MANUFACTURING IDEAS...AND MORE

Artists are typically viewed as living somewhere on the edges of the labor/work community. After all isn’t the making of art often considered by others (non-artists) as a hobby? “Oh he/she is “artsy”, or she is an art “teacher”, or worst of all, he’s so “artsy-fartsy” (I HATE that one!). Many people cannot seem to utter the statement “This person is an ARTIST”. Instead, they qualify it with the addition of other adjectives. It’s as if by making that simple statement, “Joe is an artist” they are stating an untruth. To be an artist – as opposed to “Joe is a lawyer” – is somehow not legitimate. It’s certainly not viewed as a profession that makes and sells a commodity.

Yet an artist is part of the economy, and not just what we know as the creative economy, but part of the real work a day world. Most artists do not sit around hoping for inspiration to strike. They work. Like the woman who reports to her office job every day at nine am the artist reports to his or her studio and simply gets to work. If we waited for inspiration to strike we might never create anything.

Which brings me to the title of this post. Artists are in the business of manufacturing ideas, taking those ideas and turning them into tangible objects, available for purchase, thank you very much. They take the ephemeral and turn it into the tangible, put a price tag on it, market it, and by doing so, fuel the economic community in which they live. And work. Just like everybody else. 

By the way, here is one of my "manufactured ideas": 

This collage is titled "King Billy", the slang name for the Monarch butterfly. It is my interpretation of the monarch feeding on the milkweed pod. 

IN PRAISE OF LIGHT

Sometimes I grouse. Sometimes I gripe. Sometimes I gripe and grouse about situations I could change with just a little effort but instead of doing so, I gripe and grouse. When I do this, my husband accuses me of “cursing the darkness’, saying I would rather do that than light a candle. Sadly, I have to admit that over the years I have realized that often, he is right on the money. I do have a tendency to curse the darkness when it would be so easy to light that darn candle!

I am making a concerted effort to change that habit. When I consider all the blessings and good things in my life past and present I understand that gratitude is not just an attitude, it is a continual state of feeling. Even difficult times can contain a spark of light, and it is the hard times that make us grateful for the blessings.

Therefore I have decided not to curse the light under the barrel but to praise it. Mightily. And to release it as well. Instead of meeting life’s challenges with a curse at the dark, I plan to sing mighty praises to the light.

On a different note, I have moved to a beautiful new studio, and am seriously praising the light there! Hurray! Take a look:

Oh happy days! Ready to get back to work.

Silver poplars...

So I have been absent the last several weeks. Much has been happening in worlds both personal and art and I will be elaborating on that in posts to come. However, this week I have decided to post the homework assignment I am giving my Intro to Art Media class. I will be introducing them to assemblage and the work of both Louise Nevelson and Joseph Cornell. They will be creating small assemblages themselves. Because this is the week before Thanksgiving, their sketchbook homework has to do both with creating assemblages and giving thanks.

HOMEWORK TEN, DUE MONDAY NOV. 24, 2014

Introduction to Art Media

Monday evenings 5:30-8:20 p.m. Room G-34   Instructor: Marsha M. Pippenger

“Drawn” to Assemblage: a Cornell Thanksgiving Box

1. This is a very straightforward assignment. In your sketchbook draw a large box. It can be a 3D box or a simple square or rectangular shape.

2. Inside your box, place those things you are thankful for this year. Do this by drawing images of those things inside your box.

3. Spend some time on this drawing. Be mindful as you do this. It is more than a drawing exercise.

Indeed, it is more than a drawing exercise, and I hope they understand this. I am giving thanks all week and next, thinking of George Orwell’s thought as he lay near dying on a stretcher in 1936: “Isn't it wonderful to live in a world where silver poplars grow?” It is.

The Mind is its Own Place....

Yesterday I read a fascinating article in The New York Times Magazine about the writer Marilynne Robinson. She has been teaching the art of writing at the University of Iowa, known for its fine writing program, since 1989. You may recognize her name from her Pulitzer Prize winning novel "Gilead". Her most recent novel is "Lila", which continues the saga of the residents of the mythical community of Gilead.

