ecoviz.org) about creating a group of artists who are interested in participating in and promoting an electronic panel. We could be in our homes, in front of a web cam participating in a panel anywhere in the world. If Andy Revkin can do it, so can we.

*It's not that I don't want to go to these places - I definitely do, I love travel and I love meeting people around the world, but I am trying to be conscientious about my travel footprint - reducing the flights and if I do fly, packing the time full of opportunities.

Images (from top to bottom): Michael Mandiberg's Real Cost plugin for Mozilla Firefox, Eve S. Mosher's "Insert ____ Here" project

It's that time again!

2008-03-04T13:11:00.002-05:00

Time to start "pre-writing" about the whitney biennial. I anxiously await the discourse and criticism to come. ..

But wait, its been kinda quiet out there so far. Sure the opening is Thursday, and the press preview probably the night before, but I haven't heard a peep. Here's my guess why--

This year's biennial is going to be good. Yep you heard me - good. I think it is actually going to be a what it is supposed to be - a look at what is happening in the contemporary arts. And having a peruse through the artist list, it may actually achieve that. They have Fritz Haeg, Ellen Harvey, Spike Lee, NPR, Ruben Ochoa, Phoebe Washburn. There are also artists whose work looks like I won't like it, or it will challenge me - and those are both good things, since I would hope the contemporary art world would support diversity.

So, I think I will actually go this year. Will let you know what I think of course.

The Power of One

2008-02-26T08:39:00.003-05:00

So I was thinking today about the whole congestion pricing debate going on in New York (yes I am for it, in conjunction with citywide market rate parking and transportation improvements) and about the politicians who are opposed. Frequently the argument is that it would hurt their low and middle income constituents, which is a statement studies don't support (http://www.transalt.org/newsroom/releases/115, http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/report.php?ID=52).

And then I imagined talking to one of the politicians (I'll pick Anthony Weiner, because he's reasonable. So reasonable that he has been the closest to making me second guess congestion pricing), and asking, "Do you really believe that? I mean, have you actually taken the time to go around and talk to them?" and I thought about talking to Letitia James (my rep) and being able to say that I could name the people on my block who support it. And those I know who might be opposed, well I could just talk to them and maybe change their minds.And thinking about that reminded me of "the power of one" - the ability of just one person to make a difference. The idea that if we each go out and have conversations with our neighbors, if we engage one-to-one then we really can make a difference. The "power of one" is a really powerful tool that is so often overlooked by political and environmental campaigns. Sure a big rally can motivate a lot of people - but aren't the people showing up already the motivated ones?

I hope to keep working with my artistic practice, on realizing the power of one. One investigating and expanding our own particular powers to make a difference.

Image courtesy http://www.sethwhite.org/ through whom I plan to live vicariously for a little while....

I <3 community walk

2008-02-08T19:09:00.000-05:00

When you work on projects that involve a lot of mapping, you learn to love mapping tools. There may be better ones out there, but I have grown fond of Community Walk. I just used them to do a quick map of the Highbridge project, I See You in Me (The Path of Water in NYC):

I did it mostly to get a guess of how long the project will need to be, about a mile. Sure after a more than 70-mile long project, it seems easy, but this one is a little more work intensive...

More images/information on the project.

Why (and how) we share

2008-02-07T19:23:00.000-05:00

I've talked before about the collective power of artists and why we should share. I've been seeing it repeated on Sellout and in the comments over there recently too. (Basically it is the idea that by sharing resources and knowledge we can actually create a greater wealth of opportunities and resources). In light of that, I was trying to figure out the best way to share those resources with one another. Of course a forum seems like the obvious answer - but that can easily become unweildy and devalues quickly. (It would be hard to replicate the success of chow nee chowhound).

I will start by offering what I know here in these pages...
I will start with the basics, some good places to get reference materials-

Fractured Atlas: Good place to learn more (professional development), get more (fiscal sponsorship, health insurance, liability insurance [for events, film production & public art], publicize (promote & learn marketing), and get some member discounts.
Sellout: Participate in an ongoing discussion regarding artist issues.
Chicago Artist Resource: a fantastic site with loads of information and interviews for artists everywhere (most of the content is not location specific). Check out articles and links to other resources on your practice (incl. health & safety, health insurance links, public art, community & social issue arts, magazines & journals, and a great collection of artist and art professional's stories), career (incl. strategic planning, marketing & promotion, community, organizations & unions) and business (incl. branding, financial planning, legal issues, and advocacy)
NYFA: New York Foundation for the Arts is a great site (you have to register to use it) which provides an international listing of resources, called NYFA Source. It is a searchable database of residencies, grants, space, apprenticeships, etc). They also list classifieds - jobs & opportunities.
International Sculpture Center: Given that the definition of 'sculpture' has expanded to include installation, video and some time-based works, these resources are for more than sculptors. They host a sculptor community forum, artist's registry, and resources.
Artists Space: The most useful (anecdotally) non-fee based, uncurated online image registry.
Artist Career Guide: Right now it is mostly a promo site for Jackie's upcoming book, but she is posting interviews with professionals semi-regularly (currently there are interviews with two curators), but it also lists workshops she is teaching - and she can definitely whip your under-promoted butt into shape.

Anyone know of others I should include?

Note to self, other posts should include: grant writing tips, making sticky websites, the theory of becoming an expert, online fundraising...

In trade, anyone know a financial planner who works with artists (needs to know our particular situation) based here in NYC?

Found the image on: http://www.business-improvement.org/.

What ever happened to smart art?

2008-02-07T15:13:00.000-05:00

Don't get me wrong, there are some really smart and clever artists working out in the world, and I really like a lot of what I see.

But last night I went to see the Agnes Denes lecture at the Drawing Center and found out just how complicated her work is. She was "making the invisible visible" by using math, symbolism and structure to investigate human relationships. That all sounds really simple until you hear her explain it. I think about the other big things that artists were investigating in previous generations, and it all seems to be heavy on the the thought and, well, conceptual end. I'm not saying that climate change, or human emotions or other topics aren't big, we just don't seem to present them in the same manner.

I was thinking that maybe this is because those artists who came before us, already broke it down. They erased the barriers between art and math, science, philosophy, psychology, etc., so that basically we don't have to go to the trouble of adding all the language on top of the work. We move fluidly between lots of different circles of study because the bridges between them already exist. So what is the new frontier, what hasn't been done?

I'm most interested in creating interactions between web 2.0 and artistic practices. How can they inform one another and use one another. I know there are lots of other artists out there doing this, I'm certainly not claiming pioneership (in fact I am probably a little behind the times), but I do think it holds the most interesting exploration opportunities.

Just think what Agnes Denes (and her little man pyramids) could do with social networking.

Good quotes:
"thoughts are like crystals, one builds off of the other"
"art as an incubator of disiciplines"

I also really was touched at how she referred to the works as "my" wheat field and "my" forest. And hearing her talk about the beauty of the wheatfield was so moving.

Apologies for the more rambling and incoherent nature of this post (more than usual) - I have the "I feel woozy and incoherent" head cold going around.

who pays whom?

2008-01-25T06:28:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: I work for a professional development program that is offered for free to participants around the country. It is paid for by state and local arts agencies and organizations. It is incredibly affective, and is part of the change in the system, but it serves a small number of people.

I was having a conversation the other day about the art market (yeh, i have those conversations a lot). This one was about the fact that artists aren't willing to invest in their careers in order to grow. Its a common practice in pretty much every other business on the planet. Invest in new equipment or software to increase productivity and boost profits. Invest in a consultant to create a strategic plan to grow and boost profits. Invest in hiring more people to increase productivity and boost profits. You get the idea.

There is also the personal investment for growth. Loads of people every year go into massive debt to subsidize their law degree, medical degree of MBA. They do this with the belief (usually true) that with this degree their earning potential will be much higher.

We were talking about why artists don't believe in paying the high price for learning the skills to grow their careers. In particular we were discussing professional development programs. At first I agreed, thinking why don't artists pay for this kind of training? Especially if they see proven results from those who have taken it. Well, here's why they don't: the system is broken.

All those other people investing, are pretty much guaranteed a return on their investment (with work). Artists just aren't. The return on investment (ROI) is just not that high. Even if they do succeed at getting more shows and grants, and can negotiate better deals the pay still isn't that significant (unless you are the 1% of 1% who become art stars). Sure, its enough to live on and continue doing your work, but its no doctor, lawyer or CEO salary.*

Here's another problem. A lot of us already did invest. A LOT. A lot of us have our terminal degree (until this PhD in Fine Arts fad hits critical mass), we have the MFAs. And we paid dearly for them. Probably as much as some MBAs (I know my debt until I retire is enough to rent a small house in some urban areas). So we have made that investment and it probably hasn't paid off. I know my school did no such thing as professional development which actually prepared you for creating what is, essentially, a business.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed and learned a lot during my MFA, but really, it was like a really really expensive 2 year residency program. A time to focus on your art and develop your work.

And another thing - I know plenty of artists who are feeling really tapped out from giving away work for auctions, getting underpaid to put on great shows for non-profit arts organizations or state agencies. We won't pay entry fees or subsidize the gallery system. We won't pay for consulting or promoting or transport or framing or any of the other things to do with a show we may or may not sell from.

So how can we change all this. Well thats something that takes looking at the entire landscape. The system really is broken. From a misconception by the public and the government about the value of arts. To the hierarchy that exists where the artists are at the bottom instead of the top. To our own undervaluing of what we give to the world.

Where to start? Start with your own circle of friends. Start with talking about it, come up with some creative solutions and help each other grow and learn. Share your knowledge of marketing, planning, fundraising, negotiating, etc. A rising tide and all...

*I have been able to observe and attend a few professional development programs and some are really effective. I also have a pretty good background in business and when I applied that to my art - plus just took the discipline and commitment up a notch (all investment), I have reaped tangible rewards.

With a little help from my friends

2008-01-20T17:46:00.000-05:00

(cross-posted from my new project site, seedingthecity.org):

Help me chose a summary statement

So I have written a couple of different summary statements. Which do you like better?

“Seeding the City” is a public art project that seeks to plant “seeds” of thought in the urban environment on challenges of climate change and potential for remediation. Social networking will determine the location for installation of individual green roof sample sites. Included with the installation will be educational and community building tools, and methods to trace the growth of the network. Online resources will include mapping of the project, tools for tracking local urban heat island effect and resources to recreate the project worldwide.

“Seeding the City” is an art project that utilizes social networking to site urban interventions in the form of green roof modules. It capitalizes on community building to introduce urban environmental issues and remediation tools. The modules and their accompanying flags and street level signage will track the growth of the network throughout the neighborhood. Online resources will include mapping of the project, tools for tracking local urban heat island effect and resources to recreate the project worldwide.

Let me know in the comments!

It is the title after all

2008-01-16T09:03:00.000-05:00

Just an update on what is "in progress" around here...

Most of my energy right now is devoted to the new green roofs project, for which I just launched a new (very beta!) website: http://www.seedingthecity.org.
There is also a lot of thought going into a project I am doing at Highbridge Park, that follows the path of the Croton Aqueduct as it came into Manhattan. There is some cool facilities based architecture up there. And I am reading an interesting book called "Water for Gotham." (I love urban history - just ask me about Five Points!)
I want to do a soundwalk/audio tour based on water in NYC - either it will follow the Croton Aqueduct Path (from Highbridge, to Central Park and ending at NYC Public Library at Bryant Park [which used to be a resevoir]) or along the original shoreline. And through this project link history with the present and future. All this inspired by And While London Burns.
Keeping up with upcoming shows around HWL: Screening of the film by Justin Lange at "Eco-centric" @ Sonoma County Art Museum, and at "EPA: Environmental Performance Actions" @ Exit Art, and - this should be a fun one! - a showing of how the project was created as part of "Feedback" at Eyebeam. (I am hopeful that we can show the maps, tricycle and chalker as part of this exhibit).

Of course there are other things out there happening and I still have other projects I want to develop (including the water use project, the run off/bus shelter project, the disposable culture project - so many!) And there appear to be a lot of good shows (well, interesting at least) to see out in Chelsea.

I did get a chance to see a couple of notable shows in London this month. Besides partaking in the hauntingly informative and moving "And While London Burns" I also stopped in to see "Shibboleth" at the Tate. I have to just put this out there - I love the Unilever series. I really really do, big corporate infusions of cash and a truly massive space and freedom for talented artists to create something, well, great is really powerful. Doris Salcedo has done some pretty powerful works (including the Atrabiliarios) and the Shibboleth is profound for more than its technical wizardry (and the funny signs warning people not to fall in). I think viewing the crack in the floor in that space when there are just a few people in there with you would be moving (unfortunately it was packed when I was there), even with the crowds there is something interesting about watching people follow along this line - strangers walking side by side, but divided by the crack (making it okay to stand that close), or couples walking one on either side, thus divided by the crack.

I also saw Anthony McCall's show at Serpentine Gallery. Another technically compelling show that was able to reach beyond the wonder of how into a world of exploration of body and space. I enjoyed just standing in the space and letting the lightworks move across me, changing my relationship to the surrounding gallery and people. And one last stop (I love that the V&A was open until 10am) was at the "Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft" show, which featured some interesting and obsessive works - highlights of which were Lu Shengzhong whose paper cutouts were astounding for their sheer magnitude and Susan Collis for her sublime almost ridiculous understated work.

But selling out to whom?

2008-01-14T08:15:00.000-05:00

Deborah Fisher has launched a new blog, Sellout. (Thanks to AFC for the heads up). It is looking good so far. Deborah has a great way of writing and considering things and I am glad to see she is putting her critical eye on the "artists career" it is something that I tend to think about a lot both for personal and professional reasons. So far she has discussed Seth Godin (who I admit to enjoying reading too), the myths of the artist and money. A lot of what she is asking for is discussion by readers, so it should be interested to troll the comments. I may pick up and expand on some of her threads here...

For starts:

As regards to talking about money. Not only do I not have a problem talking about it, I don't have a problem blogging about it, and have even started a "working group" to come up with more business savvy ways to address funding. I also am not afraid to ask to be paid for what I do (mostly).

Artist myths? I don't believe any of them. I think they are all complete bullshit and anyone who buys into them is either a liar, doesn't really believe in themselves or their work or is so enamored with the "artist image" as to not consider much beyond that. Do you really think the top artists in the contemporary art world believe in the myth of the poor lonely deranged flaky starving artist toiling away in the studio. Neither do I.

I doubt that by reading Deborah's blog I will come to any conclusion close to "sellout" I am more likely to enjoy what she is writing about and be glad there is someone else out there talking about some ideas "whose time has come."

Image coutesy of: http://williehewescomics.blogspot.com

Considering others--

2008-01-11T12:17:00.001-05:00

Another moment of brilliance...

Chris Doyle has done it again. I know I talk about him a lot on this blog, much to his chagrin, but he's done it again with some pretty clever thinking. This time its a self marketing idea that is simple, beautiful, brilliant and I hope (for his sake) succesful.
Chris created a limited addition set of drawings called Subscribe. They are some of his personal but not too precious drawings of suburban homes. And they are for sale. (That's not the clever part, tip is:) Each sale benefits one of a handful of non profits that he has chosen, like Creative Capital, Creative Time, Public Art Fund, Smack Mellon and Socrates Sculpture Park. Why is that so brilliant? Because each of those organizations (and their huge mailing lists) is going to promote the work too!

So everybody wins, the organization and the artist.

I will post images of the work and links soon (writing this from the phone). And if there are some left, go buy one!

The artist's role as an agent for social change

2007-12-04T15:45:00.000-05:00

I have had the opportunity to talk to a number of different groups lately about the HighWaterLine project. Other than sharing stories about the experience and the people I met and talking about all of the logistics, I like to engage in a discussion of the role of artist as agent for social change. Here are some roles that I thought the artist should/could take on:

commentator - not merely to editorialize on contemporary issues, but to translate. it is important to go beyond the act of regurgitation and create a work that incites questions and action.

collaborator - work with science & scientists to create works that are approachable, making complex knowledge accessible, and to take this into under-served communities.

witness - to observe the communities and their reactions

storyteller - taking information to the streets and then returning stories and that which was witnessed

catalyst - for change in thought and attitude, instigator for discussion

innovator - restructuring the message and dialogue through artistic acts

community builder - by providing an object or act around which people can rally.

I will see if I can't flesh these out more in the coming weeks.

Just thinking out loud...

2007-11-29T15:26:00.000-05:00

So, I am just thinking out loud here, but I have been thinking about the creative process and the current funding models for artists and their projects. My favorite funding model (of course) is that of Creative Capital. They award an initial grant and then can provide follow up grants during key points of the project to take advantage of new opportunities and to ensure its success. They also (I love this part) focus on developing the artists career long term by developing the artist. They provide workshops on professional development which teach fundraising, strategic planning and pr/marketing (I happen to know a lot about these workshops). They also provide extensive one on one consultations, referrals to other professionals and an extended network. They really nurture the whole artist. What this does is ensure that the artist's career is successful beyond any single project.So here's what I am thinking - and it is still a little muddy - why not create a loan program that operates in a similar way. Loan artists project monies, train them to ensure the project is successful and as their careers blossom they pay the money back (CC asks all grantees to reinvest - once they reach some level of success many of the artists give donations to CC). Maybe this loan program can be combined with the Artist Pension Trust model? Their model requires participating artists to donate artworks to a pool which is sold after a number of years in which the participating artists' value is expected to increase, then the entire pool of artists shares the proceeds.So maybe the loan program takes in artworks as payment as well. There is certainly some risk involved, and some works will end up with greater value than others, but it may indeed be worth the risk. (Predicated on having object based work or ancillary product to sell).
Anyway, like I said, just thinking out loud here...

Images, top to bottom:
Chris Doyle, "Leap," Creative Capital Grantee & Artist Pension Trust Participant
Sanford Biggers, "Kalenda" (mistitled on photo), Creative Capital Grantee & Artist Pension Trust Participant

When art becomes "something useful and or valued"

2007-11-26T07:14:00.000-05:00

com·mod·i·ty : \kə-mä-də-tē\
Function: noun | Inflected Form(s): plural - com·mod·i·ties | Etymology: Middle English commoditee, from Anglo-French commoditee, from Latin commoditat-, commoditas, from commodus | Date: 15th century
1: an economic good: as a: a product of agriculture or mining b: an article of commerce especially when delivered for shipment <commodities futures> c: a mass-produced unspecialized product <commodity chemicals> <commodity memory chips>
2 a: something useful or valued commodity patience>; also: thing, entity b: convenience, advantage
3: obsolete: quantity, lot
4: a good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (as brand name) other than price
5: one that is subject to ready exchange or exploitation within a market

I was recently asked to explain how I am able to create (fund and find audience for) the kind of work that I do. This question was from someone who a) is professionally interested in managing creative careers and making money (sustainable art) and b) who is steeped in more traditional models within the visual arts world, but has some knowledge in new methods of distribution and funding in the literary, film and music industries. So let's break this down.
First, the kind of work that I do: I create (in addition to a more traditional studio based practice) temporary, performative based public artworks. Some have sculptural aspects and all have a community building and/or eco-visualization aspect. Most of these projects do not produce a single representative object which can be bought or sold. I am currently using the term "non-object based work." I use this to describe my work and the work of some friends of mine. Some other examples are, Lise Brenner, a choreographer whose most recent projects include a choreographic charting of native flora in Brooklyn which resulted in directions which could be applied to a performance as the final product (not an actual performance) and a historical investigation of a neighborhood through sound work and tours. Aaron Landsman is a performer who created a sound work that was a tour of a day in the life of a neighborhood and a performance which is produced in individual's apartments. Stephanie Skaff whose recent project was a street performance in which she set up a street vendor cart in Lower Manhattan to share stories from street vendors around NYC (it was the culmination of months of going out and meeting and speaking to many many vendors around the city). None of these artists' works result in specific objects which can be bought or sold and neither of them have set up situations which are subject to ticketing for a traditional performance.

