pages 71-122 reading

“Building a career depends on who you know.” In pages 71-122 (chapters 3 and 4) in Jackie Battenfield’s book, explains several ways to get out of your comfort zone and in to the public art world. Getting your art work noticed takes time and determination to promote yourself. Waiting around for someone to like your work enough to do it rarely turns out to be successful. Before you take your art work and open your studio to the public to take in constructive (or in some cases, not so nice) criticism, you must be prepared and practiced. Battenfield emphasizes on the “readiness” of an artist. You must develop a consistent idea and control of your work, eagerness and enthusiasm, timing, and understanding of development. The first stage, developing a consistency, is basically experimenting with materials and mediums. You may start as a sculptor but if you experiment with painting it just might be the medium you are happiest with. Next is eagerness. This is basically being mentally prepared for visitors and opinions on your work. Maybe not being ready for this the nest day but just knowing and understanding that it will happen. Timing is, in my opinion, the most important factor. As Battenfield says, “Allow yourself to experiment and let the creative excitement build-play, fail, resolve, and rethink.” I think she has a good point to timing everything out. She even shares a story of how a simple thing like the color yellow was criticized to her work and disabled her to use that color for quite a while. A simple opinion can create a mental block and halt the production of your work. As an artist, I understand where she’s coming from because if one person does not agree with something in your work, especially if it was something that you particularly were proud of, you doubt the impact of your work on others. Time can prepare you with the blows people take on your work. The final step is understanding your place in development. Some people can take a week to sort out the kinks and create a huge piece. Others, which I can relate to, take a while to think and produce a certain work. Battenfield reassures that planning and figuring out if you are ready is not going backwards on the progress you have made; it is necessary before showing your work to complete strangers.
Next, she talks about those who will help you. Your network of people will be part of your promotion. Keeping in touch with them will help you greatly. Once you are ready, show your work to your peers and discuss with them your process and future ideas, as well as their ideas. It will also prepare you for studio visits from curators or buyers. It is good to show others your studio when you are ready because people are so intrigued by the place where your creative lives. However, since your studio is your “happy place” and inviting others will interject that flow of creativity, it is wise to, again, be prepared for their opinions. Taking notes during a studio visit also allows you to remember questions and comments your visitor had about your work. This may also remember what you liked most about the discussions and remember what the most important part of the opinions were. You then can sort out the part of the visit that will help you most. Some suggestions may even initiate a new idea. If you write down these things, it may help you work out the little details in your work. Also, it is important to create strong bonds with people. This will immensely help you out in the long run. If you decide to make your own gallery, making it with another group of artists can introduce new people and more help from them. With the collaboration of other artists, you are helping them out, as well as helping yourself by bringing in new people to see your work.
Studio events can give previews to your close peers and can give you feedback on your work before you show it to a larger public crowd. The smaller visits prepare you for what’s to come and also shows other people that you are ready to show your work.
Free artist registries seem like a good way to show the greater public what your capabilities are. I actually looked up one registry mentioned by Battenfield, Artists Space, and it looks like a pretty easy to function site with so many artists available to look in to. They have a place for clickable thumbnails with the artist’s work, a resume space, an artist’s statement space, and contact information of the artist. The good thing about some registries is that they are free! With the costs of marketing yourself, anything free is something to take advantage of, especially if it is credible. Creating a website is another way to utilize the internet to promote yourself. You can be professional as well as personal to make the audience feel like they are getting to know the artist, something that Battenfield emphasizes on often. You can either hire someone to create the website, or you can make it by yourself. Blogs are also a way to get in touch with the audience. Battenfield also talks about how collaborative shows with other artists can help introduce more people to view your artwork. Placing shows in places such as restaurants, coffee bars, and book stores can introduce you to artists you never would have met before. Or even to make a public work, going to the community to network and promote is the best way to break through your comfort zone and establish relationships with different sources.
She writes a big section about making artwork out in the public, literally. Sidewalks, buildings, streetlamps, etc. anything is available for making something on it. She even mentioned an artist we learned about in class, Jenny Holzer, and used a picture that we saw as well. Battenfield encourages making the world fit your art, not the other way around. Once it is out there, it lives and inspires others.
Chapter four talks more about where would be the best place to exhibit your work. All venues are different, offer different things and require different things. So, she advises to test out various venues to see where you feel more comfortable. Simply showing your work to the same people over and over again will not do much in the long run…unless they bring new people. If this does not happen, then you need to take action and make new people see your work. To promote yourself you need you must indentify your goals, have promotional tools, regularly discuss your work, be aware of issues and be prepared to engage and talk about your work.
Researching about the venues and artists you would like to work with is also important. In order for your promotion to work, you have to make sure the venue to choose to promote in compliments the work you make. However, promoting your work to as many people as possible is equally important. You must be assertive when promoting or else you will not be noticed and remembered. You can network anywhere at any time. You never know who can help you promote yourself even more, or to the right people.
Next is a basic guidelines section for self promotion. Basically they are making a brief description, business cards, preliminary research, and taking time to develop good relationships. First is a brief description of you and your work; in my words, make a mini live commercial for yourself to describe you and your work to other people. Battenfield calls it an elevator pitch or what would you say in a thirty second elevator ride. Business cards are an excellent way to not only easily give information to potential networks, but to show how serious you are about your art. Battenfield gives the advice of adding some pictures on the card to show a mini preview of your work. She also says to not put your email address, instead put your website so the person has to see your site (read: your work on your site) to be about to access the email address. Quite a clever way to self promote more. Next is to do your research before attending an art event. This is key to show your interest and determination to art. Knowing about the artist beforehand will be impressive and make an impact on the artist to want to help or work with you. Lastly, the quality of your relationships to people can make or break you. It is not really how many people you know. If you have a strong bond with few people, more people will know you with the help of those strong bonds to do some promotion for you.
Finally, Battenfield discusses and gives a lot of advice about non for profit organizations. These will help you promote yourself in a huge way. This will introduce you to artists in your community. Finally, making an artist package will put the final touches on your promotion. The package should include: a cover letter, work samples, work sample descriptions, artist statement, resume, business card, and a few reviews if you have or wish to share any. Overall, these two chapters are a great help for the beginning artist.

