ArtSake

We’re excited to welcome guest blogger Jenny Milana, of DangerMilana, whose experience in contract negotiations, copyright issues, and other legal matters spans the publishing, theater, music, film and television industries. What’s more, while growing up in California, Jenny worked as an actor, so she knows the field from the creative side, too.

She’s generously agreed to field artists’ questions on legal matters relating to their work. (Incidentally, if you have any arts law questions, send them our way for a future “Ask an Arts Attorney” post.)

Please note: this post is for informational benefit only and should not be used in place of actual legal services. Also, as a state agency, the Massachusetts Cultural Council does not endorse any individual business or service.

So without further ado…

My questions may be a little different than what you may typically hear from artists concerning copyright. At this point I am not concerned about the copyright of my own work but the copyright of published books and illustrations. I love to work with paper and am interested in using books with illustrations as materials for a new project. First, I understand that any work published before 1923 is considered public domain, but if those works are re-published at a later date (ex: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland originally published in 1865 but the story re-published in 1946), is the 1946 publication considered public domain as well? Can I purchase that 1946 copy to be used in a new work of fine art? Thank you so much for any help!

Signed,
Let It Fly

Dear Let It Fly,
Your question is a bit tricky because it involves the doctrine of fair use. Works in the public domain do not have any copyright protection and can be freely used. However, if those works are re-published at a later date by a new author and they are not identical to the original works, then such work does have copyright protection in the new material. The new material could be a spin on the story’s ending or the illustrations.

The original story itself which is in the public domain can still be used, but the new publication typically has taken the original work and modified it somehow, repackaged it in such a way which gives the new publication copyright protection in those new elements. So in your example about Alice in Wonderland, if the 1946 publication is still copyrighted because it maintained its registration prior to the 1976 copyright law, then you could not take that book and use it in a work of fine art because you are creating a derivative work, a right held exclusively to the copyright owner. A derivative work is a modification, or new use of the original work. You could, however, create a derivative work using the 1865 original.

A few questions. The first has to do with music publishing: what should an indie artist be on the lookout for when trying to license their original music? The second is about gigs: is there a casual way of putting something in writing for a gig which is both legal, casual and easy? Possible uses: dj’ing a wedding, gig at a small club on a tour (making sure gear and staff agreed upon, etc. is there).

Signed,
Indie Songster in Somerville

Dear Indie Songster,
As in most things there is a long answer and a short answer. I’ll try to give you something in between. A musician looking to license their work should be on the lookout for a variety of things. The first and most important thing to watch out for is what rights you are licensing away. You don’t want to end up with your music as the theme song to a pornographic movie if your target market is teens, for example. You don’t want to give exclusive rights, either, otherwise you won’t be able to license your music for other purposes. There are also two kinds of licenses, master license and synch licenses. Most often, a music license needs to contain both. The master license is for the sound recording and a synchronization license is for the music and lyrics, or musical composition. Most licenses require both but some uses may not need both.

You want to make sure when negotiating rights that subsidiary rights like merchandising are talked about as well so it’s very clear what you are allowing the other party to do and not do with the music. Another thing to be on the lookout for is royalties. The royalties or cost to license the music should take into account every right or use you are granting. Some of these things may not be negotiable, though, when licensing to places such as iTunes. Most often, those contracts are not negotiable.

With regards to your second question, there is definitely a way to put something in writing that keeps thing casual but still protects your interests as best you can. Most parties do things on a handshake, and to involve lawyers and complicated contracts sometimes puts bad tastes in people’s mouths, which strains the relationships. At our firm DangerMilana, our primary goal in reviewing/drafting or negotiating any contract is to talk with the parties as though the contract is more like a collaboration agreement. Everyone’s goal is to continue working together and keep things moving, rather than slow things down going back and forth with negotiations. The contract should also be drafted in as plain English as possible, without all of the legalese. For small gigs like DJing weddings, etc., a contract is of utmost importance as it can be the difference in months of headaches and not getting paid. It also sets the expectations from the beginning.

Those types of contracts should be friendly, basic and no more than two pages at most if at all possible. I would still recommend a lawyer to draft this document, though, because they can maximize protecting your interests in as little wording as possible.

I recently won a publication contest for a book of short stories. I then received a contract to sign. This will be my first published book and so I had no agent and knew no lawyers with specialties in this area. I joined the Author’s Guild for an annual fee of $70 or so, and they reviewed the contract for me and sent me a lengthy response with proposed changes. I was then left more or less on my own to negotiate with the publisher based on their advice. Can you recommend a better way to do this?

Even after I won the prize, I still felt that I was extremely lucky to have found a good publisher for a collection of literary short stories, and although it seems to me the publisher negotiated in good faith, I still felt like I had very little leverage. Should I have acted tough? Should I have gone in swinging? Or should I just be grateful? And let’s say I had hired a lawyer, what should I have expected to pay?

