Kevin Stewart-Magee's studio blog

Logical, as in eco-logical

2008-12-15T11:20:00.000-08:00

Howdy, hope the Holidays are going well for you.

What better time to take a minute and think about being less wasteful and having a lighter touch with the planet? We are in the middle of a culture wide season of openness and love, and during the season you are often asked to extend your thinking to the homeless, those displaced by disaster, war or economic losses. It does touch us all personally and when we stop to feel the world around us, it is hard not to shrink back in dismay. There are huge number of agencies and organizations that let you know where to write a check, where to drop of some canned goods and how much to drop in the plate. These are all great, wonderful things to do.

But, you can, day by day, alter the world and help to eliminate these problems, or help bring them down to a scale that is manageable. Really.

Logically, the condition of the world is the result of the actions of billions of people all doing... whatever we are doing. And when we are responsible, empathetic and wise, the world actually improves in the presence of humans. Or suffers less, perhaps, and certainly the suffering of other humans need not be directly attributed to the prosperity of a few, or the ignorance of many.

If there are enough artists out there to create the market share to drive international magazines, books, websites and supply stores then we have an economic impact. Your actions, are repeated, with different results, in studios around the world. And you are intentionally setting out to sway other humans with the brilliance of your insights, creativity and thinking. You are demonstrating your right brained problem solving skills every day. If you have a great idea for saving the world, unlike many others, your work and relationships are perfect mediums for transmitting solutions to problems and new kinds of thinking to the world.

If, for each artist, there are ten people who watch the art work and art making process closely enough to be moved to participate in the dance with us, then we are a movement.

If those ten people touch the lives of one hundred others each year, then we can change the world. Because some of the artists and some of those watching artists use print, film, TV and other broadcast mediums, like say, blogging, then millions are impacted by the work and processes of a handful of artists.

We are a force of nature. Smart, furry mammals with heads full of good and bad lightning. We can set fire to the world around us or we can light the way.

My idea is simple. I learned it from you. I watch the ways that artists save a little money here, plant a good idea there, and extend their care beyond their work and home to the people who watch and students they teach. I see at least three simple things we can all do, and you are probably doing them already.

Teach and model better processes and use of materials and resources.

Think about the long term effects of process, material (choice and use) and ideas on ourselves and the larger world.

Consciously expand your positive impact by learning/teaching, sharing and replacing illogical, irresponsible and unfriendly processes, materials and ideas in our studios and work.

For a start.

"Paperclips" responsible movie

2008-12-11T14:01:00.000-08:00

A short post to suggest a film that's now out on DVD.

"Paperclips" is the story of a small town middle school in Tennessee. As a part of their attempt to work compassion into the classwork and fight a regional trend toward racism, they begin a holocaust study program. Early on the kids have a tough time getting their heads around the size of the numbers, 7,000,000 jews killed in camps, 5,000,000 gays, gypsies, teachers, writers and "deviants" killed. No one could imagine what those kinds of numbers looked like and so they began to collect paperclips, one for each life lost.

That is just the beginning of the journey for the kids, the parents, the teachers and administrators of this school. By the end I was crying, dazzled by the commitment and insights these folks had. The town and it's visitors have a life changing experience. No one in the film uses the term, but this is an installation piece with amazing documentation, performance and of course the film itself all growing organically from the process of trying to understand something too huge, too horrible and too long ago for these kids to grasp. They bring things down to a scale that makes the reality even more stunning and personal.

If you have a family or group moment and want to share an amazing film. Check this one out.

It is responsible on so many levels, inspiring and so much bigger than the individuals involved. In other words, it's art at the level I wish we saw more of.

Hope you like it. If you know of other installation, documentation films, please let me know.

"Responsible Artist" oxymoron or just old fashioned moron?

2008-12-09T15:45:00.001-08:00

Back in October at the Envisioning the Future reunion bash I ran into my old friend Julie Kornblum. She is a talented fiber artist, eco artist and chair of the SCWCA's ECO ARTs sub group. And a swell person. Really. She told the group what she was up to and like everyone else I was impressed. Working, showing, dealing with important issues in her work and rubbing shoulders with the elite of LA's art world. She is doing good stuff as well as good work.

We talked, blah, blah. I told her that I have an interest in a lot of the same issues. In addition that I have been gathering information about things like safe studios, green art and artists' health (see previous post for proof). I'm starting to gather information on responsible painting and studio processes with some attention to the big picture, the real cost of doing what we do. The damage to us from the processes, the sources of our materials and tools, the impact of all the stuff we make and the role of artists as, well, role models.

