ArtSake

Artists and creative individuals are often asked (or decide) to make their work available for free. ArtSake guest blogger Bren Bataclan, for instance, gives away all of his Smile Boston Project paintings; playwright Charles Mee makes the full texts of his plays available online for other artists to “remake.” Others might choose to not share any work without direct remuneration.

So, where do you draw the line? Do you donate art to good causes? Share excerpts to build interest? In our conversations with artists in numerous disciplines, we’ve asked: How much art do you give away?

Jendi Reiter, poet
Good question! I hardly ever give my poetry books away, because I think it’s important for creative writers to be recognized as professionals, and unfortunately in our society that means getting money for our work. However, since the publisher of my first chapbook is going out of business, and I still care about this work reaching an audience, I plan to ask her for the right to create and distribute an e-book version for free.

Alice Bouvrie, filmmaker
I often donate a DVD to a relevant, non-profit organization to be used as a fundraiser – either as an item in an auction, or for a screening with a paying audience.

Suzanne Strempek Shea, writer
The question once could have been “How much art don’t you give away?” Early on, I used to give away a lot, between stories, talks, classes and book donations. I was grateful for anyone’s interest in my books, and appreciated any opportunity to spread the word. I’m still grateful for anyone’s interest (no readers/audience/students and I don’t get to do this for a living) and the chance to spread that word, but as I’ve been lucky enough to get busier and busier, I’ve had to pick and choose when and where to donate work and time – because I have only so much time. In recent years I’ve become my family’s primary breadwinner, so I’ve actually been soliciting more paying work to fund dog kibble and other household necessities. I do try to donate work when I can, in continued gratitude for that all-important interest from readers.

Lilly Cleveland, painter
I have given away work for worthwhile causes and fundraisers (mostly silent auctions). This always generates another request from the same group each and every year. I still donate original art work but the donation is NOT tax deductible (Ed: in MA, only the cost of materials is tax deductible for the artist). Once, I heard an interesting solution from Kathy Bitetti of the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition. Give a 20% off coupon as your donation so that the art buyer can come to your studio and pick out a painting and receive the discount. Raffle off the coupon or donate to silent auction.

Elizabeth Searle, writer
“A gift;” you are “gifted.” These are the somewhat lofty terms we use to describe any sort of talent. I once heard a poet advise his students, “If you write for money, money is your God.” Or as Jon Stewart put it, talking about show biz: “You don’t go into it for the health benefits.” In the theater world, while the profit motive is strong, I’ve found there is still at heart a playful spirit of: “Let’s do a SHOW! My Dad’s got a BARN!” These days, I enjoy all the outlets – online and elsewhere – that writers can make “free” use of in today’s topsy-turvy literary world. Of course I prefer pay. But I also like jumping into the mix and giving some of my work away, sometimes in connection with a good cause or two. I have spent over a decade working (and playing) within the group PEN/New England, trying to find ways for writers to use our particular gifts to “give back.” Art for art’s sake – wisely, the MCC named this blog for that creed. Whether or not you eventually luck out money-wise, I think that’s what it comes down to, “art-wise.”

Eric Hofbauer, composer and jazz guitarist
When art became monetized it forever changed the public’s relationship to it. For better or for worse, art and especially great art gets much of the attention and respect it deserves by the price tag it wears. This was the status quo for decades and it worked in all artistic disciplines quite well until the internet flooded the world with free “amateur art” of all kinds. Now the artist must be willing to give something away to reach potential buyers, agents, venues, critics, and most importantly audiences. Personally, I give away full recordings to critics, and all other music industry people, including my musician friends and colleagues without hesitation. I also give away “teaser” or sample tracks via online outlets, like my website, soundcloud, spotify, etc. to my fan base and potential audiences. There is still a vivacious audience in the world who respect great art by placing a financial value on their relationship with it. The 21st-century artist must find ways for “free art” to reach these audiences and pique their curiosities and passions without diminishing art’s reputation by being associated with amateur art outlets.

Jendi Reiter’s most recent book is Barbie at 50; Alice Bouvrie’s film “Thy Will Be Done” screens at First Parish of Watertown on Feb. 10, 7 PM; Suzanne Strempek Shea’s most recent book is Sundays in America; Lilly Cleveland teaches watercolor painting at South Shore Art Center; Elizabeth Searle’s most recent book is Girl Held in Home; Eric Hofbauer will perform at the Lily Pad, Feb. 3, 7 PM and at Longy School of Music Pickman Hall (w/Charlie Kohlhase’s Explorers Club), Feb. 4, 8 PM.

