Friday, September 26, 2014
Artist Film Friday
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| Louise Bourgeois photographed by James Hamilton, in 1992, with her piece Arch of Hysteria |
Here is the synopsis of the film from Wikipedia:
Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine, a 2008 documentary film about artist and sculptor Louise Bourgeois directed by Marion Cajori and Amei Wallach and distributed by Zeitgeist Films, chronicles the life and imagination of Paris-born artist Louise Bourgeois. Her process is on full display in this documentary, which features the artist in her studio and with her installations, shedding light on her intentions and inspirations. Throughout the documentary, Bourgeois reveals her life and work to be imbued with her ongoing obsession with the mysteries of childhood. Bourgeois has for six decades been an important and influential figure in the world of modern art. In 1982, at the age of 71, she became the first woman to be honored with a major retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art. She is perhaps best known for her series of massive spider structures that have been installed around the world. Filmed with unprecedented access to the artist between 1993 and 2007, Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine is a comprehensive examination of the creative process.
The reason I wish to share this film with you is because there is one point in the film that illustrates very beautifully why artists contribute so much to the world and the people in it.
Artists manifest and share what unhinges our own grief and our own pain and what releases the light of our souls. Even though manifesting these emotions through art is therapy for us, and can be disturbing sometimes, the unhinging of these emotional doors help other people too. Even if certain emotional doors remain locked in you...at least on one side of the door, maybe some light can come in.
Here is a part of the movie I have transcribed for you. Louise is speaking with, I think Amei Wallach. She is sitting at a table in her kitchen and she has a tangerine in her hands. As she is speaking she is drawing on the outside of the tangerine with a sharpie marker and then cutting along those marks through the peel. Here's a visual:
Tangerine - the word is a stimuli for me. If I start drawing a figure on the tangerine little by little the past is going to re-emerge and I will be able to verbalize it. That's it (holding up the tangerine). Now this is not my work of art - it was my father's work of art. Around the end of the dinner on Sunday, he would stand up and take his tangerine and announce he was making a little portrait of his daughter. After drawing it he had a way of cutting it - like so - ...so then you lift up all these shapes that you have drawn and then cut (she demonstrates, peeling back the different peel shapes) the drawing the cutting and the lifting - right. And then when you reach the navel the core would come out. This is the moment you would look inside and the core was fantastic - you would marvel at it right? And you were supposed to marvel at it too; "Look, just look! How impressive." Then he would turn and say "I am sorry that my daughter does not exhibit such beauty because my figure is very rich and obviously my daughter doesn't have very much there - the little creature was just a girl." Maybe the audience never peeped, since they were being fed, they never peeped and maybe - maybe some of them felt sorry for us. But I didn't realize that, I thought at the time that they were laughing at us, that they were not laughing with us, that they were laughing at us. And the pain was very great. (she is trying to keep her composure and must pause from time to time). After fifty years the thing is so vivid it is as if it had happened yesterday. (long pause again) All these children gather up in the night and what can they do except cry and cry in the night? An it is completely useless...what I want to say is that people want to cry in the night...shy do they do so? They don't do it to be clever. They don't do it to disturb the peace. They do it because...it helps them and, since you become very ugly when you yell, you know? . . . .so they cry all night an no body knows why...(she cannot keep her composure any longer in front of the camera and leaves the table and the screen goes dark. The next frames of are one of her exhibits and you hear her voice again), ...I overcame this trauma through a dream. . . .his eyes fell out on the table and the cat jumped up on the table and gobbled up his two eyes. I had achieved my revenge.It is a constant amazement to me that so many people ever survived childhood. Louise had three boys of her own and I don't think she was always easy on them either. At one point in the film she says about parents and children that you come here and you were never promised a rose garden and parents do the best they can.
Hope you are doing the best you can today. I know I am...and I'll be back tomorrow. I think it may be Selling Art Tips Saturday :).
'Til tomorrow!
~Alex
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Evolution Revolution
But first, I just want to say. There are some artists out there who are constantly fretting about finding "their style" of painting or sculpture or ...whatever it is they create and I say...stop it!
