Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster started Missed Connections on Craigslist in response to the number of personal ads he saw addressing these momentary connections between people. He said, “The [missed connections] listings were intriguing because they mixed the natural desire to make a first impression and the very human need to get a second chance.”

I like this notion also when applied to art – when do we need to give art a second (third, fourth, fortieth) chance? When is a first impression enough to pull us more deeply into an artwork? When is a first impression off-putting to the point where we won’t investigate further.

While you ponder those questions, I’ll leave you with a bit of eye/brain-candy from Blackalls’ book, respectfully re-posted from Brain Pickings.

Culture Front Live is pleased to present “First Impressions: Looking Beyond Initial Impact” with Jenny Dowd, Andrew Munz and Aaron Wallis, on Wednesday, May 29, 5:30 p.m. at The Rose.

What information do we get from a first impression? This question is important in the context of art and literature. Often what attracts a viewer or reader to a work is the first impression – some kind of impact, positive or negative. However, closer reading or looking can reveal layers and meaning not apparent on first glance. The payoff of a work of art may be far greater than its initial appearance.

For the May 29 Culture Front Live talk, two artists and a writer will share their individual reflections on the power and limits of first impressions. Andy Munz will discuss impact vs. payoff in fiction. Jenny Dowd will speak about hidden mysteries in her artwork. Aaron Wallis will talk about the value of spending time with a piece of artwork to fully appreciate it.

Jenny Dowd earned an MFA in ceramics with a minor in fibers at the University of Missouri-Columbia. In 2006, Jenny’s work was exhibited in Milan, Italy, as part of the Premio Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro International Competition for Young Sculptors. In 2010, Jenny was an artist in residence at the Ucross Foundation, and in 2011 she received a visual arts fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council. She lives in Alpine with her husband, Sam, where they co-own the small art and pottery business, Dowd House Studios.

Jenny Dowd, “Teeth: Furniture”

Andrew Munz grew up in Jackson and is constantly inspired by the various creative members of the community. A founding member of the improv group, The Laff Staff, Andrew has participated in many performances in the valley and has also written and directed plays that have premiered regionally as well as in New York and Chicago. He works at the Center for the Arts, but spends much of his free time working on a novel and teaching various improv workshops.

Andrew Munz

Aaron Wallis was born in Tacoma, WA, and lives and works in Jackson. He is currently the studio coordinator at the Teton Artlab, a non-profit artist studio center. He works in oil, drawing, silkscreen, lithography, intaglio and letterpress. One of his current projects is The Street Bible, an ongoing series of prints depicting rappers and drug dealers in the context of Christian iconography and the illuminated manuscript.

from “The Street Bible” by Aaron Wallis

“I know what I am doing.” – Amy Goicoechea

“Vagabond stays still, breathes in life.” – Adam Van Sickle

“Jonesing for sequel: Seven-word snapshot!” – David Baker

“Always eagerly awaiting my next disappointment.”  – Kate Dahlgren

“Rootless, home pulsates under my feet.” – Christina Cartier

“Life re-do’s work in Jackson Hole.” – Gary Weissman

“Wandering squirrel finds loving Teton tree.” – Giles Augustine

” Teacher’s son–teaches, tires, travels, (w)rites.” – Gregory Zeigler

” Art and kids, best life lived.” – June Nystrom

“Desde mi niñez, sueño sueños brillantes.” – Kjera Strom Henrie

“I’m faithful, friendly, fat, forgetful, fatigued.” – Mary Waid

“Teton Love. Now I know. Always.” – Rose Caiazzo

“My life is just beginning.” – Sally Baughman

(Image: “Another Love Story,” Mike Parillo)

“I remember all the secret trails.” – Susan Marsh

Sometimes less is more. Can you give a snapshot from your life using only and exactly six words? Readers of Smith Magazine will be familiar with this underground phenomenon. Smith popularized the Six-Word Memoir with the belief that everyone has a story to tell and everyone should have a place to tell it. This exhibit is a culmination of six-word memoirs collected from the Jackson community. Co-presented by the Teton County Library, Culture Front and the Jackson Hole Writers.

