Day One

I told you I would do it and I'm doing it. Two blogs in two days? Miracles really do happen!

Tonight was my first night working with Mike again and it was great. I was only there a couple weeks ago but today skeletons of walls for the art studios on the second level were up, walls that were once there aren't anymore. It's really crazy how things can turn around so fast. If you asked Mike though it has not been fast enough. As stressed out as he is he never doubts what he's doing when he talks about it, he knows he needs to do so he presses on.

The space is great, dirty, worn-down, but fantastic. The light is the kind of light artists long for. It's the kind of light I wish I always lived in. It's hard to imagine what art will be created in these studios but if I look hard enough I can see the drawing tables and easels set up, the paint and brushes scattered all over, ideas tacked to any flat surface at eye level, that's how I imagine my art studio would like look if I were ever lucky enough to have one. I can't wait to see the art that the people working inside of these walls will create. Knowing Mike and the art that he had shown at his gallery, it will most likely be the kind of thought-provoking but weird but beautiful kind of art.

Tonight he showed me all of the developments that had happened since the last time I was there, he showed me some of the things he wants me to do, and things that I could help him do. Painting, cleaning, database entering, it all seems pretty standard. It will definitely be tedious but I think I'm up for the challenge because it's not only helping out a dear friend (which I would do no matter) but it's also a real way to help me meet new people in the art world and further my learning and knowing of art's past, art now, and where art might be going if we keep pushing it forward.

I never thought I was a girl that was grossed out by dirt or squealed at the possibility of mice sightings but it turns out that I am most definitely that girl. I wore shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops. Next week I'll wear jeans/shorts (depending on this WI weather), a t-shirt, Chucks, and gloves. The residents before Mike left a lot behind that will have to be trashed, torn down, and tossed out. It's going to be a huge project in and of its self and I'm certainly not opposed to getting my hands dirty, I'm just going to have to wear gloves while doing so.

Looking at where the space is now and knowing that Mike wants to be ready in 4 months seems impossible, but it's Mike, and I truly believe that man can do anything. If he can't though he is the definition of "Making it work". He'll do it. I know he will.

Whatever I do next, I'm excited. Even cleaning out a small corner of a massive space in one night tonight was great to see. To know the before and to see the after is a pretty great feeling.

Stay tuned to see what's next.

Getting Back to Blogging : Stay Tuned

Hello Beautiful People,

Well, I clearly haven't been keeping up with this AT ALL. Work, then unemployment, then work, then unemployment again, and then full-time employment...finally happened! I've been busy and not busy all at the same time, but I promise you art has always been in the back of my mind and forever on my To-Do List. Now that I'm finally settled in my career (for the time being) I'm making strides to get back into the art world.

Here's my first step:

My dear, dear friend Mike Brenner has recently started his own beer brewing company, Brenner Brewing Co. You might be thinking, "How is a start-up brewery going to get you back into the art world?" Well here's how, before Mike was a brewer he was extremely involved in the art community here in Milwaukee owning his own gallery. Hotcakes Gallery was a place that I had the joy of interning at in my senior year of college to complete my degree in Art History. I made a great friend in him and have kept that relationship ever since. Along with the brewing beer part of his company there will also be an art gallery he'll open in relation to his brewery and art studios on the second floor for local artists to work in. I'll attach more information on him below, it's an interesting story. But back to me, I proposed something to him two weeks ago over dinner, as friends can. I asked him if I could be his intern again on the art side of this new business of his. I was hesitant to ask but I knew Mike would be honest with me if he didn't need me. Thankfully though he was more than happy to take me up on my offer.

Tomorrow I start working with him again and I can't wait. When I asked him what we'd be doing first he said either database things or painting. When he said "painting" I thought anything to get a paint brush in my hand. But I want to get my hands on anything and everything I can. To get any and all experiences he'll allow me to have I am more than willing to work for him, work with him, and work hard.

I'm really, really going to try to keep an up-to-date account of my time with Mike and the company that he is starting. The good, the bad, and everything in-between.

Wish me luck!