Signed,
Published but perplexed

Dear Published,
First of all, congratulations on winning the publication contest.

Second, unfortunately there are not a lot of better options. The best option is to have a lawyer do the negotiating if possible. That can be difficult though as lawyers can be expensive. One option is to request the attorney to simply negotiate the really important clauses like price or rights. This can cut down on the cost immensely and protect your interests in the area you are most concerned about.

Regarding your second question, I wouldn’t suggest going in swinging or just being grateful either. As I mentioned in another answer, our goal with any contract negotiation is that the parties are going to be working together and likely want to preserve the ability to work together in the future. As to what you could expect to pay, firms charge all different types of rates, some flat, some hourly. To give you a sense, though, our firm’s hourly fee is typically $300. However, we charge a flat fee for certain services such as contract review. For a review of a contract of less than five pages, we have the artist come in to sit and talk about their concerns (which which typically takes a good hour or so). But our flat rate for that ($150) would be significantly lower than our hourly rate. So when you approach a lawyer be sure to clarify what the rate is – and which type of rate it is – for the service you require. Be aware that some services may have a minimum retainer.

At our firm, we try and work with artists, and depending on the project, can offer a pricing level to fit the artist’s situation. Every artist is different, as are their needs. Some lawyers will be a better fit than others, so don’t hesitate to ask around until you find representation that fits your needs.

Jenny Milana, a partner at DangerMilana, specializes in arts, media, and entertainment law.

If you have any questions for a future “Ask an Arts Attorney” post, send them here.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Jonathan Papernick’s short story collection There Is No Other has just been published, and Jonathan recently wrote an essay about that crucial step after you publish your book: promoting it with all available resources (mainly you).

Jonathan has generously allowed us to re-post the essay, which originally appeared in Beyond the Margins, a superb blog by writers connected to the writers’ service organization Grub Street.

Within weeks of publication of my first collection of short stories eight years ago, I received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and a full-page rave review in the New York Times. My name was mentioned in the same breath as other successful young, Jewish authors - bestsellers and award winners, names you would immediately recognize. I felt that I was on my way. Only I wasn’t - not really.

Nobody ever told me that the real work begins once a book is finished and that you need to spend a good six months to a year getting out there and promoting your own work, otherwise it risks dying on the vine. By the time my book started disappearing from bookshelves a few months after publication it was too late for me to traction those early positive reviews into sales. In the end, my collection sold fairly well for a first-time author, but the sales numbers were not high enough for the publishing industry to take notice. After many rounds of submissions, I finally gave up on U.S. publishers and instead opted to publish with a small Canadian publisher who expressed great interest in the book.

Now that my second collection of stories is out, I am taking the hard lessons I learned from relying on a disinterested publisher who did next to nothing after the book was orphaned by the acquiring editor, and have set up a war plan, a campaign to follow through to the bitter end.

Not a day has gone by since December when I have not done something to promote the book, whether I was contacting bookstores about carrying my book, or setting up readings in support of the collection.

Six months ago I started gathering names of potential reviewers, people who had shown favor to my writing in the past, as well as names I was able to gather from supportive writer friends, and sources on the internet. I sent personalized e-mails with a description of my collection and blurbs to each potential reviewer and let them know that the book would be coming in May. By making the personal connection with potential reviewers and creating a sense of anticipation, I raised the likelihood that the book would actually be reviewed.

I convinced my publisher to give me fifty review copies and I told him that I would send out review copies on my own, rather than relying on him to do it on my behalf. Sure it cost me for envelopes and postage, but I know that I am my own top priority, whereas any publisher has numerous authors it needs to consider at any given time. In fact, I did try hiring two former students to work under my guidance as publicity associates, but neither of them ultimately felt they were up to the task - I guess they just didn’t think they had enough skin in the game. I grew up listening to independent punk rock bands and I understand the power of a DIY ethos - there is no shame in doing it myself. In the end, I labeled and stamped envelopes myself, made sure to put in a press release and clippings with each review copy and I fired off another e-mail letting reviewers know that my book was on its way.

No matter how uncomfortable or not-in-your-nature it may be, it’s critical to get out there and talk to people about your work, as you are your own best resource and promoter. I attended several conferences (AWP, Muse and the Marketplace, Jewish Book Network, Book Expo America) in the months prior to publication meeting other writers, reviewers, agents and editors, putting my name (hopefully) into the zeitgeist so that my name would be familiar next time they encounter it. One influential book blogger did not receive my review copy in the mail the first two times I sent it. I could easily have given up at that point, and I was tempted to out of sheer frustration, but I knew that she was going to be at the Book Expo in New York. I sought her out at the table where she was signing books, introduced myself, and personally placed my book into her bag. She was very appreciative of my persistence, and wrote to me yesterday: “Brilliant collection. Truly amazing.” She plans on pushing my book on her blog in the coming days. (Ed. note: read the interview between Jonathan and said blogger, writer Caroline Leavitt.)

