Beth Heinly is a member of Little Berlin but like many young artists in the city is involved with much more than her own work in the collective. You may have noticed her opining in many a comments section on many blogs, as well as being imitated, which folks say is the most sincere form of flattery, but I imagine must be a little weird when you have people pretending to be a pseudonym attributed to you. Beth is a contributor for The Art Blog in addition to doing codemonkey work for them, and her facebook states that she is “a werewolf who makes art.” She actually didn’t request to be a part of ask an artist, but rather asked a question of others, so naturally I turned the tables on her. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Sequoia’
Ask an Arist – Beth Heinly
Monday, March 1st, 2010The Problem with Criticism
Saturday, February 27th, 2010So what is good criticism? Everyone’s talking about the lack of it these days. Not just in Philadelphia, although with the solipsism of the arts world one tends to view things as particular to themselves. The same frustrated energy and debate is going on in DC, Chicago, Portland, gee, everywhere it seems. It is a pervasive problem in the national art sphere that we all tend to view through our local gaze. We all seem to recognize the void in the discourse, but are unsure as to why it continues to grow rather than being rectified. This is partially because the lack of criticism is due to myriad issues involving the death of print media, the perception that art is no longer a part of popular culture, and a dearth of critics themselves.
I think one of the main issues is that those who talk about art are discussing the wrong thing in their criticism. (more…)
Concept, Craft, and Bad Art
Monday, February 15th, 2010A difficult aspect of art involvement or interest is the issue of what is good – meaning, how does one parse personal tastes and preferences from what is “good” and “bad” and does anyone have the right to bestow these labels?
First of all: eyeroll. Of course there is good and bad art; pretending that context, intent, or anything else can justify the merit or quality of work is a fun game to play at, but honestly, sometimes art is just not good. As I can equally be completely misanthropic, hating everything, or keen to play artist’s advocate, when my brain gets too arts-overloaded to sort myself out I always fall back on the concept and craft argument.
Art needs either a strong in concept or strong in craft, and most agree good art has both. Art can be described as visual evidence of an idea, although the amount of weight placed on the visual or the idea is greatly variable.
Craft is the more approachable aspect and traditionally understood as skill. Typically we think of painting, or sculpture, but these ideas can be applied to any visual media. Craft is something that can be intuitively understood and appreciated. Good craft is well done, well executed no matter what the media. Craft is learned and developed, and can be lost with disuse. Craft itself can be easily manipulated and intentionally poorly executed, complicating the issue.
Concept is basically the idea behind art. What it is attempting to comment or question, what motivated the work. There is a lot of leeway to concept; it can be straightforward or more obtuse. The concept could be the exploration of materials or ideas. Alternatively, concept is not visually present in the work, but rather applied by the viewer in place of artistic intent.
Traditionally craft was the more important in art. Think classical paintings, things that look like things, it mattered how well things were drafted. Nowadays, the hierarchy is reversed, the idea is often more important than the execution. Conceptual art – art that is an idea primarily, existent visually secondarily – is often more difficult for viewers (especially art outsiders) to process as art, because it does not conform with their traditional expectations.
It has become a contemporary trend for artists to use poorly executed craft in place of concept – as though it can be substituted for an idea, and that just doesn’t fly. It’s weak on both accounts, yet has become the go-to shtick for artists – the intentional imitation of outsider art as substitute for proper execution or to obscure a weak image, idea, or both.
I do not feel all art should be beholden to lofty ideas, but I don’t see any point in making bad art.
Memory Lane – The Old Silk City
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010I remember the first time I entered the dark red bar of Silk City thinking it was like an opium den. (My experiences with opium dens being limited to reading The Ruby in the Smoke as a pre-teen.) Silk City was a cave, with low ceilings and dark walls, the haze of smoke. This was back in the day, before the remodel, revamp, reboot. The diner was next door and you couldn’t get any food from it without leaving the bar. The bathrooms were tiny, over-flowingly unsanitary, with paper all over the floor, and lit far too harshly compared to the dance floor. You woke up the next morning stinking of smoke and spilt whiskey.