P.S. Here's more information on Mike and what/where I'll be working and what I'll be accounting on http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/entertainment/220809801.html

I'm Awful

Remember when I said that I was going to be more diligent in my blogging, that I would post pictures from an exhibit that actually inspired me? Remember when that all fell by the wayside and I haven't posted since APRIL! And I NEVER posted those pictures, pictures that are on my computer waiting  to be uploaded, but never have. Though let me tell you, my online shopping has not suffered. Why is it that my shopping always comes before my love of art? Perhaps it's easier on me that way. It's more of an instant gratification. Not that I write this for anyone but myself, it seems as though you haven't waited on baited breath to see my pictures or listen to me spout on about my lack of love on Modern Day art.

But here this, in my unemployed haze, yes I'm unemployed and still online shopping, I have come to be inspired not to write about other people's art but to create my own. With three canvases in tow I am nervous, anxious, and excited to create something of my very own. There is some sort of pride I hold when I'm walking back from Utrecht with a big white bag with it's logo stamped on it so that everyone can see that I'm about to do something arty. A neighbor of mine saw me and stopped me commenting, "I didn't know you were an artist?!". I replied, "I'm not...It's more like a hobby than anything else." "Have you ever shown your work? Do you have a website?" he asked. "A website?" I laughed to myself thinking, "A website? For my 'work'? Are you kidding me? No." The conversation was interesting for two reasons:

1. When he said, "I didn't know you were an artist" and my immediate response was to laugh and say "No, I'm not an artist, it's just a hobby". But in looking back, what if I am? I could be? I've seen art out there WAY worse than mine hung in galleries all over Milwaukee, maybe I could be....maybe I already am.
2. "A website". A website to display your artwork, with a website who needs gallery space...right? When shopping in malls could easily become obsolete because of the internet, hell, when going to school IN school is now an option for some instead of mandatory for all, why not have galleries be the next thing to cross of our lists? Is nothing sacred anymore? This from the girl who once had a corner filled with carboard boxes from shipments of purchased goods bought online.

Five months later and I am nowhere near where I wanted to be in my art blogging career but I swear, one of these days I'm going to be on this like wildfire....hopefully.

Until then, something is better than nothing right?

Eugen Von Bruenchenhein

Let me start this next post by saying, I am a very lucky person to have the life that I have and the people that I do; people who inspire me to be better every day, to live for my dreams, and remind me how capable I am to really reach them when I lose sight of it all. “Where Art Meets My Reality” began because of someone in my life telling me over and over again that my thoughts on art [past, present, and the future of it] were something to be shared. So here I am my fourth blog post in and I could not be more excited about it!

Not so recently on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, on an impromptu visit to UWM’s Inova Gallery was had and there I found him, there I found it, inspiration, beauty, and a sort of [art] awakening. The artist was Eugene Von Bruenchenhein. His show, well, it was amazing. It had been quite a long time since I've actually wanted to stare at art for more than one minute to look at every detail, every nuance, each and every stroke, and every possible color that the artist had used, EVB was my first in a long time. I was shocked that a random visit to a local gallery would hit me as hard as it did especially with all of the disappointment I had experienced from “new” art I had seen and this gallery specifically as well [see previous post My (now) Long Distance Relationship] before. I thought he would be the perfect start to my long journey back to art.

At first glance coming into Inova, you were hit with pops of color on the blank white gallery walls and as you walked towards them, if you let yourself, Eugene's works were able to take you to the future or a time long before ours. His paintings seemed to take place in a world of fantasy and mystery, with a hint of wonder and excitement. He brings you in and keeps you there as long as you'll let him with great details of his work and the lines that guide you every which way. The shapes and the movement that he created to stimulate our imaginations, it is a wonder where these worlds came from to make these paintings on cardboard.