It is important to make sure that you have an attractive, updated website, a blog, a Goodreads profile, a Facebook fan page, a personal Facebook page that you use selectively to promote your work, (I’m not yet sold on Twitter, but I’m not ruling it out either) update your Amazon author page and make sure that your book page on Amazon.com has updated reviews as well as the Search Inside the Book feature and availability on Kindle. Unfortunately, I’ve been asking my publisher since December to make sure that the Search Inside the Book feature and Kindle is ready ASAP, and nearly six months later neither are up on the Amazon site. I’ve actually called Amazon myself and the book’s distributor, but it seems in this case that will and persistence are not enough and I can only hope that it will be taken care of soon.

Many of you might think that Amazon.com is the evil empire, and perhaps it is in some ways, but Amazon is also a writer’s best friend as it is a simple way for readers to buy your books, especially backlist titles that are likely not available in bookstores. I am encouraging my readers to post reviews on Amazon.com and have promised to send out a free copy of my novel to anyone who does so. I think people are more likely to buy (and review) a book that has been reviewed positively by a whole pile of people rather than by one or two of the author’s close relatives.

Your writing – and bank account – might take a hit during the months that you’re a promoting your work, but you need to honor your book and give it a fighting chance. It will certainly be time well spent, as little by little your writing emerges from the shadows. There are ways to continue writing in service of your promotional campaign as well. I strongly suggest writing for blogs, websites, newspapers etc. on any subject that you feel you have the remotest level of competence, and whenever possible, ask that your article/review/essay is linked directly to your website or an online source where your book can be purchased. I have some other promotional ideas in mind for the fall, but I’ll keep them to myself for now as they’re still in the planning stages.

Jonathan will read from There Is No Other on Thursday, July 22 2010, at 6 PM, as part of the Stories Uncorked program at the Marriott Rooftop Garden, near MIT in Cambridge, MA.

Jonathan Papernick is the author of the short story collection The Ascent of Eli Israel, and Who by Fire, Who by Blood. Please encourage your local independent bookstore to order his new collection of short stories There Is No Other. He teaches fiction writing at Emerson College and lives outside Boston with his wife and two sons.

Images: Jonathan Papernick, photo by Gary Alpert; cover art for THERE IS NO OTHER by Jonathan Papernick (Exile Editions, 2010).

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Irina Rozovsky (MCC ‘09 Photography Finalist) is in the process of publishing a book of a new project called One to Nothing. Some of the photographs will be on display at the Photographic Resource Center’s exhibition EXPOSURE:The 15th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition. We asked Irina to tell us more about her recent work depicting images of Israel. 

“One to Nothing hints at an existential battle: a confrontation between the individual and the abyss, where “nothing” is much bigger and greater than any single “one” could be.”

“These photographs were made in Israel, a place of historic conflict where it is not always clear who is the victor and the victim.”

“But these images are not political. Instead, Israel here serves as an abstract, mythological background.”

“Depicted is a land charged and tangled by questions that cannot be answered.”

“Echoes of the origins of man murmur in the desert sun, and once in a while, from beneath the weight of dusty struggles wafts a breeze and alleviates the tension.” 

EXPOSURE:The 15th Annual PRC Juried Exhibition
Dates: April 23 – June 20, 2010
Opening reception: Friday, April 23 - 5:30-7:30pm

Image credit: All photographs courtesy of Irina Rozovsky

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Ilana Manolson is a 2008 MCC Painting Fellow. She is currently traveling with other fellow Massachusetts artists to South Africa where they will create work at the Artist Proof Studio. She has graceously offered to share her experiences on ArtSake.

South Africa has become a fascinating place for artists of many diverse backgrounds to create and learn. Along with my printmaking colleagues Jane Goldman and Catherine Kernan, I’m traveling to Johannesburg to spend several weeks working with Artist Proof Studio, a powerful community-based visual arts training program founded by the inimitable Kim Berman.
Kim is a transformative artist-activist who I got to know and admire when she worked as an assistant at Artist’s Proof Collaborative in Cambridge (founded by our group of four fine art printmakers, Mary Sherwood, Jane Goldman, and Catherine Kernan and me, Ilana Manolson). When apartheid broke down in South Africa, Kim sold her belongings, bought a press with the proceeds, had it shipped to South Africa, and moved there herself to found Artist Proof Studio. The studio now trains local artists, often from very challenging backgrounds, providing them with the skills, experience, and qualifications to sustain careers as artists and printmakers.

