Jessica Burko is an artist based in Boston, MA, USA and creates photographic mixed-media works on wood, and is currently working on a series of paper quilts called “In Stitches”.
She has kindly sent in a few photos of her studio. It looks much cleaner and more ordered than my studio.
To see what comes out of Jessica Burko’s artist studio see her website here.
ArtInfo’s jobs board is now online. They’re listing art jobs, internships, artist residencies, artist opportunities, artist calls for entry and more.
Here’s some more info from Art Info..
“One of the strengths of ARTINFO is our network and our commitment to institutions and individuals within the art world. Because we realize the months ahead will continue to be challenging, we extend this offer to you to post your opportunity free of charge.
ARTINFO has a targeted audience of engaged art world individuals who interact on many different levels and within many different regions of the world. We have a global focus, but advocate a localized point of view. During this time, we would like to help you – our network – connect with potential opportunities” View their art jobs board here.
Google is celebrating the birth of the American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt with a Cassatt-ized Google logo.
It’s one of my favorite artist tributes from Google. Google does loud and colorful logos well, but this Mary Cassatt logo shows that they can do subtle and neutral colors too. See more Google logos here.
Mary Cassat was born on the 22nd of May, 1844 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania and died near Paris, France on the 14th of June, 1926 at the age of 82.
The Mary Cassatt painting in the Google logo is “The Child’s Bath” from 1893. It is owned by the Art Institute of Chicago.
I don’t know who wrote this poem as it was left by “Anonymous” on an old Vincent van Gogh Quotes post. The only details he/she left was.. “A friend of mine wrote these words today after we spoke of the life of Van Gogh and the recently published book on his history.”
Anyway, here’s a Vincent inspired poem by “HK”
Hands of colors Dutch
Swirl like a painter’s hand gone mad
Canvas of face and time reflect
Bristles of lead give hues of past
Brushes like swords are in array.
I stand in front of the easel like a jury
Words like paint on white torture my hands and eyes
They taunt me like an old pavement princess
Wanting to believe that the brush is still gold
Music I hear or is that the ringing from glimpses of you
Paint away the now. Paint with colors only seen by angels
Colors that hide and feel like a blanket on a cold day
My stand in a broken seal, trembles with dread
Hoping to cure the demon that makes me paint away the now in me
I taste the colors of your soul. I wish that I could write the words that are
In my soul. Words of color and hope. Words that make the pain stop.
Paint. Paint away the pain.
My canvas is my life, and I give you the colors and brushes of me.
HK
One of my favorite female painters is showing at the Hauser & Wirth Zürich gallery in Switzerland. “Joan Mitchell – Sunflowers” runs from June 6 through to July 25.
I like paintings that look like they were fun to paint. Art doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that for me. Concepts and theories come a distant second. If I can’t relate to the painting of a picture, I move on to the next one.
From the exhibition press release..
“Joan Mitchell’s Sunflower paintings count amongst the most experimental and vibrant of all
her works. In the upstairs gallery at Hauser & Wirth Zürich, six canvases dating from the
1960s and the year before her death, etchings and drawings host an extraordinary diversity of
marks with compositions whose ungovernable vitality refuse to comply to the rules of image
making. Mitchell considered sunflowers to be ‘like people’ — subjects to empathise with
whose life cycles were played out with exuberance but brutal swiftness. ‘If I see a sunflower
drooping, I can droop with it,’ she explained, ‘and I draw it, and feel it until its death.’ Like
van Gogh whose precedent she was brave enough to summon, she embraced sunflowers for
their hopefulness as much as for their assertive and undeniable splendour. Her images do not
much resemble the plants themselves: they are blue and red as well as golden, erratically
dancing sweeps of colour that communicate internal as much as external landscape.”
Here’s a link to the Joan Mitchell Foundation too.
Posting has been a little light lately as I have jumped in the car and just kept driving. I’m about 5 hours south from home and am freezing. I’m in the Australian Capital Territory, in the city of Canberra to see Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles: Number 11 from 1952 at the National Gallery of Australia.
It was bought by the Australian government in 1973 for $2 million USD and created a lot of controversy at the time. If the much smaller and much less impressive No. 5, 1948 painting was sold by David Geffen in 2006 for $140 million, Blue Poles would easily be worth $150 million today.. even in a financial crisis. I rarely ever put a money value on art when I’m in a gallery, but for Blue Poles I’ll make an exception.