When I arrived home from Inova I was excited. I wanted to know everything about this artist: where he was from, what his training was, what his art story was, I wanted to know it all. Here’s what I found out. Eugene Von Bruenchenhein was born July 31^st, 1910 here in Wisconsin [Marinette, WI to be exact]. His mother, father, and two brothers moved to Green Bay but settled down in Milwaukee where his father was a sign painter then a manager at a local grocery store. His mother died in 1917 and his father remarried a woman who would inevitably become EVB’s mentor until her passing in 1938. Bruenchenhein was best known for his photography, but in this his paintings are what I was amazed by. He developed his own style of painting by a way in which we are all too familiar with, with our fingers. Here’s where he differed though, he would also use “tools” found around the house or in nature such as small sticks or homemade brushes made with his wife’s own hair. His paintings were made by “pushing” paint around on the surfaces that he used, creating movement and three-dimensionality. The paintings that were displayed at Inova seemed to paintings of world’s that resembled ours but with a very heavy science fiction undertone; places depicting worlds that you would see in TV shows like Doctor Who or a George Lucas type film. Even with the art he created Eugene, when asked he told people that he was a horticulturist [he was then working at a local florist shop and was a member of the Milwaukee Cactus Club]. Art was a hobby, a hobby that he was clearly good at, but a hobby nonetheless. At a time in the late 1930s art was no longer a way of life; it was no longer a responsible career one could have supporting a wife, but a hobby. Unfortunate, in the last years of Eugene’s life he and his wife were living entirely off of his monthly $220 checks from Social Security, never really knowing that his talent and his work were worth so much more. Eugene Von Bruenchenhein died on January 24^th, 1983 at the age of 72 from congestive heart failure. But here’s the part of the story that is both so sad but so amazing to me. Years before EVB passed he had befriended a West Allis police man, Daniel Nycz, who contacted then chief curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum, in hope that some of his friend’s art work could be sold off in order to provide for Eugene’s wife. MAM’s curator, Russell Bowman in turn called Ruth Kohler, director of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and officer of the Kohler Foundation which was known for preserving the work of outsider artists. In September 1983, all of Bruenchenhein's works contained within his home were transported to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Subsequently, an extensive effort to document, catalog and preserve Von Bruenchenhein's work was mounted under the direction of Joanne Cubbs. You can now see EVB’s works in museums in cities such as New York, [locally in] Sheboygan and at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Chicago, Philadelphia, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Like a lot of famous artists, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein was not acclaimed in his time but after. But how thankful I am and others no doubt for the work that he has done never knowing what true inspiration he would bring to others long after his time in this world.

His story like many other artists is amazing to read as an art historian and to know as a viewer. Researching and learning about these artist's humble beginnings to their unfortunate ends to their rebirth in a world that never necessarily welcomed them in or for some never thought they were to ever be a part of. Eugene defined himself not as an artist but as a horticulturist. He did not have the bravado of some artists but sheer enjoyment of doing art for himself. He must have known his reality and his circumstances so he remained at a steady paying job that would support the life that he and his wife had together, never knowing that one day he would live on in museums like the Smithsonian. A boy from Marinette, WI to the Smithsonian, who could know? But what a fantastic story.

[Pictures to follow this post of Eugene Von Bruenchenhein's show at the Inova Gallery]

One Month and Some Days Later

It's been too long since my last post and that's my fault. I can't even say that my life has been too busy to sit down and type, because I tell you now, with all honesty, it has not. My DVR has been consistently recording therefore my motivation to write extremely lacking. Some would say I have reverted back to my childhood ways, when TV came first and all other things followed after, and by "some" I mean me. My hope for this blog was to help me bring my passion and my sincere love for art to the forefront of my life again, but as life sometimes does, it sidetracks us.

No longer off track, I'm here to write a little commentary on something I saw in a Glamour magazine not so long ago that struck me. Some of my favorite, most inspiring artists in the art world were making their way into fashion; hitting the runways of Jil Sander, Rodarte, and Sportmax in their Spring/Summer 2012 collections. I didn't know what to think. To see works of Picasso, Monet, and van Gogh in the form of high fashion (shown below, along with the pieces that inspired them), I didn't understand why.



Picasso at Jil Sander Spring/Summer 2012 collection

 At some point in art's history, art seemed to take a turn in my eyes; art became a sort novelty rather than a way of life. Of course these looks are certainly not the first time we have seen famous works of art in forms produced for the masses worldwide. We have things like tote bags, coffee mugs, puzzles, paint by number kits, postcards, keychains, and the list goes on and on. Today's youth know works of van Gogh not so much because they saw them in the museums but rather in reproductions like these, me being one of them. Don't get me wrong, I know that not everyone is able or capable of going to their local museum to see such famous works.



