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by Marja-Leena

CBC’s opening night

I’ve been spending far too much time working at the computer with PhotoShop, developing images for a series of prints combining inkjet and collagraph prints in layers. I’ve been in the printmaking studio printing proofs, and back to the “drawing board”, aka my Mac. Tonight I was too tired to even blog, so decided on some rare TV watching.

I was lucky that CBC’s Opening Night was on, for this season’s premiere. Featured was I, Claudia – “Based on the hit Tarragon Theatre play by Kristen Thomson, this extraordinary one-woman acting tour-de-force explores the pre-teen world of Claudia, as she struggles with the divorce of her parents, her father’s remarriage and puberty.” As it happens, Chandrasutra has written a great review of this unique play.

The second half was Vienna, City of My Dreams – “The irrepressible Canadian tenor Michael Schade has been the toast of Vienna since his debut there in 1992. For this Viennese tribute he is joined by his wife, mezzo-soprano Norine Burgess, in a program of operetta favourites.” This lovely romantic music lifted my spirits and energy so much that I was able to do a bit more work in preparation for some more proofing in the studio tomorrow and finish with a quick blog. Good night!

October 21, 2004 in Being an Artist, Culture, Music by Marja-Leena Comments Off on CBC’s opening night

by Marja-Leena

an artist’s blog

Anna sent me an email suggesting I read and comment on Rachael’s post of Thursday about artists blogging. Go read Rachael’s first, including the comments, then come back here for my response, which I decided to post here:

I’ve been an artist all my life, and professionally for half that life. Artmaking is an important part of my life along with my family, home, friends and many interests. I started blogging almost nine months ago to show my art work, talk about my favourite medium of printmaking and to write about the many things that interest and influence me and make me the person, and therefore, the artist that I am. The blog is a way of recording all these things, somewhat like in a journal but more so because of the joys of linking to other sites. It is a way of sharing these with any readers that care to read them. I really did not know fully at the beginning how passionate I was to become about blogging.

It’s gratifying to note the statistics show that the numbers of readers have been growing and growing. Yet I receive few comments, mostly from a few faithful who have become friends. Sometimes, like Rachael, I wonder how readers feel about my site. I’ve thought about asking “Who are you, dear readers and how did you find me?”, especially those who are scattered around the world, (many in Finland!). Maybe I don’t want to know and really, I’m not about to change, since I’m doing the blog for me as another creative project, as a form of self-publishing. Anyway, if the readers are still there, I must be providing something of interest for them, and so I am very very thankful for this silent encouragement.

Because this blog is in part a professional site about my work and might sometimes be viewed by a gallery or collector (I can hope!), I’ve been keeping really personal stuff out of it, as well as to maintain its focus on art and those interests and influences that I mentioned. I do believe we should feel free to let our blogs be what we want them to be (as long as no one is being hurt by what we say of course).

Rachel, Anna, and readers: Have you noticed that there are not very many blogs by artists about their own art, at least that I have found? Is blogging still such a new phenomenon for visual artists, and why? There are quite a few blogs about art shows and art criticism, and numerous literary blogs.

As I was writing and thinking about this, I was catching up on reading some blogs I like. Synchronicity struck as Keri at Wish Jar Journal mentions Rachel’s blog too and presents this perfect quote:

There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time this expression is unique. and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it! It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open… -Martha Graham

October 16, 2004 in Being an Artist, Blogging, Other artists by Marja-Leena 6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

recommended reading

Tonight I’d like to highly recommend you visit two of my favourite bloggers and read their posts:

Charles Downey at ionarts writes about a very thought-provoking lecture he heard presented by Peter Schjeldahl, art critic for The New Yorker, called “What Art Is For Now”. Some points that were made:

1.”those who want [art] will find it”….”the audience for art worldwide may be larger now than it ever has been”…
2.”The function of art in a democratic society is spiritual”…”The word ‘beauty’… is the A-bomb of art criticism.”
3.”Art is rhetorical….it argues.” The universal messages live on.
4. Art will leave the “decorative” and “return to exploring the illustrational, narrative side…”
My points don’t do it justice so read the whole article – lots of food for thought!

Anna Conti has posted some news in her Working Artist’s Journal about the eBay Art Fraud case. She is mentioned in an article on MSNBC in conjunction with a lawsuit by Tiffany. And a reader recommends a safer online sales site.

(Remember I pointed you to her story ….if you aren’t familiar with Anna’s case, read about it at her special page eBay Art Fraud.)