Instead. Relax! Through your lifetime create and create and create - do it the way that it is in your heart to do it. To put constraints upon what you do because you have been convinced by someone(s) - or you just think so yourself - that what your work looks like today is what your collectors expect and want and so on...could very well be limiting your contribution to art and the evolution of your work and to the whole world of art while you are here.
If you are thinking those thoughts I say: Don't Do It! - look at those thoughts squarely in the eye and then...stage a Revolution! Imagine if the Beatles just kept writing songs like "It's Been a Hard Day's Night" and never wrote "Across the Universe" or "Let it Be"?
What if the artist who painted this picture continued to paint like this all his life?
Can you believe that 22 years later the same painter painted this same scene and it looked like this?
I want to share with you an excerpt from a wonderfully written article which was published in The Guardian written by Kevin Rushby in May 2013:
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| Cézanne immortalised the Mont Sainte-Victoire 87 times – and even purpose-built his studio to ensure a good view of it. Photograph: Kevin Rushby |
. . . . For our brief overnight stop in Aix, I'm determined to visit Cézanne's studio (atelier-cezanne.com), purpose-built so the artist could easily view his mountain. His tiny house has miraculously survived much as he left it: his hat is on the peg, his backpack waits by the chair, and on the wooden desk stands his last wine beaker, dry and purple-stained. It is as though the man has simply flown from the window and is out there with the nightingales. All around are objects recognizable from his paintings: the olive jar, the wooden rosary, the empty bottles and the armless cherub figurine, mundane objects that he transformed into thrilling and potent images.
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| Cézanne's Mont Sainte-Victoire seen from la Route du Tholonet. Photograph: The Gallery Collection/Corbis |
During Cézanne's life, few people, a handful only, came to this place. He had abandoned the art world of Paris and been depicted as a failure by his former friend Emile Zola in the 1886 novel L'Oeuvre.
Our guide to the artist's studio, Gabriel, makes a face: "After that, the two men never spoke again."
Gabriel shows us the extra-tall door in a corner of the room, which allowed Cézanne to take big canvases outside to paint in natural light: "He lived on an allowance from his father then, when the father died, Cézanne inherited everything."
Cézanne's stubborn refusal to give up on painting must have been particularly annoying to his parent, a self-made man and bastion of the local bourgeoisie. No one liked the young Cézanne's works, except the occasional maverick American. At one point some citizens of Aix actually asked their unwanted artist to leave. Sales of his paintings were so rare that the lower room of this one-up-one-down house became choked with canvases.
In the upstairs studio, I find a chest of drawers under the north window that contains souvenirs, photographs and mementoes, among them a letter written to Claude Monet and the clay pipe that features in The Card Players.
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| Cézanne's studio in Aix. Photograph: Kevin Rushby |
Last year, over a century after Cézanne died, it was reported that one of the five versions of this painting sold at auction for over $250m. It's a shame, I reflect, looking down at that cheap clay pipe, that his father didn't live to see the moment when his son's painting became the most expensive the world has ever seen. Mind you, if he had, he would also have witnessed his grandson selling off those treasures for a few francs in the days after Paul died.
Leaving the studio we set off up the hill to find the viewpoint where Cézanne painted many of those Mont Sainte-Victoire pictures. Like the studio, it is still much as he found it: a fabulous panorama of pantiled rooftops and cypress trees stretching out across rolling hills to the spectacular peak topped by an enormous cross. One local who spied on the old white-bearded painter reported that his technique could be highly unorthodox. He once got so angry with his failure to render the sublime colours and forms that he grabbed a nearby rock and smashed it through the canvas. . . . .Now I'm going to have to check my passport, make sure it hasn't expired and make arrangements to go to the south of France this summer with my dear sweet hardworking husband. I don't think he'll mind.