Much of what she had to say resonated with me, but a couple of comments in particular gave me pause. She talked about growing up with teachers who encouraged her to build a mind she could live with, that one's mind is a place, that we must live with our minds our entire lives so we should build a mind that is .... well, more heaven than it is hell.

Think of that: one's mind is a PLACE. We alone are responsible for building a mindplace we can live with. Not only live with, but thrive in. That's the point I think. Now I am not advocating that one disappear into a fantasy world, nor is she, but what we think, how we think, can definitely affect how we live in this world. Solitude can be a lovely place to reside if we have built a habitable mind, a mindplace. I like that idea: a mindplace.

Marilynne Robinson is an exceptional writer, and it is clear from the interview that she has made her mind a great place in which to live. I want to thank her for opening my own thoughts to the care of my mindplace.

To read the full article go to The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/magazine/the-revelations-of-marilynne-robinson

Dayton:Aspen, Aspen:Dayton?

There's a new museum in Aspen. Yes, that Aspen, the town in Colorado probably better known for skiing than art. More precisely put, there's a new museum building in Aspen, as the original Aspen Art Museum opened in 1979 in the European model of a Kunsthalle. In general, a Kunsthalle does not have a permanent collection. Instead it mounts temporary shows, hosts symposiums and workshops and features artists.

This is a model that works for a lot of cities, as pointed out this past Sunday by Holland Cotter of The New York Times. He notes that Aspen's modestly sized museum has no permanent collection and is a potential working model for a lot of small to medium size cities between the coasts.

According to Mr. Cotter: ...."why settle for being a New York-Los Angeles outpost? Why not take advantage of the excitements that regional consciousness can offer, and by doing so chip away at the tired East Coast-West Coast hegemony?

The Aspen Art Museum’s founders were wise to create a noncollecting, community-serving museum on the classic European kunsthalle model, a model that assures that even residents of small cities have access to art and some say about the choice of it."

A facility like this does not have to buy art or maintain a collection. It can stay fresh in this way and promote talented regional artists. He notes that not every artist is driven to go to the large art centers and that smaller communities also have busy art scenes.

Aspen's new museum has its issues; it is not perfect. But it does offer a model for smaller metros: the idea of incubating spaces with pop-up, local shows that are exciting, thought-provoking, and supported by their communities. There is art excitement in one's hometown, and it's time more people understood that. Dayton, in the artistic sense, could be the next Aspen.

To read Mr. Cotter's full article on the Aspen museum: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/arts/design/a-museum-is-in-aspen-but-not-of-it.html?ref=design

Looking for the Yellow Spring...

This past weekend was my birthday so my husband and I took a short vacation to Yellow Springs, Ohio. While it is only 20 miles northeast of Dayton it is miles away in attitude. Yellow Springs is an activist community and has been for years. It is the home of Antioch College, one of the first - if not the first- coed institutions in the US. It was the first college to have a woman as a full professor. It was one of the first colleges to eliminate race as an admission requirement. Antioch, little Antioch in the rural fields of southwest Ohio, was a special place for forward thinking folks. Coretta Scott King, Leonard Nimoy, and Rod Serling graduated from Antioch. One of my favorite novelists, Lawrence Block was a graduate. Louis Sachar is an alum.

In the ensuing years, it hit on hard times and closed about five years ago. However, like a phoenix, it has risen again, due to those activist graduates - alumni - who refused to let the dream die. It reopened and this year welcomed its fourth class since its rebirth. This must tell you something about this unique school and the village where it makes its home.

Yellow Springs is really named for a yellow - today it's more orange - spring that can be found in Glen Helen Nature Preserve, just outside the village proper. We decided to find the yellow spring from which Yellow Springs sprung.

It took us three tries. Three. And we had been given directions. We were starting to feel a little desperate, not to mention a little hot and sticky too. But after the first two tries we just couldn't give up. After all, two well-educated people could surely find a little spring....

Well, we did finally locate the yellow spring. And we have pictures to prove it. Turns out we had been given some slightly faulty directions: just keep turning left. The problem was, the first turn was to the right...

Now, I want to relate this experience to art. Sometimes you have to try more than once. Sometimes you get faulty directions. Sometimes instead of always turning left you need to turn to the right. Then you just might...find the yellow spring.

A day late, a dollar short, upside down and backwards....