September 24, 2004 in Art Exhibitions, Being an Artist by Marja-Leena Comments Off on recommended reading

by Marja-Leena

CARFAC’s fall newsletter

I have written before about CARFAC (Canadian Artists Representation/Le Front des Artistes Canadiens) and how it supports Canadian artists.

Their latest Summer/Fall 2004 newsletter has a very thought provoking article written by Pat Durr, the National Representative. She makes some comparisons between the support systems for artists in the US and Canada. I would be extremely interested in receiving comments on this from my US readers, as well as Canadians and others.

From the National Spokesperson

As many of you may know, I have spent quite a bit of time travelling during the past year – some for pleasure, some for duty, some for art. Just recently, I have returned from the United States. Artists there have found themselves under siege in various ways both economically and politically. For example, look at the recent arrest and indictment of Steve Kurtz**, a member of the Critical Art Ensemble, who was arrested under the Patriot Act on suspicion of terrorism, when police saw his home lab where he was developing an art piece for exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art this year.

Through the artists I have met in the United States, I have been struck by how very similar the economic climate for many of them is and yet how different the solutions are. American artists who are not famous are often even less well off than Canadian ones. Artists there who exhibit in artist-run spaces or even in well recognized public galleries do not automatically receive an exhibition fee. They may individually negotiate some sort of compensation, but there is nothing in the law that supports their right to be paid for the use of their work. Sometimes they trade the installation and the exhibition of their artwork for a bed.

There is no Canada Council which funds artist-run spaces and artist-run organizations such as CARFAC. Artist-run spaces tend to have short lives, popping up for awhile, supported by ingenuity and the sweat of the brows of a few dedicated individuals, and then disappearing. Public galleries rarely have artists on their Boards and often do not have any interest in serving their artist community. There are many other differences, both good and bad, just as there are many similarities, which I do not have the space here to explore. The point I want to make is that artists in Canada have developed some very important vehicles for the support of the visual arts, among them CARFAC, strong, longlived artist-run spaces, and the Canada Council. These are perilous times; we cannot afford to take our successes for granted. Everyone needs to take an interest and to be sure that our institutions can continue to work for us and the betterment of the arts community.

Continue reading on page 13 of the Calendar (.pdf).
(** Also read “No Urban Myth for Kurtz” on page 6. Carfac urges support and to consider implications for Canadian artists under Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act.)

September 17, 2004 in Being an Artist, Canada and BC by Marja-Leena Comments Off on CARFAC’s fall newsletter

by Marja-Leena

flat files – anyone?

flat file.jpg
This is an unusual request…several of my artist friends and I are all in great need of reasonably priced flat files or map files for our studios, to safely store our prints. The above picture is just one example, we are interested in different sizes. We have looked at auctions, classified ads and word-of-mouth for good second-hand ones but they are hard to find. Anyone out there, in the Vancouver area or even Victoria and Nanaimo areas on Vancouver Island (BC, Canada) have some that they are getting rid of, or know of someone doing so? Please contact me by email if you can help us.

September 15, 2004 in Being an Artist by Marja-Leena 1 Comment »

by Marja-Leena

experiencing art

Lenny writes an interesting art blog at Washington, DC Art News. Today he writes about how he came to chosen to be the curator for the upcoming “Homage to Frida Kahlo” exhibition. (The call for artists will be announced soon by Art.com.)

Lenny writes about seeing Frida Kahlo’s work for the first time in 1975 in Mexico:
I remember walking into the museum salon where the Two Fridas hung. It was love, or more like witchcraft, at first sight. This large, spectacular painting swallowed my visual senses and attention as no work of art would do again until…

He became “obsessed'” by her work, and in 1997, together with the Mexican Cultural Institute he curated a highly successful exhibition of Kahlo’s work in Washington, DC. He writes that The love affair then produced in 2002 a show of my own work titled “Passion for Frida: 27 Years of Frida Kahlo Artwork. With this obvious passion for and knowledge of her work, he was thus invited to be curator for this new exhibition.

Now I love Frida Kahlo’s work, which I saw two years ago at the Vancouver Art Gallery, but what particularly struck me about this story, is the EXPERIENCE of seeing art that draws a powerful response within the viewer.

A new blogger, Stacy Oborn wrote about this experience recently:
…when you encounter work that, to borrow van gogh’s language, ‘hits the yellow high note’, it is at once made known to you that what you are responding to is an articulation of your aesthetic that you had yet to realize, something within that you are confronted with, and that once confronted you know that your task is to find a way to wrench it from your being and put it out in front of you. like that which you are looking at, but to have it come from you.