My memories of Silk City are hazy. It was one of the first bars I went to in Philadelphia, and nights there were spent learning to not care if people watched you dance and counting quarters to buy the next city wide. Oh the city wide. Bob & Barbara’s may have invented the City Wide Special (a can of PBR and a shot of Jim Beam for $3) but I became familiar with and greatly abused it at Silk City. There was also a $1 PBRs and $7 Long Island Ice Teas.
My roommate and I used to go to an event called Hang the DJ where you could sign up for a 15 minute block of time to work the turn tables (cd or vinyl) with either music you brought or a selection provided. There would be choreographed dance numbers, and meeting friends of friends of friends while dancing, learning to meet people in a strange city. Some nights the place was crowded far beyond safe occupancy, people shoving against each other, the floors slick with liquor. Other nights it was depressingly empty, feeling somehow smaller when devoid of partiers.
In addition to the stink of stale cigarette smoke, I will always associate Silk City with being burnt by drunk stranger’s inattention to their lit cigarettes. It is the bar of lost scarves, mittens, and hats, being the only bar I’ve ever lost winter items at, although I’m fairly confident several were purloined rather than misplaced.
After closing down and undergoing a remodel Silk City is still around – now with easy access to the restaurant and a new out door courtyard. The food is now homage to diner food, rather than greasy spoon, and the bar portion has been rearranged and no longer feels quite so seedy. Drinks are more expensive, the decor rearranged. I’ve been a couple of times but it’s not the same. But the Silk City of my youth lives on in my memories.
Unsolicited Advice to Artists – Key Words
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
Lemme tellya a thing or three
You have a website, or perhaps a tumblr or blogger or wordpress. Marvelous. You even update your resume as new shows and reviews come in, and you add images of new work and inform the public on sales. You’re rocking this web thing. But is anyone seeing it? Can anyone find you?
I’m kind of obsessed with tags and key words these days, because I’ve come to see how essential they are to sorting through the mass of information that is the internet. I was trying to look up information on a Philadelphia artist the other day, and I was shocked to find that searching their name and the word artist lead me to Art in Bars, which you know, isn’t so helpful since AiB was who was trying to find more information.
A buzzy skill these days is search engine optimization. Now, I have barely functioning coding skills, and if you’re not a code monkey yourself, you are in some ways limited as to what you can do, but never say never. If you have html knowledge, you already know how to create metatags for robots and keywords. But there’s always room for improvement in what you input as your keywords.
Imagine you are an artist in Philadelphia named John Circe. You do pencil drawings based on photographs of your friends wearing animal masks. You also make sculptures out of pencils. This is your shtick.
It’s easy enough to get a handle of making sure your full professional name (John M. Circe) is included with any show you take part in, or any image of your work you put on the internet. So if someone knows who you are they can find your website by searching your name, perhaps with artist or art if it’s a common name. But let’s imagine someone saw your work in a group show three months ago, didn’t write down you name, but has been thinking about how much they liked that art and wants to track it down. This is where key words become your best friend.
You need to think about how people who know you, who know your art, and have no idea you exist will find your art. Key word combination that should lead to you. Think specific. Of course use the terms Philadelphia, artist, drawing, pencil, art, but also think of the kind of drawings, the subjects, the materials and add those. Make up long strings of words someone might use to describe your work – weird drawings people masks, hipsters animal mask, Philadelphia drawing mask people, and flatter yourself. Best Philadelphia drawing, really cool pencil sculpture, interesting drawings masks, new artists pencil really good. Always assume you want people to find you who don’t even know who you are, who have an idea of art they would like to see, and make sure your work comes up.
This assumes you have access to code to embed keywords. Let’s say as fancy as you get is a blogger site. You have no idea what I’m talking about with keywords. Tags can be used the same as keywords, and should. Even if you post one image of a painting in progress, tag the hell out of it. Your name, the materials, the subject, the location. The robots of the internet use these words to find your page and suggest it to people who are searching the terms. The robots do not see pictures, they see words (this is why one can make an argument against artists having flash websites) then they look to see if the words in your tags or keywords match other words nearby (so you’re not lying about the content.)
The unsolicited advice: always when you put an image of your work on the internet, attach words to it. Lots of words. Specific words. And then the robots, and the art lovers, can find you.
What is Attention Worth?
