Tag Archives: Brainard Carey

Clement Greenberg’s The Avant-garde And Kitsch

Art is, or it should be, about more than simply making marks on a surface or manipulating materials into pleasing–or indeed displeasing–shapes…. perhaps the avant-garde or kitsch. A true artist benefits immeasurably by knowing about the history that has created the universe they traverse.

Ever wonder what all that academic talk is that curators like to use so much? Do you find it pretentious or worse?

Art Theory informs in so many ways, tracing the paths that have led to a particular moment or movement. A foundational understanding of the schools of thought, the histories, the thinkers who have wrought the ground you stand on as an artist today enriches not only your own mind but your work as well.

One such thinker who made a significant impact on the art world in the 1940s was Clement Greenberg. In 1939, Greenberg published one of his seminal works Avant-Garde and Kitsch. The essay not only launched Greenberg to nearly overnight notoriety, it also sparked a major development in the art world as a whole.

The essay begins with the following statement:

“One and the same civilization produces simultaneously two such different things as a poem by T.S. Eliot, and a Tin Pan Alley song, or a painting by Braque and a Saturday Evening Post cover. “

Click on the following scan to open the full essay in PDF form-

PDF Greenburg Essay Avante-Garde and Kitsch
Click me to read full essay.

Greenberg goes on to classify Avant-Garde as those things that are untouched by the decline of taste and meaning in a society (a poem by T.S. Eliot or a painting by Braque) while Kitsch is the title bestowed on the rest of the clutter that appeals to the masses and asks nothing in return other than their money (a Tin Pan Alley song or a Saturday Evening Post cover).

The Portuguese-Georges Braque-1911.

For Greenberg, Avant-Garde situated itself outside the influences of both capitalist and communist influences that were gradually dampening society’s ability to appreciate any depth of meaning.

Greenberg wrote several other important essays over the course of his life and career. He was a strong proponent of Modernism being the last best hope for the preservation of integrity in art. Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning were among those he deemed the saviors of art in their time.

Understanding who Clement Greenberg was and why his influence matters is just one piece of the complex puzzle of being a well-rounded artist. There are libraries worth of books out there that will break down every bit of art theory and history you ever need to know.

Of course, who has time to read all that? How can you know where to begin? Who and what are some of the most important influences that have shaped the art world as it stands today and how are you meant to sort them out from the crowd? For the Silo, Brainard Carey

Far Reaching Effects Of Visual Culture In Our World Of Appearances

Dusty book stall archeologist and writer Jonathan Guyer oversees the far reaching effects of visual culture in our modern ‘all about appearances’ world.

Jonathan Guyer on CBC -Canada Broadcasting Corporation 

Through frequent excursions to the bookshops of downtown Cairo in Egypt,  Guyer has unearthed a wealth of forgotten political narratives and overlooked illustrative histories. Book-ending his fascination with the alternative story lines of locally appropriated Western comics, Guyer’s faith in the ethical and ideological potential of cartoons and satirical imagery extends to the underground artistic movements of contemporary self-published zine-makers. In his eloquent interview, the prolific and level-headed writer remarks on welcome shifts in the Middle Eastern visual landscape, the necessary and terrifying obligations of artists, and the autonomy of art in an authoritative society.

Bascha Mon Prince Street Rag oil on canvas

Adaptive and indomitable painter Bascha Mon has traced each frame of light between the new and full moons. Bound to spontaneity and guided by intuition, Mon’s practice feels out a logic from the sanctuary and purgatory of a blank canvas. Impelled by the psychic pains of a laboring human family, Mon retrieves the fragments of her commiserating heart from the cold grasp of reality, like pulling her distorted reflection from the surface of the water. Expressed in her stirring and poignant interview, Mon’s necessary attachment to art conceals a deep solidarity with the misplaced souls of the Earth, who struggle to make sense of an existence where whimsy and intense meaning coexist. The sage observer and painter is never dissatisfied by an individual work, as no piece is anything less than perfect if it belongs to a whole.

Shipping Container is a book on Literary Theory by Craig Martin

Reading something interesting?

Tom Allen, is ensnared by the vehement poems of mid 19th century writer Jules Laforgue, the progenitor of free verse in the French tradition and treasure to the great modernist poets. Laforgue fashioned his fervent style of observation from the fiery idealism of the symbolists and the microcosmic subjectivity of impressionism. Another one of our users, Niels Van Tomme, is pleasantly amused by the playful and engaging Shipping Container, Craig Martin’s contribution to the Object Lessons series. Martin’s colorful prose enlivens the itinerant existence of this ubiquitous transport vessel, the unsung hero of our convenient and mobile world.

Urging the flow of time and water is the promise of change made by a fork in the stream.

For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

AI Induced Shifting Subtexts- What Is And What Isn’t Art?

Let’s go back to 2016 and re-consider how the works highlighted below are more relevant today than ever when asking “What is and isn’t art?”.  The recent surge in AI and chatbot produced ‘art’ has created new challenges in recognition, interpretation and validation. Or has it? [J.Barker Content Producer for The Silo]   It became immediately apparent that the rephrasing of the question “What is art?” to “What isn’t art?” signaled a dissolution of the boundary separating metaphor from reality.

Since, citizen and artist alike have been plunged headlong into the bacchanals of postmodernity, and the question has been obscured under a heap of incongruous discourse and subtexts.

Eva Davidova multimedia installation view
Eva Davidova multimedia installation view

Two curious and intrepid artists offer their answers to this exhausting and illuminating question in their discussions of unexplored spaces and shifting subtexts.

Painter and multimedia artist Eva Davidova  tests the digital waters of virtual reality through immersive, programmatic experiences. Articulating the conviction that emerging technology is obliged to transcend commercial application, Davidova’s phantasmagoric 3D renderings attempt to draw the strings away from the hands of big business. Topics mentioned include the beauty of academic reciprocity, the fiscal realities of living in the metropolis, and the future of collaborative artistic environments.

julie mehretu dispersion
Julie Mehretu’s Dispersion

Behind the meticulous and sweeping abstract landscapes from the mind of Julie Mehretu are subtle societal and historical cues, which inform and enrich the surface of her paintings. In her ebullient interview, Mehretu speaks of the benefits and restrictions that arise from using architectural semantics to ground explorations of political and social change.

Wrought from countless painterly quotations, the identity of Mehretu’s brushstroke vanishes the moment it falls under interpretation.

The elusive and curious nature of the Ethiopian artist’s aesthetic experiments, coupled with a steady ethical subtext make for an engaging and memorable listen.

Featured image- “A Questionable Tale(#1)” 2022 Marina Zurkow/DALL-E (AI) 

For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Important Thoughts On Altruism

Humans possess a great depth of capacity when it comes to altruism. Again and again, we demonstrate our tendency to reach out when others are in distress. Cultivating these instincts is one of the ways in which we connect with our own humanity. Studies have indicated that altruism is not entirely innate. Environment plays a key role in the development of the qualities of altruism. Practicing this trait strengthens not only our own individual ability to extend hope and help to our fellow species, it allows us to explore more deeply our own inner kindness.

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mark Guglielmo had just finished an exhibition at Villa Victoria Center for the Arts in Boston, Massachusetts when he decided to emphasize what he felt was a missing ingredient in today’s society- altruism. Guglielmo’s work tries to emphasize this message by piecing together photo collages to form a larger image. For another show, he used photos from his time spent in Cuba. To complement the work, Guglielmo conducted interviews which were then incorporated in the exhibition. The particulars of the work involved thousands of photographs. Guglielmo captured detailed images of every nuance of a person, place, or thing. From these, he painstakingly compiled what he refers to as “a 1000-D version of reality.”

