Tuesday, November 7, 2023
Tue. Nov. 7, 2023 - Copyright Law for Artists and Creatives info & registration (Free Admission)
My thoughts on the City of Washington's Art Bank here.
That is why it is important to get information, and stay in tune with the DMV art scene.
A guest post by the super hard-working DMV artist Michele Banks!
The Joy and the Limits of Picking Yourself
A dozen years ago, Seth Godin wrote a blog post called Reject the Tyranny of Being Picked: Pick Yourself. It was a rallying cry for creators to bypass the gatekeepers and simply get on with doing what they want to do. Can’t get a book contract? Self-publish. No record deal? Start posting your songs online.
Godin says, “It’s a cultural instinct to wait to get picked. To seek out the permission and authority that comes from a publisher or talk show host or even a blogger saying, “I pick you.” Once you reject that impulse and realize that no one is going to select you–that Prince Charming has chosen another house–then you can actually get to work.”
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| Michele Banks - Detail from Purkinje Neuron in Black and Indigo, Ink on Yupo, 2023 |
Godin’s piece, which came out as I was starting to sell my art online, was tremendously heartening to me. After some bruising encounters with galleries and juried group shows, it was encouraging to consider that there might be another way. Who needs gallery representation? So what if a curator won’t choose you? You can get out there and find your own audience. And so I did: I’ve sold thousands of paintings in the intervening years.
Yes, thousands, and I not only painted them all, I matted them, photographed them, described them, listed them, packed them in cardboard and took them to the post office.
I take great pride and satisfaction in the fact that I did all those things myself.
I picked myself, and it worked.
But of course I didn’t do it all on my own.
And of course I could not completely avoid gatekeepers.
I started out selling online on Makers Market, a sadly short-lived joint project by Make Magazine and BoingBoing. I applied, and I got picked. And as a result, Make and BoingBoing shared my work with a huge audience, one I might never equal on my own.(After Makers Market folded, I opened my Etsy shop)
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| Pick me! From the Cells to the Stars, a 2011 watercolor, was featured in BrainPickings, giving me a publicity boost. Indigo Coronavirus (ink, 2020) was acquired by the National Academies of Science, a little institutional cred. |
I still make a big chunk of my income from selling my art at festivals. And quite often festival jurors do not pick me, but if I want to get my work in front of their audience, I have to keep applying and submitting to the judgement of those gatekeepers. There’s no setting up a tent on my street and declaring myself a fine art festival.
Yes, I could rent an apartment in another city, set up a studio, and call it a residency.
Yes, I could set up an online fundraiser for myself and call it a grant.
But I have not done that. I’ve applied for grants and residencies the usual way, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. After years of blanket rejection, I stopped applying for gallery shows. But I have not stopped showing in galleries! Anything I’ve shown in a gallery over the last six years has been a product of, yes, waiting around to get asked. Sorry, Seth.
Do I have a point here beyond “it’s complicated?”
Yes.
Picking yourself is completely valid as a mantra and a strategy. You really do have to pick yourself, to put yourself out there, to present your work to the public and say, “look at this thing I made.” By all means, make a great website, a stunning Instagram account, an online shop, a newsletter. Those are all things you can create and control on your own.
But most creators at some point must engage with gatekeepers. You need shows. You need publicity. You have to choose between the effort of creating all this on your own or applying and hoping to get picked. Because gatekeepers are also boosters.
I doubt that most people get into the business of running galleries or art festivals or giving out grants because they crave the adrenaline rush of rejecting artists. (Okay, some of them might, but let’s not go there) They do it because they want to support artists and provide them with a platform for their work. As an artist, you can and should build your own platform, but it’s fine to stand on someone else’s now and then. It’s probably bigger than your personal platform, and can maybe boost you up a little higher.
I believe in the message of picking yourself: it’s essential. But the part where Godin says “no one is going to select you” is far too harsh. It’s true that toiling over your art in obscurity and simply waiting for a genius grant is unlikely to succeed. But if you make good work, tell your story compellingly, choose your opportunities thoughtfully, and cultivate your network with kindness, you put yourself in position to get picked.
