Jehra Patrickmnartists.blog: From mnartists.org, this is where the conversation about the arts and culture hits home, right here in Minnesota.
Posture Is Everything: An Interview with Artist Kristina Estell
Duluth-based artist Kristina Estell’s recent exhibition Posture Is Everything currently occupies the north gallery of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP) at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA). Composed of cool, pale blue sheets of silicone elegantly draped atop triangular wooden armature, Posture Is Everything calls to mind winding river beds, fallen skies and couch-fort mountain ranges. [...]
Posture Is Everything, 2013. Image courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Duluth-based artist Kristina Estell’s recent exhibition Posture Is Everything currently occupies the north gallery of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program (MAEP) at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA). Composed of cool, pale blue sheets of silicone elegantly draped atop triangular wooden armature, Posture Is Everything calls to mind winding river beds, fallen skies and couch-fort mountain ranges. Like many of Estell’s sculptural forms and installations, this ethereal work evokes the gestures and forms of nature, rather then offering a direct representation of the natural world. I chatted with the artist recently by email to learn about the complex process involved in making the work in her exhibition, nature as medium, classical drapery and institutional posturing.
Jehra Patrick
I heard that the “drapery” in your piece was produced by the very labor-intensive process of painting silicone onto the walls of the MAEP space. Can you walk me through that process?
Kristina Estell
Actually, the piece in the MAEP gallery was produced in my studio! Due to material off-gassing and other concerns, the museum didn’t approve the original proposal to use the silicone on the walls of the space to create the work. A connection to the MAEP space is made apparent through the actual size of the combined dimensions of the sheets of rubber in the exhibition. These dimensions equal that of the MAEP space – 1352 sq. feet.
For Posture is Everything, the process was labor-intensive, but necessary to achieve the desired thickness – as well as to economically use the material — and to make it strong enough to support itself on such a large scale. Once I had determined the size of the pieces of rubber I needed, I mapped those dimensions out on the wall’s surface and then applied a thin layer of the silicone directly onto the wall using a three-inch chip brush. The liquid rubber is quite thick and has to be applied fairly evenly to achieve the effect that I want.
Installation in progress for Posture is Everything. Image courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Once the first coat is applied, the material cures for 24 hours, all the while creeping down the wall’s surface as it sets. I then laid down a layer of thin nylon mesh fabric on the silicone’s surface and applied another full coat of rubber, adhering and sandwiching the material onto the first coat of rubber. Once the second layer was set, I simply peeled the rubber off the wall, rolling it onto a large cardboard tube to keep it clean and flat. The color of the silicone rubber comes “naturally” from the chemical activator provided by the manufacturer, and it’s one of the reasons why I like using this particular kind of silicone. Another great characteristic of this silicone mold material is that it doesn’t permanently adhere to (almost) any surface except itself, which makes it very user-friendly and flexible in terms of potential applications.
treatment (covered), 2011. Image courtesy of the artist.
Jehra Patrick
A process similar to that was used to produce a previous work, treatment (covered), completed for the Kabinett Gallery during your residency at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Germany – how was that process different?
Kristina Estell
For the treatment installation, the goal was initially much more about creating a subtle and materially-charged space – treating the space, as it were. After many calculations, much prep-work, and a call for volunteer helpers, I set up a station in the middle of the gallery and just starting mixing silicone. This particular silicone was dyed with a bit of blue and gray color. Using the same small chip brush technique, my helpers and I brushed two layers of silicone onto the ceiling, walls, fixtures, windows and radiators, in this case, without the layer of fabric in between. I then let the material cure and migrate down the walls as it set.
Jehra Patrick
I’m interested in the relationship between the two pieces and your decision to repeat the action and make use of the material in a new way for the MAEP show. Can you speak to the evolution of your concept and process from one exhibition to the next?
Kristina Estell
treatment directly inspired the work at the MIA. At the end of the exhibition at the Akademie, I returned to de-install the work. Through this process, I realized a whole new experience of the material. My expectations for covering a room in silicone included, initially, the experience of the material as a direct part of the space as an installation, and secondly, being able to remove this material to retain the mold of the space as a rubber negative. In practice, the additional and unexpected part of the process became even more interesting to me as I started to remove the material from the space and learn about the spaces characteristics in such thin dimensions and at such a large scale. As the material started to come off, it began to peel itself from the wall — pulled down by its own weight — and that created really beautiful, and kind of theatrical, draping forms hanging from the surface of the walls. I found these forms so interesting, I knew I wanted to create another work that intentionally used this discovery in a more deliberate way and which might really exploit the weighty, draping potential of the rubber.
Installation in progress for Posture is Everything. Image courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Jehra Patrick
Silicone, or rubber, seems like a particularly unnatural and permanent [non biodegradable] material. What is the importance of the material in this work? Is it the behavior of the material or the implications of its use that you’re primarily interested in?
Kristina Estell
The silicone material I am using is, of course, industrially manipulated to have the uses and properties it does, but it is not so very far removed from [unprocessed] silicon, the chemical element found in nature, and that makes up an enormous percentage of the earth’s crust, for example. And in this rubberized form, the silicone mold material is actually not permanent. In fact, the life of all these sheets of rubber is very uncertain. The “skin” will start to degrade and the color will change over time…probably pretty dramatically within the space of just five years.
Jehra Patrick
That is interesting! I had it in my head that silicone (probably in terms of medical implants, etc.) was this permanent, fake thing. Thanks for returning me to the Periodic Table! That really gives the piece an added dimension, to think about it behaving like a skin - in form and behavior – molting off the walls, really delicate and fragile, even taking on attributes of aging.
Kristina Estell
To answer your question: Drawing lines back and forth between the material and the referring implications of its use is exactly what interests me so much in this material as a central subject and object in my work.
Processing and Computation, 2013. Image courtesy of the artist
Jehra Patrick
Working directly with the site, as in the walls of the exhibition space, or collecting materials – such as rocks – from the area where you work appears to be a thread in your practice. Does your general studio practice guide you to work in response to your site of production? Or, does this [site-specificity] differ from your general studio practice, having more to do with preparing for a particular exhibition?
Kristina Estell
Depending on the project, where I am working at the time, etc, my working practice is very flexible. I do find inspiration in being outside of my everyday environment, and often I create work for specific locations. Many projects only exist in certain locations, but others can translate to other sites as well. I see my studio practice as a kind of magnification process — taking a small thing from outside and blowing it up into something else within my work space.
My working practice is materially inspired but conceptually relies on finding and creating simple connections and gestures. Depending on the idea, my working practice, materials, processes change for almost every new project. Recently, I have been studying glass working and am preparing a station in the studio to start exploring this medium. I work with a material for some amount of time until I am able to understand it, how it acts and what connections I can develop between its physical properties and a set of ideas that interest me. This naturally involves a lot of trial and error, but this is also the best way to actually learn and make discoveries that can inform finishing a project and inspiring a new one.
Jehra Patrick
The natural world has long been central to your work, yet you often approach the subject in subtle, indirect ways. Is this reflective of your own experience of nature? Or, are you simply looking for less representational ways to discuss natural forms?
Kristina Estell
That’s an interesting question. I feel like I use nature within my work as more of a medium than a subject sometimes: a set of imagery and objects to think through, learn from, processes and events that are relative to my own experience but which are also just the common experience of living today. Nature is something that holds us all; it’s a reflexive subject and it makes sense to pay attention to it that way. It’s also just the language that seems most essential to me.
Installation view of Posture is Everything, 2013. Image courtesy of The Minneapolis Institute of Art
Jehra Patrick
That is beautiful and poetic — the notion of nature as medium. This resonates with so many disciplines: painting by way of oil, photography’s use of light and chemicals, sculpture’s origination in stone. I also appreciate your intentionality in blurring subject-object-medium and the slippage between form and materials. These poetics seem to work their way into the title of your current exhibition. Would you talk a little about that title: Posture is Everything?
Kristina Estell
I liked the ambiguity and the structure implied by the title, Posture is Everything. It is obviously resolute, but I was hoping that – in combination with seeing the work in the gallery – this resolution would be dissolved a bit and the title would help create a sense of urging effort within the sculptural forms; a sense that this dense, heavy, sagging but beautiful material — with all its references — has intentions of real structure or ‘posture’ but no such actual potential without the wooden armature underneath it. The ‘everything’ in the title makes it just priceless, bringing up an elusive sense of value and what matters. I especially thought this title would be interesting within the institution context of the art museum.
Jehra Patrick
Let’s talk more about the work’s placement within the art museum. In form, the silicone brings to mind historical imagery within a museum such as classical painting, or assemblies of objects and fabric swaths from life drawing. The armature nearly references easels. In titling, ‘everything’ might refer to all the museums holdings, or all things of greatness – art as valuables, or the art or the artist’s role, or stature, but also implies that these roles or behaviors are misleading. Do artists, or the museum posture as well?
Kristina Estell
Yes, all these points you bring up are connections I am interested in. Right away during the install process, I was getting comments from various people about the visual similarities the piece has to other artwork within the museum and beyond. I didn’t expect such a direct relationship to specific works held by the museum, but did anticipate the relationship to the tradition of drawing, painting, still lifes and enjoyed pulling from that [classical] ‘standard’ of beauty that suggests objectivity, as well as genericness of subject.
The practice of working from drapery or fabric shapes with such attention and detail to accomplish form without content is very interesting to me; it is the most simple and empty way to illustrate ‘posture,’ or the act of posturing, which I definitely believe art does. The genre of still life most honestly reveals its postured nature. Necessarily, I do think artists and art institutions build on a series of postures that feel flexible and tenuous…at times misleading as well, but possibly just more undefined in our culture.
Kristina Estell’s work references physical material systems through an exploration of the theme of landscape and vision. As sculpture, my work exists in pieces, parts of a whole. It is ephemeral in its design as well as in the quality expressed by the use of such materials as transparent resin, sheer fabric, lenses and clear silicone. Using a range of sculptural and drawing techniques, my work aims to expand our understanding of landscape to include sites outside of our immediate periphery, which might be deeply interior or vastly exterior. These processes often result in a collection of naturally suggestive but ambiguous forms that come together to narrate a space and question our perceptions of nature.
Kristina Estell’s Posture is Everything runs until Sunday, June 20, 2013 at in the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program gallery at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Artist’s Talks: Thursday, May 16, 2013, 7-9 p.m.
Special Guests: Thursday, June 20, 2013, 7-9 p.m.
