Internet for Artists

I recently attended "Internet for Artists" at the Creative Capital foundation. It was a short intensive mind bending experience and it changed the way I thought about social media. It also targeted using a broad range of internet applications to achieve specific career goals. If you get the chance take this workshop!!! I learned as much as one might pick up in a year. The excellent presenters; Matthew Deleget, Eve Mosher, Sue Schaffner, Chris Doyle, Steve Lambert, Brad Lichtenstein and gracious hosts; Alyson Pou and Marcie Bramucci at Creative Capital, made this a wow.

On an amusing note, as sculptor Miriam Schaer pointed out, this workshop had all women attendees. She queried, "Does this have to do with not being afraid to ask directions?" I don't know if that's the case, to me it's all about working smart. When during a Twitter one-on-one, I glanced out the window and saw the view, I found a mantra for the weekend. You go girls!

Andy, Andy, Andy

O.K now you know...he's one of my idols. The meister of cool speaks on Jasper Johns:

Lukewarm Comfort?

Continuing on with Andy Warhol. I'm sitting here looking at today's crop of rejections. As artist's we take lots of rejection. I know it's not personal—doesn't fit in with the curators concept, too big a work for the show and so on but it always has a little sting. For me, how big that sting depends on how that day is going.

Most artist's find comfort in their community. For myself, I find comfort in the letter I have hanging right next to my computer. It's a letter from the Museum of Modern Art explaining why it's not fair for them to accept a donated work from Andy because of "severely limited storage space" and because the "work may be shown only infrequently". Admittedly it was early in his career, but to me it's always worth a smile and a hope for the future.

Photo of Andy Warhol
Source: Santa Barbara Independent

Commercial Confusion

Carter Kustera has had some of the most interesting career moves of anyone I ever met. He was assistant for a while to a famous painter. They met when Carter bummed a cigarette off him, got the artist to autograph it, then lit up right in front of him and smoked it. He was hired. He's now doing custom portraits for Jonathan Adler along with his own practice. This blurring of the commercial and personal has been going on for a long time. The forerunner was probably Andy Warhol. Andy was forerunner in lot's of other ways too, including the cult of celebrity. With the blurring of all these arenas, an artist has to understand legal, licensing and contracts. Carter broke new ground suing, not on the slippery slope of ideas and copyright, but for" commercial confusion." He won. If Andy were alive, he'd have a field day!

American Romance

New work as american as...a Ford. I have a romance with cars, trucks, dashboards, you name it. My new work is emerging as a continuation of the push pull pictorial plane, this time in the driver's seat. Could this be a hopeful metaphor for my career?

Security Blanket 2

Breaking news you can use... Shepard Fairey is going to be on Charlie Rose tonight.



I stumbled across another security blanket issue in the delightful work of Jerilea Zempel. Her story is a wild and hilarious account of a border stop, where a sketchbook drawing for covering an SUV with crochet turned into a matter of National Security. I'd love to meet her someday—especially because I'd like to be invited to one of her Subversive cookie parties. Below left is an image of cookies from Jerilea's society. Right is Kurt at the recent holidays with a parallel universe cookie by one of the kids.

Some Jobs Take Longer Than Others

Two views looking towards the studio from 15th Street.

September 10, 1891
by C. C. Langill

January 31, 2009
by Kurt Hoss