Exit through the gift shop

Great documentary!! How could anyone who is interested in the arts (myself) have not known about the success of these street artists?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587707/

Sculpture - Paper Dolls

For my sculpture project I chose to create paper mache dolls. I hope to continue and refine my craft. As for now, these images show 2 of the 5 dolls I made and my statement is as follows:

When I was growing up, it was always cool to be somewhat of a tomboy. Many feminine things were labeled “girlie” and had unspoken connotations of being frivolous, weak and/or annoying. I grew up with a single father and that further enhanced my distance from typical “girlie” things. The only dolls I ever liked were Cabbage Patch Kids and stuffed animals. I think I had 2 Barbie dolls that I never played with. I didn’t know what to do with them. I would have rather played kickball or with shrinky dinks.

As an adult I have more of an affinity towards dolls. I am not interested in dolls for entertainment media or traditional collectible dolls, but I am really drawn to “art dolls”. I particularly like the work of Virginie Ropars, a doll artist in France who went from being a graphic artist to becoming a 3D modeler and illustrator. She shows her work regularly in Europe and America. Dolls are loaded with gender concepts as in the work of Greer Lankton, who was born a man but led his life as a woman and used dolls to express his perceptions of gender in his installation art. Both of these artists have inspired me. (http://vropars.free.fr/ARCHIVESGALLERY_1.htm and http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/morton/morton1-26-07.asp)

This work celebrates the doll and the defining feminine side of women that is different from men and that we should celebrate in this post-modern world that aims for equality. They also represent the dolls I never had.

Krzysztof Wodiczko

I'd like to blog about numerous artists that we discussed in class. I'm happy to have my resources expanded and to learn about many new artists. I decided to choose one of the last artists that we looked at in class to discuss - Krzysztof Wodiczko. His work is really amazing and the examples that the documentary showed really related to some of my personal knowledge.

When Wodiczko showed the women in Tijuana I thought of a friend who went down there, ignorant to the world of sex tourism and trafficking. I knew it was horrible when he went, but after learning about trafficking, as mentioned in a previous post, I realize that it's probably much worse than I thought over there. His work shed light on some of the atrocities. I hope that his work reaches people like the guys I have come in contact with that support dysfunctional sex tourism, and inadvertently support trafficking, without thinking of the women involved.

Living in Japan, I visited the building that is still standing after the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Going to Hiroshima was an intense experience. We visited that building, went to the museum and saw the exhibit of the cranes... one origami crane for each child that died. The museum showed how people were walking down the street melting. It looked like a fictitious horror movie. When people were talking about their experiences I thought of one of my first students in Japan, who is now a facebook friend, Itchitaro Suzuki. He was one of my oldest students and a retired teacher. One day we were doing a lesson on past tense and one of the prompts had students tell the group about kindergarten. He burst into tears. I didn't understand what was going on. Finally, he said that's when the bombs came. He survived the bombings in Tokyo. I had no idea Tokyo was bombed during WWII, but actually Kyoto was the only place that was not bombed. We set off two atomic bombs, but dropped regular bombs over the rest of the country.

I think that Wodiczko's work moved all of us in class that night and must have reached so many people with each of his shows. He lets people explain why these aspects of our societies should not exist. It's really amazing.

Head Games: Engaging Popular Visual Culture - Reflection on Reading

The article "Head Games: Engaging Popular Visual Culture" really interested me. I wish there were pictures to go along with the article so that we could see the project. The article is by a doctoral student, David Darts, who conducted his research with his high school students. David's research was focused on students' visual literacy and awareness of visual popular culture. They analyzed well known artists from history, as well as contemporary artists, who are socially engaged. They then created sculptures using donated mannequin heads from a hairdressing school with found object and cultural artifacts. They used collage and assemblage. The sculptures communicated social issues that were important to the individual student. Through the process the doctoral student tried to show them that they are active participants in their world, rather than passive, and quoted another article, "that they have a role in the making of their world and that they need not accept positions as passive spectators or consumers" (Trend, 1992 via Darts, 2006 inside Duncam, 2006).

