Friday, December 7, 2007
the lowdown on high art
ColoRouge
photo by Bill Olive for the Chronicle
Cite cites Knittas
Issue 72 from the Rice Design Alliance's magazine Cite is provocatively titled "Who Owns the Streets?" with a cover featuring Houston blaxploitation knitter taggers Knitta, Please! Unfortunately for my assumptions the mag has neither a discussion of graffiti art nor a word about conduct in public spaces. There is a nice rundown of Knitta Please that seems to endorse graffiti though, so taggers, know your semi-temporary work is welcome at Rice University!
There are also a few good slams aimed at METRO and their idiotic ways and means. Coupled with the recent rebuff by the federal government and questions about kickbacks Cite takes their philosophy to task right when their practical problems are grounding new growth. As always- good maps by those Rice dorks!
Oh, Cite's website sucks ass. Their new issue and its cover are cool, but they fucked up their jpegs and you can't see it anywhere online!
Thursday, December 6, 2007
The A/V Swap is Legit!
Sorry about the bad link on the podcast... now fixed!
Check out a podcast from Artshouston magazine about the A/V Swap with me and Michelle Hempton HERE and come see the new crop of collaborations December 13th and 14th!
dec 13: premiere screening at angelika film center
dec 14: midnight screening at landmark river oaks
Some videos from past swaps...
The Language of Love, Robert Smith, 2006
Double Indemnity, juntausa, 2006
Circles, S. M. Carroll, 2006
bad version... need to get the real one up...
Amnesic, Coyote Tequila
Tear It Up
Nice rant from craigslist...
Every day, there are more and more Craigs List posts seeking “artists” for everything from auto graphics to comic books to corporate logo designs. More people are finding themselves in need of some form of illustrative service.
But what they’re NOT doing, unfortunately, is realizing how rare someone with these particular talents can be.
To those who are “seeking artists”, let me ask you; How many people do you know, personally, with the talent and skill to perform the services you need? A dozen? Five? One? …none?
More than likely, you don’t know any. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be posting on craigslist to find them.
And this is not really a surprise.
In this country, there are almost twice as many neurosurgeons as there are professional illustrators. There are eleven times as many certified mechanics. There are SEVENTY times as many people in the IT field.
So, given that they are less rare, and therefore less in demand, would it make sense to ask your mechanic to work on your car for free? Would you look him in the eye, with a straight face, and tell him that his compensation would be the ability to have his work shown to others as you drive down the street?
Would you offer a neurosurgeon the “opportunity” to add your name to his resume as payment for removing that pesky tumor? (Maybe you could offer him “a few bucks” for “materials”. What a deal!)
Would you be able to seriously even CONSIDER offering your web hosting service the chance to have people see their work, by viewing your website, as their payment for hosting you?
If you answered “yes” to ANY of the above, you’re obviously insane. If you answered “no”, then kudos to you for living in the real world.
But then tell me… why would you think it is okay to live out the same, delusional, ridiculous fantasy when seeking someone whose abilities are even less in supply than these folks?
Graphic artists, illustrators, painters, etc., are skilled tradesmen. As such, to consider them as, or deal with them as, anything less than professionals fully deserving of your respect is both insulting and a bad reflection on you as a sane, reasonable person. In short, it makes you look like a twit.
A few things you need to know;
1. It is not a “great opportunity” for an artist to have his work seen on your car/’zine/website/bedroom wall, etc. It IS a “great opportunity” for YOU to have their work there.
2. It is not clever to seek a “student” or “beginner” in an attempt to get work for free. It’s ignorant and insulting. They may be “students”, but that does not mean they don’t deserve to be paid for their hard work. You were a “student” once, too. Would you have taken that job at McDonalds with no pay, because you were learning essential job skills for the real world? Yes, your proposition it JUST as stupid.
3. The chance to have their name on something that is going to be seen by other people, whether it’s one or one million, is NOT a valid enticement. Neither is the right to add that work to their “portfolio”. They get to do those things ANYWAY, after being paid as they should. It’s not compensation. It’s their right, and it’s a given.
4. Stop thinking that you’re giving them some great chance to work. Once they skip over your silly ad, as they should, the next ad is usually for someone who lives in the real world, and as such, will pay them. There are far more jobs needing these skills than there are people who possess these skills.
5. Students DO need “experience”. But they do NOT need to get it by giving their work away. In fact, this does not even offer them the experience they need. Anyone who will not/can not pay them is obviously the type of person or business they should be ashamed to have on their resume anyway. Do you think professional contractors list the “experience” they got while nailing down a loose step at their grandmother’s house when they were seventeen?
