Outside [of the Art Scene]

A-N Artists Talking Asked: “It would be great from our point of you if you were to make a special post in your blog to the issues around working abroad – anything that you think might be of interest to other artists and those involved in art today.”

RESPONSE 1 :

Working and living as a contract Teacher, who happens to be an artist, on-reserve in the subarctic has all sorts of challenges, so you need to be open minded and flexible. The great thing about Teaching is that everyday is different, and that is a huge key for me where there is alot of sameness.

The remote location is often the hardest thing to overcome in various ways that can be hard to be prepared for; if you haven’t been here before. It can creep up on you and become a breaker in terms of staying for any length of time. Technology isn’t always reliable or available. Alot of the time, T.V., phone, internet, connections are limited. Your support system is you, for the most part.

Movies, reading, outdoor activities become tiresome quickly, because of limitations as well. You have to take care of yourself, because no one else will, and know yourself to best cope with what can be the harshness of living in a new place that is remote.

There are tradeoffs, of course, to working in the north. As a Teacher, and artist, there are risks working with no union representation, no teacher pension coverage, and no worker security benefits. Every job provides different benefits and coverage, so check. While you might be paid a higher wage, the cost of groceries and travel are higher. The great thing is there is little to spend on any disposable income you may have. There is only one large grocery store, and a few small corner store-like shops in town.

Groceries, supplies, mail, equipment, must be ordered and fly-in.

The experience of the subarctic environment, nature, and people, is the trade off. You will be immersed in the ancestral culture of a people, and learn their ways, the community issues, politics, and how they survive a small remote, and sometimes insular, community.

These are the small landscape paintings that will sell for $20.00cdn each.

You can see more at home web site:

www.exhibit905.info.

I have two places in mind right now, where this proposal ought to ‘sell.’ Busy getting them together for showing this summer.

I do not mean to offend. So, if I do, please accept my apologies.

Some paintings finished, and some in progress, and some started.

My tentative title is “Patrons”.

And, here is my in progress exhibit proposal:

The name of the performance/installation I am proposing appropriates some of the cultural forms I have appropriated since living on reserve as a teacher. The demands and modes of the local economy, specifially, entails packing items in plastic tubs to travel to the area, $20.00 bills are the popular currency to have on hand, and making and selling art work at Toonie Tables, or Raffles, to fundraise for personal events, such as a wedding, to help a family member in crisis, to help pay for travel costs, as a supplement to low incomes, and to talented endeavours.

In my performance installation, 3 plastic, frosted transparent, tubs will be presented, which are packed with paintings, which is a previous painting project not yet exhibited. I will continue to make and sell these small paintings for $20. This additional income will go to pay towards my Grad student debt.

My oil paintings are entitled, Patrons, they will overlook the ‘scene’ of making and selling art works. Patrons, takes its name from Rembrandt’s patron paintings done as an aging painter, and the patron saints in the catholic church, whose presence is still strong on reserves in the Canadian North. The paintings depict a variety of roles particular to the existance of the art scene, that we all know: curator, director of gallery, artist, dealer, collector, teacher, viewer, etc.

More, more, more, searching and looking and painting today. It’s March Break and there is little to do up here otherwise for me.

It is a good place for that.

Painting, reading, walking. Where is the joy? I ask, because it is gone, some of the time. There is no place to shop, to go to, to be among people at a food fair. There is snow and ice and a few kids and dogs, a small plane is landing, which it does once a day.

What makes the ‘fine arts’ field? people.

curators

dealers

viewers

artists

art critics

art historians

conservators

evaluators

gallery owners

museum directors

gallery directors

art teachers

independents

so what.

This project has already begun. It is a few months old. 7 paintings are in various stages of progress.

They are based on a few things:

– art world ‘players’, or art stars, or the inside, the center from my place on the “outside”. Although, I may place the center of my world here or there, or elsewhere. The roles people take and the gestures in photos that shape and drive, and choose the art that I see online, in museums, galleries, etc. are what I am thinking and looking at, searching for, coming across.

This project is not meant to isolate figures in the art world, while they are in my mind, and that is what I am painting, I then look at what I painted.

As I continue on the project, the figures break down any preconcieved notions I have about the roles played, and expand on them, to reveal another creative source.

For awhile it felt like a negative critical place to paint from, but that has changed and I rather notice my outside’ness more so, as a joyous center.