The students chose the location for the installation, offering students the opportunity to actively participate in their everyday visual culture. They chose a gathering space that often held public rallies and protests and, inspired by artists included in their studies, they chose not to inform city officials that they would display their art. Some chose to stand next to their sculptures and engage in conversation with people passing by and others chose to blend in with the crowds or sit far enough away to photo document the experience. Students expressed their positive experiences later on and felt pride from having people interact with their sculptures. Some even expressed appreciation for the opportunity to engage in conversation with strangers about their work and about social issues.

When I read this it felt like a story of a teacher who had a very successful unit, more than doctoral research. Then again, I guess that's what some doctoral research is. I would love to do something like this with my students and put the book that the article seems to come from, Visual Culture in the Art Class Case Studies by Paul Duncam, on my Amazon queue. I also googled David Darts and he seems pretty amazing. I'd love to take his class at NYU. Even more so, I'm just jealous. I wish I was that successful doing something related to what he's doing. He even seems to have had most of his schooling paid for - http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/David_Darts.

Thinking of my own path, I'm looking forward to teaching and hope I am very successful. I'd love to master my job and keep up my own work. I look forward to finding what is possible. I hope that it works!

Visual Culture Friends - Behind the Scenes

Perhaps it's my own personal choices and interests that draw people of like minds, but many of my friends have chosen to focus their careers on some aspect of visual culture. My two closest friends both have careers in visual culture fields (graphic design and film). Most, or all, of us started with a desire to create and to have a decent paycheck at the same time. I'd like to talk about the career paths of three of these people who are going through some changes that offer insight into the lives of people in these fields.

My friend Eddie went to SVA for illustration and taught himself to be a web/graphic designer for extra income. He currently has two websites - www.ashworld.com and artcharger.ashworld.com After 10 years of freelancing odd jobs, getting by, but not very comfortably, he is thinking of going to teach in Japan. I helped him write his essay today, which explained the influence Japanese visual media has had on his life. It was cartoons, anime and video games that sparked his interest to begin drawing at a young age. He never stopped and devoted his life to drawing and art. Unlike artists of traditional media, he decided to go towards technology. Still, without being a corporate office worker, he has struggled for many years.

In America, it's more often American visual culture/media that draws people in and offers dreams that may never be fulfilled. My friend Yaniv, from high school, wanted to be an actor. He stuck to it for many years, acted in movies like Toxic Avenger IV and then got a job with Desperate Housewives in the production department - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0788979/ - He kept his dream that one day he'd be able to be an extra on the show, but it never happened. Last month he called me and told me that he got fired for speaking inappropriately. A woman on set had a baby girl and he jokingly said, "When she's 18, I'll date her." Inappropriate yes, but worth being fired... I can't agree. He thinks that corporate America is getting more conservative and notes that he has been working in corporate America.

Like Yaniv, my friend Pam also loves American visual culture and gets lured in by celebrities and film. Pam wanted to be writer, but has also always wanted to work in film. In addition to her short stories and a novel, she wrote a screenplay, but nobody with power ever looked at it. Instead she worked her way up the film hierarchy from a production assistant to a production coordinator, with a few jobs in the art department. If she keeps moving up she may one day be a producer. She actually got fired from her last job. It was the first time she got fired and it was mostly due to personality clashes and unrealistic expectations. Pam described this last job as working in the movie Devil Wears Prada, but it was film instead of fashion and the Devil Wore New Balance.In between jobs she spends her time making cards and small polymer sculptures.- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1061975/

The list can go on... The last roomate I had before living with my husband was a movie editor and made a few of his own movies (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0596392/). He freelanced and worked all the time. All he did was work on his movies, but finally had one show on HBO last year. He might be the most content of all of these people that I mention. Then again, he comes from Connecticut (privilege), has a mom who was an art teacher and a sister who is a somewhat successful actress (Gretchen Mol - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001543/) A friend from college who is a photo retoucher who started out by working for a porn magazine, retouching breasts to take away scars. I remember when he was living in a one bedroom apartment with two roomates in his living room. Now he works office jobs as n art director and is fine with that, but he's still does his own photoshop work on the side. I can also talk about my close friend who is a graphic designer for Library of America and does fine art on the side, and a friend I met in jury duty who is a photo editor for Fortune magazine and hates her boss... the list goes on.

