Bev with War Bride Portraits

I met Bev Tosh in the early 90′s as a student in her figure drawing class at the University of Calgary. Later I attended her figure painting workshop at Series in Red Deer – twice. When I left my design business to pursue my art career full time an opportunity came available for studio space with Burns Visual Arts Society. Bev is one of the founding members of BVAS and I was honoured to have my studio space in the same building as her’s.

My tenure at BVAS was 4 1/2 years during which time I met some pretty amazing artists and made some great friends. I would still be there today if I hadn’t moved away from Calgary. I miss the creative energy of BVAS.

In 2007 I had the privilege of showing with Bev and our dear friend Elizabeth Clark (1947-2008), in our exhibition “Home Bodies” at Profiles Public Art Gallery in St Albert.
For me as emerging artist, this was a milestone and an exhibition that I will always be proud of.

Home Body Exhibition

Bev also provided me with the opportunity to work on her first WarBrides.com website when I was just starting Artbiz.ca.  We recently converted the old HTML site over to WordPress so that Bev could add and maintain her content. But more than that – At the time I was developing the WordPress Help site for artists and Bev generously acted as my editor, going through each tutorial one by one and offering feedback and telling me where to insert my commas (I’m really bad with commas).

Bev was very generous with her time; in fact Bev is simply a very generous person, period. Her work with the war brides is nothing short of profound. Collecting the stories and painting portraits about these amazing women who gave up life as they knew it to venture forth to a new country, Bev has captured the essence of a generation.

War Brides, Otago Settlers Museum Dunedin, New Zealand

As a documenter and artist, Bev has single handedly become a historian and lecturer about war brides. Her exhibition “One Way Passage” has been shown as far away as New Zealand and she is currently working on a Dutch War Bride exhibition. For little or no monetary gain other than honorariums, Bev funds the travel, insurance and crating of her work.

Passion is just one of the best words that I can use to describe Bev. That and modest; she achieved R.C.A designation with little fan fair. R.C.A. is an acronym for Royal Canadian Academy, one of the highest honours for a Canadian Artist.

I once heard someone in the arts community say that Bev’s pursuit of the War Brides work was a career killer. I was shocked because I have always been under the impression that success as an artist wasn’t about the money but truth. Truth of concept, truth in passion, truth of self. If you sit and talk with Bev you will experience what passion is, what it looks like in someone that has it and aspire to reach that level of belief in yourself and your work.

So while we are all pondering where our next sale is going to come from, perhaps we could  define what it is to be an artist. When I moan and groan over my lack of commercial sales I think about what Bev has accomplished and ask myself what does my success as an artist really mean?

Negative Space an exhibition of selected works from the Off the Wall Series

March 3 to April 15, 2012
Opening reception March 2 at 6:00pm
Dade Art & Design Lab
1327 9 AVE SE
Calgary AB
403 454 0243

I started the “Off the Wall” series to study form. Removing the figure which you typically see in my work allowed me to work with form, colour and design in the purest sense. This is the first series that I really bring in the use of colour.

My work has always been stronger when the individual pieces can relate to each other. My mind wants to work in a capsule on an isolated structure. Each piece becomes precious, on to itself. Then when grouped the whole becomes the sum of its parts.

Installing the pieces in a group with the negative space flowing through and around the objects reinforces the individuality of each piece. Rather than framing which would contain the pieces forcing them to be one; with installation and use of negative space each piece remains an individual while working as a whole.

© Kim Bruce, Nougat, 2011, Encaustic, 13 x 13 x 2 in

Lori Zebiere was selected to participate in the Rural Art Mentorship Program through the Manitoba Arts Network/MAWA. As part of the program she was to write about an artist of her choice. I am very flatered that Lori chose to write about my work. Here is our interview…

1. I notice you work in series. Do you come up with the series concept first and then create the work, or do you create…and then find the series after the fact, in what you’ve created?

