This is the truth of it. I have been nose in a book in all of my sparetime of late. I'd come home from work, pour some iced coffee and read and read and read. I lost a whole weekend even. Among the stories I swallowed:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon left me in love with Joe, in awe of the Luna Moth, and a-gog again at the power of transformation, escapism, and love in the midst of gotham city.

This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes was kind of snarky sometimes but mostly a very funny and smart warning label of a book. Plus it had me craving donuts.
and

The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster was probably my least favorite because it seemed so carefully planned but it did have smart characters and a helluva lot of imagination.
And I'd reccomend 'em all, as I would escaping the work-a-day world with someone else's stories every once in a while. It's got me spinning some stories too and looking at the world with a strange perspective. All of these interconnected stories...

Last Sunday was the last day of the Francis Bacon show at the Albright Knox (their press release is here) and I had a chance to see it with some good friends. The show (curated by Michael Peppiatt) focused on Bacon in the 50's and had all the iconic images (the popes, the man walking a dog, the anguished faces, the vivid colors, the motion in the brushtroke). Because each room was full of big canvases, we walked slowly. Each of us (including the toddler) was pulled into some of the paintings and pushed away from others.

After we took in the show, I looked through the tabloid brochure that was given away at the front counter and wondered why so much of the design, content, and style of the brochure was about scandalizing the painter's story.




What? This is what the education department came up with to help viewers understand the show? This is the free brochure that adds to the experience of the exhibition? For what purpose? What is the show about; Bacon's life or his paintings?
No doubt, Bacon lived a scandal filled life and we are a scandal-loving society, but what function does it serve to provide a gallery publication (however throw-away it is) whose purpose is to titillate? How much of Bacon's paintings need to be interpreted through his personal history, specifically his sexuality? Is that the key detail defining them? What about other contexts? What about simply letting the paintings be seen as paintings, not as puzzles to be solved with endless autobiographical details?

In the week since I picked up the stupid thing (and really, I am convinced the idea of creating a tabloid to accompany the show is stupid), I looked into some of the writings about Francis Bacon and got a sense of what is wrong there. The New York review of Literature has Julian Bell's well written, well reasoned review of the Bacon bits (forgive me, the recent Bacon literature) that sums up why some people seem obsessed with the painter's biography and scandalous story.
More about Bacon and the show in Buffalo:

A preview from Buffalo Rising about the show

A review in Outcome Buffalo by Tim Moran

A review in the Toronto Star by Peter Goddard

A smart blog entry in response to seeing the show. Some thorny problems arise for a mild mannered kid's tour when the whole show is about sex and scandal. Couldn't the show be about paint?

The official site of the estate of Francis Bacon

The Francis Bacon studio was put back together again in a museum at Hugh Lane in Dublin



And so, I would be interested in your thoughts about this. Maybe I am missing the true truth of Bacon's work or the educational value of a tabloid brochure but I know few painters who wish their work to be seen as reflective of their getting kicked out of Dad's house for wearing mom's underwear...

arghhh.
Rachael

I manage to manage a busy art school at a small museum in a mid sized city. Each summer we run about a billion classes with the help of an amazing crew of creative teachers. The place is hopping and it's truly a lot of fun. I never earned a degree in art education, per se, but I have had lots of book learning in the arts and humanities and am ever learning. That background provided, here's a bit more of the lessons so far from the art, artists and energy of my dayjob.


Make it colorful. Make it bigger. Make it without saying you can't make it. Kids will jump feet first into the creative process, but adults always hesitate.


Collaborate. Simply, truly, it's better if we make it together.

Be as fully into the making of whatever it is you are making as is possible. The image above of a fully absorbed young painter inspired me to make a paper doll and spend some time pushing myself into the concentration of looking, drawing, living a little more thoroughly...

good luck with it!
Rachael

I harvested an eggplant tonight (grown from seed in my little garden) and stir fried it with dinner. Ping tung, I tell ya, can turn a blah assembly of peppers, onions, and zucchini around. Or maybe it was just knowing that I was cooking ping tung that made the cooking, and thus the food, gleeful.

I've been eating my garden for lunch almost every day too. It's as much about pride as it is taste and my mesclun salad mix tastes great with mandarin oranges, strawberries, feta or blue cheese, and anything else I can throw in there.

Take care,

Rachael

Not that it is ever easy or lucrative to be an artist but two recent calls for artists came my way and I want to share them. I'm debating applying for the first and my application was accepted to the other (so that maybe means they make some good decisions and are sweet on painters, maybe it just means I'm sweet on them).