Look for Kristina’s work in the Minnesota Biennial at The Soap Factory, where she will create drawings from materials collected from the gallery, itself.
For more on the artist, visit her website at kristinaestell.com and blog kristinaestell.blogspot.com
Trouble in Paradise: A Conversation with Painter Melissa Loop
Minnesota artist Melissa Loop draws attention to the complexities and double-standards inherent in fetishizing and idealizing exotic locales, exploring the consequences of tourism through the lush, layered surfaces of her paintings. In a recent conversation, we discussed the lineage of landscape painting, from Hudson River School to Peter Doig, painting and viewing art as work [...]
Melissa Loop, I Turned Your Kingdom Out, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 2013
Minnesota artist Melissa Loop draws attention to the complexities and double-standards inherent in fetishizing and idealizing exotic locales, exploring the consequences of tourism through the lush, layered surfaces of her paintings. In a recent conversation, we discussed the lineage of landscape painting, from Hudson River School to Peter Doig, painting and viewing art as work and leisure, and the recent public drama that erupted around a slanted news article about her pursuit of travel as artistic research.
Jehra Patrick
On the surface, your paintings depict fluorescent and glowing equatorial landscapes. Talk about your process for finding, taking and selecting images.
Melissa Loop
My process has changed somewhat since I’ve started traveling to the places and making a whole series around one place. Before, I chose iconic photos that appeared over and over in Google images when I searched for a place. I would be specific for each thing I wanted in the painting, though — like “Hawaiian waterfall.” So I was always constructing made up landscapes that were collaged together from various photos. I now actually go to the area I want to make work about, but what has stayed the same are the reasons that draw me to a site in the first place. It’s rather organic, in the sense that these are just landscapes that I get obsessed with, but they are also always places that are being massively affected by climate change, colonialism, tourism – they’re all in the process of being Westernized in some fashion through globalization. But they’re exotic in some way for me. When I visit a place, I am thinking about how to tell a story about the history, culture, climate, landscape, as well as the memory or dream of the place that lasts after you leave. I’m not just interested in iconic landmarks, but also the odd-shaped rocks, plants, moments that make up a place.
Melissa Loop, A Dream of a Made up Hawaiian Island, acrylic and spray paint, 2012
Jehra Patrick
To which places have you traveled? What is your criteria for selecting your destinations?
Melissa Loop
I’ve been to the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Thomas and St. John, which was the start of my interest in the continuing colonial mindset you see behind resorts and international tourism. I’ve also been to Belize, the Mexican Yucatan near Tulum, Coba, and Chichen Itza. In less than a week, I will leave for the French Polynesia, where I will visit Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Bora Bora, and Nuku Hiva.
I’ve been picking places that are exotic to me, which have a rich archaeological ruins, are rapidly changing or will change drastically in my lifetime because of humans and that have a history of colonialism. I’ve learned a lot from some of my previous trips, about what works and what doesn’t. When I planned my Polynesian trip, I looked for places that were not resorts per se, or even normal hotels, but rather small places that are run by Polynesians.
Jehra Patrick
And these are not lavish places, like ‘Sandals,’ I presume…
Melissa Loop
A posh paradise is very nice for a vacation, but not conducive to locating the different sites where I draw, photograph and research every morning. Each day, I concentrate on a different location on the island to study; it is actually quite physically strenuous, requiring lots of hiking up mountains, through valleys and ungroomed terrain to get to the places that tourists really don’t reach very often. In this trip, I’m really excited about all of the archaeological ruins that I’m going to visit on the islands — particularly the most important Polynesian ruins, outside of Easter Island. I’m also meeting with a woman on Huahine who is in charge of an important cultural heritage site. On my last trip, I only had one day where I didn’t completely exhaust myself, and that’s only because I got really sick and couldn’t go anywhere.
Jehra Patrick
What has been your impression of these places you have visited? How do they hold up to both your notions of exploitation? Are they beautiful and exotic? How has actually seeing these sites in person changed your work?
Melissa Loop
When I went to Belize, I had this notion that I wanted to take pictures of the shacks – the “real place” – but I realized, after I got there, that such thinking is disrespectful of their culture. I saw how proud they are of the beauty of their country. So, the work became about, essentially, the idea of memory, misconceptions, exoticism and fantasy of the place after I returned home. Belize doesn’t get much tourism; they caught my attention because their tiny country is the only one standing up to the cruse ship companies by putting strict rules on how many cruise tourists can enter their protected areas (if at all). I ended up leaving there very hopeful and optimistic, because of how they take care of their land and try to grow tourism in a more sustainable way.
The place I visited in Mexico was an entirely different story. There resorts are allowed to be run like a compound that you never have to leave….unless you get bored of the beach, and then you’re shuttled to some manicured ruin. Tulum doesn’t have huge resorts, but all of the beaches are currently being transformed into this long strip of luxury eco-hotels, where they keep guards at the front of the road, like gatekeepers to the beach. It was also kind of unnerving when a guy trying to sell us a tour informed us that we could stand on the coral in the water. It really makes you wonder what’s going to be left in 50 years.
Jehra Patrick
I’d like to hear bit more about your composition and creative decision-making – your paintings, in their handling, feel like amplified or fantastic adaptations as opposed to a straight plein air study of these lands.
Melissa Loop
All of the actual paintings are made in my studio in Minneapolis; I consider what I make during the trip to be notations. I am interested in what happens between seeing and experiencing a place and the gap of memory, time, fantasy, dream, and outright lying. That’s why I like to reference grand landscape painters, like Fredric Erwin Church, because they would amp up the color, rearrange details, and try to make a place as desirable as possible. The neon and extreme saturation in my paintings come from the influence of CGI and Photoshop, and the way that everything [online] seems to want to be so loud in order to be seen and noticed. But I am also fighting with the surface by destroying and creating space through spilling paint, spray painting, dripping, and sanding so that the painting will flip back and forth between the deep painting space and a reminder that it’s all just surface and paint. For me, it is kind of a metaphor for my own struggles with my participation in global change, and the sense of helplessness that I (and I think a lot of people of our generation) feel.
Fredric Erwin Church, Cotopaxi, Oil on canvas, 1855
Jehra Patrick
This exaggeration in the color choices gives your work look of “vacation-ness.” What are the complications of traveling for learning vs. traveling for leisure? Is leisure still a byproduct of your research?
Melissa Loop
I suppose it depends on a person’s definition of leisure. When I and the other Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative (MSAB) recipients were catching flak for visiting places that are usually thought of as leisure destinations, it became a joke between my husband and I that you should only receive funding if your trip will be dangerous, cold and not enjoyable. There tends to be more frustration for me when I travel for research, since my main goal then is to collect information; traveling in the manner I do is not set up for that. I’ve been trying to figure out ways to go about my research with a more scientific approach on future projects, but it’s difficult since I do need to see more than one location to do my work. There’s also a lot of stress involved, because it is research — I’m working, even if it is amazing, fun work. This upcoming trip involves 13 flights (six flights just to get there and back, because it’s so far away), six islands and seven different lodgings. That sure isn’t what I would do to myself if I wanted to relax.
Jehra Patrick
What about the “vacation-ness” of viewing your work? Is viewing art ever about taking a moment of vacation? Isn’t museum-going a leisure activity?
Melissa Loop
For me, art is a form of escapism and I love being able to create a painting that I can “escape” into; there’s definitely this duality between what I’m doing in my studio, what we do in museums, and what we do when we travel. Paradoxically, I think that making paintings that require me to travel so much has forced me to do the opposite of escape.
Melissa Loop, Fragment, acrylic and spray paint, 2013
Jehra Patrick
In looking at your work, comparisons to Paul Gauguin and Peter Doig come to mind. Do you think they were ever criticized for the type of work they do? Also, do you think they’re saying something about the places they visit in their work, or do we love them for their palettes, their application of paint and composition. In other words, does the subject matter?
Melissa Loop
The interesting thing about Peter Doig is that most of his work deals with memories of his early childhood in Canada — it’s a kind of dream landscape. Also, he lives in Trinidad, so he’s not really a visitor. But he talks about the fact that he will always be the white guy. that he can never get away from the exoticism of a place that is so vastly different from the place he came from. I think the difference between Doig and Gauguin is that Doig isn’t trying to live out or sell some sort of hedonistic fantasy. A lot of historians criticize Gauguin, because most of what he wrote about his experiences were vastly exaggerated. He went specifically to seek out this “noble savage” sort of lifestyle; the thing is, the Polynesians had been converted to Christianity by that point, and he was highly disliked for taking on so many young lovers. Gauguin was really just perpetuating a fantasy of what he wished was there, but maybe never really was, in fact. I am interested in the notion of fantasy, but I think I am coming from a very self-critical point of view; I’m not really perpetuating a fantasy, but rather presenting the fantasy that we all have of such exotic places, acknowledging its impossibility. I think both artists tap into some inner desire we share [about "paradise"], and that its part of the appeal of the work. Besides, isn’t subject merely a vehicle for content, anyways?
Jehra Patrick
True! Within your work, that content addresses the misconceptions of place – e.g., a gorgeous island that is actually a site of exploitation. Interestingly enough, when your MSAB project received coverage, many misconceptions about artists’ funding were aired in the conversation surrounding it. What are misconceptions, for artists and these places? Aren’t both a bit romanticized? Are artists still exotic? Is there a misconstrued understanding of what it means to be an artist?
Melissa Loop, Untitled, acrylic and spray paint, 2013.
Melissa Loop
I think there is a lot of mystery, and sometimes angst, surrounding the idea of being an artist. There is this myth that we are lazy, or don’t pay taxes ourselves (apparently), and that we are bad at what we do if we have to rely on grants to help bring projects into fruition. The truth is that most successful artists have several sources of income to make their practice work, including sales, grants, and some sort of outside income, such as teaching, freelance work, or side-jobs. I feel people tend to think that we should live in poverty until the day comes when we are “discovered,” because we would just make art anyway — it’s part of that romantic Van Gogh idea. A lot of people seemed very upset to see my blogs and figure out that not only was I not destitute, but I also travel a lot. But I and every artist I know and respect in this community work very hard at not only making our work, but also promoting, writing and a long list of other non-creative admin-type tasks. This is a career as much as it’s a lifestyle.
