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Solo exhibition of Daniel Giordano on view until Sunday, March 17, 2019 at Sardine, 286 Stanhope St., ground floor, Brooklyn, New York 11237 http://sardinebk.com/new-shows/14285320 photos via Danielgiordano.xyz For the past weeks Sardine in Brooklyn, New York became a capsule; a capsule preserving relics of an iridescent future. Titled The Big Linguini the exhibition is a collection of works by mixed media artist Daniel Giordano. Adorning the stark white walls of the no more than 300 square foot space were what at first glance seemed to be aligned explosions of material frozen mid action. Materials present seem to share no relation beside the expressive, vibrant colors, and the physical connection. Yet the object induces this state of wonder. Wondering how these objects came to be in the way that they are captured. Realizing what is present; many things from gilded substances, to hairs, to orange and blue goo. These elements came together in a fit of fast, sexy, aggression. When asked how the works shown tie into his overall themes Giordano remarks, “the work is about everything and nothing at the same time.” With such a delicate grasp on the arrangement of color and materials Daniel definitely has a bright future; one may even say an iridescent one. http://www.danielgiordano.xyz/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danieljgiordano/?hl=en

Simply put; you heat metal it gets malleable. If it get hot enough, a.k.a. the melting point (science), solid forms transform from solid to liquid state where in the the can be cast to a form. While I usually encourage trying things at home for yourself, this process should be performed with great caution in the proper facilities. However if that scenario is accessible to you I highly recommend you give aluminum casting a try. That being said aluminum casting is a process that involves just that, applying heat to aluminum in order to form it. A stone furnace is outfitted with a gas line torch used to apply heat to a bowl loaded with solid metal. The bowl is known as a crucible. It is usually made from charcoal or ceramics. These materials having a much higher melting point than metals especially aluminum (1,221ºF). Once the metal in the crucible reaches liquid state, the crucible is removed from the stone furnace. You will need two people to achieve this operating crucible tongs. The glowing red crucible is then place on either a sand base of stones. At this point the slag or impure metals are scraped off the to of the liquid. The two people will then work in tandem to lift and pour the liquid metal into a form. A great inexpensive material used to set liquid metal is sand. Sand acts as a great material for the liquid metal to cool, due to its property of being very effective in dispersing heat. The fact that it is very fine in its grain allows for detailed impressions to be pressed into wet sand and act as a negative mold for the metal to fill in. Sand will repel the metal. Once poured let the aluminum sit for 20-30 minutes until its is cool to touch. At this point it can be removed from the sand and rinsed off, leaving you with a detailed positive of the mold.

The idea of the art market and being a struggling artist within that market has been a subject that’s weighed on my mind a lot lately. I graduated from art school last year, I’m out in the world and nobody wants to buy my art. I’ve talked to other artists and nobody wants to buy their art either. It seems like there are just a lot of us out here in the world struggling to sell work and while a piece or two might sell here or there it’s not exactly paying the bills. I’ve seen a lot of articles addressing this struggle but I think a lot of them are coming off as complaining, just a bunch of people saying, “why won’t people buy my art work? I make good work, that should be all I have to do but people won’t buy it. They should buy it for (insert crazy amount of money here).” But no one’s addressing the problem, no one is really looking into why the art market is the way it is and why your average, everyday person isn’t buying modestly priced art even though it seems relatively clear. The art market has selfishly made itself seem so exclusive over the last 60 years that its major industries, auction houses/private sellers, galleries, and publications, have turned off the average consumer to buying art and made it incredibly challenging for artists outside of a select few to survive on their art. I think this exclusivity really took prominence in the 1950’s with the rise of pop-art and artists like Warhol who became more than just artists but celebrities. This celebrity status changed the idea of buying art, you weren’t just buying a painting or print anymore, you were buying a Warhol, or a Pollock, a name more than an artwork. Artists were becoming the “hot name” and that “hot name” being associated with a work was driving the value through the roof. These top names could put their name on anything and it would sell for millions, everyone was writing about them and the art world revolved around them. When we think of any art movement throughout time 3-5 names jump out as the defining characters of that period and that stayed true but now it was almost more about marketing than art. When Da Vinci and Michelangelo were dominating the commissions of the Renaissance it was because artists were all doing similar things and subjects and these two were the best at accurately and beautifully displaying those subjects but suddenly there was such diversity in art that “the best” wasn’t just decided by the image, it was decided by consumers. So, the artist who could get out there and market themselves, their style and their own personal brand the most were going to be the ones who were “the best.” Commercialism took over art and artists became more of a brand than a collection of pieces and the art world fed right into this but with this huge commercializing art became a luxury item and the average person was excluded from the art world. Only a few artists were selling and only a few people were buying them and, because they were the ones with the money, all of the art world became about marketing those artists to those people and if you were outside of that or trying to promote anything different it was really tough to stay afloat. So, let’s break down the big culprits of making the art world so exclusive: the auction houses/private sellers, the galleries, and the publications. We’ll start with the big one that is the sellers. First things first, these