Image: Joe Wardwell (Painting Fellow ’12), NEVER BE STRONG (2011), oil on canvas, 18×32 in.

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Recently, the multi-disciplinary performing arts troupe Sleeping Weazel marked its dramatic arrival to the New England theatre scene. We checked in with the group’s leader, playwright Charlotte Meehan, about the company, its past/future, and its fascinating Artistic Director.

Why Sleeping Weazel, the org.? Why Sleeping Weazel, the name?
Sleeping Weazel was originally founded in 1998 by my late husband David G. Hopkins to produce independent films, live and audio theatre, and a multi-genre experimental web magazine based in Bristol, UK. After David moved to New York to live with me, we continued our collaborations until his untimely death in 2004. This iteration of Sleeping Weazel, which we just launched with a festive party/performance night at The Factory Theatre in Boston, is a brand new endeavor I have taken on with three of my former Wheaton College students, Adara Meyers, Amanda Weir, and Jess Foster. We are producing live performance and music in Boston and presenting art works online for viewing across the globe on our Vimeo channel.

The name Sleeping Weazel alludes to the idea of “dreaming awake,” or being in a productive state of unconsciousness wherein the artist works to imagine and manifest what was previously outside the realm of possibility. In extending the invitation to join a work of art finding its way to new dimensions, the imaginary becomes a place of enchantment, growth, and abundant potential for all participants. In today’s economy, this is not an idea to “sell” and so the weazel himself is our wily little mascot slipping his way into the leaky system that is the American arts establishment.

What’s the most surprising response to your art you’ve ever received?
Someone once said to me after seeing four of my short plays in an evening that I had to decide whether my plays are funny, or sad. I politely responded that I’d decided to leave that up to each audience member.

Share a surprise twist in the Charlotte Meehan story.
I’m a 9/11 refugee. If the tragedy of that day had not occurred, I might still be living in my fifth floor walk-up on Grand and Mulberry in Little Italy. Shocks me to say this as a die-hard New Yorker, but I’m very glad to be here in New England where the sky is endless and there’s time to dream. I’m also very excited by the explosion of new theatre companies in Boston right now, and recently joined the Small Theatre Alliance through getting to know Meg Taintor and seeing the wonderful work of her company, Whistler in the Dark. It’s taken seven years to circle back to Sleeping Weazel after losing David, but I’m very proud to have reclaimed our company and look forward to sharing exciting new cross-disciplinary performance with the greater Boston community.

Like, what does your work MEAN?
Though perfectly capable of being charming and entertaining, my plays are stubbornly idiosyncratic in form and philosophical in nature. Others have described them as surreal fables, multimedia dance theatre, operas, performance plays, and choreopoems. Whatever form each play takes, the full array of circumstances that “ruin” people – childhood trauma, unexamined privilege, mental illness, frailty of character, war, poverty, etc. – make up a significant part of my theatrical landscape. I’m also very interested in how American culture in this late stage of Capitalism encourages all forms of predation upon the neurotic masses for profit and in the impossibility of communication that ensues. Fortunately, this can all be quite hilarious.

What do you listen to while you create?
Sometimes nothing, but I was greatly influenced by Erik Satie’s Les Inspiration Insolites and Nick Drake’s Pink Moon while writing Ceci n’est pas une Pièce (this is not a play), a sound performance version of which can be heard on my website.

What’s next?
Next up is an evening of performance and song by our affiliated artists on March 13 at The Factory Theatre. Erik Ehn, Head of Playwriting at Brown University, will present one of his puppet plays from Soulographie, a commemorative performance cycle, that will premiere at La Mama in New York in November. Also performing will be the incomparable Magdalena Gomez and a few other surprise guests. You must come and see…

Images: all photos by David Marshall. Pictured, from top: Amanda Weir, Charlotte Meehan, Adara Meyers, Jess Foster (Charlotte is Artistic Director and the others are Associate Artists of Sleeping Weazel); Loretta Pope and Jacob Richman perform RATS! (LYDIA SHERMAN, ARCHMURDEROUS OF CONNECTICUT) composed by Kirsten Volness (Kirsten and Jacob are Affiliated Artists of the company); Stephanie Burlington Daniels performs Ken Prestininzi’s BIRTH BREATH BRIDE ELIZABETH, a pseudo-lecture to young brides by Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein; Adara Meyers chats with Provost Linda Eisenmann and Dean of Students Lee Williams of Wheaton College.

