Have you ever had a piece of artwork stolen? Me too…more than once. Within the past two weeks, “Sally,” part of a triptych called “Sue . Sally . Sara .” was stolen off a gallery wall.
I received both a phone message and an email from the Director of the organization and the Director of the gallery–frought with professionalism and concern. My response? “Stuff happens,” and “Hey, I take it as a compliment…I’m theft-worthy.”
For me, the theft poses questions like…“What was wrong with the other pieces in the triptych”…not “How could this happen.”
As a gallery owner and then director for many years, please take my advice on this one. Do not have a hysterical fit that reinforces the idea that all artists are crazy and irrational.
Yes, I understand that you may be attached to the artwork. “Sally” is a part of my masthead at RLGibson.com, but you’ve got to let it go. Galleries and their owners and directors do the best they can; do me a favor, and give them a break. Most of them are insured.
Do you have a story of art theft and intrigue to share? Send me an email or leave a comment on this post. Have Happy Holidays!
I recently posted an update about my being juried into the Arts in the Airport show. On Thursday November 5th, I got to attend my first show opening and reception located in an airport. Click Here to see all of the work in the Arts in the Airport show.
First, my kudos go out to the Knoxville Airport Authority’s devotion to the arts and willingness to put their money where their mouths are by offering $1000 in awards and NO ENTRY FEE. Secondly, I want to applaud how well the reception and viewing were handled considering all the security issues surrounding any event held in the airport.
My husband, son Oscar and I drove approximately 1.5 hours to attend, and I had a great time. Here are some pictures of the event:
Are you inspired every time someone’s 5-foot cake doesn’t go splat on one of those cake bake-offs? They make it look like anyone can do it. I find that knowing someone else has achieved results helps me distinguish between the opportunities I should seize and the ones that simply are not worth my time. I recommend giving emerge midwest art zine a try. I was honored to be juried into the April 2009 issue.
emerge is a specialty art zine, created by Sarah Earle, that is open to artists nationwide and is distributed quarterly to over 100 Midwest galleries (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin). Each issue features nine artists whose work is hand selected by a rotation of guest jurors.
The next issue should be January 2010. The deadline has not been released as of this post, but you don’t have to wait until the last minute. No really–you don’t. Send your submissions today.
All professional artists, ages 18 or older, working in all media are encouraged to apply. Created by artist and graphic designer Sarah Earle, emerge is a powerful exposure tool for any serious studio artist in the country. The cost to submit up to 10 images for consideration is only $15. you can complete the entire process online in 15 to 20 minutes, or you can send your payment and submission via snail mail. If you are juried in to the zine, here’s what you can expect:
Art Layout
Pictured right is an example of the spread provided to each of the six accepted artists. The left page is dedicated to the artists work, featuring several full-color images of their current pieces chosen from your submissions. The right page has the artist’s contact information, educational background (if applicable), show history, a Q&A section and more.
Distribution
emerge is an art zine that is open to artists nationwide and is distributed quarterly to over 100 Midwest galleries (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin). When I asked emerge Editor/Designer Sarah Earle for the distribution list, she happily emailed them–an invaluable asset for marketing my work in the midwest.
Pictured left is Pieces of Me: Atlas, one of featured works in the April 2009 edition.
Take a chance–$15 and a chance you’ll be rejected is about as gentle as the art world gets.
And remember, successful artists don’t cook or dine alone…
I find myself working on Gluttony for the Psychomachia series today. Gluttony is represented in a Biblical sense by the bite of the apple. Thematically, gluttony is being represented by the sideshow freak “World’s Fattest Woman.”
My subject is the world’s fattest woman only metaphorically, of course. And then I began to wonder how many women live as the world’s fattest woman everyday–wallowing in guilt over their own perceived Gluttony, often false or imagined. I wonder.
Although I’m hard at work on Psychomachia with my friend Jerry Portelli, I can’t afford not to be showing work in the meantime.
I’m thinking about entering the notBig show in the Chicago Arts District. All works must be 12″ or smaller–which means they are inexpensive to ship via Priority Mail Insured. Plus, the entry fee is only $20 for up to 3 images.