people don’t give a shit about art and it’s not hard to see. What they care about is getting the fattest wallets in their seats and shelling out items to collect their percentage and call it a day. These people aren’t promoting artists, they’re not making careers, they’ve just established themselves as big sellers so the big name work comes to them because they have the network of collectors. It’s all a name game, Sotherby’s and Christies, to name a few, are the big name auctioneers so they’re going to sell the big name work for the big money, nothing else. Private sellers are even worse, virtual real estate agents for paintings, just acting as middlemen while highly appraised art is moved from one millionaire to another. Or, and this is a relatively new phenomenon, top brands are discovering or taking the work of artists and turning them into products, but since it’s art and a top tier product, it’s still only for a select few. The whole selling industry is just corporate and money hungry, if your art isn’t worth enough they won’t bother selling it and if you don’t have the money to shell out they won’t bother trying to sell to you. Art is meant to be experienced not to be marketed as a luxury item only for the richest of rich but that’s what these sellers have turned it into. The worst part is that there’s so much money flowing through this network of buyers and sellers that they don’t need to change a thing, their method is working. They’ve got a TON of money and they’ve made the art market exclusive only to people who can add to that cash flow. Art sellers are definitely the big culprits in making the art world seem so exclusive but it has a trickle down effect so galleries and publications are very much at the liberty of what’s selling. Galleries do what they can to promote artists and show different things but money talks and they’ve got to keep their doors open. Big name galleries rely solely on showing work of what’s uber relevant, be it artistically or politically, or bringing in the work of big name artists. Average people aren’t exposed to a lot of art because only the big names are really seeing exposure so these galleries just pedal out shows with the same big names or curate shows of big time issues to draw people in the door. Don’t get me wrong galleries are great and there are certainly a ton who are trying to do the right thing but unfortunately the right thing doesn’t always pay the bills and the method of showing the same shit over and over seems to be working. Big time galleries win over the small guys because they can put up one or two famous works, charge $17.50 a ticket, and profit for days, yeah they might put up some other small shows and people give them a glance but they’re only really marketing the big piece or the big retrospective so that’s naturally what people are going to drift towards because it seems like they’re getting a peek into the good life, the super exclusive art world that they can’t afford to be a part of. Publications struggle very similarly because, just like not many people are going to go into your gallery if they have no idea who the artists being showed are, no one is going to read your magazine or article if they have no idea about who or what you’re talking about. Not many people who don’t know about art are reading about art so the major publications are only putting out things on easy subjects or not catering to the general public at all. They talk about the big names, the big galleries, and what’s being sold where because no one is going to read it otherwise. The risk to reward for going on a limb and saying something different isn’t worth it when staying relevant and making money is the game. Art is probably the only subject that writers totally acknowledge that people might not get what they’re saying and do absolutely nothing to explain it to them. Publications who want to market to artists use fancy art talk that’s going to confuse non-artists, publications that want to market to sellers only speak dollars and cents so people who can’t afford it naturally drift away and then what’s left is a bunch of people who are basically just saying, “there’s a show here now.” or ,”Look what this prominent artist made.” and it’s resulting in this totally diluted, lame system of publication that’s just pedaling the same lame shit. So what has all this caused? A classist system that has totally scared the average consumer away from buying art. Auction houses, galleries, and publications are only going to sell, show or talk about what’s worth a lot and that scares normal people away from art. People are so fearful that they don’t know what they’re doing or buying when it comes to art that they only feel safe in buying random IKEA prints or DIY Pinterest nonsense and no one is doing anything to change it. It might come off like I’m trashing galleries or publications but I only dislike the big ones that are just doing the same shit, there are A LOT of publications and galleries who are trying to talk about, show or promote artists other than the big names but they struggle with outreach. The middle class of art is made up largely of artists and small groups of patrons supporting each other within their respective communities. Every city seems to have it’s own little gallery circuit or collective and those are amazing communities but they need outreach. So what should we do? Educate people. We need to unite these small communities in the middle class of art and show people that art isn’t some scary, upper class luxury but an open world of creators that if people entered they’re bound to find something they love. Once we educate people that art isn’t scary and they can and should interact with it we can show them that buying art isn’t a million dollar game. We need to sell our art reasonably so that people can buy it and proudly display it instead of the same landscape print that’s sold at every target and is in every suburban home. We need to educate the world that art isn’t as scary as they think and there’s more than just the big names, we need to revolutionize and expand the middle class of art so that we can all thrive, not just one or two of us. Let’s expand, build our network, show to everyone, let’s make these small communities of people creating, collaborating, showing and supporting each other one big community doing the same thing and from there we can revolutionize the art world. We’re not all going to be the big names selling at the big auctions but we can be the artists who say fuck the system and put in the work to make something new successful!