Here are some other nice things to read about this area of France and more about Cézanne painting Mont Sainte-Victoire:
http://www.fantasticprovence.com/section/culture-fashion_r5/the-mont-sainte-victoire-by-paul-cezanne_a928/1
http://usa.loccitane.com/fp/Provence-For-Lovers,82,1,a879.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aix-en-Provence
So that is our Art History Thursday today. Next Thursday it will be October! Hard to believe.
Hope your day is full of creative goodness and maybe a classic butter croissant (or two) ...something I am suddenly craving... :)
'Til tomorrow!
~Alex
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Contemporary Art Wednesday AND NEW GALLERY sneak peak
Here is a painting, done in oil, by Karla Mann who is also represented by the Jackson, Wyoming gallery also representing my work; Turpin Gallery. This painting is titled "Life's a Picnic"
Leaving the Colorado mountains and heading south and further south still to the artsy little town of Tubac, Arizona you will find many galleries. Head on over to Rogoway Turquoise Tortoise Gallery and you will see my horses there, right as you walk in. You will also see some amazing work by artist Michaelin Otis. This collage is called "Alert Harris".
Next, for your travels you decide to head east to Texas and find yourself in the picturesque little town of Fredericksburg. You are drawn to a stone house that has been beautifully converted into an art gallery called the RS Hanna Gallery and you are lucky enough to find the charming Shannon Hanna herself at the gallery (will you tell her I said "Hello" ?).
Along with a few of my horses you will see some fabulous art such as paintings and sculpture by fellow Colorado artists Lindsey Bittner Graham and Dan Glanz. I love Lindsey's loose painterly style and the way she communicates emotion in her work and Dan's sculptures of animals are so expressive.
and the sculpture below is one of Dan's sculptures titled "Bacon on the Breeze".
Brookwood is a non-profit community providing spiritual, educational and vocational opportunities for adults with special needs. A portion of the sales of my sculpture help support the citizens of this community and they have some awesome artists in their gallery. The pastels of artist, Rita Kirkman are among my favorites...I just love her cows!
'Til tomorrow!
~Alex
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Artist - Entrepreneaur? Marketer? or Both?
It may be more appropriate to say that an artist must be a creative marketer of their work...or perhaps it would be best to say that artists must also be entrepreneurial marketers to be successful in the marketplace.
Creating a startup as an entrepreneur means - well, a lot of things but for now let's just agree the definition is: to develop a new product or service or to fundamentally improve on an existing product or service in such a way as to disrupt a certain marketplace that has become complacent or an industry that has lacked innovation for too long a time.
For artists, I think the elephant in the room is marketing. Artists do what they've always done. They create, depending upon the artist, what they create. The "marketplace for art" is what it is.
What each artists needs is a "marketplace for the specific art they create." Although the artist him or herself may not be the most suitable nominee for this task, anything we do would be more than that elephant in the room could ever do.
Here is a reprint of portions from an very long article courtesy of Alan Bamberger's Artbusiness.com blog. I have divided it up for the next few posts so we can think about the individual sections together.
This is the revised and updated text of a talk originally given to artists at the Indianapolis Art Center and to art students at the Herron School of Art at Purdue University and the first piece of sage advise that we have for today from this talk is simply this:
The most important first step towards becoming a full-time artist is to keep making art. Being an artist is never easy and the temptation put your art career on hold and apply yourself instead to other interests can sometimes be overwhelming. You might be thinking about giving art up until the kids are grown, about focusing only on your non-art job for a few years, or about closing down the studio for a while because sales are slow. My advice is simple: Don't do it.
For example, I recall a reasonably well-known artist who decided to quit painting at a relative high point of his early career and proceeded to make hardly any art for a number of years following. When he decided to take up painting again, his new work looked like little more than derivative rehashes of what he was doing when he stopped. He was totally out of practice and had lost his creative edge. To this point, he's managed to reestablish himself as a respectable artist, but he'll never again be the creative, cutting-edge force that he once was.
From a financial standpoint, he can't charge as much per painting as he would have been able to had he kept working. Collectors tend to approach his art with caution and buy conservatively because they're not sure whether he'll stop again. They know that if he does stop, he'll again negatively impact the market for his art. Even though he's now supporting himself as an artist, he has and will continue to have a credibility problem with both dealers and collectors.
