>The Muse of Change

Posted on January 20, 2009 by jeanevogelart

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01.20.09 — Let’s Get to Work!, © 2009 Jeane Vogel Photography. Hand-altered Polaroid Photography

01/20/09 — No More Excuses, © 2009 Jeane Vogel Photography. Infrared photograph

In classical Greek mythology, there are nine Muses — the sisters of creation. 

Artists, especially women artists, are part of the larger sisterhood that is guided by these Muses.
There is no identified Muse of Change or Muse of Hope or Muse of Promise, but those women visited me in the studio. Not surprisingly, they came during the rebroadcast of Martin Luther King’s speech at the March on Washington in 1963. I’m old enough to remember it. I’m old enough to believe in it.
I was working on a new series of “game” images. Games are important in our lives. Children learn from playing games. Adults work out frustrations or find new solutions to problems from games.  Like art, games might seem frivolous, but are vitally important to our mental health.
As I was working on setting up the first image I planned, the Muses took over. Just so I could have some control, I decided to shoot in Infrared –spectrum of light the eye cannot see — and hand-altered Polaroid.
The set-ups are similar, but the messages are different.
The hand-altered Polaroid uses the new film, which has very different qualities from the old but is still wonderful. The color balance is skewed a bit, but I can make it work. The dark lines on the image represent the barriers to success — we are not naive to the difficulty of what needs to be done. 
The second image is an Infrared photograph. In this image you can see the unplayed tiles. What will happen next? Those tiles are in darkness. We don’t know what comes next, but we have hope and power. The edges of the tiles are lighted brightly. There are possibilities here.
We never know when the Muses will visit. All we can do is listen. And respond. And create.
No more excuses. Let’s get to work.
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Posted in Art, Artist QuickFix, Civil Rights, Infrared, NewWork, Photography, Polaroid, Politics, Soap_Box, Women | 4 Comments

>Teach Me, Don’t Sell Me

Posted on January 16, 2009 by jeanevogelart

>In the business world, this is classic marketing advice: get bodies in the workshop seats by promising to reveal the secret of quick bucks, mete out just enough information to entice your mark, er listener, then close the deal with the sale: “Everything you need to know — and more! — is in my book/DVD/day-long retreat. Only $199. But wait! There’s more!”

It’s come to the art world in the last few years in the form of tele-seminars and workshops. And it’s giving all of us a bad name.
I know I don’t know everything– in fact I hardly know anything at all. When it comes to art, I know where to get my instruction. When it comes to the business of art, I’m struggling. 
Daily I get three or four reminders to sign up for workshops or webinars or teleconferences that will “jump start my art,” “connect to the best galleries” or teach me the “secret of selling to the best collectors.” This year the hook is “how to survive a recession.” 
Yeah, yeah.
Every once in a while, I bite. I’m still annoyed by an hour I wasted this week on a “preview webinar.” The idea, of course, is to give the listener a taste of the full session and hope I’ll pay for the full thing scheduled for a few days later. Apparently a lot did. I cannot imagine why.
First, I cannot stand “perky.” The marketer of this session interrupted every few minutes to make her pitch. And she was WAY too perky. I’m sure somebody coached her to sound that way. It sounded fake and disingenuous.
But the part the really repelled me was the way the hour-long webinar was handled. THERE WAS NO INFORMATION GIVEN! Nothing. Oh sure, there were little tidbits tossed out, but those nuggets were followed by: “I really don’t have time to explain it all here, but I’ll get into depth on Tuesday night.” I looked at my watch. We have 45 minutes left! So what she was really saying was “You’re not paying for this so I’m not telling you.” 
Instead of enticing me, I came away doubting whether this person really did have something useful to share. Honestly, I expected her next sentence to be: “This little bottle of Dr. Brown’s Elixir will ignite your muse, clear your desk clutter, wash your studio floor and finish your taxes. Why, I even knew one little lady who sold paintings to five major Chelsea galleries after one little sip!”
Yep, I felt like I had spent an hour with a snake oil salesman. 
I’m not saying that all of these mass seminars are bad, but if someone is selling something at the end, the build up better be useful and practical.
Lots of artists teach. I do. I love teaching — not as much as creating art, but teachers learn so much from the act of sharing.  Every time I lead a workshop or class, even if it’s to 5 year olds, I come away with a new understanding of my medium — and more ideas for new work. 
Sharing our knowledge with each other doesn’t diminish us — it enriches us. We don’t have to share it for free — my workshops cost money too — but we don’t have to sell something at the end, do we?
Teach me. Stop selling me stuff.
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>Peace Corps for Artists?