The call can be found at Art & Art Deadlines.com ; however, I have also re-posted the Call below. The deadline is October 31st, 2009. Hmmm…what should I enter? Most of the Pieces of Me series is 12″x12″. I’ll have to give it some thought.
SHOW: notBig: A Small Works Competition in the Chicago Arts District
ENTRY DEADLINE: October 31, 2009
EXHIBIT TYPE: Gallery Exhibit
MEDIA: This is an open call for any medium including painting, sculpture, ceramics, collage, mixed media, photography and glass.
DESCRIPTION: The Logsdon 1909 Gallery in Chicago, Illinois announces a call to artists for a juried show, December 11, 2009 to January 2, 2010, that is open to all individual artists working in the contemporary arts. $500 first. $200 for second. $100 for third. +Purchase Awards. Juror: Doug Stapleton. There is no intended theme for the work; it just needs to fit the criteria of being “small art”. No works over 12 inches in any direction. $20 for 3 images. Visit http://www.logsdongallery.jimdo.com for prospectus.
Just a short note to let you know you can see Pieces of Me: Fat(pictured left) in the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport. 514 entries from 120 artists were received, and 41 pieces were selected for the show. To see all the pieces in the show, view the visit the Arts & Culture Alliance.
The Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority (McGhee Tyson Airport) and the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville are pleased to present “Arts in the Airport”, a new exhibition featuring selected artwork. “Arts in the Airport” was developed to allow regional artists to compete and display work in the most visited site in the area.
The selected art features contemporary 2-dimensional artwork and will be exhibited in the secured area behind McGhee Tyson Airport’s security gate checkpoint from November 5, 2009 – April 22, 2010.
This call for entry was featured on ArtAndArtDeadlines.com and had NO ENTRY FEE! Get to work–No excuses!
PSYCHOMACHIA (meaning Battle of Souls) is the newest series done in collaboration with Arizona-based artist Jerry Portelli. This work reinterprets the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Holy Virtues in a series of 14 diptychs, one from each artist. The aesthetic theme is the sideshow freak from the circus and fairs of yesteryear–nature’s artwork, if you will.
We seek to honor the sideshow freak as the masque form of the very best and very worst of humanity, regardless of individual morality.This work is wrapped in a celebration of the possibilities of digital media and rejects the pervasive sort of embarassment of digital alteration in photography. The use of square canvases in Psychomachia is meant to echo the pixel of which all digital images is comprised.
The work is ongoing as of October, 2009. I have been sworn to keep the images under wraps until the show opens; however, I think the Clown God will let just a puzzle-piece of two works (see below) out of the bag just for you.
“For years I have used the clown mask as a means by which the ordinary becomes the extraordarinary. However, in the Psychomachia series, I
was able to use the clown mask as masque of the common in favor of the extraordinary spirit of the human condition via the sideshow freak of yesteryear — both real and imagined. The Seven Deadly Sins & Seven Holy Virtues simply add a layer of unexpected judgement of intent to the physical reality.”
“My work habit is to explore the physical reality of my reverence for human potential with ‘self as other’ as reoccurring content. The Psychomachia series, challenged me to not rely on facial expression. While every face is unique, humanity regardless of culture or language recognizes facial expression as the key to discovering the true soul. Limiting use of the face allowed me to further explore the physcial uniqueness upon which the Seven Deadly Sins & Seven Holy Virtues provide the crux of judgement allowing acceptance of the physical.”
“Pieces of Me began when I moved to Gatlinburg in 2007. In a bid to simplify our lives, my husband Jon, my son Oscar and I decided to write a list of places we wanted to live. At the top of the list was Paducah, KY because of the Artist Relocation Program, Nashville because of the vibrant downtown music scene, and Gatlinburg for the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains. We visited each town, and for many reasons (none of which should diminish the loveliness of the losers), Gatlinburg won.
“We moved to a tiny 900 square foot, furnished ski chalet on top of a mountain. Bought a 4-wheel drive and sold almost everything else we owned. My husband went to work as an art gallery consultant immediately, and I stayed home with my then 8-year-old son for the duration of the summer.