For educators, here is a great link about teaching the six-word memoir. We welcome student submissions.

Send your submissions to meg@megdaly.com. Please be from the Jackson area, use only six words, and avoid offensive language.

Here are a sample of the memoirs we have received so far….

“Overcommitted but still not over commitment.” – Matt Daly

“Nature, Family, Community, says it all.” – Jean Jorgensen

“Overfed, rolling around in imagination’s mulch.” – Andy Munz

“Ambiguous, my favorite color of paint.” – Todd Kosharek

“Bellydancing cowgirl juggling and balancing beauty.” – Morgane Boag

“Born in Japan, made in Wyoming.” – Travis Walker

“Naked, Training Bra, Braless, Sports Bra.” – Connie Wieneke

“Father or artist? Divorce changed everything.” – Doug Staker

“Why not now, why not here.” – Ben Read

“Amid corn fields, then rising mountains.” – Dimmie Ziegler

“I have great mom, great wife.” – Paul Hansen

“Behind every fear lies a miracle.” – September Vhay

Stay tuned for more memoirs soon. All the memoirs will be exhibited at the end of June – exact location and dates to be announced. (Image: “Anything’s Possible” by Alison Brush.)

1) What constitutes commercial success to you?

• Engagement with audience; critical review; alignment (or not) with past and current theoretical influences; idea generation, discussion, feedback; inciting thinking in new or different ways; revealing, exposing and telling “truth.”
• When I can pay my bills with my creative work.
• 1993 marked a significant shift towards commercialization in the art world. (The New Museum has a show detailing this shift). For me, the trend towards commercial partnerships is twofold- It is economically sustainable given our current capitalist model in contrast to looking for support from government source. The second aspect is that commercialization presents the opportunity for art to lose it’s criticality given the stakeholder interest in the work.
• I think commercial success means that you can sustain your lifestyle/family with your work and critical peer review is part of commercial success not an outcome but part of the process.
• Not having to work at another job, being able to work full time as an artist and pay my (modest) bills; also without having to sell out too much, i.e. too many commissions or repeating subjects for the market, some of this is OK but…
• Hundreds of years ago it was patrons who subsidized artists to enable them to focus on their art. Nowadays, with the distribution of wealth, the patronage of artists is also distributed among a wider range of collectors. I make it clear to them that their financial support is a critical part of the creative process because without it we would not be afforded the time to create. That said, we have all seen how “commercial success”  can also be a trap. Artists get stuck in a rut creating what sells. This eventually shows in the art. I was advised that if I found a niche/style, it would be good for my commercial success. If I continue to explore and experiment in my art, it will be good for my career. This is why I try to keep my focus on making significant art instead of making money.  I figure, if I focus on the former, the latter will take care of itself.
• Commercial success would be making a living on your creative endeavors.
• I have changed what commercial success means with each “success” I have had.  For a while, when I was really young, it was selling a piece for over a thousand dollars.  That happened 15 years ago.  Then it was for over 10,000.  That has happened as well.  The money, for a long time, was my focus and I guess that it still is.  I want to be making a living, even if it is small, and in some ways I am. I have made more then poverty the last few years! But I am not starry-eyed about it.  Art is not something people believe they need.  We see it as entertainment now, instead of enrichment.  And most also see it as entitlement.  Those who have money are entitled to art, those who do not are out of luck.  The arrogant period of the 60′s and 70′s really did a lot of damage to relations with the greater public when it comes to art.  The “I get it, but you don’t” alienated the greater audience.  Being financially successful with such a limited audience is not something that will ever be easy.
• As a writer, commercial success is not necessarily the amount of books I sell or the number of zeroes at the end of a book deal, but rather that my stories have reached the audience they’re intended to reach. I may be digging myself a hole by saying I’m not writing for the money, but the truth of it is that it would mean more to find some teenager opposite me on a train or sitting in an airport terminal with their eyes glued to the pages I wrote. My goal as a writer is to offer the type of story that I would have wanted (and still want) to read. To know that I succeeded in that endeavor would be the ultimate reward.