New Art
I have not forgotten that by far the most important people who pick me are the buyers of my art! While I’ve mostly been busy painting dozens of brains and neurons for the upcoming Society for Neuroscience meeting, I’ve recently added 15 new paintings to my Etsy shop, including watercolor brains, viruses in both watercolor and ink, and several new sayings of the Algorithm. Find them here.
Upcoming DC Art Events
I have a few more IRL events in DC before the end of the year! Find me here
November 11-15: Neuroscience 2023
November 18: Dumbarton House Makers Market
December 2: Dupont Circle Holiday Pop-up
Thank you so much for reading. I’m new to this, so if you enjoyed this piece, please share it with others and subscribe to read more.
On Saturday, November 11, Capitol Hill Arts Workshop will offer Unleash your Creative Spirit, a collage workshop with Teaching Artists Carolina Mayorga and Sharon Burton.
Date: Saturday, November 11, 2023
Time: 2:00-4:00pm
Location: Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW), 545 7th St. SE, Washington DC 20003
Cost: $15 (please pay in advance by calling 202-547-6839)
On Veterans’ Day, CHAW will offer a collage workshop to honor veterans and caregivers.
Led by Teaching Artists Carolina Mayorga and Sharon Burton, participants will create a collage to honor themselves, veterans, and caregivers. Unleash Your Creative Spirit will offer participants an opportunity to celebrate creativity, self-expression, and a sense of community while exploring one of the most enjoyable and relevant art forms. Light refreshments will be served.
You know you can't hold me forever
I didn't sign up with you
I'm not a present for your friends to open
This boy's too young to be singing
The blues, ah, ah
- Elton John
The Fred Schneider Gallery in Arlington will be showing a new body of work by DMV artist Delna Dastur to include paintings and drawings, in a solo show starting on November 10.
The reception is on November 11, 2023 from 5-8PM The artist will also be giving a talk on December 9th from 5-7p.m.
Embracing Arlington Arts interviewed Dastur for this show and you can visit that interview here.
Ninety Degrees
By Isabel Manalo
Show Runs: November 4 - December 31, 2023
Artist Talk: Sunday, Nov. 5 at 4pm
3 Roads | 118 East Church Street, 118 East Church Street, Frederick, MD 21701
Isabel Manalo is an Artist’s Artist. She is a pro who not only maintains her own studio practice and exhibition schedule, but also guides countless other artists with aesthetic and academic counsel. Manalo’s paintings possess an uncommon transcendence and mysticism. Yet they are essentially simple and familiar in their subject matter, often with her two young daughters engaged in exploration and wonder amid the natural world. The jewel-like glances of vivid translucent color so musically applied to the picture plane provide a sense of hopeful providence and even joy. Manalo has been exhibiting her work internationally since 1999. Her art works are included in several public and private collections, such as the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, the permanent collections of U.S. Embassies in Bulgaria, Philippines, Kazakhstan and Nepal. Manalo is currently an Adjunct Professor at American University and George Mason University and serves as an Artist Mentor at Lesley University in Boston, MA. She is the Founder and Chief Collaborator of The Studio Visit, an art journal featuring artist interviews with artists in their studios.
“Lately painting for me has become a release and expression of my drawing process. That which is more immediate, gestural, imperfect and ephemeral and yet still driven by a highly saturated palette and layering of marks and pattern. Images of faces and bodies comingle with familiar plant life and foliage and bouquets of flowers that have been given and received in all the exchanges of hello's and goodbyes. Cues from media of current events pop up as does the pre-colonial script from the Philippines.”- Isabel Manalo
Live! From the Chair
Opening reception this Saturday October 28, 3-6PM
Live! From The Chair is an exhibition featuring the works of Roy Utley at Otis Street Arts Project. The exhibition draws its name from a collection of poems he wrote while receiving chemotherapy, which were inspired by his personal journey through life and illness. These works reflect his never ending resolve to learn to live in peace, hoping he can help others to do the same.
Gallery Hours: Saturdays 12-4, M-F by appointment
Otis Street Arts Project
3706 Otis Street
Mount Rainier, MD
20712
Exhibition October 28- December 2, 2023
2023-2024 Open Call: Where should we start?
