Artists, have you ever been contacted by an event organizer and invited to take part in their event to enrich the evening?

Usually the event organizers use words such as “exposure” or “contacts” or other hot words that indicate the artist will benefit from participation. Let me say that yes, this is all true. Events are terrific ways to get out in to the community, to help the artist decide which non profits to support, and which ones have a parallel philosophy. It is important for artists to be included in cultural events, because no culture exists without art, regardless of one’s own personal preferences.

However, there is a dark side to all of this. It’s the “in” thing now to have artists at an event.

In my opinion, artists have become nothing more than free entertainment – we are asked to participate, we fill a space, we provide interaction for the attendees before, during and after, and we don’t cost anything. We have become Cultural Performers. See, that is the idea with these events – they don’t have to do anything for the artists because nothing has ever been done. They just ask us to be there and we jump, thinking about exposure and potential contacts and possible sales. Sometimes there is a promise of how much media will be at their event, with the promise of even more exposure. (Regarding possible sales, give your head a shake, this is Kelowna.) This is the carrot dangled in front of our face, and, believers in opportunity and being the eternal optimist, we take it, not asking any questions or making any requests.

I think it is time to make requests.

If you, as an artist, are asked to participate in an event that includes artists, or even just yourself, please ensure your name is included (at the very least!!) on the website as being at the event. They invited you specially didn’t they? I know how easy it is to update a website, and adding 100 characters in the form of identities is not a hard thing to do. You are giving them your time, you are not being paid as the performer is, at the very very least make sure your name is mentioned. Are you going for exposure? Then maximize this opportunity to ensure people know you will be there! Why can’t there be a line on a poster saying “attending artists are a, b c and d,” or, if there are many and space is short, then highlight a few and say “and more”… at least the artists are mentioned and respect is given.

Even at a non-profit event (are there any other kind???) you still need to be mentioned, or do you not really value your time? Are the event organizers being paid, or acknowledged as putting on the event? Are other performers being paid or acknowledged? Then why aren’t you?

Not really sure how to start this one out except to say Aloha from sunny Hawaii. I’m in Hawaii with my family and we are enjoying the sun and the wind. Getting lots of vitamin D that’s for sure.

Chris and I were here 15 years ago when we were still in the military. We came on a five day training flip. At that time I don’t remember it being so … Americanized. The area we are staying in is Waikiki and our first day we just took it easy, we went to costco for our week’s meals then walked around the beach area. Vendors, many vendors , selling the waikiki experience, the hawaiian attitude of colour and flowers and grace. Some were not so graceful as they tried to lure the fish in from the sea of tourists as they walked by.

Yesterday we went to the Bishop museum. Chock full of the authentic Hawaiian culture, the building was almost empty. Gorgeously carved wooden statues and meticulously interpreted artifacts were displayed in three sided glass cases encased in wood themselves. From astronomy to traditional calendars to politics and warfare to the eventual takeover by missionaries and absorption into the western culture. I am not a church hater but I do believe they have a lot to answer for. Genocide of a different form has occurred here and elsewhere in the world. I could feel the anguish of an almost lost culture by the Daughters of Hawaii Supported and encouraged by Bernice Bishop, a Hawaiian Princess who turned down ruling, the Daughters have created a haven for the Hawaiians to come and remember their heritage.

Immediately after the Bishop museum we went to what was billed as a traditional luau at Paradise Cove, near Ko Olina. We were here at this exact luau 15 years ago and wanted our children to see it too. The only difference was that we visited the Bishop Museum this time, we didn’t last time. I am so very glad we did. The contrast between tradtional and modern could not have been more stark. The luau was very enjoyable as an outing but most of my enjoyment came from watching fat attendees waddle from one event to another, called by the pu’u, the conch shell. Repetious long calls on the shell talked over by a pretty hawaiiaan girl on a microphone saying “follow the call of the pu’u, the conch shell to your next event” over and over and over and over until the sea of cattle moved from one place to another. Spear throwing, hula dancing, old canoes on the tiny bay, three to a canoe changing out after one trip which took approximately 30 seconds. Not to mention it took five to ten minutes to get these three people in the boat and seated.

I came back to the hotel room last night with a lot of dismay at the status of the current Hawaiian situation. The Hawaiian culture is not even touched on the barest of surfaces by many of these tourists and I believe it is a sad state when people don’t know any different. This world today is a shallow place and I wonder at it.