2) Do you have noncommercial ambitions, like showing in museums and/or critical acclaim?

• I would rather have ‘noncommercial’ success, i.e. film screenings/ awards / museums, than to have commercial success. To me, it feels like to have commercial success inevitably involves compromise which for some reason, I look down on. But money would allow more of my own time to make work.
• Yes, this is primarily my objective.
•  Critical acclaim does not sustain an artist unless the work is complimented by a desire and aptitude for marketing the success. Ultimately, commercializing one’s practice is a business and in doing so, the artist is making art for a living. This is the hardest part – balancing the hustle with finding time to be creative.
•  I would not consider showing in museums and/or critical acclaim non-commercial. In the art world they go hand in hand. Yes I have both goals.
• Non-commercial ambition is to be purchased by a museum.  Critical acclaim means nothing to me.  I have read more then my share of articles written on art and believe critical acclaim means very little for the long term of an artist.  That, and the flip of the coin, critical bashing does not always hurt an artist.  A critic is trying to sell their own thing – their writing – and I take critics with a grain of salt.
• My ambitions for critical acclaim are likely on par with other artists and creatives. We all want that sense of acceptance and admiration. We want our work justified and honored to make it seem like we put in all that damn time for something. Most other careers can be measured by the amount of clients acquired or the amount of sales completed, but with artists the feeling of appreciation goes beyond any statistic. We want people to give a fuck, because we give a fuck. And we like to ignore those who don’t.

3) What, if anything, does “making it” as an artist mean to you?

• Ongoing engagement with the larger profession in whatever way fits with the character of an individual artist’s proclivities and the answers to #1 for me.
• If I am creating, and able to survive off my income, then I have made it.
• Making it is hiring help to manage the workload. Finding what you are truly best at in the business of art is ideal. Is it sitting in a studio stewing on the latest painting, or are you better at sales and strategy, outsourcing your ideas to fabricators and apprentices. Artists span all of these disciplines and recognizing your true talent is necessary to ‘making it.’
• For me personally right now, a success is simply finding the time to make art.
• Simply put, ‘I have made it’  when I have made it enough to afford ‘keep making it’…art that is.
• My notion of success as a visual artist is a perpetual negotiation.  I shuttle between what makes me happy, what I think is possible within the boundaries of my life, and what I believe about the availability of success and its desirability.  What is the cost of this or that decision, and am I willing to pay it?  I have been able to achieve important goals this way while maintaining my integrity, but of course I would like to achieve more.
• I feel that I am “making it” if my work is achieving its conceptual goal.
• “Making it” to me means having the time to work.  If my life is crazy with working to make money to get by then I am not making it.  If I am too busy with personal stuff, then I am not making it.  I take the phrase at its face-value.  “Making it” means making my work.  Philip Glass was a plumber and a taxi driver after his first opera premiered at the Met in NYC.  How much more success can you get then premiering at the Met as a composer?  And he was still fixing toilets for a while after.  He was “making it” by actually making it.
• Making it as an artist means that you’ve found some semblance of satisfaction in your work. I think of an author like James Patterson who has now released over 100 novels with his name on them and wonder about his sense of success. His paychecks say that he’s made it, as does his enormous base of loyal readers. But I wonder in the back of his head, has he truly released the book he’s always wanted to write?

The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde:

Art that matters to us — which moves the heart, or revives the soul, or delights the senses, or offers courage for living, however we choose to describe the experience — that work is received by us as a gift is received. Even if we have paid a fee at the door of the museum or concert hall, when we are touched by a work of art something comes to us which has nothing to do with the price.