Jehra Patrick
You were recently vilified by Watchdog.org’s “Minnesota Bureau,” as well as in the public commentary, for receiving a MSAB for travel purposes (among a hundred other artists of varying disciplines.) While this is a very slanted and misleading media piece, I think it’s worth making note of the interesting conversations that cascaded from this incident, including the role of the artist as both a worker and a culture-bringer, the role of grants in support of the arts and artists, and the place of government subsidy for arts and culture. These are all huge topics, I know, but I do want to provide the opportunity to initiate some of this continued conversation.
Melissa Loop
The man interviewing me asked the question: “Do you think this (traveling to French Polynesia) a good way to spend people’s tax dollars?” which I find purposely misleading, since these projects are funded by the MSAB, a small state organization that receives a small component of the Arts and Cultural Legacy Fund. The purpose of the money isn’t to send me on a trip, it is intended to make the work after, to foster gallery shows and artist talks, and to enrich Minnesota by bringing up conversations about how we can and do directly affect people and places halfway around the world through the choices we make, with how we perceive the world to be. As an artist, it is my role to spark new conversations, present new ideas, comment and make work about the times we live in. There should be a component of art that responds to these aspects of globalization. The fine arts are integral to the Minnesota creative community and artists do create create an economic return for the state. Artists have been supported for hundreds of years through patrons, monarchies, and the church, so I’m not sure why there is this idea that a good artist never needs support to help bridge their practice.
Jehra Patrick
What are your big takeaways from this? What are the conversations that you and fellow artists are having around the issues of artists’ means for finding monetary support and the granting system in Minnesota?
Melissa Loop
I think this conversation has highlighted the paradox of being an artist in the Midwest: here, you can be “successful” and yet never make enough money from your work to run a studio, or to make a decent living. That’s why many artists choose to go somewhere else. The grant system is a way to help us bridge some of that gap, so we can stay here and make work.
Jehra Patrick
What about the misconceptions surrounding the granting process? Do you have any suggestions for avenues of conversation where we can continue to communicate to the public accurate pictures about the roles of the artist in their communities and the ways artists find to support themselves?
Melissa Loop
The news story did accentuate some vast misconceptions about the [Artist Initiative] program; the author of the piece likened getting a grant to winning the lottery; people seemed to think awarding public money means that they should have some sort of ownership or control over how those funds are used, simply because they’re a member of the public. I actually don’t think that MSAB is opaque — anyone can go and see the panelists who are judging the grant proposals. A real concern I had, reading the public comments, had to do with the broader feeling that they indicated a lack of value for artists and what they do; some of the commenters aren’t interested in learning about the process for applying for grants — they’re not really objecting to that so much as they don’t seem to think of artists as really “working.”
When I started a dialogue with the news reporter about the story, he just kept asking what my project had to do with the state; I realized that we were simply having two different conversations. What I do doesn’t directly produce a certain quantity of jobs or result in a monetary outcome or return on investment – that’s not the purpose of my project. This leads me to think that there is confusion about what the phrase “impact the state” means to the general public when we’re talking about the arts. Maybe it’s about changing the language. Maybe it’s about all of us artists being vocal about what we really do: educating our families, friends, co-workers. When this all came out, I realized that I, too, create that fantasy of an artist in my blogs. I never really considered myself a public person before this, and I think defending myself against things that are not even trying to be true or balanced only serves the fuel their criticisms. But I do feel a responsibility, now more than ever, to be as transparent as possible with this project and leverage it to have the most impact as possible.
Melissa Loop is a landscape painter who mines the long history of the genre and subverts it with her fantasy landscapes. Her hyper-colored canvases with their haphazard drips, neon spray paint, jumbled digitized shapes, and rainbow-infused skies literalize the artificiality of imagined paradises and bespeak her concern for ongoing globalization, colonization, and touristic expansion in exotic locations. In 2005 Loop received her BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
See more of the artist’s work at: melissaloop.com
Learn more about the artist’s project at: myheartisanomad.blogspot.com
5 Artists Expanding the (Painting) Field, from the Midwest
Painter, Painter, now on view at the Walker Art Center through October 27, 2013, includes a selection of living artists responding to the materiality and open-endedness of the medium of painting, as well as the fluidity of the role of artist as painter. Operating as painters creating new work in a time of unlimited ontologies, we [...]
Rarely Do We Stretch, Matthew Yaeger, 2013
Painter, Painter, now on view at the Walker Art Center through October 27, 2013, includes a selection of living artists responding to the materiality and open-endedness of the medium of painting, as well as the fluidity of the role of artist as painter. Operating as painters creating new work in a time of unlimited ontologies, we see these artists gathered in the exhibition for the thoughtful ways in which their practice holds strong footing in studio-based activities, demonstrates backwards-glancing at historical movements, and shows a continued interest in the material possibilities for painting, often incorporating the jargon of adjacent disciplines; all of whom produce objects with an proclivity for the genre of Abstraction. This exhibition presents an acute, though diverse, edit of broader tendencies that pivot and reshape frameworks for painting practice.
In her seminal 1979 essay, “Sculpture in the Expanded Field,” Rosalind Krauss posits that, “practice is not defined in relation to a given medium…but rather in relation to the logical operations on a set of cultural terms, for which any medium…might be used.” Krauss opened up the possibility for artists – in this case, painters – to perform operations, as practice, on the collectively held idea of what constitutes “painting.” The resulting broad guidelines about what the medium is and can be, coupled with what philosopher Arthur C. Danto described as “pluralism” (i.e. the idea that no kind of output is more ‘true,’ or advanced, than another) left the terminology of painting gaping and unwieldy decades ago. It is important to note this history, as it has given artists legroom to reply, and the opportunity to reply to one-another’s replies, for some time. It is also important to note that these conversations, while historical, have been advancing for years; a discussion of “painting” is not being re-opened in 2013 — dialogue within and about the medium was never closed. This past June, New York Times critic Roberta Smith reviewed string of five exhibitions opening in Chelsea, noting the dominance of artists “examining the ways painting can merge with sculpture or conceptual art and yield pictorial hybrids that may not even involve paint; others are more focused on the medium’s traditional forms.”
In other words, these tendencies for painters are synchronic, and are representative of interests occurring nationally, internationally and locally. Positioning Painter Painter in a contemporary art museum in the Midwest is as relevant to that ongoing conversation as it would be if the exhibition were showing in a gallery in New York, if not more so; situated here, the exhbition bears witness to and charts the prominence of these currents, the immediacy of these practices and the proximity of these activities: the exhibition is here and this work is also occurring here. The Midwest is part of this conversation.
As evidence, note the following artists, all of whom are working and living in the state of Minnesota and who offer thoughtful contributions to the growing dialogue on the expanded conditions of painting though material, surface and process. Aside from pictorial strategies or abstraction of subject, abstraction is also employed as descriptive device, stretching and abstracting the medium itself – reducing, distilling and providing partial information about the practice of painting.
Installation view of Joe Smith’s Softside at David Petersen Gallery in Minneapolis, 2013. Courtesy of the artist’s website.
Joe Smith
Smith’s practice takes conceptual coordinates as departure points for the insoluble conundrum of painting itself, seeking the possibilities – formal, conceptual and material – that occur between those coordinates, not necessarily the shortest distance. In Softside, the artist’s most recent exhibition at David Petersen Gallery, Smith selects security blankets and self-help books as his cues, taking the territory between the two as his starting point. Wooden planks suck up coppered salt like a pacifying thumb, and blankets dangle, coated in paint and varnish, serving as guides for improvements to self, and painting. These materials, though symbolic for self-help, are also corrupted from the most rudimentary painting supplies: wooden stretchers and woven substrates.
Installation view of Paintings for Germans, Sculpture for Snobs, Rochester Art Center, 2008.
Bruce Tapola
Tapola’s practice has long oscillated between painting and sculpture, abstraction and figuration, often resulting in hybrids of both. Humorous and wise, his work often jabs at art historical precedents, bargains with tropes, and juxtaposes idiosyncrasies of painting’s material qualities and capabilities. Balancing the acts of looking and toying, Tapola’s practice centers on the revealed intention behind the process of art-making and the expansive terrain between image and object. Destroying, repurposing and piling traditional supports, applying gorgeous paint handling to wonky refuse materials, nesting picture-hosting contraptions and color-coated detritus — all of it resides together in non-hierarchical installations: Tapola builds and dismantles the value system around painting’s objecthood.
Words woldrs woroid, Ute Bertog, 2011
Ute Bertog
Bertog’s practice leverages our trust in text as signifier; her work dissociates written language’s ability to communicate through abstract gestures, cursive mark-making, and word and character-shaped forms, as well as their obfuscation. She works in layers, painting over texts and letters, allowing the language of painting itself to be the communicator by leaning on its material qualities as a means of conveyance. Sometimes her surfaces take the form of the rectangular canvas, but other times the artist crops, cuts and reduces her canvas to silhouettes of utterances. Though language is central to her concepts and forms, Bertog’s work is equally interested in miscommunication – for Bertog, abstraction preoccupies, and her texts become secondary to painting’s materiality and the non-literal qualities of picture-making.
Young and Restless, Megan McCready, 2011.
Megan McCready
McCready arrives at wall-hanging objects via a background in sculpture, and her most recent body of work emerges from the exciting territory of three-dimensional strategies that conflate within the mien of painting. Her works are produced from swaths of cloth, leather, and vinyl, pulled and stapled over sculptural forms — some plinths, others more like the rectangular praxis of easel painting. Their lush material surfaces – from loose and folded to taught and pinched – reenact the motions of prepping a canvas, or suggest the pliability of a thick impasto. Her post-minimal objects, surfaces and unconventional mark-marking explore spatial concepts and the blur the mannerisms of both painting and sculpture.
Project Index #1: Wall Construction, Matthew Yaeger, 2012
Matthew Yaeger
Functioning as both objects and studio performances, Yaeger’s conglomerations of ascetic, unassuming materials depart from the picture-plane. Sculptural in form and experienced in situ, these arrangements suggest the painting process in its most fundamental, essential state. Some are wall-fixed and others floor-resting, the self-contained, pithy interactions among ordinary, Home Depot-variety materials address painting as an act of construction, as well as art object. Distilled elements from painting, including structural elements like stretchers, or the relationships between local and applied color, operate loosely in space – sometimes literally hanging – creating sculptural references to the geometries and gestures of abstract compositions usually found on canvas.
