>Neil Young is Feeling Bad

Posted on February 11, 2008 by jeanevogelart

>Neil Young is in a funk. Last week he announced that music can’t change the world and we were silly to think it could.

Here’s what he said:

“I think that the time when music could change the world is past,” he told reporters. “I think it would be very naive to think that in this day and age.” Young added: “I think the world today is a different place, and that it’s time for science and physics and spirituality to make a difference in this world and to try to save the planet.” (from Huffington Post)

Neil, Neil, Neil.

You must be feeling so despondent lately, to abandon all hope of making a difference. OF COURSE music can change the world. It already has. Music is art. Art saves lives.

Where you do think inspiration for advances in science and physics and spirituality comes from? Artists, silly.

Art– the ability to create — is the one thing, the ONLY thing that truly separates humans from every other being on this planet. We use tools, other animals use tools. We communicate, other animals communicate. We rear families and build communities and homes, other animals do the same. Sadly, we murder in anger or punishment or fear. Animal behaviorists surprised us with evidence that other animals are just like us. Or we’re like them.

Art is the difference between us and the rest of creation. Birds sing, but they can’t compose. An elephant with a brush in her truck can smear paint on a canvas, but it’s not a deliberate communication.

Art inspires change. Art encourages growth. Art offers a way of communicating when — or because– words cannot express our grief or joy or hope or despair.

Sure, the inspiration might be just one person at a time. It might take years. Music and art are not shields to protect us from the horrors of this world, but a way to celebrate the beauty and inspire action to fix what’s wrong.

If we give up on the idea that that music or art will not repair what’s wrong in this world, then we have lost our world.

It’s not naive to think that art will change the world, Neil. It’s naive to think we CAN’T.

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>Best of Missouri Hands

Posted on January 31, 2008 by jeanevogelart

>I got the phone call last Friday, but the official letter came yesterday: I’m now a juried member of Best of Missouri Hands! It’s the art group that sets the standard for excellence among Missouri’s artists and craftspeople.

When I applied a few years ago, I thought it would be a slam dunk! I had a nice body of work, thought I was well respected among other artists, I had won a few awards, my craftsmanship was above average, even my mother starting liking my work!

Rejected! I was shocked. Dismayed. Deflated.

Ok. Really I was just a little annoyed and embarrassed. I thought my work was good enough. I think it didn’t help that one juror didn’t understand that my work was an alternate process photographic art form. Oh well. I blew if off.

All right. I didn’t blow it off. It bothered me. And I wanted to improve the body of work enough to be juried in. And I started getting questions over the last few years from other artists: why aren’t you juried into Best of Missouri Hands? The jury should love your work. Apply again!

I hesitated because I didn’t want to repeat the rejection. Best of Missouri Hands IS the best. There are only 23 photographers in the state who have met the criteria. It’s a lot tougher than I thought to get in. The artist ego is fragile. Rejection is not something that is missing in my life.

The jurors were tough. The scoring sheets showed that one juror had lots of questions about the originality and pizazz of my subject matter. Something else to work on! Fortunately, the other two jurors found enough merit, though all three voted my acceptance. The jurors are anonymous — at least to me — so I can only thank them publicly. Thank you!

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>Exposure

Posted on January 22, 2008 by jeanevogelart

>People die from that, don’t they?

That’s the joke in the art world. A well meaning charity worker approaches an artist. We’re raising money, she says, and we’d like you donate some of your wonderful artwork to the auction. It will be great exposure!

I’m a photographer. I know quite a lot about exposure. Too little, and nothing can be seen. Too much, and you’re ruined — overblown, blinded.

Exposure must be dead on. Composition and subject matter are nothing if the exposure is wrong.

The same goes for artists: too little exposure and only your mom thinks you’re good (even if she doesn’t quite understand it.) Too much exposure and you’re not special anymore.

It’s become very popular for nonprofit organizations to ask artists to donate work. The attitude seems to be that the group is doing us a favor! All these people will see our work! Baloney! The fact is, all this donated work doesn’t bring the promised exposure — it just devalues the work of the art.

With few exceptions, I prefer not to donate art to auctions because I’m not interested in giving my work away. I respect my work and I truly respect my collectors. Art is valuable and should be treated with respect. So should the artists.

We could debate for hours why art and artists aren’t respected in this country. Really? You thought we were? Ask an artist for a honest opinion. Chances are more people think he or she falls into one of three categories: a trust-funder of independent means, a part-timer who married to someone with a good job, or a hobbyist. Art is still thought of as frivolous or inaccessible or unimportant. If it’s not a “pretty picture,” is it still art?

Art saves lives. Art makes us think. Art moves us beyond ourselves. Art changes the world.

