Salon des Refuses

If I see one more bad lighthouse painting I'm going to be sick. ©evertson 09

Let me preface this post by saying this is not a put down

of any particular artist media rather an observation of

the "I know what I like" mentality.

"I'm sorry but we're not accepting 'computer' art this year

because we don't consider it fine art." 'Rita's' disembodied

voice informed me that I would not be exhibiting in our local

East Hampton art show. I had called to sign up for this years

show and in all fairness Rita had that nervous tone of a

spokeswoman not used to issuing group opinions she didn't

necessarily share. She was quick to add that her daughter

did some "interesting things" on the computer ;)

Last post I related how I had spent the last 6-7 years re-tooling

my art with the liberating infusion of all things the computer

has to offer the artist. A whole new palette of color, brushes

and techniques. Sadly, here in my hometown the local art

league seems a bit less impressed. I exhibited last year for

first time in their art show, ignoring my feeling that this

really wasn't my normal venue; but since it is my town, why not?

I did get some of the strangest comments and questions.

Q. Where is the original?

A. On my hard drive.

Comment. It must be easy to make these with the

right software; do you use the program that turns

your art into paintings?

R Garriott, a fellow blogger, had an amusing post on the

13 things not to say to an artist.

I'm not heart broken and don't feel the need to educate

anyone that "fine artists" don't necessarily limit themselves

to oils, acrylics or watercolor. I'm pretty content as a 50

something artist with a decent resume and enough exhibition

opportunities to keep me busy. I can appreciate both traditional

media and new media and have worked in both. So while Rita

asked if perhaps I had some oils to pull out, I think not.

True Confessions

Another one?

In early '02 I returned from an all too brief stint as a visiting

artist in Thailand. Confession time. I realized I was stuck in a

rut. I didn't have half of the passion of the Thai artists I met.

Somewhere between getting my MFA back in '78, moving

to NYC for ten years, having a child and building a paying career

independent of art, my rut was a comfortable groove.

I wasn't uncomfortable.

Perhaps that isn't the best description for a art-working mode

but I'm more productive and the work is a bit edgier when I'm

operating out of my comfort zone. Whether it's wrestling with

a new topic/subject or needing to use a new and different media

to express; my artistic growth seemed strongest at that uncertain

confluence of "I don't know" and "I'm uncomfortable".

I mention all this because I started over in a sense. I had images

and ideas that I wanted to explore with new media; altered

photographs, animation, video. I found a source of inspiration

and knowledge almost in my own backyard. I began taking a few

graduate courses at Wesleyan University. Lo and behold over

the last seven years I accumulated enough credits to earn a

second masters.

The process made me refocus on my art in a

way I hadn't felt in years; and I relearned the joy of confronting

uncertainty. So while a second masters is extremely redundant

I just may have used those new building blocks to make a

staircase to the top of the rut. At least I'm not making piles of

dirt and calling it art anymore ;)

Miles to Go...

Diver ©evertson (version '09)

Only a few days left to participate in Rhizome's pixel billboard,

community builder and fundraiser. Rhizome is a premier site

for following new media. If you are blogging you just might be

interested. I added this "diver" and a linkback as part of their

fundraising collage.

dive suit photo ©evertson 2005

My diver began his artistic reinvention when I took the photo above

at a maritime museum on Lake Ontario. I'll save more on this piece

for a later post as he will show up as an element in a digital collage

for the Eclipse Gallery 50/50/50 Exhibition this fall.

Detail form "Wish You Were Here" ©evertson 09

I haven't posted my finished project from "A Book About Death"

because it's continuing to evolve. I mentioned I wrote a short story

and that led to my image for the exhibit. One last detail I was

struggling with was the organizers suggestion to include the

exhibition title to our works. I decided to take my drop shadow

displacement idea from last post and add a tattoo title. More

on this piece later. Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Tattoo

William with Philip's Tattoo digital collage ©evertson 2009

My wife found a beautiful gem of a book for me. Published

in 2005; I hope you are not as far behind on your reading

list as I. The Tattoo Artist by Jill Clement is a beautifully

constructed story of Sara, an early modernist artist. The

novel unravels the tale of her art; successes, failures and

ultimately the pain of using her own body as a canvas. It

combines threads of early 20th century modern art and

primitive votive art forms with themes of immortality

and perseverance. The construction of identity forms a rich

undercurrent. While not without a few quirks: I found her

descriptions of Ta'un'uuan life much more believable

than her artist life in Manhattan. Still, I was impressed

by Ms. Ciments imagination and wit.

While not finding myself in the same circumstance as

protagonists Sara and her lover Philip, I was inspired to

attempt a version of Philip's tattoo.

Starting with my head shot I added a layer of black lines

rotated to the tilt of my head and created a drop shadow.

I made a new channel for the head shot and adjusted for

a high contrast.

Using the displacement filter I mapped the drop shadow

to my high contrast face channel. I continued with the

eraser, dodge and burn tools to create a more life-like

appearance.

I worked with Philip's tattoo mainly because I think I

would rather have Jill Clement's words paint the

picture of Sara's.

Moses

Moses ©evertson digital collage

A big thank you to the Hartford Courant for using my digital

collage "Moses" for the cover of an iTowns section today.

The backstory of this picture occurred many years ago. I worked

for an art gallery in NYC and one of my morning jobs was to

evict any homeless that had taken up residence in the doorway

for the night. Moses was always there and it was always hurtful

to me to try and pry him loose from his appropriated home. He

would move off with his shopping cart amid a flurry of

curses. One day while I was along the west side highway

taking photographs I ran into him as he collected scrap metal.