One of the things that I share with Kim, Jane, Catherine, the Artist Proof students and professional artists, and other printmakers is a sense of wonder, possibility and connection that comes with printmaking. Unlike many other fine art processes, printmaking relies on shared equipment. A group working in the same space, with the same tools and presses, develops into a community, with it’s own creative vitality. We are all so delighted to share in the vitality that Kim has taken from Massachusetts and grown into a unique resource in South Africa.

While in Johannesburg, I’ll be training Artist Proof graduate artists in specialized advanced printmaking techniques, as well as having an exhibition, Connected by Roots, of my new prints and paintings done on Mylar (these pieces are 39″ by 79″). It will be an artistic and personal adventure for us all, with new stimuli and new challenges. I’ll be posting updates from the journey - watch this space!

Image credit: All works on mylar by Ilana Manolson.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

When we asked Williamstown Film Festival director Steve Lawson about ties to Massachusetts artists for this year’s festival, he mentioned that one of the films in the “All-Shorts” series was by emerging Boston-area filmmaker Charlie Anderson.

Charlie traveled to Williamstown to participate in the festival, and here, he shares his unique film-arts-in-the-Berkshires experience, illustrating by example how to make the most of a gathering of engaged and inventive film artists.

(Re-posted with permission by the artist from Focus, an alumni blog of the Boston University’s Film/TV Department.)

One of my short films, Werewolf Trouble, has had a fortunate run at a dozen film festivals and I’ve been able to attend most of them. I knew the Williamstown Film Festival was different the moment I received my acceptance. Having grown accustomed to carbon copied e-mails, I was mildly shocked when the good news came in the form of a phone call from Executive Director Steve Lawson. When Steve also offered me lodging, I thought he had momentarily confused me with one of WFF’s celebrity guests, like James Ivory or Barry Levinson.

The fun started with a resplendent autumn drive along the Mohawk Trail as I headed west through the Berkshires from Boston. I arrived in Williamstown to find my room waiting and food served at a cocktail party before a screening of La Nave De Los Monstrous (The Ship of Monsters), a campy sci-fi feature accompanied by a live original score by the string quartet, Ethel. The after-party was held in the lobby of  MASS MoCA where I enjoyed a conversation with one of Ethel’s violinists, Mary Rowell. As the party advanced on the wee hours, I wondered if anyone would wake up in time for my screening at 10:00 the next morning.

But the “All-Shorts” session at Images Cinema was packed. Before the movies started I had a pleasant conversation with Tom Fontana, writer/producer of Oz and Homicide, and member of WFF’s board of directors. An eclectic selection of ten movies was shown and the audience ranked their favorites. I crossed my fingers in hopes that Werewolf Trouble would not be screened immediately after Bill Plympton’s weird and hilarious Hot Dog. I’ve been a fan of Plympton’s since his first animated short, Your Face (1988 Oscar contender). WFF surprised me again when I found myself sitting next to Plympton during the Q&A after our screening. Bill was well-spoken and genuine, and he stood in Images’ lobby personalizing drawings of his hero dog for anyone who waited in line.

Director James Ivory (The Remains of the Day, Howards End) was the honored guest at a lunch seminar that afternoon. I won’t forget one of his stories: during a break from filming Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, James took a drive with Paul Newman as an evening snow dusted the streets. Fatigued from the shoot, Ivory fell asleep in the passenger seat during a lull in the conversation about Newman’s character. The star continued cruising and thinking as his director dozed. Eventually James woke to the sound of Newman singing. For a fleeting moment he felt like he was in his own movie - as though he were young Douglas Bridge and Newman his father. We spend so much energy as filmmakers trying to turn dreams into reality that unique anecdotes like this really stand out, when reality becomes the dream and those enigmatic creative forces we are always playing with gently push back like childhood friends.

I met Bill Plympton again at a cocktail party hosted by Bill Wagner, president of Williams College. Delighted to raise a glass with an artist I admire, I mentioned that I’m also a film instructor at Boston University and asked Plympton what advice he would offer students to inspire creativity. “Look at real life,” he said. “That’s where the interesting stuff is happening.” I couldn’t agree more. Joining the conversation was Alycia Delmore, star of Lynn Shelton’s new feature, Humpday. Alycia’s advice was to first imagine something that would never happen in this world, then imagine the world in which it would happen. I’m also fond of Alycia’s comment because so many effects-happy movies get this backwards - or even worse, just skip the first part entirely.