As my dear friend, sculptor Ilene Berman often notes: If it doesn’t, what’s the point?

What’s the point, indeed.

So what are the exceptions for donating art? Lots of art fairs ask for a donation to put in the children’s tent, where children can buy fine art for $5 or $10. I think that’s a great idea. Their parents aren’t allowed in the children’s art tent so the kids get to chose a piece for themselves. To empower a child and educate him or her about art is the best idea to come out of art fairs in long time. Kids often come back to my booth with the piece they chose, so proud and happy. They have learned the excitement of beginning an art collection of their own.

Also, I will donate to a group that I have a strong connection to. Or I might donate a gift certificate. If I don’t know the organization or don’t care about the issue, why should I donate? I won’t. Make your case and change my mind, but don’t expect me to give you work for the “exposure.”

If I don’t value my work, no one else will either. I won’t just give it away.

(Image posted is Icy, (C) 2007 Jeane Vogel Photography)

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>Two New Exhibits

Posted on January 9, 2008 by jeanevogelart

>It’s great to start off January with two new exhibits, including some brand new work!

Let’s Skip the Chrysalis has been accepted into the most recent Art St. Louis exhibition, which opens with an artist reception on Jan. 20. ASL shows are getting more competitive all the time and I am so pleased to included again. For this show there were 147 artworks submitted by 86 artists. Only 55 works by 53 artists were selected for exhibition.

The exhibit runs January 21-February 28, 2008 in the Art Saint Louis Main Gallery.

If Wishes Were Horses… appears in Magic Silver, a nationally juried photography exhibition at Eagle Art Gallery on the campus of Murray State University in Murray, KY. The exhibition also opens with an artist reception Jan 20 and runs through Feb. 22.

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>Happy New Year!

Posted on January 3, 2008 by jeanevogelart

>I spent New Year’s Day in the studio. What better way to anticipate a great year of making art than to work in the studio?

I never forget what a luxury it is to have separate studio space. Some of my work is done in a home studio, but it’s not the same as having a studio in a separate location. Mine is especially nice because it’s in Ilene and Scott’s backyard — where there seems to be an endless supply of beer in the fridge, coffee in the pot and friendship all around — not necessarily in that order.

So I spent the day throwing pots. Sometimes I get surprised looks: you’re a potter too? I’m a firm believer that an artist should have more than one medium, but I do not claim to be a clay artist. Sure, I can throw a passable pot. You can drink from my cups, serve from my bowls and even pour tea from my teapots (OK — those ARE hard to do!) But I throw more to stretch my ideas beyond the flat two- dimensions I normally work in. Since I do this for a living, I don’t want my work to get stale or my art to become drudgery. It still has to mean something! And it has to evolve.

Besides, I love playing in the dirt!

It was after one of my recent throwing sessions I thought about some images I made last summer — those I had rejected. After looking at them from a perspective of a different medium, Hidden emerged. It’s the first new work for 2008. This image is all about perspective. The rocks loom larger than expected. Are those boulders or pebbles in the foreground? Where did that mountainous rock come from? Where is the sun that the sky could be lit from such an angle? Or is the rock just a stepping stone?

Hidden projects my primary resolution for the new year: to challenge the expected perspective and look from different angles.

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>Winter Light

Posted on December 14, 2007 by jeanevogelart

>The Hanukkah candles burned bright at our house this week, with as many as four menorahs at time. The neighborhood is alight with festive bulbs. And last night — for the first time after nearly 10 days of ice and rain and fog and gloom — I saw the moon.

All of this got me thinking about winter light. The sun is not up when we put kids on the buses in the morning, and I exercise in the cold at dawn. The first few minutes are brutal, but the light is extraordinary — pink and yellow, deep shadows, reflections off tiny ice crystals of frost.

The night winter light simply doesn’t exist. Street lights barely make a dent in the shadows. The small crescent moon was bright in comparison to the deep winter dark.

The ice storms in Oklahoma — just a few hundred miles southeast of us in St. Louis — reminded me of the devastating ice storms here last year. Actually there were two, about five weeks apart, that knocked out our electricity for seven days each. One was in December, the next in January. The darkest times of the year.
The times of Winter Light.

I was in the midst of working on the White Series when we lost electric the second time. Alone in the 36-degree house at midnight, the kids were farmed out to warmer places and I was trying to keep the dogs and cat and fish and tortoise warm and the water pipes from freezing. I was also bored. I used the last of the D batteries in the portable radio-TV to watch Boston Legal and some moronic reports on the local late news about what I was supposed to do if I didn’t have electricity! I tried reading by candle light, but the dark was so deep the light didn’t extend very far. And candles flicker — duh! — which changes the light and makes it hard for me to read.

