metro times arts issue
The Metro Times art issue is out! The MT art critics got to lay their artist picks out for everyone to learn about. Congrats to everyone picked - there are so many artists here to choose from! Also, special thanks to chris hill who was able to dive inside my crazy head and write a descriptive analysis of my art.
Meghan Harris' cute and subversive world.
Ann Gordon's slaughterhouse - or candy store?
The elusive air of Mary Fortuna's art.
Ann Gordon's slaughterhouse - or candy store?
The elusive air of Mary Fortuna's art.
posted by art blogs are fun at 8:04 PM
42 Comments:
Congratulations. Parakeets and puppies throughout the greater metropolitan area are enjoying that article today.
Comment on Cukovic work: "12 monoprints corresponding to 12 nations of old Yugoslavia" ?? Yugoslavia was divided into six Socialist Republics, and two Socialist Autonomous Provinces --- what exactly are the other 4 nations that the article is referring to?
Not sure I'd be singing the praises of a reviewer who said "Gordon may truthfully be working out her anxieties and fears in Parts. Its content, however — big messy piles of mangled, abused toys, including sawed-off limbs and torsos — suggests not a tortured psyche but the inevitable result of children left unchaperoned for too long with too many playthings."
ccs rocks
Right on M. I can't really say much as anonymous any more because Ann and her buddies have been decoding and telling everyone whom is making anon comments. We have become her play things as small town talk and censorship controll is in effect and they are making things hard on us in general. Such a sad state of freedom. Artists are finally no different than Dick Cheney.
This "back talk" by those whom have achieved "power" in our small
town art world is poison and it may be against the law.
One of the metro times picks on this thread are infamous abusers of "power" in this way as well and is under observation.
Perhaps they should just let loose and have more confidence in themselves and all the important spokes in this cultural wheel here.
Actually, it is quite easy to see who posts what. Even anonymous posters or posters who use pen names leave an I.P. address behind. I'm sure Ann, as the admin to her sight, can see every I.P. and do a quick search to see who is the internet provider of that poster and back track from there.
Kind of like in the early days when that guy who spouted Ultra Renaissance got blocked. Actually HE didn’t, his IP got blocked. He could still post from the library and did for a while until they kicked him out of there too.
Check for yourself...
www.networksolutions.com/whois
I'll research the laws regarding this behavior. And I will research the poor ultra-ren artist whom was probably an unfortunate stepping stone for half assed control freaks.
Praising a student like John Anzoni, who is doing typical student work (copying other artists) is just...weird and incompetent.
Read the articles, all were interesting. I like how John really helps the poor instead of believing that art in some way can help the poor. He accually goes out and does something. congrats, four stars.
As for the OP, what laws? There is not a goddamned thing you can do. What unfortunate behavior? The internet and this blog is like driving. It is not a right, it is a privilege. It can be taken away or restricted. If you don’t like it, make your own blog with your own rules.
From Chrisina Hill, in Metro Times: " the multitude of paintings demonstrated he's a student still sampling styles of a myriad of modern masters..."
And that deserve a write up? No.
you're criticizing people for making work and getting acknowledged for it? good. that's productive. who cares if john is a student and ann plays with toys. they are doing work and being a part of the community. all you are doing is making negative comments on a website.
Anonymous above is giving too much credit to Blogger technology. Yes, Ann can see what IP numbers her hits are coming from but they're not directly correlated to comments and knowing that somebody is posting from AOL or CCS is essentially meaningless anyway.
She probably has more information available as admin on her discussion forum site, but still any blocking will cast a wide net. When she blocked that unfortunate Ultra-Ren artist, she also blocked anybody who shared that provider. Not that it really matters. That site is so dead it's starting to smell.
woo hoo--My comment is that a student copies others' style: That should stay in the art school until he has original work.
I criticized the paper and the ccs critic for writing it.
To the anons:
I don't really know what you are taking about? Censorship? What! I don't know who is commenting...and I haven't blocked any person on detroitarts ever! I only blocked one IP on the Forum b/c they hijacked every post and started advertising their personal website. I suppose I could check if I wanted but I don't really care...nor do I have the time. As far as the attack of me having "art buddies" that decode identities....that is just funny!