For the first time in a year he was together enough to find out

that he was a Vietnam vet. Alcoholic and perhaps suffering from

mental health issues, Moses was a tip to the iceberg of

our failure to care for our country's homeless. One day he

simply vanished. This piece combined elements of urban and

forest in the hope that we can find a "promised land" for our lost.

Still Making Waves

Paper in Moonlight ©evertson 2009

This is the latest in my series of "tissue waves". Starting my layer

buildup in Photoshop is a long exposure night shot with moonlight.

With the camera left in place, I caught a morning shot to layer for

additional color. In the first two in the series I cut out the background

to focus on the water-like quality of the paper; this time I left a

window to add a suggestion of light source. I built another layer of

water drops although I was a little conflicted as to whether this one

was about paper or water - water won out. There are a few ways

to make drops but I use the noise filter then blur filter, then

thresholds to produce a size and density I like. Bevel and emboss

provide the dimensionality although I adjusted blending modes

and opacity to keep it subtle.

Companionway style ladder built for Sue Graham of Niantic, Ct

Thank you to commenters on my woodworking in my "other job"

post. One of the hardest things I've faced as an artist is avoiding

the mental burn off of working a second job. I certainly had an early

string of either crappy or demanding jobs that left little time or

energy for art. The companionway ladder above was a commission

to access a quirky space the homeowners wanted to turn into

library storage. One of a kind woodworking commissions

require some creative solutions but fill a niche and provide a

comfort zone to pursue my fine art.

I mentioned Art Ravels last post and then I discovered that she had

given me kudos the same day. I won't follow Woody Allen's advice

to not join any club that would accept me. Did I mention she has great

taste in all things art ;) ?

Things We Do

Table

Jafabrit had a very interesting link to an essay by Alain

Beriot on Being an Artist. His major thread concerns the

difference between the business of art and being an artist.

I spent some time re-reading the section concerning audience.

Who are you creating for? Yourself? Everyone? Or can you

learn to be discerning; can you recognize that everything to

everyone isn't possible.

Edgar Degas L'Absinthe oil on canvas 1876

I build cabinetry and furniture to make a living. In fact most

people seem to prefer to recognize what I do for money as

what defines me. A quote from Degas in Beriot's essay seems

to sum up a general artist's malaise. "Your pictures would have

been finished a long time ago if I were not forced everyday to

do something to earn money" Leaving aside Degas' politics and

personality I have to wonder what that other work was?

Stools

Mostly I enjoy the cabinet work that makes money; I enjoy even

more when I exhibit my art. I just don't expect to see a pot of

gold there. The dialogue Corrine opened in Jafabrit's Art found

resonance with me as I try to balance "being an artist" with not

wasting time pursuing false leads and dead ends. Just don't ask

how the recession is effecting my cabinetry; suffice it to say I've had

a bit more studio time.

I've also had more time to explore other art blogs and I'd like to

point out Art Ravels as a fresh perspective from a perceptive

observer of the NY art scene. Follow the link; I don't think you'll

be disappointed as you follow her to various museums and galleries.

Paper Waves

Tissue Wave II ©Evertson 2009

A second in my series of crumpled paper waves. Like so many

inspirations this began as an accident of light. I walked by

a window and morning light hitting some packing

material gave it a peculiar water-like feel. I spent less than

an hour with it until the light effect passed. Most of those

photos were lost in my hard drive crash but this was one

that I had backed up. While I wait for the light to manifest

again I'll continue to play a bit in photoshop.

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa Hokusai

The "original wave" and still the best after countless

printings and reproductions later is Katsushika Hokusai's

ukiyo-e print from the 1820's. This print is one

of Hokusai's series "36 Views of My. Fuji" The series is

a masterwork of light, subject and composition.

Not the End of the World?

Total desk confusion

There is nothing like a hard drive failure to cause one

to evaluate life's priorities. I awoke Monday morning

to a giant blinking question mark on the computer

screen. I tried everything; mouth to mouth, chest

compressions, those electric paddle things and the

calls to tech support to some guy in a hut on the other

side of the planet. Finally the long drives to first one

Apple store (your hard drive is dead, but we're closing

for two weeks of renovations) then another (they got it

done by Wednesday night). I tried to fill my grief by

dragging an old iMac out of the closet but it was sooo

old and tired. Luckily I had my art backed up as well

as most of my writing. I did lose two years of photographs

and all my tunes. My next purchase? Forget that stupid

blinking check engine light, I need a second hard drive

and auto back up software. You just have to get your

priorities right ;)

Author Author

East Hampton Public Library's 898 Literary Review

More serendipity from "On the way to making a postcard for 'A

Book About Death' I wrote a story" story. Shortly after I added

that piece to the right margin of my blog I saw a newspaper

article asking for submissions to our library's new literary

magazine. So I did, then promptly forgot about it until yesterday

when browsing the stacks our library director, Sue Berescik

handed me an impressive, sixty page, hot off the press copy.

It was an impulse to make the submission but seeing it in print

yesterday afternoon put a smile on my face :) I was even more

pleased when I sat down and read the other poetry and short story

submissions. I write a lot in my journals, it did take a while to

construct and it was a bit like my mixed media, but not. I think

I was most pleased that I didn't let my inner critic tell me

not to bother.