Jeffrey Toy is an artist I’ve been fortunate enough to interact a lot with. This Wilmington, DE based painter and printmaker is a fun and exciting man who works incredibly hard in the studio and dedicates himself fully to his art. I’ve interacted with a lot of artists, both good and bad, but when you meet an artist who truly puts their all into their work and makes art their life, it’s striking and you get something more out of every interaction, Jeff is one of those artists. There’s been times where I’ve had to take a huge step back and look at my own work because his passion was so strong that my stuff felt meaningless in comparison and at times I really needed that! He’s an artist who will give you awesome support but challenge you at the same time, just an awesome guy. When I talked to Jeff about his work he described it as exploratory, an adventure. He says he never really has a plan and that once he starts he throws himself at the mercy of the process and lets it go where it goes. I like that a lot, that resonates with me, and I think that you can see it in his work. Without even going into the work in too much detail, it’s impressive the different things that Jeff does, crossing disciplines, blending styles together, it’s a vast portfolio. Going further into the work I think one of the biggest things you’ll notice right away is bold, blocked in color that creates space and depth in a way that isn’t quite naturalist but isn’t quite graphic, it’s a unique middle ground. Jeff’s colors have strength, they pop off of the canvas and your eye has to journey through them, color to color and shape to shape as your brain puts together the image and really takes everything in. Even in his print work with limited colors everything stands out, controlled placement and transition from color to color and then to blank spaces creates an image that has depth in a way that you wouldn’t expect from something as simple as, say, a woodblock print. The staples of Jeff’s work are bold color and shape but when those two things that we don’t consider to look “real” come together to create an image with naturalistic depth, it’s an impressive feat. Let’s talk influences! Because I think you’re going to notice a plethora of cultural and artistic influences and I don’t think I’d being doing my job if I didn’t bring it up. Jeff told me he’s inspired by the master artists, notably Ingres, Michelangelo, and Da Vinci, but beyond just the fact that they were great artists he said their work really showed him how to experience the world as an artist. They taught him how to draw and how the ins and outs of drawing are a reflection of how the artist experiences the world and that’s remarkably insightful in my opinion. He also finds a great level of inspiration from Japanese art, saying that since 2004 he’s really immersed himself in that world, studying the culture, imagery and art. Looking through his portfolio, you’ll notice some recognizable Japanese imagery in there. He’s also a lifetime Japanese ningyo doll maker and some of these things are really intricate and neat. I think the future is very bright for Jeff, he’s in the process of transforming part of his home/workspace into an indoor and outdoor gallery to show and promote local artists. Wilmington has a relatively unknown but very active art scene and Jeff’s plans are certainly going to help push that further, but we can’t reveal too much yet! Big picture, he told me he’d like to go abroad to create and show his work in Japan, taking the next big dive into a culture he’s immersed himself into. Jeffrey Toy is certainly an artist to look out for and you’ll definitely be seeing more from him in the Plebeian World! Other Artist Info Location: Wilmington, DE Medium: Painter/Print Maker Schooling: Delaware College of Art and Design Associates of Graphic design (2014) University of Delaware Bachelors of Fine Arts (2018) Where to Find Him: Plebeian: https://www.plebeiandeli.art/profile/1ca2b43e-6f56-4ec5-95f1-b63a2db5309b/profile Website: https://jtoy.myportfolio.com/ Instagram: @jeffrey_toy Remember Folks! Feature Friday is an awesome way to get your work seen and promoted, as well as make you eligible for other prizes! But, you’ve got to post on that forum so we can see your work and promote it! So post, comment and post some more! Let’s see and talk about all of your work!

The goal is to sell. There is a business term, "educating the market". This refers to the creation of a new product so revolutionary that the consumer may not be able to digest on their own. To combat that companies will spend time and effort teaching people how the product can be beneficial. Why as artists do we ignore that fact a focus on the somewhat niche market of people who "get" art. Our objective should be to expand our consumer base. Hence the statement, don't let your friends off the hook. Unless you strictly surround yourself with people in the art world you have all experienced showing a friend your work and them saying, thats "cool" and nothing more. No, no , no this is the in we need. This is the moment to challenge people. Don't allow them to give you half hearted praise. Sell them on the pleasures of a transcendent painting, or moving sculpture. Annoy them with artistic conversation force them to think and engage. Shove it down their throat the way you would with a new band you discovered or indie film you found. Half of interests maybe more are influenced by the people around us. If we can all educate our friends maybe just maybe, rather definitely, the niche market will grow. Extrapolate that out across all of us and before you know it you'll come across random people arguing about art at bars the way they do about music, politics, and sports. Everyone go out tomorrow and talk to five normies about art. Challenge them on their thoughts they will educate themselves.