A natural storyteller, Guglielmo says the audio portion of his work was important to transport people to Cuba. Guglielmo witnessed the changes to the island nation. He decided to record the perspective of the Cuban people when it came to the changes to their relationship with the U.S. Guglielmo kept his conversations informal and allowed Cuban residents to drive them in order to keep them safe from government targeting for speaking out.

The conversations revealed the daily lives of Cubans often in the context of wealthy western tourists vacationing in the shadow of extreme poverty. Political tensions between the U.S. and Cuba have interfered with plans to show the work there.

Bucanero en Playa Ancon | Buccaneer at Ancon Beach, Trinidad de Cuba, 2017, Photo-mosaic, 46 x 68 inches

Frank Juarez is the co-founder of the Randall Frank Contemporary Art Collection and project manager of the Randall Frank Artist Grant Program. Juarez says the Randall Frank collection began quite organically. Juarez and his high school and college friend Randall shared a lifelong affinity for art. When they wanted to work together, art was the common theme they shared. Together, they began a collection and strove to support artists from their area. In the early days, they worked under a tight budget, purchasing art quarterly and storing them in Randall’s home in Richmond, Virginia. The two began looking for opportunities to sponsor art events. Their first endeavor in this capacity was a mural project in Milwaukee’s Black Cat Alley. Randall Frank Contemporary Art Collection (RFCAC) hopes to one day create a public space where they can house their collected art and make it available to the public.

As they became more established, RFCAC decided the best, most direct way to support artists was through a grant program. RFCAC’s pilot program seeks to support artists in the Midwest and east coast regions of the U.S. The grant is presently privately funded. Juarez works in many capacities within the art world. He is a gallery director, curator, and educator. Randall works in the private sector as a chemist.

A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket: Soften your heart and open your mind to the possibilities of altruistic behavior.

For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Featured image– Induction #1 by Tony Conrad (l) and Katrina by Rob Neilson (r)  courtesy of Museum of Non-visible Art.

Why Artists Require Space Not Only To Work But To Imagine

Casting Seeds

Eiko Otake performing at Bartram’s Garden on the Schuylkill River.

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” – Pablo Picasso

Art is an imperative. Without it we can never truly examine our own circumstances or those of the people with whom we inhabit our small planet. Left unviewed, art languishes. Left without art to view, so does humankind. There are many who recognize the gift to the world that every artist has to offer. There are many who endeavor to do whatever they can to ensure those gifts are received by a grateful public. To stifle the artist’s voice is to silently say I care little about the fate of the minds of the masses. Art is essential. It is what fills the space between the rest of the din, making sense of a chaotic universe.

Bill Arnold splits his time between New York and Western Massachusetts. Since 1974 he has had a studio in Western MA and an apartment in NY. Arnold prefers to keep a foot in both worlds. Florence, MA is a small town near Northampton where there is plenty of space and the space is affordable. New York on the other hand is extremely restrictive in that a very small amount of space is prohibitively expensive. Artists require space not only to work, Arnold says, but space for their imaginations, “space to conjure.”

And so he maintains his Western MA studio.

The work he has done in that studio over the years has been varied and prolific. Arnold has endeavored, and often succeeded in getting his work into public venues including museums. He finds it thrilling to see his work in commercial venues. The first time he experienced this was in the 1970’s when he put roughly 1,000 photographs in 25 Boston city buses. There was no indication on the outside of each bus whether there were photographs on board so passengers didn’t know which buses were galleries inside. Because of the nature of the venue, more people saw that project than visited the Met, according to Arnold. In order to fund the project, he approached multiple museums getting them to agree to fund the cost of materials for the show provided he put on exhibitions in each city where the museums were located.

Arnold was both an exhibiting artist and a curator for this project. The project was well received, with weary commuters sometimes voicing their appreciation. From there, Arnold went on to do other bus shows. The format went viral long before viral was a thing. For another show, Arnold gave images to members of the audience who then organically began sharing the images with each other. Throughout his career, Arnold has turned traditional notions of exhibition on their heads. With the advent of digital advertising, the cost of printing has plummeted. Arnold uses this to his advantage. In 2018 he printed 10,000 newspaper inserts for the Daily Hampshire Gazette. As a student photographer, Arnold was encouraged to have a camera with him at all times. To this day he follows this practice. Arnold has photographed the same spot on his travels from NYC to MA for many years.

He intends to exhibit many photographs of the same place at the Bergen Street Station. Photography is accessible to everyone, Arnold says. Because anyone can make a photograph, anyone can also view a photograph and take something away. A series of photographs depicting old cars elicited stories from viewers of all kinds about cars they remembered and loved. To hear more about Bill Arnold’s thoughts on work and life, listen to the whole interview here.

Harry Philbrick left his position as director of the museum at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts about two years ago. He then launched his own project called Philadelphia Contemporary. The nonprofit does pop-up exhibitions and performances throughout the city. The goal is to ultimately build a permanent space where the nonprofit can become a non-collecting, collaborative space. Prior to his position at Pennslyvania Academy of the fine Arts, Philbrick was director of the Aldrich. It was there that the idea for Philadelphia Contemporary began to percolate. He began exploring the notion of partnerships. Specifically long-term, sustainable partnerships that would allow the museum a broader reach. Upon relocating to Philadelphia, Philbrick realized there was a gap in the cultural ecosystem in that there was no large scale independent contemporary art museum. Philadelphia also seemed primed for Philbrick’s model in that the cultural environment is “unusually collegial.”

The first project was a partnership with Headlong Dance.

The project was titled The Quiet Circus in which the dancers took part in a year long residency on a pier. Each week dance pieces encouraged members of the public to join in. From there Philbrick and his small team created River Charrettes, a series of four pieces also set among the changing landscape of river banks. River Charrettes was an appropriate opening for Philadelphia Contemporary. The project embodied the idea of many people from different places coming together. Since then there have been readings and other events. At the moment there are many large scale projects in the works. An expanded staff has allowed for grander visions. The process of growth has been very deliberate, carefully adhering to the founding vision of the project.

Funding for Philadelphia Contemporary comes from many places. In order to run the organization, pay staff, and plan for the future, Philbrick has had to map out a plan from all he has learned over his years in the art world. Seed capital came from individual funders who believed strongly in the mission. More recently, Philadelphia-based foundations have come on board. For Philbrick, the key to his project is pushing forward the model for a nonprofit contemporary art space. Moving forward the same model applies, starting with individual funders and moving from there to foundational support. To hear more about Philadelphia Contemporary and arts organization funding, listen to the whole interview here.

A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket: Speak your art loudly. Do not settle for its slow demise. Bring it into the light, find allies, give your gifts to the world.  For the Silo, Brainard Carey.
Featured image- Francis Bacon’s London studio- in its relocated home in Dublin, Ireland.

Unique Angles view How We Communicate

Look with great honesty at your inner life

Contemplate the ways in which you approach and communicate with the world. Our interactions are shaped by context at all times, one moment calls for gentleness while the next requires a firmer approach. It becomes second nature navigating these nuances, we stop giving thought to the many personas involved in our experiences moment to moment.

From time to time, turn the mirror and allow the reflection to sink in. Do not approach with judgment, merely curiosity. Make contact with yourself and get to know once again what has been lost to habit. Investigate the uncharted waters of you, revealing a self you may not have encountered for many years.

Andreja Kuluncic says, “Everybody can be an artist.”