Painting traffic signal boxes on the west side of Rochester
I went to an information session for a project that will hire artists to paint the traffic signal boxes in my neighborhood. Similar to what happened in Stamford, CT and was reported in an article in the New York Time and Brisbane's Artforce and Palm Desert and the west shore of Tampa Beach designed to clear up what are pretty dull and ugly boxes. Artist Vanessa Stafford made a little movie about a similar project. In Rochester's case, the mission is also booster-ism and re-development.
Here's what I know about it right now:


Stop! Look! Art! Traffic Box Art
Call for EntriesArtWest announces a call for entries for Stop! Look! Art! an outdoor
public art gallery in which mini-murals will be created on traffic
signal boxes. Artists selected by a jury of neighborhood leaders and
community artists will create works at intersections through
SouthWest Rochester's five main business corridors.
Artists 18 years of age or older residing in the Greater
Rochester/Monroe County metropolitan area are eligible. Artists
residing in the City of Rochester may be given preference. Stipends
will be provided for winning entries.
For additional information please contact Sector 4 Community Development 585-328-
5750, 585-455-6921 or e-mail to sector4cdc@yahoo. com
Stop! Look! Art!
is the inaugural project of ArtWest, a subsidiary of Sector 4
Community Development Corporation dedicated to the creation, funding
and promotion of visual and performance art in SouthWest Rochester.
Stop! Look! Art!
is made possible through the award of a Culture Builds Communities
grant by the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester,
the City of Rochester, and Citibank.
CONTACT
Sector 4 Community Development
E-Mail: sector4cdc@yahoo. com

and in the next few days more resources should be available at their website at http://www.sector4cdc.org/.


Art Bars are looking for artists
The Chocolate bars are Ithaca Fine Chocolates and yes, I was an Art Bar artist a few years ago. I ate my body weight in those chocolate bars and I got a small sprinkle of fame but most rewarding was knowing that at least two people kept my trading card. They support art education and chose good artists like these ones. And the chocolate truly is yummy. Their call for artists is below straight from my inbox:



Dear Artists,

Hello, everyone! Please forward the call for artists (attached and
pasted in below) to anyone you think might be interested.... The
deadline for submissions is next Friday, July 27, 2007.

Hope you're all enjoying the summer!

~Erika
--------------------------------------------

CALL FOR ARTISTS

The mission of Ithaca Fine Chocolates is to both promote the works of
contemporary artists and directly fund art education programs through
Art Bars. Art Bars are exquisite, organic, and fair trade certified
Swiss chocolate bars that feature an art reproduction by a contemporary

adult artist or an international child artist on a card inside the
wrapper. A minimum of ten percent of profits from sales are donated to
the International Child Art Foundation in Washington, DC, and the
Community School of Music & Arts in Ithaca, NY.

Twenty-four total artists ranging from emerging to internationally
known, such as Patrick Dougherty, Carrie Mae Weems, Jim Goldberg, Buzz
Spector, and Kay WalkingStick are selected annually. Images of the
works are included in our online gallery and on the art card
reproductions, which are sent out with the bars nationwide for one year

beginning in November. The original works may be featured in an
exhibition in the Ithaca gallery from November through December.

Art Bars have been covered in such publications as the New York Times,
Art News, Time Magazine, and USA Today. They are currently available
for
purchase in forty-four states in venues such as museum stores, opera
houses, theaters and specialty and natural food stores. There is no
commission taken on art sales made through the art cards or the online
gallery. Sales made in connection with an Ithaca show require a 20%
commission to help defray exhibition costs. Selected artists receive a
free case of up to 25 Art Bars featuring their own image and a lifetime

artist discount on any subsequent Art Bar purchases.

If you are interested in having your work featured in Art Bars, please
submit the following by July 27, 2007:
- 5-10 digital images in jpg format at 72 dpi only
- numbered image list, including the title, medium, date and dimensions

of each image. Please be sure that the image document names are both
numbered and titled to match the image list.
- artist statement (one page maximum)
- resume, including mailing address, email and telephone number (one
page maximum)

Please note that reproductions are printed on cards measuring 1 3/4 x
4" for the small bars and 2 3/4 x 4 1/2" for the large bars. A selected
work must be available in a good print-quality digital image (300 dpi or
greater).

Please name each document in the following format:
last name, comma, first name, document title
Examples:
Modigliani, Amedeo Resume
Modigliani, Amedeo 1. Portrait of Young Woman

Email submissions to:
erika@ithacafinechocolates.com
or mail them to:
Ithaca Fine Chocolates Art Panel
125 Heights Court
Ithaca, NY 14850

A panel of artists, art historians and museum professionals reviews the applications. Selected artists will be notified by September.

For more information about the mission and philosophies of Ithaca Fine
Chocolates or to view the works of previous Art Bar artists, please
visit www.ithacafinechocolates.com


So , then, I think we all essentially try to make good work, make plenty of it, and not hide it when opportunities arise.
take care,
Rachael

good luck!