Sunday, March 24, 2013

Make Up Make Off

curious to see what you think Tereza

http://vimeo.com/user17257132/makeupmakeoff

Saturday, March 23, 2013

video stills from Make Up Make Off

Make Up Make Off
Performance
56 minutes
ongoing












Friday, March 8, 2013

To Be A Lady


Press Release: To be a Lady / Forty-Five Women in the Arts Page 1 of 3
On view at 1285 Avenue of the Americas Gallery,
September 24, 2012-January 18, 2013
Curated by Jason Andrew and organized by Norte Maar

1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery
1285 Avenue of the Americas (between 51Street + 52nd Street),
Lobby level, New York, 10019

Norte Maar and the 1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery announce the exhibition To be a Lady: Forty-Five Women in the Arts, on view at the 1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery from September 24, 2012 through
January 18, 2013. A reception, open to the public, will be held on Monday, September 24 from 6-8pm.

Curator Jason Andrew brings together forty-five artists born over the last century who happen to be women. Striking examples by historic protagonists, Alma Thomas, Louise Nevelson, Alice Neel, Lenore Tawney, Louise Bourgeois and Grace Hartigan set the stage for an exhibition designed to challenge and reshape the meaning of the word lady.

For centuries, the word lady has been a nuanced term for women prescribed by social mores. Politeness, good manners, correct attire, and behaving properly shaped what it meant to be a lady. To be considered as such was once the goal of every woman across the economic spectrum. At least, that’s what the men thought.

The word lady, here, is a provocation. For much of the early 20th century, women were up against the "lady painter" image which historian Linda Nochlin suggests was "established in 19th century etiquette books and reinforced by the literature of the times.”1 Despite what might appear to be great progress for women in the arts, these
societal expectations continue into the present. As Lee Krasner said, “I’m an artist not a woman artist.”2


“It is not the intention of this exhibition to be a comprehensive survey of women in the arts, it's a selection of artists I know, have come to respect and whose aesthetic I admire. These women have problematized and played with gender
identifications and characterizations, from lady to woman to other in some form, consciously or unconsciously. But here, specifically, it is the physicality of the art making that I am drawn too. Whether it be Louise Bourgeois’ corporeal sculpture, Lenore Tawney’s transformative weave, Grace Hartigan’s expressive stroke, these ladies exude a tactile process and manipulated rigor which lays the groundwork for those that followed.”
Jason Andrew, exhibition curator

The exhibition aspires to re-introduce the work of artists: Edith Schloss, Ruth Asawa, Pat Passlof, Jay DeFeo, Susan Weil, and Judy Dolnick. Others are in need of closer inspection including: Hermine Ford, Mimi Gross and Judy Pfaff. There is a large presence of mid-career artists including Nancy Bowen, Lindsay Walt, Elisabeth Condon and Jessica Stockholder. Their work in many ways bridge the gap between the established vanguard and the newest generation that includes Austin Thomas, Ellen Letcher, Vanessa German, and two painters of merit Brooke Moyse and Nathlie
Provosty.

The exhibition has a cross disciplinary component including photographs by Barbara Morgan, text work by poet Kathleen Fraser and a video installation by choreographer Julia K. Gleich.Multi-media, interdisciplinary, and cross-generational with seminal works by each artist, this exhibition reminds us that the world is full of great artists, and many of them happen to be ladies.

ARTISTS
Alma Thomas, Charmion von Wiegand, Louise Nevelson, Alice Neel, Barbara Morgan,
Irene Rice Pereira, Janice Biala, May Wilson, Lenore Tawney, Louise Bourgeois, Edith
Schloss, Grace Hartigan, Ruth Asawa, Betye Saar, Pat Passlof, Jay DeFeo, Susan
Weil, Lee Bontecou, Viola Frey, Judy Dolnick, Kathleen Fraser, Hermine Ford, Mimi
Gross, Nancy Grossman, Elizabeth Murray, Judy Pfaff, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Mira
Schor, Mary Judge, Nancy Bowen, Lindsay Walt, Michelle Jaffé, Elisabeth Condon,
Tamara Gonzales, Jessica Stockholder, Brece Honeycutt, Ellie Murphy, Julia K. Gleich,
Austin Thomas, Ellen Letcher, Rachel Beach, Vanessa German, Kristen Jensen,
Brooke Moyse, and Nathlie Provosty

Thank you Sharon Butler!

This is where I spent my birthday last year:
http://www.twocoatsofpaint.com/2012/10/owning-motherhood.html

Sharon Butler, of Two Coats Of Paint, moderated the discussion at the SVA Theatre in NYC:

Last week I moderated a discussion at the School of Visual Arts called "Taking Custody: The Double Life of the Artist Mother," which was organized by Cathleen Cueto, an artist who is expecting her first child this year, and included panelists Suzanne McClelland, Katherine Bernhardt, Rachel Papo, Amy Stein, Renée Cox, and Danica Phelps. I thought readers might like to join the conversation, so here are the introduction and questions we prepared for the discussion. I hope readers will share their experiences and insights in the Comments section. And, yes, anonymous comments are OK.