The ideas and concepts come first and if it takes wings will become a series. Not everything I do makes grade but the idea is never lost and may pop up somewhere else.

2. Why work in series? Do you find it beneficial to your creative process? To your message?

I never set out to work in series I just set out to work. I find myself asking the question “What if?” a lot while working on a piece or after completion.

What if I took that process and tried it with this material. When this happens I can become prolific as one thing leads to another and an idea or conclusion reached in one series influences the work in another.

My creative process is an ongoing experiment and I believe that my message comes through subliminally. I need to work unstructured letting my energy lose on the piece. This allows my subconscious the freedom to speak. If I did not work this way my disciplined architectural drafting brain would take over and I would be painting photo realism. Which isn’t a bad thing, photo realism astounds me, but I find that my way of working provides balance to my right and left brain.

3. Does your architectural background influence the materials you choose to work with? How and why?

I’m not sure that my architectural background influences my choice of materials but it does influence the fact that I use them.

I am drawn toward surface, the tactile and objects which all have their own personality. It’s the personality of the materials that I am drawn to. I also marry opposites, hard/soft, coarse/smooth, male/female idioms and so on. All in effort to find balance.

4. I see you enjoy mixing your mediums, both in your 2D and 3D works. Is there symbolism or a message to be found in the combinations?

Juxtaposition, the unexpected use of everyday objects and materials makes you think and look at things differently.

5. What inspired you to create the “Off the Wall” exhibition? Are you trending toward more installation type exhibitions? What about installation work appeals to you?

My figurative work is political or so I’m told. I started the “Off the Wall” series to study form, removing the figure allowed me to work with form, colour and design in the purest sense. You will notice that this is the first series that I really bring in the use of colour.

My work has always been stronger when the individual pieces can relate to each other. My mind wants to work in a capsule on an isolated structure with negative space surrounding it. Each piece becomes precious, on to itself. Then when grouped the whole becomes the sum of its parts.

Installing the pieces in a group with the negative space flowing through and around the objects reinforces the individuality of each piece. Rather than framing which would contain the pieces forcing them to be one; with installation and use of negative space each piece remains an individual while working as a whole.

6. What do you think makes your work contemporary and forward moving in the Canadian art scene? Where are you heading? What next?

Mary Beth Laviolette said when she curated my work into the Pulse exhibition that she had never seen anything like it, that my work was unique. Really I just do what I do and put it out there and will continue to do so.

Sculptor Society of Canada Gallery

More and more you see calls to artists where there is a $25 to $35 submission fee. I have also seen some that are asking for $10 per image submitted. This fee doesn’t guarantee that you are in the show only that you can submit.

I have also noticed that alot of calls state that you the artist, have to incur the cost of shipping the work to and from the gallery. I found this from a website call:

“Shipped works must be sent in an easily reusable container/packaging with return shipping prepaid, and include the return shipping label with the work.”

I get it that in order to survive that some galleries need to levee these charges especially artists run centers.

For Example:
I was juried into a The Sculptors Society of Canadian a few years ago. They are based in Toronto and I live in Alberta. In order to show in the gallery I have to pay a $50 submission fee as well as pay for the transport of my work there and back. This is a great group and a lovely gallery and I get it that they don’t have alot of funding. For a venue like this perhaps it would be alright to particpate and pay the submission fees maybe once a year???

I still don’t think artists should have to pay submission fees to show their work! I have always had a policy never to pay submission fees to exhibit my work especially not to a vanity gallery.

Do you pay submission fees to galleries to show your work?

Footnote: There was quite a disscussion on this at Facebook from artists as well as a gallery owner. You can follow it here by subscribing to my Facebook page or sending a friend request. I like everyone.

If you think it would be nice to be given a chance and have the market prove them wrong chances are the gallery is not going to be pushing your work. Meaning it will more than likely become your off site storage.

It is a symbiotic relationship or at least it use to be. Quiet interoverted artist needs professional well contected art dealer and well contected art dealer needs art.