Monet at Sportmax Spring/Summer 2012 collection

 Not only are reproductions or copies of these sort of works not in every museum, but museum's admissions are not cheap. So why not make these works into posters we can hang in our rooms or frame in our homes? Why not make them in every medium possible so everywhere people know who artists like van Gogh and Monet are. They spent their lives striving for great art and recognition so why not? I am not so opposed to recreating these works so that they are more accessible to everyone. They should be, absolutely! But my question is where are our generation's great works of art? Must we keep looking back to move forward?

van Gogh at Rodarte Spring/Summer 2012 collection

I say this all the time not only with art but with fashion and movies now as well. In movies where everything in the theatres now seem to be prequels, sequels, or retelling of stories long before our time [some stories that have already been told through movies again]. In fashion where we are looking more and more like our old selves or decades before us wearing thick-rimmed glasses, suspenders, a wide arrange of neon colors reminiscent of the '90s, and dresses our mothers once wore but with a slight twist to make them ours. Are our minds so lacking in originality or was our history in these fields so good that it was only a matter of time before they repeated themselves, 2.0?

van Gogh at Rodarte Spring/Summer 2012 collection

Whether or not I agree or disagree with the way we have taken these famous pieces of art and manipulated them into our every day is still up for debate in my mind. Looking at a poster of Starry Night in my home reminds me of where my heart will forever be rooted, and who knows, somewhere out there could be the next kid to find van Gogh, Monet or Picasso on a coffee mug and find the wonder of that image and search deeper to find out who made it as I once did. I cannot deny any sort of medium we put art into because inspiration can come from anything or anywhere and I would never take that away from anyone. All I can say is this, behind that mug you drink your morning coffee in, the bag that totes your groceries, or the keychain that holds the keys to your home, remember that the image that is embossed on those things was once and forever will be a part of art's greatest history and to never take it for granted. I do commend the people that have made these artists relevant again and a point of conversation in the fashion world. I just hope that with talks of construction of the garment and the way it lays on the body that they also remember and give credit to the amazing color, design, and true original creativity Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Claude Monet had to create these one of a kind couture works of art.

My (now) Long Distance Relationship

It was never my intention to grow so far from what I loved so much but I did. When I graduated college my first thought wasn’t, “I need to find any and all galleries that are hiring”. My first thought was, “How am I going to survive; survive my bills, my rent, and now my very present student loans?” By the time I graduated I had my first job set up working as a part-time sales associate at H&M, a clothing store just a bus ride away. After that it was office job after office job. My position in the art world had grown from a “future living” to a now-and-then hobby. It was depressing, it still is. Every month I would take this huge chunk out of my very small paycheck to pay for an education, for a passion that I was no longer using. The lessons, the artists, the works that had changed my life, all of these things seemed to be disappearing with every shirt that I hung and every copy I made in the offices I worked in. It was never my intention to let go of what I loved so much but I did.

Art in my life was not all gone. I would go to Gallery Nights, local exhibits, or the Milwaukee Art Museum when I could. Though the art now to the art I grew up with always seemed to leave me uninspired. It was no longer “art for art’s sake”; it seemed more like art for showman’s sake. It was art that had the sole purpose to make a statement, to be confrontational. It was telling stories that were no longer personal but headlines we didn't know much about firsthand. Art became theater and I became uninterested. I loved art, I love art, but this kind of art I wanted nothing to do with. It made me more angry now than curious.

To me, the new generations of artists don’t seem to be showing much of themselves or their technique as much as they are showing impressive titles without work to back them up. I am all for new, artful ways to express oneself but when you need a brochure to understand your art, when more than anything else your viewers are saying, "I have no idea what this is “and walk away, you're doing something wrong. I recently went to the Inova Gallery in Milwaukee [http://www4.uwm.edu/psoa/inova/about.cfm] and saw the epitome of what is wrong with art today, IN MY OPINION. A darkroom built by an artist filled with naked dolls both big and small, neon paint on the walls, on the different surfaces, the floors, and strobe lights. It looked like a hybrid of a rave gone terribly wrong and a serial killer's lair. I was hesitant to even step one foot into this place. Everywhere you looked it was one disturbing thing after another and with every step I took I was losing more and more respect for whoever this artist was. It seemed more like a haunted playhouse than art. What was the point? What was the artist trying to say? I had to go back to the beginning of the exhibit to find the artist's statement and then go back to try and see it with the meaning in my eyes, it still made no sense. Needless to say I walked away from this installation confused and wondering how this room could be presented to the gallery's director as art. It wasn’t believable and that's the problem with a lot of art and their artists. It’s just not believable anymore.