Introducing the Artists and Teams of Mini Golf 2013
mnartists.org and the Walker Art Center are pleased to present our third year of Walker on the Green: Artist-Designed Mini Golf, opening this May 23 and running through labor day. To celebrate our public launch, mnartists.org is excited to introduce the 13 artists and collaborative teams that will be producing 15 holes, composing two 7-hole [...]
mnartists.org and the Walker Art Center are pleased to present our third year of Walker on the Green: Artist-Designed Mini Golf, opening this May 23 and running through labor day. To celebrate our public launch, mnartists.org is excited to introduce the 13 artists and collaborative teams that will be producing 15 holes, composing two 7-hole courses with a shared 8th hole. Situated in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, this year’s call for artists encouraged garden-themed holes to celebrate the MGS’s 25th Anniversary. The course was selected by a team of Walker Art Center curators and staff, and presents a well-rounded roster of artists, architects, craftsmen, and designers, as well as a diversity in hole concepts, strategies for game-play, and new spins on traditional obstacles, skills and elements of chance.
Gopher Hole, Locus Architecture
Locus Architecture, of Minneapolis, crafts meaningful architecture for clients who care about their spaces and what they represent. They are true to their passions – modern architecture, sustainable design, community participation, innovative construction, detailed craftsmanship, and beautiful space. Gopher Hole challenges golfers to combine chance, putting skill, and physical analysis. The hole combines a converging chute, an elevated centripetal cone, gopher tunnels, and an obstacle-laden putting green. Can you predict where your ball will pop up?
Roaming Hole Gardens, Makesh!t
Dubbed “a weekly artistic free-for-all in St. Paul,” MAKESH!T is a free-form collective founded in 2010 with a mission of exploring the social and process-based aspects of art and collaborative making. Recent projects include rubylith screenprinting, slide and film manipulation, collage, letterpress, linocut, improvisational music, concrete casting, rubber stamp-making, outdoor projections and public drawing. The collective’s output reflects the wide-ranging interests and backgrounds of its members — Lucas Alm, Justin Heideman, Aaron Marx, Jake Nassif, Craig Phillips, Paul Schmelzer and Witt Siasoco — who are architects, collectors, writers, designers and media enthusiasts.
Deceptively simple in design and appearance, Roaming Hole Gardens transforms the familiar mini golf experience with a crucial twist: the hole roams. By moving topiary plugs from one hole to another, players change the object of the round for everyone, thereby altering the competitive and strategic landscape. The course’s artificial trees, shrubs and flowers are not merely aesthetic adornments, but mobile equipment. To play, you need to learn only one new rule: On your turn, hit your ball OR move the hole.
18 Holes in One, David Lefkowitz and Stephen Mohring
David Lefkowitz and Stephen Mohring are artists and Professors in the Art Department of Carleton College. Lefkowitz’s work in painting, installation, and mixed media addresses the blurry boundary between the human-built environment and the natural world, and his paintings of trompe l’oeil wall fixtures appeared in Lifelike at the Walker Art Center. Mohring’s sculpture combines traditional woodworking elements and digital technology. He also works as the resident set designer for Ten Thousand Things a Twin Cities based company that brings lively, intelligent theater to people with little access to the wealth of the arts.
18 Holes in One is a physical manifestation of an overlay of all 18 legendary greens as Augusta National Golf Course, home of the Master’s Tournament. The resulting composite will thrill and challenge both the novice and seasoned mini-golfer alike with eighteen potential targets on an undulating surface.
Garden Gnome Foosball, Nicola Carpenter, Bryan Carpenter and Susanne Dehnhard Carpenter
In 1998 Nicola, Bryan and Susanne had their first collaboration, a Peacock inspired Go-kart for the Father’s Day Art Soap Box Derby sponsored by the Soap Factory. Bryan brought his architectural background, Susanne her enthusiasm, and Nicola the whimsy of a seven year old. This family collaboration presents a mash-up of mini golf and foosball: the course first makes a half circle turn, banking noisily off of submerged wheelbarrows onto a playing field upon which the player and/or friends of the player may help the ball to its goal with assists from garden gnome strikers.
Zen Rock (The) Garden, Sarah Balk McGrill and Wesley Thayne Petersen
Sarah Balk McGrill is a photographer and owner, curator, consultant, and designer at McGrill Art Associates, an Art Consultation Group, where she produces creative environments for commercial and healthcare organizations through visual arts and exhibition programs. Wesley Thayne Petersen is currently working on his Master’s Degree in Sustainable Design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and owns a small construction company in Minneapolis, and values sharing the importance of sustainability as a core concept for living and building.
Zen Gardens are intended to imitate the intimate essence of nature, rather then reproduce nature’s appearance, as well as inspire meditation about the true meaning of life. Zen Rock (The) Garden brings this concept to mini golf, adding an element of playfulness and a focus on sustainable design.
Garden Maze, David Hultman and David Wulfman
Dave Hultman started his own design, machining, and fabricating business after working 28 years for the University of Minnesota where he designed and built research equipment. His current scope of work includes medical devices and scientific research equipment, furniture and building renovation. David Wulfman is a principal research and development engineer at Boston Scientific where he designs new products, processes, and material systems for medical devices. David was founder and principal at Facture Design, St. Louis, holds over 10 patents, including a track lighting system, a mechanical system for hard disk drives, as well as therapeutic medical devises, and is currently a PhD candidate. Hultman and Wulfman’s hole consists of a two dimensional, bi-directional pivoting frame, on the surface of which is embellished with a patterned garden maze motif, comparable to a tilting labyrinth game, in this case, the golf ball is used in lieu of a marble.
Rock! Garden, Aaron Dysart
In Dysart’s studio practice, the sculptor often parodies natural formations like tree branches or rocks, recreating and amending them with synthetic materials, such as wood glue – as well as the connotations of the alien material – often reimagining them as hybrids, functional objects and prosthetics. As a natural extension of his studio work (yeah, pun intended), Dysart will fashion his mini golf hole from musical fiberglass boulders, each coated in a glittering finish, appropriated from electric guitars and drum kits. We think these Dysart’s mini concert hole will be a rockin’, sparkely counterpart to Jim Hodges’ boulders and the infamous outdoor concert located on the adjacent hill.
Can You Handle This?, Tom Loftus and Robin Schwartzman
Robin Schwartzman (aka the Pink Putter) is an installation artist, a CNC Router technician and an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Minnesota. Tom Loftus (aka Mr. Tee) runs Modern Radio Record Label, works as a Career Services advisor at McNally Smith College of Music and is an organizer of creative endeavors. Tom and Robin share their love of mini-golf through A Couple of Putts, a blog that follows their adventures as they play and review courses around the country.
Loftus and Schwartzman create a giant watering can, incorporating kitsch and a combination of skill and chance. Can You Handle This? instructs players to loop through the watering can’s handle, through the can, out the spout and onto the lower putting green among glimmering ‘water’ and giant flowers.
Swarm, Alyssa Baguss and Alison Hiltner
In their individual artistic practices, Alyssa Baguss and Alison Hiltner are drawn to chronicling the histories of technological artifacts and how these objects can inform us of what is yet to come. Baguss’ work has been exhibited in the Twin Cities and regionally, most recently as a part of the Admire exhibition at Form+Content Gallery and Open Door 8 at Rosalux Gallery. Hiltner’s credits include solo exhibitions at Spike Gallery in New York, the Museum of Surgical Sciences in Chicago, a residency at Sculpture Space, two Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grants and she was named one of the 2011/12 Jerome Foundation Fellows.
Swarm explores a failed agrarian culture, the landscape now arid and repurposed by new inhabitants whose only visual imprint is their architecture. Players are challenged to work their way through the landscape as an ominous hum echoes through the chambers of the structure, leaving players uneasy of what resides within. Through craterous insect nests into watershed carved alluvial flats the players will traverse this par 4 environment of the future’s past.
Be A Sculpture!, Nicola Carpenter, Bryan Carpenter, Susanne Dehnhard Carpenter and Sean Donovan
Artist Nicola Carpenter works in different mediums including video, digital photography, sculpture, and textiles, exploring themes of memory. Sean Donovan is a multimedia artist working with new media technologies, sound, and is interested the relations made by collaborative participation. Nicola’s parents Bryan and Susanne are delighted to join in collaborative production. Be A Sculpture! invites fellow putters to engage with mini-golf using their bodies to obstruct game-play: you become the obstacles for your friends! Taking cues from sculptures found in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, participants are invited to place their feet upon footprints on the green in this part-performance, part-sculptural, interactive hole.
Earth Avenues, Stormi Balise and Kyle Potter
Artist and painter Stormi Kai Balise and conceptual artist Kyle Potter have an outstanding collaborative practice through working on Soap Factory’s Haunted Basement. In Earth Avenues,
players walk up a constructed hill to tee off into a flower bed, then watch their ball tumble through an unpredictable subterranean world laid out by ants before rolling out onto the green.
Holey Lighted, Jeffrey Pauling and Tyler Whitehead
Jeffrey Pauling and Tyler Whitehead began working with each other while attending Clemson University for their Masters of Architecture degree in 2009. Both have a developed a passion for design and fabrication specifically dealing with the intersection of technology and craft. Jeff and Tyler are both currently designers at Cuningham Group Architecture in Minneapolis.
Holey Lighted calls into question the nature of nature. By using digital fabrication techniques and non-organic material, the hole attempts to recreate the sensation of a shaded canopy in summer, while the player navigates multiple folded steel planes. The constructive forces of nature help inform the overall form, structure and experience.
Le Bagatelle de Bagatelle, Karl Unnasch
Karl Unnasch creates hobbyist artworks from his rural outpost in Pilot Mound, Minnesota. He is known for his Guild-of-One mobile workbench where the public is encouraged to drop off acculturated ephemerae for the artist to re-contextualize and/or re-engineer. Le Bagatelle de Bagatelle, designed as a game board known as a bagatelle, is played as a tribute to the pivotal history (circa 1770’s) where French parlor games of skill developed into gambling games of chance in an era of opulence and excess. The playing field consists of a small-scale version of the Chateau de Bagatelle and its accompanying gardens.
2 Holes, titles TBA, University of Minnesota Students
These holes will be designed by students from the University of Minnesota’s Arts 3390 course, Sculpture Methods and Practice: Site, Environment, and Community Engagement, taught by Chris Larson.
Ten Artists to Watch in 2013
This past year celebrated introductions to new spaces, innovative public programs, and remarkable solo and group moments for up-and-coming Minnesotan artists. With so many artists on the rise, I’d rather look forward to the year ahead by calling out emerging talents who show promise, authenticity, and sophistication. Keep your eyes peeled –these artists are up [...]