Today’s article is all about experimentation in school and why it’s the best thing you could ever do. So to start off, I’ll give a little background about why I feel so strongly about this subject. If you look my art now and my art in high school you’d never imagine it was done by the same person, and I don’t just mean the typical cliche of, “oh I’ve gotten so much better, it’s like night and day.” I was a good artist in high school, good at what I did at least, but I went through a total change of subject matter, intent, and material and that can all be credited to the experimentation I did while in school. When I was younger I had an idea of what I wanted to create but I always struggled to materialize it, I couldn’t effortlessly draw cartoons like some kids I knew, I couldn’t just imagine something and put it on the page, I needed some sort of reference. So, since I needed to see something to do it, I got really into doing portraits and that was cool but how much can a portrait really do? This isn’t medieval Europe, we have cameras for one and I certainly wasn’t the best portrait artist out there so my art wasn’t really doing any good. Looking back on it now though I think a lot of the reason I did those portraits, or just drew from what I saw was because it was easy for me, I didn’t have to experiment so the fear of failing wasn’t there. That’s one of the biggest changes that I experienced in art school, I remember declaring my major as fine art and being told I had to take ceramics, sculpture, photo, and so on and I just dreaded it all aside from drawing. That’s what I was good at, why change it, right? No. Wrong. I remember it clear as day, a drawing 2 critique, and we had a self portrait project due. I remember thinking, “Hell yes! A portrait, time to shine!” I think we all have that selfish notion in our head that we hope everyone else’s piece in crit is worse than ours, so we can be number one. This was my time to be number one. Now, I’m not cynical enough to say that my piece was the best in the class but it was good, and some people struggled with portraits, it’s a hard thing to do but the professor saw right through me. “This comes easy to you, doesn’t it?” she said. I was floored. She didn’t want to just praise me for doing a good portrait she wanted to tell me awesome, you’re good at this one thing, now why not challenge yourself? So that’s what I did, I shut up that stupid voice in my head that groaned at the idea of doing things other than drawing and challenged myself to new experiences. From there I found a passion in large scale sculpture, diving into materials, remodelling and repurposing. I fell in love with the process of printmaking, most notably etching. I started gaining an appreciation and love for all these different processes and styles and suddenly I was unlocking new chambers of my creativity. I didn’t need to look at something in attempts to recreate it anymore, I could do my own things and I credit all that to just saying fuck it and experimenting with different crafts. So that brings us to the guts of my subject today, I know a lot of artists who didn’t experiment in school, they stuck with what was safe because they were good at it and didn’t go far from it and it’s noticeable. So that’s why I want to challenge all of you to experiment, do something different, don’t just stick with what’s safe. In school we have a lot that we take for granted in facilities, our professors, and the community of artists all experimenting as well and I want to go through and break down why that’s the time to do it and help you reflect on whether or not you’re getting or got the most out of your school experience. First things first is the facilities that school gives us. Few, if any of us are going to have fully equipped ceramic, sculpture, print, and drawing studios in our lives outside of school so take advantage of them while you can. I would love to be throwing together a massive steel sculpture like I did in school but when you replace a flat studio cost and material with the price of a safe space, material, welder, gas, ventilation, tools, and so on it’s not financially viable anymore. We all have that one place in the studio buildings that we’re afraid to go to or don’t want to work in but we need to break that cycle. Go in there, try it out, what’s the worst that could happen? You may love it if you try it but you may also never have an opportunity to try out that process again if you don’t give it a shot. Failure in school is ok but sometimes people get so terrified of failure they give up on something they have promise in. That leads me to my next point, which is the professors. Some processes in art are hard, really hard, and trying them out on your own could be really fulfilling but also really frustrating. That’s why those people who teach the class and can give you a ton of technical insight are super awesome, what are they called again? Oh, yeah, professors. In the professional world there isn’t a lot of technical help in nailing down new processes and the criticism of poor craft is all the harsher so take advantage of that help while it’s there. I’ve seen a lot of people get super into a process but give up when it becomes too frustrating or poorly execute a good idea because they didn’t seek technical help and it sucks. There’s not many people willing to help artists figure shit out in the real world so take advantage of the people who do while they’re there. That brings me to my final point, and that’s the fact that you’re in school surrounded by students who are just as inexperienced as you, trying to figure out where they fit in the art world. It’s easy to get discouraged in school, especially when it’s crit day and you’re feeling confident but then someone rolls in with this bad ass piece and everyone’s jaw hits the floor and that’s all anyone can talk about. But you’ve got to think, that person may have really found themselves in this piece, they may not have known this process, they might have just taken full advantage of the time to experiment, they found their niche. So, keep going and you’ll find yours. We’re all going to fail in school, some things just won’t work out, but that’s the time to fail right? Our livelihood doesn’t depend on a piece in school. It’s all just a collection of artists falling down and getting back up in hopes of finding something they can balance on. Some find that really early on and excel, some it takes a little more time but it will come, so talk to that person who’s killing it about what changed for them, talk to that person who’s struggling about what’s going wrong in your works and how you could strive to improve together. We’re gifted with a network of people who are on the exact same level as us in school and sometimes I think we forget to use that. In conclusion, I’m not trying to say scrap what you’re good at but I am trying to say go give what you might not be good at a shot, or if you’re forced into an art making situation you’re not thrilled about then give it your all. You never know, you just may love it and it just may totally redefine you as an artist. You’ll never know if you don’t try, so take advantage of every last bit of the facilities and tools that school gives you while you can because you never know what might be right for you and i guarantee you’re going to miss that stuff when you’re gone.