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Who knows where I found this
I happen to know a exceedingly talented illustrator and humorist. I see him occasionally, and stalk his site bearskinrug.co.uk frequently. You should too – the man is immensely creative. As I mull over all sorts of interrelated ponderences of the meaning and worth of art, as well as the meaning and worth of artists, all these sticky issues keep bubbling up. The sticky issue which Kevin and I appear to be pondering around the same time is particular to the internet: what to give away, what to keep, how to earn from it.
Kevin, as a freelance illustrator, and published author is in a different boat than I, or perhaps you are. All my run-on sentences and half supported declarations are free for the taking (I say now.) But for actual artists, who produce creative visual work, the issue is much more serious. One needs, in some way, to put work out on the internet to gain visibility, to show the world what one can do and how brilliant they are at it. Conversely, show too much and no one feels as though you’re owed anything by it. Moreso, the mentality of the internet seems to be of entitlement. Creatives owe the collective hive mentality their best to be shared without compensation. Read this recent article in the NYT for more about this mob mentality.
This is troubling, especially if you happen to be a creative. How can you be expected to have the leasiure, freedom, and opportunity to work hard to create the content if there’s no compensation? How can you support the demand for creative content if you are not supported?
Thinking
As artists, this should especially ring true if you are involved with image making. (Not all art is image – but that’s another half-finished post) a strong image once on the internet is lost to the artist and, somewhat unfairly, becomes property of the collective to be used in any way without the artist’s permission, and I’m sorry I keep harping on this, or compensation. Look at the image I used to illustrate this post – took me like 3.5 seconds to grab. Did I compensate the estate of A.A. Milne, or perish forbid, the Disney Corporation? Golly no. The happy graphic? On TinEye it comes up from 54 sources, and the original artist is lost in the noise of reproduction. It’s on the internet. Finders keepers. Who cares if it’s a corporate behemoth or a struggling independent artist.
Which brings us back to the artist – once your work is out, there is the double edged sword of either now people know where to get it legitimately, by contacting you, or more likely, your work swiftly loses attribution and the next thing you know your work is being printed on a tee shirt, or repainted in a lesser quality, and someone else is making money from your hard work and creativity. Happens all the time. I know one designer who frequently is told of etsy sellers ripping off her images, and another artist who found their work printed in a book without their knowledge. What is to prevent someone taking work of yours, recreating it, and gaining from your good-faith attempt to be part of the discourse?
How can an artist balance making their work available to the public without jeopardizing it? Is it the duty of the artist to be present online, come what may? How do we protect the value of artists and their creations now that there is the expectation of free availability?
Restaurant Review – KONG
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010I feel like the food blogulous was all a twitter upon the opening of KONG, the Asian restaurant in NoLIbs, and then there was this newspaper backlash to counter the buzz. When we first went with friends, I was expecting small plates at high prices, a la Bar Ferdinan, and was pleasantly surprised to find the prices affordable, the portions almost too large, and the food delicious. The décor is also beautiful – you feel as though it was some interior designer’s dream project with the birdcage lamps, graphic photo wallpaper, and distressed walls. I’ve since been back several times, as one can reliably find a seat at the eatery even late at night on a First Friday, unlike some of the neighboring gastro-pubs.
Recently I stopped in for lunch, lured by the placard promising a $10 3-course 30-minute meal. The place was empty when I entered, although a few diners came in as my meal progressed. This lunch deal is a solid one – a choice of soup, one of five vegetable sides, and a large entrée, almost too much food. Choices are varied, and feature items on the regular menu.
For lunch I had Pork Wonton Soup; slippery delicate folds of noodle with two little spheres of pork, Steamed Butter Lettuces with Crispy Shallots (I’ll get to that later), and Crispy Tofu with Spicy Tofu Sauce and Pickled Beans – a amazing dish balancing sweet and hot, spicy and fermented, crunchy and smooth.
One of my favorite items sounds like it shouldn’t work – the steamed lettuces with crispy shallots and oyster sauce. Surely, I thought the first time I ordered the dish; they must mean boc choy or some other green, not butter lettuce. Lettuce brings to mind the limp slime on the bottom of a plate after a hot sandwich has set atop, or peeled off a disappointing burger. But it is lettuce and the texture and fresh green flavor is a revelation, off set by the sweet brown sauce and savory crunch of shallots. I cannot stop thinking about this simple dish. To quote the internet: noms.