Alycia and I attended the screening of Barry Levinson’s new “film essay,” Poliwood, at The Clark. Levinson (Rain Man, The Natural) answered questions about his treatise on the influence of celebrity culture and television on politics, and accepted an award from WFF: a hand-painted still from the 1998 feature, What Dreams May Come, by celebrated artist Stephen Hannock (also a member of WFF’s board of directors). Delicious Halloween desserts were then served in the Clark Courtyard. The next morning I met Alycia for coffee and we attended a screening of her movie, Humpday. That was another unique experience - sitting in the theater next to an actress I had just met while watching her movie. I was impressed by Alycia’s command of the screen and her insightful comments during the Q&A. Look for Humpday if you like provocative comedies. It’s very well done.

I was a little glum leaving Images Cinema for the last time that weekend - sad to leave off new friendships for the time being and to depart Williamstown after such a wonderful weekend. Then Steve Lawson did it again: he offered to treat the remaining filmmakers to lunch. Was he also feeling a bit heavyhearted to see the lights come up on WFF’s eleventh season? I think so. And I’m sure most will agree that kind of commitment to any endeavor is a rare joy to behold. If you made it this far, I hope you will consider getting involved with the Williamstown Film Festival. There simply aren’t enough quality venues where emerging filmmakers can showcase their work and established artists can bring their passion projects. Even less common are events that hold their audiences and lesser-known guests in the same regard as their superstars. Submit your movie if you have one, make a donation if you are able, or plan on attending next season.

-Charlie Anderson

Images: Williamstown Film Festival photos: © 2009 ROMAN IWASIWKA. Photos top to bottom: Charlie Anderson at the Q&A session.; L to R: Jesse Bernstein, Bill Plympton & Charlie Anderson during Q & A; Bill Plympton, Steve Lawson, Jesse Bernstein, Charlie Anderson; Charlie Anderson, Alycia Delmore at The Clark Art Museum.

You can see more photographs by Roman Iwasiwka at the Cultural Icons exhibition at Brill Gallery in North Adams, MA. The show, a dual exhibition with Sedat Pakay, features Roman’s portraits of such icons as Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, and runs through January 2010.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Through a combination of need and resourcefulness, writer/artist Mira Bartok has learned the ins and outs of grants, awards, and residencies. Add to that a spirit of goodwill, and the result is Mira’s List, her thorough and useful website on opportunities for individual artists. We invited her to share her background in applying for funding as well as her pragmatic insights on finding “money, time, and a place to create.”

Ten years ago, a truck hit my car on the New York Thruway. Because of a subsequent brain injury, I lost all my freelance work. After maxing out my credit cards, I knew I had to do something soon or I would be out on the street. I had been applying for grants for years as both an artist and a writer, so it was only natural for me to turn to arts foundations for help. It took me over three hours to write each cover letter because of my cognitive deficits, but I was determined to apply for every grant I found. Fortunately, I received enough funding to sustain me until I slowly began to recover. This past winter, I began my blog, Mira’s List, so I could share my experience and knowledge with other artists seeking money, time and a place to create. The info below is from a longer blog article I wrote called, Finding Money for Your Dreams. I hope you find it useful!

THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF GRANT WRITING
What is the secret formula to getting a grant? Here is what you need to do:
1. Work really hard at what you do. You can’t get a grant if you have nothing to show.

2. Get your work out there. Except for rare situations, you wont get funding if you dont have a track record. Grant givers want to know that art is your passion, not your hobby.

3. Do your homework. First, figure out what kind of grant you need. Here are just a few kinds available to you: emergency grants, travel and research grants, residency fellowships, emerging artist grants, collaborative grants, production grants and more. Next, learn how to search for grants and discern which ones are right for you. If you’ve never published a story before you are not going to apply for a Guggenheim. Read the eligibility requirements. Are you emerging or mid-career? You can be an artist in your fifties, but still be considered emerging if you haven’t had many shows.

4. Know where to look. The Internet is now the best source for your grant search so make friends with technology. There are dozens of websites that post grants and other opportunities. If you are a visual artist, visit the College Art Association and the New York Foundation for the Arts, if you are a writer, check out the listings on PEN American and Poets & Writers. There are hundreds more so please check my blog for more links.

5. Put yourself out there. Cultivate professional relationships by attending conferences, residencies, workshops, retreats, etc. Check out blogs, list-serves and forums and connect with other artists on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites.

6. Have your ammunition ready. Before applying for a grant, you should have these things at your fingertips: if you are an artist, have a great artist statement. Keep it to around 250 words. Talk about your artistic approach and who your influences were, what your accomplishments have been, what your personal vision is. You also need a good paragraph-long bio. The same goes for writers. Have a professional looking CV and published reviews about your work if you have them. You will need recommendation letters from professionals in your field, so ask for these weeks in advance. Last but not least, you need a good solid work sample for each application. Have you revised that story so it is absolutely polished? Have you double-checked to see if your jpegs are overexposed? Strive for perfection. Your work sample should be the best example of what you do.