Also, I find it funny that a city filled with politicians is based around circles. You can drive around and around and not really get anywhere.. just as politicians go around and around and never really get anywhere. See what I mean on Google maps.
My next stop may be Melbourne.. then maybe Tasmania.. but I’m taking each day as it comes and seeing where the wind blows me. A big gust of wind could even pick me up and take me to London or New York. You just never know what’s around the corner when you’re a paper bag blowing in the wind.
Robert Genn’s latest Painter’s Keys newsletter is an interesting one. He replies to a letter from artist Tom Lockhart talking about how being an artist can be tough. Tom wrote the following to Robert..
“I work 50 to 65 hours per week, teach workshops and serve on the Board of a Local Arts Center. I judge art shows and travel to locations to paint. I earn $75,000.00 to $100,000.00 annually–too much to get a grant. I pay more than my share of taxes, expense out what the law allows and still find it difficult to make ends meet. I’m constantly paying entry fees, dues, advertising, framers, suppliers and travel expenses. I can’t understand why the public insists on buying cheap, crappy art from poorly educated artists who suffer for their craft. Yuk! There are constantly retired lawyers, doctors, architects, dentists and other professionals who decide to become painters. They put their work in galleries and sell to the unsophisticated, taking sales away from deserving, serious artists. And now with the economic bad times, it’s even harder to sell your art. What do you think about this?”
See Robert’s reply here. He basically says things aren’t so bad as you are an artist!
I couldn’t agree more. Being an artist is a privilege that should be appreciated. Listening to an artist complain about being an artist is like listening to someone with 5 Ferraris complain about not having 6 Ferraris. The quickest way to shut me up if I’m ever whinging about being an artist is to tell me to get a 9 to 5 job.
I’m not saying that being an artist doesn’t have it’s ups and downs, but look at the alternatives. Take an office job or get into sales for a while if being an artist ever becomes a chore. If you really are an artist you’ll quickly come running back to the studio and the many privileges of being an artist.
I never feel sorry for struggling artists as it’s hard to have any sympathy for a person with the equivalent of 5 Ferraris in the garage. I don’t care if you can’t pay the rent or you’re tired of eating 2 minute noodles.. you’re an artist!
2008 was a wild ride for the world art market with the financial crisis catching up with auction sales. Artprice.com called it a year that started with “speculative euphoria” and ended with a “violent contraction.”
The Art Market Insight by Artprice is an annual publication that looks back at art auction prices for the year. Listed in the report is the top 10 artists, the top 100 auction sales, and a list of the top 500 artists by turnover for the year.
Here’s a list of the top ten artists by total turnover for 2008. I expect that dead masters like Picasso and Monet would sell $100 million+ over 12 months, but what impresses me are the living artists like Hirst, Richter and Koons that are selling similar amounts.
An introduction to the Art Market Trends report can be found here, with the full 37 page Pdf file of the report available to download here.
I found out about the “radiology art” of Satre Stuelke from a NY Times article called “The Inner Beauty of a McNugget” but I would have called it something like “Scary, Toxic Looking Chicken McNuggets.”
Stuelke has also done a few McDonalds burgers for his Radiology Art project and they look just as scarily toxic as the McNuggets. Sure, they’re beautiful to look at but they’re probably not something that should be put into your mouth.
The New York City artist’s statement for the project says it is “Dedicated to the deeper visualization of various objects that hold unique cultural importance in modern society, this project intends to plant a seed of scientific creativity in the minds of all those inclined to participate”
He has photographed/scanned toys, food and electronics. My favorites are the toys, especially the wild looking barbie doll and the toy elephant. See them on his Website here.
I found out about the “radiology art” of Satre Stuelke from a NY Times article called “The Inner Beauty of a McNugget” but I would have called it something like “Scary, Toxic Looking Chicken McNuggets.”
Stuelke has also done a few McDonalds burgers for his Radiology Art project and they look just as scarily toxic as the McNuggets. Sure, they’re beautiful to look at but they’re probably not something that should be put into your mouth.
The New York City artist’s statement for the project says it is “Dedicated to the deeper visualization of various objects that hold unique cultural importance in modern society, this project intends to plant a seed of scientific creativity in the minds of all those inclined to participate”
He has photographed/scanned toys, food and electronics. My favorites are the toys, especially the wild looking barbie doll and the toy elephant. See them on his Website here.
