BENEFITS OF A PROJECT STUDIO

The benefits of a project studio outside the home include fewer distractions that have nothing to do with the project. This is the case for me at the City of Ottawa owned Gardener's House at Britannia Beach, March 1 to August 31, 2013.

A month in, I've reviewed my recent 700 Arctic Return research project photos, experimented with new materials and techniques across medium, and at night had some wild dreams that I think relate to my aesthetic concerns.

During the first week I confidently committed with another resident artist that we'd be at the studio everyday by 9:30 am. Instead, its more realistic for me to be at the studio each day by afternoon. This way I can make my appointments in the mornings and avoid breaking my creative flow, when it happens. No internet at the studio is a great benefit for me.

The City has freshly painted the walls and sprayed for spring carpenter aunts. In between everything, I've set-up the studio with materials and equipment.  I'm lucky I have lots of space and great light, and very compatible fellow artist residents.

There are a few experimental prints and paintings on my walls. However, I still feel like I know nothing, and wonder if and when it will come together. Its good having a specific place to go, like this project studio. 

CREATIVE STUDIO PRODUCTION

Creative Studio Production, as can be seen at my website, is not new to me as a visual/media artist. Given that I work on a cyclical project basis, I am thrilled to recently be awarded a City of Ottawa studio space for the next 6 months.

Anywhere one travels in the world, artists talk about problems of availability and appropriateness of studio space. Artists living in the Kitikmeot Hamlets in Nunavut from where I just returned also struggle with lack of ventilated carving studios. They tell me carving studios are crucial to avoid respiratory illnesses related to ingestion of fine stone dust, sometimes contaminated with asbestos.

Rex Goose, Carver at Ulukhaktok Art Centre, Holman 

Island, Northwest Territories works on an antler 

carving of a muskox using communal tools.

The carving studio shown at left is a positive example of what can be done inexpensively for proper ventilation. This is the Ulukhaktok Art Centre in the Inuvialuit Region of the Northwest Territories, where I also visited in January/February 2013. Even when a carver works at home, they must wear a mask to prevent respiratory problems.

Taluq Design Centre of Taloyoak/Spence Bay, Boothia 

Peninsula Nunavut, Canada

The Taluq Design Centre artists of Taloyoak Nunavut (shown) have successfully combined a place for creative production and sales. Local fibre artists create wool sculptures unique to Taloyoak which are priced at standard corporate rates. On the other hand, most artists in Kitikmeot as everywhere, work out of their homes. The difference in Nunavut is artists sell door-to-door in a climate that dips to -50c wind chill, pulling an antler sculpture or wall hanging from under their parka before a quick sale is made.

An artist studio is anywhere one works and can be in or outside the home.  My new project studio  space is idyllically located outside but near my home, and a short scenic bike ride to my sailing club.

An inspirational setting in which to muse, my recent arctic memories intermingling with Ottawa River spring and summer seasonal fragrances. The abundance of my photography and journal research in the Inuvialuit NWT and Kitikmeot Nunavut during January/February 2013 surrounds me, now in a contrasting southern geography. This alchemy of production includes experimental techniques and medium. My studio practice is research based. As in my writing, my visual/media practice is autobiographically inspired and positioned within larger contemporary aesthetic and socio-enviromental discussion on the dynamic of memory where the present recreates the past, and implications for fluidity in identity.

WHEN DOES MY ART BEGIN AND END?

Kugaaruk Nunavut inukshuk in distance,
New York City children on crosswalk.
Photomontage by Sandra Hawkins, c. 2008.

"When does my art begin and end?" At what point in my process is it called "making art" or is the entire process "making art"?  For over a year, I've been conceptualizing and planning the Arctic Return 1981 - 2013 Visual Research Project.  My project is a rare longitudinal visual research of five Kitikmeot Nunavut communities, Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak and Kugaaruk; and Ulukhaktot, NWT. It spans 33 years of photo technologies, changes in political jurisdictions, and socio-cultural and environmental changes. There's been much time given to conceptualization and logistical administration including e.g. grant and exhibition proposal writing, sponsorships, liaison with officials at several levels re visiting scenarios, publishing of brochures, books, images, and arranging air travel. For me, it's all an important part of the creative process and integral to my art making, every step of the way influencing the other.

Quick Background: I first photographed these communities in February 1981, never expecting that they would become an inspiration for me in a contemporary visual art practice. In 2008, I rediscovered my original prints, so carefully labelled in the family album, and my journals of each day the photograph was taken. Contemporary digital technology made it possible to scan, restore and reposition these in a contemporary aesthetic and socio-environmental discussion on the dynamic of memory and ecology of narrative space. The resulting 2-part series of photomontage prints create a visual tactile opportunity for viewer interpretation and contemporary meaning. Images of different arctic community landscapes and New York City streets, vulnerable to flooding by melting arctic ice, are juxtaposed in a socio-environmental and aesthetic discussion on the ecology of narrative space. I also use my spidery journal hand writing to veil these arctic landscapes, thereby inserting myself across time. The photomontage prints have shown widely in Canada and around the world. According to media coverage, these art images resonate with viewers regardless of their geo-political location or culture. There has been a Part 3 and Part 4 to this body of work. The Arctic Journal Reading Performance (20-minutes) was at the Banff Centre's Other Gallery, 2009; and the photo-based and performance video installation, Ecology of Identities, was shown in Toronto in 2010. Each work explores the idea and my feeling of a displaced personal experience and voice across time. The only way for reclaiming them as mine and part of my identity is through reinvention of these memories within the context of the present.