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Part of the thrill of making art is discovering how your audience interacts with your work. In our conversations with artists in numerous disciplines, we’ve asked: What’s the most surprising response to your work you’ve ever received?

Kathleen Volp, visual artist
I have been under the impression that the subject of many of my pieces was a deeply textured cantaloupe. I was surprised to find many viewers didn’t even remotely see a cantaloupe! Not even a kumquat. People saw protoplasm or coral or some kind of micro-organism or a CAT scan of the brain. It’s all good, even exciting, but really, really shocking to me. How could I not have seen this in my own work?

Mary Kocol, photographer
When I first started exhibiting at Gallery NAGA in 1993, some people thought the photographs were paintings – perhaps because I presented the work without mats or glazing, the traditional way to exhibit photos back then.

Ilie Ruby, writer
I once had a short story ravaged by wolves in a writing workshop. A friend suggested that the best revenge was revision. I looked over the story, dotted some i’s, crossed some t’s, and decided I was happy with it as it was. Then I haphazardly tossed the story into a box marked “contest,” (not knowing what contest it actually was). A few weeks later I received a phone call: “Congratulations, your story has just won the Edwin L. Moses Award for Fiction chosen by T.C. Boyle!” I received a huge prize, a small amount of satisfaction, and learned never again to listen to wolves.

Joshua Meyer, painter
I once stood in front of my paintings with the poet Robert Hass as he described my art to me. I felt like I was in the midst of one of his poems, a participant.

Scott Tulay, visual artist
My daughters, who are eight and five, consistently complain that my drawings are “too scary.” They will ask me, “Why can’t you draw something nice, with color, like with a rainbow?” Once in a while, however, I’ll do a drawing, and they’ll tilt their heads to the side and say, “Not bad, Dad.” This scares me.

Christopher Faust, painter
I had someone point out to me that there was something wrong with my composition – that the figures were too in the middle. When I told him I knew that and I did it on purpose, he kind of got angry and confused, then he stopped talking to me. I also had a piece stolen recently from a show.

Tara Masih, writer
“I love that story about your father.” When I told the woman it was fiction, that the character was not my father, she burst out, “Don’t tell me that! It was better when I thought it was real.” People seem to have a pathological need to have writing be autobiographical.

Rick Berry, painter
Tears.

Paul Goodnight, painter
Silence.

Jeff and Jane Hudson, musicians
YouTube and iTunes.

Shelly Reed, visual artist
Well, the most common response is that people very carefully and diplomatically suggest that I add at least a bit of color. The most surprising response was when someone contacted me from my Web site and asked me to design their tattoo.

Merrill Comeau, mixed media collage artist
I was working at the National Park of the Old North Bridge, on the edge of the Concord River. As I walked down, I fell into a sink hole of mud up to my knee. When I got to a good spot to work, I removed my boots and socks, washed them out in the river and hung them on branches to dry. I set out my tarp, stacks of fabric, lunch, etc. and worked all day. When I climbed back up to the bridge, the Park Ranger told me a group of women, seeing me on the edge of the river, asked where to leave money for the homeless person (me).

Salvatore Scibona, writer
My local Provincetown bookseller tells me that on the day my book (The End) came out, he sold a copy to a woman from New Hampshire, a tourist, the wife of a retired minister. It sounded interesting, she said; she liked the cover. What could be more commonplace than a person on a walk in a small town stopping to buy a book and taking it home? But also, what could be more unlikely, more uncanny from a writer’s point of view, than that a stranger he will never know should walk down a street with years of the writer’s thoughts in her bag?

Image: Kathleen Volp, BOUND MELON #2 (2011), photographic transfer, oil, metal and graphite on fabric and wood panel, 12x12x1 in.

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Son of a Bug Trailer from Nicky Tavares on Vimeo.

Raising money for a creative project can be a daunting proposition. Crowdfunding sites, if matched with the right project campaigns, can provide a useful template for attracting funds.