Info Session: Tomorrow Wednesday, Oct. 25, 6:30pm (Virtual)
From the WPA:
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Two things to learn about this story:
A painting by artist Marc Chagall was stolen from a Midtown art gallery late last month, according to the NYPD.
The painting is valued at over $5,000, police said. Three suspects broke into Carlton Fine Arts and took the painting around 2:12 a.m. on Sept. 25, authorities said on Friday.
In the article we learn that the Chagall was valued at $5,000.
$5K for a Chagall? I was curious and thus I went to Christie's and found out that indeed, one can grab an original Chagall for around that price - check them out here.
More importantly, and a lesson for artists...
Do you know what happens if one of your works is stolen from a gallery show?
Another lesson on the importance of having a gallery contract that would specify what happens in the event that happens!
Stay tuned and I'll tell you what usually happens!
Support grants ($500 - $2000) to individual feminist women in the arts with primary residence in the US and Canada.
Applications from feminist writers and visual artists who are women (cis and transgender) or nonbinary and:
Now and through December 15, you can see the FY 2024 Art Bank Program Finalists in a very cool exhibition in the Commission’s first floor galleries, Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5:30 pm at 200 I (Eye) Street Gallery SE. There’s photography, sculpture, painting, printmaking, textiles, and more! The gallery is free and open to the public.
Installed in the gallery are the works of Barbara Januszkiewicz, Bradley Stevens, Bria Edwards, Carol Rowan, Cathy Abramson, Charles Jean-Pierre, Cheryl Edwards, Cory Oberndorfer, Daniel Rios, David Fulton, Davide Prete, Debra Jean Ambush, Elaine Wilson, Elizabeth Ashe, Eric Celarier, Erwin Timmers, Gail Shaw-Clemons, Gary Kret, Gayle Friedman, George Tkabladze, Ivan Sigal, Jacqueline Crocetta, James Terrell, Jonathan Monaghan, Joseph Hamilton, Judith Peck, Judith Southerland, Julia Bloom, Julie Byrne, Julee Dickerson-Thompson, Justyne Fischer, Kasse Andrews-Weller, Khanh Le, Len Harris, Leslie Holt, Lexis Marie Jordan, Life Pieces To Masterpieces, Lina Alattar, Lory Ivey Alexander, Madeline Stratton, Mariah Bonner, Marilyn Gates-Davis, Mentwab Easwaran, Michael Sirvet, Michele Banks, Michelle Lisa Herman, Nami Oshiro, Pixie Alexander, Rania Hassan, Rashad Ali Muhammad, Rashin Kheiriyeh, Regina Miele, Roderick Turner, Sarah Bentley, Sayeh Behnam, Sean Dudley, Selena Jackson, Shanthi Chandrasekar, Sheila Blake, Sheila Crider, Sondra Arkin, Steve Wanna, Tea Okropiridze, Tom Kim, Valerie Theberge, Walter Bo Bullock, Zofie King, and Zsudayka Nzinga.
As you can see from the list, it includes many of the DMV art superstars, but I am particularly pleased to see also many names which I do not know, which means new fresh artwork being added to the City’s collection. I am also happy to see that many of the artists whom I gave good scores in the selection process made it to the finals!
Congrats to all of them!
This paper describes the implementation of a high-intensity reading tutoring intervention program using culturally responsive literacy practices centered on diverse children’s literature intended to uplift the needs and priorities of primary grade students experiencing literacy learning challenges. First, we present a critical review of the research on student literacy motivation and student identity. Next, we propose a culturally responsive literacy motivation model that re-conceptualizes student literacy motivation through culturally responsive literacy practices and literacy identity dimensions. We provide qualitative findings from tutor and student participants that reflect interconnections between dimensions of student literacy identity and literacy motivation through culturally responsive literacy practices. We provide implications and recommendations for literacy educators, researchers, and policymakers, along with a resource section for literacy educators.
Read the paper here.
Meet the artists showing at the 2023 Superfine DC Art Fair this weekend!