September 5, 2004 in Being an Artist, Concepts, Other artists by Marja-Leena 1 Comment »

by Marja-Leena

the artist in a gift economy

I am really going to have to get my hands on this book: The Gift – Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property by Lewis Hyde**. I am very intrigued and find the quotes really resonate with me as a lifelong artist who creates because of an inner need, rather than a need to sell (although of course I am happy when I do), and as an artist who blogs to share my thoughts and passions.

Chris Corrigan has been reading and writing about this book periodically since July 20th. On July 26th Chris refers to the introduction of The Gift where Lewis Hyde is writing about how we receive the fruits of artistic gifts:

The spirit of the artist’s gifts can wake our own. The work appeals, as Joseph Conrad says, to a part of our being which is itself a gift and not an acquisition. Our sense of harmony can hear the harmonies that Mozart heard. We may not have the power to proffer our gifts as the artist does, and yet we come to recognize, and in a sense receive, the endowments of our being through the agency of his creation…When we are moved by art we are grateful that the artist lived, grateful that he labored in the service of his gifts.

On August 5th, Chris writes also about bloggers’ gifts:

Bloggers offer immense gifts of time, reflection, engagement with each other’s ideas. My own thinking gets continually pushed and stretched by reading others and trying to respond to them. This quality of gift exchange provides a beautiful and powerful foundation for the community of people who share ideas freely on a myriad of subject areas. When bloggers form communities, it is around the cohesion of those who contribute to each other’s thinking. Don’t miss reading the thoughtful comments to this post.

Read more for yourself about Chris’ analysis of “The Gift” in the posts of July 21st, July 23rd, July25th, and July 29th.

Anna L. Conti also wrote about and highly recommended this book along with another one by Hyde called Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art** (Aug 10th entry). Here are some excerpts:

A few years ago Margaret Atwood wrote a terrific review of these books for the LA Times […]: ‘The artist belongs primarily to the gift economy; without that element of creation which arrives uncommanded and cannot be bought, the work is unlikely to be alive. The Gift is the best book I know of for the aspiring young, for talented but unacknowledged creators, or even for those who have achieved material success and are worried that this means they’ve sold out. It gets at the core of their dilemma: how to maintain yourself alive in the world of money, when the essential part of what you do cannot be bought or sold.’ (Read Atwood’s full review)

Lewis Hyde starts with the premise that a work of art is a gift and not a commodity, and goes on to explain the uneasy nature of the artist’s position in a marketplace economy. He leads the reader slowly and carefully to his surprising conclusion that “gift exchange and the market need not be wholly separate spheres.

Thanks to both Chris and Anna!
(**Available through Abe Books )

August 13, 2004 in Being an Artist, Blogging, Books, Concepts by Marja-Leena 3 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Art Appreciation

An interesting discussion is underway over at Cassandra Pages about art appreciation. Yesterday, (August 11th) Beth wrote about arts support in Canada referring to some past comments I had made. Please read the new comments to that, and then go to today’s August 12th post. Joerg has already responded thoughtfully regarding art appreciation in Germany and the US.
Beth and I would be very interested in your views!

August 12, 2004 in Being an Artist, Culture by Marja-Leena Comments Off on Art Appreciation

by Marja-Leena

Vancouver’s manhole cover art

I read about the results of this unusual public art competition twice in Zeke’s Gallery, a Montreal art blog! He refers to articles in the Globe & Mail and the National Post.

So where’s Vancouver’s own online coverage of arts news that made it to national news? Okay, it was in the Vancouver Sun newspaper, but the online version requires a subscription.

By the way, congratulations to an artist I know, Jen Weih, one of the two prize winners of this design competition.

July 26, 2004 in Being an Artist, Culture by Marja-Leena 2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

the art of seeing

Artist Anna Conti has been posting a great series this week on “Seeing” on her Working Artist’s Journal. Do go read it, it will help you understand art in a new way! I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

I love the quote Anna recalls in the first part: You do not see with the lens of the eye. You look through that, and by means of that, but you see with the soul of the eye. (John Ruskin)

It makes me recall an intense experience I had once after a long and very satisfying life drawing class. As I was driving home, it seemed as if my vision was extra sharp and vivid, noting the finest details of the trees, sky, ocean, buildings and so on with unusual clarity and colour and emotion, like having super-vision!

This intensity of vision is to me a bit like the feeling I have looking at certain realist paintings of artists like Anna, and Canadians Christopher Pratt and Alex Colville.

July 20, 2004 in Being an Artist, Concepts by Marja-Leena 1 Comment »

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