Art jobs are sexy... so sexy, many people go for an MFA and end up without work. Still, this option is not open to everyone. I remember when I first got my BFA. I wanted to go for an MFA, but I did not have enough money, even with a loan. So, I moved on. For many people who can do it, it's worth the gamble when you see the way of life when you are successful creating you're own work... what a great life that would be... to just do art and nothing else. It's like you're not working. However, many people end up compromising, going for commercial art jobs and/or forgetting about it all. Some people have more drive, more artistic talent or more of a need for stable living conditions. People are also starting from different places in terms of social support, knowledge, skills and financial support. I think that there are many, many factors that go into the career choices of people who are interested in the arts and many many factors that go into the result. This post is just a glimpse of the paths that a few creative people decided to take.

Children's Imagination

I was walking down the street when I saw a little girl. She was at a distance from the adult she was with, so you could imagine her being alone on the street. She was turning around and saying, "I'm a pixie." She had a pink tool on which resembled that of a faerie. She seemed so comfortable in her element. She was able to freely speak her imagination on the corner of the street in the Upper West Side of NYC. She was adorable.

This experience reminded me of why I want to go back to teaching. I love the imagination little kids have. Just like when I went to see Leah and those kids were able to enjoy the idea that their paintbrush was named Beverly and to paint you made her hair dance. How cool is that? When I taught elementary school I worked with kids who had a hard time using scissors. I would tell them to think of the scissors as the scissor monster whose most favorite treat in life is to eat the line. Then I'd make eating noises as it chomped the line and the scissors cut on the line. The kids would love this and they would ask me what flavor it was. We were able to talk within the world of imagination. It's a really fun place! :)

ROSS GLOBAL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL - CHILDREN OBSERVATION**

I walked into the building and it felt like a regular public school. I walked towards the office it was very quiet with large posters in the hallway and I noticed a room with couches. I went to the main office which was much more informal than a regular public school. there was just a few desks and not that large counter separating the staff from the visitors. Finally, I was escorted to the art room.

Leah's art room is very large and everything looks brand new. It looks like it has been renovated. Two walls are filled with windows which gives a view down an East Village street and a view of a rooftop next door. All the furniture is new and the chairs and tables are wooden, not like regular public school furniture. The room is arranged nicely. She has drying racks, cabinets, a white board and a small stereo to play music. Below one big window is a cushioned bench and below the bench are cubby holes for storage; which is all part of a larger cabinet unit. I am in a charter school.

Leah explained to me that the charter school was created to model a school in the

Hamptons that infuses culture into all subjects and is very supportive of the arts.. The school in the Hamptons is funded by some owners of Time Warner, or something similar to that idea. So, the school in the East Village has a very large budget to work with. On the website it says that they were developed in collaboration with NYU. I went to observe a first grade class.

I came early and helped Leah set up. There wasn't too much to do. I helped her cut paper and she showed me around the room. She contemplated what lesson to do and decided to continue with what she was doing with the other students. She had them draw a spiral and then paint inside the lines.

The kids came in and sat down. They seemed happy to be there. They were eager to know who I was and Leah had me introduce myself. We told them exactly what was going on. Leah goes to school to be an even better teacher than she is now and I am in her class. I will also be an art teacher. They were surprised that she went all the way to Brooklyn to go to school. One boy said that he went to Queens College in the summer for a program. They were adorable.

