The Artists Work Free Act. I keep hearing how artists hate it when people ask them to work for free. For example, people like President "American Jobs Act" Obama.
President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign recently launched a poster contest, inviting artists from across the country to submit designs in support of the president's $447 billion jobs plan and re-election. Although three winners will be given framed copies of their artworks signed by the president, artists who apply will not be paid for their labor, and they must relinquish the rights to their own work upon submission, according to the contest website. [Dave Jamieson, The Huffington Post]Asking artists to work for free is not only uncool (would you ask your plumber to work for free?) but disrespectful--it's like you don't think "art" is a real job or that artists need such crass material things as food and shelter. This kind of thing annoys artists so much that they even have websites about it. The ironic thing is that The Huffington Post is infamous for not paying its writers even as its owners get stinking rich. (Full disclosure. The Great God Pan Is Dead does not pay its writers. Sorry, Dean.) [The Huffington Post]
Ladies Who Bulldoze. Three Houston artists have received the Liz Alexander Memorial Award from the HAA. Liz Alexander wasn't just some random rich person looking for a tax write-off--she was a long-time employee of the HAA who died last year. The grant set up in her name went to three people, Nancy Douthey (who I know and is a nice person, therefore totally deserves it), Gissette Padilla, and Sapphire Williams, who will use the grant to "research the role of women in the Land Art Movement of the eastern U.S. during the 1960′s." I thought the role of women in the land art movement was to have a cold beer ready to hand to the men of the land art movement when they climbed off their backhoes. Land Art was (it seems to me) a very macho art movement. But maybe that's a view that needs to be corrected the way the Brooklyn Museum show Seductive Subversion did for women in the Pop Art movement. There are often forgotten histories waiting to be rediscovered--I look forward to seeing what Sapphire Williams comes up with. [Glasstire]
Alice Walton mugshot, Parker County Sheriff's Department
Art Patrons Gone Wild. I think if you're rich and you build a ginormous museum of American art, you should be forgiven a DWI or three. (Actually, I don't. I think if you're rich and you want to partay, you should hire a freaking driver.) [Mineral Wells Index, Gawker]
The most famous female Land Artist is probably Ana Mendieta: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Mendieta
ReplyDeleteI would have said Nancy Holt because she competed with the "big boys" of land art in terms of scale.
ReplyDeleteGood point. Instead of "most famous" I should've said "my favorite."
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