Carolyn Speranza: bringing the age-old conflict between Man and Nature to contemporary art

May 14th at 7:00pm Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century is Treading Water opens to the public at the American Jewish Museum at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. I will be speaking at 7:30 to introduce the project and to talk with you about creating new communities; the role of the artist; and issues on water and the environment. Please join me for an evening of engagement and celebration until 9:00 pm.

Throughout the course of the exhibition, environmental organizations will host citizen action workshops at the JCC, including Clean Water Action, Penn Environment and Penn Future. Green Drinks, a networking event for people working to make Pittsburgh greener in the areas of business, policy, new technologies and activism will be hosted by the AJM. Former professor Conrad “Dan” Volz, Jr., who recently resigned from his position at the University of Pittsburgh this April over his public health advocacy on water and natural gas drilling will give a presentation. Too Shallow for Diving artists will host workshops throughout the course of the exhibition which concludes July 28. All events are free and open to the public.

Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century is Treading Water has received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, The Buhl Foundation and The Sprout Fund. All of the exhibition’s artists have received honorariums to support the creation of new and provocative work.

TOO SHALLOW FOR DIVING: THE 21ST CENTURY IS TREADING WATER
AMERICAN JEWISH MUSEUM OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF GREATER PITTSBURGH MAY 16 – JULY 28, 2011
OPENING SATURDAY, MAY 14TH, 7 – 9 P.M.
CURATOR’S TALK: CAROLYN SPERANZA at 7:30 P.M.
PERFORMANCE: VANESSA GERMAN at 8:00 P.M.

THE ARTISTS:
Tim Collins and Reiko Goto
Jim Denney
Vanessa German
Prudence Gill
Jamie Gruzska
Richard Harned
Roger Laib
Lisa Link
Maritza Mosquera
Wendy Osher
Ann T. Rosenthal and Steffi Domike
Carolyn Speranza and Frank Ferraro
David Stairs

Additional information can be found at: http://www.jccpgh.org/page/ajm

Tonight I went searching for examples of online support structures for artists and authors; initially looking for something my “Dawn of the Deadened” concept.  The Artist’s Way, is pretty close, although the focus is on writing (understandably so).  Here’s a short list of my findings:

http://theartistsway.com/forums/ Forums where people use the book as a take off point for discussion and supporting each other’s process of creating and re-creating.

http://chicagoartistsresource.org/ A practical resource for artists mostly in chi-town, but applicable to other artists.  The artist stories section is revealing.

http://www.artquest.org.uk An even more practical and (I think) much better resource than the chicago art list.  Some of the information is understandably UK skewed, but much of it is very helpful for all artists.

Yahoo Answers:  How do I get rid of artist’s block?     http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080106192534AADh1hq Great discussion.

About.com  Tips from Painters on Overcoming a Creative Block    http://painting.about.com/cs/inspiration/a/artistsblock2.htm Another one – had no idea these Q&A sites could be so rich.

And this provoking piece, linked to from Rizome http://rhizome.org/discuss/view/46414 was closest in tenor to my own point of view when I stopped making art.

Trajectories: How to Reconcile the Careerist Mentality with Our Impending Doom:  http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=394 Addresses the ethical implications of continuing to choose the career of an artist in the twenty-first century. It is a manifesto of sorts, written from the personal perspective of a young UK-based artist looking to identify worthwhile reasons for continuing down this ‘self-interested’ path, given that the future we are likely to face as a result of climate change, is so different from how we dreamt our careers might pan out whilst growing up under Thatcher and New Labour. It explores how we should aim to evolve our roles as artists, in light of this, and what form a new ‘reconciled practice’ might take.

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My most recent experience in re-inventing my artistic practice, awakening the deadened tendrils of expression – was a foray into glass painting this past week at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, in a week-long intensive. For a number of years I worked in layered transparencies, painted, printed, colored gels – using frosted, colored and clear plastics, all backlit with lightboxes – or neon. But in terms of public art and getting commissions I did not have a permanent approach to working with materials. So I thought glass painting and the application of printed material onto glass would be a perfect match! How arrogant of me, thinking I could learn such a complex approach easily, having developed the former methods over a period of years.

Now where I’m left is in an inquiry. Clearly what there is to do is keep drawing as illuminated brush work, combined with mechanically/digitally made imagery, is where my expression lies. I’m working on not making any decisions too quickly (as I often love to).

Nothing like an intensive workshop for a quick (and sometimes brutal) start-up!

I had the profound pleasure of hearing Michael Kaiser speak yesterday at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council Year in Review, at the August Wilson Center.  He speaks the language of possibility and transformation.  He turned the paradigm for arts management on its ear.  You could hear the audience’s brains buzzing in the room, and the sense of relief, coupled with inspiration when people began to shift their vision away from “business as usual” and towards reinvention during the course of the conversation.

In case you missed him, or want more Kaiser Juice, here’s a video series of his online:

http://artsmanagerfba.artsmanager.org/video/Pages/VideoSeries.aspx

Hosted by Sandra Gibson, President and CEO of Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and featuring Kennedy Center President Michael M. Kaiser, the Kennedy Center’s Arts in Crisis video series answers frequently asked questions heard at symposia on the Arts in Crisis national tour.

http://artsmanagerfba.artsmanager.org/video/Pages/VideoSeries.aspx

On this page, you will also find links to his blog and a great tour (Google) map of his 50 state tour, assisting and coaching people working in the arts.