The Painted Word

The Painted Word
by Tom Wolfe
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
1975

I'm starting a book club. Who's with me? I want to read The Painted Word, by Tom Wolfe, but it's the kind of book that I know is going to generate more questions than answers for me. So, I would like to read it WITH my fellow art-seekers and discuss, at our leisure, via blog.

The Painted Word will raise questions of art theory and the course we're following–or rebelling against–as artists. I think it will really challenge us to consider where and how our work falls into the canon of art history.

If it turns out to be very one-sided in its opinions, I propose we follow up with a counterpoint book/article(s) after.

You can buy a used copy of the book for $1.99 on amazon.com.

Here's a blurb about the book:
(from http://www.tomwolfe.com/PaintedWord.html)

"The Painted Word charts the erratic course of the social history of Modern Art from its beginnings in revolution—a revolution against literary content in art—to its present state, in which it has become, quite unconsciously, a parody of itself, obsessedly devoted to the pronouncements of certain guru-critics, to the point of reductio ad absurdum, to the point where—turnabout being fair play—it has become as literary, as academic, as mannered, as clubby, as the salon painting against which it first rebelled.

Soon after Modern Art developed, it became fashionable. Society (le beau monde, Cultureburg) and art critics attached themselves to it like pilot fish; but then they grew, and grew, and grew, until—as Abstract Expressionism gave way to Pop, as Pop spawned Op, as Op fell before Minimal opposition, as what was Minimal became no more than Conceptual—Art began to serve fashion and theory. The shark vanished and left the pond to le beau monde and to the critics, custodians of the painted Word. Clement Greenberg, Harold Rosenberg, Leo Steinberg—these are the big fish, Wolfe argues, not Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, or Jasper Johns. The argument is utterly convincing . . .

. . . and wildly entertaining. Tom Wolfe is our premier social historian, and he is writing at the top of his form. Whether he is describing the Art Mating Ritual (in two parts, the Boho Dance and the Consummation) or taking the census of Cultureburg, he writes with an energy and irony all his own. His style has never been more dazzling, his wit has never been more keen. For everyone but his targets, the publication of The Painted Word is cause for celebration."

PAINT MADE FLESH TOUR TODAY

1:30 at The Phillips -- Be there! (o:

Ciao from Art Seeker, a new poster to the blog

Hi All,

I'm going to be posting on the WSS Blog now. My real name is Laurel, I live in the DC area, and for my whole life, all I can remember really wanting to do was to make art. It's not that I don't think other things aren't fascinating or worthwhile; it's just that I knew from a very young age that I couldn't help but want to make art.

I chose the name "Art Seeker" because I feel that I'm on an endless path of art-making, art-looking, art-thinking and art-discussing. "Endless" not in a hopeless sense, but in an ever-evolving, always moving forward sense.

So, here I am. I'm a certificate student at WSS and an artist. I mostly paint and draw, but I'm interested in all media and design. I wanted to blog about art because every time I start to think I'm getting a handle on really understanding fine art, something pulls the rug out from under me...and I have only myself with whom to discuss these things on a daily basis. I'm hoping to have conversations with YOU about art matters, specific works and YOUR thoughts on art things...basically, I can't get enough. I hope you will email me with your questions and thoughts--about current exhibitions, things you've been wondering or thinking about, etc. I really want to start a meaty, on-going conversation.

I hope we can seek together.

Art Seeker

Plug for Paint Made Flesh

If you haven't yet seen Paint Made Flesh at The Phillips, get over there. It is powerful. I think I could sit in front of any given piece for hours...

One piece I want to mention is We Have to Eat, by Puerto Rican artist Arnaldo Roche-Rabell. The large canvas depicts a man from the shoulders up. The surface is activated by all-over slashes into the paint, creating a relief. While viewing it, I realized the slashes were playing a symphony of hundreds of metal scissors opening and closing in my head! It's amazing what responses one can have to visual art!

Which brings me to my questions: Have you seen Paint Made Flesh? What were some of your responses to the paintings?

If you've had other marked responses to art, what was the art and what was your response to it?

New Appreciation for Calder

Has there ever been a well-known artist in history that's in all your books and purportedly very "influential," but you just don't get what the big deal about him is? For me, that was Calder.

Being an artist from a small city where one of Calder's most important works of public art resides–La Grande Vitesse in Grand Rapids (GR), Michigan–this has always been an especially sore point for me. I never understood why an icon of the sculpture was on all the street signs and why in real "media moments" people sometimes refered to GR as "Calder City." A few years ago, when an editorial declared La Grande Vitesse and the surrounding architecture "some of the most beautiful in the country," I thought my mother-in-law had it right when she said, "For whom?–The blind?!" I thought "Calder Red" was garish, and WHAT was that thing they called a sculpture anyway?