I am frankly puzzled by some of the negative reviews and the apparently lack of traffic in Kong. Although I didn’t care for the wings, for the most part each dish I try is delicious, with nuanced flavors and interesting textures and spices. The mixed drinks are most certainly pinky-out, with the cutesy names to match, but the beer is right on the price point (I hate paying $7 for a local beer at a fancy join). My partner is enamored with the pork three ways dumplings, I’ve enjoyed several of the noodle dishes I’ve sampled, and with the lunch special one is able to experience several items very inexpensively. You should check it out for yourself. Watch out though; the website yells at you.
KONG
702-704 North 2nd Street
www.eatatkong.com
Unsolicited Advice to Artists – Pump the Resume pt.2
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010How to pump your resume? The most obvious advice is to apply for juried and group shows. Try for grants, purchase prizes, and public and private commissions. Submit your work for anything and everything you are remotely qualified for. But don’t fall into the trap of throwing your money away on scam shows, such as those that are online only or pay-for-play. Read the fine print. There are many opportunities that are free – paying for the chance to compete is not always the wisest decision as an emerging. Some good shows are free of cost and some bad ones have a very high entry fee. The point of these shows is the exhibition itself but also to use as a springboard and to boost your curriculum vitae, to parlay into the next exhibition. (more…)
Unsolicited Advice to Artists – Pump the Resume pt.1
Monday, January 18th, 2010Emerging artists are in need of expanding their accomplishments: unlike the standard maximum of no more than one page, artists are encouraged to list every little thing they have ever done. There are certain segments of the art world for which your curriculum vitae is as important as your work, and strong art without a strong resume isn’t given equal consideration. Unfair, but true. Some people make quick judgments based on length alone, before even reading the details. Once established beyond that a single page of accomplishments, only then should artists perhaps weed out the less auspicious appearance they’ve made.
Review – Earth Bread and Brewery
Friday, January 15th, 2010
I remember reading about Earth Bread and Brewery (most likely from Suzanne Woods) when it first opened and being curious to try it. It sounded a lot like a professional version of what my partner does for fun – making craft brews and baking bread. With the additional excuse of having friends who live equidistant, and who aren’t often able to come to the city, it still took a year to get out there. But get out there we eventually did.
The menu is not extensive, but it doesn’t pretend to be. Flatbreads – pizza really – is the focus of the menu. They are large and delicious. Six people split three flatbreads and there were left overs. I liked it better than Stella. A cheese plate was also ordered, which had the most amazing made in-house vibrant green basil cheese. They are very upfront about their environmentalist / local foods bent, from a perspective that is obviously sincere, rather than the green-washing that has become de rigeur. They also seem passionate about their beers, offering several varietals for disparate palates, although having sampled around the table all the brews on draught, there was an undercurrent of sameness (same grains? one yeast strain?) to the different beers.
The menu (but not the website) had most passive-aggressive green-guilting I’ve ever seen, even given what I knew about their philosophy. It said something along the lines of we hope you drink our draft beer because it has a smaller footprint, unlike those bottled beers that have to be trucked in from far afield which damage the earth. Being from Portland, I am used to this mentality and took it in stride. I always drink what the brewery’s brewing, and their beers are good. Currently they are featuring a FreeTheHikers Scotch Ale, the proceeds of a fundraiser will go to the families of the three Americans hikers currently detained in an Iranian prison since accidentally crossing into the country last summer. More information at freethehikers.org.
Colin Keefe from the Mount Airy Contemporary Artists Space recently hit me up to inform me that I had the listings wrong. It’s not JUST this month that EB+B is showing members of the Northwest Artists Collective, but rather they always provide space for the artist collective on their walls, sometimes featuring specific members, other times creating thematic group shows, the hangings switching up every two months. Good beer, good food, ethical causes, supporting local artists, what’s not to love? I hear they even have table tennis Tuesdays. We’ll definitely be back, and it’s nice to be reminded that quality establishments of course aren’t limited to places I can walk to in Center City.
Earth Bread and Brewery - 7136 Germantown Ave www.earthbreadbrewery.com