If you’re curious about starting a crowdfunding campaign of your own, check out how some Massachusetts artists are using the site Kickstarter:

Nicky Tavares (Film & Video Fellow ’11) has a campaign to fund her next documentary film, Son of a Bug. The project has already surpassed its $6000 funding goal before its Jan. 2 deadline (on Kickstarter, projects must reach their fundraising goal or no money changes hands). The trailer (see above) might reveal why the campaign has found success; its offbeat humor is as appealing as the film’s subject, the first Pakistani rock band, The Bugs.

The Balagan Film Series, founded by Alla Kovgan (Film & Video Fellow ’09) and Jeff Daniel Silva (Film & Video Finalist ’09), showcases unexpected, experimental works of film and video. The video for the campaign (which ends Jan. 12), does a nice job laying out the background of the series, the part it plays in the local community, and the reasons to support its 2012 season.

In Fall 2011, Steven Bogart (Playwriting Finalist ’09) worked with writer Neil Gaiman, songwriter Stephin Merritt, and actors from the American Repertory Theater to develop an original play about the Grand Guignol Theatre of Victorian Paris. A documentary film project about the process is seeking to raise funds (by Jan. 21), and I like how the campaign borrows its over-the-top tone from the subject of the play.

For further research, check out other local projects:

• Thomas Oboe Lee is a prominent local composer seeking to produce a double CD of his concertos, released under the Boston Modern Orchestra Project label (by Jan. 15).
• Non-Event is a presenter of new, experimental music, seeking support (by Jan. 18) for its 2012 concert season for artists fees, venue rental, and all the other aspects of putting together a fully-realized, like-no-other performance series.
• The Charles River Swimming and Diving Team (a Cantabridgian movie-making troupe) are trying to raise funds to rent the Brattle Theatre to screen the first three episodes of The Central Square Detective Agency (by Jan. 18).
• Documentary filmmaker Alice Stone is seeking funds (by Jan. 26) to complete her documentary Angelo Unwritten, about a boy who escaped the foster care system to a loving family – but not the struggles that continue to mire him.

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Hold onto your bootstraps kiddies. Celebrating the re-release of their album Flesh, the 80′s synth band extraordinare duo Jeff and Jane are returning to the stage at Mass MoCA. Before they unleash their sonic excellence to a live audience in Western MA, ArtSake caught up with one half of the duo, Jane Hudson. Here’s our 160 beats per minute nano interview:

First concert ever attended? For me it had to be my father, Leonard Shure’s concert at Carnegie Hall late ’50′s, for Jeff, Rolling Stones, Boston Garden, 1965-66. I saw that one, too.

What musicians/artists work do you most admire but work nothing like? Pat Metheny, Missy Elliot.

How would you describe Jeff and Jane’s sound? Kraftwerk meets punk rock.

What’s the most surprising response to your music you’ve ever received? All the reissues of our music over 30 years, Daft Records, Belgium; TigerSushi, France; Dark Entries, San Francisco; Electric Voice Records, Canada, and YouTube and iTunes.

Why now, the re-release of the album Flesh? Because Josh Cheon (Dark Entries) and Mike Sniper (Captured Tracks) called us within a week of each other, and they happened to be friends. So it was the birth of a dual release.

What’s the best/worst day job you’ve ever had? For me selling wallpaper, for Jeff, no comment!

The unauthorized biography of your life is titled: ?

Who wins in a paint ball war (not that ArtSake ever advocates violence), a synth player, a video artist, or a guitarist? The synth player!

Top five records: David Bowie, Rolling Stones, Roxie Music/Brian Ferry, Kraftwerk, the Clash.

How much do you love guitar distortion? A lot!

What do you like about performing live? Adrenaline.

What can we expect from the upcoming show at Mass MoCA? Uncorked synthesizers, technological, modern, sometimes edgy, sometimes beautiful. Machine music.

Jeff and Jane will perform at Mass MoCA in Club B-10
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 8 PM.

Image credit: Photographs courtesy of Jane Hudson.

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Today’s glimpse from our gallery of past MCC Fellows/Finalists: Ma Ya Ye Hakili Ye by Balla Kouyate (Traditional Arts Fellow ’10). Balla is a master of the West African balafon, and he comes from a musical family whose artistic lineage dates back 800 years.

Read more about Balla in the Keepers of Traditional blog.

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Bring on the tryptophan (or, if you prefer, an equally drowse-inducing vegan counterpart). Amidst the travels/tables/tackles/toils, here are a handful of links to keep you arts-clicking from here to Black Friday.

