Art in Our City: Support it!

This podcast was fascinating to me, hit me on so many levels. I didn't want to over-comment on their post, but this is something all of the people in my art circle should give some time to listening to. There's a lot here.

The City of Eugene is collaborating with a lot of artists, and this Art City group is still somewhat mysterious and yet, powerful. The podcast is produced by Eugene Contemporary Art, and if you are one of those hermit crafters like I am, you might have missed this stuff. Their events and those of the City in the last year, in particular, have been stunning and super successful (the murals are an easy one to see that in) and yet it seems to me, Saturday Market has not figured out how to align warmly here. But we need to.

We use the same space, often, as the Park Blocks are a great place for some of their events. They often happened on Friday nights, and all we at Market often knew about them was the scraps of fabric left over (which I delightfully collected) or the blue tape left on the concrete (which I helpfully removed). We have the harsh habit of having to go to bed early on Fridays, because our Saturdays take so much energy and are so much of a focus for us. But next time you see "Art City" go to whatever they are doing and at minimum, appreciate it. This is building on our work and enhancing our art lives in our City, and it deserves every ounce of our support. And anything Cultural Services puts on, in my experience, will include people you know and it will be free, and those people are getting burned out on working so hard to be taken for granted. They wore banana costumes! That's just a metaphor. 

I am not an academic, though when I lived briefly in the Lower East Side of NYC I took a calligraphy class at the Art Students League and an Art History class at (what was it? This was in 1973) New College or something. I am a self-taught artist who has done it my whole life, maybe to spite my first grade teacher who really shut me down. I learned calligraphy, sign-painting, screenprinting, writing, drawing, all of those things by doing them. It doesn't make me a fine artist or a conceptual artist but I have mastered a lot and at one point, finally decided I could be capital-A Artist.

It was Jell-O Art that got me there. That is my fine art, and as it is an anti-art, it's pretty high level for someone who is usually defined as a lowly crafter. I hope we have learned to appreciate the craft/art spectrum rather than continuing any division. I know my tote bags don't lie in the same position on the spectrum as the exquisite ceramic work and jewelry work, or paintings that I've seen, but that isn't very significant in old age. I've made my living as an artist for more than 45 years, and in the process, strengthened my skills in writing, teaching, fabric arts, paper arts, and everything  that came across my path. I won't be retiring and I hope I won't stop learning new ways to express myself and my world.

I started writing this before even hearing the end of their blog, but they said that some of the things people can do are to seek support, and have something to offer. Bring something with you and offer it up. Find ways to elevate all artists and broaden the public appreciation and comfort with art, from that on the conceptual edges to that of the everyday. Artists have far more in common than we think. We all are basically problem-solvers. Help solve this problem, and promote each other. This is easy.

We are at a time in our city when big things are happening, my generation is aging and disappearing, and younger artists and crafters are going to be the ones who carry on. Lotte left us. With that, I took on the task of bringing her legacy forward. She helped so many artists, not just with co-creating the Market, but by her arts administration and shows and collaborations. She gave us our roots, and allowed us to hold space for artists in Eugene for 50 years! This is the gift that never has to stop giving. You may have noticed more fine artists coming to the Market, but when I look back at our posters, I see that we have always had a large spectrum of our own in our 600-person membership. We balance that with our entry-level business incubator, which has also been an essential part of our mission, because sometimes it takes awhile to get people to notice you and understand what you are actually making and offering. Not everyone enjoys the full day of retail and the ways available to market your work and enlarge your network through the Market. It's one way, but it's not an easy way, and support can be marginal. I know I had to stop bringing my Jell-O Art because it got all the limited space in the customers' attention and didn't sell, also preventing me from selling the things that did sell. Everyone has to find their balance. Sometimes it is too hard to wait out those zero days and days when you pay all your money in fees and nobody even gives you a be-back, much less the kinds of appreciation you seek. They asked in the podcast, who validates your work? Ultimately, the only one who matters is you, but of course, you're trying to make a living. They suggested finding doctors and other professionals who can afford to support art, and you know, those people shop at our Market, and the Farmers' Market, and they do buy those $1000 dollar pieces and ask for commissioned works. I know my range of sales includes both zero days and $900 days, so things happen you might not expect. You do have to be there for that to happen.