7. Start local but dream global. If you’ve never applied for a grant before try your hand at a local arts council grant first. Ask for enough money to attend a writing conference or an artist residency in another state. Most local grants are between $500-1000. That will buy you a plane ticket and more.

8. Ask only for what you need and show that you are resourceful. You have a better chance of getting a grant if you ask for less than what is offered. Also, let the foundation know that you are trying to find funding from other sources, but not for the exact same thing. You can apply to the first organization for travel expenses and another for art supplies or something else.

9. Be clear about what you want. The same rules apply for grants as they do for good writing. Your application should be focused and concise. Use direct verbs and don’t be redundant or vague. Let them know why your work stands out from the others. What you specifically will do with the money. Where else you are looking for funding. Why this opportunity is important at this time in your career. How it will impact your community and the art world at large. Serve the project, not yourself.

10. Pay attention to what the foundation asks for. If you have to write a proposal, note the order of things you are asked to discuss and follow that order. As for page length, if they ask for up to five-pages, dont submit ten. But by all means, use all five pages if you need them. After you have filled everything out check for mistakes and make sure you send the application on time.

THE RIPPLE EFFECT
Grants beget grants, so do residencies, fellowships and any kind of award. When foundations see them listed on your resume, they’ll assume you have resourcefulness and drive. This ripple effect also affects others. Honor those who have helped you, send thank you cards, encourage others to apply for things. And never ever throw in the towel, even if you have a year of rejections. Don’t put stones in your pockets and walk into the river if you don’t get an NEA. Go to the river and toss a stone in instead. See the ripple effect of your own making. Grants beget grants beget grants, which inspires others to apply, which in turn begets change and courage and brings forth art and stories that do not destroy but heal. We need your poems and paintings, your songs and films to keep us going. You need money, time and a place to create. So toss a pebble in the stream, open your journal, your studio door or violin case and begin.

Copyright 2009 Mira Bartok

Author/artist Mira Bartok’s writing has appeared in several anthologies and literary journals, including the Bellingham Review, Kenyon Review, Tikkun, Another Chicago Magazine, among others. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has been sited in The Best American Essay series. Her illustrated memoir, The Memory Palace, forthcoming by Free Press (Simon & Schuster), is due to come out late 2010. She has also published over twenty-five children’s books on the art of world cultures.

Mira is a spokesperson for A Room of Her Own Foundation, a foundation for women writers, and for Transcultural Exchange, an international organization that promotes peace and understanding through artistic collaborations across the globe. Visit Mira at http://www.miraslist.blogspot.com.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

George Fifield is the founder and director of Boston Cyberarts, Inc., a nonprofit arts organization, which produces the Boston Cyberarts Festival. The 2009 festival takes place April 24 - May 10 at dozens of locations across Greater Boston.

We asked George to offer some insight as to how the region came to be known as a nexus of art and technology.

The Boston Cyberarts Festival came about as I began to understand the incredible history of art and technology that had occurred in the Greater Boston area. At this time in the mid 90s, I was writing a column for Art New England, and in my search for ideas, I slowly came across this history. Of course, this made perfect sense as Boston has always been a center for technology. Boston is where the future is beta-tested.

But the convergence of this technology with art came about in the 1960s. One program was the WGBH New Television Workshop, officially founded in 1972. Though video artists were mostly working in New York, the first television presentation of this work was a WGBH show called The Medium is the Medium in 1969, which presented six video artists to a national audience.

Subsequently, WGBH started an artist-in-residence program allowing video artists in the television studio to use the equipment for the very first time. The first artist in residence was Nam June Paik, who while here invented the Paik Abe synthesizer, the first machine that controlled the distortion of the existing video signal. This synthesizer was distributed around the world. This led to the New Television Workshop, through which hundreds of well known and aspiring artists came to make work.

The first-ever video art exhibit in a museum, Vision & Television, occurred at the Rose Museum in Waltham in 1970.

M.I.T. has germinated many programs of technological art, including the Architecture Machine Group, the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS), the Visual Language Workshop and the Media Laboratory. CAVS, established in 1967, was especially famous for the number of important artists who worked and visited there. Boston area art schools are well known for the excellence of their art and technology courses.

Boston companies that specifically advanced the technology of art were numerous, like Avid and Z-Corp. Some followed a tradition of working directly with artists to develop their technologies, following the close relationship between Dr. Edwin Land and Ansel Adams in developing the Polaroid camera.

But while digital art works were being presented and exhibited by a select number of Boston area organizations, there had not been a major event highlighting the art and the artists combined with a public education effort. So the Boston Cyberarts Festival was created in 1999 to recognize and celebrate this long tradition of innovation in the arts and focus attention on local artists in this important field.