Now it should be noted that we are not in a unique situation. There are numerous historical precedence to all that we are doing: Richard Long's Walks, William Pope L.'s performance/crawls, numerous earthworks (Smithson's Spiral Jetty, Michael Heizer's Double Negative, Walter de Maria's Lightening Field, the list goes on), a variety of conceptual artworks and even some dadaist non-object based work. So it's not like we don't have a point of reference.

Second, who is this for: The work that I and many of my contemporaries working in a "non-object based" way is done in such a way as to engage a larger audience than one might find in a traditional gallery or performance space. In a sense, we are preaching way beyond the choir. Whether it is someone passing by on the street in Canarsie as I draw the chalk line with whom I engage in a conversation about climate change or a stockbroker who never thought twice about his daily stop at the coffee cart until he met with Stephanie. So the projects are all really broad based and interested in participating in a wider social discussion.

Third, what is the current funding? Currently, most of these projects are funded through foundations and municipal or state funds. In my case, almost 50% of my project time is taken up through grant applications and writing. I am sure it is similar in other cases as well. This funding is really wonderful as it comes as a project based monetary amount, with no strings attached and - here's a nice thing you may not know - most (if not all) funders require that you include in your budget an artists fee. They want to know that they, in supporting the project, are supporting the artist. If you have been a lucky (is that the right word? its quite a lot of work for it to be luck) recipient of a grant, then you that you will be required to do periodic reporting on how the money is being spent and what is happening with the project. Other than that, don't expect a whole lot of interaction (unless you get a Creative Capital grant). The granting agency doesn't interfere with the work, nor do they, though, provide much formal support. Some might profile your project in their outreach, some might provide feedback, but mostly it is up to the recipient to make the project succeed or fail.

A portion of the funding may also come from private donations - frequently made up of "friends and family grants" and - euphemism - "self-funding." These sources may ebb and flow based on project frequency and/or outside competition for money. While it is frequently true that if you ask someone for a donation they will give it, it is also true that it is hard to repeatedly hit up the same people without any reward.
And as much as I like to believe in the abundance of funds available to artists, grants are definitely limited. And with some recent changes in the world of major funders, the money available is shrinking. So we are looking for new ways to create sustainable careers.

The commodity model: This model implies a specific object of value which can be traded in exchange for money. The traditional gallery/dance/performance system is based on trade. You give me money, I give you an object or a specified moment of time which is valued based on the opinions of others. This model is heavily dependent on a) an object or ticketed performance b) the perceived value of your creation (perceived by people other than the artist). For those of us working outside of the traditional object based practice, we can produce sale-able items (for example I have the beacons, documentary photos and maps, Stephanie has CD's of her conversations with street vendors - although I think she gave those away for free), but the goal of the practice is not the object - therefore the value of the object is often diminished.

A new funding model: I don't have an answer for this yet. It is what all this thinking is leading up to. However there are a lot of new models out there for other practices and funds:

artistshare.com - this new model allows music fans to directly participate in the creation of new music/cd's. a patron can donate to the musician and in return receive anything from a glimpse inside the recording process, to attending a recording session to being an executive producer on the album
artist pension trust - using artworks as investment, this trust accumulates works of many artists and distributes revenue from art sales to all artists
self-publishing/distribution for literature, films & music - more sites are popping up making it easier to manage your own career in these media, including lulu.com, withoutabox, cdbaby...

So I am thinking about how to create a new paradigm for supporting the arts - is it modeled as a mix between artistshare, artist pension trust and creative capital grantmaking? If you have specific thoughts, or want to join in the larger conversation (I am putting together a group of interested individuals to have a larger discussion), then leave a comment.

images from top to bottom:
yves klein, "jumping into the void"
aaron landsman, image from "Gatz" performance by Elevator Repair Service
lise brenner, matrix from "The City from a Plant's Perspective: Mapping NYC as Native Flora"
michael heizer, "double negative"
richard long, "a line made by walking"
eve s. mosher, "HighWaterLine"
stephanie skaff, "Make Me One with Everything"

What do I know anyway?

2007-11-21T16:07:00.000-05:00

That's just a throwaway title. I couldn't think of anything so I put that in there. But in a way it kind of leads into what I wanted to talk about.

First though, let me say that I haven't been posting lately because I haven't seen or done a lot. Well thats not true, its just maybe not that interesting for blogging other than sort of a social calendar or something like that. So I have been rebuilding my website (which is why I am feeling antsy with the look of this blog and keep playing with it - none the less it will all get fixed up all nice when I finish the site - it is very nearly there), and I have been writing more grant applications, which is a total time suck. Write me if you want all the gory details.

Anyway, I have been talking to a lot of people about the two projects - the green roof project and the bus shelter project. Most people are pretty into it. But once in a while (and this happened with HWL too) I get a nay-sayer. It's not that they are trying to be negative. They really just want to help or to ask questions about the project (all well and good!). But I think I would prefer someone who comes with ideas instead of just problems. I met with the native plant botanist at Brooklyn Botanic Gardens (love that place) the other day. He had some concerns about the types of plants that could grow in "nutrient poor, limited water, exposed" situations like the proposed projects. But instead of tell me how it wouldn't work, or list all of the obstacles, he suggested that I look at coastal plants as a good option - cool! - I love that idea!

Thats the kind of can do attitude that will move us all forward.

I had some other stuff I wanted to say, but I have been waking up kinda early lately, and going to bed kinda late so I can't remember much. Will try to get back in the habit of posting about the life and habits of an artist.

Things i didn't know and why i need a clone

2007-10-21T17:23:00.001-04:00

Over the past couple of months I have discovered a whole host of words to describe different interests of mine. Plus there are groups devoted to investigating these things.
Psychogeography
Urban archaeology
Bio-remediation
Eco-visualization

On that note, I met with a cartographer today to brainstorm ideas for the Eyebeam Eco-Visualization Challenge focused on run off issues in the city. And of course there are a lot of great ideas, if only I could clone myself (I think a lot of my creative friends feel the same way). So in addition to the projects I just haven't had time to write about (the water project which attempts to grow plants based on relative per country water consumption, and visualizing waste in our water through floating accumulations - think sculptural) now we have mapping the flow of water in the city (through street intervention, dance or pathway marking), comparative runoff systems placed on top of the bus shelters (the new ones with the glass roofs, each one would represent the immediate area, half the roof would be as is and half would be with remediation), or umbrellas outfitted as walking catchments.

Maybe someone can just give me lots of money to make these happen (because then I could hire some assistants).

Anyone?

Image courtesy of davebeckerman.com

Artist vs. Activist

2007-10-10T22:28:00.000-04:00

Would you consider yourself an artist or an activist?

I get asked this question all the time, and I cringe every time I hear it. Why do I have to label myself as either? Which one means you will take me seriously, respect me and my work and maybe consider what I have to say? Both have their negative connotations. Both have their positive connotations.

I thought I had kind of figured it out, but I don't think I have.

I was asked this question at the HighWaterLine wrap party and here is a paraphrase of an answer that I gave.
"I would have to consider myself an artist. I approached this project from an artistic point of view, I considered the aesthetics as equally as important as the message. I also come from an artistic background. I'm not really an activist, I attended my first ever rally of any kind this year, and that's mostly because I knew the people organizing it.
"I was recently on a panel that specifically discussed the role of arts in environmental issues and the challenges in visualizing the difficult information put forth (it's the Eyebeam Eco-Visualization Challenge). We were talking about art and its power to inform and incite. One of the panelists, Michael Mandiberg asked the question 'Why can't art do something?' Historically at the same time that Duchamp was removing the function from items in order to create art, Russian contemporaries were using their art to foment revolution. So why can't art do something?"

Even this answer left me feeling uneasy. It wasn't helped by my friend Ellen Driscoll coming up to "put a fly in the ointment" to say, why do you have to chose between art and activism? Why can they not coexist. I think she and I may need to sit down and hash some of this out in further conversations, because I do agree with her. I think my above answer was the easy way out.

I am equally as influenced by Wangari Maathai as Agnes Denes. Majora Carter instills in me the same inspiration as Joseph Beuys. Shirin Ebadi, Magdalena Abakonwicz, Jane Jacobs and Ernesto Neto. My circle of friends includes artists and activists. And some, who are both. How do we, both the artists and the activists bridge the gap.

Ellen and I joked about coining new phrases such as "action artist" or "active artist" - as in not dead? I asked.

What is wrong in the art world with being an activist? Would I not be taken seriously as an artist? Is there something wrong with being an artist in the activist world? Are you not given due respect for ideas?

I promise you, more to come on this.

Who let them in?

2007-10-01T16:30:00.000-04:00

One thing I have to remind myself is that "public art" has inherently, the word "public" in it.

This has been really driven home during the installation of the beacons during the HighWaterLine project. I have placed the beacons in 5 city parks (sorry that I never got to redo Canarsie) spanning the coast of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. Most of the installations were fairly peaceful and a nice opportunity to talk to people about New York City and climate change.

Every one of the installations involved at least one act of "public interaction." At the very first installation in Corlear's Hook Park, a gentleman was looking at the beacon, then knelt down, pulled the beacon out of the ground (it is staked on 4 corners) and removed the flashlight in the base. I was standing about 60 feet away and called out, "would you mind putting that back?" he did so, and quietly tried to restake the beacon, all without saying a word.

When I installed in Battery Park a few people would walk up, and without even pausing to look closely at the beacon, grabbed it and roughly shook it back and forth. Much like you would a snowglobe. I have had a lot of opportunity to ponder this, and cannot for the life of me understand what is the point of this activity. To me it is the equivalent of walking up to a friend, seeing that they are wearing an interesting shirt and then grabbing it and pulling them roughly about as if to see if the shirt is going to fall apart in my hands.

This activity, let's call it snowglobing (sounds vaguely rude), has happened at least once in every installation of the beacons, but the real test was the weekend long installation that just occurred as part of the Dumbo Art Center's Art Under the Bridge Festival. This massive art festival consists of installations, performances and projections and general insanity around Dumbo. There are probably around 20-30,000 people who pass through the area over the weekend. I installed the beacons on Friday afternoon and took them out on Sunday evening. Over the weekend the beacons were more than snowglobed, they were knocked down, moved, emptied, turned over, altered and pieces stolen. I don't even want to consider what might have happened that moved one beacon (and the wet, 20 pound bags of sand) about 10 feet from its original location.

Every time I visited they were in disarray. I was sometimes shocked, but mostly amused with a hint of annoyance. I calmly went about resurrecting them, often with the assistance of some kind onlookers. I should make a point that most people are very respectful of the work and treat it carefully, enjoying it in a non-threatening way and ensuring the work is left in tact for other to also enjoy. This was not the case however when a friend and fellow public artist went to visit the work in Brooklyn Bridge Park during the festival. She was so sickened by the obnoxious treatment (including a parent who watched their child knock it about, eventually toppling it) that she had to leave immediately.

So, not to disparage what is obviously a strong and fairly common urge, but if there is anyone out there who has participated in a snowglobing type of activity, we on the art making side of the fence would love to know more about why this is done...

Being in love with the crazy

2007-09-19T08:32:00.000-04:00

Last week was kind of a nutty week. I was part of a group show opening at Nelson Hancock Gallery in Dumbo, Topos : Brooklyn, showing images of the HighWaterLine project. All very great there were some really interesting projects/images there, including works by Tim Connor, Rebekah Farley, Michael Iacovoni, Michael Itkoff, Michael Piazza, Michael Simon, and Torrance York. Here's where th crazy comes in, for some reason I had in my head that the opening was this week. So when I talked to Nelson and found out otherwise, Ed & I switched into overdrive to get things figured out. We met Nelson on Saturday morning to see the space and work out what we were going to show. We came up with the idea of doing a 3 1/2" x 170" scroll of many images (37) from the project. I also wanted to put up maps of the upcoming weekends - there were three weekends still to happen after the opening - and then replace the maps with images after the weekend's drawings. Nelson loved both ideas, so we were sent off on our way to get it done and back to them by Wednesday morning for installation.

Saturday afternoon I had made plans with my friends Peter & Cecile to go see the Mike Nelson "A Psychic Vacuum" at the Essex Market (courtesy of Creative Time). It was a good break to take - the installation is fantastic, and really does play with your psyche - time, space emotions are all in there. And I really loved the last space. I won't spoil it, just go see it. It is open until October 28th.
So Saturday evening/Sunday morning I had to sort through all of the photos and pick out about 40 that I wanted to use. Then I met at 10am on Sunday (yeh, I have no weekends anymore) with Ed to pick out the final images and get them in order. I also was making cd's of a bunch of images that I hadn't yet gotten from Ed. Around 1pm I ran home to eat some lunch (and see g-pup, pup-pup and puppykat). Then back over to the studio to meet with our color corrector/printer, Taylor. He and I worked out the schedule to get things back to the gallery on time. The cd's I was trying to copy at the studio were also taking ages to copy. So I left them copying to come home for dinner, then went back to finish copying them. Around 9ish I came back home and sorted through the images and pulled them into photoshop to put them in strips to pass off to Taylor by Monday 9am. So I stayed up until about 1:30am getting it all in order (with the help of g-pup). Woke up the next morning nice and early to walk pup-pup to get myself into the city by 9am to pass off the disc to Taylor before heading off to the day job.

Taylor worked some serious magic on color correcting the images and was ready to review them Monday evening. So I was over in the studio again with Ed & Taylor getting the images in order and ready for the final print. We were supposed to finish the printing that night, but ran out of paper at about midnight! Tuesday Ed got more paper and was going to print the scroll on his printer that evening. Around 7ish he realized his printer wouldn't print something as long at 170" (some epson thing), Taylor was at the photo studio where he could print something that long, but didn't have the files. I ran over to the studio, burned a disc, jumped on a train and headed into the city to hand off to Taylor at about 10pm. Taylor stayed up late (again) getting two prints off for me. I came back into the studio Wednesday morning at 9am and picked up the prints (thanks to Gerard for his help too) and delivered them to the gallery. Whew.

Then Thursday I walked over 14 miles to do the chalking out on the shore parkway. Then took a shower and ran over to the opening. Friday I was up early to do the chalking in Sunset Park Industrial area, then back to the studio, where I was on the phone with the Parks Dept to get the permit in order for Sunday (they had lost the application, but thanks to Eddie & Nancy in Special Events, they got it worked out for me). I ran up to Litchfield Villa, then back home again for a shower and heading into the city for Cynthia's opening and the preview of the Canary Project images.

Again on Saturday an early morning out chalking in Gowanus - it was a gorgeous day for it after the rain moved off. Then jumping on my bike for a windy ride over to the Conflux Festival for the Eyebeam Eco-Visualization Challenge Panel. Where I had the joy of sitting on a panel with some pretty smart, clever and creative people: Amanda McDonald Crowley, Tiffany Holmes, Michael Mandiberg and Brooke Singer. From there I jumped back on my bike to head into Union Square to help my friend Steve with his project, Ronald's Crisis. Back home (great day for a bike ride over the Williamsburg Bridge) to upload images and blog about the weekend.

Sunday another early start out finishing the chalking in Gowanus, joined by my friend Margo, who biked from Washington Heights to South Brooklyn (I love you!). We chalked and then had a fab lunch at the Red Hook soccer fields. Peter and Hose came out to help and document respectively, the installation at the soccer fields. With the help of the kids in the area, I installed the beacons. Which, you should know, consists of carrying the pieces (base, beacons, spikes, flashlight) to the site, laying them out, putting them together, hammering the spikes into the ground, then filling each with 1/3 gallon of water, and cap them all. It's not at all a short task and can be physical. We spent about 2 1/2 hours installing them all (and having 3 broken in the process - no big deal I had 50% overage made, thanks to a suggestion years ago from a prepator who worked with Chihuly who regularly brings 15-25% overage for breakage during installation). After photographing them, I found out the people I thought were coming out that afternoon to help out, weren't going to make it. So I was stuck. I had more chalking to do and it was going to be about 3-4 hours to dark. In Battery Park I was okay to leave the beacons installed while I chalked, but Red Hook was a much more active area and leaving them unattended wasn't going to be a good idea. So, I de-installed them (I know, crazy). Then Hose and Peter left and I did a few more blocks of chalking in Red Hook. Then I went back to the studio to unload, then back to the house to unload the beacons (they live in the apt right now) and pick up g-pup who was going to help me re-install a handful of beacons for the night time portion of the project. So I went back out, re-installed and photographed again. Luckily there was a group of girls who were there during the day that were still there. They got to see the installation at night, and really loved it - having them huddled around the beacon totally made it worthwhile to have come back out to reinstall.Sunday night and Monday were spent uploading images and updating the blogs and websites. Monday afternoon I met Cecile again to try to go catch Stephanie Skaff's street performance, Make Me One With Everything. The performance on Monday had been canceled, so we couldn't find her. (I am going to try to catch it again this morning on my way into the city - after dropping off packets at Nelson Hancock and visiting BBPark to site the beacons).

So this is a REALLY long story to explain one thing - when the crazy is about something you love, then you even love the crazy. I was writing an email to someone this morning outlining the upcoming weekend's work and realized that there will be a couple more crazy days coming up. I paused to think about it and it got me a little excited (despite still being tired from the recent crazy). I really really love creating the projects, I love doing my art, even the crazy. If you don't love what you are doing - then why are you doing it? Do the things that make you crazy but only if you are in love with that crazy. I am in love with my crazy. (Can't wait to spend some time in studio though too!)

My water tower dream

2007-09-11T10:10:00.000-04:00

Where I work I have a great view (if I turn around and strain a bit) of a lot of NoHo, East Village rooftops. From here I can see the buildings dotted with water towers. I love water towers.

One day when I was looking at the roofs while contemplating the Green Seeds project, I thought - whoa - wouldn't those water towers look great swathed in green? It would be so cool to turn them into vertical farms. Heck Rachel Whiteread cast one in resin, why can't I turn a few of them into community gardens?

I had developed a proposal when I was in SF called the Vertical Community Gardens, or VCG's. The idea was to create a superstructure that could be hung in place of the advertisements on the buildings of walls (in SF they are low, at eye level) and maintained and used by the communty.
This is an offshoot of that, only it would be used by the people in the building. I was reading on the Vertical Farm site about their urban farm projects. Maybe they would help build a flexible ultra lightweight water tower superstructure to use as small starter projects. There are three right on the corner of Houston and Crosby that I would love to do. And hey I can see them from my office window!