This past year celebrated introductions to new spaces, innovative public programs, and remarkable solo and group moments for up-and-coming Minnesotan artists. With so many artists on the rise, I’d rather look forward to the year ahead by calling out emerging talents who show promise, authenticity, and sophistication. Keep your eyes peeled –these artists are up to nothing but good.
Installation view of HOTTEA’s recent exhibition at HAUS Salon. Photo: Eli Eijadi
Eric Rieger
You may know Eric Rieger via his cozy, semiotic moniker, HOTTEA, whose typographic, temporary graffiti first appeared in rogue, public locations throughout the streets of Minneapolis and internationally. Rieger’s practice has since been endorsed by contemporary art venues, including the Minneapolis Institute of Art, where he created glowing color-field canopies from thousands of dangling strings of yarn. Rieger’s ability to pivot between form, discipline and artistic communities is a recipe for success in a broader contemporary practice. Rumor has it he has a painting show on the horizon and exhibitions soon to open in New York. My attention is fixed.
She Walked Into the Room Dripping Gold, Luke Grothe, 2011
Luke Grothe
For Luke Grothe, glamour is an aesthetic. In his “endless dance-party,” glitz, gold, fashion, lamé, and late nights are the subjects of his installations and images. In a heady, minimal, high-concept art landscape, Grothe’s practice is like Andrew WK kicking a Solo Cup around the set of Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” video; let’s keep this energy at a crescendo and hope there are more good times to come!
JAN-DEC, Lauren Thorson, 2012
Lauren Thorson
A recent MFA graduate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design–and clearly an excellent designer–Lauren Thorson’s practice covers the gamut, from data visualization and web design to GIFs, motion graphics, and interactive work, often taking meteorological findings as her subject with beautiful, graphic outputs and attention to palette and presentation. This includes interactive events, such as her project Synthetic Unity for Northern Spark in 2011. Thorson is also part of the Interactive Visualization Lab team at the University of Minnesota, where she specializes in illustrating rendering algorithms for describing complex motion data.
Alan Gerlach
An up-and-coming student of Chris Larson, Gerlach moves with ease through interdisciplinary arenas including printmaking, sculpture, video and photography. His fall 2012 BFA exhibition tackled the rich history and mise en scéne of a dilapidated flour mill through urban exploration coupled with archival historical studies and showed an impressive comprehension of materials and subject far beyond an undergraduate level.
Desperate Drawing #6, Katelyn Farstad, 2012
Katelyn Farstad
In what could be described, locally, as the best volunteer show ever, Katelyn Farstad received a solo exhibition at Midway Contemporary Art only two years after receiving her BFA. Her gritty sculptural painting conglomerates, haughty titling, and perverted artist statements stand out among her modest Minnesotan contemporaries. Discussion-worthy and easy to dismiss as youthful, Katelyn proved prolific enough to keep up with the hype. She recently caught the attention of major New York gallery Zach Feuer, where her Lee Press-on Nails, flypaper, spackled lattice, and crusty wicker frosted in acrylics merge seamlessly with Feuer’s roster of dirty Q-tip and soy sauce packet formalism. Next up for the artist is an exhibition at Chicago’s Julius Caesar Gallery. Am I curious as to what is in store for Farstad? Absolutely!
To the Victor Go the Spoils, Lea Sorrentino, 2012
Lea Sorrentino
Self-described as “short, loud and angry,” Lea Sorrentino is a vaguely sassy, whip-smart artist, recently graduating with a MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Working in sculpture, installation and video, in addition to being a thoughtful writer, Sorrentino produces work calling attention to the constructs of American success and the emotional investments we place in possessions and entertainment. Also, anyone with John Rambo and Steve Buscemi tattoos is alright in my book.
Sighting near Scipio, Utah, Nate Burbeck, 2011
Nate Burbeck
Catching a wave of popular circulation for his tumblr blog Fly Over Art and sister blogs, Beyond 9th Avenue and In The New Frontier, Nate Burbeck has initiated regional conversations with a broad and national audience, introducing new work from emerging artists in a non-hierarchical feed among contemporary stars like Nathan Hylden and museum favorites like Edward Hopper. New platforms for art sharing are trending–could Burbeck’s blogs go the way of Contemporary Art Daily? Either way, we artists thank you, Nate Burbeck, for expanding our circle and increasing our SEO! He’s an accomplished painter to boot, working in eerie social realism/contemporary regionalism.
MONOLITHS, Jesse Draxler, 2012
Jesse Draxler
Jesse Draxler’s collages are smart; the artist demonstrates a clear level of competence and purpose with editing and compositions. Working from pop-cultural and vintage imagery, his craft–call it X-acto expertise?–puts him at the forefront of other artists working with similar materials. His work borders on design–as in, it would make an awesome t-shirt–but the pieces also have strong footing as gallery-hanging art objects. What’s most notable is Draxler’s confidence with production and distribution. Aware of his audience and the context for work, the artist leverages the internet as a venue (and art form!) and reaches a broad audience which interacts with his work by reposting, commenting, and tagging.
The Pittz, video still, Katy Vonk, 2011
Katy Vonk
Katy Vonk works with a diverse array of media, including digital videos, photography, environments, drawing, sculpture. Her work feels fresh and diverse, creating digital atmospheres and static planes that feel painterly, abstract, spastic, frantic, and flippant, but then at other times soothing, gorgeous and vapid. Layered guttural sounds wash over manipulated synthetic animations in moody vignettes. All together they’re awesomely disturbing, visually compelling, and at times annoying.
The artist you haven’t heard of.
Don’t underestimate young blood. Emerging artists are growing up, graduating with gusto, relocating here from other states, creating their own venues and making better work, everyday. In 2013, I encourage artists and the arts-minded to make new acquaintances, and follow, support and collect work from that new and exciting talent.
On Wryness and Precision: A Conversation with Artist Steven Lang
Minneapolis-based artist Steven Lang’s idiosyncratic and hard-to-pin-down artistic practice ranges from collage and photography to social media and performance. The artist is comfortable with his own quirks – like an inside joke he shares with himself – and slyly indulges his deadpan humor, multiple personae and obsessive perfectionism in each project. In this conversation with [...]
Steven Lang, photo: Jesse Martin, 2012
Minneapolis-based artist Steven Lang’s idiosyncratic and hard-to-pin-down artistic practice ranges from collage and photography to social media and performance. The artist is comfortable with his own quirks – like an inside joke he shares with himself – and slyly indulges his deadpan humor, multiple personae and obsessive perfectionism in each project. In this conversation with the artist, Steven Lang lets us in on the joke and the content behind his array of projects.
Jehra Patrick
Steven, you self-identify as a perfectionist; as an artist, is perfection related to adhering to a certain level of skill or craftsmanship in your work, or is more about personal satisfaction?
Steven Lang
I am usually kidding when I self-identify as anything. But yes, I’ve struggled with perfectionism in my work. It helps and it hurts. A balance needs to be struck. If I can’t let things go, I try to stop and look at the work of other artists who know how shake themselves loose when needed. Artists who can get into a new groove and let it ride for a bit. (I’m thinking someone like Mike Kelley vs. someone like Richard Artswager.) Then I go back and see where perfectionism has helped me and where it has hurt me.
Jehra Patrick
Your predisposition and eye for details is clear from earlier collage projects, including optical compositions of pop culture references like Mickey Mouse and Paul Bunyan. Your meticulous approach to these subjects seems contrary to their iconic nature…. Tell me more about these subjects and your pursuit of challenging art forms like micro-collage.
Steven Lang
Well, I actually see icons as an ideal form, a perfect manifestation of type. So, when I approach them as subject matter, the details matter. Not that the figures can’t morph into something else, but something of that ideal has to remain. That’s where being meticulous seems to help. I can’t imagine a sloppy rendition of Mickey Mouse (who is actually a rat if you look closely).
Steven Lang, Double Aught, #1, M.A.G.S. series, digital photograph
Jehra Patrick
The M.A.G.S. series is a nice bridge between your collage work and photographic work, where you make use of a Richard Prince-esque approach to re-photography while including found objects in your compositions. Can you talk about this process?
Steven Lang
I wanted something to do when I was too tired to move, something I could literally set up on my nightstand. That’s where I did a lot of the M.A.G.S. series, all of which I did with my phone camera. Images of the body are compelling, and I like studying the minutiae of printing techniques of any kind. Photographing magazines really reveals the way they are printed (usually four-color halftone). You also pick up on things like fingerprints, gloss and reflection, staples, folds. I love the tactile quality of magazines often more than the content. In terms of found objects, it was something that came from my collage work — incorporating material and letting the layering of information lead to (hopefully) interesting connections.
Steven Lang,Teppanyaki Grill and Supreme Buffet (To Go), $4.99/lb, pigmented inkjet, 2011
Jehra Patrick
Comedy also plays an important role in your practice. As with the exaggerated chest hair in the M.A.G.S. series, or the S.C.A.N.S. series, where we see you making art jokes – like a parody Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty – and, at other moments, contemplating the value of technology by dropping entire meals on a scanner bed. How direct is humor in your work? Is it a conceptual interest, or do you feel like comedy is embedded – is it for you, or your audience?
Steven Lang
Q: What did the Fluxus artist say to the critic who was late? A: It’s about time.
Jehra Patrick
Hah! Okay, that was a very appropriate answer.
In addition to humor, I can sense an interest in systems and human behavior in your work. We see this take an autobiographical turn when you include your own behavior in your work, like your affinity for Diet Coke in the C.S.A. project. Talk a bit about your comfort level with revealing personal obsession in My Lonely Condition.
Steven Lang
My Diet Coke addiction was a running joke on Facebook for a long time, and I really wanted to use it as a point of departure in a piece. I had initially thought of saving all the bottles, cans, boxes, and receipts (a la David Hamlow) but decided against that since I work from home and don’t have enough space. Instead, I took the show on the road, so to speak. My Lonely Condition is a fairly light-hearted look at addiction, which of course has a darker side too. In this case, it was also about creating a travel-based photography project in addition to delivering a tangible product for the C.S.A. program.
2. Royal Tesoro, Royalton, MN, My Lonely Condition, 2012
Jehra Patrick
Other times you distance yourself from your work and introduce alter egos and characters, like Sue Earl Lang and Set Van Glen. Do you consider performance through social media to be an extension of your artistic practice?