It occurred to me today that raising a surly teenager sometimes seems like working on a bad painting in the studio: you have faith that if you just keep working on it, you can turn it around, and the struggle will have been worth it. With kids, unlike painting, you don’t have the option of starting again...!
Back in the early 1990s Mira Schor and Susan Bee sent a questionnaire to artist mothers asking these questions:
How has being a mother affected people’s response or reaction to your artwork? How has it affected your career? Have you encountered discrimination from other artists, dealers, galleries, art schools, critics because of motherhood or pregnancy? Did you postpone starting your career or stop working when your children were young? How would you describe the differences in treatment of male artists with children or of women artists without children? Did having children enhance your creativity or affect the direction of the work?

I want to thank Mira, Susan, and all the artists who responded to their questions twenty years ago. I suspect that most of the people in this room have read those responses in M/E/A/N/I/N/G, a collection of essays published in 2000.

Today, artists would undoubtedly have some similar responses to their questions, but more notable is that we are asking different questions. Young artists are more concerned with whether raising kids will interfere with their art practice than whether it will lead to discrimination. We no longer fear that kids will ruin our careers—we worry that our careers will ruin our kids.
 --Sharon Butler
Questions:
1. After reading Night Studio, Musa Mayer’s moving memoir of growing up with Philip Guston, I was convinced that artists like me, inherently self-centered and often distracted, should not have kids. Ultimately I changed my mind because, as I got older, raising a child seemed like a great adventure. What made you decide that you could do both – have children and a creative career? What age were you when you had kids? Should one have a child while still “emerging” or after one’s career has been better established?

2. Please tell us a little bit about how you managed the day-to-day when your kids were younger. When did you find time to go to the studio? How did your art practice change? Once the kids become teenagers, is life easier or harder? Do you ever feel like you are not succeeding?

3. Divorce can lead to ongoing custody disputes, parental alienation, and other traumatic parenting experiences that are sometimes exacerbated by our non-traditional life choices. Are any of you divorced? Would you say your outlook and choices conflict with societal norms, traditional values, and parenting?

4. Artists value honesty, a trait that can lead to trouble in terms of family relationships, with our parents, siblings and even our own children. Has having children made navigating family relationships more difficult or made it easier? Do you ever feel as though your children, as they get older, don’t understand you?

5. As artists, especially in the early years, we often make choices that privilege studio time over more traditional family-centric financial considerations. How do you pay the bills? How have your financial choices changed since you’ve had children? How have those choices impacted your art practice?

6. Non-artists who have more traditional, high-powered professional careers, such as the women Anne-Marie Slaughter included in her article, are often envious because artists seem to have the freedom to set our own schedules. At the same time, since we are not as well compensated for our work (if at all), and sometimes we work at home, and are judged harshly for putting our art practices first, particularly by our children. Let me ask: have some of you encountered hostility as a result of making what others consider selfish choices? How have you managed that hostility?

7. Are work/family dilemmas primarily an issue for women? Do you perceive a vast difference between men and women in the art world? Earning power? Exposure? Have you ever felt discriminated against for having children in terms of not being taken as seriously as women/male artists who are single?

8. In “Neo-Maternalism,” a 2009 article in the Brooklyn Rail, I suggested that, with the rise of relational aesthetics, child-rearing itself could become the substance of artists’ practice, and, in fact, last year, Marni Kotek produced a performance piece in which she gave birth to her baby at Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn. What are your thoughts, as a parent, about using kids in your art practice? Was Larry Rivers out of line to videotape his daughters naked, or is everything fair game for an artist? If you have used your kids in your practice, perhaps you could share your experience. 

Related: Alyssa Pelish reported on the discussion for On The Issues Magazine: Taking Custody: Owning the Role of Artist AND Mother

Image at top: Sketch of the panel participants contributed by an unknown member of the audience.

---------

UPDATE (November 16, 2012) SVA recently posted a video of the discussion in it's entirety. Check it out. Running time 1:33:12

Thursday, March 7, 2013

the big trip up

I tripped myself up
In the last year I have slowly and painfully painted myself into a corner and was ignoring the GOLD that is my life.
My life is messy!
Most of the time, I am not neat
I never feel like I can keep anything together
I am winging it as a parent.
I have no real idea of what I'm doing, what my "goals" are..I'm just trying to provide for my kid and connect with my art.

I hate doing dishes
I don't like making dinner all the time
My house is in a constant state of disarray.

We're always almost running out of money
We're always almost running out of gas.
Cars are always almost breaking down.
The house is leaky, and there's always laundry to be done.
 I don't like eating three square meals a day.
I'm angry so much of the time.
I feel isolated and alone.

Why fight it, and think I have to present another side of myself?
Why admire the polish and ignore the mess?

It's my trap, my pattern from before! Whereas before I would have wallowed in feeling sorry for myself, but now I see it as such an amazing opportunity to change.
I get to change
I get to work differently
I get to acknowledge this constipation and work with it.

Everything is information.
I am going back to the exercises
One breathe gestures
Domestic Objections
Painting a lemon can change one's whole life.
(and painting a lemon is quite difficult at first!)
Everything is information.

Someone suggested I paint loose, sloppy porno images
I wanted to paint as an alter ego - sloppy, messy. 
I'm finding a balance.
This started a long time ago but I am here now.
This is my life.
This is my life.
This is my life.

I'm kind of exhausted of holding myself apart from people
The door just opened, I'm letting everyone in.






















Sunday, March 3, 2013

hand held hand made

the hand held
hand made
hand to mouth
caught red-handed
hand-me-downs
manhandled
hand in hand
handle with care
heavy handed
handed off
my hands are tied
hand over fist
hand it over
from hand to heart
taking a handout

some old some new