She elicited what the spiral was called. The kids had lots of names, but needed help remembering the word spiral. They spelled it out, drew a spiral in the air and got started. Once the kids were painting, they seemed to get calm; at least initially. Towards the middle of the period Leah asked for quite for 5 minutes and put some music on. It was nice.

I helped give out the paint and went along with Leah's explanation that the brush is called Beverly and she dances on the paint with her hair. The kids like that. One group later discussed the different colors of her hair and laughed. They all painted their spiral in different ways and as they were finished they were able to get a new paper and "free draw".

As they finished, the few closest to me were showing me their work. I'd ask a question and/or comment. I'd ask how they got a certain color, tell them that I see LOTS of colors. One girl painted her spiral with the same colors as her shirt so I pointed out how it matched. I think they enjoyed talking to me because as they finished they kept coming to me showing me their work. I had to start cutting paper to give them new ones of the same size and they were the same size and at this point they were just coming for another paper. I sat for a little while and then it was time to clean up. I helped the kids who were lagging behind to clean up their tables. I didn't do much as there was not much to clean up. The paints were paint cakes and each child had a cup of water with a brush or two.

Soon it was time to go and they lined up and left with their teacher (who was a sub for the day). They were able to take their work with them or leave it behind. Most took it home. Leah complimented one girl and told her how much she loved the painting, "I love it so much I almost stole it from you." After a minute or two the girl gave Leah the painting and said, "It's for you."

Free Jazz in Harlem!

Tina's sculpture sparked memories of that J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere's work and last night her presentation sparked memories of going to Marjorie Eliot's apartment a few months ago. Marjorie Eliot is a jazz pianist that loves to perform for people in her home. She invites other performers and opens her doors to friends and strangers and does not charge a thing. An article in the Daily News quoted her in 2009 saying, "I get more than I give."

A friend brought me up to her apartment for a night of jazz in January or February. At first I couldn't find it and felt annoyed at the out of the way location and the weather. I like jazz, and there is some jazz that I love, but sometimes I have a hard time getting into it. I didn't know what to expect.

When I finally got there, the apartment was packed. There were seats all the way to the front door and I was able to stand right in the entrance way next to the front door. It was uncomfortable. I was late and it was cold and raining. I wanted to go home. I listened to the jazz from the crowded doorway and thought how nice it was that she does this. The break came and I moved closer for the second set. In the room where they were playing, the lights were blue. I was able to sit next to the radiator and sit close to my friends.

When the second set began I was right in front of the jazz players and close to Marjorie. The music filled the room and it sounded great. It was played with passion and love and gave off a very positive energy. They played classics that I knew and a few songs that I didn't know. They came in and out of the during solo parts, taking their performance seriously and adding something playful to it. Everyone who played looked like they were really enjoying themselves. It wasn't about money or about being in a spotlight. It was about the music. It was also about remembering her son, who was a jazz musician. "Marjorie started the concerts in 1994 to honour the memory of her son, Phillip, who died of a kidney infection. She has not missed a weekend since. 'Back then, I just prayed for the doorbell to ring,' she said. 'Please let it ring, it means people want to come. So every time the doorbell rings now, even in the middle, my heart skips a beat.'" - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article408282.ece

The visual culture piece of this experience was the setting combined with the music. The visual aspect of her performance, her home, makes this experience like no other. The crowd is also a variety of ages and ethnicities/races (but primarily black and white). I looked around and the room was still full. There was an older couple in front of me that held hands as the woman looked at the man with a smile and when one of the classics started. I thought it would have been a perfect date for me and my husband, but I have not gone back yet.

