posted on my FaceBook page June 22, 2023
time: NOW
where: HERE
Yesterday, during my weekly phone call with David (best friend of 40 years, guitar player in Mecca Normal, graphic novelist, collaborative partner) I wanted to know how his Zoom lecture with art students in Toronto had gone. It was on the subject of research and even though the students were creating digital art, while David is more of a pencil and paper artist (graphic novels), they had expressed interest in his take on research, but, by their reactions within the Zoom structure, it was hard for David to tell how much they got out of it.
I reminded him of a classroom presentation we did at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts, a private art university in LA) circa 2009 that left us feeling like the students got very little from our How Art & Music Can Change the World presentation, so we were feeling defeated as we packed up and hit the road. At some point later, a few of those students contacted us via the internet (likely MySpace) to say they’d stayed up late that night discussing what we’d talked about and that we’d made a huge impression.
When I say the Free Artist Residency is for progressive social change, different interpretations will arise. Since the project is predominantly online, it isn’t difficult to find what my intentions and perspectives are. Those here, following along, are likely interested in the complex nature of the making, promoting and buying/selling of art that will result in a facility being created to support artists who intend to change the world. It’s a somewhat uniquely nuanced situation that I don’t feel needs any more explanation at this point. It’s in motion, in flux and on the cusp of becoming a reality. I wish I had more funds for a bigger, better place, but in most ways, it’s incredible that it’s happening at all. Single woman in her 60s sells enough of her paintings on FB to open free artist residency! Sounds highly improbable!
In a quick exchange with a buyer yesterday I mentioned the real estate roller coaster with him because he lives in this region and would totally get the obstacles. I said I thought many followers expected me to somehow buy a very fancy place (I get PMs with listings way above $1M) and in this region (with dwindling painting sales that make me even more cautious about how much I spend) it looks like I’ll be buying a house of much less value than I’d envisioned. He messaged back saying, “It’s not how fancy the residency will be but the foundation of the project that will shine through and that foundation is you! The added features will be nature itself, from which hopefully the resident artists can draw inspiration from!”
OK! Well, that was exactly what I needed to hear! He can’t be the only one who sees it this way. Expectation and disappointment are not good to take on board, so I’m erring on the side of hopefulness and tenacity through this long process.
For the most part, my paintings haven’t been been overtly political during the time I’ve been focused on setting aside funds for the artist residency, but their political nature is easily connected to my cultural activism since 1983. Also, it’s political enough to be a woman painting mostly women without making each face traditionally pretty, sexy or otherwise a fit with patriarchal objectification and subjugation. That the vast majority of buyers of my (thousands) of portraits of women are women, is also political. I prefer to leave all of this open-ended rather than come up with an artist statement of intention. We know what’s happening here! We don’t need me to tell us what’s happening! 
Being open-ended allows for the project to be flexible to the realities that need to be dealt with.
The actual model for the Free Artist Residency is the Black Dot Museum of Political Art which was invented over an excellent Indian meal maybe 20 years ago. I recall David and I went to a small park near the restaurant to continue talking about the idea of a museum that can be wherever we are. A museum that could be poured out of something no bigger than a box of matches. Archived items could be passed around a group with commentary provided.
All that aside, those interested in the Free Artist Residency are, for the most part, left to imagine what it will look like and what will happen there, but here’s an example of something that could happen with a group of artists or students, tailored to where we happen to be right now.
Welcome to a Political Art Workshop here in this post. I have no idea what will happen. This brings up the idea of objectives. These aren’t actually necessary when creating political art, but may be useful in the creative process. Objectives can be very general or super specific, but are maybe typically somewhere in between. Let’s take the incidents I’ve introduced, which, as part of this workshop I’m not going to name. You only need to look at the side-by-side images to know what I’m referring to. So, let’s name an objective. After doing a very small amount of research, I see that there’s an election coming up later this month in Greece, which… what do I know about Greece? They had well-documented economic issues not that many years ago and are likely not doing well. They have some sort of caretaker government. That doesn’t sound good, but maybe it is. I’m not going to claim I know what’s going on there. I do know they have had many refugees and migrants arrive on their shores (as much as any shores can be anybody’s, but that’s another matter). Cripes, other than a sense of having seen a lot of references to this issue over a long time, I feel best informed by the film “The Swimmers” not sure of the title but, for the purposes of this workshop, I’m not going to check the title. See how we’re moving forward, not getting bogged down with details that extend beyond the point which also includes leaving the point a bit vague.
key words: Coast Guard, rescue, billionaire, refugee
There are many reasons not to generate political art.
– getting it wrong
– negative reaction
– futility
There are reasons to create political art:
– effectiveness (in terms of making change)
– long history of art making that relates to social justice issues
– the value of purpose (in terms of happiness, community etc.)
Here’s the basis of the situation. The missing submersible has captured attention. Millions of dollars have been spent to rescue the 5 tourist/adventurers and tour guide/CEO on board. This is happening within the same time frame as the boat of refugees and migrants sinking near Greece 6 days ago.
“Questions remain over the role of the Greek coastguard in the incident and why those onboard were not rescued sooner.” – Al Jazeera
As far as the creation of political art goes, I feel that posting the image is actually enough. It does not need words. It does not need color or a “better” drawing. Why does it not need words? Because this actual pairing of incidents is on many people’s minds. There is no need to denigrate the sub passengers, but rather, this is an opportunity to advance the agenda of more humane treatment of refugees and migrants in the Med. There are of course many groups working towards this end, but adding voices to seemingly insurmountable issues can be helpful. However futile it may seem, this is a valid objective, as is connecting with like-minded people who value having a specific concern represented in a public sphere.
For the purpose of this workshop, I won’t be creating a more articulate, better researched, perspective-driven visual. I will make this a stand-alone statement and respect that enough people will see it and know that it points to injustice, class, wealth and poverty, privilege and the opposite of privilege which is a diminished state of being disposable.
My fears about posing this image.
– offending
– getting yelled at
– getting the timing wrong (since it appears the sub passengers have perished)
I am probably getting the timing wrong. This would have been better yesterday while the spending of millions on the search was still going on.
Having posted the image, and in this case, including a workshop (which is now concluding… thank you for attending), the creation of political art has now been accomplished. It’s good that it didn’t take half a day of deliberation that could have resulted in not doing anything. This is frequently the fate of good intentions.
You can go to the Black Dot Museum of Political Art FaceBook page to see the stand-alone image without the workshop content above.
This workshop is a companion to my FaceBook post yesterday (also on my artist site) about the benefits of spontaneous art-making.
Jean Smith 