The Zagreb, Croatia-based artist believes all that is needed is for each of us to wake up the creative part of ourselves. In her participation-driven work, she explores this idea extensively. In one piece titled Art and Box, audience members are invited to take a box containing dismantled pieces for an art exhibition back to their communities.

With the box comes a dancer who the participants can invite to collaborate on a performance piece at their local school, library, or any other place they see fit. In this way, and through much of her work, Kuluncic seeks unique angles from which to view how we communicate socially. Her work Collective Stranger traces lines within the Croatian community combining the experiences of women from many backgrounds all of whom fit into the category of oppressed and even ostracized populations.

Alison Jackson is no stranger to alternative facts. Her career is built on the voyeuristic relationship we have with celebrities. Jackson creates images using lookalikes that challenge our concept of what is real. Most recently she has created photographs featuring a Donald Trump lookalike for the series Mental Images. Jackson says, “my pictures ask where does the truth end and the lies begin…where the subjective triumphs over the objective.” He work spans many media including publishing, photography, television, and is exhibited in museums and galleries.

Encounter others inner worlds through literature and share your findings. Add your titles to our reading list here. Andreja Kuluncic turns to Death Drives an Audi by Danish author Kristian Bang Foss. User Carl Smith has read Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye by Marie Mutsuki Mockett.

Rekindle a relationship with your true self. Lao Tzu, ancient Chinese mystic and philosopher wrote, “He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightented.” For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

*featured image: “CREATIVE STRATEGIES” multidisciplinary research project 2010-ongoing Andreja Kuluncic.

LGBTQIE And Ecosexuality

Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” -Anais Nin

Nature is born of sexuality.

The two are inextricable and inevitable partners. Where humans find fault with sex that does not suit their particular beliefs in what is right or wrong, nature transcends. There is no taboo in the natural world, there is no polite side-stepping of the rawness of nature. Nature simply is, in all its sensual glory.

Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle have collaborated for 17 years.

They recently showcased their film Water Makes Us Wet at Documenta 14. They were one of just 180 artists at the exhibition which takes place only every five years and draws in a million people. In conjunction with the film they exhibited visual art, performed Ecosex Walking Tours, and facilitated “sidewalk sex clinics.” Their film premier at the Gloria Theater was the only one to completely pack the house. For their Documenta Ecosex Walking Tour, Stephens & Sprinkle consciously began at the site of the first tree planted in Joseph Beuys’ 1982 Documenta project 7,000 Trees.
Their film is part art, part activism, a call to action, and a vision of how the future may look if we are careful with the earth as opposed to how it could look if we continue our ecologically destructive behaviors. Within the environmental activist movement, the two always felt a bit out of place. They felt the need to hide their flamboyance, their sexuality, and some of the details of their pasts. Because of this they began their own movement, an all inclusive environmental activism that encourages people to be themselves.
By allowing people to embrace their own identities and to infuse a little fun, they hope to create a movement that is sustainable and perhaps avoids some of the activist burnout that frequently effects those constantly fighting for the future of a healthy planet.
For the film, and throughout their work, Stephens & Sprinkle have unabashedly embraced and exposed their own bodies. In so doing, they show both their vulnerability and their strength as well as embrace their advancing age. Sprinkle, who is now 63, was once a pornographic film actress. She finds that showing her 63 year old body has pushed more limits than anything she’s ever done. “I think that taboo does need fixing,” she says.
During the making of the film, Stephens & Sprinkle were in a serious auto accident which features in the documentary. The two were seriously injured and hospitalized but eventually walked away. The wreck served as a metaphor for the universality of “eco-sinners” in that even the filmmakers were driving around in an old, polluting van.
The two describe the incident as romantic and remarkable and say it has given them a new lease on life. The accident was a result of another driver’s distracted driving. The film as a whole is a look at the issues facing the planet, some of those perpetrating them, and ways to think about the problem. “What we really hope with our film is that people leave the film thinking about the issues we’ve presented but also feeling like well, there is something I can do in my personal life.”
The term “eco-sexual” was originally used by dating sites and subsequently in a book titled Eco-sex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make Your Love Life Sustainable by Stephanie Iris Weiss. Stephens & Sprinkle took the term and created an art movement around it. “We like to think that all sex is eco-sex including human on human because we are the earth, we’re not separate from the earth…we acknowledge all the sexuality that is going on around us.” At UC Santa Cruz where Stephens is a professor, the two established E.A.R.T.H Lab which stands for Environmental Art Theory & Happenings. There they incorporate some of the principles of ecosexuality in the programs they run. For the Silo, Brainard Carey. 

British MPs Say Government Too Slow To Help These At Risk Arts

A friend of mine from Europe sent me this news story a couple of weeks ago about how the cultural landscape is facing its biggest threat in a generation.

It says the UK government was too slow to provide support for the arts industry, and that without more help, many parts of Britain could become “cultural wastelands”:

https://youtu.be/pPw8na16nuk

This should be a crude wake-up call for artists.

Realistically, governments around the world will NOT make it a priority to save art businesses. Why? Because governments care most about issues that will get them votes. 

And, sadly, most of the public simply does not care about the arts the way artists do.

Want proof?

Check out the comments on that BBC video:

Then if you go down the rabbit hole and dig deep into the replies to these comments, you find a lot of artists desperately trying to show these people that the arts, and theatres, and galleries are very much “essential” to artists who rely on them to provide for their families:

The take-home lesson here?

Artists are on our own. 

It’s unrealistic – unwise, even – to wait for the government to swoop in and rescue the arts industry.

In times like these individual initiative is more important than ever. 

Artists must redouble their efforts to connect with curators, build a list of collectors, find patrons for their studio, maybe even transition to showing (and selling) some work online.

It is difficult, but it is not impossible. For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Featured image- www.theatlantic.com

Misconception That Education Is End Of Road

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” -Socrates
There is a misconception that education is the end of a road. On the contrary, it is merely the beginning. For many of us, youth is taken up with those things we feel we need to learn and less so with all that we most desire to know. Once we come of age, we begin to truly earn our education, gleaning the knowledge we have craved all along. This is the case for many artists who spend years, decades in other pursuits having been told that their inclination toward art is unsustainable or simply wrong.


Peter Cole is is a poet who works prodigiously with painters. Recently he has worked with Terry Winters who asked him to write about his current works. Some of that series appeared in Paris Review and sparked a series of work from Winters in turn which again sparked another series of writing and so forth.


Cole’s work includes translations from Hebrew and he explains that one of the most famous aspects of translation in the 20th century is that poetry is lost in translation. To hear more about Cole’s work as well as more about the concept of translating poetry, listen to the complete interview.
Diego Leclery is presently working in his studio in Queens. When he left school his work dematerialized considerably for roughly 11 years until very recently when he and his wife were able to get a house and designate studio space. At the moment he is hard at work building out a studio space.
Although Leclery could have afforded a studio when he worked full time, he hesitated and waited until he could afford a practice that was entirely material and could be everything or nothing.

Diego Leclery


To hear more from Diego Leclery, including his thoughts on modern day confusion and feelings, enlightenment thinking and pre-me-too ideas, all of which culminates in an understanding of limitations, listen to the complete interview. For the Silo, Brainard Carey. Read more from Brainard by clicking here.