This blog is to help me reconnect with my art background on a more consistent level and to show art that I see, love, hate, and everything in between. I want art to be great like it was when we marveled at it for hours and wished we had it all. I want to find art again. Through this, I hope that I will.

Until then.

My History in Art

Let me start by saying I was not a child that always loved art. I was more of a child that loved to watch TV whenever her parents would let her. Most of the time though my parents, my mother, were signing me up for every first year class imaginable. I went from dance classes [tap, jazz, and ballet] to swimming to piano then t-ball and softball, a Brownie to a Girl Scout and day camps in the summer. It was probably there where I first got my taste of art. Putting my hand in wet clay or paint to create something I'd seen on one of the nature hikes we'd gone on or something that was on display in one of the work rooms. I remember one time having to use a mock skunk's foot to make an imprint in plaster. That to this day is the first piece of art that I can remember creating, a skunk's foot, there's something to tell the art world.

I don't remember if it was a field trip with a camp, with school or maybe an art class my mom had signed me up for, but I can still remember my first time walking in to a museum. It was Wustum Museum, in Racine, that was my first [http://www.ramart.org/rams-wustum-museum]; I remember entering the doors thinking this is probably the most adult thing ever. When I think back I can still see the track lights that lit the glass cases and the wall art perfectly, the clean lines and muted walls. I was just tall enough to be eye level to the bottom of the framed art on the walls. Then, when you turned the corner it was this open space with walls dividing the room into Tetris like shapes but floor to ceiling windows outside of the perimeter. I think I'm remembering that right. There weren't great masterpieces hanging on the walls. It was more American Folk art, a term I clearly did not know back then. You wouldn't see a van Gogh or a Matisse but perhaps the latest work of a local Wisconsin artist; whatever it was back then when something was behind glass or had a spotlight, it was art and it was something not to touch but to look at and remember.

After that first trip I won't lie to you and say, "I was hooked, art had me." Mister Roger's Neighborhood still had me; art wouldn't become such a dominant part of my life until much later. Art projects in school, at friend's houses or at home with my sister were always fun don't get me wrong. My sister and I used to have those Crayola watercolor sets when we were younger. We would paint paper after paper and put on our own art shows in the kitchen to no one, copying the likes of Bob Ross from PBS [http://youtu.be/MghiBW3r65M]. It was probably then when painting first caught my eye and what you could create given the right tools, technique, and [of course] the talent.

I was never a fantastic artist; even as I grew up I never fully got as good as I wished I could have. In my last years of high school I was able to take a multitude of art classes as electives, from sculpture to woodworking, ceramics, drawing, and painting. I loved all of these classes, though woodworking and I didn't get along as well as I would have liked. These classes and the lessons that came with each technique would ultimately become the roots to the passion I hold so dear to me now at the age of twenty-seven.

I'm not sure when I was first introduced to Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night but I know that if I ever had to pinpoint where my love for art started it would be with that piece, it would be with him. Knowing that I would never be the next great artist to shake the world to its knees the next best thing for me was to learn who these artists were. My curiosity to know everything about them from their beginnings to their almost always tragic endings was what I wanted to do with my life. To know what their works meant not only to the artists but to our history and how they lived to create such works that would unknowingly but ultimately inspire the world from then on out. In my senior year of high school art in my life was undeniable.

As I talked to the high school guidance counselor about my future art was what I wanted the most. I graduated from high school and got accepted to the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee to major in Art History. Six years later, with a slight detour into Social Work, I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Art History, a degree that I have not used too much since then.

Enter reality.

To be continued in next post