Steven Lang
Everyone’s online presence is an alter-ego of sorts. But I consider myself an internet-based artist (as opposed to a gallery artist, street artist, book artist, etc.), particularly when it comes to photography.
Jehra Patrick
Your most recent work has taken a shift to photography, in the traditional sense. You are working with multiple camera formats and processes, and it seems like this heavily process-oriented art form would be a good fit for your detail-minded nature. Process aside, talk about your interest in shooting: You are out often, shooting in your own neighborhood and traveling – what are your interests in subject and composition?
Steven Lang
I worked my way into photography in a completely backwards manner. I had ruined my back from so many years of detailed collage work, so I decided to get a camera thinking it would be easy on my body. With very limited experience, I started looking for photographers to emulate, and for ways of looking through a camera at the world. I became attached to the process, and it helped to round out my repertoire of image making. But it also gave me a respect for photography that I didn’t have before. It’s an entire world in itself. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be, but because of the nature of the medium, there are bounds: it’s either a physical/mechanical image capture of some sort, or it isn’t. The capture was either happening at a certain time, or it wasn’t. I like that. And I like the triangulation of the photographer, the camera, and the image. The presence of a camera changes the relationship so significantly it’s hard to think outside that triangle the way you can with drawing or collage.
Best Steak House, St. Paul, 2012
Jehra Patrick
You recently participated in a residency at Elsewhere from which you created a photographic project. How did your experience there inform how you continue to shoot?
Steven Lang
My experience at Elsewhere gave me the time, space, and creative license to combine all of the ways I’d been working into a single project, which ultimately became a photo book called A is for Elsewhere. The book is a diary, a typeface, a photo series, and a story all at the same time. I think of storytelling as the primary purpose of art (in its non-ironic mode), so I was glad to be able to bring that into this project too. There are lots of stories at Elsewhere, and a few dozen of them, including my own, ended up in the book. I think if I do more photography and more books, my story will be in each of them in some way. So, as much as I love detail, I’m not a photographer who is necessarily looking to be objective.
More on Steven Lang:
Steven Lang is currently featured in the Artists in Storefronts project at Frenz Brakes on 28th and Nicollet, has work featured in Someplace Else at Friedman Iverson, and Lang has work featured in the December 18, Family Issue, of MPLSzine. Steven Lang will be the first guest on Salon Saloon’s, “The 2012 Show”, the late show, on Friday, December 28 of this year.
For the banner art of each issue of our twice-monthly newsletter, mnartists.org features a different Minnesota artist who is then profiled here, on the blog. Our Zoom In profiles offer a friendly introduction to Minnesota’s diverse arts community, a peek into the rich variety of work, across disciplines, made by creative individuals living in every corner of the state, one artist at a time.
An Ineffable, Emotional Place: The Landscapes of Tara Costello
Tara Costello’s richly painted panels have a sensibility of recollection — a feeling that you, the viewer, may have seen them somewhere before. You probably have seen her work before if you live in the Twin Cities; a seasoned member of Minneapolis longest-running collective, Rosalux, Tara has exhibited there since 2003. Or perhaps you’ve been [...]
Tara Costello, Span, Venetian plaster on panel, 2012
Tara Costello’s richly painted panels have a sensibility of recollection — a feeling that you, the viewer, may have seen them somewhere before. You probably have seen her work before if you live in the Twin Cities; a seasoned member of Minneapolis longest-running collective, Rosalux, Tara has exhibited there since 2003. Or perhaps you’ve been to the place her landscapes point to, a nondescript someplace that locates the viewer in a feeling rather than a specific destination. Or perhaps you are familiar with the legacy of abstraction; you may recognize materials and surfaces that look like art objects, with a kind of family resemblance. Tara Costello’s work is produced with and recalls in layers.
Through varying compositional strategies, Tara’s paintings vacillate between familiar and unfamiliar territories, and they invite her viewers to both enter, and then distance themselves from the latitudes she creates. While she uses a painter’s vocabulary, Tara’s facility with the medium comes from an atypical background, in commercial interiors and printmaking, giving her handling of the paint a distinct physicality and awareness for her materials.
Historically, painters parted with painting-as-illusion by exposing the medium’s viscous and drippy nature, or by revealing the tools and process of painting through loose brushwork and exposed canvas. Costello is not working in brushes and canvas. Instead, she applies pigment in Venetian plaster, an interior technique that combines plaster and marble-dust, allowing for rich variances in texture, surface and finish, through application and finishing treatments. Costello uses a trowel to apply the plaster atop wood paneling, working on both constructed and found substrates. She mashes on thick, sludgy layers, then levels them, at times planning for taped off areas of color, other times improvising, allowing pigments and materials to blend in broad swipes, catching on each other, piling and separating, creating grained surfaces like Richter’s squeegeed abstract canvases.
After applying the plaster and working her surfaces, Costello approaches them with a burnishing tool as an oil painter might varnish their surface with a glossy topcoat. The burnishing tool smooths the rough surfaces of the gritty marble dust and creates a glassy, mirrored surface. Through selective burnishing, Costello’s contrasting matte and opalescent surfaces achieve a mirage of depth that can only be detected through a personal encounter, varying from lush, velvety, or shimmering, to organic, raw, muddy, and silt-y.
Heavy Metal, Venetian plaster on panel, 2012
Beyond its surface attributes, working in plaster gives Costello a level of comfort and incautiousness in approaching her paintings — sometimes working subtractively, tearing back into the plaster with a trowel, perhaps a violent action but also a mark that resonates with the artist’s background as a printmaker. She can also work over these surfaces, repairing any damage, dents, or cuts with a smooth reapplication of plaster, like one might repair a wall with more efficient materials. The metaphors of building, repairing and covering in her work style point to the emotional range of material itself.
Regarding composition, we see Costello audition styles of mid-century American abstraction, discovering these forms and resolving modes of production on her own. The artist works free of historical association in favor of using these methods as a platform for working through emotion and the physical nature of plaster.
In form, Costello’s earlier work emerges from the tradition of abstract expressionism rooted in landscape. She works spontaneously in her handling and with compositional flexibility, producing mutated horizons, detectable pools of bodies of water, splashes of natural and reflected light, all through non-local color. She describes her work as hinting at the feel of the place – an ‘ineffable,’ emotional place – which for Tara is largely autobiographical. Sometimes she geolocates us to the Ballyvaughn’s rolling green hills and shimmering limestone coasts or other times we are third party to a romantic break-up.
Her work evolves into cropped portions, zoomed-in spaces in the landscape. Trees become geometry; lakes become swaths of color; rectangles are characters for barns, trees, amidst color fields. This level of reduction of her subject is akin to the push-pull of first generation abstract expressionist Hans Hoffman, or aerial landscapes of second generation Ab-Exer Richard Diebenkorn.
Curve, Venetian plaster on panel, 2012
Tara’s most recent work takes a more non-objective, but stylized turn. Her rich velvety black panels recall Harvey Quaytman’s geometric arrangements or the intense black on black of Ad Reinhardt’s black paintings. Little color is introduced — perhaps white, or a single shade of green. For Costello, these panels are also emotional, but a means of issuing controlled emotion, providing her with order during personal disorder or emotional challenges. She approaches these panels with a design strategy, but leaves elements of surface and handling to chance and reaction as she continues to work through the piece.
More on Tara Costello
Tara Costello currently has work on view through SOOlocal, a pop-up boutique gallery on Nicollet Avenue and will have an exhibition with Val Jenkins this February at Rosalux Gallery.
For the banner art of each issue of our twice-monthly newsletter, mnartists.org features a different Minnesota artist who is then profiled here, on the blog. Our Zoom In profiles offer a friendly introduction to Minnesota’s diverse arts community, a peek into the rich variety of work, across disciplines, made by creative individuals living in every corner of the state, one artist at a time.
Aesthetics of Mini Golf: An Interview with A Couple of Putts
Mini golf has long served as the fun and accessible answer to its more serious counterpart – can we say ‘real golf?’… ‘regular golf?’ – well, golf. We recall playing it as a small child, but are now reminded of our awkward full-grown adult stature as we hunker over our putters and our shots are [...]
Hole one at Action City – Eau Claire, WI. Image courtesy of acoupleofputts.com
Mini golf has long served as the fun and accessible answer to its more serious counterpart – can we say ‘real golf?’… ‘regular golf?’ – well, golf. We recall playing it as a small child, but are now reminded of our awkward full-grown adult stature as we hunker over our putters and our shots are compromised by castles and plastic animals.
While we can all appreciate the kitschy aesthetic of mini golf courses, their obstacles and inhabitants, mini golf has also seen a rise in recognition from contemporary institutions, including our own Walker Art Center, who has been partnering with local artists on their courses’ design and creation since 2004. So what is the connection between high art and lowbrow sport?
Writer and historian Jonathan Haeber would convince us that, “like art, the design of a course changes in the realm of time, and attracts the people of its age. Like cinema, miniature golf is a variant of art for the masses. It is the greatest unknown art of the American landscape and its artists are the [sic] craftsman that satiate the lower and middle class of their appetite for culture,” states, Haeber, who goes on to support his claim with how various stages of miniature golf course design corresponds with traditional movements and figures in art.
The Walker Art Center, along with partners mnartists.org, will continue this legacy of art for the masses by working with local artists for another summer of Artist-designed mini golf, opening summer 2013 in the midst of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.
While each hole has a par, what makes one hole or a course ‘good?’ Does this ‘art of the American landscape’ have aesthetic criteria? What should artists think bout when crafting their proposals? I sit down with Tom Loftus and Robin Schwartzman, a.k.a. Mr. Tee and the Pink Putter, of A Couple of Putts, a blog dedicated to charting and rating mini golf courses across the United States, to learn more about the aesthetics of mini golf.
Jehra Patrick
How long have you both been playing mini-golf?
Tom Loftus
Boy, I’m not sure. Maybe 30 years? It was a fond childhood memory that I can’t put a year on, but I can say I have played since I was a “kid”.
Robin Schwartzman
We would play every year on family vacations to the Jersey Shore and around eastern Pennsylvania, where I grew up. My dad always made my sister and I hold the clubs properly and he would count every stroke penalty, so we took the game pretty seriously. I’m not sure how old I was when I started, but it has been a long time.
Patrick
You guys are not just your average enthusiasts, I would call you connoisseurs! How many courses have you played?