“We took the theme ‘simplify our lives’ to the extreme that summer: 1 car…no cable…no telephone. Despite not being overly domestic, I found myself stranded on the top of a Tennessee mountain in a tiny house with nothing to do and no way to leave. The only thing we didn’t sell were all things artistic. How did we entertain ourselves? A bag of theatrical gray-scale makeup, great costume accessories, the trusty Olympus Digital Camera, and remote shutter release. Sue. Sally. Sara was one of the first pieces in the series (see below).
“Having spent years manipulating the Xerography technique originally taught to me by SC artist Kim LeMasters, Pieces of Me was born. And, while I have done lots of other work since that time, I’m still adding to the series. Enjoy a selection of work from Pieces of Me by clicking on the slideshow below; please note there is some nudity. I hope you love them. They feature the commonly used vehicle of self as other as a salute to my reverence for human potential.” –R.L. Gibson
As an homage to the new interactive R.L. Gibson site, I thought we could all take a little trip down memory lane with some work from the past. Speak No Evil is not my favorite series to date; however, it is a step in my development as an artist that I cherish. Enjoy!
Speak No Evil, 2006 – 2007
Artist’s Statement: “I am an Objectivist–that is, I believe in objective reality. I believe that words have meanings, and I enjoy the debate that asks, ‘Who defines a language?’ Is a language–be it written, spoken or aesthetic–defined by the user or some other hierarchy of trusted caretakers? And why are people often offended by truth–not the ugly, hurtful truth, but the sky-is-blue truth? How does context change definition and intention? My work explores these questions. I’m not ceratin the answers are clear to me although I do not doubt the existence of the objective truth of the answers–an odd sort of faith from a distinctly unspiritual woman.
“I am deeply influenced by my role as a southern born and reared woman. I have a great love of southern language with all of its innuendos, euphemisms and passive tones that mak a long history of eccentricities, unpopular opinions and niceties. I ws spoon-fed ‘If you can’t say something nice…’ but it wasn’t well digested. Does the adage ‘Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil’ function without ‘Think No Evil?’ This body of work juxtaposes exasperatingly high moral standars against the public question of excruciatingly low moral fortitude and asks, is ‘Speak No Evil’ an acceptable substitute for ‘Think No Evil?’ while posing the personal queston ‘Am I a truth teller?’ or just not a ‘Well-Behaved Woman?’ ” –R.L. Gibson
Click below for a slideshow of Speak No Evil.
See the what critic Michaela Pilar Brown said about Speak No Evil:
“In this series of xerographic prints, Gibson challenges patriarchal conventions about truth, morality, and freedom in a culture increasingly driven along a path to homogeneity, and a return to the exclusion and marginalization of unpopular opinions and ideas. Gibson employs the use of text throughout these images to call attention to the use of language.
“Words attached to art imbue meaning and effect interpretation often more powerfully than images alone. It musts be noted that Gibson makes use of the red editor’s pen. The images are simple, and words are used with brevity. Challenging large ideas with such an economy of words and simple images leaves room in Gibson’s work for both comic relief and austerity.
“Her use of text is both a nod to its literary origin, and a subversive tyrannical act, to make the viewer question both meaning and use in a broader context. In the work ‘Such a Pretty Face,’ Gibson addresses the notion of hiding criticism in a compliment. It begs the questions, in a postmodern world, a world of rapidly exchanged text, ticker tape, and irretrievable digital burps, who owns the language? Can words live in static form? Do they evolve? When are they weapon, propaganda, song?
“In the triptych ‘See, Hear & Speak,’ Gibson addresses the notion of turning a blind eye to evil. It is an image and phrase familiar to most Americans, so familiar in fact that the phrase ‘see no hear no speak no evil’ conjures images of a monkey covering its eyes, mouth and ears and the reverse. A doll’s head has replaced the monkeys. This simple change destroys the kitschy-ness of the image, and presents a more human question. The doll’s head floating against a flat background robs it of its innocence. By ignoring evil are we not responsible for its growth?”
–Michaela Pilar Brown, 2007 as Director of Gallery 107 North
Have you ever had a piece of artwork stolen? Me too…more than once. Within the past two weeks, “Sally,” part of a triptych called “Sue . Sally . Sara .” was stolen off a gallery wall.
As a gallery owner and then director for many years, please take my advice on this one. Do not have a hysterical fit that reinforces the idea that all artists are crazy and irrational.
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