Real Artists Have Day Jobs

“The biggest myth we are fed as artists is that we need to sustain ourselves solely on our art. This is ridiculous. Every artist has at some point in time had some other job. Some of them kept these jobs their entire lives. In the latter category: William Carlos Williams was a doctor in New Jersey; Henry Darger was a custodian in Chicago; Harvey Pekar was a VA Hospital clerk in Cleveland.

In more temporary capacities: Maya Angelou was a cable-car conductor; Sandra Cisneros was an administrative assistant; JK Rowling was a secretary; Jeremy Renner was a makeup artist (Please read that again: Jeremy Renner was a makeup artist).

Art does not require an MFA. Art does not require a BA. Art does not require a high school diploma. Art does not require any formal education at all.

Art does not need your full-time attention. Art does not demand that you starve in order to afford paint and canvas and brushes.”

— “Real Artists Have Day Jobs,” Sara Benincasa, Medium [links added]

Sara Benincasa’s website

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Shortlink: http://wp.me/p6sb6-jl7

Image (“Self-Portrait of [Name Withheld], after van Gogh”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com 

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Happy Birthday Edvard Munch

December 12th is the birthday of Edvard Munch. The Norwegian artist is 150. Norway’s embassy in DC decorated a Christmas tree in his honor, and Oslo’s Munch Museum mounted a massive exhibit of its namesakes’s art work.

Related:

Munch 150 Anniversary Magazine (free download)

Edvard Munch: 1863-1944, Jon-Ove Steihaug, Mai Britt Guleng and Birgitte Sauge, eds., Rizzoli 2013

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Image (“Happy Birthday, after Edvard Munch”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Happy Birthday, Picasso

Spanish artist Pablo Ruiz y Picasso was born on October 25, 1881. Actually, he was baptized “Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso” but that wouldn’t fit neatly in the corner of a canvas.

“Happy Birthday, Pablo Picasso!” Huffington Post

“Pablo Picasso Birthday Celebration,” Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX

“Happy Birthday, Picasso: His Rare 1934 Etchings for a Sexually Charged Ancient Greek Comedy,” Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

“Celebrating Picasso, Through the Lens of David Douglas Duncan,” Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

“Sotheby’s brings Picasso, Miro to Moscow for ‘priciest ever’ show,” AFP via Hindustan Times

On-Line Picasso Project

Picasso official website

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Image (“Happy Birthday Pablo, after Picasso”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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The First Painters Were Cave Women

Penn State Professor Dean R. Snow has discovered strong evidence that most early cave painters were women. Dr. Snow measured hand stencils artists traced on painted walls at cave sites in France and Spain and concluded that three-quarters of these were made by women and not men, as had been previously assumed.

More:

“Were the First Artists Mostly Women?” Virginia Hughes, National Geographic News

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Newsweek’s Newest Writer: Ai Weiwei

Two months after he was released from government detention, dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has written an essay for the online version of Newsweek. It’s about economic oppression, human rights, and urban sprawl in Beijing:

“Every year millions come to Beijing to build its bridges, roads, and houses. Each year they build a Beijing equal to the size of the city in 1949. They are Beijing’s slaves.”

Read it here.

Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-b0B

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Ai Weiwei Tweets Again

Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is back on Twitter, condemning the Chinese government’s detention of bloggers and artists who had previously protested his own 2-month prison detention. It is believed that this violates a gag order that was a condition of Ai’s release.

Twitter is blocked in China but the censorship can be circumvented through use of VPNs and other tactics. Ai speaks English but his primary audience is domestic so he’s tweeting in Chinese. His messages are being translated into English here and on a Tumblr.

Ai Weiwei has also joined Google+ and given an interview to the Communist Party’s official English-language tabloid Global Times.

Ai Weiwei Goes Home

Chinese authorities have released dissent artist Ai Weiwei from prison after three months. Charges against him are not being pursued. He remains “on bail,” and charges still hang over his head and prevent him from resuming his provocative statements. A piece of Ai’s work on exhibit at London’s Lisson Gallery captures his current situation: a stone surveillance camera.

Ai Weiwei Website Attacked by Hackers

Change.org, the website hosting an online petition to free dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, has been experiencing denial-of-service (DNS) attacks from hackers. While the source of the attacks has not been determined, they are believed to originate in China.

The petition, organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, is addressed to Cai Wu, Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China. As of this writing, over 119,000 people have signed.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Ai Weiwei Held in China

Chinese artist and designer Ai Weiwei was detained by police at the Beijing airport before he could take a flight to Hong Kong yesterday. Even if you haven’t seen his current exhibition at London’s Tate Modern or those at Munuch’s Haus der Kunst and Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum, you still may know his work.  Ai Weiwei helped design the “Birds Nest Stadium” for the 2008 Olympics, the National Stadium of the People’s Republic of China.