Short takes
INFO WANTED: Tobi Zausner has been studying and
writing about the impact of physical illness on creativity in the lives
of artists, and is now writing a book on the subject. If a long period
of illness preceded your choice of a career in art, or illness has ever
affected your art positively or negatively (e.g., by causing you to
change your approach, medium, or even to stop), she would like to hear
from you at: 137 East 38th St, 6J, NYC 10016.
IMPROVEMENT: Any artist must practice severe
discipline. Even the top pianist practices the C Major scale, so it is
inconceivable that a visual artist would declare, "Oh, I don't do those
things anymore, I've moved beyond that," or "All of that stuff is
boring and gets in the way of my creativity and self-expression." This
sort of thinking is very wrong. Innovation must come from skill and
knowledge. I cannot think of any valid shortcuts besides work and
study. Too much is made about art being something soothing and
therapeutic and so forth. People who think this way are not cut out to
be artists. They should become New Age Li-censed Crystal Healing
Chiroquactic Aromapractitioners or Tarot card readers. Neither is art
for dabblers who want to sit around with their friends and exchange
banalities about Life and Death and Darkness and Society, and paint or
scribble once in awhile, expecting to break new ground with their
angst-ridden statements. Art is for those who can work hard and want to
get better all the time. - Erik Keilholtz
INFO WANTED: I am trying to compile a resource
that includes business software for fine artists, collectors and
galleries. I am particularly interested in programs that run on Macs
like ArtStacks. If you know of any programs that work well, please let
me know. Thanks, Alan Urban, urbantay@gate.net
FREE & USEFUL: Benjamin Grosser (Champaign,
IL ) has designed a large easy-to-build studio easel that can be put
together for under $100. He has graciously has made the detailed plans
and a materials list available for free on his web site: http://bengrosser.com/easel
ASSOCIATION: The International Society of The
Arts, Mathematics, and Architecture (ISAMA) is now being developed by
Nat Friedman, the founder of Art & Math. He says, People interested
in the arts related to mathematics should join so they can keep up with
developments during the year. ISAMA99 will be in San Sebastian, Spain,
June 7-11, 99. It will include a one-day trip to Bilbao to see the new
Guggenheim. There will be a call for papers in Architecture, Sculpture,
Two-Dimensional Art, Computer Graphics, Music, Tesselations and
Tilings, Computer Design, and Fabrication in Architecture and
Sculpture." They plan to have a website up and running soon. For more
info, contact Professor Friedman at artmath@csc.albany.edu
STUDIO TIP: Dried out brushes can be restored to
life by immersing them in hot vinegar, while errant bristles can be
encouraged to return to their proper place by spraying the brush head
with hairspray, smoothing and leaving to dry. - Valerie Hardy, Napa CA
CAREER TIP: Slides you send to a gallery should
be color correct and easy to see. I recommend using a solid back-ground
to shoot against rather than masking the slides. Masking is tough to
accomplish successfully. Make sure the image fills most of the image
frame. Use a professional photographer if you have no aptitude for
photographing your own art. - David Lusk,
Ledbetter Lusk Gallery, Memphis TN
* * *
Unclear on the concept: Harbor Edge Fine
Art (via Publishers Inquiry Services, a catalog of catalogs) offers
"Fine Art at Wholesale Prices! Classic prints transferred to canvas by
artists who hand brushstroke each one to recreate the original work or
art for every decor or taste."
Your status as an artist clarified: A
prospectus from the Wind River Valley Artists' Guild, Dubois WY,
defines a professional artist as one "who has sold $2000 or more in
artwork," an "advanced amateur" as one "who has won ribbons or sold
$500 in artwork," and an amateur as an "artist who has not won ribbons
or sold artwork."
Seen at a recent Open Studio weekend: Ed
Ching, E. Zull, Len Skaype, Lynne C. Doyle, Jess Oh, Matt Cudder, Lith
O'Gwaff, N. Talleo, Po Smadurn, Al Frezko, and Cy D'Vu. The first
person to identify all of these gets a free one-year studioNOTES
subscription or renewal.
Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it
is the part the schools cannot recognize.
- Pauline Kael
Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it
flour-ishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of
control over what seems essentially uncontrollable, in the coherence of
the inchoate, and in its ability to create its own values.
- A. Alvarez
In all science error precedes the truth, and it is
better it should go first than last.
- Horace Walpole
Lying is speaking about things that one does not know;
this is the beginning of lying. It does not mean intentional lying -
telling stories, as for instance, that there is a bear in the other
room. Man does not know himself, he does not know anything, yet he has
theories about everything. Most of these theories are lying.
- P. D. Ouspensky
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People
are either charming or tedious.
- Oscar Wilde
If I didn't start painting, I would have raised chickens.
- Grandma Moses
The reward of art is not fame or success but
intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.
- Cyril Connolly
Copyright © 1998 by studioNOTES
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