Be With You

Every Year, Home Resource Celebrates Art and Community at their Spontaneous Construction Event

…and this year was no different.  The pieces created on the day of SponCon 2009 were as diverse as those who created them.  Beautiful coffeetables, chicken coops, a couple of kaleidoscopes, a working Dobro and a waterfall powered composter just to name a few.  As in years past, many local artists (including me!) donated works to Home Resource for inclusion in a silent auction.

This year, the auctions run a little differently.  The silent auction is running online through the 15th, and will culminate at the live auction Friday, October 15 at The Elks Lodge here in Missoula. All of the silent auction items will be up for bid, as well as the best of the best in the live auction featuring the pieces created the day of Spon Con.

Spon Con is a celebration of art and community that benefits the non-profit Home Resource, a building reuse and recycling center in Missoula, Montana. I volunteer there every year and every year there are lots of surprises.  This year one of the surprises happened after the event itself, and that is the live auction.

Head over to the Home Resource site to view all of the items in the silent auction and begin bidding.

BIDDING INSTRUCTIONS
Please bid by emailing abe@homeresource.org. Please submit your bid in the following format:
a) Title of Piece
b) Your bid amount
c) Bidder number

FINAL BIDDING WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE SPONCON AUCTION AND AWARDS GALA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16TH, AT THE ELKS LODGE. Mayor John Engen is gonna auctioneer/MC, and we’ll have live music by Cash for Junkers! Not only is it gonna be a super fun party, but it’s the only way to guarantee that you’ll get the final bid! Tickets to the auction are free to all contest participants and volunteers, and for sale to the general public for $10 in advance (available at Home Resource), and $15 at the door. Hope to see you there!

This year I donated three pieces to the silent auction.  All three pieces are from my recent series The Leaving and the Left.  The photos on the site are not very detailed.  You can see which pieces I donated to the auction below, (and above) and if you’re interested, clicking them will take you to the Flickr site where you can view more from The Leaving and the Left series.

The pieces I have sold from The Leaving and the Left series have been going for upwards of $300.  The opening bid on two of the pieces in the Spon Con auction is $100, and one is $200.  The entire proceeds of the sale of the art go to Home Resource, so get clicking!

Magic Love

Let Yourself be Fooled by Love

Looking forward to seeing you at the auction on Friday @ the Elk’s Lodge.  Happy bidding!

Then, I got a call from Misty, a journalism student who had seen my show back in February and liked it. She wanted to do a documentary on me and the philosophy of the project. She wanted to film me creating a piece start to finish.

O. my. God.

I told her I would do it.

And that forced me back into the studio.

And I did it.

I was working with different materials. Similar materials, but different than the ones I used in the first series of this project. There was a learning curve.

And I pulled it off. I got in there and created. I took new photographs of a new (gorgeous) model and played around with cutting those up and collaging those in a fashion. I figured out how to display the work that uses flimsy metal as its canvas, and cranked out nine new pieces in a little over three months.

It was highly rewarding, very exhausting and truly cleansing for me and for the people who contributed letters to the project. The resulting show, The Leaving and the Left – Teardrop on the Fire, opened August 7th.

And now I think that I’m finished with it. I don’t know. I said that if the donated love letters and post breakup emails didn’t come in, the project would die. And the letters and emails aren’t really coming in. I’ve tried a donation center at the show, I’ve tried Craigslist postings, I’ve Facebooked it and Twittered about it trying to solicit letters for the project. All failed.

So I think it’s over. I really enjoy working in this medium, and I want to continue in this vein, but I don’t know what direction to take it. There are still some behind the scenes things I’d like to accomplish with this project, and there are other (more glorious) reasons that I may abandon it.

People who want to see me continuing on with this project, though, need to submit some letters. Send yours, or tell your friends to submit theirs. Spread the word.

If you haven’t seen the new show, and you live in Missoula, you only have three more days to check it out. It’s at Noteworthy* Paper&Press (near The Wilma, on Higgins) until Thursday afternoon.

Opening Exhibition 08.07.09 • Noteworthy* Paper&Press

For immediate release: June 24, 2009
CONTACT: Joan Jonkel, City of Missoula Public Art Committee
PHONE: 728-0345 or 721-1835
EMAIL: jonkel@bigsky.net
CALL FOR ARTISTS – Traffic Signal Box Project
The City of Missoula Public Art Committee invites artists residing in Missoula County to apply for a public art project to create art on traffic signal boxes (TSB) located throughout Missoula. The goal of the project is to use local traffic signal boxes as canvases. The Missoula TSB project has been patterned after those implemented with great success by communities throughout the United States and around the world. Artists have colorfully and creatively transformed signal boxes, usually painted gray, in cities ranging from Dublin, Ireland, to Columbia, Missouri.

The Missoula Traffic Signal Box Art Project is designed to enhance the city by adding works of art to streetscapes on surfaces that are often targeted by graffiti vandals. Artwork on TSBs functions as a form of communication to a moving audience with the goal of creating a safe, inclusive and interesting environment. Successful proposals will foster community pride and convey the sense of community. Selected designs will also consider the relevance of the image to the project site and consider what makes Missoula unique in its arts, history, music, recreational opportunities, and special attractions.

In conjunction with the City of Missoula Public Works Department, the State of Montana Department of Transportation, the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, the Missoula Downtown Association, the Missoula Downtown Business Improvement District, and private donors, at least 10 signal boxes will be selected each year for this multiyear project. The 2009 signal boxes are centered in the Higgins, Broadway, and Brooks areas, each in a location that provides a safe environment for artists to work and maximum visibility for pedestrians and drivers.