To the uniformed eye stumbling across a satisfying video on instagram, vacuum forming may seem like a sorcery that may only be done in million dollar facilities by seasoned engineers. Oh to the contrary; vacuum forming is honestly one of the most accessible, useful techniques when it comes to repetition of objection in a fine art practice. Stemming from the process known as thermoforming, it is the act of shaping a material while hot then allowing it to cool and harden maintaining desired shape. While rigs can be purchased online for a pretty penny that is not the way we do things around here. Let's talk about your d.i.y. set up. - a sheet of abf plastic (recommended) - a heating element ( can be as simple as a heat gun just make sure to evenly disperse heat) - a perforated surface - a vacuum - and finally an object to replicate either found or created ( a buck) First place the buck onto the perforated surface. Connect vacuum to the underside of the surface. Apply heat to the abf plastic sheet until it becomes pliable. Drape plastic over the buck creating a sealed space. activate vacuum and watch the magic happen. The plastic will suck down and cover all but on face of the buck, leaving a very accurate replica. Of course with increased complexity of the form some obstacles may arise, but for quick mass production it works great. GO TRY IT. Build your own rig, or buy one if your into that, makes mistakes learn from it and have fun. Here are videos of other cool people doing it. -Adam Savage for Tested.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cacr1WeKOzY - This guy from Formech.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqV_jsxD0UA

As I wandered through the majesty of my local book trader (see my previous article on why these places are AWESOME) I decided I needed to find something different than my usual. My ever growing stack of books on Renaissance and Baroque artists is wonderful, I have a lot of fun looking at my collection, but I noticed I’d been getting in the habit of buying books on the same subject as the thing I’m currently reading before I finish it and then I end up in a long chain of the same, or very similar thoughts. These thoughts become drastically less inspiring as they carry on and become more and more mundane so I needed something new, something inspiring in a way that I don’t usually thrive on. This lead me into a rabbit hole of thinking about how I, as an artist, find inspiration to create what I create and I thought it would it would be fun to share with you all. One of my biggest inspirations, and I think this is true for a lot of artists, is art shows. Nothing gets me into my studio space more than seeing an artist I really like, or seeing a new technique I can try. Other people’s creativity is extremely contagious to me and seeing dope art makes me want to try to make my own dope art and then maybe inspire someone to make their own dope shit. My best recent example of this came on my birthday last August (hint: hit ja boi up this August), and getting to see the career and life retrospective of one of my favorite artists, the equation known as RAMMELLZEE. This show was put on at the Red Bull Arts gallery in New York and I’ve got to give a massive shout out to the team behind it because it was the best curated show I’ve ever been to. I wandered through this two floor space for hours over the two days I was in New York, yes I went to the show twice, and drooled over the majesty of some of my favorite work and my brain started motoring on about what I was going to create when I got home. I really relate to the work of RAMMELLZEE because we both work with found material, are inspired by graffiti and have our own hierarchy and lineage of characters within our work. Shows like this just get me fired up and ready to create and, as I mentioned before, I’m sure plenty of artists can relate. But beyond the obvious, art inspiring art, I want to talk about things outside of our genre or what we normally look at that can inspire us. I love seeing work in galleries or books but I think if we just let one piece of art inspire another, then another, then another, we get a chain of monotony that eventually just bleeds together into a collection of pieces that are, at their core, the same thing. So this brings us back to the bookstore, I tried to find books on artists or art periods that I didn’t usually look at but I just couldn’t find anything that tickled my fancy so I left the art section and began wandering around looking for something that caught my eye. I found a book on old horror movies and two books on Alcatraz amongst the piles of literature and I was completely sucked in. My work is heavily inspired by the macabre and I had these two references that gave me tales and images of both fictional and real life terror and I found myself thinking about making pieces that were different than my usual, a hard left turn off of the road I was headed down. I was looking into new things and it made me look at art I had made or was going to make in a new way. We all need to refresh our perspectives every now and then and I found myself being totally rebooted by these books. This made me asses what I look at on a daily basis and it really hit me that inspiration is everywhere, art is everywhere. Go out into the world and just experience it, take in the scenery and examine how that reflects in your art. I think artists, and I’m totally guilty of this, get stuck in the same rotation of looking at the same references and the work gradually starts to get watered down and, well… lame. Our subject matter can’t stay the same all the time, art would be a hell of a lot easier if it could, but sometimes it’s so hard to find new inspiration or subjects. If we look at art through the ages, we see that new periods are typically started by one or two people who suddenly decide to do something new when whatever is going on is stale and then artists say, “oh shit, that’s way better than what we’ve been doing.” Art and artists occasionally need a reboot, to be unplugged and plugged back in, so try it! Try to put down the shit that you’re doing and do something new. I think that in school or when we’re young we experiment so much but at some point we just find something that works and keep doing it. And that’s awesome, we all need to find our niche, but we can’t let experimentation die with that. Go out, look at something new, experience something new and take those new things and create something new. Never get too comfortable or just keep making the same thing, do more, try more, never close your mind to new art. Build an ever growing reference collection that spans across all subjects and use it!

