Conclusive Beginnings G2 Packet2

I emptied everything out. Like when you turn a purse upside down and dump it on the kitchen table. In the pile are useful things, like coin or keys. There are post-useful things to discard, like tissues and gum wrappers with chewed gum I spit out last week (?last month?—!). And things that might still be of service but I can’t be sure, like loose Advil®, crushed tampons and a ChapStick® missing its cap. Every particle of emotion, experience, intellect, essence and core whorled into the artwork I made this past year; sometimes I had to push. Hanging the show felt like achievement. The four weeks it was in the gallery (and not in my studio) was like being in two places at once. Taking the art down was a quiet leave-taking. 

Inverted and shaken, I am hosed clean. I become anxious and frustrated by my self-conscious inability to connect scholarly research, critical reflection, daily life, making art and being part of a collective consciousness in community and spirit. Goals become deadlines and I feel deflated by the effort instead of imagining possibilities. Boo-hoo. There are human beings barely surviving conditions that are inconceivable to me.  What should I do? Be empty.

In the ontology of Mahayana Buddhism, emptiness, shunyata, is not to be confused with nothingness. Things of the phenomenal world do not exist as separate, independent and permanent entities, but rather appear as the result of an infinite number of causes and conditions. There is only relativity. Shunyata is an absolute reality that is all things and beings, unmanifested. Emptiness has two general meanings in Taoism. As one of the qualities of the Tao, emptiness is seen as the opposite of “fullness.” The second meaning of emptiness (Wu) points to an inner realization or state of mind characterized by simplicity, quietude, patience, frugality and restraint. This mental framework brings alignment with the rhythms of the Tao, to have our mind empty of any impulses, aspirations, wishes or desires.

There is also practical wisdom for things smaller in scale than metaphysical or global suffering: In her book, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott tells the story of her younger brother, who was in tears, sitting at the kitchen table with empty pages and unopened textbooks, immobilized by the daunting task of trying to write a report about birds (he had three months to complete it) the day before it was due. Her father sat down beside him, put his arm around him, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

Questions:

How do you anticipate a future you haven’t experienced?

Economic meltdown, sorting through the quantification of Value as Risk (VaR), irrelevant statistics, formulas and numbers without meaning, and accountability transition into investigations beyond the financial sector. This question segues into a project I’m developing about gender-based violence. 

Define: Rigor!

What does David Khang mean when he says, “metaphor is not enough”?

I came across David’s advising group’s blog and he made this statement during a discussion of a student’s work. I have considered asking David for context on this comment, but decided to work on it myself first.

Ju-Pong's response(s) to my quote from the Journal of Visual Art Practice:

I wonder, why would we want to police art's farthest edges?

I’m much more interested in looking at ways that everyday people make art of their lives all the time, not just at the opera house or in the gallery.

Am I spinning my wheels on that question that Chris Reilly said is "a machine that no longer works?"

Is everything art? Are some works of art better than others? I have some very gut level responses. To discuss value judgments is not only relevant to art, but important in a culture remaining fully critical. I’ve been researching and formulating my perspective on this discourse from her response to my Packet 1 and will forward mine to packet 3.

The Wall

“I want to ask you, what is it behind your attachment to the wall? Why do you feel you need the wall?”

“Again, I wonder about the limitation (or possibilities) of the gallery space as a venue for inviting the viewer to engage in this investigation the way I can with you. So I wonder, is it interesting to you or important to provide some of this context? The bigger question is, what is the purpose or function of the gallery? How might the gallery space best serve you and your intentions?”

I am aware of the object quality of my work, being part of the space I inhabit. Like books we keep and refer to. Shrines set up in the house. My work is meant to leave my space and go inhabit an elsewhere. The transition or transformation happens somewhere else. I thought about giving the art away. An open-source.

I am not opposed to gallery walls in a traditional function as supports for the paintings’ “working space”. I am concerned by the concept of art being separated from daily life, that my work is in a distinct place to go to visit or experience the art. But distinct can be either elitist or sacred or ‘other’. I know that spirituality and collective consciousness is everywhere and accessible from any location, however attending the temple is a community connection. There is an opportunity for a deeper connection when taken out of the routine context. It should be a simple act to be present in the mundane, but we have to develop rituals to remind us, and then practice them! I want the arts­ (practice, process and product) to be more of community practice. I am still “one of those” artists. Other. Seeing potential resources for my work in stuff others have assigned to the dumpster seems to make me peculiar.

By nature, I am not very tolerant of serendipitous exposure. I prefer to offer up my secrets in controlled measure. Walls have their importance for me- shelter, privacy, a space of my own, retreat, structure. The gallery walls can also be a contemplative space, where we retreat from the street mechanisms, distractions and movement.