KNOWING YOUR ART FOR VISUAL ARTISTS

Knowing Your Art - Pushing Your Boundaries!  WORKSHOP: Arts Court 2 Daly Ottawa ON, Sun Nov 4, 2-5pm. Registration by October 31st, $50. shawkins@rogers.com http//:www.sandrahawkins.ca/workshops

Knowing your art is the first step to confidently being able to locate and market to the appropriate audience. More importantly, the process for understanding the unique authenticities within one's art research, creation and production can be key to the artist's confidence and ability to push their aesthetic boundaries. This is an ongoing process and not something someone else can do for you. Here are five strategies for better understanding your art.

1. Look for trends in your art over time, noting shifts in direction.

2. When looking at art by others, analyze aspects that resonate, and ask one's self if there is a relationship to one's own artistic concerns.

3. Keeping a journal while in the studio or in unrelates situations can provide inspiration and deeper understanding of everyday influences and philosophies.

4. Photographing your artworks allows distance looking through the camera lens, as if through another's eye.

5. Exhibiting the artworks is an opportunity for feedback and for the artist to observe connections within the body of work.

Business of Art Training inc. gives hands-on workshops like this to assist the visual/media artist to access the appropriate audience while maintaining artistic integrity.

Knowing Your Art is also the first chapter of the Book, The Business of Art for Canadian Visual Artists, by Sandra M. Hawkins. It can be purchased at the workshops, at Wallacks Art Supplies Ottawa $36.25, at http://www.sandrahawkins.ca/book, and at Amazon.ca http://www.amazon.ca/Business-Art-Canadian-Visual-Artists/dp/0973104910

A HARD DAYS NIGHT - SELLING YOUR ART

The history of visual arts is interwoven with the woes of visual artists' trying to make a living. Most combine their career as an artist with teaching, or some other activity that pays the bills. This sounds worse than it is, because everyone knows that the market-place chugs along based on the theory of supply and demand. If there's no demand, it doesn't matter how much the supply is. However, if there is demand created through advertising then there could be demand by the market place despite amount of supply.  Human nature being what it is, if the demand is greater than the supply, people will pay more for the art.
A hard lesson can be that economic accessibility is crucial to creating demand. Here lies the first rule of marketing. #1 Price it right. Rule #2 Locate your audience. I know it sounds like selling real estate! Shocking!!

These simple facts exist whether the artist is dealing with the public galleries and international biennale exhibitions industry, or the commercial galleries and auction houses. Only the naive believe that if the art is 'good' it will sell, and if not, it won't. Again we know from art history books that this is just not correct.

No, the art will not speak for itself....unless it is put out there. Through connections and networking, an artist can find an audience.  Lucky is the artist who is "discovered" by an admiring agent with good connections who deems his art "important". It is really no more important than another, but the agent/dealer has an investment to promote and so, like the stock market, drums up buyer investors. For the artist in this kind of deal, however, the increased demand insists on supply, and to the the tastes of the buyer. This can be at odds with the creative nature of the artist who would like time to pursue an aesthetic outside what is now expected due to marketing and increased demand.

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NEXT TORONTO SABBATICAL- OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Toronto here I come!! A chance to housesit for 3-weeks in Metro Toronto at the architecturally famous Tip Top Tailors Lofts is a fantastic opportunity to check into my favourite big-city with all its art, parks and the nicest people. In 2010 blogs I gave tips on strategies for art networking, keep it loose and flexible. The result included three exhibitions, art reviews, and lots of new friends in the art world.  Thanks to networking with arts writer, Betty Ann Jordon, my solo exhibition, Ecology of Narrative Space at Reference project space next to the art savvy Drake Hotel, was included in her Queen Street West Art & Design Walking itinerary held the last Thursday night of each month. Many more people saw my work than otherwise would.

ARTIST LIVE-WORK SPACE DEVELOPMENT

The unique aspect about developing artist live-work spaces in Ottawa (and probably elsewhere) is that the location has to be zoned for both commercial and residential. In 2011, City Council approved the Arts and Heritage 5-year Renewal Plan which supports the development of Artist Live-Work spaces as a Pilot Project. Further, this type of live-work space for artists rated as one of the top-four priorities by participants of the City organized November 2011 Open Ottawa Libre City (OOL). At this meeting, I volunteered to organize the first information meeting which we held March 14. The next Visioning meeting is April 11, 2012, working with a certified professional facilitator. Essentially, those who attended the first meeting are a combination of potential users and/or committed to the concept.

While the concept is a true innovation for Ottawa, there are many economically successful artist live-work properties throughout Toronto and Vancouver. In the case of Toronto Artscape it is an arms-length type of corporation with the City of Toronto. It plays an interface role between artist users, developers, funding agencies and governments. Check it out. http://www.torontoartscape.org/ 

Where do we start in Ottawa? I propose Ottawa needs a not-for-profit arms-length Artist Live-Work Development Corporation with paid professional employees to find and work with a developer, City staff, community groups, architects, funding agencies, etc, etc.  Artist-users are already overloaded with all the aspects of their business of art, nor do they necessarily have the skills and professional contacts to bring the project to fruition. Their commitment is demonstrated by organizing and attending monthly meetings to discuss their needs and aspirations. They could provide input to an arms-length interface corporation toward fruition of projects.

Toronto Artscape, which is this type of interface non-profit corporation, has put their DIY (do-it-yourself) step-by-step information on their website. In my opinion, key professional players in Ottawa need to cooperate to incorporate such a not-for-profit organization to develop turn-key-like artist live-work properties while consulting with artist-user groups.http://www.torontoartscape.org/learn-how-we-do-it

It amazing to me, now that I'm looking, how many possible property types there are in Ottawa, ranging from reclaimed abandoned city owned buildings to new high-rise developments.