The art world is changing and I hear and read more and more about artists taking their own careers in hand and finding their own market and marketing to that market.

It is not an easy task taking one’s art career into your own hands. Most artists rely on the galleries to be their spokesperson and advocate but if you are looking for a starting point check out these resources at artbiz.ca/links

Kim Bruce, 2011 Knowledge Encasutic & found objects 7" x 4' x 1.5"

I am a great lover of books both for their content and their aesthetics. Books have been around me my entire life. My Mother is a big reader and has even custom built book shelves into her home.

I daydream about writing a book although I’m not sure what that looks like in words. Mine is a visual language.

Books grant knowledge and present ideas but what if you could not access that knowledge. What if it was taken away? No you can’t turn to the internet that is not what this is about.

These altered books act as my canvas and present themselves as the keepers of knowledge. Vaults. Unreachable. Inaccessible.

This gallery owner said as he was viewing the piece that is pictured here, that it was “high art”. So what does that mean exactly? Is it just a nice way to say that my work isn’t salable?

This is what I found when I did a search on the term “High Art”.

Let’s make a list of the things that characterize high art and distinguish it from low art.

1. Complexity of formal properties.
2. Complexity of the responses to the works, which sometimes have no name.
3. The fact that a full and fuller understanding of the work (either the form or the content) allows for an ever fuller enjoyment of the work. One has to gradually grow into the work. It does not reveal everything it has in one exposure.
4. The fact that a full understanding of the work can enhance an understanding of other aspects of life as well.
5. The fact that great works of high art are cross-cultural. They can be enjoyed by people of other cultures who have no other experience of the culture that generated the great work. Each great work of art is potentially a work of world art, not subject to the conditions of its composition.
6. If, according to 5, the work does not fade with distance, it is also true that it does not fade with time.
7. Works of high art are deeply related to morality, in the widest sense of the term, and sometimes problematize morality itself.
8. High art has a history, in which styles, techniques, genres and the entire orientation of the work of art is changed. Properly speaking, low art has no history.
9. Works of high art are individual. They bespeak a personality behind the work. Low art is best when it is anonymous.

Read the rest of this article by Lawrence Nannery

So according to this particular gallery owner rather than trying to find gallery representation apparently I need a patron (one that supports, protects, or champions someone or something). So here goes…

WANTED: One (or two) filthy rich self made entrepreneurs from “high culture” with an appreciation of “high art”. Preference given to those with a slight feminist bend. Please apply within.

This is a list of my all time favorite rejection letters, emails. Here goes…

“We are not accepting any submissions right now because we have too many artist.
Good Luck,”

If they have “way too many artists” would this not be a disservice to the gallery artists.  Okay; moving on…

“I wish I had the space, you would not believe how jammed up my backroom is!
We damaged two pieces this morning just trying to move things around… : (“

Good to know how you handle the work in your care…moving on.

“Are you doing a new series of encaustic work for the summer in a brighter palette?”

Not the right question (see my post Paint, sculpt, print what you want)

“Thank you for the update, but yours is not the work for me. Best of luck to you.”

Straight and to the point.

“Please remove us from your mailing list. Many thanks.”

Okay then…

One of my favorites:

“Thank you for your submission but upon review we feel your work does not fit with the curatorial vision of the gallery as we are looking for landscape artists.”

I submitted my encasutic landscapes.

My all time favorite:

“Thank you for contact. We love your work and hope to farther talk with you on your preferences for an exhibit in our space.”

“We would be interested in knowing if you are comfortable with showing single pieces or if you favor the all story with the all number in the series. Either way we would set dates with you for exhibiting in the coming year !”

“If this is conciliatory with your vision let us know and would be rather exciting if you were to send an example of your work for our tactile appreciation of it.”

