I wrote this little blurb and put it on Facebook today, and then thought that maybe it should go on this substack. (Associated images below the post)
Making artwork of any kind can be like a one-person wrestling match in which the artist plays the part of both opponents. I'm always interested in how artists who work for themselves/represent themselves manage both the artist's role and the exhibitor's role.
1. Seven years ago, I launched a really over-ambitious funding project for a documentary series called Invisible Ink. It failed miserably, but the idea for the doc series lived on and my research for it has continued over the last seven years. In that time, the scope of the project has changed somewhat radically and morphed into a broader philosophical inquiry that will still cover aspects of surveillance technology, but not in such a literal fashion. If I'm lucky, I might have a first episode finished in a little under a year.
2. In the last few years, I've been trying to tamp down my obsession with making everything I do some kind of massive gesamtkunstwerk. Making little tiny things takes a kind of discipline that my overactive brain doesn't respond to easily. So, in addition to the one massive project, I have a lot of little things coming along. Things that may often only take an afternoon to edit (see 4).
3. Promoting other people's work has always been a lot easier for me than trying to sell myself. Curating an exhibit is also more rewarding at times, even, than having my own solo show. I didn't realize how much I missed curating until a year ago when I was asked to assemble a video art program for the Dumke Arts Plaza. As you all know, I'm now working on The Cauldron International Film and Video Festival ( https://filmfreeway.com/Cauldron-1 ), and our first event will take place in the late spring of '24. As an educator, I often feel that my opportunity to expose people to new ideas through art is much more limited than I ever expected it would be. It's my hope that the curator/programmer roll that I've created for myself here will become a kind of glue that holds all the other practices (education, studio work, exhibitions) together while improving my ability to do the art world thing I hate doing most... Networking. I have no problem getting up in front of a bunch of people to do something/anything, but I find the social element of the art world to be painful.
4. Lastly, as many of you know, I've been very very slowly making all of my works (old and new) available online through a Substack account ( https://codecxs.substack.com/ ). I expect subscriptions to be free for another year or so, but it's really hard to say where it's going right now. Once the first year of my film festival completes its cycle, I am seriously hoping that the other aspects of this art career (or whatever you want to call it) fall into a certain rhythm.
I share this stuff because I think it's useful for all of us who "DO ART" to be somewhat transparent about how we get stuff done, and also about the ways in which we fail. I hate how the art/film/publishing markets, the nonprofit sector, and academia all seem to conspire to mystify their combined professions. None of us are unicorns. Most of us have second jobs. A lot of us have families. All of us have other obligations. Very few of us actually "live off of our art".
Thanks for reading my thoughts/vomit.
#artworld
#fartworld