How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist: Selling Yourself without Selling Your Soul by Caroll Michels:

…the myth [of the artist] tells us that struggle, complexity, and suffering are necessary components of creativity, and without these key elements an artist will stagnate. The myth tells us that the desire for comfortable lives and financial success will ultimately poison and distort art, that a true artists is concerned only with art and anyone else is a dilettante. They myth tells us that real artists do not discover themselves. Other people do, preferable when the artist is dead!” – from a section entitled “Rejecting the Myth of the Artist”

The Artist’s Guide to Grant Writing: How to Find Funds and Write Foolproof Proposals for the Visual, Literary, and Performing Artist by Gigi Rosenberg

Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization, empowers artists, arts organizations, and other cultural sector stakeholders by eliminating practical barriers to artistic expression, so as to foster a more agile and resilient cultural ecosystem.

Making It: Commercial Success in the Arts

with Shari Edwy Brownfield, Natalia Duncan Macker, and September Vhay

Culture Front Live is pleased to present “Making It: Commercial Success in the Arts” a cocktail hour discussion with Shari Edwy Brownfield, Natalia Duncan Macker, and September Vhay on Wednesday, April 24, 5:30 p.m. at The Rose. Admission is free with a suggested donation of $5. 21 and older only.

For this casual, salon-style presentation, the speakers will explore the question of how to make a living as an artist without sacrificing integrity and authenticity. We are using a broad definition of “artist,” from actors to designers to painters to filmmakers, etc. The audience will be encouraged to participate in the conversation.

Painter September Vhay will talk about her journey from coffee shop walls to major gallery representation. Vhay has shown her work at prestigious national shows such as ‘Birds in Art®’, the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Western Visions Exhibit, The American Academy of Equine Art, The Cowgirl Hall of Fame, and The American Watercolor Society. Gallery representation includes ALTAMIRA in Jackson and the Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. September received her Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Oregon.

Natalia Duncan Macker will talk about how blending performing and producing allows her to keep doors open for herself and get a paycheck. In addition to acting and dancing, Natalia is the Managing Producer at Off-Square Theatre and a producer at Hole Dance Films. She is also an associate with Firefly Theater and Films in Los Angeles. She holds a theater degree from Yale University and is a graduate of the Michael Howard Studios Summer Conservatory in New York.

Shari Edwy Brownfield will speak about her experience as a painter, clothing maker, and gallery director, and will offer advice to artists on what galleries are looking for. She is the Gallery Director at Heather James Fine Art in Jackson. She is the owner/designer at Soren Lorensen Design, recycled line of one-of-a-kind children’s wear. She earned her BFA in Painting and Art History at Concordia University.

I was part of a local art fair a few years back and my sculptural creations had people questioning what they were used for instead of seeing them as purely art. The fair was not the right venue for my work, although the comments and observations were interesting for consideration and input, and I didn’t make any sales. I left feeling a bit frustrated. Should I conform my art to fit more peoples tastes? Is that forsaking my own creativity? What is most important, making the art and putting it out there or making the art and selling it? Can I have both?

This is such a hard topic to write about because it hits the heart so hard. There is part of me that simply adores creating work for the sake of creating, letting that need and want to express out in a non-oral way. That is enough, really. But then there is the part that daydreams about how to construct an income stream that flows around making art.  I do not buy the notion that because you make art or have an art degree that you are setting yourself up for a life of poverty. I do think that educational systems do not supply enough real world advice and guidance on how to take ones art out into the world and market it.  Art and making a living do not have to be enemies. Now more than ever, with the rise of technology in our lives, it is possible to intermingle creating with business in ways that feel authentic, honest, and actually, fun.