I know it reads as an acceptance but here’s what happen:

I was thrilled that I received such a quick response, like the next day and in response to my email requesting their submission guidelines. It wasn’t a formal submission yet but I do send out all my emails with a link to my website in my signature. So I thought that they clicked through to my website and voila. Also I know that one of the gallery artists recommended me so I thought perhaps they prescreened me.

I decided rather than email back and forth that I would start the relationship off on the right foot and phone the gallery to talk in person. Which I did but was put through to voice mail. So I left a message thanking them and asking for a call back to discuss which series and which piece they would like me to send.

Nothing – no response.

So I sent an email, still no response.

Well anything could of happened. Maybe they went on vacation the very next day. Maybe (god forbid) someone died. I waited a week, still no response. I tried again to phone; voice mail and I left another message. Nothing.

Finally I sent one last email and to this day have never heard back. I can only guess about what happened and it is my guess is that they sent their email to the wrong artist and didn’t have the courage to fix or admit the error. Obviously I will never submit to this gallery again.

Moving on…

Do you have a favorite rejection letter you would like to share?

“Just tell me what you want me to paint and I will paint it”

This was on the heels of a discussion about how the gallery system tries to manipulate the artist voice and steer the artist in one direction or the other to make them produce work that in invariably the same but sale-able.

It is kind of a double edge sword. On the one hand we want to sell our work so then why not produce what the market wants and your sales are hence forth guaranteed… aren’t they? The gallery said they would be. But on the other hand, hum… are you copping out?

We want to paint, sculpt, print what we want to paint, sculpt, print and the dam market is suppose to come breaking down our doors to get it.  But they don’t.  So you compromise and paint, sculpt, print what the market wants so that you can paint, sculpt, print what the hell you want and decorate your own walls and the walls of your family and friends (hey that’s their job, to support you with their walls).

So tell me what do you think about creating what the market wants so you can create what you want?

What you need to know:

Ask for a floor plan for the space?
If at all possible visit the gallery yourself to become familiar with the space and take your own measurements.  Having a floor plan of the space and pictures will help you visualize the installation in the space provided. You may need to make adjustments if for example the ceiling height is higher/lower or your allotted wall space is different than anticipated.

When are the installation dates?
If you can be there to install try to do it earlier rather than later. This will give you the time you need in case something unforeseen happens and save you from being there until midnight or finding yourself short of materials and all the stores are closed.

What technical support is available?
Again never assume that the gallery will know what to do with your installation. More often than not in artist run centers and galleries that are not the MoMA, the gallery installers are students there to learn and earn credits.

What equipment and tools are available for installation?
If your work has any special hanging requirements talk about it with your gallery contact. You might be required to supply the special installation items so give yourself plenty of time to source suppliers. Make sure you describe your work, how it was made and what attaches it to the wall.

I always bring my tools with me because I know I’ll have the right size drill bit, etc. Also if you need electrical outlets inquire about extension cord routes in relation to your installation, you might have to supply your own extension cords.

Do a dry run: install your work in your studio.
Chances are you have done this in order to create the install in the first place but if you are grouping pieces to create an installation work like I have done with the piece Cruciform then don’t think that you can figure it out on site. A dry run will help you work the bugs out of the installation process and confirms your dimensions. Map it: do a drawing indicating dimensions and a starting point for the install. It will also make the actual install go so much quicker and smoother.

If the exhibit is out of town provide the gallery with installation instructions and drawings with dimensions. Photograph the work from various angles already installed and send them with the instructions.

If there is a catalogue being published for the exhibit, ask what type and how extensive a publication it will be. Often artists with installation work will not have professional print ready images of the piece being shown. Don’t count on getting those images from the gallery when they document the exhibition as this may be too late to be included in the catalogue.

At the end of the exhibit
Find out when the work will be coming down and try to be there to disassemble the work. Sometimes the work doesn’t come down the same way it went up so make sure that uninstall instructions are also included with the work when sending out of town.

Always be prepared and you will have the best show ever.