The total budget for each traffic signal box is $1,000 and includes materials and artist labor. The boxes will be prepared for artists’ applications, and the Missoula Public Art Committee has specified a latex primer, paint, and clear coat with an approximate 25-year lifespan.

Artwork to be selected will be major public art commissions. Designs may be executed in paint or applied vinyl. Applications will be evaluated on the basis of artistic and technical merit as well as relevance of proposed design.

Applications must be received by July 24, 2009. Commissions will be awarded August 7, 2009. All selected artists will install their works at the same time, on the weekend of August 29-30, 2009.

All information, including application materials, park schematics, etc., is available on the City Web site [link]
#

For a while I have been thinking about giving away my art. Not because the art I make is not valuable, because it is. I want to give it away because I cannot put a price on it. I was thinking about the “open source” model of software development. Many of the software applications I use every day are developed to be given away or used for free: Firefox, Gmail, Open Office.

Musicians, too, are exploring this new model of distribution. Issa (formerly Jane Sieberry) uses a ““self-determined pricing” system,Radiohead experimented with the pay-what-you-will economy, and NIN has been giving away his stuff for a while now (his new album is the best non-instrumental NIN since The Downward Spiral.)

Why not open source art, then? Giving away my art raises many questions. Does the art I sell become less valuable than the art I give away, merely because I put a price tag on it? Does the art I have previously sold become less valuable? There are more questions, but those are two that came up for me, and I would argue that the answer to both questions is no.

I’ve written before about how to price artwork, but I wanted to bypass all of it and get straight to the good stuff: bringing people joy and beauty. So I load up the car and head downtown to set up in the invisibleAlley. When I arrived, I had 4 framed photos, 7 framed collage, 5 mixed media pieces from the 404 NOT HERE & REBOOT_ series, and a rack of about 30 matted artworks of various kinds that were enclosed in Mylar bags.

As with previous times I’ve done art in the alley,I hadn’t done any formal advertising, no email blast, no SMS blast, nothing really. Just word of mouth and, this time, a little bit of Tweeting and Facebooking.

I started with the #freeartmissoula hashtag, but quickly forgot what hashtag I’d decided upon, and switched back and forth between that and #missoulafreeart. @nShontz even stopped by for a visit with his wife & son. (His son had a blast racing his toy car through the alley, smashing into the artwork. Very fun.) Oh, right, then Twitter goes down for scheduled maintenance.

The evening itself was so much fun. People’s responses were as varied as the people themselves. The biggest initial reaction was one of surprise and wanting to know WHY? The biggest answer is that I want people to enjoy my art. I also want to make room for the new art that I am creating, and instead of destroying or throwing away the old stuff, I thought I’d give it to folks who could appreciate it.

Some folks said that they felt guilty taking artwork from me, but took it anyway. Some wanted to donate cash. Some wanted to trade for other artwork, while others offered to buy me dinner, or breakfast, or a beer. One woman in particular couldn’t believe I was giving it away for free and walked right past the alley. Then, about 30 minutes later, she stopped back, chose a piece and ran off. She turned back long enough to say, “I’ve never stolen anything before!” She seemed pretty pleased, being able to “steal” something without having to face any unpleasant consequences.

After people’s surprise wore off, they were genuinely enjoying themselves. People loved the art and had a good time deciding what they would take home with them. I made some new friends and had a blast watching everyone smiling and laughing in the cool of an early summer evening in the best gallery in town.

The evening was about gifting, about appropriating public space, about making art accessible to everyone, exciting and affordable. I won’t give away all of my artwork, but I’m thinking about matting up some of the other stuff I have lying around and doing another free art show in July.

Tender, Laughing and Lovely

Originally uploaded by love not fear

I used this photo in this piece. The only work I did on it in the digital darkroom was to adjust levels, contrast & brightness.  The distressed effect of the photo in the final piece is from the glue that I used to apply it to the glass.

Magic Love

Originally uploaded by love not fear

Finished another one. Learning a lot about love, myself, relationships in this process.

The love I have now is real, true, and lasting. I am so happy.

Also learning much about the logistical process of putting these pieces together. One major struggle I’m having is that the metal upon which I’m mounting everything is so thin, I’m having to mount the metal itself onto a piece of wood & hanging it with wire means it pulls away from the wall quite a bit.

Using the “teeth” style hooks may be an option, but there is so little control with those, I think. That, plus pounding them into the wood may break the glass in the artwork.

I may just be having to figure out how to cut my own metal and tack weld a box frame fro these pieces. If I pay Bitterroot Welding to do the same thing, it’s $60 a pop. Worth it, but I don’t have that kind of money for the amount of work I’m planning to produce with this series.

One of my Favorite Days Ever

Originally uploaded by love not fear

Back in the studio after what seems to me like a long abscence. Completed four new pieces. Will write more about the process soon.

¡VIVA! May 15-16 @ Orchard Gardens in Missoula

The fine folks who are The Open Field Artists do it again with an amazing performance combining mysticism, magic, love and beauty while acknowledging the difficulties and atrocities of modern life.

From the moment of our arrival we were welcomed with love and peace by the OFA performers. The next 90 minutes or so were filled with emotion, inspiration and community.  Go to this performance.  You will be transformed.
(From the Indy)

“Driven by the Jan. World Social Forum in Brazil to deliver the global south’s message to their northern homeland, the Open Field Artists present ¡VIVA!, a multi-media evening of dance-theatre, visual art, live music and vocals…”

Where:  Orchard Homes Country Life Club, 2537 S. Third St. (just west of  Reserve)

When: 8:30 PM May 15 and 16

Cost: $7.

Call 396-3104, 369-2806 or 531-0930.