I am almost welcoming the catastrophe expected in 2012 to wash away and clear out the guck in our consciousness. I suspect people will look to tradition to start the rebuild process and maybe this time they’ll be smart enough to tell the church to keep their noses out of it. Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

I always have the most interesting conversations with my fellow artists because it always provokes further thought.

Today was about “quality” and “respectable” galleries and venues. Do you think that just because someone doesn’t follow another’s rules that their work lacks quality or respectability?

I wonder if it is better to be told that an artist needs to meet “standards” or if one should “make” those standards. Isn’t it better to be wanted for who you are rather than be dictated to?

I come from a very strict background on one hand, but a very free-flowing mindscape on another. My father was a stronghand, he had certain expectations that had to be met, he had certain values that he wouldn’t tolerate being compromised. But one thing he always told me was to set my own rules. I didn’t really understand what he meant, because he wasn’t a real good demonstration of this ideal, but I understand now, some years after his death, that was his heart and soul talking to me, and if he could do it over again, he would. My years in the military taught me structure, taught me order, and what it was like to be confined. Now, I have been out of the military longer than in it (I retired in 97), and I am understanding more and more of what it means to make my own rules. I am understanding that the value of social pressure can be used for good, but it is also very detrimental. While it isn’t quite “Lord of the Flies” here in Kelowna, there is tremendous social pressure to conform, to only do certain things, to be friends with only certain people yadda yadda yadda. I never bought in to that sort of thing, and here is where my realization lies. Social conformity suffocates creativity.

My mother had the type of attitude that as long as it didn’t hurt anyone, anything goes, pretty much. She was/is so open minded it was irritating. But that was her gift, and one that still bugs me today for I can not consider one side of the argument without acknowledging, even grudgingly, the other. All points of view are valid, it is just choosing which one you want to adopt and fits in with your life. Just because “I” make certain decisions, or ask certain questions, doesn’t mean that YOUR decisions or actions are wrong.

In January of this year, I turned my studio into a cooperative venture with three other artists. This is going so very well, beyond my most imaginative dreams. With less time at the RCA, I have noticed a reduction in my requirement to “conform”. Odd, isn’t it. But it is a public building, it is an institution with its own rules and regulations. By reducing the exposure to these sorts of structure, I feel my mind has become much more freer – “slipped the surly bonds” of social conformity so some extent, and now certainly working on the remainder. Lately I’ve had trouble painting larger works – mostly I have been doing 5×7s, 6×8ss, you know, that sort of thing, and I couldn’t figure out what the problem was. Well, I was growing, that’s what the problem was. Growth is seldom easy and mostly painful and confusing.

Below is an excerpt from an email to a friend of mine, where I am discussing what is going on in terms of art making, and attitude:

“and it is from our conversation that I think I have it figured out, just a little – and why I am doing the sculpture now, and doing sculptured drawings, and why the paper needs to be so big. I need the room, to shape and transform the space. ….. Anyway, that is what has been going around in my brain – I’ve been so used to conflict, and working from conflict, that the process of creating from a space of peace is/was foreign. It is like I am learning a new language.”

Art is really a process that illuminates what is going on within, if we pay attention. For me, the process of working with clay, adding, subtracting, being malleable, and then solidifying over time, finally to firing, is a parable for social conformity. Now I am working with stone, carving out, revealing the subject within, chipping away the rigid boundaries – I’m seeing a parallel of a path to independence and maturity….

Regarding respectability, I don’t think there is a correct answer, right for everyone. I only know the questions and comments I make to myself: By being told what standards you will adhere to, the walls of a box are created, and then you inhabit that box. That’s someone else’s box. By defining what standards you adhere to, you become known for a certain thing – is respectability all that it is cracked up to be? Does quality require respectability? Do you want to be respectable, or do you want to be alive and carefree and happy? Do you want people to want you for who you are or how you toe the line. The first is freedom and bliss and shooting for the stars, the second is chains and handcuffs and stormy clouds. At least in my world.

For my art, I will take care of the quality and respectability will take care of itself.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds,
– and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of
wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless falls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor eer eagle flew –
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force, flew in a Spitfire squadron, and was killed at the age of nineteen on 11 December 1941 during a training flight.

This is how I approach my work.