The Janusian Process in Scientific Creativity

The article “The Janusian Process in Scientific Creativity” by Albert Rothenberg was REALLY LONG! However, it was interesting. To be honest, I think it had a bit too much elaboration but it did convey the idea of art and science being related to each other. It split the process into four convenient phases. Phase one is the motivation to create. This is pretty basic, but of course, scientists must add all that hoopla that does not matter. It is pretty much what drives all artists, our muse, or inspiration. For instance, my muse is and will always be nature. Even in drawing (which is something I am new at) I spend hours drawing something outside. Phase two is deviation or separation. This section was confusing, but to me it seems like drawing out a sketch and eliminating the piece you want or adding those you do. This would relate to science in the sense that scientists create a hypothesis with variables. As the scientist experiments, they would change the dependent variable. Phase three, simultaneous opposition or antithesis, seems to be like making a final sketch before making the real piece. It is basically the sketch you will base the whole piece on. I suppose it would relate to science in the way that they create equations. Phase four is construction of the theory, discovery, or experiment. This one is especially self-explanatory. This is the finished product of all the work of the artist or scientist. This article was way too long for something that really is not as complicated to explain. Now, actually doing the work, that may require a bit more.

Relational Aesthetics

In the article “Relational Aesthetics: Artist Group and Their Groups”, it describes a contemporary type of art, which is relational aesthetics. The article follows four exhibitions that incorporate this new art form. It combines the ideas of several artists to create a single piece. I find this form of art to be quite intriguing because it is not often that people get to experience the ways and ideas of other people. The interactive and in depth view on strangers and getting to know them lets go of the mystery of people and allows you to see how they are. It also involves collaboration of more than two artists per piece. This puts into use the strategies of team work. Through the piece, you see how the group was able to combine their ideas and create something magnificent. I think it is a great and innovative idea to bring together artists. It creates a big family out of strangers through something they all have in common: art. I would like to create (another) piece in an art group. It was interesting to grab bits of everyone’s ideas and put them together. I guess you could say that unity is the main point of relational aesthetics. Although I do not think it should be used in every piece an artist makes, it certainly makes for a refreshing way to approaching art.