News on the Orphan Works Bill... and not good news.

Packages of work for the Spencertown Academy Arts Center went out today. Need to work on updating my Powerpoint presentations for the next few days.... talking to students in a class at UNC Chapel Hill this week, then I have a visiting artist gig at VCU in Richmond the following week. Looking forward to talking with grad students again... it has been a while.
Might take some time to finish the 2nd 3D artery this evening. Finally got my grant check, so have to start the search for some assistants..... yippeee!

One more than one occasion, I have begun a blog entry about copyright, and, more specifically, my complete puzzlement as to the lack of respect for it by the generation following my own. I keep amassing references for a long winded diatribe, but I have been so busy that I simply haven't had time to craft a proper essay. But today, I will point you towards an article about Banksy, the artist who coined the phrase "Copyright is for losers...". Seems there are lots of Banksy copies flooding the marketplace.

When the Business of Art Slows Down the MAKING of Art

This piece is not finished. Had to stop actually working on the piece yesterday to work on a mock up to give the curator an idea of what the piece will look like, so she could say, "Fabulous! I want it for the January show!" and pass off all the info to the museum. She also wants a piece that I did a pretty elaborate sketch/proposal for that was started only recently. It is hard enough to try and title pieces that are not yet finished, but to title ones that are barely begun is a real challenge. Gone are the days of completely finishing a piece, inviting a friend over, and sipping wine while we contemplate titles.

Today, I stop actually making art to clean pillowcases from the last show (even the Museum of Arts & Design has dust), replacing dowels in the pillow covers that were broken during shipping, and packing all up for a show that opens in a few weeks at the Spencertown Academy Arts Center. I am beginning to hate these pillows... I want them out of circulation. Glass or acrylic cases to protect the work have fallen out of favor with contemporary museums (I know not why!) Each time they are shown, they get a little less brilliant. The pillows are too hard to maintain between shows, and I have to send elaborate OC instructions with them that make me sound like a maniac:

Installation instructions for Hair Embroidery Pillows:

PLEASE NOTE: Each pillow took three months of intense labor. Please take extra care in handling, installing, and displaying these pillows, as the slightest bit of dirt, dust, or fingerprints could ruin them, making them effectively useless for display in the future. Please post “DO NOT TOUCH” signs, and, once they are installed, cover them with plastic while lighting is adjusted, other pieces are installed etc., as it often happens that dust falls onto them during lighting. IF A PARTICLE FALLS ONTO THE PILLOW, BLOW IT OFF RATHER THAN TOUCHING IT, WHICH WILL ONLY GRIND IT INTO THE FIBERS.

If desired, pillows may be carefully ironed around the embroidery with a press cloth (a thin cotton cloth to protect from steam stains and/or dirt from the iron) and no steam after misting with the distilled water provided. If you prefer, you may simply put the pilowcase onto the pillow, lightly mist with the distilled water, and (with clean hands) smooth or lightly pull out the wrinkles.

Pillowcase should be slid over pillow so that the dowel is at the top of the pillowcase, and the zipper of the pillow cover is on the inside of the pillowcase and not seen. I have provided blocks to prop up the pillows on the pedestals so the embroidery is more easily viewed.

Thank you.

Yippee! Tara Donovan won a McArthur Award! I hope I get to see her show, which is traveling around the US this year. Not only is her work amazing, but I have friends who went to school with her and say she is a very cool, humble, down-to-earth artist.

Pleating iridescent taffeta for a mat this morning. Last night went to see my buddy Libby Rowe speak at Elon... a great talk to accompany a fantastic show.

How It Really Works, Vol 2: True Firsthand Art World Stories with the Names Left Out

At the height of the youth-obsessed art craze, I had an undergraduate student....sort of a wiseass, a mediocre painter, but his Mom was a terrific artist, and so he had been exposed to lots of art through the years. At the beginning of his senior year, he started making some really great work... obsessive, idiosyncratic paintings on parts of found furniture. When asked about his new work, he shrugged his shoulders and looked away, saying "It's easy.... you just gotta find a good trick...". His BFA show was a success, he started selling his work to some big local collectors, and the following year, he applied for the coveted $15,000 state art prize and won. I ran into him a year later, and asked about his work, what he was up to, etc., and he told me that he had gone back to selling yachts "because he could make more money".