Thoughts On Rejection And Concept Of Groundlessness

Rejection. “We lived in Northern New Mexico. I was standing in front of our house drinking a cup of tea. I heard the car drive up and the door bang shut. Then he walked around the corner, and without warning, he told me he was having an affair and he wanted a divorce. I remember the sky and how huge it was. I remember the sound of the river and the steam rising up from my tea. There was no time, no thought, there was nothing–just the light and a profound, limitless stillness. Then I regrouped and picked up a stone and threw it at him.” -Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart

This quote, about the moment Pema Chodron’s life began to change, the moment she experienced true groundlessness, applies to so many circumstances in life. Whether we are experiencing the rejection of a lover or spouse, or rejection from a gallery, grant application, art school, the list goes on and on, it is not uncommon for it to feel like the ground has slipped from beneath your feet. When the floor opens up and swallows you whole, it is human instinct to close up, distract, do whatever it takes to make the feeling go away. These are the moments when we must strive the hardest to open up and soften, allow whatever we are feeling to wash over us, and let that be okay.

If you are an artist, you may have tried applying for a grant. You may have given up after a rejection letter or two. But do you know that for every twenty grant applications you complete, you might receive one or two. Might. There are absolutely no guarantees, and the grant writing field is highly competitive. It is important to understand this going in and to have not only a system to keep churning out applications (because, after all this is an important part of many artists’ income and should be treated as such) it is also absolutely critical that you have your head firmly on your shoulders prepared to deal with the pain of rejection.

Let’s face it, rejection always feels personal. You put a piece of yourself out into the world only to have someone tell you it isn’t what they’re looking for. This hurts. And again, that’s OK.

What is important is that you never let the hurt get the best of you. Do not internalize rejection. Remind yourself that you are one of many. You are relying on the subjectivity of a person or group of people, and just because you do not win favor does not mean your art isn’t any good. Rather, it means your art wasn’t what they were looking for on that day for that particular thing. Accept this and move along.

Often, rejection has nothing at all to do with you. This is very difficult to get the mind around. Very often rejection is about the unspoken details being sought that someone else might happen to present.

Buddhist thought teaches us to accept groundlessness, work with it, allow ourselves to sit with it. We are all in the habit of glossing difficult emotions. We self-medicate sometimes with substances, or by tuning out and not letting the hard stuff in. Begin to notice when you start to check out and see how it feels to just be still with the difficult stuff.

Learning to deal with rejection will serve you in many ways. You will find the strength to continue your mission no matter what happens, and you will do so with grace. You will learn that just because you are not chosen one time doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try again. Often, grants and galleries invite those who are not chosen in one round to apply again. And again. The people who run things like this understand what you must begin to internalize–that it really isn’t about you.

If you begin to incorporate these things into your consciousness, eventually they will become part of the fabric. You will begin to live by the new way of thinking you have cultivated. A mindset that puts rejection into perspective and allows you to pursue your forward momentum no matter what.

Brainard Carey

Life is full of rejection, big and small. Hiding away won’t get you far. Choosing the path of least resistance may seem like the easy way but it is a road to nowhere. Remember, if you are an Artist choosing to make your art into a career, it means putting the most intimate pieces of yourself out into the world for all to see. It is a warrior’s path and requires a warrior spirit. For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Brainard  is currently giving free webinars on how to write a better Artist bio and statement and how to get a show in a gallery – you can register for that live webinar and ask questions live by clicking here.

Featured image- entrepreneur.com

Surreal Aspects Of All Expressed In Artwork

Many have been humbled simply standing in a darkened field and looking to the stars. Indeed the great thinkers of the many generations that have come and gone are regarded as giants when in fact they were merely humans dropped to their knees by the wonder that is the universe all around us. There is as much wonder in a blade of grass as there is in a cosmic nebula, as much mystery in a drop of water as in the dark matter we yet fail to comprehend.

James Hart Dyke is based in Brighton, England nestled between the water and the south downs. In his studio he works largely on commissions. Last November Hart Dyke traveled to Patagonia and is now painting mountain landscapes from this trip for an exhibition in London at the end of the year. Landscapes are his life’s work and his love for the art form has infused his life and career with adventure and physicality as he climbs and hikes the places he later paints. “Enduring the landscape in some way, I find that combination of painting and physicality very exciting…it’s what my painting is about, really,” he says. Hart Dyke has been embedded with British forces in war zones on commission from the UK military. In Baghdad he painted while two soldiers stood guard. This tradition of bringing artists along to paint is long standing and important to the regiments of the UK. The work created is kept in the collections of the individual regiments and displayed in the mess hall, documenting the history of each for the soldiers to witness. The tradition dates back before photography when artists were the only window to a visual representation of the action of the battlefield.
Artists’ representations of war convey more than just the actual imagery of what is going on before them. The emotions of the situation are infused into the work, as well. Hart Dyke has had an unusual career. His work has led him to a position as artist in residence for the British Secret Intelligence Service as well as to work for the Royal Family. For the British Secret Intelligence Service, Hart Dyke helped to commemorate the centenary by documenting things in paint. As an artist he was able to venture where photographers could not go due to the highly sensitive nature of the work done there. His paintings from this series are quite surreal, a nod to the rather unusual nature of the work the British Secret Intelligence Service does. Hart Dyke studied architecture which he is still passionate about despite eventually moving to painting. His entrance into the painting world began with commissioned paintings of buildings. In reality, Hart Dyke began painting at the age of eight and despite his foray into architecture he never truly gave it up. There was inevitability to his career as a painter. Because of the physical nature of his process, art has become in a very real sense James Hart Dyke’s sport. To hear more about this, James Hart Dyke’s unusual career, and about the tradition of artists on the battlefield, listen to the complete interview.
Kambui Olujimi recently exhibited work titled Red Shift. The title refers to celestial bodies in space that cannot be seen because of shifts in the spectrum of light. Through this lens, Olujimi contemplated the mythology of whiteness as an unseen force. Olujimi describes how the mythological space of whiteness plays out in the physical world through policy, allocation of resources, and myriad other ways. He references descriptions of mass shooters as “lone shooters” in a way that removes them from the space of violence pervasive in the US. Presidential assassins are another example. These two groups of predominantly white men are somehow isolated, removed from the larger conversation about violence in the US creating a Red Shift that in a sense conceals them from the rest of the data.
For the exhibition, Olujimi created collages from news imagery of the alt-right coupled with drawings. Olujimi’s current project centers on fragmentation of identity. His love of films informs this work. In particular he references the accidental announcement of La La Land for Best Picture in 2017 when in fact the film Moonlight claimed that title. His concept deconstructs and reassembles that moment, elongating it and examining the feeling of elation followed by crushing deflation. “A lot of my work is around these things that I call inevitabilities…I’m interested in bringing those inevitabilities out of the space of the implicit. Once you give them shape and weight and gravity and start to manifest them in some way, the incongruities and absurdities, the surreal aspects all become very evident and we are able to become more critical of them in that space.” It is these gaps, these “moments of silence” that inform Olujimi’s work. To hear more about this powerful art, listen to the complete interview.  For the Silo, Brainard Carey. 
Featured image- Mercy Doesn’t Grow On Trees, 2016 Wood, glass, hair, gold leaf, ratchet straps 150 x 48 x 30 inches

Theft Of Artist Ideas May Not Be Theft At All

Recently, one of my readers wrote that “there is another kind of generosity that comes much harder to me. I know I shouldn’t be stingy in this way, but I find myself stubbornly so. It’s the generosity of sharing my ideas, my connections, or giving a leg up to those who could benefit sometimes from my knowledge – whether that’s contacts, networks, tips, or the meat of my ideas themselves.”

This concern, of course, is not unique and strikes at the heart of something that all those in creative professions fear and must face. The ownership of ideas is difficult to prove. If you tell someone your plan in confidence and they, in turn, use it for their own purposes, there is very little you can do to show that you are the originator. Spreading this rumor is likely to make you look like the bad guy. It’s no wonder that this sort of generosity is cause for concern.