On another note, if you haven't already, go see the Mike Nelson Creative Time project, A Psychic Vacuum, in the old Essex Market building. It is really hard to explain, but the psychology of space, place and time is really played with here. Spoiler alert -- the last space is quite extraordinary, particularly after having been through the maze of other spaces.

Images (from top to bottom) courtesy of: City Noise, Vertical Farm - Design by Chris Jacobs.

When prompted-- RUN!

2007-08-21T11:58:00.000-04:00

I had dinner last night with two really good friends. The idea was to get together and talk about project ideas, job searches, whatever each person needed help with. Of course for me, the talk was about figuring out which of the three (top of the heap) ideas to pursue. One of my friends said, "Why don't you work on all three?" Holy mackerel! What a novel idea! Part of me thought, no way that's insane, the other part of me thought, that makes perfect sense, of course I should work on them all. (And a tiny little part of me was cowering in the corner). Of course there is the problem of funding all of them, but I guess I can work on that at the same time...

So in light of that discussion, I thought I would throw out the other two ideas and see what sticks.
The first is the Coffee Cup Reduction Project (CCRP). The idea is to find out why people don't use re-usable mugs (since most cafes will both wash them and give you a few cents off your cup o' joe). I would do this through surveying people. Then I would work with a design program at one of the schools and have a design contest for the mug, giving the students the survey data to work with. Next, have the new super cup fabricated (in a lo-energy eco-friendly way!), take those cups back out to the streets and offer to give them to people for free in exchange for their coffee cup. (Pouring their coffee into the new eco-super-cup). From all of the cups and lids collected I will create some sculptures to display with the information on how many cups there are and over what period of time were they collected.
This idea also spun off the idea of the Disposable Culture - What a Waste project. Which would be a sculpture/performance/awareness piece in Union Square. First I would find out how many plastic bags are given away at Filene's and Whole Foods over the course of a week. Then find out how many coffee cups are given away at Starbucks over the course of a week. Finally, how many plastic bottles are sold by the street vendors around the park within a week. Then I would take one week each to build a beach or nature scene using the number of items above. So if there are 65,000 plastic bags per week, I would spend a week in the park building say clouds out of 65,000 used Whole Foods and Filene's bags (that I would have collected before the beginning of the building). Then the next week I would build maybe trees out of the coffee cups & lids, then finally a lake of plastic water bottles. Then it could be on display for a week.
The other project is much simpler to undertake than the Green Seeds or CCRP/Disposable Culture. It is to open a Real Cost Cafe. I would do extensive research regarding the actual life cycle cost of a cup of coffee. (So the cost of the coffee beans if there were no subsidies, if the laborers were paid a fair living wage, if the cost to the planet were factored into the cultivation, roasting and shipping of the beans, and so on with all the products involved in making a cup of coffee). I would open the cafe for just a few weeks, create some good explanatory signage and charge for everything (cup of coffee? $15, don't have your own mug? $4 for paper cup, want a lid? that's $6, sugar? $2 each, milk? another $4, etc). Here's the funny thing, I think some people would pay it. Just to say they are supporting and paying the real cost. Plus if I open it in the Wall Street area, I think those guys would go nutso over it...
Some additional notes on the Green Seeds project, one of my dinner friends liked the idea of string going from house to house because of the reference to connections like phone lines and clothes lines. Another suggestion was green flags on the front of the building, like a symbol of belonging.

So I have a lot on the plate to work on. If you have any thoughts, ideas or want to be a part of any of it - or want to help fund! Then get in touch with me!

Next up: a wikipedia of artist ideas to give away.

Coffee cup image courtesy of Rachel Cartwright/Gazette published in article on coffee cup waste at the University of Western Ontario.
Picture of plastic bottles & plastic bags courtesy of Chris Jordan - whose studies of American culture, Running the Numbers, absolutely ROCKS!

Turning waves into power

2007-08-15T10:58:00.000-04:00

Some smart person was sitting looking at the water, watching the undulations and reflections and was smart enough to realize that if they harnessed that energy...

I'm not that smart person, but I am glad they are out there. Instead, I tend to lend my brain to creative pursuits. Albeit hopefully creative pursuits that have a goal, or actionable outcome. So lately, as the High Water Line project continues along (just finished Lower Manhattan - so its back to Brooklyn!), I have been contemplating a couple of things.

First, what to do next. I have a lot of ideas I am playing with, which I will outline below.

And second, how to capitalize on all the media attention around the High Water Line. An artist whom I admire, Chris Doyle, speaks of his first big public art project, Commutable, and he was asked, "Are you ready?" by one of his presenting organizations. When he asked what they meant, they said "Are you ready for all of the attention you will get around this, and will you be able to use that to continue to build your career?"

So I was very conscious of that going into this project, particularly as the attention continued to grow. And I have to ask myself? Am I ready? I thought I was. I have concepts for the next project, I am definitely making use of the fantastic network of people that I have met over the course of the project. But how, realistically does one turn that attention into funding or other types of support for the next project? I'm not sure that I know. So now what?

Well, what I am doing now is working on the next thing... hopefully I can take it a little slower and ensure more up front funding and get all of the ducks in a row earlier in the process. So here is the roster of projects (all with *working* titles and there fore subject to change).

Green Seeds
Background: This project builds off the history of gardening in NYC as well as the connections to food which are long established in the Lower East Side and Chinatown. It also examines the heat island effect, and the mitigation which even a small portion of something like a green roof can play on the temperature of the city. Finally it utilizes social networking to generate siting the project.
Green roof: I have been gathering information on green roofing and have found a modular and lightweight system which can be used without a lot of retrofitting or heavy construction etc. My idea is to take one or two of the modular pillows and place them on roofs. They then act as a *seed* of a green roof. They might (I'm working on this) housed in a sculptural element (the seed pod?) that could also contain instruments for measuring temperature (which could be sent back to an online map), a solar panel to power the instrumentation, provide some weight and protection for the green roof and perhaps provide some visual cues about the green roof.

Social networking: The social networking is accomplished as follows. 1. I find the first person on whose roof I place the first green seed pod. I then get the necessary approval from the landlord, and ask the resident to meet or find one or two people in a neighboring building that are also interested in having the project installed. Again I go through the necessary approvals and install the second green seed pod, asking those residents to again find the next set of interested participants. I would also like to install them in some more public spaces like schools and public rooftop areas. From these locations people could inquire and request green seed pods.

How to make it public: Here's one of the tricky parts. How to make the project *more* public. Since the roofs might be a majority privately owned, access isn't really a possibility. The mapping and temperature taking will be publicly accessible, but how else can I do it? Do I literally run string from one green seed pod to the next, showing the network as it grows? (But what does that really have to do with green roofs?) Do I create little plaques (like historical markers) that can be affixed to the front of the buildings? Do I recreate George Bliss' Purple Footprints (once used to lead to Adam Purple's community garden, and then later to protest the Bowery Bar) - but that's illegal...

Okay, I was supposed to write them all up, but now I am going to be late for work, so I will add the rest (Coffee Cup Reduction Project, Real Cost Cafe and What a Waste - Disposable Culture) later...

When confronted with the extraordinary

2007-08-03T09:28:00.000-04:00

Why does it seem, that when confronted with the extraordinary, we choose to run and hide?
I heard a fantastical story on the BBC World News radio programme this morning. Someone is apparently dropping envelopes and packages of large amounts of money around Tokyo, Kobe and Kyoto - in bathrooms, public spaces, post boxes and from the sky. Included with the money is a note that asks the recipient to do "something good" with the money.
Instead, people are getting scared and turning the money in to the police. At first I thought this was a really fabulous social artwork (although a very expensive one). Others interviewed for the program suggested they thought it was maybe a gimmick for a new tv game show (which would be too bad). You can read the story here.
So why is it when confronted with an opportunity to take a great deal of money to 'do something good' people instead run scared and give it to the police? And what would happen in New York City? What would you do?
I am pretty sure I would in fact do something good with the money. But it would be also frivolous and fun. It wouldn't be donating to some organization or cause. Maybe I would buy lots of candy for a group of kids. Maybe I would just get a huge number of balloons and tie notes that say nice things and release them in the city. Or hire a band to march around Wall Street... I don't know but I think it would focus on bringing smiles to the faces of people.

On the evolution of ideas

2007-07-15T20:40:00.000-04:00

I am sitting in Corlear's Hook Park at Cherry Street and FDR Drive, waiting for the sun to go set. I did my first installation of the illuminated beacons for High Water Line, and am waiting to get some pictures of them after dusk. It seems as good a time as any to delve into the topic of the evolution of ideas. A number of people have asked how I went from the studio work investigating the relationship between built and natural environment to a community outreach project dealing with the specific issue of climate change.

When I look at the High Water Line project as a single, whole entity (the entire line, the beacons, the nature of the project), I see a seamless connection between it and my drawings, intervention installations, narrative works and my tendency towards obsessive. For some the connection isn't so obvious. So my friend Michele and I broke it down into a specific narrative the other day (a lot of which you could get from reading this blog in a linear manner).

My work has gone through a number of phases (as would anyone's of my tenure). The work previously being shown and developed was that which investigated the intersection between body and space. Or, to put it another way, humans and their environment (see the seed was already there). Last January, I wrote a blog entry about viewing a photo essay in Sierra Magazine about the shrinking glaciers. I was awed by the power of the visual message and I decided to make a conscious change in the direction of my work. About the same time, we had decided to move. As anyone familiar with the NYC real estate market knows, this can be an all-consuming task. So my studio practice was negatively affected. From that time until well after the move (my tiny studio at the new place was filled with boxes), my artistic practice was primarily that of drawing ideas in my sketchbook. These works were all explorations of specific environmental issues (deforestation, urban decay, migration, waste, genetics).

Alongside this, I was trying to come up with ways to get my work out and seen by more people (this didn't have to be galleries). I realized the easiest and best way to do this was to put it out on the street and in the parks right out in front of them. Would be pretty hard to avoid that.
I played with a few ideas and pretty quickly landed on the idea of marking the sea level rise sculpturally. Hence the genesis of High Water Line (nee Sea Change).

So the original idea was to create sculptural elements that were fairly elaborate and could be installed permanently around the city. For reasons of funding, fabrication, maintenance, liability and science (that this wasn't a concrete line), the idea quickly morphed into simple illuminated beacons installed in parks around the city, connected by a chalk line. (Sound familiar?)
It was in the process of writing about the project, for grant applications, that I began to better understand the project and all of the various aspects of it - performance, community, witness, etc.

Which leaves me here, waiting for the sunset, meditating on the project, and the relationship between humans and their environment.

By the numbers...

2007-05-12T10:06:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking about noting the numbers involved in the High Water Line project, and after shifting 3,000 pounds of chalk - yep, you heard that right, 3,000 - now is as good a time as any!

I have had sort of a critical mass of community board meetings and parks meetings happening as the project and the summer holidays (for the community boards) rapidly approaches. So here are some of the numbers so far:

3,000 pounds of chalk moved from the truck into storage
208 ounces of pigment
444 paths drawn on my community walk map
13 community boards
8 community board meetings (so far)
9 parks department representatives
4 DOT representatives
2 NASA scientists
8 grant applications (so far)
50 miles of biking (approximately) the line
10 miles of walking the line
2,000 action packets
2 websites (new one coming soon!)
1 press mention (so far)

And we won't even go into budget and expenses yet...

It seems that a lot of what public art making requires is just plain old persistence. I have learned on this project what it really means to sell your idea and how not to take no for an answer. Don't get me wrong, there have been several times along the way where I have just thought - ugh! why am I even doing this? Then I pick myself up, dust myself off and plow on ahead. I do know that it is going to continue to be a hard process, but it is something that I am really passionate about, and when I do find people who are really excited about the project (the audience at Community Boards) or just plain super helpful - many of the people in city agencies - it can be a great boon to the spirit and buoy me back up again.

Speaking of people excited about the project, I am looking for volunteers to work on the project - so if you love talking to people about climate issues, and want to go for long interesting and meandering walks around NYC - contact me!

There are a couple of more hurdles to clear - the biggest of which is finding space to mix the chalk and pigment. If anyone has some outdoor space, studio space or storage space that they aren't using, don't care if it gets dusty and has access to power - definitely let me know! Special bonus if it has a loading dock. That would certainly be easier than shifting 3,000 pounds of chalk each month.

Top photo of natural pigments, courtesy of The Real Milk Paint Company.

In all the steel there was nature...

2007-04-27T09:07:00.000-04:00

And in the nature there was steel?

A workmate of mine asked yesterday if I had seen the Roxy Paine trees in "shake shack park" (Madison Square Park) yesterday - I did remember that I had seen a report on the installation of his boulders, but had forgotten about the trees.

I stopped by yesterday on my way up to Hangawi -

As I came upon the park I could begin to glimpse the sinuous branches of stainless steel - visible in amongst the still bare branches of the towering trees in the park. The juxtaposition of the buildings, real trees and stainless steel branches was a stunning and sexy interplay of line and light. I am anxious to return to see the trees in different light and even at night. The best sculpture is the centerpiece of two wind blown trees leaning into each other - their sleek branches intertwining with one another.

The two other pieces - one a large stainless steel boulder and the other a more chunky tree sited in a dirt area of the park are less successful. I think this is a result of the pieces being less graceful. The centerpiece is a composition of movement and agility - which makes sense among the varied lines of the natural trees - and it is surprising given the sleek metal of which they are made.

Roxy has always fascinated me with his use of technology and high-tech materials to recreate and examine nature and natural processes. It strikes me as an interesting experiment in man's desire to control everything around him. I have a friend who has examined the role of artworks like Roxy's in contemporary society, I will have to get some commentary from her on this work.

The exhibition opens officially on May 15, but it is all up now, so you could catch the trees and the Bill Fontana sound piece at the same time (Fontana's piece is up until May 1).

Many thanks to Madison Square Park and the NYC Parks Dept for bringing this fantastic work to Shake Shack Park!

You are cordially invited...

2007-04-23T14:02:00.000-04:00

My hope at the beginning of the HighWaterLine project was to take you, my blog reader friends, along for the ride (at least partially). It has turned out that a lot of the work is about emailing, meetings and writing and re-writing proposals and promotions. It turns out that all that stuff isn't so interesting to blog about.

One thing I would like to do though, is to offer the knowledge that I have gained to others out there interested in doing public art projects. Here's where you come in...

First, if you have questions about the process, post away. I am happy to answer any questions people might have about the process - grantwriting, fiscal sponsorship, grant reporting, networking, working with partners, working with city agencies, community boards, fabrication, public outreach, press and marketing, etc. I will provide in-depth answers in whatever you are interested in learning more about.

Second, if you are interested in the process and want to witness some *live action* I have a LOT of community board meetings coming up, let me know if you are interested in learning more about the process, you can join me at one of the meetings. Just go to the highwaterline.org site and contact me.

Finally, if you really really want to get out there and see what it is all about, volunteer! I am looking for artists and environmentally minded folks to walk the line with me. There are a couple of ways to help, so go check out the timeline, and then contact me to let me know when you would like to help out!

(Top image - the glamour of making public art...)

Finding local sources

2007-04-13T12:57:00.000-04:00

Since g-pup and I went on the low carbon diet it has been a lot of work finding foodstuff and recipes to support all the winter veg. So, in light of that, I have put together a bulletin board for people to share information on local resources. Check it out here: http://www.highwaterline.org/localsource/index.php and participate! Let me know if you have ideas for other topic areas.

Sea of People

2007-04-10T10:08:00.000-04:00

It's this weekend folks! This Saturday join in on the action right here in NYC. As part of Step It Up, a worldwide call to cut carbon emissions by 80%, a group of good people have organized Sea of People. We will meet in Battery Park for a rally at noon and then walk along two lines on the east and west sides of Manhattan that mark the 10-foot above sea level line.

Check out the promo video here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=p0DfSCfdfBA

See you there?

the more you know the less you know

2007-04-02T12:07:00.000-04:00

I am starting to feel a little like Neo when he took the pill. Now that I know all that I know it is really hard to look the other way or to forget it all. This applies to both the environmental issues that I am dealing with as well as the process of producing public art. (Is that allegory a little dated?)

I have been well pleased with the general reception regarding High Water Line within the ranks of the community boards and the city agencies with whom I have met. Today I met with the Brooklyn DoT commissioner. He was entirely open to providing the necessary support that I was seeking - mainly an okay from him regarding chalk marking on the street (since there is a city ordinance regarding it - but that speaks specifically to defacement). It is funny though the things one doesn't think about that the people closer to it do. He brought up the fact that since the line is blue, it would make people think we are doing construction on the street and they might call 311, so I should let them know about the project. Also about writing the url in the line - that may be considered advertisement (which AAA will be pleased to know is treated the same as grafitti), and therefore could be the problematic part of the project. So I am happy to work with them to figure out the best way to represent the project...

I have lots of interesting meetings coming up this week, including another meeting with my designers, a meeting with the NYC Parks department - I am excited about that one - and finally rounding the week out with a meeting with a curator at Dumbo Arts Center to talk about coinciding the project with their Arts Under the Bridge Festival. It could be a wonderfully defining week!

There's been a lot of buzz about the Step It Up projects, including the Sea of People project. Make sure you take the time to dress in blue and come walk the line - it will be a great event (I helped them map the line!) Totally a great group of people, and the big rallies are just as important as my one-on-one conversations.

It's a big small world

2007-03-26T08:55:00.000-04:00

It has been interesting to work on a project within the specific realm of arts and environmental issues. Is it a subculture or a genre? There are both a lot of people working on these issues and at the same time relatively few.
As I talk to more people about High Water Line, I find more crossover and you start to hear the same names over and over again. I was meeting with a friend at Eyebeam the day after my friends at Solar One were there, then my partners at Canary Project were meeting with Solar One the same afternoon that I was attending the Sea of People fundraiser. An advisor of mine had suggested that I look up Jane Marsching just a couple of days after another friend had put us in touch. Jennifer Monson of iLand and I keep crossing paths, and my designers at Pratt Design Corps are friends with CP's assistant... The list goes on.I had heard the name Alexis Rockman mentioned by the Precipice Alliance, and then again by Cynthia Rosenzweig. Most recently a friend of mine brought up his name after having met with LMCC about her own independent projects. Finally I took a few minutes (in between drawing maps and writing grant applications), to look more in depth at his work. A google image search brings up a huge list of fantastical images. I found some good articles on his work in the NYTimes, Wired and Orion Magazine. He paints this rich and luscious paintings of romanticized demise of the earth from the efforts of man (genetic alteration, global warming, etc). These paintings are layered with imagery of great and small creatures (rarely are humans in the picture - although on occasion). I love the bright colors and the detail and lighting which are imbued in the work. It is an interestingly fantastical image of human degradation of the earth and what comes after. I can't help thinking about how fun it would be to work with him on a 2-d 3-d version of Courses of Empire (the Acadia to Utopia series) that I have wanted to do for a long time. Don't be surprised if in between the next few public projects that I want to do, I squeeze in some time to do a sculptural interpretation of one of his works.
Top image: Dancer in iLand performance
Middle image: Jane Marxhing's Arctic Listening Post
Last three images: Alexis Rockman

Oh and--

2007-03-23T10:25:00.000-04:00

If you want to contribute to the High Water Line project (money that is!) you can do so here!