Art that responds to mass media is of the world I’m living in. Response can be many things: acceptance, disagreement, aggressive, complacent…I am not enlarging the language of painting in what I make. I am conscious that my work can be merely categorized as “junk” art. In the relationship of artist and audience, the responsibility of the observer is not entirely within my control. In spite of that, my responsibility, doggedly inherent in my process and practice, is to offer more; layers of meaning or resonance. Beyond the visual communication, the opportunity to verbally share/connect the archeology and anthropology of my work with someone who is interested, is intellectually gratifying and does fulfill a basic desire to communicate in our spoken language. What is so apparent to me, when using words to articulate the art (visual, music, dance) is the lineal progression of language. The worded experience flattens the prior multi-dimensional encounter; even as descriptive narratives shed light into my bag of tricks or suggest an investigation of symbols to expand the understanding of the art-work. Paradoxically, I determine the titles for my work vitally essential to the visual. Ironically, titling is an excruciating process for me.

I’ll use Matrimonial Tallis: Never Greet Your Husband at the Door In Your Housedress and Rollers as a concrete example. Visually, this piece immediately presents multiple, simultaneous impacts of texture, color, mark-making, shape, dimensional layering, repetition, reflection of light, illusion, recognition of materials, decay, symbol, superstition. (If I do it right)This visual offering can result in multiple, simultaneous, conscious and subconscious response. My narrative of where it came from and how it developed only floats on the surface of snarled experiences and perceptions: my mother, my father, their marriage, my ex-marriage, my daughter, my femininity and feminism, lovers, friends, society, history, religion, Judaism, attending yeshiva…even if I could visit all of it before it changes, because my experiences and perceptions are in constant motion.  It is enough for me, and significant, that you laughed, felt uncomfortable and compassionate. And heard the tinny music in the background—like an old music box. 

Reading my MFA blog is another way into the work for those who are interested...

I am also a practitioner of my environment and economics. All of my art-work is determined by my access to space, materials and time. This has been less of a choice—as in, I’m not ‘slumming’ it—and necessity mothering my intention. There have been times where all I had for space and material was pen and paper and I put that to use in the form of pen and ink or poetry.

To the side of environmental sustainability issues, The Art of Assemblage. Museum of Modern Art, NYC 1961, curated by William Seitz, and Dada, there are centuries of tribal cultures using what’s at hand. I am inspired by the elegant and monumental work of El Anatsui: “Art grows out of each particular situation, and I believe that artists are better off working with whatever their environment throws up.”

WORK:

I am a volunteer certified hotline counselor for the domestic violence/sexual assault (male or female) crisis intervention center in my county. One night each week I am on call to answer the hotline. Awareness of gender-based violence is actively present for me, although not on the scale of places such as Darfur, Rwanda and Kosovo.

Statistical facts have a very different face than individual people. Decisions made on the basis of rational analysis of information are not always compatible with values of compassion.

Every 2 minutes, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted. Here's the math. According to the U.S. Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey -- the country's largest and most reliable crime study -- there were 248,300 sexual assaults in 2007 (the most recent data available). These figures do not include victims 12 years old or younger.

There are 525,600 minutes in a non-leap year. That makes 31,536,000 seconds/year. So, 31,536,000 divided by 248,300 comes out to 1 sexual assault every 127 seconds, or about 1 every 2 minutes.

1 out of every 6 American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime (14.8% completed rape; 2.8% attempted rape). 

17.7 million American women have been victims of attempted or completed rape.

9 of every 10 rape victims were female in 2003.

While about 80% of all victims are white, minorities are somewhat more likely to be attacked. Source: http://www.rainn.org

What does this data look like? I am in the beginning stages of the components and images this question prompted…The working title is simply: Vaginas. I’m still with the lids. There is a fetishness in my use of this material. This resource is such a throw-away, I feel it adds an essence of sadness.

The I.R.I.S. Project (I’m Real. I’m Strong.)

With all my attachment to art on the wall, I am attending a meeting this week at the crisis center and will propose an expressive arts workshop for a counseling group—teens and/or adults. The concept is based on Artist Trading Cards and it has a touchstone element to the artwork created.

ARTIST TRADING CARDS (ATC) are 2 ½ X 3 ½ inch works of art, the same size as playing cards or baseball cards. What makes ATC different from other trading cards is that each one is an original and, most importantly, anybody can make them.

The list of possible subjects is endless and every type of art and technique are encouraged for the ATC: painting, collage, doodling, stamping, needlework, beading, photography, digital image manipulation… The only rule is the 2 ½ x 3 ½ inches size.

The inspiration behind the ATC is they are made to trade—one for one—with other people who make cards and the trade, ideally, should take place in person. Unlike other trading cards, ATCs are never bought or sold. The point of the project is the exchange of cards as well as personal experience.

In this workshop, we’ll be making our cards using simple collage techniques. The idea germinated during conversation with a local high school art teacher I met at Art after Dark, a community event inviting residents to stroll the galleries and local shops which stay open until 9pm every 2^nd Saturday night of the month.  She is working on her PHD in Expressive Arts through The European Graduate School, town of Saas Fee in the Swiss Alps. Doing some research online, I found Natalie Rogers, daughter of Carl Rogers, a founder of the humanistic approach to psychology. Visit her site here:http://www.nrogers.com/principles.html