Arguably, no one would really offer up their original ideas before they have been fleshed out and no one would expect this from another artist. Talking about work in progress in general terms is one thing, but detailing the entire plan is another altogether. There is nothing wrong with being a little protective of your creative capital, it is the lifeblood of what you do.

Steve Jobs and Apple on stealing ideasBut what about sharing your networks or some trade secrets that helped you get to where you are today? While you may have worked tooth and nail for everything you’ve gained, there were surely people along the way who said yes at the right moment and assisted your progress. No one can ask more than this, and as an artist of a certain standing, there is nothing wrong with offering this sort of help.

It’s important to ask yourself what you may gain or lose by offering your assistance in any way. While this may not sound like a very altruistic way of thinking, remember that you are indeed running a business and there is nothing wrong with a bit of shrewd thinking. Further, though, when you stop and think about the outcome of sharing your network, it is unlikely that helping an emerging artist by introducing people who might be able to help will in any way affect your position as a more established artist.

No one exists in a vacuum. Even you, who may have scraped and fought your way to where you are today, benefited from the acceptance and help of others. Sure, you may have pounded the pavement endlessly in order to secure your position but that is no reason not to pay forward the success you have achieved. It is too easy to forget, once you have achieved a certain status, the myriad small moments that led you there. While it may seem as though hardly anyone was out to help you in the early days, surely there were some, otherwise you could not be where you are today. Even if it was just a few gallerists who were finally willing to take a chance, there are always rungs of assistance in the ladder to every success, no matter how small.

In our present times, we live in a world where community is very much at our fingertips. The rules of social engagement have definitely changed. This is both a benefit and a burden. While the new landscape of online social engagement can absolutely open up opportunities that didn’t exist prior to this revolution in social connection, the online community can also present a world of its own difficulties. It is impossible to know who you are actually dealing with and with virtually everyone in the entire art world present online, it can easily overwhelm a newcomer to the scene.

For these reasons, there is a lot to be said for good old-fashioned face-to-face interaction. Being the sort of artist who is willing to mentor in the real world sets you apart. Establishing this sort of reputation, for being the one who will gladly share the bounty you have created, seldom reverses one’s own success and frequently opens new doors you may never have considered.

Getting back to the idea of sharing artistic ideas and concepts, this is a bit trickier. As I said before, it may be unwise to give away your nascent, unfruited plans to just anyone. On the other hand, allowing others to view works in progress isn’t likely to cause too much harm.

Arguably, there is no such thing as original art. Even some of the most contemporary artists’ work is derivative of past creations. Marina Abramovic, in her unique style, has absolutely drawn from (and occasionally been accused of copying) works by other artists. Pablo Picasso (and perhaps more famously, Steve Jobs who quoted him) said, “good artists copy, great artists steal.” This doesn’t mean that you should open yourself up to idea theft, but it does mean that perhaps being stingy with your concepts, your network, your position as an established artist, doesn’t count for as much security as you might think. Be smart about things, but in general, it is always a good idea to reach down the ladder and help those coming up behind you find the next rung.  For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Brainard  is currently giving free webinars on how to write a better Artist bio and statement and how to get a show in a gallery – you can register for that live webinar and ask questions live by clicking here.

Featured image: Jarrod Barker.

Artwork That Reminds Us History Is Absolute

Colorization processed G. Orwell photo- mensxp.com

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” -George Orwell

The facts of the past cannot be objectively altered regardless of belief or opinion. They can, however, be tainted by those wishing to assume power. It is critical that we understand the past as it happened and do not allow the view to be obscured. Only in this way can we ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes of our forebearers, only in this way do we as a society learn and move on from our past transgressions. Those who would revise the past must be confronted with resistance and overcome with the truth. We are bound by our ancestors to carry their truth along the banks of the future no matter how heavy the burden may be.

Golden Age Rorschach, 2014, 38” x 26”, Acrylic paint over inkjet print mounted on Dibond by Aura Goldenberg.

Aura Rosenberg is based in New York City and Berlin, Germany. Since 1993 she has worked on a project titled Berlin Childhood. Over the years the project has taken on many forms including a published book, souvenirs of Berlin’s Victory Column, photographs, and a film. The title comes from a series of texts by Walter Benjamin written during his exile from Berlin in the 1930s. Rosenberg began creating a photograph to correspond with each text which Benjamin wrote in order to combat his homesickness during exile. Chantal Benjamin, the granddaughter of Walter Benjamin moved to Berlin and contacted Rosenberg. The two became friends and Rosenberg began filming Benjamin and her daughter around the city also in correspondence with the original texts. Presently Rosenberg is editing her archive of footage and recording a narrative soundtrack of Walter Benjamin’s great-granddaughter reading his texts aloud. Rosenberg also creates work based on themes of sexuality. One of her current project is a continuation of an older work titled Porn Rock.

“145 Elm Ridge Drive Toronto”
Study Of Politics In Cell Tower Placement by Vid Ingelevics.

Vid Ingelevics is a Canadian artist. Much of his work examines representations of the past. His current long form project titled Freedom Rocks focuses on the history of the Berlin Wall since its removal in 1989. Ingelevics began researching what happened to the wall after it fell and discovered pieces of it across the world including in the United States and Canada. Initially, Ingelevics and his collaborator went to Washington, D.C. to learn about the movement of the remains of the wall. In the years following the removal of the wall there was a strong market for fragments. Pieces of the Berlin Wall now appear in the most unlikely corners of the world. Ingelevics work looks at why fragments of the Berlin Wall move around the world and who pays for this as well as putting the wall in the context of history rather than relegating it solely to the realm of political symbolism.  For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Brainard  is currently giving free webinars on how to write a better Artist bio and statement and how to get a show in a gallery – you can register for that live webinar and ask questions live by clicking here.

Featured image- “Touching the Wall”, Berlin, 2014. From the larger project, Freedom Rocks, a collaboration between Vid Ingelevics & Blake Fitzpatrick begun in 2004 that explores the post-1989 history of the Berlin Wall.

Supplemental- Digital Rorschach examples from 2012 / 2013 series by Canadian Artist Jarrod Barker.

Space Race by Jarrod Barker. 2013.

Blue Nude Torso In Plaid Design. Jarrod Barker. 2012.

Monarch. Jarrod Barker. 2013/16.

A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket

History is absolute. Endeavor to know it and to speak its truth.

Interviews are available on iTunes as podcasts, and for Android please click here. All weekly essay pieces in a shareable format are here. The full archive of interviews here.

Books to Read

What are you reading? Add your titles to our reading list here. Heather Hubbs has recently read On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder and user Julia has been revisiting Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Natural World Immediacy A Rare Concept

Immediacy? “Nothing important comes into being overnight; even grapes or figs need time to ripen. If you say that you want a fig now, I will tell you to be patient. First, you must allow the tree to flower, then put forth fruit; then you have to wait until the fruit is ripe. So if the fruit of a fig tree is not brought to maturity instantly or in an hour, how do you expect the human mind to come to fruition, so quickly and easily?” -Epictetus

The Worm (2008) and Watershort (2008) are time-contemplative short films by Canadian sound and visual artist Jarrod Barker.

In the natural world, immediacy is rarely a concept. While it is true the Mayfly lives only for a day, it is also true that each fly is one infinitesimal link in the long succession of the species. As humans have increasingly stepped beyond the boundaries of nature, we have begun to forget the importance of waiting and patience. We live surrounded by cheap treasures gotten easily and quickly. But like the Mayfly, these spoils of instant gratification perish quickly leaving us desiring more. No longer do we answer to the rhythm of nature, preferring instead to force the world to step up to our breakneck pace. All the while we are saturated with reminders that “good things come to those who wait” but too often choose to ignore this time tested wisdom.