If you your company or gig was worth listing as desired experience, it would be able to pay for the services it received. The only experience they will get doing free work for you is a lesson learned in what kinds of scrubs they should not lower themselves to deal with.
6. (This one is FOR the artists out there, please pay attention.) Some will ask you to “submit work for consideration”. They may even be posing as some sort of “contest”. These are almost always scams. They will take the work submitted by many artists seeking to win the “contest”, or be “chosen” for the gig, and find what they like most. They will then usually have someone who works for them, or someone who works incredibly cheap because they have no originality or talent of their own, reproduce that same work, or even just make slight modifications to it, and claim it as their own. You will NOT be paid, you will NOT win the contest. The only people who win, here, are the underhanded folks who run these ads. This is speculative, or “spec”, work. It’s risky at best, and a complete scam at worst. I urge you to avoid it, completely. For more information on this subject, please visit www.no-spec.com.
So to artists/designers/illustrators looking for work, do everyone a favor, ESPECIALLY yourselves, and avoid people who do not intend to pay you. Whether they are “spec” gigs, or just some guy who wants a free mural on his living room walls. They need you. You do NOT need them.
And for those who are looking for someone to do work for free… please wake up and join the real world. The only thing you’re accomplishing is to insult those with the skills you need. Get a clue.
Compensation: count your preciouses
Spoke Too Soon
Guess I was right, after getting an email from Teresa O'Conner with the large headline:
Please forward to all that would like to know this is the last event at CSAW-one last hoorah
Please note*
This is the last Commerce Street Artist Warehouse Event (CSAW) hosted at the location 2315 Commerce Street.
More From the Peanut Gallery
Blaffer Student Show! Two stories of sweetness and folly.
Andrea...
design students
there was a dude in this box drawing things at the opening
Keijiro Suzuki
Shane X. Tolbert (I believe...)
Cheyanne Ramos
Elizabeth Fowler
Pope Day!
Vanessa Cash, Untitled
I couldn't resist liking the Egyptian artifact skateboard... hahaha...
or the scarab cell phone...
The Birth of James Naismith?
Cody Ledvina
after that I went through the architecture building and found this!
pretty cool...
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Thanks Kelly!
Kelly Nipper, whose Perspectives show is up at the CAMH until Sunday, wrote a few choice words about Houston in the new issue of Artforum:
To take stock of the past year, Artforum contacted
an international group of artists to find out
which exhibitions were, in their eyes,
the very best of 2007.
KELLY NIPPER
The Surrealism Galleries(Menil Collection, Houston) and
the Adolpho Leimer Collection of Brazilian Constructive Art
(Museum of Fine Arts, Houston)
This fall I was reminded why I do what I do
after seeing two inspiring, supersensual and visual collections
of work in Houston. Two gems were a 1942 drawing
on pink paper of a pair of fantastical aquatic bird people
by Max Ernst, and Metaesquema, Vermehlo cortando o branco
(Red Going through White) 1958,
a red and white painting by Helio Oiticica.
Ashley Clemmer-Hoffman sez:
Calling all you Creative Folks…
Project Row Houses is building a KABOOM playground tomorrow: Wednesday, December 5th.
We need all you creative folks to assist in assembling and painting birdhouses, chalkboard murals and more!
Please, please come out and Volunteer for the day or even an hour or two!!!
The more the merrier!
---------------------------------------
· Where: PRH Dupree Sculpture Park
(Corner of Dowling and Stuart Street )
· When: Wednesday, December 5th
·
· What time: 8 AM – 4PM
·
· Questions? Call us at 713 526 7662
---------------------------------------
*Breakfast and Lunch provided!
Buh-bye
OK, i've said it before but HERE is a P. Johnson swan song, complete with sidebar that reads like this:
MUST-SEE SHOWS OF 2008
Retiring Houston Chronicle art critic Patricia C. Johnson picks the following as the must-see shows of 2008:
• HoustonFotoFest 2008 hosts its 12th international biennial of photography with a focus on China,
March 7-April 20.
• Pompeii: Tales From an Eruption , at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 2-June 22.
• NeoHooDoo : Art for a Forgotten Faith , at The Menil Collection, June 27-Sept. 28.
