I am SO ready to leave the beige today. i am leaving early. i don't care. i got here at 10. I am leaving at 5:15. that is enough. anyway....
i am doing some more research on the crafters/diy folks today as I anticipate my forthcoming projects. It is funny how once you look into something suddenly there is this whole mini-culture happening in brooklyn of former mfa painters and such running boutiques, running 'crafting' studios, offering classes, putting together zines and such. i think the church of craft is great as is knit knit magazine. I also dig Little Cakes and have been meaning to check out Cinders (the gallery in w'burg). The church of craft (and make workshop for that matter) I have known about for years but I have always been too shy to go to a meeting on my own. Loser! anyway. it's like a club and once again I feel vaguely outside of it. I should go and talk to these people I guess. What is my problem? LOSER.
There is a schism inside me. the thing i'm realizing is that I think of what I do in more of an ART way than a craft project way. which is crappy and not social or egalitarian I guess. I just don't think about it as a hobby at all and I don't want to share. I don't want to teach a class on threading needles and how to glue fabrics together. I'm an ass! But at the same time I am so curious about the classes at make workshop and I know a few people (sort of) that teach there. I don't know. i am weirdly high-minded or something. I have an attraction/revulsion thing to the whole crafting circuit, diy cool or not. complicated. ugh.
I will need to think about this. Blending things up like this is very confusing. i just shouldn't worry about it, right?
going under the slabs now. oh and here are some links to places. it gets so intimidating when all these cool people are already out there. LOSER again.
http://www.makeworkshop.com/index.html
http://churchofcraft.org/church/index.html
http://sodafine.com/
http://www.cindersgallery.com/
http://knitknit.net/
http://littlecakes.org/
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i think part of the problem comes from the fact that i want to make things that I can sell. terrible but true - so that I don't have to work so much in the beige. but crafting and profit just don't go together in my mind.
please please, fb! stop beating yourself up... you are so NOT a loser, honestly. Being uncomfortable in unfamiliar social settings is completely human and natural. Combine that with trying to make a leap with your life, and wow, what a recipe for anxiety.
There are plenty of artists who are solidly craft-based: Robert Arneson, Cary Liebowitz, Lucky DeBelleview, Rowena Dring, Louise Bourgeois, etc. etc. I'm sure you know all this, and I understand the art/craft schism, but you shouldn't worry so much about being elitist. There IS a difference between everyday quilts and the "Gee's Bend" quilts. And that's okay.
Get this straight FB...YOU ARE NOT A LOSER!!! You are the coolest of the cool.
I'll check out those links. But if you can think of the workshops as just more enjoyable and creative jobs, it'll be better. Maybe it can be related to your work, but separate.
There is craft involved in all art--just different levels and different materials...in the end--it is someone's work.
Sorry Sloth! bad habits die hard. i need to not think and just do. stupid beige puts me in a bad mental zone, and pd you are right about craft - totally. i think my back gets up when the process or materials are separated up and "taught" but it really is no different from a painting class. it's just a situation to get people working and then it opens up.
hey sloth, i just looked up Rowena Dring - have you seen her work in person? how is it put together? so curious!
FB, i didn't mean to sound scold-y, but you are so supercool, and your art is suppercool, that it just seems totally wrong for you to be at all down on yourself.
It is natural to want your "day job" to be enjoyable, and something you know you are good at. It can be difficult to keep the 2 in their separate categories.
For example: Adam Cvijanovic, who is currently showing his murals at Bellwether, had a job working for a mural company for years, and sometimes did commissions for rich people's homes. He has somehow managed to keep the two mostly separate, but sometimes you walk into an antique store and see a Cvijanovic on the wall. And that somehow works. (He's in his 40s by the way - even more encouraging.)
Another example: if I knew that Louise Bourgeois made pillows that were available at the local home-decor shop, I'd buy one. They would sell out quickly, that's for sure. They probably wouldn't be shown at Cheim & Reid, but they would be included in a historical-review style museum show after she's long gone.
This is just my take on it - I'm sure there are others.
p.s. Rowena Dring shows at Elizabeth Dee gallery. I saw her solo show a few years ago, and it's good work, but a little chilly. Your work is way more crazy and rad. The "rad craft" idea is definitely interesting and ripe/rich territory.
More thoughts:
Picasso decorated things like crazy, whatever he could get his hands on. He did lots and lots of ceramics: plates, vases, etc. etc. Very crafty, but still very Picasso.
... I guess I am pro-whatever-makes-you-happiest. That sounds simplistic I know, but you have such smarts and energy, and such an interesting way of approaching things, I just believe you could make it work.
Best regards from NY! » » »
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