Posted on January 1, 2009 by jeanevogelart

>There’s been some buzz that President-Elect Obama wants to establish an Art Corps — sort of a Peace Corps for the arts within the United States.

The idea is a great one — but with a huge flaw that perpetuates the idea that artists don’t need to make a living.
I get ahead of myself.
The Art Corps doesn’t exist yet, but there’s talk that visual and performing artists would be recruited to volunteer their time in schools and communities to fill the gaps left when arts are eliminated from budgets because of funding emergencies. Now certainly is the time for that. From what I’ve seen first-hand, arts education in our schools is just awful. It seems that too many teachers are uninspired, overwhelmed, or don’t care anymore. And why should they care? There’s no money, and art and music are considered “electives” — fun courses. They don’t really mean anything, do they?
Some arts teachers are bad artists themselves, or don’t bother to continue to work on their craft. I’m still seething over a teacher my daughter had who “corrected” the students’ sculptures if she didn’t like some of the elements! That’s appalling! The students went home defeated, not accomplished.
We need more art and music — from working visual and performing artists — in our schools and communities at all levels. In fact, I would be first in line to sign up.
So where’s the flaw in this plan? Asking artists and musicians to volunteer — again — continues the myth that art is not a worthy profession, able to sustain a family. There was an opinion poll released recently that suggested that 90 percent of people polled supported art and wanted art in their lives, but only about 10 percent of those people valued artists — they thought art was not a valued profession. In other words, they wanted the result but not the people that create it. 
Huh?
Art isn’t something artists do in their spare time — or it shouldn’t be. Art isn’t frivolous. It’s a driving passion. Art and music add to the quality of our lives. Art enriches, inspires, entertains, bemuses and makes us think. Art makes us grow. Art saves lives.
Then why delegate it to spare time, trust-funders or people who are supported by a spouse with a good job? Why do we assume that artists should be “starving?” Artists are asked to volunteer our time and energy and talent — and the fruits of those efforts — a lot! And we do — a lot.
I’ve worked in schools, hospitals and community settings for little or no money. I’ve seen children and adults discover the joy of creation, and revel in accomplish they didn’t know was possible. I watched students surprise their teachers with work that the teachers thought was impossible from these ” bad kids.” I’ve seen very sick kids smile with pride, forgetting their pain for a moment.
Art saves lives. It’s not frivolous. In a school, it’s as important as math. In a hospital, it’s as vital as the right treatment. In our community, it’s as useful as good streets.
I think the Art Corps is a great idea. But while we’re at it, let’s remember validate the work of the volunteers who will be going into the schools and communities. Let’s add those artists’ works to our public collections, commission visual and performing work from them that we pay for, and elevate their status in our communities.
Working visual and performing artists are vital contributors to our humanity. Let’s treat them like we believe it.  
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Posted in Art, Art Saves Lives, Artist QuickFix, Politics, Soap_Box | 10 Comments

>Night Light

Posted on December 21, 2008 by jeanevogelart

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Mars & Evening Stars, © 2001 Jeane Vogel Photography, 
Cibachrome print


There is something special about night light. It changes with the seasons. Cloud cover, moon phase, even air temperature can change the quality of the light after sunset.

Shooting at night means long exposures. I hate setting up the tripod, calculating the exposure, adjusting the tripod and camera to get the right composition, re-calculating the exposure because this process has taken so long that the light has changed and I have to start over. Ugh. It’s not very magical.

I love the results, though. Anything that is moving during a long exposure takes on quality that the eye cannot see. Water become silky. People or leaves or animals moving look ghostly and other-worldly. Light sneaks in from places you didn’t think was possible.

I cringe when I hear people say that photography captures of moment in time. It doesn’t. And long-exposures prove it. Photography captures an essence of the moment. A feeling. Often, it captures life that simply cannot be seen.

Today is the Winter Solstice and tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. Both events are about the value and wonder of night light. It’s interesting that they coincide this year. I don’t remember that happening before, though I’m sure it has — sometime.

The Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of daylight — and the longest of night light. 

Hanukkah comes every year when the sky is darkest. Our candles burst through the night light and beckon back the day light.

It’s a time of wondrous light.

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>Film vs. Digital

Posted on December 16, 2008 by jeanevogelart

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Summer Storm on the Current River, 
©1980, 2008 Jeane Vogel Photography, Cibachrome print

I got a shipment of Polaroid sepia film yesterday. It’s rare and when I found it, I jumped at the chance to use it again. I have no idea what I will do with it or where it will take me. It will wait until it knows what it wants to be.

I also found some 120 medium format Infrared film. That’s even rarer. Grabbed that too. I absolutely know what I’m going to do with that. 
I’m a little sick of the arguing, but is there really a difference between film and digital? Most people can’t tell the difference in the final product unless the photographer over-saturates the colors or over-sharpens the image. Why do they do that? It’s awful!
But a talented photographer, one who has mastered both film and digital, and works everyday to master it just a little more — the images from that artist don’t show the materials or the equipment. You just see the art.
“Purists” claim they can see the difference. Sometimes, just for fun, I challenge them. They can’t tell the difference, not if the image is processed properly. It’s arrogance and a sense of nostalgia that drives their purism,  I think. These are the “my camera can beat up your camera” folks who think that best camera and the best lens and the best technique and the best Photoshop plug-in will create their perfect image. Or they tell me that film is just superior and nothing will replace it. Are they trying to hang on to the “good old days?” Do they think that their brand of photography is best? Don’t they realize that film was dismissed as “not pure photography” when it replaced coated glass plates?
We say it all the time. It’s not the equipment. It’s the vision. I’ll say this out loud too: I am very tired of self-proclaimed purists’ superior attitude about film. You can drag around a 100-pound view camera and process your own film, but you can still take bad pictures. 
So if film and digital are the same, why not just dump film? It’s expensive. It’s time consuming. It’s not very “green.”
Ah, but it’s not the same. The results might look the same under a practiced hand, but part of the creation is the creating.
I want to use everything. Sometimes I use film. Sometimes I use digital. Sometimes I use Polaroid. Sometimes I shoot in black & white and hand-color it. Sometimes I shoot in color and convert to BW. 
The point is, it’s all good. Can we stop arguing about it now?
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>It’s Baaaaaaack!

Posted on December 8, 2008 by jeanevogelart

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Let’s Fly Away, © 2008 Jeane Vogel Photography, Hand-altered Polaroid Photograph

Polaroid Film. It’s back! 

I don’t know for how long and I don’t know how good it is, but a company in Austria is making it again for artists. Small batches. Hand crafted. 
Oh, yippee!!!!!
For those who don’t know, here’s the backstory:
In the late ’60s and early ’70s, Polaroid made this terrific film, SX-70, for instant cameras. You took a picture and watched it develop. It was all the rage at my boy-girl parties in high school. I understand adults at the time liked it too!
It had a flaw, though. Touch the film too harshly before it hardened — about two hours — and you got nasty black marks. It didn’t take artists long to figure out that the soft emulsion could create some wonderfully impressionist results.
Polaroid changed the film and got rid of the flaw. We artists begged them to bring back the old version. They did. They they went belly up. Twice.
In December 2005 they stopped production forever, four full months BEFORE they said they would. Last June, all Polaroid film went away.
As my stash of film dwindled, my collectors bemoaned the loss. Surely someone will start making it again, they said. We hoped.
If not, I guess this work will go up in value! We hoped again.
Truly, I wanted the film back. Some artists have tried to reproduce the results in Photoshop, but it’s not the same organic, fluid results you get from this film. 
So when the film’s return was announced, I ordered some. Got some sepia film in another Polaroid format too. If the film has good qualities, I will produce new work. And start teaching it again. 
Oh, oh, oh — the possibilities!
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>We Have to Fix This

Posted on December 1, 2008 by jeanevogelart

>I know I’m not the only one who was sick to learn of the death at Walmart on Long Island when the doors opened at 5 a.m. and frenzied shoppers trampled a man to death so they could get $9 CDs and $700 plasma TVs. 