The Question is are we modeling smart, safe, logical and responsible behavior or are we killing ourselves, trashing the planet and doing it with the lights on and the camera rolling, inviting the world to watch and imitate us in some boho narcissistic orgy? This question made more important because of the central role of artists as cultural avant guard, teachers, gurus, mentors and parents. Killing ourselves would be sad and stupid. Killing off those who trust us and follow our lead, that would be criminal.

Boho orgy? Right. Have you any idea how sane all us mostly-vegetarian, research driven, living large but cheap artist types look right now? Nothing like pulling the funding on an entire wing of society to teach us how to tighten our belts and work as a team. And the guys in the suits, Bankers, button down financial types, now those guys look like the wackos. "American Psycho" is looking like industry profiling. In our wildest nightmares we could not imagine trickle down economics running this wildly amok.

Rather than artists being the lunatic fringe, arrested development, tax wasting, social luxury we often are dismissed as, I think that the opposite is true. It seems to me that the concerns that the rest of the world are just now waking up to, the economic realities, the environmental concerns, the impact of globalization and runaway corporate greed, marginalized populations, racism, sexism, agism and all the rest, have been front and center at most museums, galleries and studios for 50 years or more. The work that has been done from "The Dinner Party" to the "Road to Aztlan", has been prophetic and dead on the mark regarding the world at the end of the Bush years. We thought the world was going to hell and the good news is that we were right.

Uh, the bad news...

Oh hell.

In my own timid way, I shared some of my thoughts on the above with Julie in October. She is doing amazing work with art made out of trash, but, amazing and beautiful stuff, not fish heads and coffee grounds. Here is a link to her SCWCA page, see for yourself. SCWCA Artists' Registry Entry for Julie Kornblum

And despite the slightly crazed and manic edge that this issue brings up in me, she invited me to share a bit on green studio processes, artist health concerns and my work with her group.

In an email to me she labeled what I do "Responsible Painting", which sounds so grown up that I let her. Trust me, there are a bunch of folks I'd invite if I could prove in one presentation that I am a "responsible" painter. The posts that follow are, bite by bite, me chewing over the word, responsible and all that it might mean.

cheers, right back atcha

Healthy Studio, healthy artists

2008-12-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

I am an advocate of healthy studio practices. The classic text, "Artist Beware" by Michael McCann, PhD tops my list of must read books for artists in any medium. There are half a dozen excellent books on the topic and the basic information is the same, be careful, be smart, consider the long term effects of repeated use of any mildly irritating or toxic material no matter how innocent or odorless. To start, buy or check out one of these books. It's less than $15 bucks. Put it on your Christmas or New Year's gift list right now. Think of what it might save you.

And what is bad for you is bad for your family, the people you work around, the environment and on and on. Like second hand smoke, toxic materials and practices can have a serious effect on everything. Unlike second hand smoke, you need to do a little homework to figure out the best way to deal with the issue. If you have kids or students, you are not just teaching them potentially bad habits but exposing them to hazardous materials. Do what you can to keep them safe and maybe save your own life in the process.

I thought I'd make some of the homework easier for you, because I like you. There it is, affection and a strong desire not to have another friend get sick or die because no one told them that paint, glaze, solvents, pastels, dry pigments, sanding plaster, and plutonium are toxic. At the end of this post is a list of websites to get you started. And for the record, plutonium is a lousy pigment anyway, just don't use it.

For painters the big risks have to do with breathing and handling solvents and pigments. This gets a lot riskier if you make your own paint or get your hands into the stuff, like I do. Simple precautions begin with wearing barrier cream and a breather, not just a cheap little nose dust mask, but a good dust and fume filter like the one pictured. Eye protection is also recommended.

When you handle anything often, or for years and years, the risks increase. So students and occasional artists don't run the risks that professional or regular painters do. The volume of paint or solvent matters, so muralists, faux surface painters, grand scale painting and work in large volume all make this more of an issue for you. To put it bluntly, if you spread enough paint to make a living, you might be killing yourself.

I have to add, the more paint you use and the more often you paint, the more likely you are to take all this for granted. You aren't sick yet and you feel fine. Please, don't assume that because you don't have a reaction to paint or solvents that you aren't doing damage. Old house painters and billboard painters are all sick, unless they were very lucky or fell off the ladder before the other symptoms showed up.

The list of artists who have died from the effects of the craft is long, tragic and heartbreaking. I have friends on that list. If you have other health issues, smoke or are just starting to consider the health risks after more than 20 years of painting, you need to take this seriously.