From where I am sitting

2007-03-23T09:02:00.000-04:00

A lot going on out in the world including: Ouch! and some good self promotion - this op/ed comes on the heels of me reading more about Brooks' report on "Who Really Cares." And addresses something I have been thinking about ever since seeing the photos of the retreating glaciers. It's something I have been guilty of (am working towards remedying that now) and that I see my friends all around me doing. We believe strongly enough in something to dedicate time and money (despite Brooks' report most people I know give quite generously to charities) and even heated discussions and an occassional rally or march. BUT, how many people are really willing to change their lifestyle, or make sacrifices, or put forth a great effort towards that thing about which they are so passionate?

Making the change -- we only think it's hard

2007-03-18T15:28:00.000-04:00

Ever since writing this post, I've been thinking about my own efforts to reduce my impact on the world. As g-pup says, "don't we already have a lower impact than most people?" The answer is yes, we certainly do (we buy locally and seasonally, shop at goodwill for things we need - if we shop at all, we use CFL's, we compost, bring our own canvas bags to the store and recycle, turn off lights, don't run water, won't buy drinks in disposable containers), but I responded, "that doesn't mean we shouldn't do more." So, inspired by the No Impact Man and the book Gone Tomorrow, The Hidden Life of Garbage, we are working to a greater reduction in impact. We are cutting way down on the t.v. that we watch (we don't watch a whole lot already since we hate regular t.v. but we are reducing our watching by about 75%), reducing (trying to get to 0) the packaged goods that we purchase (I will be doing more and more farmer's market shopping since that drastically reduces the packaging and helps with the local buying), and deciding not to buy anything this year - and if we *need* to then we will do some environmental volunteer work to offset that purchase.

I am most looking forward to the efforts towards different types of entertainment, I think we might regain some of the time we seem to be so short on. G-pup is looking forward to doing more homebrewing for his beer consumption. We will still have to rely on transit for getting around (we live in Brooklyn, I work in Manhattan and he works in Jersey), but now that spring is on its way, we will be back on our bikes for most of our shopping and weekend commute needs.

It seems like a lot to take on with the ongoing work on the project, but in a way it all kind of makes sense to do it now...

2007-03-14T21:39:00.001-04:00

I had fully intended to really track the entire process of this project in this blog back when I started. It's possible (very likely in fact) that I might have been a little naive at that point about how much work this would actually take. Now that I am well into the thick of it I hardly have time to think about it, much less blog.

So why this rare posting? I am on a train ride back from a community board meeting in Coney Island, it's after 9 so it's a long local ride. On the way to the meeting I was thinking about the project in the context of fear. Because let's be frank here, I have never done anything even near this scope and scale - this is my first public work, my first funded work (other than stipends for gallery shows, which is nowhere near the scale). Why would I not be a little afraid of taking on this project? Honestly, I was, and at times I still am. Sure I have fear, but the cool thing is by pushing through the fear, that's where one can achieve great things. And thinking about that while riding the B train through a vast array of neighborhoods (where it is elevated) and thinking about walking around this city that I love, talking to so many different people about something that I care deeply about? Well that is really really freaking cool.

So I have been contacting Community Boards and attending meetings to present the project and the response has been resoundingly supportive. Now if i could just get those pesky permits in place...

Inspiration...

2007-03-12T08:36:00.000-04:00

Sometimes this project seems pretty big and overwhelming. I keep myself inspired by these two women, Majora Carter and Wangari Maathai. This morning I watched Marjora's TED speech online. I use a quote of Wangari's on my emails.
Both of these women are amazing in their strength and vision. They fully understand the interconnectedness of environmental issues and social justice.
Wangari's tree planting program associated planting trees to empower women and local communites. Majora's has fought against NYC planning policies that unjustly and unevenly placed the most detrimental industries in the South Bronx. Her projects have built community and opportunity while reinvigorating the waterfront and creating new green structures throughout the neighborhood.

For more information:
Sustainable South Bronx
Green Belt Movement

I certainly dedicate this project to these two amazing visionaries!

Bearing witness...

2007-03-08T09:50:00.000-05:00

I have been wonderfully, crazily impossibly busy with the High Water Line project, things are falling into place and it has been a great process - more on that later. First a few musings....

I was just reading Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe. I am in the first chapter which is relating stories from the Arctic - stories about physical and dire changes that are taking place in the landscape and having direct impact on people's lives. This got me to thinking about the process of bearing witness (I've been thinking about it a lot lately in relation to HWL), and the act of relating stories of experience. Clearly the people living in the arctic have many first hand stories to tell of the changes their world is undergoing, what do we, in NYC have to tell? I am seeking to find stories about people and their own experiences with climate change. I am offering to bear witness and carry these stories on. It may be direct stories, people displaced by weather occurrences, it may be stories about their own thoughts and feelings about climate change, and it may be stories about not having any stories - people who don't know or talk about climate change - and why is that?

It's an interesting thing how much we can put things out of our minds (war, global warming, financial difficulties, etc) and go on living our lives without thinking about it. We are a stubborn species. Because I am working on this project, I think about climate change ALL the time. I look around me and wonder if anyone else is thinking about it. I am hyper aware of the things that I do. (And the things I have not done - yet). The fact that someone like me who is so aware, hasn't changed ALL my light bulbs to CFL's (most of them though) - all the people who aren't thinking about, how much (or little) are they doing?

The changes are going to have to be on a massive scale. We will all have to make big changes in our lifestyles to reverse the trend, and given our capability to deal with great change in the face of great need (think of the rationing during previous wartimes) I think we can do it. But I do think we will need a little bit of a push.

I also think it is important for each individual person to feel like they have the ability to have an impact. So this project is about getting out there, having the difficulty conversation, listening and provide the resources for people to make their own action.

In the palm of your hand

2007-02-23T08:51:00.000-05:00

Just found out about a really stunning and beautiful project, "Of All the People in All the World" at MassMOCA. It is a "mind-blowing art installation/performance piece/statistical study unlike anything you have ever seen" (thats from the MM site), by the UK artist's collective Stan's Cafe.

I always think that large numbers are really complicated for out minds to understand. In fact, apparently the largest number we can comprehend is about 100,000. I think that might even be a stretch, I would consider that for most people it is a lot smaller than that.

Anyway, this project give vision to the numbers game. There are huge piles of rice on view, each single grain of rice (that's small) represents a single person. Like you, or me. The piles are then measured out to represent various statistics, such as the number of people in the US in prison, or the number living in gated communities, number of illegal aliens etc.

It is such a wonderful, shocking and powerful image. They have been doing this around the world (UK, Australia, US, etc).

Maybe they can do one representing the number of people who will be forced to migrate due to climate change...

(Natalie Jeremijenko is showing at MassMOCA right now too)

Simply Brilliant (and brilliantly simple)

2007-02-07T21:02:00.000-05:00

I haven't had much time for much of anything outside grant applications and community outreach (which, yes thank you, is going well!).

But in a tiny bit of downtime that I took this evening I went to read a friend of mine's new blog - gushgallery.com. I've read her writing before and always enjoyed it, but reading through it again this evening I realize how incredibly brilliant she is (don't blush its true!). I am really glad that she has a blog, as I think its a perfect outlet for her.

Mostly she writes about simple stuff, her morning routine, laundry, life in NYC, but its written with unabashed candor and a beautiful sense of humor.

Seriously, go read some. And be sure to leave comments, because she will appreciate that.

the name game

2007-02-04T14:17:00.000-05:00

With some feedback from a couple of resources, I am changing the name of the project from "sea Change" to "High Water Line."

I am working to update the website: now at highwaterline.org.

Here's the reason for the name change. Originally conceived as a smaller project, with more of an artistic bent - the cleverness of the name "Sea Change" seemed to suit it well. As the project has grown, and the project becomes more about outreach, public interaction and attention on global warming, a more direct and understandable name was needed. Hence, "High Water Line."

IPCC for you and me....

2007-02-04T13:49:00.000-05:00

Favorite IPCC headline (courtesy of Grist) "IPCC, Yeah, you know me"
Favorite footnote in IPCC "Summary for Policy Makers": In this Summary for Policymakers, the following terms have been used to indicate the assessed likelihood, using expert judgement, of an outcome or a result: Virtually certain > 99% probability of occurrence, Extremely likely > 95%, Very likely > 90%, Likely > 66%, More likely than not > 50%, Unlikely < style="font-style: italic;">Very unlikely < style="font-style: italic;">Extremely unlikely < 5%."
Favorite gratuitous scientific term in IPCC SPM: Anthropogenic (from Merriam-Webster: of, relating to, or resulting from the influence of human beings on nature)
Number of acronyms in IPCC SPM (including IPCC and SPM): around 20
Favorite IPCC SPM acronym: LOSU (level of scientific understanding)

So that was a fun read. Nothing really surprising, wouldn't expect there to be with 192 countries having to sign off on it. And this is only the first of four reports. I am holding out for the April release of the affects of climate change (this was the scientific basis report).

Also pretty interesting about Gore getting nominated for a Nobel.

Isn't it a built in assumption?

2007-01-29T10:23:00.000-05:00

Was catching up on some blog reading last night - read a few of Edward_ Winkleman's posts, including this one, on (paraphrasing) artists' egos.

I couldn't wade through all of the comments, there was too much snarkiness and sniping and big art-y words to keep me interested. So maybe this was already stated in the comments, but I prefer to keep my comments here.

He was basically talking about whether or not successful artists think they are great artists. I find this an interesting question, since in my opinion all artists must think they are great artists. I certainly do. If you are a person willing to spend the time, money and energy creating art beyond, say grad school, then clearly you must think your art is worth seeing, and therefore at some level of greatness.

Any artist who is modest about their work is either lying , being disingenuous or just not thinking clearly about their position. I'm pretty sure a lot of the 'loser-ism' that artists wrap themselves in (those who chose to), is just part of a costume - putting on the artist persona.

I know there are many times where I look at my art and think - "wow! that is so f-ing awesome!" -- I've put up shows that made me weep because I thought they were so good. (Now, maybe it still didn't entirely meet my high expectations, but I still thought they were great).

How many artists walk into galleries and more often think "my art is better than this" than "this is the greatest artwork i have ever seen." Admittedly, I have seen (and written about) some pretty great shows, but I generally think of my art as being on par with that other great art.

I just find it hard to believe that one would desire to thrust mediocrity on the public eye. Its just not true.

temporary website in place

2007-01-26T14:33:00.000-05:00

I just built a temporary website for Sea Change - it's at www.seachange-nyc.org - right now it's propagating itself across the world wide web. Let me know if/when you can see it and if you have any feedback (particularly if there is information you would like to see up there that isn't yet).

is it more fun to go up the hill than down?

2007-01-24T19:22:00.000-05:00

So, with the head cold set in good and well - stuffy head, burning eyes, that whole experience of walking around in a dream? - it gives me time to think. And catch up a little on blogging - if somewhat incoherently.

I've been thinking about just how much work it is to produce a public art work (in case you didn't know, i am in the midst of doing that right now), especially one that is, well, ephemeral and fleeting. Here's the rough overview:

get grants: that means researching, writing, editing, compiling, mailing etc. and not just one or two - more like a dozen at least
get approval: so the grants give you some backbone at least, but then you have to get approval from parks, developers, DOT and community boards. you have to write letters, and emails, send packets, attend small meetings, attend big meetings
get sponsors: try to get people to give you things for free. and because.
get press: write a press kit (thats a whole other thing), research contacts, send releases and kits to contacts, contact contacts, follow up with contacts, pester people
get partners: to do things you can't do (teach workshops, plan events), to get their support (park conservancies, neighborhood groups), to get promotion

I'm sure there is stuff I am forgetting but thats the gist of it. All to lay down the fleeting blue chalk line.

But here's the rub. I actually like it. Clearly there is something wrong with my head, it would certainly be much easier to create work in a studio and then air it out in the gallery without all this other rigamarole. And don't get me wrong, I still love doing studio work (in fact, right about now I just plain miss it). But there is something oddly appealing about all this work prior to the project. And here's what I have realized: it's a pattern.

Yup. I also like cross country mountain biking better than downhil. I like backcountry snowboarding. I like kayaking (okay that doesn't really fit the story, but I still like it). Truth is, I like the hard work, it makes the reward that much sweeter.

But do me a favor. Come out and say hello when I am drawing the chalk line. It will make it even sweeter still.

Yes, that top image is Tuckerman's, and yes I have ridden it and loved it.

seriously? no? seriously?

2007-01-23T18:19:00.000-05:00

I know I promised some tips for writing grants to come soon, but things keep happening with the Sea Change project, including a potential name change. I will let you know the details when it gets more fully worked out.
This week g-pup and I were supposed to be flying over to Edinburgh to see some family, but I got hit with that awful cold/flu thing that has been flying around. So there is no way I am getting on a plane with any kind of sinus sickness. (I've done it twice before, it is really not a good idea). So instead I am home working on more of the project needs.
I continue to apply for funding, getting the Greenwall & Jerome Foundation applications together. I am rewriting the application to refocus on the performance aspect of me putting down the chalk line and talking to people one on one about climate change (since thats where the real power is right?) I am also contacting and scheduling meeting with the community boards through which I will be creating the project, its important to get them interested in the project and will help drive interest, understanding and permits.
Am I making any sense at all? My heads a little stuffy.
It all feels like it is moving both quickly and slowly at the same time. I have some really amazing support from all of the fantastic people at Solar One. I have also made some new friends along the way with whom I am trying to create some supportive relationships. I am really looking forward to making this project happen. It is going to be such a fantastic experience. Don't get me wrong - I don't expect it to be all sunshine and daisies (I can't think of the phrase). I know there will be long, hot, lonely days out there. I know there will be discussions with skeptics. I know there will be angry people. But I also hope to interest people who might not be thinking about climate change. Maybe I will influence someone to make a difference in their life, or a difference in many lives. I am really looking forward to meeting all the different people out in the different communities.
Anyway, this is mostly the ramblings of a sinus-y sick person with a stuffy head.

hope springs eternal

2007-01-08T19:21:00.000-05:00

Yes, even I will admit that the 70+ weather on Saturday was, in its own absurd way, beautiful. But I couldn't help that it just kept making me mad.It makes me mad that we are seeing, feeling, acknowledging (by we I mean a bigger we than just you an I) climate change, and yet, we are doing so little about it! Mayor Bloomberg, despite his 2030 plan, is still hemming and hawing about congestion pricing (just enact it already!) and refuses to embrace pedestrians, bicycles and mass transit (that includes BRT) as the most important factors in urban planning.
We are experiencing truly bizarre weather around the world, and still the US government refuses to think long term about the auto industry (and standards) the building industry (and standards) and travel and commerce (and standards).
I am also mad that we have given climate change such a misnomer as 'global warming' that almost sounds, well, pleasant. I even overheard on a BBC report some clueless woman (feet on the street kind of thing) talking about how nice it will be for it to be warmer year round, "we all like warm weather" she opines. (I for one actually prefer colder weather). How insane is that? Can we please change the name to something more realistic? I don't know, something like "global ecological disaster" seems to cover it. And as a side note.

Besides that, I think 2007 is going to rock!

Coming soon, more art stuff - like how to write a winning grant proposal! :)

Patience is a virtue (and a power)

2006-12-26T15:39:00.000-05:00

Wow what a beautiful holiday gift to me! I decided to check the mail on Saturday at our apartment. (We don't get most of our mail here because of the well known Brooklyn mail problems). We got a request for year end donations from the American Museum of Natural History (which, by the way, is my idea one of the most magical places on earth), and a couple of mis-delivered items (see above), and a letter from Brooklyn Arts Council - I mostly thought it was either the newsletter or another appeal for money - in fact it was a promise of money! I got the DCA regrant! So now I am all excited and pumped and working forward on the project - it was a little hard to focus on the holiday celebrations - I was thinking about the Sea Change project and the logistics and calendaring of the project.

So congratulations to me and a huuuuge thanks to BAC for believing in me and the project. I am so excited to be able to say that someone is backing me, it really helps other granters feel like they are not alone in supporting the project (it is a real chicken and the egg scenario).
Today I did some research on the chalk I want to use for marking the line, I have found that the sports field marking chalk is white. I found some good blue chalk powder in the form of the powder used for construction marking (chalk lines - which I always thought was fun to do when I was little - hmm a little premonition?) I was also looking into gulal (the colored powder used for the Indian celebration of Holi) but I don't think it is permanent enough - I want something that will stay around for a couple weeks. Anyone have any ideas?
I also will be building the calendar around the work projects that I have and the travel coming up in the year. My friend over at Solar One just got back from the Al Gore Climate Project training (teaching people to give an effective presentation and giving them the tools). He is hoping to put me in touch with other New Yorkers who attended so that we can coordinate a whole workshop outreach portion of the project - the presentations will be done in partnership with community organizations in the communities through which I will be creating the project.

So now I wait to hear back from NYFA and Cabot, and still have to write letters to Puffin and Jerome...

holiday giving

2006-12-19T09:21:00.000-05:00

this year i tried to give mostly non-object things - memberships, food, experiences, and succeeded quite well.

i had wanted to get the solio solar charger as a gift for my family (hey if i am going to be out drawing a chalk line - it will be a good way to power the gadgets!) but decided instead to put the money towards bigger things.

i first read about kiva in good magazine, then I was reminded of it while visiting the red lipstick blog.
here's the deal, Kiva brings together small dollar lenders in the US (or other "developed" [i am not a fan of that term] countries) to lend money to individuals around the world - it gives the money through micro lenders around the world. Since American dollars go pretty far in other parts of the world, even a little bit can make a big difference. Once the load is fully funded, the money is distributed to the individual for their business. As they are succesful, they pay back the loan (100% of microloans are repaid) and the money gets put back into your kiva account. You can withdraw the funds, or you can use it to refund new projects. Pretty cool little money cycle there.
So go online at kiva.org, and pick out some loans that are of interest to you - maybe give someone the last $25 they need to complete the loan - or start someone off who doesn't have the money yet. Or give the entire amount of money to one person to fully fund their project. Think of it as a nice holiday gift to the world. (Does that sound sappy? - I don't care - just do it.)
I am helping to fund Kossi (making shoes), Cecilia (a pub - thats for g-pup!), Ana (food market), and Komi (decorations).

and happy holidays to all!

updated 12/26: I am so thrilled about this project - within 24 hours of making my donations, 3 of my funded projects were fully funded. As of now they are all fully funded, and two of them have received their funds. I can't wait to watch the blogs to hear how the business progresses.

some art to see

2006-12-14T11:41:00.000-05:00

Gothamist posted about the windows in Washington Square by Jae Hi Ahn. In looking up more about her work, I came across this post from Libby and Roberta on Artblog, about a show at Vox Populi in Philadelphia. The show was called "Parts to the Whole." The premise was that each of the works were made of many smaller pieces to create a whole - it looks like it was a stunning show, I wish I had seen it. I will have to watch for more of the shows by the curator, Elizabeth Grady and many of the artists in the show, Nami Yamamoto, Julie Hughes, Pete Goldlust, Charley Friedman, David Myers and Gelah Penn.