Another year later, I ran across an artist on the internet who had been doing work for several years that was stunningly similar to my student's.

The color of the threads against the lining fabric is incredible. The lining is the same one that used for my wedding dress.....

Dehabilitating migraine most of yesterday.... and me not allowed to take drugs. T'was hell. Feeling better today, attaching 3D arteries taking longer than I expected.....

Finally finished embroidering all veins.... kept thinking that I was finished, then I would work one side a bit more obsessively, and have to "bring the other side up". Working on the heart today, and assembling all. In-process pics later today, finished pics tomorrow.

How It Really Works, Vol 1: True Firsthand Stories with the Names Left Out

A beautiful woman entered an undergraduate art program, at a time when when women still sometimes had a hard time being taken seriously. She entered a discipline where the professors were still quite dubious about accepting women into their area. She started sleeping with one of said professors ("sleeping" being a euphemism for "having sex in his office"). This professor was very well-connected to one of the best graduate programs in the country. The woman gets accepted into said graduate program, and goes on to great success in the art world, getting profiled in the NYTimes and winning one of the world's most coveted "genius" grants.

Would she be where she is had she taken a different course?
We'll never know, and neither will she.

I have been in Kansas City for the past few days, eating lamb BBQ, looking at houses, and trying to ascertain if I could live there while my husband has a second interview.
I am adding Women Against Palin to my blogroll.

Artus Interruptus
After staying up very late last Weds night to finish this piece with plans to Fed Ex on Thursday afternoon, got a Weds morning call from the gallery to say that they were running out of wall space and were not going to be able to fit it. So I was exhausted, but couldn't nap because my adrenalin was pumping. On the up side, now I can add a few more details to the heart, maybe another artery.

OPENING SATURDAY
"Pushing the Envelope: New Concepts in Drawing & Painting" at Chelsea Galleria in the Wynwood district of Miami. Opening reception from 7-11 pm.

I will not be there, but 4 new pieces will be!
(click to enlarge)

Finally got the "sentinel" piece framed. The frame has been a part of the vision since the beginning. Wonder what a psychoanalyst would say about all these round and oval pieces I am making? ..... many about guardian angels?
I will working on this heart for the rest of the night and well into tomorrow.

Embroidering my fingers off to get my heart/vein piece out the door. Got the frame for the angel piece... will post pics of both this afternoon.
Peanut report: first ultrasound yesterday... heard/saw heart beating, and butt wiggling!

Got up early and spent the entire day framing and packing pieces to go to Miami. "Thicket" looks awesome framed... I wish I could keep it here and look at it for a few days....
This piece and another required special framing because they have a medal sewn into the paper with hair, so I had to make color coordinated spacers to keep the paper surface away from the glass. Been listening to "The Age of American Unreason" by Susan Jacoby while working (thanks, Sarah!), and it is really good/frightening, though it is not necessarily a revelation... if Obama doesn't win, I am convincing my husband to move to Europe.

I am off to Fed Ex, then return home to embroider veins.

It seems I spend more and more time these days doing sketches and mock ups of what things are GOING to look like in order to convey my idea to someone who wants to get the newest work. Above, I am trying to create a rough and clunky idea of what this piece will be when finished. The assistants I will soon be hiring should help with this exciting but insane situation.

This is a big week coming up. The Political Circus show opens tomorrow at FAU (I need to email some friends and ask them to take pics), and 4 of my newest pieces will be in a show that opens next weekend at Chelsea Galleria in Miami. In a few weeks, the new MAD museum opens up on Columbus Circle in NYC, and the curator will be wearing my thank you tie for the festivities. Back to work. As you can tell, I am feeling better... though am still taking a power nap here and there. : )

(click any to enlarge)
"Sentinel, Paralyzed", 2008, 20 x 16" oval, latex, gouache, embroidery on paper.
For this piece, I have ordered a white, Baroque oval frame that should arrive any day now.

Back, I think.

Hope that all had a great holiday weekend. I am feeling better, hope to be back to a cautious-but-normal schedule in the next few days. Will post embroidery pics tonight... found that bed rest inspired me to write the text for a subversive children's book, so I am working on sketches for a villain as well.