Archive for September, 2008

National Endowment for the Arts Announces New Artists In The Workforce Study

Sarah Atlee working in the studio, 2007. Photo by David L. Gray. (Click image to see full size.)

The National Endowment for the Arts has just released a comprehensive new study examining the role of artists in the American economy. In a nutshell: We’re more important than we thought. From the NEA’s website:

“Artists now play a huge but mostly unrecognized role in the new American economy of the 21st century,” said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. “This report shows how important American artists are to both our nation’s cultural vitality and economic prosperity of our communities.”

Numbering almost two million, artists are one of the largest classes of workers in the nation, only slightly smaller than the U.S. military’s active-duty and reserve personnel (2.2 million). Artists now represent 1.4 percent of the U.S. labor force.

Here are some other factoids (that I kinda already knew, and that the NEA has kindly confirmed):

* Artists are entrepreneurial – 3.5 times more likely to be self-employed.
* Artists are underemployed – one-third of artists work for only part of the year.
* Artists generally earn less than workers with similar education levels. The median income from all sources in 2005 was $34,800 for artists, higher than the $30,100 median for the total labor force, and lower than the $43,200 for all professionals.

You can download the entire study in PDF format from the NEA website.

This came to me via the OVAC Blog, a great resource for Oklahoma artists.

“Know Thyself” Reviewed in Daily Oklahoman

Know Thyself, a show of self portraits by Oklahoma artists, is showing at the IAO Gallery in OKC through October 10. Here is a review by John Brandenberg for the Daily Oklahoman. Snip:

Sarah Atlee pokes fun at herself by exaggerating her laughing teeth to the point viewers may think she’s going to come out of the picture plane and bite them in her acrylic “Self Portrait: For the Record.”

Self Portrait (For The Record), acrylic on canvas, 2005 by Sarah Atlee

rraarrr.

Special thanks to Romy Owens for inviting me to participate in this show.

RAINN Benefit Show Tonight at IAO in OKC

Flyer for RAINN Benefit Show at IAO in OKC

The IAO Gallery in OKC is hosting a one-night-only event of art and music to benefit RAINN, The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. This effort is headed up by the marvellous DJ Ostara and includes an auction, poetry reading, DJ sets, and more. Tickets are $10.

Here are just a few reasons to support RAINN through events like this.

Betty Louise, mixed media on masonite, 2007 by Sarah Atlee

Betty Louise, mixed media on masonite, 2007.

Betty here will be a part of the show tonight. There’s a secret little connection here that I’m going to go ahead and release. In 1994, musician Tori Amos* cofounded RAINN as a means to overcome the experience of her own sexual assault and to help others through that process. It happens that Betty Louise here is based on two themes: the suffragist Amelia Jenks Bloomer, and the lyrics of a Tori Amos b-side called Humpty Dumpty. There, it’s been said.

*Yeah, Tori and me used to be real tight. We grew apart over the years. I haven’t heard her latest album yet, so maybe a spark or two could be rekindled. Never say never…

Synechdoche, NY (and its cousins)

The trailer is out for Charlie Kaufman’s new film, Synechdoche, NY. (If that sounds familiar, it’s a play on the real-life location Schenechtady, NY.)

After watching the trailer, I had to go remind myself just what a synechdoche is. It’s a grammatical term for a metaphorical phrase in which a part stands for a whole, such as “wheels” for a car or “all hands” for the crew of a ship.

The real treat (as if reading about nuances of the English language wasn’t scintillating enough) came at the end of the Wikipedia article, under the See Also section. Here’s what I found:

* Conceptual metaphor
* Figure of speech
* Metonymy
* Pars pro toto
* Totum pro parte
* Hendiadys

If that was the guest list of a dinner party, I would totally bring the chips.

Related: Sarah’s words on Wordie.

Near Future Laboratory’s Criteria for New Media Art

View of Liso Armonium, an installation by Sagi Groner. Click image to view its source on Flickr.

How can you tell if it’s New Media Art? Here are some tips.

(New Media Art in the Aughts is what web art was in the 90s, installation art was in the 80s, and performance art was in the 70s. That is, largely oblique and inaccessible unless done very well.)

This handy list was put together by the Near Future Laboratory, a “think/make design & research practice focusing on digital interaction designs based on “weak signals” from the fringes of digital culture, where the near-future already exists.”