This has been a very intense few weeks. Life as a creative and life as a corporate schmuck really stepped up there game. ArtPrize is in town and is running into it’s third week. Yesterday my wife and I had to schedule our calendar to actually come home for the day.
My day job is proving tougher than I ever imagined – the learning curve in the new department is proving a tough challenge; plus I’m so far from the actual rewarding portion of the work that I’m subconsciously letting myself learn it slowly. I’ve been ‘talked to’ on more than one occasion. Not threatened, just encouraged. Encouragement is good, it has helped immensely – it has also made me step up my game and get more done each day.
For now I am only going to summarize my personal experiences with ArtPrize so far. I touched on it a bit on my photo blog, but I have had a completely different experience than I did for ArtPrize 2009. The restaurant vs. open space concept has proven to be more rewarding towards the open space. Where they each have there place, getting 100 new faces in front of the work every few minutes vs. 55 new faces every hour is a measure that is clearly an advantage. Also being able to speak directly to the people instead of interrupting meals constantly has proven very rewarding. I’m still proud of last year’s work and frankly think it would have held up just fine in this year’s venue – but am happy with my laid back approach. I will post another entry that is dedicated to my entry for this year.
Last year was a series on small village life in Italy, this year was a single photo that I had in my archives and I reproduced it in a way that I had always wanted. I turned out exactly how I had imagined and would not have redone it in any way. I am very thrilled with it – and the accompanying text I wrote for it really knocked my socks off. When I wrote it I didn’t really realize how powerful it was. I enjoyed it greatly and thought it was a great compliment – but then everyone started to be moved by it and I received just as much praise for those few sentences as I did for the work itself. It really made me feel good. It made me feel as though I am justified, and not just a one trick pony. I have always valued my ability to write and it only encourages me to do two more things than I’ve been trying to get myself to do; continue this blog regularly and letting the community read it, and get my Italy book published that is yet unwritten.
That last part, the unwritten book, is thanks to a young photographer I’ve befriended (he’s actually a year older than me). He is the classic photog that I have always wanted to be, Ryan Spencer Reed. I will focus an entry on him as well – but he is an inspiration to me and will become my mentor over time. He is from Ludington MI – and has a sense of direction that I have always striven for. He has it down. Because of him, I will refocus my dream of turning that trip into a book, create an edition, and show it to editors, and hopefully get it published. I can do this.
So, back to the title of this entry. It is in reference to my beautiful wife, Sarah. She had the good fortune to curate my venue for ArtPrize (Yes, I piggy-backed off of her to get into the building) and she secured 40 of the 51 artists that showed in the building (co-curated it with the Assistant GM of the convention center). Now I’m not sure if I have always taken for granted her strength as a viewer or if I just never knew her talent to spot talent, but she knocked it out of the park. There were several professionally curated facilities throughout the competition that received much attention and hers was one of them. The difference is, for the most part Sarah is untrained as a curator. She has an art history degree but mostly it has gone untouched since she graduated seven years ago. I have always listened to her advice when discussing composition and style but we have very different tastes. She picked what she liked this year for the venue, she picked what she knew was good quality representations of the style and work – no comment on some of the artists personalities as that have become an issue (doesn’t it always?) – and she placed the works within the giant building where she knew it would work.
ArtPrize had 1713 contestants this year, The competition tracks the top 100 in increments of 25 (in random order within each 25), and the top 10 ultimately get rewarded. My “non professional, untrained wife” had five of the top 75 within her building – or 6.67% of the top 75. Not too shabby out of 192 different facilities throughout the city eh? She had three ranked 51-75, one ranked 26-50, and actually picked one of the top ten* over all! She is amazing and I cannot giver enough credit for that. Not too bad for a “non professional.” Much of her work clearly went unranked as well but drew great attention. The AGM of the building was thrilled as well, he’s a tough read but he is happy with her work. I think her contract will be renewed for next year. I am thrilled for her.
My wife will not yet create art on her own; she has no passion for the aspect of making art herself, she will someday. But man, she sure can pick and enjoy art, which in essence is her medium of art. Her eye, as I now know, is nothing to second guess. It’s good to be married to my own art critic; together we make a team that down the road will be a force in this community and we’ll each have a place amongst the local creatives. I cannot wait to move into the future with her – I am more brilliant in everything I do but only because of her.
*update: a piece she curated ended up finishing second place over all, taking home $100,000.00 as the reward.
Pypeline.