Maybe its just a matter of poor attention span on my part, but almost every time I go to look at art I up getting distracted by and then locked in on the actions of the cast and characters inhabiting the show. Im not one for stereotypes, but here are a couple bullet proof ones for ya. The casual fan - found out about the show and had a Saturday free. These people keep to themselves, look uncomfortable in an art setting and can often be seen chuckling to one another in dismay. They may utter the classic "I don't get this one." The unwarranted free lance photographer - decides to temporarily block everyones view to take professional documentation that neither the artist nor public will ever ask to see. This person may seem like they are just doing their job but, nope. Now this one does not cover those capturing the piece for their snapstory; this is the one with the obnoxiously large camera and zoom lens even though all pics will be within six feet of the work. The old heads - may go unnoticed to the untrained eye. These people are academics, successful artists themselves or critics. They are actually involved in the art community and often visit shows in three to four person groups. Often they approach a piece turn and whisper to each other a story about the good old days or even make a remark pertaining to their personal experiences with the artist shown. The overachiever - If in my presence a stern shaking of my head will give away this persons presence. There are generally two variations in this instance. There is the young artist dressed to standout and bring attention to the life changing experience he or she is having as a result of the work. Then the person with a somewhat "creative job" whom cannot resist talking about the work. However it is rare that this person understands the work which results in the exclamation of how tough the process exhibited is and how they tried it one time and WOW! Thats impressive. Don't be one of these. Be somewhere in between. Except the camera guy; don't ever be that guy. Ignore the unwritten rule of reverence that linger around the show. If you're looking at a piece and another person approaches, don't nod and quickly get out of their way. Stay right in front as long as you please. Have conversations at normal volumes; whispering is for lames. Your goal should be getting scolded ever security guard in there. Be so engaged with the work that they have to tell you to take a step back. Just know if you are one of these caricatures someone may see and write about you online.

To reiterate if you’re new and didn’t read the first article, “Why We’re Here Wednesday,” is a continued editorial on art school. Why do we go? What’s good about it? What’s bad about it? Benefits from going or not going? It’s a continued conversation in the overall experience of art school and we want to talk to as many artists as possible on what they got or didn’t get (that means YOU). Starting off we’re giving you our experiences as our baseline for the continued conversations. So, this week I gave a prompt to two of our founders, Joseph Gardner and Andy DeVito, and it was basically, “what did you expect from art school and what did you get.” I think this is the perfect question for someone with one of those coveted art degrees that so many people seem to have but sometimes struggle to use. This is prompt we plan on asking many different artists to think about and I think it’s a question you all could take away from as well. In life I think we forget to reflect on our experiences sometimes, so reflect! Before I get into what our founders thought of their art school experiences I’ll give a reflection of my own. I went to a performing arts high school so I was guided into art school a little more gently than I think most people are but I pulled an audible last minute and went to architecture school to start. I thought it was going to be this fulfilling use of my creativity with much more monetary opportunity and holy cow was I totally wrong. First off, there’s not a lot of big money in architecture, but more importantly it just wasn’t for me, I didn’t quite get what was being asked, I didn’t get along with my professors, and to me (not saying this is true for everyone) it just seemed like 4 years of frustrated students not quite sure what to do being tossed into a field. So that, plus that shit being way too expensive, lead to me transferring schools and back into a fine art program and I didn’t quite know what to expect. I had technical talent but I wasn’t sure how to best apply that, I needed more out of my art and I think school forcing me to experiment with different mediums, applications, and so on gave that to me. I was uncertain of what I wanted to do, I didn’t know artists, I didn’t know art really, I just knew what I was good at doing and I knew that I didn’t want to do that forever. I’ve got to say, I think we could be getting more out of art school, I think changes do need to be made to make the experience better but that doesn’t mean I had a bad experience, in fact I had a great one. As a networking opportunity, a collaboration opportunity, and as a space