Loftus
We’ve played about 40 courses each. Both of us know the courses from our respective states and surrounding areas. I grew up in Minnesota and played a number of courses that don’t exist anymore. Mini-golf was a bigger deal in the 80s and I would play at camping sites and various amusement centers. The local options are much more limited these days.
Patrick
You’ve both also been to mini golf courses all over the United States. Are there areas where mini golf thrives more than others?
Schwartzman
Mini-golf is definitely most popular in warmer climates and dense tourist areas (i.e. Wisconsin Dells, Jersey Shore, Orlando). The mini-golf capitol of the US is Myrtle Beach, S.C. They have about 50 courses there and we’re planning to visit soon.
Patrick
What are some of your most memorable holes?
Loftus
The Half-Pipe “hole” at the National Building Museum course was one of the wildest holes I have played to date. I never actually got the ball in one of the holes. The final hole at Duffer’s in New Jersey that features an animatronic shark sticks out in my mind visually. The concept behind the final hole at Big Stone Mini Golf in Mound, MN is brilliant. The ball slowly moves down a path of water to it’s final resting place. All of these holes are very different but conceptually and visually stood out in my mind.
Schwartzman
I always seem to remember the holes where I score a hole-in-one. The coolest hole I played this summer was Hole 2 at Barnyard Swing in Cooperstown, NY. Instead of playing the green, you have the option to hit the ball right into the course’s river. The water flow moves the ball down a couple feet to a metal grate, which directs the ball back onto the putting green with optimal chances for a hole-in-one (which I did get!). Since Barnyard Swing, we’ve encountered 3 or 4 holes just like it at other courses in PA and NJ.
Another one of my favorites is The Spiral at Big Stone Mini Golf . The entire green forms a giant spiral surrounded by sunflowers, so you can’t see where the hole is until you work your way to the middle. This one is also unique because there are often live chickens and roosters running through the flowers and onto the putting green- not something you see at every mini golf course.
Patrick
You have more or less a 5 star rating system, but what criteria do you look for in a good mini golf course?
Loftus
I like unique holes or courses where all aspects of the design are well executed. We run into courses that are poorly maintained or they look nice but make for boring play all the time. You can tell which courses consider all aspects of the experience whether it’s a net to recover your ball from a larger water hazard or unique signage for each hole that is related to the actual play of the hole.
Schwartzman
For me it’s often about the details. Signage, overarching themes, waterfalls and rivers, ice cream and creative scorecards, just to name a few. But I agree with Tom – the course has to be well-maintained in addition to having a unique variety of plays.
Patrick
I think that most mini golf goers enjoy that kitsch factor. Are there other ‘aesthetics’ for mini golf?
Loftus
I appreciate courses that have less of a “real golf” feel. Numerous courses try to be a miniature version of a golf course. There are some cases in which it is pulled off so well and the play is challenging that can make the play and overall experience worthwhile. Unfortunately, there are many courses end up resembling the more stuffy and less engaging elements of your average golf course. It’s no surprise that a lot of those types of courses also include golf pro shops and driving ranges. I respect the game of golf but the reason I like mini-golf is that it more inclusive. It’s inexpensive to play but more importantly, mini-golf accommodates all ages and levels of play.
Patrick
Can we talk about animatronics?
Schwartzman
Many courses use motors for moving parts (windmills, doors, ferris wheels, etc.). As far as animatronics that move and talk, we’ve only really found these at the very touristy courses where there is a lot of local competition. Duffer’s has a crew of singing pelicans that greet you at the entrance, as well as a giant shark on the 19th hole. But the animatronics we’ve encountered just add decoration rather than interfere with the play of the hole.
Delightfully tacky: sharks and shipwrecks make Duffer’s in Wildwood, NJ a kitschy hole-in-one. Image courtesy of acoupleofputts.com
Patrick
Are there themes, concepts or obstacles that are popular on a national level? Dinosaurs? Black light? Sand traps? Castles?
Loftus
There are a lot of localized themes. For example, Melody Lakes Golf in Pennsylvania had many dutch country elements. Courses at the Jersey Shore had elements related to the beach (lighthouses, fish) and the boardwalk. Also, kid-friendly themes like animals, pirates, dinosaurs, nursery rhymes, castles, dragons and did we mention dinosaurs? Popular themes in mini-golf follow common amusement park themes that would appeal to children.
There are some common concepts courses follow. There are golf-like, black light, tournament style, kid friendly and of course, artist-designed.
Common sets of obstacles dot almost any course. Common obstacles are sand traps, water hazards, windmills, bridges, loop de loops, waterfalls, pipe play, ramps, jumps, hilly terrain, motorized hazards, rocks and fiberglass figures.
Did we mention dinosaurs?! Image courtesy of acoupleofputts.com
Patrick
Artist-designed mini golf has come a long way since Walker’s 2004 course, what happens when artists and designers enter this traditionally kitsch territory?
Loftus
The intersection of artists/designers with mini-golf is very exciting. It offers a fresh approach to a realm that can be a bit conservative and repetitive at times. Different elements of kitsch can be brought in to update your standard windmill, loop de loop or bridge.
Patrick
Are these playable, or do they just look cool?
Schwartzman
I think it’s still a mix of both. There are certainly artist designed holes that are super successful in terms of playability and creativity. However, there are still many that would never make it in a commercial course due to a lack of practicality and durability.
Loftus
Problems arise when the play is not considered at all. The basic premise of moving a ball from a starting point to a hole has to remain in the back of the mind of the artist or designer.
Patrick
What are pitfalls for design? Does Design with a capital ‘D’ ever compromise playability?
Loftus
Design can comprises play and complicate the experience. A hole can be challenging and involve a lot of steps but it shouldn’t be confusing. One should know where each hole begins and ends. Fashion over function shouldn’t result in the lack of a hole or design flaws that prevent the possibility of getting the ball in the hole.
Schwartzman
We’ve played some holes designed by architects at the National Building Museum course. While they were certainly unique, abstract and aesthetically interesting, many of them just didn’t play well. Surface has a lot to do with this. One hole was a fiberglass labyrinth. It’s surface was so smooth that the ball wouldn’t stop rolling, making it impossible to score under par. Another hole was comprised of hundreds of small wood blocks cut at different heights with tiny gaps between them, which made for a highly irregular and uneven surface. Sometimes the ball would just stop between gaps and you couldn’t get it to roll smoothly.
Design shouldn’t compromise playability. Image courtesy of acoupleofputts.com
Patrick
Are there identifiably ‘bad holes’?
Loftus
Absolutely. The worst and most unforgivable holes are the ones that are maintained so poorly that it actually affects the play. Mini-golf’s popularity has waned which has made it less profitable than it has been in the past. There are a number of elements like motors that move water or turf that are not cheap to begin with and require money to maintain function and play. We’ve come across many non-functioning windmills, mangled greens and sloppy sand traps that negatively affect the overall experience.
Schwartzman
There have been a number of courses that had greens with multiple hole options but no rules or directions as to which one is the “right” hole. This always seems arbitrary, unnecessary and makes for confusing play.
Patrick
Do you have advice for artists proposing holes? What are your recommendations for courses MN artists should visit for inspiration?
Loftus
Play local if you can or search online there are a ton of resources. One of the courses that Robin and I are looking forward to playing down the road is Par-King (http://www.par-king.com/). It’s considered one of the best courses in the country and you can view videos on their site of how the course works. Locally, you can take a look at indoor courses in Chaska and the Mall of America or play outdoors at Goony Golf in Columbia Heights or Big Stone in Mound. Big Stone is the best of the lot and Goony Golf has three different courses with a variety of types of holes.
Overall, find a good balance between creativity, practicality and fun play for players of varying skill levels.
Schwartzman
I’ve done some extensive internet searches for artist-designed mini golf courses. Because many of them are temporary, I haven’t personally gotten to play them. However, it is always inspiring to look at photos and watch videos online!
Off Course
La Bolleur
Kisslan Chan
Holecene 4
Holocene 5
Golden Door
Big Art
JuxtaPutt
Figment
Nova 2012
Subpar
Because We Can Art Golf at Maker Faire Austin
The Putting Lot
Environmental Mini Golf
SPUR
Try your hand at one of the local courses recommended by our experts, then submit your proposal for an Artist-designed Mini Golf hole at: mnartists.org/golf
Need advice on crafting your proposal? Not sure what a good sketch or mock-up looks like? Attend our information session at the Walker Art Center Thursday, November 8, at 7 pm: http://www.walkerart.org/calendar/2012/artist-designed-mini-golf-information-session
What makes a course a hole-in-one or a whiff? For full reviews on courses from the Pink Putter and Mr. Tee, check out Tom and Robin’s blog at: http://acoupleofputts.com/
Field Trip! A Celebration of Art and Nature Returns
Is it really September? The State Fair has come and gone, #catvidefests were watched and LOLed at, I hung out with salamanders and hawks, drew Death Metal logos, and rolled six-sided die with costumed children and colleagues, handed out crates of art to delighted collectors, got web-wise, and still have no idea who are on [...]
Is it really September? The State Fair has come and gone, #catvidefests were watched and LOLed at, I hung out with salamanders and hawks, drew Death Metal logos, and rolled six-sided die with costumed children and colleagues, handed out crates of art to delighted collectors, got web-wise, and still have no idea who are on the Twins… basically most of the summer has been a blur!
While it went by fast, I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate the end of summer and welcome fall colors and ambitions then with a day trip to Silverwood Park. Join mnartists.org and Silverwood Park with a day of nature and art with the return of Field Trip! Hosted at Silverwood Park situated in St. Anthony, MN, - just north of Minneapolis, and so close you can’t-believe-you-haven’t-been-there-before! – this years fall fest includes a line up of all-day, outdoor fun for artists and families.
Mark your calendar’s for Saturday, September 22, and come try your hand at fort building, collaborative art projects and other creative play. Don’t forget to hang around for the live music and nature-inspired poetry readings. Stay for a while or spend the entire day playing at the park. Pack a picnic, relax on a blanket and celebrate our local artistic community in this awesome natural setting.
Nature and Nurture, Noon – 8:00 p.m.
Silverwood Gallery
In conjunction with Field Trip, Silverwood Park and mnartists.org invited local artists and their children to participate in a gallery show in a celebration of art and family through collaborative art making. The show is on view September 13 – September 30 in the Silverwood Park Gallery.