That's me, all last week and into this week, which is why I am a day late posting on my blog. Last week I missed an appointment, went to a meeting that wasn't till this week, and misunderstood the date for another. People kept telling me it was the full moon causing all my "confusedness" (to make up a new word).

What was my problem? Too many commitments and not enough organization I think. I simply didn't keep my calendar up to date. I normally juggle teaching at two different schools with working in my studio and I can usually manage it, although I always feel like studio time gets the short deal. That's probably because I would be there every minute of the day if I didn't have other responsibilities.

As it is, I think I need to be forgiving of myself, admit that it was a bad week in terms of keeping it together, and move on. This week is sure to be better!

On another note, I am hanging a show of Prayer Wall collages tomorrow at Harmony Creek Church in Dayton, some new work, some older. If you are in the area after tomorrow, stop in to see!

This Prayer Wall is titled "Light and Life"

I want George Jetson's shower....

     How many of you grew up watching The Jetsons? Meet George Jetson...his boy Elroy...daughter Judy...Jane, his wife!

For those of you who don't know, The Jetsons was a cartoon series featuring a space age family of the future, who lived with all the conveniences we supposedly will have if we ever reach that "space age", including the family housekeeper, Rosie the Robot, and of course, the family dog Astro.

Well, today as I am rushing about trying to get to the gym (I did), starting a load of laundry (I am) and preparing for tonight's teaching (I am almost ready...), I found myself wishing for George Jetson's shower.

When George walked into the shower to prepare for work, he not only got squeaky clean, he emerged with his teeth brushed, his beard shaved, his hair coiffed, and .. he was completely dressed for his day, from head to toe. All this in one fell swoop, and in just minutes! Wouldn't that be just great? I have to admit I kind of resent having to take the time to do all those things - well, I don't have to shave my beard, thank goodness - when I just want to get on with my day, most specifically, get to the studio. It always feels as if getting to that studio to do the work is the hardest thing, and that everything else in life takes up so much time. How many of you agree?

If we just had George's shower...     
         

Lots of Labor - the art kind- on Labor Day

Just a short late evening post for Labor Day. I got lots of studio time today and yesterday which makes me very happy of course! I completed one more strip for my next collage tapestry; I am getting close to putting it together. This will be only the second of this series and I have yet to take full photos of the first tapestry. That first tapestry is still on exhibit at The Architectural Group in downtown Dayton through September 12. Then I will photograph that tapestry and post it for you.

I am also close to finishing a new Prayer Wall collage which will be on display after September 21 at Harmony Creek Church in Kettering, along with others. And, I have been updating my notecards.

More to come...Hope you had a happy Labor Day!

BIG BODY TRACINGS AND GARGANTUAN GIGGLES

Monday evening, August 25.

I am currently standing in the midst of 20 GIANT body tracings and 20 giggling college students. Their first class is tonight and they are working in pairs, tracing one another and cutting out the tracings. In a minute I will tell them to pose the figures. We are going big here, and thinking about movement and composition and fore, middle and background, but they don't know any of that. You see, these are not art students, but medical students. They are studying to become nurses, or lab technicians or physician assistants. This class, Introduction to Art Media is a stretch for them.

During the semester I will introduce these students to different kinds of art media. Tonight we have started with the basics: drawing tools. Here are two of the cutouts made by one pair of students.

Rethinking ideas

I have been working and reworking this idea for Half the Sky. I am still not satisfied with my designs. The idea is to create an iconic, recognizable design that speaks "half the sky" but is still a design that I can vary. I posted several sketches recently on this blog and on my Facebook page Pippengerart and asked for comments. Most were positive but one of my artist friends, MB, noted that I should keep exploring. I agree. Presented here - for the second time - are the colored pencil sketches I posted:


             

Yesterday I started working on a new design that could be the answer. It is still in the sketching stages. This is part of the task of new work, trying out different ideas and sketching and reworking till it feels right. Let me know what you think. Comments help!

YOUR THOUGHTS NEEDED!

In a previous post I talked about a new series called "Half the Sky" and my attempts to give visual voice to the proverb that "women hold up half the sky". At the time I noted that my first sketches were not yet ready for prime time viewing. Well, today I am posting four colored pencil sketches for you to check out. AND, I would like you to weigh in with your thoughts, about the sketches and the proverb. What does "Half the Sky" suggest to you?