You know the aggregation of these pieces appeals to me. I am curious to the compulsion to create the repetitive form. I wonder if there is any generational thing to this and what shapes an artists desire to create this kind of work.

I have some time off over the next few weeks, and while I hope to get to Chelsea, I will also go see the window display of Jae's work, and will think on this for a bit. (Feeling under the weather right now, so not thinking much at all).
Photos from top to bottom: Jae Hi Anh, Charley Friedman, Julie Hughes, Pete Goldlust, Gelah Penn

Also of note, Wooster Collective opens 11 Spring Street tomorrow (12/15) - this from the Gothamist post. (Times for the exhibition. It will only be open for three days....Friday, December 15th: From 11am to 5pm, Saturday, December 16th: From 11am to 5pm, Sunday, December 17th: From 11am to 5pm, On Sunday, December 17th at 3pm there will be a panel discussion with many of the artists attending.)

In the years to come

2006-12-14T11:19:00.000-05:00

There's a lot of buzz about mayor bloomie's 2030 speech, so much so that I will just reblog all that here (they've also got a flashy website):
Worldchanging
Streetsblog (news roundup)
Streetsblog
Gothamist (maps)

And in the realm of responding in a positive manner, here's my nyfa fiscal sponsorship proposal:

I am seeking fiscal sponsorship from the New York Foundation for the Arts to produce Sea Change, a public art installation on the New York City waterfront from June - October 2007. Sea Change will consist of a blue chalk line and light filled markers around Lower Manhattan and along the coastline of the borough of Brooklyn, designating 10-feet above sea level. This “critical line” is the level at which, by the year 2100, nearly annual flooding is predicted to occur as a direct result of climate change.

The blue chalk line of Sea Change will outline the areas at risk to increased cycles of flooding and storm surge resulting from global warming. Along this line, in parks and other high visibility settings, there will be a moveable set of illuminated, water-filled, clear acrylic markers. These markers will be etched with scientific data and easily adoptable tips for a more sustainable lifestyle. Beside the chalk line, information will be stenciled in chalk on the ground. Accompanied by a website, advertising campaign and community-based workshops, Sea Change will provide viewers – residents and tourists – with knowledge to shape the future of their physical environment.

Background. New York, a city of islands and a peninsula, has almost 600 miles of coastline susceptible to the effects of global warming. A large portion of its mass transit system (used by over 4.5 million people per day) and two major airports are at or below the “critical line.” Many of the city’s recreational and tourist destinations - Coney Island, Battery Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park and South Street Seaport - are on the coast. Renewed interest in the waterfront has spurred rapid and massive development in neighborhoods like Greenpoint, Red Hook, Lower Manhattan and Williamsburg. Important municipal services including wastewater treatment, power stations and garbage transfer stations are sited along major waterways. World financial and business centers, including most of Wall Street, are located below the “critical line.” All five of New York’s boroughs are at risk to drastic alteration from the affects of climate change. I have chosen to focus the 2007 project on Lower Manhattan because of its wealth of iconic sites and Brooklyn because of the diverse neighborhoods that will be affected.

Goals. 1) To create Sea Change, a public artwork that maps the “critical line” of projected flood zones along approximately 60 miles of New York City waterfront. The blue chalk line - as it passes through neighborhoods - and the water-filled, light-emitting markers will serve as a poignant reminder of how New York City will be radically affected by climate change. 2) To give viewers a point of entry into a global issue by visualizing its impact at the local level. 3) To use the language of art - e.g., the ephemeral quality of chalk - as a metaphor for vulnerability and change. 4) To conduct a public outreach campaign on the topic of climate change and how individuals can make a difference.

I will draw the 4-inch wide blue chalk line in parks, plazas, and streets, using a device for drawing lines on sports fields. The markers will be 50-100 (3-feet high, 3-inches diameter) recycled plastic acrylic tubes lit with LEDs powered by solar panels and filled with water and will be installed in heavily trafficked areas along the “critical line.” They will be staked in the ground (a low impact installation) and will migrate over time along the blue line. I will move the markers to a new location every two weeks for the duration of the piece. There will be 8 (2-week) settings for the markers in Brooklyn, beginning and ending in Brooklyn Bridge Park. In Lower Manhattan, there will be 3 (4-week) settings. Sites include (in Manhattan) Chinatown, Battery Park and Tribeca; (in Brooklyn) Brooklyn Bridge Park, Red Hook Recreation Area, Shore Road Park, Manhattan Beach, Floyd Bennett Field, Canarsie Beach and Williamsburg.

Allowing time for trouble shooting and interacting with the public, I plan to “draw” an average of 4 miles a day, 1-3 days every two weeks, with the remaining time spent on installation of the markers, outreach and maintenance. As an example, for the first installation of the project (early June 2007) in Brooklyn, I will trace the “critical line” through the Brooklyn Bridge area and install the markers in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The chalk line will begin at Williamsburg Bridge; travel through Vinegar Hill, DUMBO, and on to South Brooklyn Heights. Over the summer and ending in September, the piece will traverse neighborhoods (e.g. Canarsie, Brighton Beach) that are typically underserved, with little access to the arts.

I have already completed extensive research and mapping of the line’s trajectory in relation to public space. In Brooklyn, I will use parks, streets and sidewalks, avoiding private property. In Sunset Park, for example, the line will end on the north side of the piers and begin again on the south side. I have begun the process of seeking permits from the Department of Transportation and the NYC Parks Department. In Lower Manhattan, I will also seek access from developers for the use of plazas or other privately owned public spaces.

Audience. The simplicity of the project, aesthetically and visually, will appeal to people of all ages, ethnicities and economic backgrounds. Sea Change seeks to engage people on the street, in the neighborhoods where they live, work and play. People will encounter the chalk line and the markers while going about their daily lives. The work is an intervention in routine. This aspect of the piece ensures catching people’s attention and providing easy and direct access. Sea Change is designed to engage the community, and promote thoughtful, informed dialogue and action.

Public outreach/dissemination. Scientific data and sustainable living tips will be disseminated to the public through the artwork itself and my presence (with an assistant) in coastal neighborhoods as we execute the piece. I am planning a website and a public outreach campaign consisting of posters on bus shelters, large ads on the sides of buses for routes along the coast and a “poster swipe” (wheat pasted posters) in surrounding neighborhoods. This campaign will attract an audience to the artwork and convey educational information. I have a background in marketing, web design and project management, which I will use to work effectively with designers. The campaign will provide vital information in a visually engaging manner and the website will present in-depth information in an easy to use and easily accessible format.

The website will contain information on the global warming scenarios the scientific community is projecting, as well as local conditions, energy saving tips, and links to numerous other resources. The information included in the various materials will address potential scenarios (for the years 2030, 2050 and 2100) during which significant and measurable change is expected to occur – e.g., by 2030, sea level will rise 6.9-inches to 23.7-inches above current heights; by 2100, annual flood heights could increase dramatically from 3.9-feet to 10.5-feet. The information will be drawn from sources like “Impacts of sea level rise in the New York City metropolitan area,” a frequently cited document produced by representatives of Center for Climate Systems Research, Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the US Army Corp of Engineers. We will also provide sustainable living tips that are location specific – e.g. for Red Hook, low-cost home energy saving tips and the benefits of buying produce in the local farmer's market and for Mill Basin the advantage of solar power and impact of consolidating car trips.

Portions of the ad campaign will target tourists directly, to indicate how actions, no matter where one lives, have an affect on the impact of global warming. Sea Change illustrates for all viewers the “butterfly effect,” the theory that a small change can cause a chain of events leading to larger phenomena. The presence of the chalk line and markers, in conjunction with the website and public outreach campaign, will give communities the knowledge to affect the future shape of New York City.

We are also planning community workshops in partnership with Solar One, NYC’s foremost nonprofit green arts and education center. These workshops are not reflected in my budget, since they will be lead by Solar One. Solar One will create specific programming to teach community members (activists and high school students) to educate others about climate change and lifestyle choices. These trainees will then lead 3-7 workshops for adults at community centers such as Red Hook Recreation Area, Battery Park Conservancy and Salt Marsh Nature Center.

Partnerships. Solar One is the primary partner for outreach through community-based organizations. In addition, the National Press Secretary of the Sierra Club has offered promotional support through their international network.

Timeline. TO DATE: Completely mapped (on paper) the “critical line” – 10-feet above sea level - around Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. Researched neighborhoods, bus routes, locations, neighborhood landmarks, resources, and community-based organizations (ongoing). Established a partnership with Solar One, NYC’s leading nonprofit focusing on environmental awareness. Submitted proposals for funding from government and private foundations. Secured a pledge of in-kind promotional support from the Sierra Club. Made initial contact, re: permits from the DOE and NYC Parks Dept. and researched required liability insurance. Preliminary research for advertising costs and ad placement, including leads to secure in-kind donations along bus routes in underserved communities. Secured in-kind donation for web design services and domain registration and web hosting.

NOVEMBER 2006 - MAY 2007. Identify high visibility sites. Plan the design, fabrication, and placement of markers. Write text for markers and stencils. Have the markers and stencils fabricated. Hire an administrative assistant. Submit applications for all necessary permits. Continue networking and research to identify funding prospects; initiate contact with potential funders; submit corporate and foundation proposals. Work on website concept and content; hire a web designer. Begin work on ad campaign concept and content; hire outreach campaign designer. Continue work on ad placement, costs, and possible in-kind donations. Collaborate with Solar One to design and plan the community workshops. Develop detailed calendar of chalking and installation with input from community sources. Begin press campaign. Develop detailed plans and schedule for the public outreach campaign. Hire artist’s assistant and installation assistants. Walkthrough/rehearsal for drawing the “critical line.”

JUNE 2007 - SEPTEMBER 2007. Sea Change is enacted in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan (see details above.)

I have, of course, continued to refine and update the proposal. The recent letter of intent was even more clear and concise than this proposal. (And this one was better than the LMCC and BAC apps). I don't want to keep posting the proposals though, so I will maybe do every other one or something like that. If you have questions about the proposal, the budget, or how you can be involved let me know!

see the difference

2006-12-08T14:02:00.000-05:00

I have been dancing around this thought with Sea Change, finally someone who is good at PR found a way to say what I have been thinking. In an interview with Amanda Griscom Little on Grist.com, Richard Branson has this to say:

" What sets climate change apart from these other crises is that most people can't see the problem -- CO2 gases are invisible. If you could see them and they were colored red, 50 years ago it would have looked like a small brush fire smoldering around the world, and today it would look like a wildfire raging across the globe. We desperately need leaders who can help bring visibility and forge solutions to this imperceptible menace before it's too late."

Indeed.

notes on progress

2006-12-06T09:26:00.000-05:00

You know how I mentioned how important it is to have someone objective looking at grant applications? It also pays to have someone incredibly smart, creative and passionate.

I was honestly feeling a bit burnt on the project, but this woman has the amazing power to re-invigorate me, put the passion back in the project, and here's the kicker, help of understand the project in new and different ways. Today we were working on a letter of intent for a fumeds that doesn't normally fund art projects. They will consider an art project that meets their criteria, which includes a transformative project for the person undertaking it and it should have an affect on people's lives.

We talked about what the physical act of drawing the line will be. I had certainly thought about this, but hadn't investigated in depth how transformative that act will be. I will be out on the street laying down this blue line on the street and through people's neighborhoods. I will get the full range of responses, from full support, to surprise, to passing interest, to annoyance and even anger.

The really beautiful thing, in my opinion, is the potential for these one on one reactions and that very range of emotions. How much more powerful is a message when it is part of a one on one conversation. A key word in that sentence is conversation. I don't expect to go out and deliver a message (that would be awfully conceited). I hope to be able to talk to people, to hear their stories and experiences and to find a common ground.

Undoubtedly this will be a transformative project for me.

Psst!

2006-11-30T09:26:00.000-05:00

hey, hey - psst!
I wanna let you in on a little secret...
This scarcity model that the arts world operates on?
Not only is it not sustainable and false, its just plain stupid. How many of you out there in the art world have bought into the idea that there isn't enough money, space, opportunities (whatever, you fill in the blank) to go around?
Hmmm, that's kind of an old fashioned idea.
If we, as artists, want to be successful, we really have to start thinking more strategically and working to ensure our own collective success. The more artwork that is out in the world, the more of a chance that someone will see it, be moved by it, and want more of it.
It is also important that we all stop devaluing our own work. Don't offer your services, your skills, for anything less than what they are worth. It artwork (and I am talking about visual, performing, literary - all the arts) is perceived as having a low value, how will it ever be perceived as having a higher value than it is currently assigned?
As artists (particularly in America) we underwrite the countries culture. Art can't solve all the problems, but it can provide insight and understanding, it can act as a catalyst to greater things and it enriches our collective soul in a way nothing else can. It has value.

2006-11-30T08:55:00.001-05:00

Psst- I wanna let you in on a little secret...
This scarcity model that the arts world operates on? Not only is it not sustainable and false, it's just plain stupid. How many of you out there in the art world have bought into the idea that there isn't enough money, space, opportunities (whatever, you fill in the blank) to go around.
Hmmm, that's kind of an old fashioned idea. If we as artists want to succeed, we really have to start thinking more strategically and working to ensure our own collective success. The more artwork that is out in the world, the more of a chance that someone will see it, be moved by it, and want more of it.
It is also important that we all stop devaluing our own work. Don't offer your work, your services, your skills for anything less than what they are worth. If artwork is perceived as only having a low value, how will it ever be perceived as having a higher value than it is currently assigned?
As artists (particularly in America) we underwrte the counties culture. Art can't solve all the problems, but it can provide insight and understanding, it can act as a catalyst to greater things, and it enriches our collective soul in a way nothing else can.

Latest updates

2006-11-30T08:22:00.000-05:00

I still need to post the application that went to NYFA - it's the most precise and concise project proposal yet. Thats because I had a little help. I can't tell you how much you can get from having someone objective read over and give feedback. It makes such a huge difference! If only I had done it sooner, I think the other apps would have been stronger. Still, I am moving forward. I did hear from LMCC yesterday that I didn't get funding from them, but I will be asking for the feedback from the panel. Did you know that you can do that? I didn't until I heard it at one of our PDP workshops. I always assumed (silly me) that it was a closed door situation. But actually no, you can always ask for the panel feedback on an application - not everyone will give it to you, but for the few that do it can be invaluable. LMCC offered it before I even had a chance to ask! I am bummed not to get funding from them - it was a good sized chunk, and they would be such a great organization with whom to work. I will certainly pursue other opportunities with them.

I am working on the letters of intent at this point. After learning about writing an in-depth project proposal for the application, it can be hard to then scale it back and really approach the sales pitch in a shorter format. I still have to get the idea across, and explain why I am appropriate for the project, but in a lot fewer words.

By the way - anyone have any comments of the notorious globally warmed weather we are having in NYC? Did you also notice the extraordinarily high Air Quality Index of the past few days. When I first moved to NYC (the first time - 13 years ago) the air here was pretty good. Most of our pollution blew into New Jersey or off to the sea. It didn't really hang around the island. Now with so many wealthy people living in Manhattan and even Brooklyn, there are a LOT more cars on the road (notice that?) with the increased traffic we have increased smog - thats why breathing in NYC is equivalent to smoking a pack a day.

Image at top: Woman planting flowers in New York's Union Square Park on the first Earth Day. (©Bettmann/Corbis. off the Pollution Issues website.)

2006-11-10T08:41:00.000-05:00

Bloging live from Green Brooklyn, part 2
Panel 2, The Natural Environment with Brooklyn Botanic Garden, ConEdison Solutions, Gaia Institute, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Slow Food USA, Solar Energy Systems, and Sustainable Table (the meatrix guys). Right now we are listening to the story of compost, I take my compost to the Farmer's market in Fort Greene, this part weekend I got a nice little container of it back. San Francisco, as part of their efforts to divert 75% of its waste from the dump, a large scale residential compost pick up program was enacted. The compost was resold to farmers in the surrounding areas. After about a year, the compost was a highly sought item. It seems to me that New York is an ideal place to create an extensive composting project. Apparently we already have a large compost center on Riker's Island.
Now we are listening to a discussion on the damon value of the urban jungle (my term), including street trees which save the city $3000 each year from their carbon sequestering and capturing rainwater runoff.
We just heard about the slow food movement and are now hearing about the perils of factory farming (antibiotics, manure lagoons, i will add a link because they are enormous). Next up, my dream city presented by Gaia. Green roofs, green streets, living edges and blue waters, creating a sustainable New York City. Storm water capture, permeable surfaces, urban wetlands, retring brownfields. Living edges means getting natural filters (like mussels). It's an incredibly nice day for sitting inside, but if we can make even half these ideas work we could have a lot more beautiful days.
The hardest part of these conferences are the question periods. I often think it would be more interesting to have the panelists discuss amongst themselves.
Final presentation for the day, the architects, Workshop/APD, who won the Global Green competition to design a green low income complex in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward.
Following that was a "workshop" on transportation that because of time was focused on bicycling (which is fine with me). The presenter was really rushed and anxious to get across to the audience some points about which she was clearly passionate, all of which made for a rather frantic presentation. She did have some salient points to pass on including the idea that all a biker really wants is safe space (thats why they/we sit in crosswalks instead of squeezed between traffic and parked cars, its why a biker might jump a light - to get ahead of the traffic that is going to squeeze him out when passing the double parked car). She also talked about the idea that if bikers were better respected, then bikers will be more respectful (of traffic laws). As it is, bikers and pedestrians are forced to share precious little space while automobiles (and the 10% of new yorkers who drive them) take up the lion's share of the road. It would be nice to have a more car-free city - have you ever noticed how different the city looks when viewed from the middle of the street - its really cool! (You can stop on some streets in SoHo and look around - but most of the streets are too traffic-ridden to even try). For more information on livable streets - check out StreetsBlog.org and Transportation Alternatives (who could just as easily rename themselves traffic alternatives).

oops double and triple posting

2006-11-09T22:47:00.000-05:00

sorry for any of you on rss for the blog. i have been posting from my phone (hence the funny typos), which also has caused some wierd delays on the part of blogger, and some double and triple posting.
i have the final installment from Green Brooklyn, but my phone battery died, I will get it up tomorrow.

2006-11-09T15:21:00.000-05:00

Random thoughts from the Green Brooklyn conference. Another thing that Jeffrey Hollender talked about was "real cost" the idea that if the actual cost of a thing (the cost of long term affects of pesticides on the land and workers, the cost of transporting foods and the carbon emissions effects from that.) You might remember that I want to do a project on that - to create a coffee shop "The Real Cost Cafe".
Next thought, why is it that at these events there are always lots of bits of trash to pick up? There's a 'gift bag' - I don't even know what's in it, I didn't pick one up because I don't need any more stuff. Then there are lots of little niggly brochures. Can't you just beam the info to my phone or something? Or take my email (not on a piece of paper, let of just input it directly) and you can email me more information.

