art + teaching + arts administration = juggling

As many people who know me are aware, I've been working with the Arts Alliance for a while and more recently focusing intensively on getting the Milan Area Arts Council's new art center up and started. The art center blog shows photos of the progress we've been making getting the facility ready to go. I'm working with other board members on curriculum development, business plan and other programming. Meanwhile wearing my artist hat I'm getting ready to hang one group show (Nano, Micro, Macro), drop off work for another (Family and Friends at WSG), teaching a lot and planning for an upcoming artist-in-residency. Balance? More like balancing act! I can't complain - it's an exciting time and I'm very pleased that all these things are ticking along. I worry about dropping balls or not doing full justice to any of these projects but so far momentum, adrenaline and a lot of list making are carrying me along. (not to mention a supportive spouse and kids doing their part!) It's a slightly tenuous balance depending on no disasters - so far, so good.

Nano, Micro, Macro - a Matter of Scale - redux

These are images from the other two artists in the upcoming Nano, Micro, Macro exhibition at the Duderstadt Gallery at the University of Michigan North Campus.

The color paintings are by Sara Adlerstein-Gonzalez and are informed by her work as a biologist/fresh water ecologist at UM's School of Natural Resources. Dimensions next to each work - while she is the Micro in the title of the exhibition the pieces are quite good sized and even more luscious in the flesh.




These next three images are from A John Hart. John is the Nano portion of the exhibition and these images are of objects he has made which can be just a few molecules in size. Needless to say the images are much bigger than the original! [edited to add the following:] John's images are all scanning electron micrographs of silicon and carbon nanostructures




The show will be up February 23 and come down on March 16th. The opening is Wednesday Feb 24 from 6pm to 8pm.

Family and Friends at WSG

I'm delighted to be part of this show. Feels like old times since I was a member of WSG for many years.

It's been an interesting week. The nascent Milan Art Center is getting going. We've had a real outpouring of community support and offers of help, supplies, equipment and interest in teaching have been pouring in. It's exhilarating and I can't wait to get the space up and running.

Monday linkage

Art blogger Joanne Mattera is always worth reading. Her Monday business post this week is about job loss for artists and it terrific. She makes the cogent point that since most artists have seemingly invisible jobs - many small gigs patched together - when we take a hit in a bad economy it looks different than someone losing a 9-5 40 hour a week job. She also poses a key question: how do artists become more visible as members of the economy. I'm not sure what the answer is but I think artists need to become better advocates for themselves as business people. That means spending time talking about art making as a business not just a passion. It means not being shy about promoting one's work and about talking about the non-studio aspects of that work - and not just to one's friends but in the media, online and to an audience.

On another front - if you're in the Ann Arbor area the A2mechshop has a call for artists interested in a residency. This is a communal shop providing access to tools and technology. Looks pretty nifty.

Nano, Micro, Macro - a Matter of Scale

I'll be installing this show in just a few weeks. It should be a really interesting mix of artwork, microscopes, computers, projection and other fun stuff.