From ancient times artists' lives have been impacted by the tools and materials we use. If the government is now deciding that just being in a room that has been freshly painted is a serious health risk, what about standing over an open palette and smearing wet paint for hours a day for years and years. So, first get to know the risks based on the type and brand of materials, then see if there are healthier alternatives. After that, see that you get out once in a while, work in an area with good ventilation or in a really big room, and ALWAYS use barrier cream and a mask if you are handling pigments or solvents.

As a result of handling solvents in high school and college I poisoned myself and have a serious reaction to hydrocarbons. A small amount of petro-solvents causes me to swell up, get nauseous and have severe headaches. No one mentioned the risks at the time and I can only wonder how bad the damage to my system was that I would have these reactions over 30 years later. Be smart and be careful.

Here are some links to get you started. Notice that several are government operated. The same people who think it's okay to sell automatic weapons think ceramics might kill you... so guns don't scare 'em, but red glaze # 4 does. Makes ya think.

A great data base of materials and techniques, risks and precautions.

Health & Safety in the Arts

the page from the above about paint and drawing materials

Health & Safety in the ARts: Painting & Drawing Pigments

Artist safety links and information from the National Library of Medicine

Keeping the Artist Safe: Hazards of Arts and Crafts Materials

More links from the Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology

CROETweb: Artist Safety and Health — General Information

a page by an artist with similar concerns

Toxic Art Materials, Baugh Norman Oils, Contemporary Figurative Art and Symbolism

2008-06-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

Against The Wall

The Ruin and Renewal of LA's Murals

Morono Kiang Gallery

June 14, 2008

This was a well attended and interesting program that featured a panel of artists, art admin and government mural experts. Judith Baca, Yreina Cervantez Pat Gomez, Man One, Michael Woo and Sonia Mak as moderator. Eloy Torrez opened the event with a few words about his work on the "Pope of Broadway" mural and the current efforts to raise money to restore and repair this great mural.

Questions posed to the panel included; what the panel thought were the greatest threats to LA's murals, what some solutions might be, what could be done differently and what the future might hold for LA's murals. The serious problem behind the concerns is that LA is not currently funding murals in any organized way, no new mural programs, no real organized restoration and no consistent maintenance program. For muralists the problem is their own survival as well as the survival of the work. We were recently known as the Mural Capital of the world. Given the scope of the problems and the very personal threat to some of the participant's life work, everyone was quite polite.

Everyone there saw value in the great, historic murals. Not a big surprise given the crowd and venue. It was a who's who of mural supporters in LA, whether because of their personal investment, political or philosophical agendas and the gallery is across the street from "the Pope of Broadway". The big question, how do we create, build community or maintain work without money, was unanswered, but there were some serious attempts. Good murals cost money and are additive, should be budgeted for in the community that "owns" them. That ownership may be because the murals are historic, reflective of the community and it's values or because they have become an important landmark associated with good times, or because the community did the work, paid for the work or is reflected directly in the work.

How do we protect the murals we love? How do we support public art in our community? How do we involve young artists and street artists in the work and show them respect so that they may respect the murals? Where will funding for future murals come from? Who decides what is worth saving?

These are good questions. Each artist/muralist, each site and each community is working through this or will be soon. Will we divide along lines of taste, age, ethnicity and income? I hope not. Art, thoughtful, caring and with real meaning should have value for everyone in the community even if each mural is not by or for them. More murals should allow for a wider audience to feel that they have been included. New murals need to consider maintenance as well as aesthetics and politics. It's a complex world out there.

I'm going to keep looking at how various murals have survived, how some communities answer these questions and what strategies diverse muralists use.

What do you think? I'm going to reflect on this and maybe offer some ideas in the future. I'm glad I attended the event and am grateful to the gallery and participants for keeping this topic alive and in the air.

Losing Lyndsey

2008-06-06T15:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the last day of full time work for my studio assistant, project manager and buddy, Lyndsey Morel.

She had worked with me for about 3 years and been the guardian of studio processes and keeper of the truth. She is an amazing artist and human. We get along well in part because she is a great lateral thinker. As long as she's had some sleep, there is a solution for almost every problem and while you might think that a mural studio is an oasis of calm and beauty, there is stress, crisis and drama, but Lyndsey has been the fire brigade and hostage negotiator for our little team.

Now Lyndsey is on her way to continue her education in metals and jewelry, starting with a month or so in San Francisco. She'll be back in August to take classes in Long Beach, but the studio is no longer the top priority for her. I am going to miss her.