Silverwood Beach (image courtesy Silverwood Park)
Sarah Peters and the Sea Clamp , 1 – 3 p.m.
Silverwood Beach
Row around Silverwood Lake in a hand-made Portuguese-style dinghyand pick up a ‘zine with instructions on how to build your own boat.
Canoeing on Silver Lake, noon – 4:00 p.m.
Silverwood Beach
Enjoy a FREE paddle on Silver Lake! Head to the beach for a leisurely float, beautiful scenery and even a water bound sculpture or two.
Fort Building, Noon – 5:00 p.m.
Dyers Garden
Channel your inner child and create forts among Silverwood’s trees using natural elements. No secret passwords needed to participate, just a little creativity.
To Dye For: Revived, Noon – 5:00 p.m.
Dyers Garden
Delve into the nature of plant pigments and hammer out hues with plant samples from Silverwood Park! Personalize a piece of fabric from our sculptural installation and incorporate it into a fort or performance of your own.
(image courtesy of Silverwood)
Treasure Map, Noon – 5:00 p.m.
Begin at Veranda
Families! Grab a Silverwood treasure map and hit the trails for an artful adventure your young ones are sure to enjoy.
Letterbox Hunt, Noon – 5:00 p.m.
Begin at Veranda
Test your treasure-seeking ability by following descriptive clues toward a hidden letterbox. Once you find the box, stamp your paper with the hand-carved stamp and return to the Visitor Center to receive a prize!
Art and Nature Hike, 1:00 & 3:00 p.m.
Meet at the entrance to the Visitor Center
Discover more about the artists who have contributed their creativity to the trails. You might even meet a real artist or two!
I Spy Silverwood, Noon – 5:00 p.m.
Veranda
Do you see what I see? Peer through the golden picture plane to solve the riddles and spy with your eye all of the amazing things happening at Field Trip today.
Art on Foot: Sculpture and Poetry, Noon – 8:00 p.m.
Park Trails
Take map and go on a self-guided tour of the many artworks and audio poetry installed throughout the park created by Minnesota artists and poets. Find sculptures by Aaron Dysart, Alonso Sierralta, Richard Bonk, Sean Connaughty, Alexa Horochowski, Al Wadzinski, John Fleischer, Andrew MacGuffie, and Mark O’Brien. Listen to the new Poetry Trail including Ed Bok Lee, Guante, Joyce Sutphen, May Lee Yang, Clarence White, and Maggie Ryan Sandford
Yours Truly, Minnesota, Noon – 5:00 p.m.
Veranda
Come rediscover the post office and the physical act of letter writing with Jenni Undis from local letterpress studio Lunalux. Create one-of-a-kind correspondence to share your Minnesota Nice with a stranger from another state via the USPS. Special letter making and decorating supplies will be on hand for postal personalization.
The Conversationalist, Taylor Baldry, 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Veranda
In the age of Facebook, smartphones and Twitter, face-to-face conversation is becoming a dying art. The Conversationalist invites guests to sit down and select a from a topics menu (or suggest their own) and have a conversation without the aid of social media or technology. Be reminded of what it was like to have a face-to-face conversation in the Digital Age. Topic du jour: Time Travel
Lawn Games, Noon – 6:30 p.m.
Great Lawn
Grab friends (or friendly strangers) and start a game of bocce ball, lawn Jenga, or tug of war. Play with a giant parachute, gigantic bubbles and even give hula hoops a shot.
Traveling Art Emporium, Noon – 5:00 p.m.
Great Lawn
Stop by Rage to Order’s mini art carnival for free art activities and live demonstrations by professional St. Paul artists! Activities include projects you can take home and community sculptures made out of natural and recycled materials!
Clay Olympics, Noon – 5:00 p.m.
Great Lawn
Not nearly as serious as the summer games in London, a friendly competition of clay games awaits you at Silverwood Park. Individual and team events. Open to all ages and abilities. Get ready to play with mud (i.e., clay)!
ON STAGE
(music and poetry readings)
3:30 & 5:00 Brian Laidlaw and the Family Trade
6:00 Widow Jones
7:00 Dear Data
Poetry Readings in between musical performances by Maggie Ryan Sandford and Clarence White
‘Extra Credit: After School Specials Panel 1 Recap’ – a guest post by Kate Renee
Artist Kate Renee attended the first After School Specials and offers her summary of tips and topics covered on presenting your work online. She joined us again as a panelist for our second panel, which covered tips for marketing your work through content development. The After School Special program is a series of three panels that [...]
Artist Kate Renee attended the first After School Specials and offers her summary of tips and topics covered on presenting your work online. She joined us again as a panelist for our second panel, which covered tips for marketing your work through content development.
The After School Special program is a series of three panels that present practical information about presenting, marketing and selling artwork online. The panel discussions are built on a partnership between SooVAC and mnartists.org and were designed to provide artists with a place of dialogue and conversation rather than a typical workshop. The idea behind this was to guide and showcase possibilities for artists think about in terms of their careers, rather than presenting a typical ‘how-to’ or top ten list.
Our first panel featured, Jesse Draxler and Beth Bowman, both artists, alongside Alison Beattie from Fallon. They shared their tools, tips and topical information about online venues used to promote their work including their artist websites and social networking platforms.
If you’re interested in following along or recapping the material covered during our panels, Katie Czarniecki Hill from mnartists.org has been busily live tweeting during each discussion. Follow #artistsprofdev to catch up with our conversation
Alison Beattie began our conversation with speaking about UX, or user experience. She posed five questions to the audience to help them think about how their viewers and audience are navigating, using and experiencing artists’ websites.
1. Who is your audience?
2. What does your audience need?
3. What is their context?
4. What can you do for them?
5. What does your site say about you?
Jesse Draxler showed us how he began with a standard website template and customized it to fit his needs and make it easy to view his work. One handy tip he shared is to have your CV or resume already open online. People are less likely to wait for a downloaded version to pop up. Jesse’s website is a great example how artists can organize various series and groups of images in a digital gallery, providing three separate ways to navigate through the images to allow easy access and navigation.
Beth Loraine Bowman showed us how she designed her website to be like a social networking hub. Her Four Square, Vimeo, Flickr, Pinterest and other sites all feed into her website and her viewers do not need to jump around each of her social networks.
Other Notes:
+ Some audience members pointed out that we often come across an artist with the same name who already has the domain registered or someone in another field who is popular for their career. If you can get your name or artist name as a domain, put forth the money to save it now. As an artist who has also had issues with this, I decided to go by my first and middle name to help stand out from the thousands of other “Johnsons” out there. While it’s not practical for every artist to have a different artist name, think of other ways to differentiate yourself. Consider offering the current domain holder to sell it to you.
+ Panelist concurred that you can ramp up your current SEO (Search Engine Optimization) by providing live links, posting often and use categories for blog posts or hash tags (#) on Twitter posts.
+ Artists can monitor their activity through Google Analytics and have Google send you notifications when your name appears elsewhere with Google Alerts.
+ New options in domain names! .art is due to come out in 2013! (http://www.newgtldsite.com/dot-art-tld-domain-names/)
+ While our panels offered many tips, suggestions and possibilities to our audience, we also thought to suggest that artists should not go home and do all of this at once! Take your time and consider what is relevant to your arts career.
+ Carolyn Payne, Executive Director of Soo Visual Arts Center, was also kind enough to type up a list of words and definitions discussed at the panel to help clarify and guide artists as they work through building their online presentation materials (see below).
Glossary from After School Special
by Carolyn Payne, SooVAC Executive Director
Blog: a Web site containing the writer’s or group of writers’ own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other Web sites.
Blogger: a free tool for creating blogs.
Blogspot: is also a free tool for creating blogs.
Cargo Collective: a free resource for building and hosting a personal webpage within a community of webpages for creative.
Etsy: an e-commerce website to set up an online shop.
Facebook: a social networking website.
Flickr: a way to store, sort, search and share your photos online.
Foursquare: is a location-based social networking website for mobile devices, like smartphones. Users “check in” at venues to let everyone know where they are.
Goodsie: an e-commerce website to set up an online shop.
Google Alert: A tool to get emails sent to you when Google finds new results — such as web pages, newspaper articles, or blogs — that match your name or search term
Google Analytics: Google Analytics shows you how people found your site, how they explored it, and how you can enhance their visitor experience.
Instagram: a free photo-sharing app.
.me: a service for personalized domain names.
mnartists.org: an online community of artists, artwork, organizations, articles, events and opportunities that also supports artists with off-line programs and resources.
Path: an app to share text, music, images, and location with a smaller number of people on a smartphone.
Pinterest: a visual bookmarking/social networking site.
Society 6: an e-commerce site for artists that also makes your products(prints, t-shirts, etc.)
SEO: Search Engine Optimization: the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines like Google.
Tumblr: a blogging platform/ social networking site that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio.
Twitter: a social networking site that allows you to send and read short, mostly text based posts.
UX: User Experience- a user’s overall satisfaction level when interacting with your website.
URL- the address of a website.
Vimeo: a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos.
WordPress: a free, Web-based software program that anyone can use to build and maintain a website or blog.
YouTube: a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos.
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(photo courtesy of the artist)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: KATE RENEE
Kate Renee lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kate graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BA in fine arts, art history, and a minor in design, and has worked with various galleries and museums in the Twin Cities including the Katherine E. Nash Gallery, Larson Art Gallery, American Swedish Institute and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. She designed currently manages the Solo Exhibition Program at Altered Esthetics.
Kate is building a national and international reputation with exhibitions throughout the United States. In 2011, Kate began a six week residency at Prairie Center for the Arts in Peoria, IL, where she focused on building a new body of work. Currently, she is a workshop teacher at Bloomington Theatre and Art Center where she teaches arts business workshops. She also is a marketing assistant for Michael McGraw’s Local Artist Interviews.
You can see Kate’s work on her website www.katerenee.com or follow her artist development blog www.thesuctioncup.com
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Join us for Panel 3: Selling You Work – Use online Services to Sell Your Art and Fund Your Projects
Tuesday, September 18 | 7 pm | SooVAC
Your art is up and the word is out! Ready to make a living? Learn from professional artists who think beyond the gallery and turn their web presence into income through alternative distribution models like Etsy.
This session will include:
+ Real life success stories
+ Introduction to selling through Etsy
+ Demonstrations on managing your account
+ Tips and helpful hints
$20 per panel or $50 to attend all three
SooVAC and Walker Art Center members receive $5 off
Register HERE