So continue creating art no matter how difficult the process becomes. Continue even though you're not selling anything. Continue even if you're dissatisfied with what you're producing. Persevere, work through the tough times and you'll be glad you did.And don't just keep producing art because it will keep or increase the value of your work but you'll be glad you did simply because it's good for your soul and spirit and general over-all well being.
It's time for me to go into the studio and do just that...create.
Wishing you a day of creativity too!
'Til tomorrow -
~Alex
Monday, September 22, 2014
Are you a Professional?
Let me explain.
Maybe you're a rock star and you wear all the clothes and you have the entourage and the fans and the houses and cars and "friends"...and you're feeling fulfilled about all of it.
Good for you. You're a professional. But you know you're not all that ...stuff. In fact you care very little about all that.
You think of yourself as a musician - but not with ego, not with pride, just with this internal...this is who I am. You know you can count your friends on one hand, your favorite house is the little house you grew up in in Indiana and no one knows how to find you there, and your favorite shirt is one you've had for years, it's very soft and says Haynes on the label.
What you need is to make music. And very little else. You don't make music for anyone...only for yourself. Sure, it is interesting and it pleases you that there are other people who like it too, if there are. But - it isn't a requirement to whether you make the music or not. It is inside you and you find happiness in expressing it.
But maybe you're a Rock Star and you don't feel fulfilled by it. The money is nice and all. You have great stuff and are surrounded by people who would do anything for you (as long as you are "successful") You don't know how you'd get along without it all.
But the truth is, if you didn't have to do it, you wouldn't. You listen to classical music when you get any time to yourself and wish you had finished your biology degree because you're secretly fascinated by the taxonomy, morphology, cytology, phytogeography of tulips.
For the sake of this conversation you are an amateur Rock Star - no matter how successful you may be by our society's definition of success. And not just that, the world may have benefitted more if you had finished your biology degree rather than played rock music with less than all your heart put into it.
So - have you ever asked yourself this question? If you were the only person left on earth, how would you spend your time? Would you still write music or play your instrument of choice?
Would you still do what you are doing right now?
If you would not, what would you do?
What do you get lost in? What could you spend hours upon hours doing without noticing the passage of time, like you did when you were a kid and you played pretend games?
And I'm not talking about spending time distracting yourself. I'm not talking about escape. I'm not talking about video games or the latest hot HBO series or spending hours on Fac... uh...social media.
Would you explore? Would you build? Would you pilot a plane? Grow vegetables? Make bread? Shop for the most amazing shoes? Work out? Run? Hike? Groom Poodles? Solve two mile long algebra equations? Re-invent the wheel? Climb steep mountain faces?
I know. You are NOT the only person left on earth.
But whatever that is for you. I hope you will consider spending time with it, whether you think you have the time to or not. There is the real world you have to tend to the details of, of course. But how much of that could be minimized so you can nurture and develop what you really want and like to do?
I hope you get to go into your world today and spend some time there. I know I will.
'Til tomorrow!
~Alex
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Inspiration Sunday
Good morning and how are you doing today...hmmm? Can you believe it is almost the end of
September? I am just amazed that it is
almost winter time.
It has been a very busy time the last few months for Mark
and me and I am looking forward to settling back in to my regular end of summer
season routine. Maybe I'll even have
some time to paint again.
I will have to make an announcement about my contest for
comments in the blog in return for a choice of a painting...I need to extend
the three month period I had set since painting is only something I can do if I have the luxury of time.
Not that I'm complaining. I have had time to sculpt and although that is my profession, I consider it a luxury all the same.
In addition to the new gallery in Breckenridge and Vail, my
sculpture is going to be in ANOTHER new gallery and I will share with you the
details of that gallery this week when I get some photos from them.
This new gallery is another Texas gallery - an addition to
the gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas, RS Hanna Gallery.
