Yet More Thoughts on Legacy, a Call to Artists

Artists, recognize your own importance in helping to establish your own legacies.  Your collectors are important and help to preserve your own history, so respect and celebrate them.  Those galleries and representatives that really do good by you also help to establish your history by fostering and promoting what you do, so it behooves you not to undermine or undercut them by selling to their collectors wholesale or you risk losing those connections.  But enough of that - this post isn't about fostering relationships.

I want to note the importance of record-keeping in regards to establishing legacy.  Are your artworks clearly labeled?  Are they organized?  Are they stored in such a way that they are well-preserved?  Do you keep a record of shows and events in which your work was included?  Do you know what works were shown where?  Can someone else going through your studio identify your works later and determine what they are and how much they are valued at?

I don't expect you to know the answers to all of these questions.  Hell, I don't know all of this regarding my own work, especially what was shown where as I am so active.  But I do try to label things and keep an ongoing record what shows and events I've participated in (and even those that declined me, though that's more of a personal record to sense where I am and what is most worth pursuing later).

My artworks are my legacy, and an important part of my estate, and I realize that if something were to happen to me that my husband or other heirs would have to go through that estate and make sense of it.  They will already have enough work cut out for them in doing so, the least I can do is make sure that they know what they're looking at and trying to make sense of.  So I'm off to label some artworks and record them for posterity...

This Week

I have a totally new sculptural assemblage included in the upcoming Leaving No Trace exhibition at Framations, opening this Friday.  I even plan to Dress for the Occasion by donning my Au Naturel altered dress.  Please feel free to come and check it out.

Leaving No Trace
Framations
218 North Main St.
St. Charles, MO
Feb. 2013
Reception: Friday, Feb. 1, 6 - 8 PM

Beyond the Lens

The Beyond the Lens exhibit has been posted online.  I am so very honored to have been represented in this show, and to have won First Place.  Please feel free to check it out on Framations website here.

Some More Thoughts on Legacy and the WCA-STL Local Legacy Fund

Today, at the board meeting, I officially kicked off the Local Legacy Fund by presenting a check to the St. Louis Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art and formally announcing the fund and some directions to consider pursuing to start.  I am grateful and honored to be able to do this with the proceeds from my LAST CHANCE! show as it helps me to bring closure to that experience by offering an answer to some of the questions that I raised.

Legacy is so important.  Living, local artists too often go unrecognized, not just here in St. Louis but wherever they reside.  It is so easy to take local artists for granted because, like spouses or family members, local artists are so close, so accessible, so involved, and known all-too-well within their own communities, both in regards to their triumphs and shortcomings.  It's so easy to want to import culture, to bring in new experiences, and living, local artists often simply don't have that exotic and immediate appeal that comes with residing elsewhere.  But we all deserve so much more and deserve to be recognized for our accomplishments within our communities because it is our efforts and dedication that foster those communities and provide so many opportunities and connections within them.

I am very excited about the Local Legacy Fund.  It will be good to see the momentum that has been developing nationally carried into the local St. Louis art community.  It is so important to preserve women artists' legacies and ensure that our voices are written into art & feminist history on all levels, and I am thrilled to see the St. Louis Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art pursue doing so.

I have been thinking a lot about legacy and our impacts as artists after the LAST CHANCE! show and will be writing some more about different aspects of legacy in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out.

This Week

I have work in a ton of shows opening this week.  Among them, I am Dressing for the Occasion again and donning my Princess costume for Misperception at Art Saint Louis.  (I even already did so for the Saint Louis Symphony's Pictures at an Exhibition event yesterday, so I am able to post this sneak peek.)

Misperception
Art Saint Louis
555 Washington Ave. Ste. 150, St. Louis, MO
Jan. - Feb. 2013
Reception: Saturday, Jan. 19, 6 - 8 PM
Princess Barbie & I will be there!

Beauty & the Beholder
Columbia Art League
207 S. Ninth St., Columbia, MO
Jan. - Feb. 2013
Reception: Thursday, Jan. 17, 6 - 8 PM

Public / Private
Woman Made Gallery
685 N. Milwaukee, Chicago, IL
Jan. - Feb. 2013
Reception: Friday, Jan. 18, 6 - 9 PM

The Wedding Party
First Unitarian Society of Ithaca
306 N. Aurora St., Ithaca, NY
Jan. - March 2013
Reception: Saturday, Jan. 19, 3 - 5 PM

Art By Women, For Women, About Women
Capital Arts
1203 Missouri Blvd., Jefferson City, MO
Jan. - Feb. 2013
Reception: Sunday, Jan. 20, 1 - 4 PM

Art of the Week: Tattoo

I love temporary tattoos.  Here's another preview from the mystery photo shoot...

Art of the Week: Now What?

Now that my big yearlong art anniversary celebration and LAST CHANCE! event have ended, I'm moving forward, as evidenced by this Art of the Week preview post.  But what next?...  Wouldn't you love to know...