Stefan Klein works in Berlin. Presently he is examining the concept of waiting. To this end, he has conducted quite a lot of field research. Waiting, he says, “is something that’s so routinely existing in our daily lives but at the same time has this very existential dimension to it so that almost everybody can relate to it but at the same time it’s a very abstract topic.” Another project, titled Introduction to Microeconomics is a book documenting Klein’s repeated ordering and return of a book by the same name. In this way, he examined documentation as a vital element of a whole work. Much of Klein’s work investigates complex systems through performative means. In September, Klein will begin a series of waiting sessions with people from various disciplines. He will meet with guests at a bus stop (a place of waiting) for a conversation. His audience will be comprised of both those who came to see the performance and those who happened to be waiting for the bus. In this way, Klein will access waiting from many perspectives.

untitled watercolor Emilie Clark 2015

Emilie Clark is a New York City based artist who spends part of the year in New Hampshire. Much of her work is based on the work of nineteenth-century natural historians and scientists, most of them women. She also explores the literal interpretation of the word ecology (earth’s household) incorporating historical texts and working in the landscape. In New Hampshire, Clark works in a floating research station surrounded by the natural world. In New York City her experience is quite different though she has noticed similarities in plant species between the two locations. From her research station, Clark collects specimens, makes sound recordings, draws, paints, preserves, and fully immerses herself in nature. This process is rooted not only in creating but in learning.

Brainard Carey

A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket

A work of art, a career, a relationship, anything worth investing our hearts and minds in, must be given time. We must relearn to wait, to fall back in step with the world around us. For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Brainard  is currently giving free webinars on how to write a better Artist bio and statement and how to get a show in a gallery – you can register for that live webinar and ask questions live by clicking here.

Ancient Zen Story About Re-framing Failure Applies To Grant Applications

When thinking about grant writing, it helps to first consider this story that tells about luck. In it, a farmer’s horse runs away and all his neighbors come by to say what bad luck this is. The farmer replies “maybe.” His horse returns and with it brings wild horses. The neighbors all say what good luck this is to which the farmer says, “maybe.” The farmer’s son, attempting to tame one of the wild horses, is thrown and breaks a leg. Bad luck, say the neighbors, “maybe” says the farmer. At last the army comes to town gathering up all the able bodied young men to go off to war. Seeing the farmer’s son with his broken leg they pass on by.

The story ends here, but it shows that things are often connected in ways we can’t possibly predict. A Lebanese saying reaches toward the very same point, “Don’t curse your bad luck because it may turn out to be your good luck.” Again the message here is that you can’t possibly know whether a single event is truly good or bad.

Failure can and should be viewed through the lens of stories and phrases like these. When we stumble, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking of this one moment as some sort of endgame. On the contrary, every so-called failure is nothing more than the next step in your journey.

Failure feels personal. When you have worked hard on something, poured your very soul into it, only to have things not come to fruition, it can feel like the universe is pointing a finger directly at your forehead. Putting things into some context is one way to start seeing the bigger picture.

Shakey Graves- Roll the Bones. Bandcamp.

Grant applications are quite probably one of the best examples of this. There is so much riding on any given application, whether it is for a specific project or an artist’s general practice. Grants are one of the ways in which working artists stay afloat and they are not only time-consuming, they can feel extremely personal.

Not receiving a grant can set off a cycle of emotions. Everything from wondering what is wrong with your work or your application, to convincing yourself that this is the last chance and there’s no point trying again. Let’s unpack these very common reactions and shed some light on the reality of the situation.

For any given grant you may apply to, there are countless others also spending long hours writing up their own applications. Grants range all over the place in size and popularity, so to speak. Even smaller scale grants (say, those offered by lesser known organizations or tightly specified to certain disciplines) will often attract many applicants.

While there are certain strategies when it comes to writing a good grant application, there is no single, objective way to ensure that yours will be the one chosen. When it comes down to final decision time, there is a level of subjectivity built into the process. Art for example, is not a quantitative subject and nor are grants being awarded via algorithm. Rather, they are being decided by panels of human beings with a range of subjective emotions about a field that is as unscientific as it gets.

For the reasons above, when you do not receive a grant, think of it in terms of the many, many other applications rather than simply in terms of what you personally did wrong. Do not ignore this as a learning experience and do reach out the grant organization for feedback whenever possible, but do not let “no” from one or even a string of grant organizations stop you in your tracks.

Instead, recall the story and expression above. Think of every grant, in fact, every action, as nothing more than a single ripple on the surface of the vast river that is your journey. When you do not get into a gallery, carry on and find others. Down the line when you look back, you will have the clarity to see the progression of events. When you are passed over for a residency, apply to three more. If a project doesn’t work out the way you thought it would, evaluate what happened, learn from the experience, and move on down the road.

Brainard Carey. image: elmcityexpress.blogspot

No one is claiming that this is easy. This isn’t about somehow detaching from your feelings and letting rejection slide like water off a duck’s back. Of course not. Rejection hurts. No matter how impersonal it might actually be when we are told no it isn’t a good feeling.

But remembering that every moment is just that, a single blip on the screen rather than a career breaking catastrophe can help you heal and recharge sooner after you’ve had a misstep. Carry the simple answer of the farmer with you at all times, “maybe.”

For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Brainard  is currently giving free webinars on how to write a better Artist bio and statement and how to get a show in a gallery – you can register for that live webinar and ask questions live by clicking here.

An Artist Life Means Putting Your Guts Out Into The World

The formula for a life well lived might look something like this: Dive in head first > fail > repeat.

Life is a series of cycles. There is of course the broad cycle, we are born, we live, we age, we die. But within this scope are countless other cycles for every part and parcel of our time on the planet. The cycle of making mistakes, of continually pouring your guts out to the world and enduring the consequences, is one of the most important there is for artists. From this process you learn the most about who you are, and how you fit in the world. There will be plenty of moments when you are a total mismatch, when you throw yourself into the deep end and struggle to stay afloat. Under no circumstances should these moments be viewed as set-backs or failure.

Salvador Dali once said, “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.” Take a minute to consider that. Really let it sink in. Let your mind internalize this notion and let it unleash a wave of relief through your whole body. What fantastic news this is, no matter what you do, no matter how long you live, you, I, we, not one of us, will ever be perfect. So how can you take this beautiful knowledge and use it to your own advantage? Once you are free from the restraints of perfection, how can this inform the way you continue on your path?

By adopting the formula above and not letting go no matter what.

You probably know stories about how mistakes have changed history for the better over and over again. The accidental discovery of Penicillin because scientists noticed that the mold on some forgotten fruit killed bacteria. Or the invention of silly putty (perhaps not on par with life-saving antibiotics when it comes to historic moments, but a great boon to childhood all the same) quite by accident in a military lab as scientists tried to create an inexpensive substitute for rubber. But have you ever really stopped to consider what these stories mean to an artist? How they can be freeing examples of the importance of making mistakes?

There is likely not a person out there who truly believes that perfection is attainable, but we are told far too often that we ought to strive for it. This leads to untold restraint, dissatisfaction, and who knows how many missed opportunities for glorious screw ups. Do not let this trap take hold of you. Throw your best and worst, craziest and most tame ideas out there for all the world to see. Who cares if you land flat on your face, as long as you’re still able to pick yourself up there’s no harm done.