I just like when we talk about ART!
anon(s), my point was simply that I was surpised that a write-up like that was deemed supportive/positive. It seemed like back-handed insults (all the articles, actually, had their underlying snide remarks). I think I like the world of poetry much better where praise is praise and bad work just gets ignored, not blasted. Yep. I wasn't making any quantitative statement on Ann's work, or on IP hacking... I read this poem today (by Alexie Sherman) which reminded me so much of this blog I laughed out loud:
"Along with the sonnets and blank verse / comes this: the gossip / about which poet is sleeping / with which poet, about who left whom / for who. Don't you know / the formalists only go to bed / with other formalists / but the free versers will screw / anybody, even a novelist. / The promiscuous poets fill the shelves / with their thin volumes, the selected / and collected lovers, the beautiful lies."
(insert 'art' for 'poem', 'artist' for 'poet'). :-P
yes I miss art.
this is kind of like watching paradoid rabid dogs biting their own tails......
I say congrats to all in the metrotimes. they are doing something that caught the eyes of those who wrote the articles. Everyone who creates and gets acknowledged in any way is doing something right. The worst thing i can think of is busting ass to make shit and no one cares. How may shows have we all been in where nothing gets written or no one talks about it? Thats failure. Even if people talk about how bad the art or artists are, at least they are speaking.
Hats off to all the artists who got written about.
I like all of their work, except for the puppets...puppets frighten me. Same with clowns.
Positivity and Art comes out of discussions as these because believe it or not they are rooted in this reality. Say what you want to distract and control perception. But these are issues of art and life contemporary. Stop whining.
Ruth Goens work as well as many of the artists mentioned are great spokes in the wheel. Ruth always impressed me so much. For years and years just working away in that corner at CCS on the most beautiful pieces. Very admirable.
Why shouldnt they get written about? It doesnt matter that they are in school..they are accomplished, working hard, and savvy. Great press. Hell,my friends and I were written about, beginning when were in school, and continually after, as the writers would follow the artists who were picking up the baton from the previous generations and running with it.
and so it goes
"If at any point we stop becoming students, and stop being aware of our influences, believing that we've become so avante garde that we're above those that have come before us...stop what you're doing and go read a book, or spend 5 minutes on Google...because either your ego has gotten too big, or you're just not looking hard enough. There's no such thing as art void of inspiration. No such thing as Avant Garde. No such thing as graduating from school. We never stop learning, we never stop inspiring, and we never stop being inspired."
-John Azoni
Not sure if you knew this, but the words in quotes come straight from the artist. The rest is filtered through the writer. It's sad that there's very little support for young artists in this community. There's a lot of great talent coming out of CCS that people love to crap on before even giving it a chance because we haven't yet recieved a piece of paper saying that we're "qualified artists". Quit whining and do some art.
Hey John, not critical of you being a student--so quite blaming others.
Just said that for a ccs employee-critic-to feature students is pathetic and unethical. You make art--who cares?
why is that unethical and pathetic? most of the students aren't even under the direction of the professors. All the work that I've ever shown, with the exception of maybe a few pieces, has been all self directed work...not assignments. I've never shown a still life, or a figure study or anything class related. Are you actually that stuck up to believe that once you have a piece of paper saying that you're officially an artist that your work automaticly becomes valid and amazing? Why shouldn't they write about students? the premise of the articles was to showcase "emerging artists". That's exactly what we are. Art is art no matter how old you are. izzy (can't remember her last name) that showed at motor city about 6 months ago was 7 years old...doing better work than a lot of Detroit artists. That is just the stuck up, ivy league attitude that I hate about some people in the arts community.
I don't know if it's unethical, maybe it's just shortsightedness or laziness, but they could've gone beyond CCS to find an artist to feature.
Reminds me of a conversation with a juror at a show I was in earlier this year. She said that she didn't recognize me from CCS. I guess that it didn't cross that instructor's mind that there are other routes that end in art.
truth will out and history will tell.
doesnt matter who nominates or promotes.
there is no objection to any of the artists chosen.
they are all deserving of notice.
Not an attack on you John. I just think it's wrong to have ccs employees writing articles in Metrotimes promoting their students--especially current ones. Makes Detroit art seem...insular and pathetic.
i can see that anon- though in Chris' defense, I don't even know her from school. I've never even seen her on campus much less had a class with her. She didn't see my work until my show at MoNA when she was looking for artists to write about. It just so happens that a lot of emerging artists are coming straight out of/or are still attending CCS. Meg Harris is still a student and Vince Carducci wrote about her, who happened to be our professor for the Art as Propoganda class. I seem to be viewed as the only student in this community, when there are several of us, though I will speak for all of us in saying that nobody is giving us free rides. It's just as difficult for any of us to get noticed as it is for everyone else. But our work should speak for itself, not our status.