to try new things without consequence art school changed my life and helped me discover who I am as an artist and I’m all the better for it! So enough about me, let’s hear what two of our founders had to say! Joseph Gardner: Acceptance to an art school always seems like a stamp of approval for young artist. Its that reassurance that you have potential. Studying art in college seems like it will be the necessary step before becoming famous. Obviously that didn’t turn out to be the case. That being said art school can be an incredible tie for personal growth. It all depends on how you take it. Realize what it is and you is for all its worth. If you realize that pleasing professors and becoming golden boy isn’t the goal, there is a great opportunity to realize the work that you want to make and built a strong case for defending your intentions. Take critique from your peers and professors for what it is worth. In all honesty they are all just opinions. Really consider opinions of those you respect, but don’t live and die by the feedback that you receive. There is no write answer to the work your making. Keep your own head and defend your ideas. That doesn’t mean your work can’t evolve as you work through classes, but evolve on your own terms. Never make work to pander to the faculty of even peers. Whether they like it or absolutely shit on it take that with a grain of salt. The most important part of art school is the networking. Hands down! Forest touched on this in the first Wednesday blog but it’s worth reiterating. There is no other time in life when you’re in a place filled with peers that are chasing the same thing. Collaborate, Collaborate, Co lab or ate! Build things together. Create opportunities for yourselves. You have everything you need right there. Support each other’s work and take on the world after school together. When you graduate that all goes away. Connections with professors and mentors always weaken when you’re not in a school setting. People are busy with their own things. No one gets anywhere on their own. Make it big with your friends. Andy DeVito: What I expected before going to school for art: I can’t quite remember what I expected going into an art program. I originally wanted to go to school for some form of graphic design but ended up in the fine arts program for a while. What I took away from going to school for art: When I started classes I realized I had a lot to catch up on. One issue that I really struggled with was learning how to have discussions about art that went further than the surface. At first I felt I didn’t know how to translate work. I had to learn a few tricks and techniques on how to look at art first, such as scanning a piece and connecting any feelings to abstract shapes and colors, studying to recognize iconography, identify any reasonably noticeable intention of sloppiness (not so important, but it helps when taking a look at your own work), so on & so forth. Unless a work’s context was obvious, it didn’t really matter if my translation was the same as the artist’s intent as long as I could communicate my thoughts well. Some work required a lot of thinking to figure my feelings out, some work only required immediate emotional responses. I learned all of this way too late, mostly developing throughout my final year. In hindsight I wouldn’t say I had a traditional college experience, being somewhat reclusive, art was a way for me to express myself a little more openly during that time. It was very therapeutic, but I still somehow found a way to stress myself out doing what I loved. I wasn’t so much interested in the academia; I don’t think grades necessarily reflect knowledge, ha ha, but I really enjoyed studying a subject that provided a creative outlet with a timeline I could manage to grow how I wanted. I walked away very humbled but with more confidence in making work I hope that our reflection was somewhat helpful to you in aiding your own reflection. By no means is this any sort of gospel or guarantee of experience, but it’s what we got. We want to hear what you think of art school as well and we’re going to keep asking artists. There’s a whole lot more to talk about when it comes to art school and sometimes the conversation gets lead by people who aren’t exactly experiencing school fully and we’re the ones who can make some noise and make the conversation heard by more people!

We should always be looking for new processes of making; especially with the abundance of knowledge one can absorb from just a dive into the ole rabbit hole of the interweb. While I would recommend finding a mentor and receiving hands on instruction when it comes to the more complex things, sometimes you just gotta say fuck it. Watch some dude do something in his garage on youtube...think to yourself I could probably do that. Try it for yourself and have it go horribly wrong. But hey thats something. That what this series will pertain to. Myself and others telling you how to do things from the window of your computer screen and then setting you loose to stumble your way through it, hopefully when it's all said and done we'll all learn some stuff.