Today, this region is known worldwide as having one of the highest concentrations of digital artists, including key innovators. Its academic institutions have built up excellent departments in digital art, new media and electronic music. The digital media industry, especially computer game development, has grown and added an important component to the creative economy sector.

The Festival can take no credit for the concentration of digital artists who live here the area is a great place to be an artist, with ample exhibition and performance opportunities and many jobs, including teaching for support. But I do believe the Festival can take some credit that the world knows about us.

Images, top to bottom: Nam June Paik and Shuya Abe, “Paik/Abe Synthesizer,”" 1969 and still from “Nam June Paik: Edited for Television,” 1975

Powered by Bookmarkify™

When organizing a Commonwealth Reading Series event this past February 2009, I was sorry to learn Cam Terwilliger, a 2008 Fellow in Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, would be unable to participate. But I had to admit, he had a terrific excuse: he’d be in a different hemisphere that month.

I’ll let Cam explain where he was and what he was up to, as he’s graciously agreed to share his Massachusetts-artist-abroad story as an ArtSake guest blogger.

The Nomad Life by Cam Terwilliger

I recently spent a little over five months traveling through parts of Asia in search of I don’t know what. Six months ago, I had just finished a book of short stories and wanted to get away from my routines for a while. But, to be honest, the specifics of my travel plans didn’t extend beyond the following two items: a one-way ticket to Japan to visit a friend, and the vague notion I had saved enough money to travel for 4-6 months. When people asked if I planned to write about the trip in my next book, I often replied mysteriously, “Um. Maybe eventually.” In truth, I have no designs on travel writing, and the next book I plan to write is a historical novel set during the French and Indian war. So what on earth was I doing on a trip to Asia?

Laos: I spent a lot my time driving through the countryside on a motorbike.

At the outset, I had many ideas about using this trip to challenge myself, to experience a true sense of freedomno job, no schedule, no telephone. I had the impulse to see what happened when the world lay open for my perusal, to blow up my life and see what remained. In short, I desired to get to know myself better. This did happen in a way. But it wasn’t the triumphal time I imagined.

From the start, I did everything I was supposed to. I inspected temples. I sampled the live octopus tentacles. I sang the karaoke. I gawked at the world’s largest flower. Still, a sense of unease set in. I had imagined so much freedom would empower me, but more often it gave me a sense of lonely purposelessness as I wandered from Japan to Korea to Malaysia to Thailand. In an email to my sister I described the feeling. I felt hollow. Part of this was merely complaining about the number of tourists clogging up the scenerythough I was little differentbut there was more as well. My very wise sister made the following observation in response to my complaints: “I know that everyone’s impetus to travel is to gain an experience in their livesbut that can only be meaningful if they step outside of themselves. You seem so caught in your emotions and how you are feeling that you haven’t been allowing yourself to engage with the places you are visiting.”

She was right. I was making myself the center of this trip. All I talked about was getting to know myself, challenging myself, me, me, me. I was so fixated on this that I wasnt respecting local cultures on their own terms. This realization cemented itself when I enrolled in a meditation retreat run by several monks in order to escape my own head, but found I was only capable of sitting for hours under their attention, obsessing over my time abroad and what I should do once it was over. Maybe most travelers are this way. But it’s startling to be confronted by the notion that you may, in fact, be a narcissist.

Malaysia: This silver leaf monkey is even more excited about Hawthorne than I am.

Heading for Laos and Cambodia, I resolved to do my best to focus my energies outward, to engage with the places I visited as my sister suggested. As a writer, I naturally turned to words to do this. It’s true I’d been journaling all along, but now I had a different sense of its importance. Instead of holing up to record my thoughts each day, I decided to use my notebook to observe the world around me, without casting my shadow over it if possible. Specifically, I attempted to describe what I saw in three to four sentences. I thought of these short bits as “word photographs,” and I found the work of thoughtfully observing far more rewarding than snapping off so many easily forgotten pictures with my camera. (more…)

Powered by Bookmarkify™

I recently met David Bookbinder (Photography Fellow ‘07). The following is an account, in his own words, of how he became a photographer.

To the Edge, Back, and Beyond: A Wounded Healer’s Journey

I am a person with a big heart and a deep need to be connected who grew up insulated both from others and from myself. The arc of my life has been to reclaim my birthright of connection and compassion, which have manifested themselves mainly in my work as a psychotherapist and in my photography.

My entry onto the path both to psychotherapy and to the photography I do now began with a near-fatal medical error in Albany, New York, in 1993, where I was a graduate student in a PhD program in English Literature. That event, which included a near-death experience, divided my life into two parts: who I had been, and who I am becoming. To paraphrase the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, the way back from the brink has been “a long, strange trip.” On it, I have discovered what I was put on the planet to do.