Hello John,
Will you be in Aix this winter? I will be in Paris for Christmas and newyears to meet friends...If you ever come north to Berlin let me know too.
Don't let the blog get you down. Which it shouldn't and hasn't seemed to. Press is press. Some points raised are valid. Some are inane. Honestly though, if the press you received draws new interest to your work, it will likely draw interest to the work of other young artists as well. So unless the bone being picked is based on a bullet point for a CV, then let it ride folks. This one article may be small-town-silly, but there are other things more worthy of a fight, others that take money and food away from you, and others that destroy community. I was the first CCSer to receive the ISC prize with Sculpture mag cred. Chido now tells me there are more each year who are honored. Everyhing starts somewhere.
Steven- I'll be in Aix until mid-December. I'll be spending 5 days in Paris beginning nov. 15 I believe..so unfortunatley we won't be there at the same time. What are you doing in Berlin? I don't think I'll be making it to Germany while I'm here. I have a Eurail pass that only lets me travel throughout spain, italy, and france.
I'm working on an MFA at the Bauhaus. Thought it could be a nice connection to another artist with ties to Detroit. Maybe another time. Best to you and your studies!
John and Steve,
I'll be in the Brewhaus in Keego Harbor the night of November 16, drinking beer and trying to pick up chicks. Come by if you get a chance. Should be a lot of yocks!
Matt D.
are chicks like Peeps? those hideous yellow marshmellow things?
Good question, but I'm more curious about whether John, Steve and Matt have ever heard of email?
no. what's that?
yes I've heard of email, but it's more artistic this way.
John Azoni-
I can't beleive you quoted yourself.
That's hysterically funny.
John Azoni-
I can't beleive you quoted yourself.
That's hysterically funny.
Well, John is at least one person who takes Azoni seriously.
Did Christine want that public?
Chris, I don't know you, but I'll send you good energy to kick that shit out!
yeah not sure if chris wanted all of detroit to know that.
that bit between steve, and john, and matt was hilarious!, i really enjoyed the hell out of that, i laughed out loud!
keep up the good work!
steve i thought you were in california
"...though I will speak for all of us in saying that nobody is giving us free rides."
John- If you can't see that nepotism is alive and kicking in the tinkertoy building, then you must be blind.
I just wanted to take a moment to say a few things to all the artists and communities who come to Ann’s blog…
For what its worth… the art world is no different than the regular world…some people will always feel that someone has something against them or that somehow “certain” people hold all power and abuse it…”even if that’s true?” Until you release the negativity and let go of this “preserved power structure” you can not see that you are helping to reinforce the very social structure that you despise. “Them vs us” We must create what it is we want our art community to say, touch on or stand up for. Does art have meaning or serve a purpose any more? Maybe you should focus on that and not bitch about everything you perceive as screwed up or wrong.
“like you all”…I am confused and frustrated by what is done with the power of dia….mocad….and a lot of galleries..but I also can’t understand artists who won’t submit portfolios or put together shows or even create the work they want to be seen.. “so do you really have a right to complain?”
I also can’t believe the amount of people who complain about the lack of “good art in Detroit” lol!!!!….. then shut up And make it!.
I run a gallery and I’m shocked at the amount of artists who haven’t submitted portfolios, or show concepts and yet complain that our galleries aren’t presenting the work that should be shown. OR that groups of people are simply stroking each other off “even if it is true“ lol!!!”
So what’s the point?
If you are all waiting for someone to say something for you?? Don’t hold your breath! It doesn’t take a lot of money/ power or a stamp of approval by anyone to create a beautiful and meaningful exhibition for our communities. But it does take effort!!! And …an intention to do something!!!
I’m sure that some of you know who this is… and possibly a few of you may wrongly place me into the list of problems…. But I’m working and see a lot of great things happening in the Detroit art community. “Ann’s blog being one of them” It is my hope that I get just a few people who come on here and cry about everything, to stand up and help do something about it.….And I’m willing to help if I can…
maybe Ann’s C.I.A. ..high tech research team can find out who wrote this…lol.. ;)
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