Putting this year’s Erotic Art Show together, I have received a number of complaints, eyebrow raisings, and yes, a few congratulations on keeping the art scene in Kelowna interesting and on edge.  Never has the response toward an art show been on each side of the spectrum. I am still musing over why this is, and I have come to a few conclusions – you’d like me to share? Oh, how nice, I thought you’d never ask.

I think it has to do with the complacency of the Okanagan. The majority of artists are complacent here. We live in a nice spot, we have nice weather, the people are nice, not that much crime, you get the idea? Some are in danger of becoming so complacent that they have become unconscious – similar to the people of Spectre in Big Fish.

Well, people, wake up!

I hear: “My work  can only be shown in this type of venue, this sort of place, in this manner, by these people, by this organization, with this organization, as long as my other half approves” ….

Have you heard the song “Little Boxes”, the theme song for “Weeds”?

Let’s start with something specific: the venue. The biggest complaint has to do with the venue not being “valid”. Valid for what? Where is your free spirit and your imagination and your vision?  I think I have already explained the vision in terms of making the show a success by placing it in a venue that is subject related, and where the attendance will be focused. What exactly do you think goes on at the “Seattle Erotic Art Show”, or the Calgary “Taboo Naughty but Nice” show, which are attended by THOUSANDS of people? The people who are going to the Fantasy Show are actually interested in that subject matter! It is the ideal place for brides to have a shower, it is the ideal place for couples looking to push the envelope for their relationship, or maybe regain some of that magic. Lovely art that gives the bedroom that “special” feeling of warmth and invitingness. Sheets that are sublime, candles and scents that make the bathroom a new sensual place, and too short, lacy lingerie to take off ever so slowly with a caress that kindles that inner fire.

Some have said they don’t want their art next to “porn” stuff. Excuse me? What is porn stuff? “oh, you know, like toys and movies and such”. Exactly what do you think is going to happen? That Linda from Deep Throat is going to come along and swallow the gallery whole? The difference between porn and erotica is subjective yes, to varying degrees, and however, if you are one of these people who can’t handle looking at nude bodies in art, please do not visit the Sistine Chapel or any other churches in Europe. You might be in for a shock. Most artists, though, recognize and accept the validity of the erotic in art, and know the difference. If you don’t know, then overall, porn is external  – without positive supportive emotion – wham bam thank you ma’am, or masterbating as performance to an audience who really doesn’t give two shits and a holler about you (did you not question why masterbation is not an acceptable form of “expression”  for the erotic show?) …  and erotica involves the conscious decisions, the relationship, the sincerity, the interaction between two people, a supportive environment, an invitation to a dance.

This Xtream Fantasy Sex Show will be a sincere, safe and fun environment. It is your invitation to dance – you can decide yourself if you want to do the jitterbug, the waltz, or a jive (okay, showing my age.) It is up to you. The Fantasy Show will be providing you with a buffet, you can choose what to have yourself, and how daring you wish to be in the tastings. The question is, will you be brave? Or maybe your sex life is over. Maybe you have shut that part of you off – if so, not surprising you are somewhat unconscious -  but wouldn’t it be amazing to grab hold of it again, or is that too much effort? The art will be in its own Art Gallery area as it is its own identity. By saying the gallery will be swallowed up by the items next to it is just a little absurd, don’t you think?

Natasha has said “Your relationship isn’t sleazy and neither is this show.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Next, let’s address the place of “your” art amongst other erotica items – such as lingerie, sweet smelling stuff, and yes, sex toys. The overall goal of the Fantasy Show is to have all aspects of the human sexual personality represented, whether it be shoe fetishes, costume fetishes, tantra yoga or BDSM. Each of these are valid and sincere representations and manifestations of someone’s sexual experience, and to deny these is no different than to deny gay/lesbianism. To deny that other facets of our human erotic psyche and physical being exists is to stick your head in the ground and suffocate. In my opinion. And since I really do like you, I’d like it if you came up for air once in a while.

Now realize I am not asking you to participate in any of these events, but they do exist and they are valid.

To deny these sexual expressions, is the same principle as denying that landscapes can be art, or that fruit can be interesting. By drawing a line saying one is, and one is not, is exclusionism, … If you catch yourself saying “I’m not going to show my work in that venue” maybe ask yourself “why” and give yourself an honest answer. If you are okay with being exclusionary, well, sorry I can’t help you there, but I would question whether your art is conscious… or not.