     

     

I am SO looking forward to your comments. 

Keeping up....

Updating the calendar, checking deadlines, choosing show entries, negotiating exhibits, tracking expenses, promoting work....whew! When do I actually get to make art? That is the true struggle of the artist. All we really want to do is make things - always more ideas than time - but we also need to attend to the business end of our creative lives. The care and feeding of the art career is multi-faceted and it is really easy to ignore the part where we don't get to draw, paint, cut, paste or sculpt.

In a sense, creating is the reward for tending to the business side. And tending to the business hopefully allows us to show our work, sell our work, buy supplies, pay some bills, and actually feel like a grown-up in the art biz. It's definitely a circular world: one task feeds the other!

Business is my to-do list today, and the reward for those jobs well done is studio time. Hurray!

Half the Sky and why work in a series?

Happy Monday morning! It's hard to believe July is nearly gone. I certainly don't feel I have completed all my summer projects and plans. The time just whizzes by; I will never have enough time to bring all my ideas to life!

Half the Sky, my newest small series is not ready for viewing yet, but soon. I would be interested to hear others' interpretations of what "Half the Sky" means to them. I find the term really evocative, and discovered it because of a  book I read by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl  WuDunn: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. (http://www.halftheskymovement.org/). The book is fascinating and has made me think about how much women worldwide do to support the world. We really do hold up half the sky!

Choosing a theme and working in series is a great way to explore a topic while also stretching my creativity muscles (and ligaments and tendons and brain cells and those little carpal tunnels...). It's always good to set some parameters on the work one makes; it actually forces an artist to be more creative. One's art can get pretty messy when you can choose from virtually everything!

Keeping that in mind, today I will work in my studio on my tapestry series. More on that later!

http://www.pippengerart.com/
http://www.pinterest.com/marshapip/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pippengerart/

Why do I make art? What is Half the Sky?

Why does a person become an artist? It's a logical question since most artists don't earn enough from art sales to support themselves. Many of us work other jobs to pay our basic bills. Some of us teach, some of us work retail, some of us are nurses, or computer techs, or tree trimmers. We all struggle with time management and sometimes it feels as if the making of the art is always at the bottom of the to-do list.

So why bother? I can't speak for anyone other than myself, but I have to make art. It's almost like breathing. If I am not working on an art series I carry around this nagging feeling of anxiety, as if something is undone, incomplete, unfinished. When I don't have very much time - as in several hours to be in the studio - I work on small pieces, usually in colored pencil - so I can accomplish something. I turn these small pieces into thematic series so they have a unified identity. I matt and frame them so that I can also do very small shows of very small work.

I am starting a new small series now, titled, "Half the Sky". The title is from a Chinese proverb which notes that "women hold up half the sky". I have been working on this idea for several months, trying to get the imagery just right. I will post some images when they are ready for an audience. 

My first post falls on Bastille Day!

How appropriate that my first post on my new PipART blog should be on Bastille Day, given how many of my most admired artists come from France - Delacroix, Gericault, Monet, David and others - so many talented artists, way too many to name them all. When I look at the work of the artists who came before me I am humbled by their skill, encouraged by their example, and honored to be a small part of that history of artists contributing good to the world.

Most of you who read this already know me. You know I work mainly in collage, that I also love colored pencil, that I am passionate about creating art and knowing its history. You know that I feel strongly about the importance of art education. You may also know that I do my best to support and strengthen the cultural wealth of this amazing city, Dayton, Ohio. However, you may discover some new things about Marsha, the artist. I sure hope so!

I promise to keep my posts short and readable, and, hopefully, interesting. I plan to pop in every Monday to plant my thoughts on things art. In the meantime, you can check my website: www.pippengerart.com or go to Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marsha.pippenger. 

I have my personal FB and two pages you may want to check: Pippengerart: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pippengerart 

or Pip's Awesome Cards: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pips-Awesome-Cards.

I will also have work on Pinterest soon. 

Well, that's it. Happy Bastille Day! And, if you are inspired, feed the artist with your comments..

Wow, I have a blog!

Here it is...my blog as PipART! Stay tuned for posts!