The Past Couple of Weeks Have Been Splendidly Art Filled...

It Starts With a Show.

I just realized how wonderfully filled with art the past couple weeks have been. So many art adventures! Since we’ve all (at least partially) reemerged from our pandemic cocoons, I too have begun going to more art shows since they’ve re-begun in earnest. There are very few things I find better than a good art show. I remember in college, my most favorite part of the on campus shows was the artichoke dip…I mean talking to the artists :) Also, any opportunity to wear a sequin y’all.

A couple Fridays ago I had the opportunity to go to the opening of the Deborah Roberts opening at the Cummer Museum. I went on many a field trip to the Cummer so it holds a special place in my heart. Deborah Roberts work is such a breath of fresh air for me as her collage work is very different from my own. It is also on a very large scale versus my ‘intimately sized’ pieces. I met and caught up with awesome folks which is definitely one of my favorite parts of any show: the people.

Meeting + Greeting.

The next great part of my week came when I had the opportunity to meet the rest of my Community Foundation grant cohort. I love going to Community Foundation meetups. Those folks always make sure the refreshment and company are good! We are all so radically different in our practices and how our art manifests. Meeting with and talking with other artists always gets me more excited about how I uniquely view the world as a practicing creative and how I can support others in their work.

Auditions.

So I had about six auditions over the past couple weeks. I’m sure others might have higher numbers and I’m still proud; it is a personal best for me :) They give any actor/actress the change to be imaginative and inventive and silly, tape yourself while doing it and submit yourself for consideration to do the aforementioned things and get paid. Genius. Auditions in the mainstream world are simply like an interview. Just an opportunity to see if you will be a fit for their project, just as someone might see if you’d be a fit for their company. For the record, I don’t think I’ve ever had six interviews for a regular corporate job before. Like I said personal best. I got to be a lawyer y’all…and a couple other things.

Gotta Love a Lecture.

One of the grantees from my cohort happened to be giving a lecture on her current body of work. Christie Holochek and I worked together when I was a member of Art in Public Places. Christie was one of the people who asked me to apply for one of the open spot on the committee. She and Tony Allegretti (the Executive Director at the time) felt like I’d be a good fit. I had no particular designs on public art. I definitely would’ve considered myself a community advocate at the time. Little did I know I was soon to become an art advocate as well…but I digress. Christie’s lecture was excellent. To gain a deeper insight into a body of work in the artist’s own words, it opens up a new world. Christie also engages in layered work and assemblage. I thought Christie was primarily a painter. It’s such a wonderful thing to discover new things about people you’ve known for a while.

Last But Not Least.

La piece de resistance is a Friday and Saturday duo of days spent with Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat Pray Love (and the ridiculously long list of other books she’s written) fame. Friday evening was an interview/chat format and Saturday was a writer’s workshop. I was so looking forward to it and didn’t even know why. I guess because since I was initially asked to write a screen play about my family’s experience with my brother being incarcerated, I’ve inhaled everything I could concerning writing and have been trying to absorb all I can. I went to hear Elizabeth Gilbert speak simply wanting to hear her share of her experiences, not as an established super fan of some kind. I’d only just begun to read one of her more recent books, Big Magic which I did indeed love after 5 pages.

First I’d like to say this woman is so funny. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to a conversation with her and another writer. It was like we, the audience, were simply listening to two friends chat. Then the writer’s lab was like some ‘finding yourself’ seminar. It was based more in the world of mindset and facing fears that come alongside expressing one’s creativity as a writer or any expression of creativity honestly. I didn’t necessarily enter a super fan but I definitely left one, not necessarily of her talent (and yes of course that is amazing too) but just a super fan of her as a fellow human and an even bigger fan of how she engages people. She is a wonderfully made effervescent spiritual geyser of a spirit. The pictures are of her striking a series of poses so that we could all satisfy our insatiable cultural need to take pictures and post them. Then we could put our phones away without feeling as if we missed a thing. Meeting her was the perfect culmination of an artfully made two weeks…of course not my last dynamic art fest but definitely the best string of art happenings I’ve had the privilege to participate in in a long time.

No one likes a pretentious traveler…or artist.

We travel to understand others and to understand ourselves better. I believe the same is true of art: by pursuing, studying and producing art we develop the potential to understand ourselves a little better, if we allow it to happen.

Recently, I was reading the founder’s monthly comment in a travel magazine. Absolutely love the magazine. It’s beautiful as well as informative, but the founder said something that irked me a bit. Here’s the excerpt:

“This summer, I was sitting at a café on the Amalfi Coast, talking with a waiter about what I do for a living. “Did you start a travel magazine just so you could travel the world for business?” he asked. I laughed. That would hardly be a reason to start a travel company. Besides, I traveled for business long before [my magazine] began.”

I know to lots of people this would hardly be offensive. But honestly, why couldn’t ANY reason be a reason to start a company? A smidge condescending. I really had a vision of him patting the waiter on the top of his head. Why not learn something from the question? Love or passion, not money, as a reason to start a business? Hmmm… A novel idea. We should do an article on that. (This is me having the one-sided conversation in the founder’s head by the way). Maybe if he’d seen the waiter in a different light instead of focusing on his ‘more sensible’ reasons to start a business, maybe they would’ve had a different kind of conversation.

Art ≠ Superiority Complex.

This is also the problem with some of us art types: we sometimes see ourselves in a superior position to those who aren’t ‘us’. Our condescending and dismissive attitudes towards those who aren’t artists or even towards other artists can work to alienate us from our potential audience, fans, buyers, and even others within the artist community. It really doesn’t make you look mysterious or interesting when you act like a jerk.

If someone doesn’t understand your concepts, ideas or techniques use it as a teaching opportunity, not as a chance to be snarky. If another artist doesn’t do things the way you do things it doesn’t mean your way is the right way. Talk to people human to human. I don’t mean preach or talk at people either; I mean really have a conversation. Use art as a vehicle to connect to other people. Remove your ego from the equation.

When you are at a show, yours or anyone else’s, to avoid the dangerous pitfall of being a jackass (even an artistic jackass is a bad thing) you should ask questions of those you are speaking to before giving your personal opinions. Here are a couple of examples to get the conversation going:

• What type of art do you find yourself drawn to? Literal images or things more abstract.
• So what do you think about the work? (Simple I know. But it works.)
• Do you know anything about _________ (fill in your media, process or artist name here)? I can share a little bit if you are interested.
• What other interesting shows have you been to recently? This could also be a great opportunity to plug your work or the work of another great artist you know.

Keep your ego in check. Ask a question. Listen to what someone else has to say. You might learn something…or just have a great conversation.

I'm interested in your feedback. Do you enjoy speaking with others about your art or simply art in general?