Making art with the goal of selling it is part of what we all have to do, even if it isn't the best part. To be successful at Market, you sometimes have to change your work to respond to what people do want to pay for. It's a tricky walk with pricing and making production work as well as the stuff your heart and soul are really invested in, but lots of people walk that  slackrope and get it rolling waves to a stable platform. It does take some personality adjustment sometimes. And it's ultimately a lot easier for many to sell online or get work into galleries where they don't have to put in that weekly 12-hour day and give up their weekend nights. I found ways to make it work, but had to walk away from a lot of them. I don't sell t-shirts anymore, though I heard in the podcast (maybe with a little tongue-in-cheek humor) that making t-shirts is a proven path to success. Yes, it is, I can agree. It's very fun, as well.

In my case, what has apparently emerged from my work is that I am offering a big part of my soul at the Market, and that's what people seem to really want from me. My witty shirts of the past, my baseball caps, and the occasional vestige of Jell-O Art have been fun for people and made them brave enough to get close to me and the Saturday Market community. It seems that we have the reputation  as a group, of being somewhat insular and not easy to feel a part of, which seems counter-intuitive to me but probably just because I have been there so long all I see is open doors and not any that are closed.

I'm seeing this open door into the heart of Eugene right now, and I want my readers to walk up and knock on it. We have a Cultural Arts Department that is over the top enthusiastic and hard-working, and they are a huge part of why we had a good Park Blocks season this year. The City is supporting the Markets so hard right now! It will be up to those of us who can be skeptical to see the real efforts of what has been done to strengthen the richness of the cultural life of our city, and to just shut our mouths if we hear ourselves beginning to complain. Think all the murals should have been painted by locals? Come on. There would not be as many of them, and what a fantastic gift this has been to our dullish exterior! Think there should be more galleries and places to experience art? Do you go to the ones we have? Start there.

If you just want to take a couple of steps that won't hurt, go support Art Bingo on Feb, 10th at Sam Bond's Brewery. Sit with us and have some laughs and go home with some incredible prize or other. You get to choose your own from the table, which might be the best part. And there are three winners per game, and the last game goes "blackout" until everyone wins. It's an easy immersion. And there's beer. And tom and Sue Hunnel!

And you are lucky again this year because the Jell-O Art Show is on March 30th, which is not Opening Day of Saturday Market (that's April 6th). It's a 3-hour show, there's a Tacky Food Buffet, and you really  do not know what you will see there. We've had performance art, and what might be conceptual art and contemporary art, but it's ephermeral and anyway I'm no expert on these things. I just know what I love.

The main thing I love about the Jell-O Art Show is that the whole point of it is, that because a ridiculously uncooperative medium was chosen, the first thing we tossed in the bin was a critical structure. There's no bad Jell-O Art, because we don't judge. We have little kids and nonagenarians and occasionally a fine artist in disguise, or sometimes not even in disguise, but we make art and we put it up on pedestals, and for one short evening we celebrate art for it's own sake. No prices on it, no credentials, but sometimes there is an artist's statement and always there is a witty, clever show that a bunch of amateur but enthusiastic performers (yes, we include professional performers if they want to be in it) put out there for your delight. This will be the 31st time. If you haven't gone, stop by. The Radar Angels are a fun group that is an essential part of Eugene's quirk.

So, to circle back a little, how I got my capital A? I was working at my son's school as a volunteer, helping the artists in residence like Paul Otte, and running little workshops and classes, and I offered some mentorship opportunities as a parent. One kid took me up on being mentored in Jell-O Art and while preparing a curriculum for it, I stopped to listen to myself. The first thing I wanted to teach him about was the creative process. I stopped and asked myself, wait, if I have a creative process, isn't that what actually makes me an artist, instead of just someone who makes things at random? Think about all the steps of that, how you get the spark, explore the possibilities, research, play with media, learn techniques, have results, reject those results and go farther, all of that. Isn't that it?

I could tell I was a Jell-O Artist. I jumped off the diving board there, feet first. I no longer beat myself up for not having a degree or reading enough art magazines or being able to draw people's faces with any skill. I might not be an Artist in your eyes, but I am in my life, and at 68, I can feel that this is more than enough.

So now my job is to give it away some more, bolster what is happening and can happen outside my home, strengthen the connections we have and make as many new ones as I can. We all need more neurons working in pleasureable pathways in our little brains. Open it up. Hold someone else up too. It will be a lot more fun than, say, watching the Grammys on Feb. 10th. And listen to some podcasts. I have to go back now and listen to episode one. I might learn something! At minimum, I will feel a spark. And that's what I really want. Pure energy. Thank you!