During the long recovery from my brush with death, I took long walks on Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, MA, to distract myself from pain. In 2001, I bought a digital camera and began taking pictures of the light at the end of the day, and of the flowers I saw on my way to the beach. Eventually I began to manipulate these images on my computer, at first just trying to improve them, but soon realizing that once they were on my hard drive, I could do anything I wanted with them. From this process was born the first of my flower mandalas. Working with these images was as therapeutic and centering as the walks themselves, at once a meditation and a means of communing with forces larger and more powerful than myself. Listening to what the flower mandalas were telling me led me out of a dark place and indirectly, to my decision to become a psychotherapist.

The original flower moved me enough to photograph it. The mandala-making process distilled the initial feeling into something more precise and more deeply felt. Looking at the mandalas I’d made brought that enhanced feeling back into me, purified and amplified.

With each iteration of the creating/receiving cycle, a previously inaccessible facet of my divided self became more revealed, and little by little I became more whole. This strengthening of my soul has enabled me to open my heart to what I now realize is my greatest gift, to be a healer.

Two years after my brush with death, I was in a support group for people who had survived near-death. I was still finding my way back into this world, and although I knew I had returned from the brink with something of great potential value, I was also profoundly disoriented, split between the me I was and the me I was yet to be. One of the group members, addressing my confusion, made a wide half-circle gesture with his arm and said, “David, I think you’re one of those people who has to take the long way ’round.” He paused, his arm fully outstretched. “But when you get there,” he continued, closing his hand into a fist and pulling it to his chest, “it’ll be important.”

What I do now, more than a decade later, does seem important. As a psychotherapist, I see the light in people and help bring it into the world. I know I am saving lives, sometimes literally. As an artist and writer, I know I am positively affecting people I may never meet. Through these gifts, I hope to pass on the boons I have garnered from my journey, boons that, had I not taken that long, strange trip, I would never have been able to exercise.

Recently, a good friend and fellow traveler, Larry “Doc” Pruyne, completed a short film about my recovery from near-death and my work as artist and therapist. The film, “healing image,” is also the prototype for a series of films Larry is working on that that deal with art, artists, and the artistic process.

View “healing image.”

Photo Credit: All images by David Bookbinder

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Mira Cantor’s solo exhibition UNIFORM, 22 life-size portraits of the Boston police, is currently on exhibit at the Moakley Courthouse in Boston. We asked Mira if she would share how the project - and the exhibition - came about.

UNIFORM: New Work by Mira Cantor at the Moakley Courthouse

I grew up in the sixties when the police were mostly white. The uniforms haven’t changed but the people in them have. They are an integrated force in many cities where there is still a high degree of segregation. I was interested in reaching out to the community to commemorate the people who serve. I was not only interested in the police as a collaborative but also as individuals; people who have hopes and dreams and families to go home to.

I am professor at Northeastern University in the Department of Art and Design where I teach drawing and painting. I started drawing the Northeastern Police about a year and a half ago. One day soon after, I was standing on a check out line in a grocery store behind a policewoman. We started up a conversation and I invited her to come to my studio to see my work. Soon after we had arranged for some of her fellow officers to become participants in my project. I met officers Bill Jones and Fred Allen who came to the studio together. They are one of the longest partnerships on the force. Officer Belinda Barrett has a long family history on the police force. Then there is Angel, a motorcycle cop and Christa, a policewoman who drives alone. Joe travels with his dog, Tiburion, a large German Shepherd. Each one has a story to tell and different reasons for becoming a cop.

Officers Bill Jones and Fred Allen, one of the longest partnerships in the Boston Police Force.

Christa Milton in front of her portrait, with Belinda Barrett (right) and Antionette Rafael (left) all from E-13 in Jamaica Plain.

My drawings are 93″ high by 43″ wide and are drawn in charcoal on Arches paper. I have looked at the costumed portraits of Manet who presented these singular works in triptychs during the mid 1800s and the large scale singular portraits of Eakins and Sargent. It is the scale that creates the dynamic relationship between the viewer and the image on the wall as both are the same size. One begins to feel a familiarity with the image (individual). You begin to know these people as if you have already met them. The character of each individual comes through the uniform.

Northeastern Police Officer Mike Blue standing in front of his portrait.

I met the events planner at the Moakley Courthouse during an art auction and I immediately thought my work would fit the architecture and context of the building. I made a proposal to her and she like the idea. I received a grant from Northeastern to mount the work and produce and invitation.

Artist Mira Cantor talking to one of the Boston police officers about the work.

Antionette Rafeal in front of her portrait.

The reception was attended by some of the policemen and women in the drawings. It was quite clear by their expressions that they were indeed honored to be represented in this exhibition. Many brought their children, extended family and friends.

The drawings are on the first and second levels of the Moakley Courthouse. The show will be up until March 27th 2009.

- Mira Cantor

Powered by Bookmarkify™