I watched the candles instead. The quality of the light and the blackness of the dark were stunning. There was no ambient light. No moon. No streetlights. No TV glow. No stove pilot light. Most of the houses in the neighborhood were empty so there weren’t even flashlights beaming about.

Just the small glow of two candles on my kitchen table producing a flicker of winter light. It was too much to resist. That I found my equipment amazed me. I kept fogging up the viewfinder with my breath, but the results were good: White, Variation #11.

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>Picking Up a Pencil

Posted on December 4, 2007 by jeanevogelart

>Do photographers need to know how to draw?

Well, yeah! If they want to be artists they do.

That was just part of the conversation last night among a few Women’s Caucus for Art board members. A watercolorist and a fiber artist were bemoaning the lack of art education among art students, who seem to be told it’s ok to use computer graphics instead of picking up a pencil.

OK, I know it sounds a like a bunch of old women complaining about the kids. (Yes, that’s true, but we are really COOL old women!) Don’t jump to any conclusions! Each of us at the table uses all the tools at her disposal, including computers. I have some Photoshop actions that I consider family!

No, the real issue, it seems, is that students aren’t being taught to truly look at an object. Older artists learned to “see” by drawing the object. Over and over and over. Some of us are gifted. Some (hand raised) struggled through it. But we learned. We learned composition, then dynamics of light, then color theory. THEN we were able to use our skills to communicate our vision and craft an unique style. We old women could be wrong, but we just don’t think we would approach our art the same way without that background in drawing.

Which brings me back to photography. Since it’s my primary medium, I’m a little sensitive about it.

I’ve had other artists say to my face that photographers aren’t “real” artists because all we do is press a button. I know photographers who diminish themselves with the same description. Maybe they are right. Maybe they aren’t artists.

Some photographers are. What’s the difference?

It’s like the difference between a snapshot and a photograph. There are lots of people with cameras. Some are very expensive and some are cheap. Doesn’t matter. Point the lens and open the shutter, take what you get, move on to the next activity. That’s a snapshot. Doesn’t matter if you’re shooting the kid’s birthday party or set up an 8×10 view camera to capture the sunset. It’s still a snapshot. A pretty picture.

A photograph is a piece of art that is well thought out and communicates. It’s not random, it’s not happenstance, it’s not Lucky. It was created.

Artists who use cameras know what they are going to shoot before they do it. Some of us make sketches or word maps of the image before we shoot. I don’t share my sketchbook with other people, but it’s invaluable to me to get work that’s in my head onto the photographic paper. An added benefit of sketching the subject before I shoot it is the abiltiy to slow down the creation process. What are other people missing because they shoot and go? What else is there. What isn’t there? What is hidden in plain sight?

Sure, I spend lots of time shooting subjects I didn’t envision first. That’s part of the joy of this medium. An artist photographer can go anywhere and produce work that is fresh. One of the reasons artist-photographers can always find interesting subjects to shoot is that they have learned to see differently — and most of the time it’s because they first learned to draw.

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>Thanksgiving

Posted on November 22, 2007 by jeanevogelart

>It’s corny and it’s traditional, but as I look over this year in art and life, I am overwhelmed with blessings:

  • A family who is left to fend for themselves (sometimes they don’t think this a bad thing!) for half of the year while I travel from show to show. It’s wonderful to come home, whether the show was a bust, or I earned enough to pay the mortgage for two months. They don’t care. They are happy to see me walk in door.
  • A husband who loves every piece of art I produce. I have plenty of critics around me. It’s good to have a fan.
  • A daughter who has an artist’s eye and Gandhi’s soul.
  • A son who helps me see the world a little slower and a little kinder.
  • An extended family who are interested and patient and supportive, even though some don’t really understand what or why I do what I do. It doesn’t matter. They think it’s cool.
  • Friends. They are generous and funny, thoughtful and critical, talented and brilliant. And they want to hang with me! They insist on buying my work when I’m happy to give it to them. They live here in St. Louis, and all over North America: Tucson; Palm Springs; London , ON, Lincoln, NE; Montana; Tornoto; Memphis; South Dakota; upstate New York; New York City; Chicago; Madison, WI; Tenneessee; Washington, D.C. All amazing people and all very, very dear.
  • A space to work. This is a big deal. The basement is still filled with older work and the dining room table is often covered and piled high… BUT a real studio is a gift. I was fortunate enough to find space last year. That space hasn’t worked lately and a terrific friend, (see above!) has loaned me her studio while she’s in graduate school. This is a little like loaning out a husband for weekly chores (no, not that kind!). A studio space is sacred; to share it is unbelievably generous. Thank you Ilene and Scott (and Noah and Gili, of course!)
  • A space to shoot portraits. One minute I’m working as a fine artist and the next as a portrait photographer. Or are they they same thing? Doesn’t matter. The spaces I work in are different. When I went to Dana Colcleasure at Wombats and asked if I could rent some space to shoot portraits, she didn’t even hesitate! She and Kanagroo Kids have been promoting me and welcoming me. Thank you!
  • My fellow artists who keep me sane and cared for when I’m on the road, who put me up when I need a place to stay, who offer constructive criticism that helps me improve and grow, and who understand without saying a word.
  • The ability to work and make a living as an artist. Wow!
  • Collectors and clients. Working an art fair is hard work. Long days, bad food, hotels, travel, setting up, tearing down. Why would anyone do this? The people, of course! My husband will tell you I’m lousy at parties. I hate small talk and trivial chatting. But I love talking to people who have something interesting to say. I get to meet the best people in my booth. I also get to meet some who only want to tell me they don’t like or don’t get my work. I ignore those folks. It makes my day when someone connects with my work and wants to tell me about it. Some people’s whole lives — dreams, disappointments, fears, accomplishments — come spilling out while they stand inside my little white tent/gallery. That’s a lot to be trusted with.
  • Gallery directors and owners — the good ones. You know who you are. We are partners in the art world. This year I’m very grateful to Art St. Louis and Imagine on Main in suburban Chicago. But to the gallery who stuck my work in a closet for six months– plllltt!
  • The ability to give back.
  • Did I mention my family and friends? Happy Thanksgiving!
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>It’s a Play Date!

Posted on November 14, 2007 by jeanevogelart

>“It sounded like a play date in there!”

That from a customer at Wombats last week during the first portrait session at the store.

I’ve teamed up with Dana Colcleasure at her upscale, designer fashion resale shop on 10090 Manchester Road in Glendale, to offer Heirloom Fine Art Portraits.

The boys were having a great time. If it sounded like a play date it meant they were “being themselves” and giving me a chance to capture it. That’s my goal at a portrait session — have a good time. I’ll take care of the rest. I don’t want to just show what you look like — I want to show who you are.

I shoot a lot of formal portraits, but most of my clients come to me because they want something more. Any technician (and that’s most most big box studio photographers are) can plunk you down, tell you to smile, push a button and shout “next!”

Instead, I add my artist’s eye to the portrait session and capture personality, interaction, and relationships. These portraits take time. And are worth every minute.

I leave every heirloom portrait session thinking the same thing — portraits are my favorite thing to do! And I never forget that these fine art portraits will be around for generations, so the work had better be good!

Isn’t that why we want fine art portraits in the first place? Snap shots will be faded in 25 or 30 years — some less than that. But heirloom portraits last for generations. I never forget that every portrait session is a gift to someone’s great-grandchildren.

All the information about fine art portraits is on the website, or you can call me at 314.991.0143 for an appointment. Fine art portraits make great gifts — for this year and in 2107!

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>Endings & Beginnings

Posted on November 5, 2007 by jeanevogelart

>Yesterday ended my art fair season for 2007. I have to say this was a great year. Thank you to all my collectors!

Each year I wrap up the season at an private indoor show in Webster Groves, MO. Potter Judy Guerrero generously opens her beautiful Webster Groves home and about a dozen artists fill the first floor with pottery, baskets, photography, jewelry and glass. It’s the most fun show I do every year.

For the last two years, this show has been part of the 63119 Art! gallery and studio tour, which was put together by two incredibly talented artists, Aimee Smith and Ryan Clyde-Rich. Aimee and Ryan will assume ownership of Krueger Pottery in the spring when artist and owner Dennis Krueger retires.

So as the year winds down, I should have tons of time for new work, right? If only it worked like that!

I have several juried exhibits coming up, including Art St. Louis Exhibition XXIII, which I was very pleased to get into. Lost of artists grumble about not making the cut. It’s an honor to have one of the 69 images (of 656 submitted) to be exhibited. Of the five images I submitted, the juror chose my least favorite, but it’s growing on me.

“Beach Comber, Variation #2” is part of my new body of work in Infrared. I’m excited about it, but it’s challenging to work with. Please watch for more.

I have lots of other announcements, too, starting with a new studio and and a new partnership!

I’m moving my studio to Webster Groves this month. My old studio in Benton Park is great, but for lots of reasons it’s not working for me right now. I needed to be closer to home — and the studio simply cannot be at home! Email me at jeane@vogelpix.com if you want to get in on the studio sale later this month!

And I’m excited to announce that I’ve partnered with Wombats Resale to bring fine art portraiture to the store a couple days a week. More about that later!

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