Creative Capital has launched a blog to build the national artists community from scrappy underdog to fierce contender. Getting strong now! Read this post on must-haves for your artist website.

Meanwhile, the fine, artists-supporting folks at Pew Center for Arts and Heritage have posted some practical financial advice for artists, care of choreographer and past Pew Fellow Amy Smith.

If you’re an admirer of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival but, in your heart of hearts, harbor the feeling that the 2011 festival was missing one very specific event – yours – now’s your chance. Submit a proposal by Dec. 1 to participate in the 2012 Massachusetts Poetry Festival, which will be in Salem, April 20-22, 2012.

Former literary agent and current author/literary blogger Nathan Bransford diagnoses some common writing maladies, such as catching the Catcher in the Rye voice or being plagued by adverbs-itis. Funny stuff.

Congratulations to Jennifer Haigh (Hull), Suzanne Matson (Newton), and Sabina Murray (Amherst) for winning 2012 NEA Literature Fellowships! We humbly note that MCC has funded both Suzanne (1998) and Sabina (2002) in the past, and numerous other current NEA grantees (Amber Dermont, Tayari Jones, and Benjamin Percy) have been past reviewers in our Artist Fellowships Program.

Boston’s Grub Street, Inc. writers’ service organization is moving its HQ. Currently on 160 Boylston, they’re moving down (or is it up?) the block to the Steinway Building, adjacent to the newly christened Edgar Allan Poe Square. The move means more floor space, accommodating a “quadrupling of our programmatic offerings, and the implementation of many exciting new initiatives.”

Umbrage has shared a clip from Yabat Ida Le Lij, a film by Eric Gottesman and members of Sudden Flowers (an Ethiopian film collective started by Gottesman, comprised of children affected by AIDS/HIV). Umbrage Editions is publishing Sudden Flowers, a compendium of Eric’s work with the project, in Fall 2012.

Meanwhile, jazz composer/guitarist Eric Hofbauer shares his recent experience participating in the Penn Ar Jazz Festival in France, an experience that has “awoken a fierce confidence along with a new urgency to play and share my music with as many people as I can.” See some of that musical urgency in the clip at the top of the page, from Eric’s recent performance at Johnny D’s in Somerville.

Quip lit wit and win. Concoct a clever tagline for Carolina Quarterly and get a year’s subscription to the literary journal!

Finally, for a unique arts experience this Thanksgiving weekend, attend the Short Story Film Festival at Gallery X in New Bedford. Forty live action and animated films from 23 countries will screen on Saturday, November 26. If sweet potato overload has got you too groggy to follow long plots, don’t despair: each film is five minutes or under.

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Today’s glimpse from our gallery of past MCC Fellows/Finalists: Cameron Willard (Music Composition Finalist ’11), who composed music and sound for a 2009 production of Duchess of Malfi by Actors’ Shakespeare Project (ASP).

Incidentally, another past awardee, Steven Barkhimer (Playwriting Fellow ’11), directs The Merry Wives of Windsor for ASP at the Davis Square Theatre in Somerville, December 7, 2011-January 1, 2012.

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Today’s glimpse from our gallery of past MCC Fellows/Finalists: an excerpt from Eric Hofbauer‘s (Music Composition Fellow ’09) Surely Some Revelation Is At Hand.

The innovative jazz composer and guitarist, acclaimed for his solo guitar work, also collaborates in a number of projects, including The Infrared Band, Pablo Ablanedo Octeto, and a group with Pandelis Karayogis, Luther Gray, and Jacob Williams.

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In July 2011, Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) was a 2011 TEDGlobal Fellow, speaking in Edinburgh about her fascinating work transmuting weather data into sculptural and musical art. You can watch her TED Talk, above, or find in on the TED site.

Nathalie’s process involves gathering weather data, which she translates into dazzling sculptures using elements of basketry. The data also provides the basis for musical scores (some exhibitions of Nathalie’s work are accompanied by live performances of music from the project).

For the past three years, Nathalie has collaborated with pianist Elaine Rombola on the weather scores. For her most recent works, the artists are looking to collaborate with other composers.

From Nathalie’s call to composers:

We would like to commission (composers) to take my scores and create works based on them (less 10 minutes, for solo piano or piano with small ensemble and/or voice), with the final goal being to produce a series of concerts/sculptural exhibitions to be performed in a variety of venues across the country.

Find out more about the scores, and the collaboration. If interested or to find out more, contact the artist.

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