2006-11-09T14:27:00.000-05:00

Bloging live from Green Brooklyn!
Marty Markowitz started us of with the typically ebulliant Marty style. One thing he talked about was understanding global issues at the local level. That's a key part of Sea Change, so you can bet I will be trying to get a little face time with him!
He was followed by Jeffrey Hollender, President/CEO of Seventh Generation who gave an extemporaneous talk on business and sustainability. Although he was hesitant to use the term "sustainable" because he thought it was too vague. I have to agree, I also want to know just what it is that we are sustaining. We can't really sustain the current patterns (of population, lifestyle, business, etc).
We are now in the first panel "The Built Environment" with a somewhat diverse panel, including Bettencourt Green Building Supplies, Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, Conservation Services Group, Earth Pledge, Green Maps and Jonathon Rose Companies. Earth Pledge is doing some really great projects including the green roofs initiative, waste to fuel initiative and future fashion initiative. Their efforts are to promote new technologies in sustainable efforts.

The question session, I am having a little difficulty figuring out just who the audience is for this conference. I am guessing businesses, educators, city officials (at least I hope some of those people are in the audience). More later.

As a side note, check out the original Jonathan Rose Atlantic Center Design. Wouldn't that be a nice alternative?

More mapping...

2006-11-09T11:20:00.000-05:00

I have been working on rough maps in CommunityWalk.com to figure out the mileage of each of the phases. Here's the map:

On my way to Green Brooklyn today!

Art in the Contested City

2006-11-06T20:10:00.000-05:00

Last Friday I attended the Pratt Institute Center for Community Development "Art in the Contested City - A Conference Exploring the Role of the Arts in Contemporary Struggles over Urban Space." Which might prompt a couple of questions like, "Why isn't 'over' capitalized in the conference title?" and, "Why are you there?"

I don't really have an answer to the first one, maybe a question of emphasis, and for the second question, I am here because I am interested in the role of art in social change, as well as artists working in communities which are not there own. The conference was very interesting, and only occassionally spiraled into a gentrification, anti development (Atlantic Yards, Williamsburg) rant. I would have liked to have seen more discussion on the role of individual artists in the community, but there were some really great organizations there and independent speakers. Sadly, I think they tried to cram waaaaay too much into one day, which meant that there really wasn't that much discussion and some very interesting ideas were only presented in a superficial manner.

A sampler from the day, and people from whom I would love to have heard more from...

Ann Markusen, Professor, University of Minnesota, Director of H. Humphrey Institue’s Project on Regional and Industrial Economics, author of “ The Artistic Dividend: The Arts Hidden Contributions to Regional Development” (links to a PDF)
Tom Borrup, Minneapolis-based consultant, and author of “Creative Tools for Community Building”
Rick Lowe, Sculptor and activist, and founder of Project Row Houses in Houston and Commissioner on the Municipal Arts Commission of Houston
Esther Robinson, former Program Director of Film/Video and Performing Arts, The Creative Capital Foundation, and founder of ArtHome
Amy Sananman, Founder and Executive Director of Groundswell Community Mural Project
Beka Economopoulos and Jason Jones, Artists, Not an Alternative
Jonathan Lethem, Author and board member of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn
Kellie Terry-Sepulveda, Co-director of The Point, Bronx
Rosten Woo, Designer, writer, policy analyst and principal at the Center for Urban Pedagogy

Esther Robinson who was talking about the importance of artists investing in their own stability and their community through home-buying will be a major presenter at the upcoming NYFA Business of Art Conference: Space A Place of My Own: A Strategy for Artists Who Want to Stay in NYC.

I got to watch the documentary, "Third Ward, TX" which was about the development of Project Row Houses. I knew about the artist installations that happened in the row houses, but didn't realize how much Rick Lowe and the other founders had really put into the community. They developend a Young Mother's Residential Program, to help single mothers go to college. They created a number of educational programs for the kids in the neighborhood, and they have worked to buy land in the area to protect the neighborhood from development. If you get a change to see the documentary (when it is released - we saw a pre-screening) I highly recommend it, it is a fascinating study on how arts and artists can be used in social activism.

I also hope to talk to Amy Sanaman and Rosten Woo about their work in different communities, and how they created effective partnerships with local organizations. One of the issues I am sensitive to in creating the Sea Change project is going into a neighborhood that is not my own and being able to effectively communicate the relevant information (this is why the local partnerships are so important). Tom Finkelpearl, Director, Queens Museum of Art, moderated the discussion on Arts Organizations as Community Partners, and he believed that 'drop in community art' is possible if the artistic vision is clear enough. You can bet I will contact him about that.

11/10: I realize that the excerpt from this run on "No Land Grab:" makes it sound like I might somehow be in favor of the Ratner Atlantic Yards project. I want to be clear that I am definitely not in favor of the development as it currently stands.
I am in favor of massive overhaul of the 421 tax abatement program, and city requirements for additional low-income housing (affordable doesn't mean enough). I am opposed to the massive hulk of a development with unbelievably impermeable street surfaces.
I am in favor of a stringently green development with NO parking, improved transit (although it sits on top of one of the best transit hubs in the city), generous community and public open space, and a development designed with community input.

At least there are ups in manic...

2006-11-02T18:47:00.000-05:00

Hoo-boy! What a roller coaster ride. I have just exited the latest manic phase of this whole thing. Mid October I decide that maybe fiscal sponsorship is a good way to go. I can tap into larger amounts of money and a greater pool of funders. Ford foundation anyone? So I contacted nyfa because I thought I had missed the last seminar. Turns out it was happening that night (fortuitous timing no?) I dropped everything and ran off to the seminar. It, like all of the others was extremely informative. I walked away KNOWING that Sea Change would be a great nyfa fiscal sponsor project. So in I dove. It meant researching grants that would be available to me through an agent and wading through them to determine eligibility and deadlines. Also meant re-working the grant again to fit the nyfa application. I also had an opportunity to submit 2 work samples, so images and a promotional packet were possibilities (of course that means making a packet). And in the middle of all this I was traveling to Philadelphia and Santa Fe with Creative Capital Professional Development Program.

Philly was not a big travel deal, although it was a day away from work. Santa Fe on the other hand, while absolutely brilliant, was quite a lot of time away, and wouldn't you know it, I got sick the night before. So instead of being really productive on the 14 hour journey, I was intermittently sleeping or miserable. I made it through the weekend well enough, I think if I hadn't been sick I would have really enjoyed it. The food, through the haze of illness was very yummy, I loved the liberal use of chilies. My team of consultants were brilliant as always. Colleen with her powerful way of speaking (it is a subtle mix of assurance and gentle) and wonderful turn of phrase. Jackie, the spitfire, full of contagious energy and enthusiasm. Aaron, generous of heart and mind, thoughtful and encouraging, quick to smile and joke. I was introduced to a lovely crop of artist leaders, Erika quietly clever and boisterously creative. Daniel a well dressed charmer with style and elan. And Barbara with unending passion and determination. They all give out so much in the way of information, insight and encouragement. A favorite take away of the artist attendees is "are the dreams big enough, are the steps small

I took a very short trip to Houston on the way home, it was supposed to be a mini grant writing retreat, which it was, and I came back feeling pretty good about the proposal (although knowing it still lacked clarity, but unable to pull it through on my own). I worked on it more over the weekend, them handed it out for some serious editing. It came through that process as a much much better application. I cranked through the final rounds, put together a promo pack (and came up with some great ideas for presentation) got the image cd together, got it all copied, and dropped it off today. I was actually nervous (like knots in my tummy). This weekend will be recovery, then I start putting together a more slick packet and start a couple more grant applications. Thank goodness I added the cost of hiring an assistant into my budget!

Round Two!

2006-10-18T08:38:00.000-04:00

In what seems to be an endless cycle of grant applications, I am on to round two. With the LMCC and BAC applications safely tucked away and in the review process, I attended a seminar at NYFA the other evening to learn more about their fiscal sponsorship program. This would be a great resource for me since with it I can tap into foundation grants regarding environment, social change, and community arts.

I got a phone call from LMCC the other day to let me know that I had forgotten to sign the front page of the grant - whoops! They were nice enough to let me sign it and fax it in. There was an awful lot of hullabaloo at the last minute before the deadline, so it seems fair. Although frequently with the size of applicants that these guys get they could easily just dump it for incomplete application.

A little bit of advice here, if you are applying for a program and that program offers an information seminar - I don't care how many you have attended or how much you think you know - go. Absolutely attend, you can get so much insight into the program and what they expect. We have some really amazing programs here in New York and they all offer informational seminars - what an abundant and informative resource.

Currently I am trying to get bids on design and printing for the outreach part of the project, as well as an estimate from the ad space agency which holds the rights to the bus shelters and bus sides. I have met again with the wonderful people at Solar One and they are really excited about putting together training for people within the community who can then go out and teach members of their own neighborhoods. So I have to start getting in touch with schools in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. One really great program that I have learned about is the "City as School" program. They "offer students a multitude of Learning Experiences that encompass the depth and breadth of New York City's businesses or resources." I heard that one project traced garbage in NYC. I would have loved this program - they have pretty high expectations of their students too, offering something that more closely resembles college studies (with term papers, portfolios, etc).

In other art news, I did make it over to Chelsea on friday - seems that painting is really popular this year. Even the one interesting installation - Matthew Ritchie at Andrea Rosen - was entirely based on paintings and was clearly executed by a 2-dimensionally based artist. I stumbled onto the work of Kwan-Young Chun whose work had been featured in Sculpture magazine in September. I had really liked the photos of the work, but it was less impressive in person. I missed the Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua show at Derek Eller which is unfortunate because not only did it look good, a friend of mine assisted on it.

I also got myself down to Dumbo for the Art Under the Bridge festivities. Always nice to drink a way too chocolate-y hot chocolate (is that possible?) from Jacques Torres, while looking at art. The most interesting work was probably the work in the rented Ryder trucks parked on water street. That and Mary Temple at Smack Mellon - I really love her trompe l'oiel paintings of light and shadow. They have such a serene sense of whimsy and mystery.

Making it all look SLICK

2006-10-05T08:23:00.000-04:00

The grant applications are in, a lot of initial outreach has been done. At this point I am waiting for responses, setting up meetings and putting together a slick looking packet to present to people. That's kind of a fun part. I made a logo. And some letterhead. And I am working on the website. (Damn good thing I am so incredibly multi-talented).

I did promise a long time ago to post a project description. I finally have a broad NYC one (as opposed to the Brooklyn or Lower Manhattan specific ones required for the grants). So here it is:

Sea Change is a public art installation Â a series of ÂmarkersÂ designating the high waterline predicted as a consequence of global warming - throughout all five New York City boroughs. This work will act as visual reminder of how our lives and those of our children and grandchildren will be affected by climate change.

New York City has almost 600 miles of coastline. World financial infrastructure, tourist attractions, transportation hubs, residential developments and municipal services are at risk of being drastically altered by climate change. Sea Change will trace the topographic contour line of ten feet above sea-level; areas below this line would be subject to frequent inundation from increased cycles of flooding and storm surge resulting from the elevated sea-levels associated with climate change.

The installation, three-foot high, water-filled illuminated markers will be fabricated with ecologically friendly materials. Etched onto the markers will be information on scenarios (2030, 2050 and 2100) during which significant and measurable change will occur in the environment. The information will include factors such as sea-level rise, increased flooding and storm-surge cycles. For example Âyear 2030: sea-level will be 3.5 inches to 9.8 inches above current heights; year 2090: annual flood heights could reach 3.9 feet to 10.5 feet.Â Each progressive installation will consist of about 100 markers and will migrate along the line in intervals of two weeks. Between the markers, a blue chalk line will trace the future waterline.

A website will provide information regarding the project, tips for changing habits and links to additional resources. There will be a public awareness and outreach campaign produced in partnership with local environmental, park conservancy and community groups. This outreach will engage the community residents and workers in a dialogue about the future of their neighborhoods and will target tourists in NYC to indicate how actions, no matter where one lives, have an affect on the impact of global warming. The outreach and campaign will address the effects of global warming and generate ideas for changing habits to reduce the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. The presence of the artwork and the information in the campaign will empower communities to affect their future and will be a catalyst to efforts for change.

By marking the high waterline, residents, workers and visitors to Lower Manhattan will understand how their habits at home will affect the landscape of New York. It provides the community an understanding of how climate change will directly affect their lives and the lives of future generations. Sea Change provides a sense of hope and gives people the knowledge and understanding to see how change in lifestyle and habits will have a direct impact on the shape of New York City.

Feel free to let me know if things are unclear or if there are grammatical mistakes, I am okay fixing this - if it was on the applications, I do not want to know about it at this point! (I am already worried that I should have allocated the money differently on the LMCC grant - and that will mess the whole application up).

The pieces included in the packet are:
description
timeline
images
budget
partners
map of nyc w/high waterline marked
press release
artist profile

Is there anything else I should include? I can tailor it to each recipient, but I wanted to make sure I had covered all of my bases. Is a business card overkill? The applications had me doing things like census data, community involvement, bios, resumes, statements, etc. etc.

I plan to send off some packets to my local representatives, as well as some green organizations. If anyone can think of someone who should really have this in their hands, let me know. Also if you can think of any other ways to get money (or know someone at Pollack Krasner, Jerome Foundation or MacArthur...)

By the numbers...

2006-10-02T18:28:00.000-04:00

I was reading "Plan B 2.0 - Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble" while on the train the other day (it's when I get most of my work and thinking done). I came across the following paragraph:

In 2000, the World Bank published a map showing that a 1-meter rise in sea level would inundate half of Bangladesh's rice land. With a rise in sea level up to 1 meter forecast for this century, tens of millions of Bangladeshis would be forced to migrate. In a country with 142 million people - already one of the most densely populated on earth = this would be a traumatic experience.

I have a really hard time grasping big numbers. I think we all do. Unless you have looked at hundreds of thousands of any one object, its hard to fathom that number. How many of us have ever seen 142 million of anything.

I had read in the book a number of scenarios where millions of people would be forced to migrate for one reason or another. There is also a chart that lists different countries' populations (China: 1,316,000,000, India: 1,103,000,000, USA: 298,000,000) these numbers are equally hard to comprehend.

So I thought it would be interesting to draw maps with little circles representing the populations and/or migrations. (I was picturing this on the huge walls of the current Drawing Center Space). The first thing I wanted to do was draw a lot of circles to begin to grasp the volume. I was able to fill one page of my sketchbook with 2000 circles, which would mean that to represent 2 million people, (2,000,000) I would need 1000 sheets of circles. Then I started thinking, hmm, I can draw about 100 circles per minute. So to draw 2 million circles that would mean 20,000 minutes or 334 hours. That's 14 days of nothing (no sleep, eating or toilet) to draw ONLY 2 million. If I want to represent the almost 300 million of the US, that would take 2084 days, or 6 years! If I was going to do this as a "work project" than to represent just the US, drawing for 8 hours a day would take more than 17 years to draw the circles.

Think about it.

Things continue...

2006-09-29T09:16:00.000-04:00

You might imagine that with all the crazy of getting the grant applications completed, studio work might fall off. Well you would be wrong!

I decided that the same weekend I was finishing the apps, that I desperately needed to photograph the four drawings from the Soma series, and a few of the Nucleation series. Along with all of that, I will be updating my website this weekend, I have some images from the maquette for the SuperFun(d) show that my friend Wendy Testu is putting together, the Sea Change images and those I just photo'd this weekend.

I am looking forward to getting back to some more of the Soma and Nucleation series, also hoping to put together a maquette of a tree root project I want to do.

Here's the weird thing, perhaps not surprising though, I have not been to any gallery shows at all in ages. Part due to all this work, and part due to the new work schedule. Which I am going to have to address at the end of October. That of course means I will have missed some great shows, including Andrew Schoultz at Jonathan Levine, Christian Maychack at Jeff Bailey, Annabel Daou at Josee Bienvenue, Rebecca Morales at BravinLee, Nicola Lopez at Caren Golden, Stefano Arienti at Morgan Lehman, Janice Caswell at Schroeder Romero, Michelle Forsyth at Hogar Collection, Augusto Arbizo at Roebling Hall (Chelsea)...
Hmmm, maybe I should find some time to go this weekend.

I have continued making connections and keeping Sea Change alive. I now have been talking to the Sierra Club, who just did a project in SF called futuresea.org which taped the sea level predicted if the greenland ice sheet melts. I also am hoping to work with Time's Up to arrange a bike tour of the route.

Anyone else have some interesting projects in the works out there?

Also, if you are on my email list, expect to get one of my very infrequent updates this weekend.

Technical troubles and techno parties

2006-09-22T08:48:00.000-04:00

Or something like that. Don't expect a lot of coherence from me, I am really knackered!

Yesterday I got an email from LMCC saying "[we are] experiencing serious technicaldifficulties with our online application, which we've been working to fix for a few days without positive result."
AUUUUGGGGHHHH! No, I didn't lose any information that I had input. And while I had set up an account (and experienced some technical difficulties myself) I had been crafting everything in a word doc first. What this does mean though is that I now have to be concerned with formating and printing and creating work samples with labels etc. etc. It just blows. The real kicker is that things are still dues on Monday (in office), although they offered an extended deadline to Wednesday if you did create an online account. Kinda think everyone should get an extension no matter what. Well I will be doing a lot of printing this weekend, guess I should get some new printer cartridges... and some decent paper...and new labels... (yeh I do have most of these things on hand, its just hard to change course so late in the process. And yes, I am whining....

I also had a great meeting with Chris from Solar One who was really supportive and excited about the project. He is putting me in touch with a ton of great resources for the fabrication, outreach and possible funding. I have Ben Jervey to thank for that. I also got to meet him at the Good Magazine launch party. Which was in and of itself quite a thing. Loads and loads of people (including Al Gore) in the funky Emergency Arts space.

Okay, enough of all that, off to work on the applications, will update with more information soon (probably this weekend while everything is printing out...)

Wish me luck!!

Careening into the deadline

2006-09-19T09:54:00.000-04:00

The deadlines for the grants are coming up early next week. My plan is to get both of them out of my hands (one via mail, one via web) on Friday of this week. That way I can spend the weekend in a sort of stupor. That and I can eagerly get back to doing some studio work. (Something very manual that doesn't require a lot of brain activity).

I spent last Saturday running around with a very suspicious looking tube and a jug of water and l.e.d. flashlight. It got me some strange looks, and some gorgeous photos. I also have completed the first draft of the applications (there are actually three different applications), and hope to get those off for review this afternoon. I also got my images off to the awesome guys at GammaTech, where they turn around slides from digital images in lightning fast speed. Will have the slides in my hands by tonight.

I continued the outreach, emailing notes to Two Trees Developers, Salt Marsh Alliance, Battery Park Conservancy, Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment, Neighborhood Open Space Coalition among others. Haven't heard from any of them. On a bit of a whim, I emailed Ben Jervey - the guy who wrote Big Green Apple (my guidebook for living in the city), and he forwarded my information on to Solar One! What a great guy! I have a meeting with them on Thursday and hope to get them on board in any way they might be interested.