Fresh Paint, The Houston School, MFAH, 1985
NANO Fiction wants YOUR Words
"We at NANO Fiction, a literary journal of short fiction, are currently preparing our third edition to be released this Spring. We've had great success with our first two issues and we are making efforts to expand our readership and contributors; however, the magazine was designed specifically with young and unpublished writers in mind. Please take advantage of this opportunity to be published and submit to NANO Fiction. As always, submissions are rolling, but if you would like to be included in the next issue, it is paramount that you submit within the next few weeks. What else are you doing with your winter break anyway?"
You can read some selected works at nanofiction.org in the archive.
You may submit by emailing NANOFictionMag@gmail.com Submissions must be 300 words or less. Anything over 300 words will not be read. Please include your full name, titled work, a short third-person biography, and contact information (email, web site, phone number). Unless it interrupts the form of your work, we appreciate single spaced Word Documents. If your piece is selected, we will notify you prior to its release via email.
Note: Don't be afraid to think outside the standard margins. Be creative. Use form to enhance your piece. NANO Fiction can be an extremely innovative form of storytelling so use it to your advantage.
Operaskia Redux
Operaskia
Julie De Vries and Heather Shore
Wed. December 12th
Performance @ 7:00PM
Lawndale Arts Center
Room 317 (far room on the third floor)
"Heather and I are proud to present an encore
performance! I hope everyone has a great holiday
season. Hope to see you there and
Thanks for all the continued support."
Buffalo Bayou Art Park Trail Show
Here's the ArtPark!
Back when Michael Galbreth and Jack Massing started it in 1988
it was a mass of bayou and industrial waste
Elaine Bradford Camo-deer
Whitney Riley monster flower madness
one of 'em got away!
Aram Nagle
Emily Sloan
Hi Anila!
Cory Wagner, Trap
permanent display- John Runnels' side.walk.poem
Monday, December 3, 2007
Last Minute Theatre
30th Anniversary Celebration
Request for Houston Women Playwrights
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize will celebrate its 30th Anniversary in 2008. The celebration will take place on March 9 and 10 at the Alley Theatre. As part of this event, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is launching a Houston Special Project highlighting the accomplishments of women in theatre in Houston. We invite women playwrights from the greater Houston
area to submit a letter of interest and supporting materials to be considered for this Special Project. From these letters of interest, a select group of playwrights will be invited to submit short works to be considered for the Houston Special Project. Playwrights whose works are selected for the Houston Special Project will receive a $500 honorarium.
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, established in 1978, is given annually to a woman who deserves recognition for having written a work of outstanding quality for the English-speaking theatre. As a direct result of being finalists, many playwrights have received productions, grants and public recognition. The Prize has motivated women to write for the theatre, and has also fostered the interchange of plays between the United States and Britain, Ireland and other English-speaking countries. It has anticipated later recognition; six finalists have subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is now firmly established as a highly regarded international competition.
The Houston Special Project: To mark the 30th Anniversary of the Prize, works by Blackburn Prize winners as well as the selected submissions of Houston playwrights will be presented as readings by Houston’s professional acting community, produced by a city-wide creative coalition of 5 Houston theatres: the Alley Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, TheatreLab Houston, Mainstreet Theater and Stages Repertory Theatre.
December 4-Deadline for letters of interest
Dec. 10- Playwrights will be selected to submit a short work and will be notified. The short work can be in the form of a 10-minute play or scene. The work must be unproduced.
January 22-Deadline for invited playwrights to submit work
February 1-Winning playwrights will be notified (Work will be rehearsed during the month of February)
Letter of Interest Phase:
All entries must be received NO LATER THAN December 4, 2007. Entries may be submitted electronically or by U.S. Mail. Entries must include: one page letter of interest-please make a case for your work one page resume (please include email address) 3 page writing sample
2 professional theatre references of people familiar with your work-These are reference contact
information only, no letter of reference is required. Please include telephone and email
contact information.
Materials should be sent to:
blackburnprize@yahoo.com
Or
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
3239 Avalon Place
Houston, TX 77019
Sunday, December 2, 2007
the the Joanna
for December's show Jeanne and Reggie decorated the shit out of the house for several holidays at once... hey Brian! Leave it up for Christmas!
wall of drawings by Jeanne and Reggie
AJ Liberto and Cody Ledvina appear cordial
free candy from old ladies
boob tree!
"this will really bring credibility to the place, right?"
"ok, so what do you want me to take a picture of?"
"just a sec, let me unzip my pants"
Reggie Rechuba's monsters
Norby and his cute friend
it's the little things that count; French flea market finds
hi joanne!
vintage store find of the week
hi Reggie!
I'm tellin' ya...
Posts
Rainey's gonna pop!
Did anyone get a pic of Michael Galbreth dressed as a rapper?