I know I’m not the only one who was disgusted to hear that some of the shoppers groused about the store closing because of the death and kept shopping anyway.
I know I’m not the only one who tired of being told that I’m a Scrooge if I don’t buy the best and newest for everyone I know.
Who sucked the joy out of giving?
I’m not “silver lining in every cloud” kind of person, but I do see an opportunity when it hits me upside the head with a two-by-four. This economic downturn is trying to tell us something: stop buying crap you don’t need for people you don’t like! Stop doing it, whether or not you have money in your pocket.
I don’t mean that I think it’s a good idea that people are losing jobs and homes. That we have to stop. Today. But I do mean that sometimes we need a reminder that shopping frenzies are not worth dying for. Or killing for. And we don’t have to listen to the marketers every minute.
The typical response to this buying free-for-all is “make your own gifts!”
That’s great advice for those of us who can. Not everyone wants to. Or is good at it. Oh sure, everyone can bake a plate of cookies, but that gets old too. 
There is another answer. Buy local. Buy free trade. Buy from independent artists and crafters. Whether on-line halfway around the world or in your neighborhood, there are artists who have the perfect gift for someone special. Please support them. 
Let’s put the joy back in giving. Give something unique. Give something special. Give something made with a human touch.
We can fix this.
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>Gratitude

Posted on November 24, 2008 by jeanevogelart

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New Moon, Last Night, Color Photograph, (c)2008 Jeane Vogel Photography

This is the week for blogs and articles and broadcasts about how grateful we are – or should be.

 

Ok, I’ll add mine.
I’m grateful for people who want art in their lives.
Does that sound self-serving? I don’t mean it that way. Sure, I like making a living and I’m very grateful to be able to feed my kids and pay the mortgage every month (mostly) with  money generated from my work. But that’s not what I mean.
I’m grateful that people want art in their lives because that means they are willing to think. To be challenged. To see beauty in raw materials. To invest in something so original that they might look at it differently every time they see it.
It means they want more from life. That’s a world I want to live in.
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>Pushed

Posted on November 17, 2008 by jeanevogelart

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Autumn Carpet 2008, Digital Photograph, (c) 2008 Jeane Vogel Photography

Lots of serious amateur photographers tell me they would NEVER take pictures for a living because they love photography so much that they don’t want to turn it into a job — into a chore. They pity me for my labors.

I ask: do you love your day job as much as photography? No! They love photography more. It’s more gratifying and satisfying. 
I know what they are trying to say: it’s a hobby, it’s fun, it’s a diversion. They don’t want to push beyond the fun.
Ok. Although I can’t imagine doing work I don’t adore, they are right. It is work! Whether I’m shooting a corporate headquarters or a family portrait, it’s work. When I’m painting, it’s work. Eking out a living as a working photographer and studio artist is a challenge, no doubt. And worth every minute.
The serious amateurs are right about one thing, though: generally I don’t shoot for fun. The shooting has a purpose. Whether for art or commerce, it’s work! I don’t make the time for the fun. Unless I’m pushed.
This weekend I shot for fun. Dear friends Hildy and Dimitri were swinging through town on their three-month tour of the US giving workshops and consultations about how to revive our communities and fix the world. You HAVE to read about them and learn about their amazing work with nonprofits. Both are serious amateur photographers and wanted to get out into the city and shoot.
The day was cold and gray but, hey! Let’s go! The first stop was Tower Grove Park in St. Louis, a mid-1800s Victorian park that is too beautiful to describe. The trees were past peak, but I looked down and focused on this green leaf among the red and yellow. Until I processed it, I didn’t even SEE the purple one! I didn’t enhance this image (except for the painted frame). This is what was there.
I would never have seen it unless I had been pushed.
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Posted on November 10, 2008 by jeanevogelart

>I’m going to be listening to Miriam Makeba all day today.

She collapsed and died last night after a concert in Italy to help a journalist who had been receiving death threats for reporting on organized crime. At 76, she was still singing and inspiring and working for change. 
World activists sat up and listened when she addressed the UN in 1963 to call for an end to Apartheid in her native South Africa.  She lived in exile for 31 years –banned from going home because she spoke the truth. 
A human rights activists, singer/songwriter, inspiration. 
Miriam Makeba was a living example of how art saves lives. She will be missed.
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Posted in Art, Art Saves Lives, Civil Rights, Soap_Box, Women | 1 Comment