Two weeks ago, my opinion completely changed.

I visited an exhibition of Calder's 2D and 3D work (at the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids). The exhibition included a large-scale model for La Grande Vitesse. (The model stands about fifteen feet high and twelve feet long.) My understanding of Calder began to grow upon learning that La Grande Vitesse, translated, means The Grand Rapids. "Ah!" I thought. "Perhaps there is something to this blob. Well, we'll see."

Alone at the exhibition, I was able to take time walking around the model and investigating it through drawing. Each perspective revealed a new character of the sculpture. The process of drawing led to great discoveries of the intersections of light, shadow and form. Before long, I craved experiencing the final scuplture in Downtown GR.

The final scupture stands fifty-four feet long, forty-three feet high, thirty feet wide, and weighs more than 42 tons. Needless to say, it is massive. What a feat, then, that this mass of red steel seems to blow in the breeze, reflect the light, and alternately ebb and flow, like–dare I say–rapids.

What is good art? (Do we feel like arguing???) I am going to assert that there is no one definition of good art, but that one of several traits of good art is an experience. Good art elicits a response in us. My response to La Grand Vitesse was one of elation; I was not only experiencing the beauty of the natural world, but an interpretation by a human that was totally integrated and taught me a new way of interacting with the world. The representation of nature was simultaneously all-powerful and conquered–as if a human had understood nature's strength and was interpreting it in a new language.

This sort of integration of materials and experience are main ingredients in the melting pot of art. Visiting La Grand Vitesse with fresh eyes taught me more about good art and the experience of good art than living with it for 20 years before.




For a "walk-around" view of La Grand Vitesse, visit:
http://www.sculpturesitesgr.org/sculpture_detail.php?artwork_id=1&location=2

For further reading: http://calder.org

Crafty Bastards 2009 Art Fair Deadline is July 5

We are currently accepting applications for Crafty Bastards 2009. The show will be held Saturday, October 3rd at Marie Reed Learning Center in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Applications will be accepted through July 5, 2009. There is a $10 non-refundable application fee. The jury will review the entries and we will notify everyone of their status via email by July 20. The booth fee for accepted vendors is $120. Here's how to register for the October 3rd Crafty Bastards show:

1. Getting Started: Make sure you have time to complete the full application - you shouldn't need more than 15 minutes to fill out the full application, providing you read all of these instructions and have the necessary materials at hand. If you are sharing a booth, make sure you read the instructions carefully. Boothsharing is allowed, but we require that one person start the registration process and submit payment for the entire booth. Each booth member will be able to submit their own contact info, vendor statement and images once the first booth member has paid.
2. Contact Information: Enter your contact information into this part - including a short description of your work. This doesn't have to be long, and we will limit to 300 characters. If you have boothsharers, simply submit your information as if you were applying alone. You'll have a chance to invite your booth mates to enter their info after you submit the application fee.
3. Upload your images: We want to see your work! You must upload three images, no more and no less, each of which should be no bigger than 1MB in size. If you are sharing a booth, each booth member needs to upload 3 images.
4. Terms and Conditions: Read them, all of them, and don't say we didn't warn you afterwards.
5. Payment: The application fee is $10. It is non-refundable. You can use your paypal account or a credit card. Your application will not be accepted without payment. IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you have submitted your application fee, make sure to click back from Paypal so we know you've paid. Boothsharers: you must click back to Crafty Bastards site in order to invite your boothmates to fill out their portion of the application.
6. Confirmation: You clicked back from paypal and are all finished with your part of the registration (unless you have boothmates, then continue on to steps 7 & 8). You'll get an email confirming your submission. If you don't receive the confirmation message (make sure to check your junk folder), email craftybastards@washingtoncitypaper.com and let us know.
7. Boothsharing: Invite your boothmates. All you need is their email address(es).
8. Finished! That's it. Make sure you add craftybastards@washingtoncitypaper.com to your address book so you don't miss any important announcements or updates.

Read the instructions? For answers to your further questions, check out our Frequently Asked Questions.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/craftybastards/register/

Tips for getting into Art Fairs

Summer craft shows are in full swing, and mentions of fall and holiday shows are starting to pop up. The dreaded cycle — filling out vendor applications and then waiting and anticipating to see if you've made it — never seems to end.

As one of the Directors of the Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair in Washington, D.C., and the Handmade Mart in Silver Spring, MD, my fellow organizers and I are often asked the frequent question: “Why didn’t I get accepted into the fair?”

This question is hard to answer, as it’s different for everyone. For seasoned crafters who have sold successfully on Etsy and have been on the craft fair circuit for years, the answer usually comes down to submitting the same photos year after year with their application. As an organizer who is looking for an innovative and awesome experience for crafters and shoppers, it’s hard to accept our past vendors who haven’t evolved their crafts.