At the end of the show she thanked everyone for coming and with sincerity. She acknowledged the Chinese New Year and said a few extra words for MLK's Birthday and the gratitude she has for what followed after his work. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes jazz.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/03/09/2009-03-09_marjorie_eliot_of_washington_heights_hos.html

http://www.harlemonestop.com/organization.php?id=84

A blog about blogs

One of the last movies I watched was Julia and Julia. My husband felt mildly tortured as I watched such a chick flick. As we watched it, it felt so sappy and unrealistic that we both were really surprised when we found out it was a true story. The woman blogged about cooking every recipe in one of Julia Child's most famous recipe books. It had 500 pages in it and she cooked at least one recipe a day. People actually noticed her blog, she got fans, got work as a writer and even had this movie made. I was a little in shock. I wonder how many people have gotten any fame from their blog and I wonder how many people actually make a living off their blog.

I don't think anyone would be interested in reading my blog aside from my professor. I decided to google visual culture blog and the first one that came up is actually posting some really cool things - http://www.oberholtzer-creative.com/visualculture/ - so I'm stealing some of the images for this post. I loved the gory zombie stationary, the organic cheat sheets (would love to keep those in my wallet!) and the drum umbrella, which is a new korean invention. The blog has been created by a design firm, which would explain why the blog is so design focused.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine invited me to a blog party and I actually got to meet a few people who have started blogs that are successful and have followers. The blog party was for two blogs... www.hyperallergic.com/and www.artfagcity.com - the woman who does artfagcity was a friend of my friend and she was sharing the workspace with hyperallergic and the party marked their 6th month anniversary in their office space. (http://hyperallergic.com/5603/launch-party-photos/). They were having video screenings, so I thought I'd be able to count it as an observation for class. However, there wasn't much that inspired a blog except for the conversation.

So, since these are art blogs, there were artists at the party. Although I love fine art, as I mentioned in a previous blog, I kind of agree with Lukova's point of view on the contemporary fine art world. Fine art is often linked to pretension and an over-privileged crowd. I enjoyed the party, my friend's company and her friends as well, but this party fit this idea. At one point in the night, the conversation led to where people were from and there was a self-proclaimed conclusion that the party was filled with over-privileged white kids. It makes sense. Who else can afford a lifestyle like the ones many of these people lead.

When we first got there, my friend found a friend and they started talking. This left me with the friend of a friend and we did not start talking. Another guy came over and his first question to me was "Are you and artist?" My pretension radar went off and I could not help but to answer, "What do you mean by artist? People who make their living off of art can say they are an artist but after then aren't we all artists and aren't children artists?" He just looked at me, so I said, "Are you an artist?" He said, "Yes" and walked away. The friend of a friend and I started talking.

I love art and I think it's great to be an artist, but this privileged, pretentious culture makes me feel punk. I just want to fight it. The only way I'd ever survive within it would be if I was so gifted and talented that I would surpass the bullshit and head right for the top. That life must be amazing. However, I will embrace it all and stay positive.

Hipster Olympics

After posting about fashion in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and then posting about Kate Gilmore's public performance art. I thought of the hipster olympics video I watched years ago. There is some cool and creative fashion in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but this video is also pretty funny because it's somewhat true (or at least used to be - maybe now more professionals in the area??). It's like mocking people walking around Williamsburg in a similar way that Kate Gilmore mocks mainstream society in midtown...

Pounding the Pavement From Up on a Pedestal - NY Times Article

This article in the NY Times is about Kate Gilmore's public art showing women walking wearing the exact same thing, which will be showing in Bryant Park. When I first saw this article I thought that it's such a great idea to express the ridiculousness of one type of beauty. My friend Gale and I ate lunch together the other day and talked about this. She was saying that she thinks there is becoming only one type of beauty; that this always existed to some extent, but it's stronger now than it was before. I asked her if she's been watching a lot of tv. For me, ignoring mass media and spending time in the subway are two ways that help me to remember that beauty comes in all colors, shapes and sizes. It was nice to have the conversation with her and talk about how there is not just one definition of beauty.