Episode One: Flying Dog & Ralph Steadman The craft beer industry has been exploding over the last few years as larger scale breweries are expanding their portfolios and smaller scale breweries are popping up seemingly every day. The craft beer industry and its expansion is built upon experimentation, taking beer tradition and trying exciting new things, and this doesn’t just limit it to the beer itself. New styles or twists on beers is exciting but a lot of people are safe in their ways and need to have their eye drawn to something in the hopes that they’ll try it. What’s the best way to draw people to anything? Exciting imagery! Brewers and artists are now collaborating to make labels that excite and draw in the viewer; new label styles for new beer styles. I encourage everyone to go into their local beer distributor and just take a look at some of these labels, just the sheer badassery going on with some of these labels is insane! Suddenly there is this new outlet for fine artists to create ambitious work. It’s not just breweries reaching out to big time, established artists either, it’s open to all because these small scale breweries creating new age, experimental beer are open for anything and they just want kick ass art to go with their products, wherever it comes from. That’s one of the most exciting parts, as an artist, because it doesn’t feel like this corporate, unbreakable ceiling where only a few artists get to do this, it’s open to anyone and there’s real opportunity in it. As both an art and craft beer enthusiast, I want to start a segment about craft beer and the awesome new art going on in it. Whenever I find a sweet can or label, I’m going to try and hunt down the artist or as much information as I can on them and showcase their exciting material that’s circulating the marketplace and might get overlooked. Sometimes what’s on the can is just as exciting as what’s in it and the goal of this segment is to expose the artists making that work. So, I’m going to start by talking about the Flying Dog Brewery and artist Ralph Steadman. This is a pretty popular brewery now and Steadman is a fairly well known artist but it’s what they’ve done for the freedom of craft brewing and labeling that’s lesser known but is an integral part of how the culture has grown. Ralph Steadman is a Welsh illustrator whose style is defined is by splattered color, scratchy lines and obscure, often obscene, imagery. Best known for being a long time collaborator with American journalist Hunter S. Thompson, illustrating for many of his articles and books. Perhaps the most popular piece that Steadman worked on in this partnership was for the novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, further popularized by the movie adaptation featuring Johnny Depp. Steadman has also created illustrations for editions of Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, Fahrenheit 451, and many more. He’s also done album artwork for artists like The Who, Frank Zappa, Ambrosia, and most recently Travis Scott and Quavo on their joint project Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho. But, even though that’s already an impressive resume, we’re here to talk about his collaborative work with the Flying Dog Brewery. Steadman’s work with Flying Dog began in 1995 as he contributed a logo, beer labels, and even their initial motto, “Good Beer, No Shit.” The partnership was off to a flying start, beers were well taken and the labels were exciting and fresh in somewhat of a bland industry time. That’s when the controversy began, a complaint of obscenity was filed against the brewery and the Colorado State Liquor Board pulled all of their products due to the previously mentioned motto and Steadman’s controversial label art for the Road Dog Porter and Doggie Style Ale. The Road Dog Porter label features a grimacing dog in sunglasses and what appears to be a prison uniform in Steadman’s trademark sketchy and wild style next to the “Good Beer, No Shit,” moniker. The Doggie Style Ale portrays a vomiting dog flying with wings, The wings of the Flying Dog logo, strapped to its back. These images are definitely a little shocking at first since the industry wasn’t as free and crazy as it is now but this response was certainly over the top and they needed to fight back. So Flying Dog and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the state of Colorado and prompted the new motto, “Good Beer, No Censorship.” Not surprisingly, in 2001 the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in the breweries favor based on their rights expressed in the American First Amendment. So, that was that, a bump in the road for sure but the brewery and the art came out on top, but this wasn’t the last of the controversy they’d face over label art. The Brewery’s site reported at one point the state of Ohio banned their Cardinal Zin Wine due to the obscene representation of a catholic cardinal on the label, but the article has since been deleted. That brings us to the big one, in 2009 the Michigan Liquor Control Commission banned Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch IPA over its name and label art. Raging Bitch is one of the brewery’s most popular beers and really helped propel them into the national eye, so an entire state banning it over its name or label would really hurt the business and their continued hopes for expansion. The label art features a screaming dog with clear breasts and genitals exposed, a rather obscene image, but they’ve been through this before, they can label their beers however they want! This began a long legal battle and protest as the brewery tried to get their beer back on the shelves and stop the censorship. It was hard and it was discouraging for the beer industry because their art was being censored. Art has had a long standing battle with government censorship but usually takes the upper hand, yet since beer is a commercialized product some branches of the government thought they could really step in and control this industry. But in 2015, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals repealed the ban, again, on the ground of the first amendment and they recommended that the brewery seek civil damages from the state of Michigan. This was huge, it was over, no more censorship in craft beer art because it was art! This continued relationship between Steadman and Flying Dog where the brewery allows Steadman to do whatever he wants in his illustration has been pivotal for the industry. For so long we’ve idolized artists who’ve battled government censorship and that’s what Flying Dog and Ralph Steadman have been for the craft beer community and I don’t think they get enough praise for it. They fought the system on multiple occasions and won! Every time! Art is art, afterall, and it shouldn’t be censored no matter where it ends up and Steadman has never been one to back down when someone tries to censor him. Flying Dog honored their label artist for his continued loyalty and overall coolness as an artist and person in 2017 with their St. EADman Porter. Steadman’s made and continues to make awesome artwork, even at 82, and he’s never let anyone tell him what to do and it’s been huge for the craft beer industry. I encourage all to check out his work on Flying Dog labels everywhere, my personal favorite being The Truth. As we move forward and look at more and more labels, I think we should remember that this artist and brewery have been crucial in allowing others to produce without fear of censorship. Label work is a huge opportunity and rising industry for artists so it’s amazing to see where some people can take it and what they’ll do to protect their art.