An example. I recently watched an episode on Jonathan Field’s Good Life Project where he was talking to the San Francisco artist Ann Rea. She talked about how she rediscovered art in adulthood and took steps to make it her livelihood, initially attempting to go the traditional route of getting shown and endorsed by a gallery. This route was not satisfying so she wrote down all the possible ways-big, small, crazy, boring-that she could make a living doing what she loved best. Out of this came the idea that carved her a niche—painting peoples vineyards and selling her work at wine-tastings. She brainstormed a creative way to make her art accessible, public, and marketed without forsaking her method and way of creating. And she is making a comfortable living.

As artists, whether a painter or a musician a chef or an entrepreneur, we need to keep creating and putting our creations out into the world. As marketing guru Seth Godin says, “just keep shipping”. Meaning put your ideas and work into the arena. We will fail or we will succeed, but either way we will learn and acquire knowledge on how to proceed forward. Maybe it is a bit naïve, but if we consistently produce and share there will be an audience that responds, a following that will happen, a recognition that will be established. With a body of work, a regular creative practice and a population that responds to ones art a hope is that income will naturally follow, if that is ones aim.

Writing this is as much a pep talk for myself as a post for Culture Front. A push to think outside the box, explore the myriad of options in mixing art and commerce, and to recognize that forsaking ones art essence does not have to be an option.

Nothing quite inspires the palate like a painting of two pigs driving into the desert sunset eating tacos.

Right?

When I started this month’s column, I thought I’d write about murals at local restaurants. So I sauntered into Merry Piglets to take in the grandeur of Greta Gretzinger’s murals. Evocations of Thelma & Louise blend with children’s book heroine Olivia all wrapped up in a Mexican theme. Diners are surrounded by imagery of human-like pigs frolicking and going about daily life in a small village. Some are swilling it up at the local tavern; others look for a place to eat lunch. The aforementioned sunset picnic drive mural reigns over it’s own room in the back.

This got me thinking: What’s up with pig themes and restaurants? Do images of pigs subliminally whet our appetites for pork products? Does a pig on the wall give us more license to pig out at the table?

The two primary outposts of pig art – and proud pork products – are indeed Merry Piglets and Café Genevieve. I visited both establishments to reflect upon the art and conduct an unscientific study of the impact of swine aesthetics upon dining habits.

The Merry Piglets porkers do not portray the usual negative associations of gluttony, greed and uncleanliness attributed to the species. They are akin to the friendly swine of children’s literature and film: Wilbur, Babe, and, of course, Miss Piggy. They are happily rotund of belly, living the good life, enjoying their guacamole and margaritas. “Join the party,” they veritably squeal.

Café Genevieve involves a more complicated psychology. Here, too, the piggies on the wall are friendly, inviting even. The centerpiece painting, “The Noble Pig,” created by a local artist as a gift to one of the Genevieve business partners, glances knowingly at diners in the main room. Chances are those very diners are chowing down on Chef Joshua Governale’s pork specialties, like Pig Candy, roasted pork chop, crispy pork belly, or some good ole pulled pork.

“Pork is my favorite thing to eat and cook,” Governale told me.

And the pig is okay with this? Apparently. By the end of my very delicious Spanish frittata with house-made chorizo, I decided that porcine art has the unique ability to convey a bucolic, farm-y peace of mind, in which the human diner is merely doing her part in the great cycle of agrarian society. The noble pig beams his approval of all the contented bellies.

- Meg Daly

ALBI & THE WHITEBARK PINES

Written and illustrated by Kelly Halpin

Produced by Culture Front

Illustrator and artist Kelly Halpin and Culture Front have teamed up to produce a children’s book that will benefit Yellowstone forests. Kelly is one of Jackson’s rising stars; her work is fresh, whimsical, and steeped in the imagery and cycles of nature here in the Tetons. This is Kelly’s first children’s book.

ALBI tells the story of a magical pinecone bird who saves a whitebark pine forest. Albi’s story will educate elementary age children about the basic crisis facing forests in the northern Rocky Mountains – the connection between climate change, pine beetles, damage to trees and devastating fires. A portion of all proceeds will benefit TreeFight, which works to protect and replant whitebark pine in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.