However, Kate Gilmore is more so mocking our post-modern life and the office workers' routines. These women will be up on a small platform walking back and forth for hours. I think the piece is great.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/arts/design/08gilmore.html?hp

Women's Hair and J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere

I remember when I was in Tokyo and every weekend I was going to The Muse, a club/lounge filled with expats, mostly guys from Europe and America, and some Japanese. I went every weekend with my friend Tara. We had fun meeting different guys, especially Tara. I met my husband pretty early on, so I wasn't really dating. One night we went out and I straightened my hair. I used to like to do that sometimes, but rarely do it now. Tara noticed that guys were looking at me differently. I wasn't too surprised.

“Whether it is working backstage at Fashion Week or styling a client’s hair at the salon, straight hair has always been in-demand look for women,” says Rodney Cutler, owner ofCutler/Redken Salons. - http://talkingmakeup.com/haircare/redken-straight-collection-straight-hair-for-all-hair-types/- I think that this quote supports the idea that straight hair is a symbol of beauty in this country. Within all of the mass media influencing our lives, beautiful women are most often depicted with straight hair. I think some men are not conscious of why they prefer women with straight hair and other men are conscious of the whole issue and can see through that.

I used to hate my hair and wish I had straight hair. I remember one girl in my high school who burned her hair trying to get a reverse perm and damaged her long curly hair that went down to her waist. Some black women go through a lot to get their hair straight, adding chemical [reverse] perms and using hot irons, both can burn the scalp. When black women do style their hair with braids and dreads, I must say, I love it. There are so many cool things black women do with their hair, which brings me to what made me start this post.

When I went to the AIPAD I saw a book showing the work of - J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere - http://www.gallery51.com/index.php?navigatieid=9&fotograafid=12 - I was recently reminded of these pictures in sculpture class because Tina is making a paper mache wig for a sculpture of a black woman. I don't know how famous he is, but he photographed over 1000 women with different hair styles, depicting them as artistic sculptures.... so cool!

Dolls

Children's toys, in general, are loaded with gender concepts. I remember when I first became aware of gender differences in packaging design. Even the products themselves are most often created for either a boy or a girl. Numerous psychologists and a lot of money goes into marketing and creating children's products. I remember when I took psychology class we discussed this and this was also touched upon in a movie we watched in visual culture class.

It seems that traditional dolls are becoming less and less popular and that today dolls are becoming vintage memories or marketing tools for entertainment media. Dolls are often used to communicate messages about gender in fine arts. Barbara Kruger created a photomontage that showed a doll in pieces and it said, "Use only as directed." Cindy Sherman used dolls in her self-portrait photographs. Greer Lankton was an artist who was born male and became female, expressing her gender issues through fine art and dolls (see left). Meanwhile an entire world of doll making exists as an artistic craft. I love artistic dolls. There is something so beautiful, cool and creepy about them.

There are so many interesting dolls on the internet. On www.etsy.com (a website where people can sell hand made products) there are over 50,000 dolls [and miniatures]. Some people who have fully developed their craft and line of dolls have their own websites. For my sculpture class I've decided to make paper mache dolls. I looked for hours on the Internet and found some great stuff. I love what people call "art dolls". There is even a magazine called "Art Doll" (http://stampington.com/html/adq_summer10.html). Below are a few examples:

The Camera Obscura's Influence on History

It's been a while since we watched David Hockney's Secret Knowledge in visual culture class and I just realized I never blogged about it. I remember when my father brought me to the MET for the first time when I was 12. We walked through the European paintings and I could not understand what was so great. I knew that the skill level is hard skill to achieve, but I didn't make the connection between these paintings and art that offered deep/interesting communication. As I got older, I continued to appreciate the difficulty of creating a painting with such a realistic image, but never really got into that type of painting.

I really enjoyed the Secret Knowledge and its emphasis on the technique involved with traditional European painting. I knew that people used the grid technique, I knew of perspective techniques, and I even knew of the camera obscura; but I did not know about using the camera obscura for painting. This movie stuck in my mind and I don't think I will ever forget it.

For my research in Professor Jiesemfoek's class I am part of a group that will be making a presentation on technological advances affecting the ways artists use materials. We are focusing on painting. My group members are investigating aspects of tempera, oil and polymer paints. I am investigating the way photography affected painting. I am including Hockney's research, but expanding on it and taking a slightly different perspective.