Even the studio cat loves Lyndsey the most. She's a wise and much worldly 25 year old. I often turn to her for advice and along with Aimee Wright, her clear thinking forms the heart of my faith that her generation will do wonderful things with the messes they have been left. There is a wonderful combination of practicality, compassion and courage that combine in a spirit of adventure and discovery. I will have to think and feel my way through my own messes for now.

We hope she has a blast in the city and has a little energy left over to work with us part time in the fall.

Observation and Knowledge

2008-05-31T17:46:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my blog.

I need to start somewhere, so I’m going to start in the present, with the work I’m doing right now. Some time in the future I’ll wander into the past when things get boring, redundant or depressing. At the moment I’m preparing for a new project by doing research, drawing and photography.

We spent the Memorial Day weekend driving a big loop from Los Angeles to Stallion Springs out Routes 58 and 40 under Las Vegas and then around the city to the Red Rock area for a short stay at Bonnie Springs before returning home.

With gas over 4 bucks a gallon in LA, why would I do that? I feel that most of the artwork that resonates deeply with people is rooted in intense personal knowledge, passion and experience. It’s not a fresh opinion and not original. Paint what you know. Dance what you feel. Sing the songs you know from your roots. I need to get to know what I plan to paint.

Mental pictures form before the painting starts. The pictures are a balance of observation and knowledge. Think of figure drawing, where you draw primarily what you see in front of you, or think of painting in the field. Over time you add to what you see with what you know and what you see adds to what you know for next time. Each artist and each work of art is a balance of both knowledge and observation. Even if the observation is of the inside of your own head, your dreams, your imagination. I think of drawing and painting as both a way to express my passion and a way of capturing the world. I take in all I can, I give back all that I’m able.

If I’m going to paint something, someplace new, I need to gain knowledge and experience. In my work I expand my knowledge base by observation and research, guided by my passion. I go where the image lives. I don’t search the web for the image, crop it and try to be just barely legal. I think of landscape work the same way I think of figurative work, still life or any new or old genre of image. If I’m painting a mountain I want to understand it from several sides, over seasons, different times of day and in different contexts. I want to know what I can to inform my work with a more than superficial knowledge.

This is tricky. It makes me humble because I start out knowing nothing and after days or even months of observation and driving, hiking, climbing and taking pictures, I still don’t know much. Superficial is relative. I don’t know what these particular mountains look like under snow. Or twenty years before the freeway came in. I don’t know who lives here and who is visiting, where they came from. I don’t know the local mythology, but by the time I leave I know some history. I will never know as much as one of the local kids, working hands or dishwashers. But I know more than I did. And if I work hard, I know enough to allow the image to relate to the people who know it well and not contradict their intimate knowledge with bad assumptions. I can inform the work with enough truth and informed opinion to introduce the place to new viewers and record some sense of place and time for the future when the context, environment and knowledge base of the viewer will make this a historical document of a lost place and time.

Historical, how? Because just last week is already a lost time, one landslide, a hard rain, a wild fire or closing a single trail will make some of my images difficult or impossible to duplicate. And sad experience has taught me that moving the trail is the least of what the future holds for natural observations. Some of my favorite hikes have burned, closed, been paved or sleep under mini malls and condos. It’s progress, but I’m not always optimistic about what we are progressing toward. Enough editorial.

So, observation through experience. Hike, drive, sit and watch, nap and listen, take a few hundred photos, sort the photos, organize the experience through drawing, notes and conversation. Read, research and study. With the goal of being informed enough to paint, on a very large scale, the landscape that other people live in and work in, in a way that lets a viewer project their personal experience onto the image.

Guided by knowledge, by my training and experience, I observe and start to form images that may become paintings.

Each day in the studio is an education. Exposing my weaknesses and gaps in my knowledge, teaching me new skills and strengthening old working habits. It’s the opposite of research. I start out knowing all I know and start discarding all of the information and opinion that is irrelevant to the current work, with the goal of creating enough room in my small mind for both old knowledge and new experience to combine in a fresh way which will excite me enough to stay motivated over the weeks or months it may take to paint a mural. And more importantly, will inform the mural or painting with both passion and content enough to be interesting, beautiful and relevant to a diverse audience.

This is the hard part of art for me. Getting into a huge volume of information and imagery is like being neck deep in the Pacific on a hot day. It is wave after wave of pure joy, deep pleasure and natural refreshment. Walking out of all that wonder with only a few drops clinging to my skin, a sense of place and time that evaporates just as quickly from my mind and crossing the hot sand to do the work...