I also contacted the Public Art Coordinator at NYC Parks, who was very nice and responded right away with the information that since my installation would be under 2 weeks, I have to apply for a special event permit and that goes through the borough offices. I will have to wait and apply for those when I have a timeline.

Finally, have applied for general liability insurance so that I can get a quote back on that.

Will post the project descriptions next (one for Lower Manhattan and one for Brooklyn).

Links coming soon, gotta go to work!

2006-09-13T18:26:00.000-04:00

I think may be losing my mind - or maybe it is just full.
I got the proposal out for a first sound of edits and have gotten back some great feedback and tips. I also contacted a couple of brooklyn organizations (brooklyn center for urban ecology and the marine park salt marsh learning center) and developers (two trees in dumbo and x in williamsburg). I got a quote on the solar powered l.e.d's - too expensive. I have not heard back from fabricators, but did put together a mock piece to photograph for some digital mock ups. Once that is done I can contact the parks department and submit as well as find out about the insurance. I have started writing the parts of the application that deal with location and audience.
Anyone want to help? I could use a lighting expert and someone familiar with fabrication and installation of this kind of thing!
I think this is invading other parts of my life, my head is so full of and busy thinking about the project that i am getting scattered and forgetful. Probably doesn't help that the cat and dog are both sick (maybe allergic to each other?!?) and there are other unexpected things happening to make me feel a bit insane...

A little more background information on the project (or how I got from there to here)

2006-09-10T16:42:00.000-04:00

I can't even remember at this point how I came up with the idea, but I remember a while back seeing maps (and even a 3d animation) of the potential flooding of NYC as an affect of global warning. It struck me as pretty powerful information. I also have been interested in bringing my artistic practices and environmentalism together (particularly given the political climate and the actual climate).

The first idea was actually the rooftop greening project, but I knew that was a much bigger undertaking, so when the Sea Change project came to me I decided to pursue that first. The original vision of the idea was for a more complicated semi-permanent iceberg type markers around the city. Then it went to a poster campaign in bus shelters and on walls. Then it morphed, merged and changed into it's current incarnation. I did a good amount (believe me there will be a lot more) of research, and read some papers (Hot Nights in the City, and Sea Level Rise in New York City) to get an idea of just what we were talking about. Then I started researching grant opportunities and resources for information regarding public art...

And I think that pretty much brings us up to speed.

A Community Art Project: From Idea to Reality

2006-09-07T18:23:00.000-04:00

No, the post below isn't real (will be one day though!), it's just a tool I use for thinking and writing about my work or a specific project. By writing a "newspaper report " I am forced to do a couple of things which are useful: 1) describe what the work looks like 2) explain the concept of the work in plain English 3) come up with key words and phrases about the project which are catchy. In doing these exercises (which may vary in their level of success) I can develop an objective description of the work.So why did I post that and why am I telling you this?I am deep in the process of making the work "A Sea Change" a reality, and the process can be very involved and time consuming, but also maybe interesting. Given that and the crazy schedule I have, random thoughts on art and going to galleries doesn't really look possible, so instead I thought I would take you along for the magic carpet ride that is community art.Here's what I have done so far:

first draft of a project proposal (I will post it shortly)
attended the seminar for Brooklyn Arts Council grants
met with a BAC representative (we spent an hour and a half reviewing the proposal and budget)
met with Creative Time representatives through their Open Door program - a question asking opportunity
identified a few community/environmental groups as potential partners (need more if anyone has any suggestions)
preliminary quotes on fabrication
initial research on lighting options
mapping of Brooklyn topo line
initial background research

And here's what is coming up this week:

LMCC seminar
initial contact letter to orgs, gather census data for neighborhoods
send proposal to editors (friends good at writing)
new estimate for fabrication with recycled materials
initial draft of BAC application
select images for use in proposal
build mock up for photographing.

Sounds easy right?

Eve S. Mosher, Greening the City of New York, One Artwork at a Time

2006-09-05T10:39:00.000-04:00

Ms Mosher recently completed her first public artwork, a sea change, in which she marked the line of global warming storm surge with a delicate line of light in Brooklyn parks and along streets in such diverse waterfront neighborhoods as Greenpoint, Dumbo, Sheepshead Bay and Coney Island. Her continuing work will have her mapping out the storm surge line along the waterfront of Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island and The Bronx.

Her goal for the project was to bring global warming into the real world for New Yorkers. Mosher says, "New York, with it's extensive coastline is particularly at risk for the affects of global warming - the rise in sea level, coastal erosion, salt marsh depletion, and the increase in the drought-flood cycle." Ms. Mosher was also concerned about being a "harbinger of doom without offering solutions." To offer those solutions, she teamed up with local environmental organizations to develop a public awareness campaign which consisted of a website as well as posters and workshops around Brooklyn. The campaign promoted cheap and easy ways for New Yorkers to have a positive affect on global warming which included simple tips like using compact fluorescent light bulbs, buying local produce and reducing car trips.

Ms. Mosher already has plans for her next project, which she says is an urban take on an infamous earth work in which 10,000 trees were planted in Finland. Ms. Mosher plans to have New York residents greening their rooftops. She says these oases provide not just a wonderful social space (she calls it "the stoop for the 21st century"), but has a measurable affect on the "heat island" affect in New York.

Edgy Art, Sea Change and Adoption

2006-08-29T19:17:00.000-04:00

So I finally got through 4 of the large scale drawings (the soma series). I did a bunch of sample layerings (the drawings are 8'x4' sheets of yellow tracing paper with patterns drawn on them, they are then layered three thick), to test different materials for the adhesive. I finally went with a combination of mod podge paper, glossy and matte. I am still putting on more layers of the glossy to build up the outer surface of the drawings, but that should just take a couple of days to complete. I had scheduled to have them and about 6 of the crystalline series photo'd a couple of weekends ago, and I was busting my bum (and my arms) to get them all finished in time for the photo shoot, then my photog threw out his back (poor guy!) so the photo shoot is indefinitely postponed.

In other news I was asked by a gallerist out in California to send out some works for her to use in the Sunset Magazine "Idea House." Its this house that they build every year that includes interesting or innovative design ideas. (The outdoor house is pretty cool). This years house was designed in conjunction with Popular Science Magazine and is a "house of innovation". The gallerist asked me to send out 'fragile' 'a matter of time' and the 'eccentricites' series of drawings. Unfortunately the installations were apparently too 'edgy' (for a house of innovation?), but the drawings are up in the house, and they are pretty tech looking (ink on film, plexi sandwich frames with exposed hardware). 'fragile' though is currently living in the Design Within Reach studio in Palo Alto for now though. So if you are out on the West Coast, or visiting the west coast and feel like an art diversion, go check it out. (The Sunset House opens September 8).
I have also been learning an awful lot about the grant application process. I have previously applied for grants that were pretty individual (even though some were project based they were studio based work). I have started along the process of a public art proposal (the first of two I have in my head right now). Here's the project descriptions (not final descriptions, which will be better):

Project 1: Sea Change
A sculptural installation which demarcates the high water line that will occur in the years 2050 and 2080 due to global warming, also shows levels of storm surges due to a category 2 storm hitting NYC. This project will occur in conjunction with a public awareness campaign regarding practical tips to improve personal habits which affect global warming.

Project 2: 10,000 Trees Redux (working title)
Based on the Agnes Denes 10,000 trees project which was 'dedicated to benefit future generations with a meaningful legacy.' The redux is an effort to green roofs in the NYC area. The greening of roofs provides a
measurable impact on the 'heat island' affect of the dense urban environment. It also creates unique social spaces which increase neighborly communities.
Both of these projects have interesting environmental and social implications which I will delve into further as the projects develop. Right now I am combing through the different reports on the sea level rise in the NYC region and northeast. There are so many implications with the rise in sea level - storm surge, water supply, seasonal changes, impact on wetlands, coastal erosion... My hope though is to not just bring bad news, but to bring awareness and ways for people to make changes (reasonable) in their daily lives that could have a positive impact on the global warming trends. I also want to provide them and their politicians with an understanding of important infrastructure issues that need to be addressed (can you imagine if ALL of the tunnels - subway, train and car - flooded?)

My plan is to find one or more environmental or community groups with whom to partner to bring this project to fruition. (That in conjunction with the grant applications for the public and community arts grants). If anybody has any suggestions, please let me know, its a daunting task!

I feel fortunate to have come upon two programs which may prove invaluable in this process. The first is the grant application process for the re-grants at Brooklyn Arts Council. They provide a super detailed level of information in their application packet and hold appointments for artists to ask questions. There application should help making filling out others a lot easier! The second program which is really really cool for someone just starting out in the public arts sector is the Creative Time Open Door program. They invite artists to come in and meet with key people for 20 minutes to ask any questions at all which you might have regarding the making and showing of public art. Then they tell you feel free to email if you have further questions. My meeting was helpful in understanding about temporary installations. I plan to follow up with questions about working with the park systems, and installing on city streets...
In the midst of all of this I received a boost of sorts. I have been watching the goings on over at the Fine Art Adoption Network, and have applied for a couple of items. The other day I happened upon a couple of great drawings by Nick Holliday. I applied for one of them, and HURRAY! I was chosen as the lucky adopter. Below is an image of the piece, and you can read some of the adoption story here. If you love art, and think you could provide a nuturing environment for some in your home, make sure to check out the Fine Art Adoption Network for yourself.
Those are the updates such as they are. I am looking forward to the gallery season kicking off again, even though I missed some good shows over the summer. Don't expect to see me on opening night, but I will let you know
what I find when the crowds clear out.

Pass the kool-aid!

2006-08-16T09:04:00.000-04:00

So I have put in my first 3 weeks (and then some!) at the new job, and have decided to share what I am doing. I made this decision based on a couple of things: 1) I'm not that important there (no decision making power, no influence) 2) it's a fascinating and wonderful program that deserves lots of attention, and 3) their own credo that all of this valuable information should be shared.

So as you can see from #2 I clearly drank some of that delicious kool-aid.
The job I took is that of assistant in the Professional Development Program at Creative Capital. It is a part time low glamour, low wage position. There may be some confusion about why someone with such clear and evident capabilities would take a position like this (the people hiring me were not afraid to ask). Easy, I want a part time job doing something I care about, in an environment that is creative and flexible where I can learn things. One of the first projects I was involved in was preparing for, and then attending the yearly retreatfor the grantees.Here's how the program works: a grant is awarded for a project proposal (all initial funds are the same). After that the artist services kicks in. This includes the retreat, plus additional guidance and opportunities for the artist. The artist can apply for a variety of follow up grants to take advantage of opportunities which ensure the success of the project. The Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times describe it as a 'venture capital model,' and New York Magazine describes it as a 'bohemian boot camp.'

The retreat consists of 2 days of intense professional development, time to meet and network with the other grantees and alumni grantees, and 2 days of panels presented by an array of venues, funders, and others.The professional development program has itself spun off into providing weekend workshops to artists around the country. Now for a little more specifically about the pdp... This program provides informative discussions, practices and one on one consultations which help develop better professional practices-like strategic planning, marketing, time management, fiscal management, pr, writing and talking about your work, budgeting, fundraising. All the things that can help an artist run their 'business' more successfully.

Most of it is not a revelation to anyone with some amount of business acumen, but it does reinforce the need to apply this knowledge to our art practices. Hire assistants, hire fundraisers, one managers, pr help, etc. Sure, it's hard to hire someone when you aren't making any money, but it is the old business adage that you have to invest so grow.The bottom line is that they are breaking down the stereotype of the poor starving artist working alone in a garret. (Which I never bought into anyway- although I would like a garret).
Well I think you get the gist of this whole thing. It's a great program (Creative Capital as a whole, and the Professional Development Program), but I won't go on about it. I will follow with more hints and helpful information that you can apply to your practice, but for now its back to work.

Expect to see new images of the large 'soma' series soon, I have finished 4 of them and a handful of the crystalline drawing series which I am handing over to be photographed. More about art making later...

All photos courtesy of Phototake - a scientific and medical stock photography site. Images are (from top to bottom): Juvenille Nuerons, Marine Diatoms, Nuerons, Colon Cancer and Multipolar Nuerons.

Why I make art

2006-07-18T10:01:00.000-04:00

I don't do it to get rich and famous (although that would be nice), I don't do it for egotistical reasons (although that could be argued). I do it because I can't imagine doing anything else with my time. I do it in the hopes of affecting someone (however small that affect might be).

I did art as a kid, and was never much praised for it - at least that's how I remember it, although a few instances stand out as different from that perception. As kids we were required to take art classes in school (I don't think that is the case any longer - shame on the school system). I seem to recall that I didn't get much in the way of praise in those classes. However, I did love doing bread doll Christmas ornaments. I also won a couple of awards, one for a ceramic tile with a horse (that was an award from the art show at the Houston Rodeo - those from Texas know what I mean). The other was actually a science fair award for a book on koala bears, with drawings and a small sculptured koala bear. So maybe, rooted deeply in there is some approval of sculptural endeavors.

I studied architecture in undergrad (the acceptable form of sculpture?) and although I loved the fuzzy design courses, the engineering stuff - especially the structural math classes - were some mind twisters. My fourth year I decided I didn't want to waste away spending years drafting strip malls. So I talked to my advisor and talked him into letting me finish off with 'independent study.' I took early (I mean early) computer graphics courses, and a lot of photography classes.

After school I went on to work with a wonderful couple who had a business doing on screen presentations for a lot of tech-y companies. We installed some pretty mind-blowing stuff (for the time) for some big computer conferences. During this job I got this weird itch to make art - the CG stuff just wasn't 'real' enough for me, it didn't exist in the three dimensional world. So I did some painting, and one day picked up some clay at the art store. I was hooked. The first time I did a little sculpture (I am really not going to tell you what it was) I feel in love with the medium of sculpture.

A few months later I realized (more like being struck by a bolt of lightening) that I wanted to do sculpture. I figured out that I could apply to grad schools with my photo portfolio and then switch to sculpture over time. So that's what I did. And I have never really looked back.

So that's how I got here. Next time we will talk more about where here is.

Warning!

2006-07-16T16:57:00.000-04:00

I have taken on a new job, a part time gig, which I start on Wednesday. I want to wait and blog about it after I have notified them that I would be doing so. I might do it as an anonymous thing (like not say what the org is), will have to think about it. I can tell you that it is a wonderful arts organization here in NYC, and I will be working with these two great and strong women who are doing some wonderful things to help artists succeed. (Why are there soooo many women in arts administration positions given the dearth of women artists making money and being shown?)

I have also been making some promises and sticking to them. One of the promises is a certain amount of studio time each week. I am currently dividing the time between the soma series of large scale drawings and the crystalline series (both working titles). The soma series is that large series of layered pieces I have been talking about for a while. Well I got three of them drawn and am on the first layer of the fourth drawing. I have also done a bunch of samples of paste ups (like 10 different mixtures) and finally found that the Plaid Mod Podge for paper works best. I will use the matte for the gluing, and then build up a multi layer external coat with the gloss. I really wanted to use the gel medium, but it eats away the graphite, and I can't stand the idea of having to spray an 8'x4' drawing of 3 layers with fixative in the tiny little studio space. I also sold the first of the crystalline series at the NurtureArt gala. Apparantly the buyer didn't want to share their information with me, which I think is, well, sad. So if you bought it, let me know! I am doing more, more, more of those!

Y'all may or may not be glad to hear that my new promises include blogging more! You are going to get to learn a lot more about what I am doing, and why (yikes!) over the next few weeks. So I won't spoil it by telling you too much just yet. Besides, I need to come up with some pictures to include since otherwise it will get kind of boring.

Okay, consider yourself warned.

Living under a microscope

2006-06-13T13:27:00.000-04:00

I went to see the Eva Hesse show at the Drawing Center on Friday. It is a fascinating show which offers a unique (but not so rare) look "behind the scenes" of the artwork (as it were). The show includes a number of sketchbooks and sketches of sculptural works. It even includes some sample sculptural works (experiments that she was doing with different materials and forms). Finally, there were many drawings that were part of larger series or layouts for other drawings.

I mentioned to my friend that how we, as contemporary artists are constantly aware of the potential of really anything we create maybe going on view some day. (Yes there is a lot of maybe and potentially in that statement). Anytime a contemporary artist is sketching, drawing, testing, etc, there is a tinge of someone looking over your shoulder. I wonder how this affects the output? I don't consciously think about it, but having seen so many retrospectives of artists in the not so distant past - Eva Hesse, Diane Arbus - and their sketchbooks, journals, tests on display, are resonating subconsciously. There's no longer a safe place out of site of peering eyes where freedom reigns.

Yummy!

2006-06-12T13:06:00.000-04:00

Yummy!
Just popped into the Nurture Art gala sale (shh, don't tell-the preview is tonight, and the open reception follows). There is some GREAT work there, drop everything and in buy art!

Buy My Art!

2006-06-12T10:36:00.000-04:00

I've been pretty well holed up in the studio, working on the drawing series since I want to have it finished by the end of June. I was playing with different layer bonding techniques (finally decided on Mod Podge for paper), by making small samples of the triple layers of the pieces. I also decided I wanted to donate a piece to the Nurture Art gala, and wanted to send something new. So I spent countless hours drawing and cutting and layering.

All the artworks at the gala are priced at $150, and that for my work, and many others, is a steal! Plus it benefits a great organization that provides opportunities for artists, curators and educators.

The event is tonight, June 12 at Cue Art Foundation in Chelsea. For more information... Go out and see the art and buy the art. Plus I won't be able to attend since we are getting our new puppy tonight!

I did get out and see a little bit in the art world over the weekend. Artist's Space has an interesting show on location and how our urban environment defines our identity. Really beautiful work by Jihyun Park at Art in General, I just hope they burn the thing (upside down) at the end of the show because that would be really fascinating. Also popped over to Kentler International Drawing Space for a curators talk - which reminded me that artists should be seen and not heard. Dropped in on a few shows in Williamsburg also, wanted to see the KBP show, but didn't get there. Some really engulfing work at Pierogi right now by Reed Anderson.

Sorry the post is soooo short, I have been really busy lately and even have to run now, will be around more over the next couple of days so maybe I will have some things to say while the puppy is napping.

Waay Off Topic (Or, Just South of the Tropic)

2006-06-02T11:03:00.000-04:00

G-pup and I just got back from a long overdue vacation to Puerto Rico. It was a last minute decision, and we realized that we lived close enough to the Caribbean to be there in less than 4 hours (unless there are delays at JFK - which there were). So we looked around to see where we might go. We usually don't do "resort" vacations, we are more likely to go to either an urban location for a cultural/foodie vacation, or go rough with an eco/camping kind of thing. So this whole pamper resort thing seemed like a fun change. We decided on Puerto Rico because I had always wanted to see it (thanks to the recommendations of many PR friends) and Gavin was really into visiting Arecibo (you know the HUGE radio telescope in Goldfinger and Contact).