One interesting finding was that Hockney was not the first to discuss this technique and there have been numerous writings analyzing paintings by Johannes Vermeer, assuming he must have used the camera obscura.

I found another finding to be even more interesting. Louis Daguerre was a set painter for the opera in Paris and often used the camera obscura for painting. His paintings were so striking that they gained the reputation of being able to stand on their own without the theater. He soon created the diorama which became theater entertainment for Parisians in the early 1800s. The diorama included large landscape paintings, with lighting effects and I think the floor moved. Daguerre wanted the image projected by the camera obscura to be permanent so that he could create dioramas quicker. He sought out the inventor, Charles Niepce, who was also interested in making the image from the camera obscura permanent. Niepce loved lithography, but had difficulty drawing and tracing the images created by the camera obscura. So, he was also motivated to make the image from the camera obscura permanent. Niepce first made the image semi-permanent using sulpher chloride and paper and after a few years of working with chemicals he created the first photograph (below). Together Daguerre and Niepce wanted to perfect the process and commercialize it. After they started working together, Niepce died suddenly and Daguerre soon created the first Daguerreotype. He eventually got the exposure time down to a minute, as compared to the 8 hour exposure of Neipce's heliograph, or sun drawing, which is what he called the first photograph.

Nicéphore Niépce's earliest surviving photograph taken with a camera obscura:

View from the Window at Le Gras. 1826

The first successful Daguerreoytpe:

L’Atelier de l'artiste. 1837 by Charles Daguerre

Curious George Saves the Day

My mother and I both grew up on Curious George children's books. We never thought much about who created them, we just enjoyed them for what they were. They were stories about a monkey who would get into trouble because it was so curious about everything. Each story was usually an adventure about the trouble he got into. As the New York Times describes, "He was a mischief maker, an innocent, born in the jungle and lured into the strange world of humans." The art was good and the stories were nice, but they weren't so phenomenal that we would consider them to be extraordinary. They were just a popular children's book series.

In fact, I didn't know that my mother read them as a child until recently when she sent me a New York Times article reviewing the exhibition of the artwork from the book. She was excited to send me the article because she knew I read them as a child, because she read them as a child and because of the life story of the authors. The authors were actually Jews in Paris during the time of the Nazi's. The New York Times article touches upon the possibility of Curious George's adventures paralleling their experiences running and hiding from the Nazis, but overall, there are no clear explicit connections. It could have been an outlet for them during hard times, but even the NY Times is unsure.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/arts/design/26curious.html

Visual Culture of Gentrified Brooklyn

Brooklyn has become one of the trendiest places to live in the country and possibly the world. Brooklyn has always been something special, but it has evolved into what is special for generation x and generation y creative types and others. I guess the neighborhoods I'm referring to are Williamsburg, Park Slope, Dumbo, Carroll Gardens/Borem Hil, Forte Greene and even parts of Bed Stuy. Ditmas Park has always been really pricey with big mansions, but there are even similar cultural changes happening there also. For this post I'm going to focus on Williamsburg.

I remember living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1998. Rents were cheap, but they were already going up. I was paying 800 dollars a month for a 2 bedroom basement just a few blocks from the L train which was slightly more than a friend was paying for sharing a space in a loft two years earlier (300 dollars a month). A little bit more than 10 years later the rents have about tripled and that's even after the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. In 1998, my grandmother, who came to NYC from Russia in 1910 and spent her life in Manhattan and Brooklyn, came to visit me and we went to eat on Bedford Avenue and her first reaction was, "This is Brooklyn?" Bedford Avenue was a quiet strip of low-rise buildings with a few cute shops and restaurants. Today Bedford Avenue is increasingly getting more crowded, while the shops and restaurants continue to multiply. Bedford still remains the main strip, but locals often spend their time on other main streets as well, such as Grand Street. Williamsburg has extended into Bushwick as well and real estate brokers now seem to be calling as much of the area Williamsburg as they can. My husband recently read an article that gave the statistics of the increased passengers on the subway lines that go through Williamsburg and Bushwick, the L, J, M and Z lines. The J, M, and Z lines were only inhabited by local New Yorkers in the 90s.

