Art and The Artist (thoughts on the subject)

For a while now I’ve been trying to understand the definitions or categories of what is “art”. Or as a corollary what it means to be an “artist”. For some art forms, this description is very clear. Or I should say if one finds success, then it is very clear. A person who paints and can sell his or her works at a price on which he or she can make a living is easily defined as an artist. A musician who finds employment in a band or orchestra, likewise. But what if an artist cannot make a living with their art and so takes on other responsibilities, does that mean they are not an artist?

Or take the instance that is a bit closer to home for me. I recently had a discussion with a friend in the same situation. I trained for many years to be a dancer. As performers, dancers certainly fall in the category of performing “artists”. But then, I stopped. Or my friend, got injured. From one day to the next we weren’t dancing anymore. But does this mean that overnight, we were no longer “artists”? So then that would mean that to be an artist is not to “be” something but to “do” something. Both of us feel that we are still artists. Artists without an art form, but still artists.

My former classmate Sara Webb in Stanton Welch's "TuTu" (Houston Ballet)

Then there is the whole question of the limits of sanity. Or perhaps I should say, the praise for what has gone beyond sanity. I recently saw the film “Black Swan” and read many critiques on it both before and after. No writer fails to discuss the fact that artists are expected to push beyond what is humanly possible in the name of “art”. And that somehow that is perfection or “absolute art”. In the scene at the end of the movie when “Nina” has reached that supernatural point, her only words are “I was perfect.”

Yet, what exactly did her performance achieve?

Did the audience experience the same supernatural euphoria that she was feeling as she was spinning her way into a physical transformation?

What was the purpose of her “art”?

Why do we have such a fascination with the abnormal?

And if it’s not beyond the limits, then is it not art? Is a dancer who is not mad, less of an artist than one who is?

Is no one really crazy, just very creative? Or the reverse, are some of the things we categorize as art just something totally insane?

This was a question I pondered more than one while walking the halls of the many art shows during Art Basel week here in Miami.

No Glass Ceilings: Four Women in the Arts

I haven't written in a while simply because I have not been inspired. I have also been putting together some projects which I will announce in due time. But last night, something happened. I went to a monthly meeting of a group I joined several months ago called "ArtTable." The ArtTable is an association of professional women in the visual arts, founded in NYC but with branches in most major US cities. Last night's meeting was a panel discussion on the brilliant Christo & Jeanne-Claude "Surrounded Islands" installation in Biscayne Bay in 1983. While the work of art was provocative and moving, what was magical for me was to witness four heroines of the early days of the Miami art scene come together to share their amazing experiences with us. The four women were: Paula Harper, Ruth Shack, Helen Kohen, and Margarita Cano (as pictured right to left-note that two women wore hot pink in honor of the installation!).


To give some of you some insight into the event here is how the invitation read:

"Surrounded Islands" was to be a temporary art event, but what transpired during the preparation of the project and what its gorgeous unveiling on Biscayne Bay meant to Miami still reverberates today. The dressing of 11 spoil islands in pink plastic was the catalyst that turned a culturally sleepy town into a vital city, home to art and artists. The panelists for the May ArtTable program, participants and monitors of "Surrounded Islands", will share their memories of the roles played by individual citizens and special interest groups during those contentious days leading to the "live" exhibition portion of their uncommon, common efforts.

Margarita Cano: As head of Art Services at Miami's library system, it was her initiative that gave us the first glimpses of what "Surrounded Islands" might look like when Christo's earliest drawings and sketches of the project were exhibited at Main Library in 1982.

Paula Harper, Ph.D.: Professor of Art History at UM, and the Art Critic at the Miami News during the period under discussion, she is a well-known Christo scholar, familiar with most all the couple's projects about which she has both written and lectured.

Ruth Shack: Recently retired President and CEO of the Dade Community Foundation, she was a Dade County Commissioner from 1976 to 1986, in the "hot seat" during the time the Christo project was the focus of attention from local, state and national governmental friends (she was one) and foes (there were many).

Moderated by Helen L. Kohen. Art Historian, Critic, Consultant to Main Library's Vasari Project [an archive of the visual arts in Miami from 1945 to the present]

I should say that the only thing contrary to my title "No Glass Ceilings" was the brief discussion that at the time of the project, credit was only given to Christo as an artist. His wife and partner, Jeanne-Claude, was president of their corporation, and was the person who made everything happen, but as he was the one behind the drawings, models, etc, he was considered the sole "creator." It was not until 1995, that the couple changed the accreditation of ALL their works to "Christo and Jeanne-Claude," acknowledging that without the logistics, all of their ideas would have remained just that, ideas.
Lastly, I sat next to Dr. Carol Damian, the director of the Frost Museum at FIU, and another pioneer in Miami's art scene. I left inspired by these women, let's just see where that inspiration takes me.

Design and Inspiration: Christian Louboutin and Matteo Bonetti at Design Miami/

Last week was really an inspirational week for me. While many criticize the hype of Art Basel Miami Beach week in Miami, the truth is that there is a lot of creative energy that one feels going to various shows and seeing the works that other human beings are or have created. The energy that comes from the enthusiasm people exude was rejuvenating.
I went to a fantastic talk with Christian Louboutin and Matteo Bonnetti, who described themselves not as designers or artists, but as artisans, craftsmen. This was quite meaningful to me. I find more value in the concept of being a craftsman, than just calling oneself an "artist". Somehow that word has developed some negative connotations for me. It made me realize that-to an extent-I am an artisan too. There is a certain artistry and workmanship to what I do. I put things together. I don't "make" them but I still create something with them. Mr. Louboutin, doesn't make the leather, he molds it and colors it and makes it something that it previously was not. And that ultimately is what expression is all about. Creating something helps us feel real and until now I've never really acknowleged that in myself. I've always seen myself as doing something more practical, for many years I feel like I've been going through the motions. I've focused on the function of furniture and design and forgotten to acknowledge that the right combination of a few pieces or a work of art can be more than the sum of its parts. So, here's to new understandings and new aspirations, to figuring out who I want to be instead of what I want to be. And thank you to all the people who were out on the streets and all the artists exhibiting their work this week reminding me that I am part of something bigger, a community. No man is an island.