Since Texas is such a big state, we decided two galleries in
Texas would be okay. Plus this new
gallery has some very special aspects to it that are somewhat different from a
more traditional gallery. But - more on that later!
Hope you have been having a very enjoyable weekend and have
made some time to relax and that you enjoy today's quote and they provide some
inspiration to you for the week ahead.
Here they are:
Art is creative for the sake of realization, not for amusement: for transfiguration, not for the sake of play. It is the quest of our self that drives us along the eternal and never-ending journey we must all make. ~ Max Beckmann 1884-1950
I don't demand that all work be a masterpiece. I think what I am doing is the right thing for me - that is what I am and this is living. It reflects me and I reflect it. ~ Louise Nevelson 1900-1988
We all name ourselves. We call ourselves artists. Nobody asks us. Nobody says you are or you aren't. ~ Ad Reinhardt 1913-1967
To be an artist is to believe in life. ~ Henry Moore 1898-1986
I feel anyone who does anything great in art and culture is out of control. It is done by people who are possessed. . . . Yet the whole exciting thing about art has to do with being out of control. It has to do with real things. ~ Nancy Grossman 1940-
An odd contradiction, if the layman were correct in his unconscious assumption that the artist begins with reality and ends with art: the converse is true _ to the degree that this dichotomy has any truth - the artist begins with art, and through it arrives at reality. ~ Robert Motherwell 1915-1991
And there are two sorts of beauty; on is the result of instinct, the other of study. A combination of the two, with the resulting modifications, brings with it a very complicated richness, which the art critic ought to try to discover. ~ Paul Gauguin 1848-1903
Philosophers and aestheticians may offer elegant and profound definitions of art and beauty, but for the painter they are all summed up in this phrase: To create a harmony. ~ Gino Severini 1883-1966
If a man devotes himself to art, much evil is avoided that happens otherwise if one is idle. ~ Albrecht Durer 1471-1528
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| Durer - Young Hare |
Come quickly. You mustn't miss the dawn. It will never be just like this again. ~ Georgia O'Keeffe 1887-1986 (to her house guests at her Abiquin House, 1951)
Wishing you a Sunday full of all good things!
'Til tomorrow -
~Alex
'Til tomorrow -
~Alex
Saturday, September 20, 2014
New Gallery!! - Art on a Whim
It was a beautiful day - the Aspen trees are changing color and fall is in the air.
The Art on a Whim galleries are beautiful. Here is what they say about themselves on their website - I couldn't have said it better myself:
Art on a Whim is a family-run business founded in Breckenridge Colorado. We opened our Breckenridge gallery in December of 2007, expanded our space in November of 2011 and opened our Vail location in November of 2013. Our galleries were founded with the belief that beautiful art and culture should be accessible to everyone. We're rooted in the age-old American tradition of small, family-run businesses. We really like our economy so all of our art is handmade in America and most of it is created right here in Colorado.
We focus on carrying work that is unique, well executed and fun. The art we show is original and contemporary. It is created by living, working, professional American artists. We prefer representational works that capture the beauty of the mountains we call home, as well as abstracts that push creativity to new heights. We specialize in representing emerging and mid-career artists with well regarded national and international reputations. Our refined selection of the best artists found in Colorado sees that our collection represents our region and our love for the mountains. We love color and art that makes us smile. This is always immediately apparent upon entering our galleries.Here is a photo of me and gallery owner/founder Dena Raitman from yesterday and a few of the sculptures in the Breckenridge gallery - as well as an outside photo of the gallery.
Mark and I are very happy that Alex Alvis Sculpture is now to be found by our collectors and future collectors at Art on a Whim and look forward to a great relationship with Dena, her husband, Michael and their sons, Brian and Ross. When you are in either town, hope you will stop in at one or both of these locations.
Art on a Whim is also putting my work into the Summit County Parade of Homes this weekend and the next - so if you want to do something really fun, get some tickets and go!
Hope you are enjoying your Saturday! Inspiration Sunday coming up!
'Til tomorrow!
~Alex
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