We flew down last week and just got back. It was a brilliant trip. We mostly avoided the tourist scourge of sunburn, but the midgies liked us an awful lot. Puerto Rico is a really fascinating place. I have been lucky enough to travel to other islands and PR is really nothing like the Caribbean (not that many of the islands are much like the other islands down there considering the myriad of European influences on the islands). It is a very urban place that is undergoing rapid development (too much really for the ecological balance). It has a unique feel and look. It also has a unique enough eco system to support a rain forest, dry forest, 3 of the 5 biobays in the world, and PR specific species - including singing Coqui frogs (there are Coqui elsewhere, but they don't sing) the Puerto Rican Parrot (only about 200 left).

I would have loved to have had more time to explore Puerto Rico - including the interior, and other beach cities like Rincon and Ponce. As it is we did pretty well with getting into a car (y'all are crazy drivers!) and getting over to Arecibo, spending an afternoon in Old San Juan and watching the kite flying at El Morro. We also got to hike in the rain (no surprise) in El Yunque (the rainforest gets over 100 billion gallons of rain a year).We took an insane kayak trip through a mangrove channel in the pitch black to get to a bioluminescent bay (Laguna Grande). It was mostly insane because of all the inexperienced kayakers, but it was a fascinating and surreal trip anyway. It looked like someone had applied computer enhanced imaging to make us glow in the water.

We also did the obligatory catamaran sail and snorkel out to Cayo Lobos.

Puerto Rico is an island of many colors and cultures all merging together on an island "associated" by the US. The people we met were wonderful - full of community and openness. They loved sharing their unique island. I had also always heard that PR was really into supporting its artistic community, and it certainly shows. There are many fascinating contemporary and traditional public sculptures. The graf there is also really stunning (sorry no pics - we were speeding by in a car).

If you are the kind of person looking for a "typical" island get away - this may not be the place for you, but if you want something that feels more "real" (that's the only way I can come up with to describe it) Puerto Rico is a great place for a trip away. (Next time we'll get over to Vieques and Culebra too).

The Whi Bi and better things

2006-05-25T19:58:00.000-04:00

My friend who loves food and art was in town visiting this past weekend. She planned the trip a while back and so I was waiting to go see the Whitney Biennial when she was in town. (Being from the lover/collector/seller side of the art world I thought she would provide a good sounding board).

We found our way up to the Whitney in the middle of big thunderstorms that were blowing through the city. That should have been a portent... As we were waiting for the elevator I jokingly said, "What are the chances that this is worse than I am expecting?" I was kidding. Really I was! I thought well, it will be not as bad or just as bad, but there is no way - no way - that it can be worse...

Wanna bet?

It is miles beyond worse than I expected. Even the most excoriating reviews couldn't voice all that is wrong with it, even when it is written in three different parts. It just seems hard to put into words all that is wrong with it. I won't do a deluge of repeating what has already been so eloquently said, my take away was 'a jumble of half formed ideas.' (And even then most of those weren't even well crafted!)

Just so you know I didn't just make all this up without having seen the show, there were a couple of artists who - given more room - stand out...

Jennie Smith - delicate and fanciful drawings of creatures (some recognizable, more that are strange amalgams or fantasies) filled with life and energy as they progress across or up the paper.

Florian Maier Achen - large scale chromogenic prints which are manipulated (colorwise). These contemporary landscape photos create a vertiginous sense of scale and depth.

Jordan Wolfson - (many critics didn't like this) the video of the signing of the speech from Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. (Text of the speech). Its a beautiful and emotional speech, which when rendered in sign language by a man whose head is cut off from the viewer, becomes an empty promise (except to the select audience that can read the rapid fire signing). It is a plaintive and silent cry.

Robert Pruitt - his carefully rendered drawings are a powerful commentary on race and social politics.

And that's it. We saw other shows in Chelsea the following day which are far more interesting to comment on, so I will --

I knew I could get some sure fire hits at two of my favorite galleries (Morgan Lehman and Roebling Hall), and while we did visit others along the way, these two did not disappoint!

Morgan Lehman was showing the obsessive (you know I like that!) works of John Salvest, which include a large wall installation of business cards which spells out "Remember Me," a first aid kit filled with stacks of pills laid out to form the American flag, and a specimen box of 70 pieces of chewed gum, sorted into little magnifying boxes. I found the work, intriguing and clever, it has the strange aura of collecting the unwanted (and makes me think of the fabled old woman in an apartment with huge piles of books, newspapers and trinkets which fill the space), and comes across also as a fidgeting distraction. By focusing on the mundane, he allows himself to ignore greater issues or interactions.

We stopped by to see the Joe Fig show at Plus Ultra that I had already seen, and of course popped into Schroeder Romero to see the group show Double Take - where I was allowed to leaf through Wendy Small's fantastic photograms of ethereal and pulsatingly colorful dream worlds created by condoms. (Which, if you missed my birthday - and clearly you did - you could still pick one of these up for me, since they are being offered at an incredibly good price).

The final stop was the incredibly powerful work of Deborah Grant at Roebling Hall. Ms. Grant is showing "paintings" which are essentially a set of massively detailed ink drawings executed on wood that is cut out in the shape of images from Guernica (the title of the show, "A Gin Cure" is an anagram). The work references all of the aspects of ones life - political, social, religious, - and the works come across as personal and accessible. There is humor, irony, anger and beauty contained within the tiny drawings which cover every inch of the wood pieces. (The picture at the top of the post is from the current show). As my friend remarked after looking at the work "Why isn't this in the Biennial?"

Ms. Grants work (and the show itself) encompassed all of the things that were missing from the Whi Bi - obsessively well crafted, finely honed, politically and socially important, art historically referential, but in an accessible way, and presented in a powerful and enigmatic presentation which allowed the work to really come through in all of its strength.

I just want to state again that the Whi Bi has a great opportunity to return to its roots, to forget about the overarching curatorial voice and really survey the work being done by American artists. Undoubtedly with that kind of survey there will be themes and schools which emerge more, well, naturally. This would provide a far more interesting view of the "American" point of view and the evolution of art movements.

Sex sells... even in abstract art

2006-05-18T12:53:00.000-04:00

Last night I attended CUE Art Foundation's Meeting Artists' Needs VIII. Becoming an Entrepreneur: Marketing Tips for Artists, presented by John Zinsser, who co-founded of the Journal of Contemporary Art, has had solo exhibitions at Stark Gallery (NYC), Thomas Solomon'’s Garage (L.A.) and Galerie Von Lintel (Munich), amongst others. (blurb from CUE site).

Let me first explain my point of view when attending these types of lectures/workshops. I tend to be pretty well informed about most of the professional practices of the arts (marketing, contracts, residencies, grants,opportunities, etc), so I usually attend these lectures expecting to A) reconfirm what I already know B) maybe pick up a few gems of knowledge that might enhance what I already know. Mostly I have pretty low expectations in gaining any real insights. (But am still thankful that they are organized and presented for artists who don't know a lot of this already).

Last night, upon taking a seat each attendee found two sheets of paper. One was a standard survey asking the attendee for feedback on the event. The second was a list, in large typeface of "25 Marketing Tips for Artists, by John Zinsser." Reading through the list produced lots of eye rolls, groans and feelings of annoyance (you'll see why as you read the list).

Here's the interesting part though, as uncharitable as I was feeling towards Mr. Zinsser and his list, he managed to mostly win me over. His extemporaneous presentation was clever, witty and filled with nice little gems of information. Some of the information is a little dated for an artist starting out now (they seem to have worked in the past, but may not anymore), but most of it is spot on good advice for 2006 and beyond. And despite the woman next to me who snoozed through most of the presentation, I found most of what he had to say engaging and presented in a knowledgeable way - although not without some irony. Without further ado, the list (with paraphrases of what Mr. Zinsser discussed in blue; my comments in red):

1. Be Yourself.
This one is pretty self explanatory. Its why you become an artist.
2. Don't be yourself.
Why not reinvent your public persona. Design your own fictional character to become.
3. Go to openings.
Ugh. Can think of a lot of yucky things I would rather do, but it is a good opportunity to meet other artists and talk to artists' whose work you admire (Mr. Zinsser's point). My own advice, don't be an opening whore, but do find artists and/or galleries you want to support and do go to their openings, and you know, show your support.
4. Print a business card.
Duh, this is such a no brainer and so easy to do. (If you don't know how, get in touch with me and I will help). Zinsser talked about fashioning it after an old style calling card. Just your name imprinted on a card. Then you write the info you want to share on the card (which is good if you move a lot). I like this idea a lot. Currently I have the 'collectors series' which has a different image of my work on each one, but I am liking the name only thing, has some snob appeal which I greatly appreciate.
5. Choose a "uniform."
Zinsser wanted to point out that having a recognizable 'look' is only a benefit.
6. Meet other artists.
He's talking about a peer group here. Maybe its a group with whom you share styles, so that you develop a movement (hello all my synthetic naturalist friends!), or a group with whom you can learn, grow, bitch and moan.
7. Befriend mentors.
Find elder more experience artists/educators from whom you can learn and grow.
8. Work for an artist.
You can learn skills, meet people and if the artist you work for is generous hearted, maybe make some inroads.
9. Work for a gallery.
Zinsser was asserting that this was a good way to understand and get involved in the gallery aesthetic. Unfortunately more and more (as I have heard from people I know) working in a gallery can be little use, and sometimes even work against you. You get pegged as the person who works in the gallery and are never taken seriously as an artist.
10. Review shows for magazines.
Although there may be those who disagree, I have to agree with Zinsser. Not only do you get to see shows, meet gallerists and artists, it improves your ability to speak about art.
12. Organize shows using alternative venues.
How many times have I told y'all to do this??? Oh, once or twice.
13. Make posters for streets.
Yeh its illegal, but I bet you do a lot that's illegal and don't think twice about it (speeding? double parking?) It is an interesting way to put work out there. I reserve it for my street specific work, but there's no reason not to do it for any type of art work. And hey, you could cover up some of the repulsive advertising that is out there on the walls already.
14. Write letters.
Mr. Zinsser points out that A) artists aren't rockstars, they are only famous in our little world. So, why not get in touch with one. And if you want to stand out, then write a letter! It's such a shocking thing to do that you will be noticed. Ex-Seattle Dad wrote a letter to Eric Fischl and sent slides and he got back this mostly prosaic, but also helpful review of his work. I think that is great! Now, who to stalk...
15. E-mail people.
But make it personal, mass emails may be somewhat helpful in promoting your work, but personalized ones will get people to respond.
16. Blog.
Duh. It keeps you thinking about your work and others, and gets feedback (sometimes nice, sometimes nasty, but always entertaining). Bet as soon as he found out I was a blogger he could guess this was coming. He brought up the blog painternyc.blogspot.com.
17. Create a website.
Why would you not.
18. Make compelling work.
Yeh, I wondered why this wasn't number one. And Zinsser argues it quite well and unfortunately, I am afraid he may be true. Compelling work is great and all that, but it doesn't guarantee you success.
19. Say something outlandish.
20. Say something scandalous.
21. Create scandal.
All of these are about being noticed and memorable.
22. Sex sells.
Even in abstract art where Mr. Zinsser claims (yes, tongue in cheek) "the sublimated libido enters the material."
23. Believe the market.
The art that sells is the art that sells, whether you are making that kind of art or not. Mr. Zinsser doesn't think there will be a crash in the market because "for the wafer thin level of the super rich, art is the only thing with which they can define themselves and their money."
24. Don't be bitter.
I so agree with Mr. Zinsser on this (and I know JT does too). Yeh, you may not be young enough, male enough, white enough, urban enough, or whatever. Who cares - you are making art! That is so so cool in and of itself. There are so many people who never ever figure out what they really love. If you are pursuing this, and have given up things for it (money, comfort, food, free time), then you are passionate about something and doing something you love. There is an amazing freedom in that. So really there is no reason at all to be bitter. Ever. Period. (and my rants are not veiled bitterness - really!)
25. Let fate be.
You cannot force things to happen they will happen as and when they do.

There were lots of bon mots in the conversation, which I wish I had noted. One had something to do with being obsessive compulsive (I am, are you?) and how as an artist "you spend a little too much time with yourself and you become compulsive, paranoid..."

There was also an interesting argument posed by a Russian artist in the audience, unfortunately I couldn't understand much of what she was saying, but she seemed to be trying to argue that 'real artists' don't do most of the things on the list. Zinsser roundly disagreed, as I would too.

It was a fun evening, one of the Brooklyn College artists was behind me telling their ongoing tale, I wish I had a chance to talk to her but she left before I did.

I also met Sky's friend Tom, who is having an open studio at PS 122 this weekend. Go see it.

Otherwise, come on out to Clinton Hill to see the big Open Studios event happening out here this weekend.

And a word of warning, I am going to the Biennial tomorrow. Which means you will have to be gentle with me over the next few days as I absorb it all...(aren't y'all impressed I put it off for so long?)

If I had a way to contact Zinsser (I don't) I would ask him for additional comments or clarifications to ensure he and his point of view are well represented.

The images have absolutely nothing to do with the content of this posting. They are my work, and I just thought a visual break in all this text would be nice.

Keeping myself busy

2006-05-17T08:25:00.000-04:00

I have really good excuses for not having posted lately. I've been busy.

Still trying to get settled into the new apartment. We divided the bedroom in half, so that I could use part of it for the clean part of my artwork - drawings, computer stuff, slides, sewing. The half bedroom is going to be for the messy work, but it still has boxes in it. We put up some shelves, and I already filled them, and I still have a lot of stuff to sort through. Until that gets cleaned up though, I won't be able to put together the layers of the large drawings.

When not sorting through boxes (which I don't really spend much time doing) I have been working on the large drawings themselves (which is what I have mostly been doing). My friend Sky (her drawings are pictured in this post) and I made a pact with each other to have a strong portfolio of drawings finished by the end of June. I am way behind and these huge drawings can take a really really long time to get through - but I am still enjoying working on them, and hope to develop a fairly large body of work from them. I will post some pictures when I get them all layered together (originally I was going to latex them together, but now I am thinking soft gel medium - I need something to put on the trace that will stick the layers together and increase the transparency - anyone have any suggestions?)

I am putting together a list of powerful, empowering and emotional words for another piece I am working on. If you have suggestions please add them in the comments. I will update the list from time to time. Here's what I am working with so far:

fear, hate, love, endear, spirit, embrace, charm, spirit, light, heaven, hell, life, death, anger, joy, mock, mimic, entreaty, pathos, empathy, sympathy, pity, emote, power, strength, believe, hope, peace, war, might, sublime, kill, maim, birth, delight, savage, paradise, utopia, arcadia, absolute, dream, truth, lies, wealth, poor, honesty, clarity, wisdom, harmony, charity, freedom, kindness, inspiration, grace, confidence, energy, vitality, serenity, creativity, success, happiness, persistence, purpose...

I have also been trying to work out a good type of work to do that is entirely based on my own scheduling whims. I figured out yoga or other physical instructor; contractor of some kind (although I don't have any sale-able skills); web contractor (already doing that); or maybe writer (mmm probably not). Anyone have any ideas? Anyone want to hire me? I am super capable, and goal oriented...

Also been spending a lot of time in my head. Things I have been annoyed about:
1) Politics, politicians. Pretty much everyone and everything happening is annoying. (I have come to the conclusion that the media and mass communications are partly to blame. Instead of standing up for any real beliefs and letting voters judge them by their actions, politicians now bend in the prevailing winds, dictated by polls and media coverage).
2) The Brooklyn College FIASCO, now a lot of the artwork is damaged far beyond repair, or even better completely missing. Way to go assholes. If I was at that school I would quit immediately. I hope the students don't give this up and get some of those idiots fired. They are doing the worst job ever.
3) Eminent domain, New York City/stupid development. Its just embarrassing. Atlantic Yards, the Yankee Stadium, Fordham University, and a motor way development (gasp!) in Staten Island. Just who are these shortsighted greedy pigs? Why would anyone, I mean anyone, not whole heartedly embrace Livable Streets, rooftop gardens and green architecture. I can't even wrap my head around it. I think my brain is going to explode. I wish the Sierra Club had their latest newsletter online, it covers a lot of this.
4) The pedophilia and sexism in the artworld. Why is it that my list of artists I love is 80% females (and I think I am missing a few recent ones) and female gallerists show pathetically fewer than that? Pretty sure that in my list are some are in their late 20's, most are in their 30's and a few are 40's and 50's. Like a commenter (who's comment I can't find), when I was in grad school (the first time) it was a rarity for students to be courted by galleries, and now it is the norm? We were expected to begin our journey in grad school and then spend years in solitude developing and honing our skills. Many went to Skowhegan, some stayed in NYC enjoying sporadic curator visits (mostly from non-profits for group shows). And I hate Charlie Finch too, except when he is rewritten.
5) Print journalistm versus bloggers. I don't know many bloggers who make many claims about what they are writing as being codified in anyway, but I much prefer reading the bloggers (although I like Saltz, and think Gopnik is funny), because their musings seem more real,distilled through thoughtful minds. It also lets me find someone with whom I might share tastes and thoughts who I can rely on for good reviews or someone who is reporting on things not covered by the mass media. (To be fair, there are plenty here who roundly support blogging and all its foibles).

I am sure there are more, but I am getting 'all het up' and should stop and get back to drawing...

works in progress

It's official!

There is no scarcity.

Speaking of funding...

Thinking outside the box

Artists Pivotal in Art World

Flights of Fancy

It's that time again!

The Power of One

I <3 community walk

Why (and how) we share

What ever happened to smart art?

who pays whom?

With a little help from my friends

Help me chose a summary statement

It is the title after all

But selling out to whom?

Considering others--

The artist's role as an agent for social change

Just thinking out loud...

When art becomes "something useful and or valued"

What do I know anyway?

Things i didn't know and why i need a clone

Artist vs. Activist

Who let them in?

Being in love with the crazy

My water tower dream

When prompted-- RUN!

Turning waves into power

When confronted with the extraordinary

On the evolution of ideas

By the numbers...

In all the steel there was nature...

You are cordially invited...

Finding local sources

Sea of People

the more you know the less you know

It's a big small world

Oh and--

From where I am sitting

Making the change -- we only *think* it's hard

Inspiration...

Bearing witness...

In the palm of your hand

Simply Brilliant (and brilliantly simple)

the name game

IPCC for you and me....

Isn't it a built in assumption?

temporary website in place

is it more fun to go up the hill than down?

seriously? no? seriously?

hope springs eternal

Patience is a virtue (and a power)

holiday giving

some art to see

In the years to come

see the difference

notes on progress

Psst!

Latest updates

oops double and triple posting

More mapping...

Art in the Contested City

At least there are ups in manic...

Round Two!

Making it all look SLICK

By the numbers...

Things continue...

Technical troubles and techno parties

Careening into the deadline

A little more background information on the project (or how I got from there to here)

A Community Art Project: From Idea to Reality

Eve S. Mosher, Greening the City of New York, One Artwork at a Time

Edgy Art, Sea Change and Adoption

Pass the kool-aid!

Why I make art

Warning!

Living under a microscope

Yummy!

Buy My Art!

Making the change -- we only think it's hard