When you walk the streets of Williamsburg, one of the most noticeable things is the fashion. Women are often wearing dresses and both women and men either have the latest fashions or unique styles. There are numerous vintage stores in the neighborhood that have already sifted through second hand clothes to bring shoppers fashionable things to wear at decent prices. There are also numerous boutiques that sell the work of local artists and designers. A weekend market called Aritsts and Fleas is close to Bedford Avenue and anyone can rent a space to sell crafts and clothes. Local fashion sends a message that creativity is close by. Although many new inhabitants of this thriving neighborhood are young professionals that are far from the arts, artists and designers still linger. There are galleries and studios in the neighborhood, as well as music and performance art spaces. Almost the whole neighborhood is filled with middle class, mostly white, people between 20 and 45.

Well, this is all true in the gentrified world of Williamsburg. North Williamsburg still has some older people who have lived here for much longer than the mid 90's. There is also a hispanic population on the south side of Williamsburg, and further south the neighborhood is filled with Hasidic Jews. The area that borders Bushwick is very industrial and has more African-American residents. Williamsburg borders Greenpoint, which is also gentrified, but is filled with Polish immigrants. Since the boom of gentrification in Williamsburg and the banking bubble, many condos have been built around the neighborhood. These condos are in buildings with multiple units and are as expensive as houses (500,000 to over 1 million). Houses in Williamsburg are well over 1 million dollars, even after the financial crisis. Although Williamsburg had more foreclosures than all of the Bronx, people are still slowly moving in and purchasing the abundance of new homes in the neighborhood. People come here, mostly from outside New York City, and do not want to leave.

In the past few years, I've noticed that this type of gentrification is not only happening in Brooklyn, but seems to be happening in major cities throughout the world. Within the past 2 years I've traveled and noticed similar neighborhoods (young professionals, cool fashion, and condos in formerly working class or run down neighborhoods) in Paris, Barcelona and Chicago.I'm not sure about other cities, but gentrification is not very new to New York.

This was going on in the East Village/Lower East Side in the 90's when similar gentrification was taking place in that part of Manhattan. I remember seeing a show by Penny Arcade (http://www.pennyarcade.tv/biography/index.html) in which she told stories of people who were displaced due to the gentrification in the neighborhood. In fact, Williamsburg is the spill-over gentrification from the East Village in the 1990's. Last semester when I observed the art teacher in the elementary school in my neighborhood, she explained how the student population is decreasing because students' families are leaving. It's too expensive to live here. There is also an art show going on in Fort Greene until May 16, 2010 about the gentrification of Brooklyn and how it affects New Yorkers (http://www.mocada.org/).

Artists are the ones who typically start these trends of gentrification. They move into neighborhoods that are low-income and cheap. They beautify the space and it draws in young professionals who want to live a similar life. Soon, the rents, and the neighborhood prices overall, rise. This forces the original low-income residents, as well as some of the artists who have contributed to the changes, to leave. As the years pass by, I am becoming more interested in having a decent job and a stable lifestyle. I understand the issues of gentrification from one point of view; get these people to go back to where they came from and leave our neighborhood as it

was. However, there are some original residents who enjoy the beautification and increased socio-economic level of their neighborhood. There is also the point of view of the people who want somewhere to live and enjoy living in these environments. As the article below points out, it's a complex issue. I'm assuming that the talks The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (http://www.mocada.org/) will address these issues, but will they come up with a solution? I'm not sure, but I do know that they've created art that will add to the beautification of life that drives gentrification.

http://fort-greene.thelocal.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/artists-reflect-on-role-in-gentrification/