As an artist you will be the recipient of rejection letters and emails. Stacks of them. Count on it. In every creative field, there are piles and piles of rejections to be gone through. Walt Disney was once fired for what his editor deemed a lack of imagination. Countless famous artists throughout history were rejected in their lifetimes, some only achieving posthumous success. Van Gogh, Manet, Turner, they all have in common that they faced painful rejection in their lifetimes. They also have in common that they didn’t give up their unique perspective on the world nor did they allow something as insignificant as rejection stand in the way of their forward momentum.

Collect your rejection letters. Create a special binder for them. Own them with pride knowing that you earned each and every one of them by putting a piece of yourself out into the world. Begin to think of rejection as a victory in itself because it means you tried. The moment you receive a rejection letter, consider that at that same moment, had you not tried, there would be nothing at all. Not trying isn’t really a way of avoiding rejection, it is simply a way of hiding from the world. You will never get anywhere at all if you don’t reveal yourself.

Artists are perhaps particularly vulnerable when it comes to the consequences of baring their souls to the world. Art is highly personal and the thought of making a mistake when the stakes are so intimately high can be enough to frighten even the boldest spirit. Rejection can feel like a very personal affront and can make it difficult to want to try again. It comes down to a choice really, to stay safe and make no progress, or let it all hang out and learn from every single mistake.

Just like with everything else in life, you will become accustomed to accepting rejection and mistakes as par for the course. There will come a day when you will leaf through your binder of rejection letters with a wisdom that can only be gained through the repeated process of failing. For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Brainard  is currently giving free webinars on how to write a better Artist bio and statement and how to get a show in a gallery – you can register for that live webinar and ask questions live by clicking here.

In These Days Of Alternative Fact And Secrecy It Is Difficult To Hold On To Truth

The shape of truth is often difficult to discern. It bends and shifts or is manipulated to suit a particular narrative. Facts become the object of debate when power is at stake. Corruption breeds untruths. While objective concepts do not require belief in order to exist, we can not grasp what we simply do not know. In these days of alternative fact and secrecy, it is difficult to hold on to what constitutes truth. We are told by those on high to avert our eyes and ears while purveyors of truth are silenced. John Dalberg-Acton bequeathed these words to the world, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

Richard Vine is the managing editor of Art in America.
Richard Vine is the managing editor of Art in America.

Richard Vine, art critic and managing editor of Art in America has recently penned his first novel. SoHo Sins follows the pulp tradition right down to the cover art created by Robert McGuire, one of the greats of noir cover art in the 1950s. The novel deals with the corruption of innocence by way of a murder mystery and harkens back to the 90s heyday for the art world in SoHo. Vine has also curated multiple exhibits including “Darkness Visible” in Beijing, China and “Golden Selections” in Iceland. Vine’s second novel will take on the political crimes enacted at Kent State when the National Guard opened fire on demonstrating students wounding nine and killing four. He was a student at Kent State at the time and witnessed this incident.

Installation View, Cynthia Greig's “Making Mischief” at Center Galleries, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI photo credit: Alex Gingrow
Installation View, Cynthia Greig’s “Making Mischief” at Center Galleries, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI photo credit: Alex Gingrow

Cynthia Greig is a native of Detroit. Her studio sits north of the famed 8 Mile. She says of her home city that while there is a great diversity of opinion, even in the midst of decay those who truly know the city could see the inherent beauty of the place. Her art takes on the topic of exhibitionism, investigating and deconstructing the concept of the white cube gallery space and breaking it down to its essential parts. She has watched the scale of galleries grow exponentially from white cube to international powerhouses and examined how this affects the value of the art within. Her art explores these themes often depicting interruptions in the pristine facade of the gallery space.

Additional interviews include: Nate HarrisonChristopher Richmond, and Melissa Stern.

tequila mockingbird bookWhile we can not ever know absolute reality, we can look at it from every angle and make informed decisions. What are you reading to shape your own reality? Tequila Mockingbird is a book written by Carter Ratcliffe, friend and colleague to Richard Vine, that bears witness to Russian oligarchy through the vapid eyes of a supermodel. Cynthia Greig balances intake of the barrage of political news with American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation by Erik Rutkow. Add your titles to our reading list here.

FIGMENT NYC invites artists to submit their proposals for an annual mini golf course. Artists create large, interactive installation pieces at Governor’s Island, New York to be enjoyed by the public. Deadline for submissions is March 10 and artists must be able to participate in installation during late May. All proposals must include an estimated budget.

For some, truth is malleable and to be used in order to bolster a particuclar need. We must always strive to stay awake, demanding transparent truths and examining from every angle. We must raise our eyes and our voices, crying out until the truth is spoken loud and clear. For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Brainard  is currently giving free webinars on how to write a better Artist bio and statement and how to get a show in a gallery – you can register for that live webinar and ask questions live by clicking here.

Light Informs Art In Ways That Cannot Be Disentangled

We sit in the grip of deep winter, snow reflecting the moonlight at last. At this time of the year, the earth slows down and so too can we. It is time for us to reflect as well, upon the year that has been and the year ahead. During these dark months, light becomes a precious thing. Something to celebrate and embrace as we pass the days. Everything we see is light and light informs art in a way that cannot be disentangled.

ak-dolven-painting-detail

“Light is also about…the passage of time,” says Norwegian artist A K Dolven. Living on an island in Norway above the Arctic Circle has given her a unique perspective about the interplay of art and light. Her work examines intimacy and large social groups, the relationships of nationality, population, space, and how this changes the work she does. In her village of nine people, a piece of art takes on a very different character than it does in a large city such as Brussels or London. Dolven incorporates balance in its many forms in the world we live in. Political balance, social balance, life balance, and other delicate equilibriums contribute to the nature of her art.

Milovan Destil Markovic recently participated in a Belgrade-based exhibition titled “The Pleasure of Love in a Time of Hate.” His work for the exhibition was in the form of barcode paintings that touched on sexual intimacy. Markovic also uses his barcode paintings in a series titled “The Abduction of Europe” in which he takes a hard look at economic power struggles within the European community.

milovan-destil-markovic-barcode-paintings

The paintings resemble street graffiti with economically and politically charged statements spray painted within the confines of a barcode structure. Markovic also creates what he calls Transfigurative Paintings. These works employ a medium that reflects the subject in some way.
Additional interviews include: Karl Haendel and Paul McDevitt

Winter can be a time for personal reflection. We can create a space where it is safe for our minds to explore new horizons through literature. What are you reading to pass the cold days and dark nights? Click here to add your books. User Carla Cruz has been immersed in The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir, while M Chevska seeks winter solitude in Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.

An example of Jarrod Barker's graffiti inspired landscape painting.
An example of Jarrod Barker’s graffiti inspired landscape painting.

Those interested in the opportunity to create a piece of permanent, public art can submit to Seattle’s Central City Connector Project. An artist or team of artists will be chosen to create artwork that defines the aesthetic of the Central City Connector Streetcar Line. Alte Schule Hohenstein has an open call to artists interested in a residency at their school in Germany.

As we run down the days until the world is reborn and spring returns, let us not forget to enjoy the respite of winter darkness. Invite light in when it presents itself and wrap your mind in the stillness of midwinter.For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Brainard  is currently giving free webinars on how to write a better Artist bio and statement and how to get a show in a gallery – you can register for that live webinar and ask questions live by clicking here.

Spotlight image courtesy of urbanchristiannews.com

Supplemental– The History and Creation of the Barcode.

Light, Interviews, Books to Inspire, And A Call To Artists From Rome

Consider for a moment the nature of light and time. Fleeting, infinite, unknowable, and yet familiar as our own minds. We long for more time while cursing its slow progress. Temporal matters dictate every aspect of our human lives. We are beholden to the times in which we live. We cannot grasp light and yet we are surrounded by it. When we enter into the unknown, art is a light guiding us toward better days ahead.