For example, a vendor who submits the same three T-shirt designs with their application every year is telling me that they really don’t have any new products in their line. This is important, especially when you see more and more crafters joining the handmade community. If a crafter isn’t making new products or designs, there are 100 more who are.

For crafters who are newer to the craft fair scene, not getting accepted usually results from submitting photos that don’t often show off the variety or volume of crafts they produce or don’t show their best products. If crafts in the photos don’t look well made or have a unique style, they lose points. Newer vendors sometimes give us too much personal information and not enough specifics about their product line in their vendor statements.

Vendor statements are important because they explain the photos of your craft. A photo may say 1,000 words, but a vendor statement is there to back it up with a literal explanation. For example, let’s say I sell jewelry and in my vendor statement I say:

“I make whimsical jewelry that will tickle your fancy with vibrant colors and semi-precious stones.”

What is this person trying to say? This is a textbook answer without much thought. The questions I want to know are: What does the making process entail? What makes the jewelry more awesome than the other 100 jewelry designers who applied to the fair? What type of jewelry do you make, i.e. rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, etc? What inspires you? What is your style?

A good vendor statement with the right photos will be a perfect package, neatly wrapped, and need no further explanation.

Here are other tips for applying to craft fairs:

1. Photos

• Make sure the file size of your photo isn’t too big and that the photos are crisp and clear.
• Be sure to send in photos that show off individual items, but have one or two that also show off the variety of your products.
• Show only your products and nothing else that might be distracting or confused with what you make. For example, if you design scarves and you submit a photo with someone wearing a scarf and a large necklace covering the scarf, it’s very misleading.
• Let your product shine in the front and center. If you are submitting a photo of your product laying on a crazy, headache-inducing patterned background, or a background that is the same color as your product, you are not doing your crafts justice.

2. Websites
Many fairs ask you for your website along with, or instead of, photos. If your main site is a blog with a small link to your Etsy shop, I’d rather you send me to your Etsy shop directly. This is not necessarily a general rule, but if it’s hard to see your products on your website or hard to find a link to your shop, that’s not good.

3. Vendor Statement
Don’t submit a life story. Stick to your product line and anything surrounding your career as a crafter. Writing my own vendor statement for applications usually takes at least a day. Email your friends your statement and see what they say. They will know if your creativity and who you are as a crafter comes through in your statement.

4. Know your market
Before you apply to a craft fair, check out the vendors from the previous year. What are they selling? What do their websites and Etsy shops look like? You will need to see if this is indeed your market.

You can usually find reviews about shows by searching the web or in the Etsy Forums. Find out if this is the show for you from what their vendors had to say.

5. Burning Bridges
Every year, at every craft show, there is a vendor who didn’t get accepted and decides to yell at the organizers. This usually starts with an email or phone call that begins with “How dare you” or “My stuff is much better than so and so’s” or “I am a very important person in the crafting world...” Every craft show organizer has heard it before, and it’s heart wrenching and not nice. Please be nice. Many shows have at least one vendor who has to drop out at the last minute for various reasons, so you never know if you might be next in line to take their place.

6. Don’t take it personally
If you are not accepted as a vendor, don’t take it personally. This has nothing to do with you as a person. With tens of thousands of crafters on Etsy alone, the competition to sell at fairs, which can only take between 50-300 vendors per show, is tremendous. For all the fun, excitement, and friendship-making that takes place at craft fairs, you must remember that the point of these fairs is all business: Craft fair organizers are creating a marketplace for monetary transactions to take place. You are seeking to conduct said monetary transactions. It’s all business in the front and party in the back.

7. Get feedback
Some vendors who have not been accepted will email us to ask what they could have done better in their applications to get accepted. I’m usually more than happy to take a look at their applications and see if I can give any useful feedback. Sometimes there’s nothing I can say, because it’s just a matter of space at the fair…but it never hurts to ask.

Get feedback about your products from your friends and most importantly, your fellow crafters. Don’t be afraid to get advice and reviews that might not be 100% positive. Being open to hearing what others had to say about your product will help you develop stronger products and marketing lines, and will improve your chances of getting into the more competitive craft fairs.

Check out more tips on applying to shows from crafter extraordinaire and Hello Craft's Communication Director Tina Seamonster here. Questions? Have advice for others? Tell us in the comments and feel free to email Hello Craft at hellocraftinfo@gmail.com. kittenrockswell will also be hosting a follow-up chat today, Thursday, June 25 at 5 p.m. ET in the Virtual Labs, Etsy's multi-user chat room.

And don't forget, applications to this year's Crafty Bastards are open until July 5, 2009! Happy crafting and good luck with all your 2009 applications!