Mary Temple's "unsolved red white and blue"
Mary Temple’s “unsolved red white and blue”

Mary Temple has the ability to incorporate all of this into her artwork in the most surprising ways. She can capture a moment and freeze it for all eternity with the stroke of her brush. Her ethereal public art painted on existing architecture preserves the memory of a moment of light. Temple also focuses on the times in which we live, using her art to engage in global political discussion. Her series Currency depicted world leaders in such a way that ranked them according to their ability to achieve progress in matters of world peace. Temple uses time as a dimension in her work. Currency was an up to the minute newsfeed told through hand drawn portraiture, while her public artwork uses light to capture time and hold it still for all to see.

Susan Silton Billboard commission
Susan Silton Billboard commission

Susan Silton lets our life and times inform her art. Through performance, installation, video, photography, text, audio, participation and print-based projects, Silton speaks to the turbulence around us. She fuses humor, unease, beauty with the intention of shining a light on the failures and triumphs of our moment on the planet. Her video work “Turn the Beat Around” was a direct response to the 2016 attack on an Orlando, Florida nightclub. Her art is a conduit to process grief, come to terms with the violence in our society, and seek common ground.

Writer Murong Xuecun once said, “Literature is not at the service of the government; on the contrary governments should do everything in their power to create a favorable climate for literature.” In these uncertain political times, what are you reading? Click here to contribute your books in the comments  or use the comments feature at the end of this post. Tony Maslic, is reading “The Dispossessed” by Ursula Le Guin. Lian Brehm has turned to Suzi Gablick’s “The Reenchantment of Art” while artist Mary Temple cites the works of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, as well as her TEDx talk We Should all be Feminists as necessary fuel.

The Rome Glocal Brightness 2017 Light Festival has issued a call for artists. The Festival illuminates the sixth district of Rome allowing viewers to experience undiscovered corners of the city.

This bringing of light does not seek to diminish the dark, but to emphasize that the darkness can become a canvas in itself.
As we stand together at the edge of a new ravine, let us not fear what may be but embrace what is in each moment and never stop reaching toward the light. For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Brainard Carey is an artist, author and educator. You can attend one of his free webinars for artists here. He also has an educational platform for artists called Praxis Center.

*featured image- Mary Temple “Currency”Series

Boston Based Artist Jeannie Motherwell Draws Structures From Uncertainty

Dear Artist, Aristotle differentiated humans from their animal counterparts by dint of logos, the power of rational speech. Napoleon was attributed the quote, “four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.” Human civilization was founded on the exercise of this divine faculty, and is destroyed by it in equal measure. Speech, in its complexity and weight, is the only world capable of rivaling nature.

This week, in view of two ponderous interviews, I ask you to summon to mind those rare and revelatory conversations that have left an indelible imprint on your life. What intimate discussion would you revisit and savor, if you were aware of the contents beforehand? What words of the past would be left unsaid or better spoken with the retrospective guidance of age?

Abstract acrylic painter Jeannie Motherwell refuses to grow cold in the artistic shadow of her father and stepmother, Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler. As a stable ecosystem quells its wrestling constituents, Motherwell’s refined intuition hushes the spontaneous boundaries of dilating paint on clay board and canvas. Over a soberly spoken interview, the New York artist now based in Boston, admits in her work the faint pursuit of a faded horizon: the shifting waters from the view of an old home, replaced, in time, by a windowless studio. The methodology of Motherwell’s art – to draw a structure from an uncertainty – eerily echoes a ritual from her upbringing: discerning, with the right words, to the joy of her guardians, the spiritual essences behind their cascades of paint.

Jeannie Motherwell in her Joy Street Studios, Somerville, MA
Jeannie Motherwell in her Joy Street Studios, Somerville, MA Click image to visit her studio website.

Inexhaustible curator and researcher Ele Carpenter maintains that the lasting footprint of humanity will not be a monument or an idea, but a radioactive glare. Radioactive isotopes of a unique breed first entered the Earth’s atmosphere with the testing of the earliest nuclear bomb, signaling the beginning of a geological period known as the nuclear anthropocene. Dedicated to disseminating information about the irreversible changes to the environment caused by human hand, Carpenter organizes discourse and collaboration on a global scale, uniting scientists, activists, and visionaries in the depiction of a haunting reality that eludes the senses.

the nuclear culture sourcebook by ele carpenter

Additional interviews include: Barbara Wilks, Nate Page, Frans van Lent, and Katya Gardea Brown.

Looking for new additions to your reading list? Rachel Wolfe, one of our users, is deconstructing and rebuilding her fundamental conceptions of nature and mind. Sensitive Chaos, by Theodor Schwenk, vacillates between rigorous and metaphorical depictions of the underlying systems of movement that govern aeolian and liquid dynamics, from the furious dance of a hurricane to the soft aria of a developing child. Strange Tools, by Alva Noe, is a philosophical text that sees artmaking as a faculty for reflection, a primordial instinct that consciously and unconsciously takes stock of the external conditions that govern our identities and worldview.

Occupy Museums is seizing the means of cultural production with Debtfair, an exhibition dedicated to the overworked and underfunded. Creators, performers, and thinkers with financial weights on their shoulders have until December 9th to see their arduous narrative showcased in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Debtfair serves to expose the aggressive business models that permeate leading art institutions, while encouraging solidarity amongst all encumbered populations of the economically segmented social landscape. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but no artist needs to bear the burden of Atlas.

The great American poet Wallace Stevens, envisioning life’s origins with a brain that thought without words, once instructed, “Begin, ephebe, by perceiving the idea / Of this invention, this invented world, / The inconceivable idea of the sun.”

As always, here are the links to interview archive and free resources page. For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

*Highlight image: Absolute by Jeannie Motherwell. Visit Jeannie’s Boston Studio by clicking here.

 

 

Poetic Grace Gesture Is Needed In All Art Work

Dear Reader, it is difficult to deny that a side of art making is fatally concerned with the poetic grace of the gesture – it is expected that a work should exude a cosmic and ineffable air.

Metropolitan Museum Of Art Curator Denise LeidyRegardless of your medium, I hope this glance into the minds of two established poets from very different walks of life can help dissipate the intimidating mist between process and product, as well as remind you that the transcendent and the familiar are often one in the same.

Meena Alexander PoetGlobal spectator Meena Alexander recognizes that even in the grand art of poetry is a desire to express what cannot be said through its own means. After eight books of poems and a lifetime of travel, Alexander continues to defend her craft as the most ordinary of entities, no more inexplicable than a child’s obvious and impossible sense of language or rhythm.

New York-based Eileen Myles approaches poetry from a reserved and humble perspective, with the intent of striking a tasteful balance between metaphysical grandeur and the habitual rhythm of the everyday.

Eileen MylesMyles, a breathing artistic currency, treats poetry as an extension of the self with the potency of a movement and the collective memory of a civilization. Myles proves that common experience and abstract phenomena are synonymous when we step back to look.

If the weight of the world seems so immense that the few strands of creativity cannot unravel, the Mayer Foundation offers emergency funding for New York artists facing economic, residential or medical turbulence. Proposals may be submitted at any time, with over two thousand dollars granted to those with concrete objectives and a levelheaded art plan.

It is easy to forget that behind the polished mirror of history is a messy and cumulative reality. There is little difference between the intelligentsia of years past and the friends sitting at your dining room table. For the Silo, Brainard Carey.  

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