Bayview – Hunters Point Redevelopment Propostions G and F

San Francisco artists are increasing their exposure. Spring open studios are growing and may nearly be as well attended as the city-wide fall open studios. While visiting the open studios at 689 Bryant last night I was often asked about the redevelopment of Hunters Point Shipyard – where my studio is located. Other artists wanted to know where the artists of The Point stood on Propositions G and F.

I didn’t know the differences between the two, now I do. For one version, I’ve quoted below:

Beyond Chron

http://quartz.he.net/~beyondch/news/index.php?itemid=5466

Back in San Francisco, the Lennar Corporation – which has a checkered past of broken promises for affordable housing and potential asbestos exposure to Hunters Point residents – is promoting Proposition G to “save the San Francisco 49ers.” Of course, the football team is moving to Santa Clara regardless of Prop G’s outcome – and the measure is really about giving the Florida-based company a juicy contract to build more condos in the City’s last black neighborhood.

In response, Supervisor Chris Daly and activists from POWER gathered signatures to put the Bayview Affordable Housing Initiative on the ballot. If passed, the measure would require that 50% of the housing development in Bayview-Hunters Point be affordable for people making 30-80% of the Area Median Income. Their measure has now qualified, and will be on the June ballot as Proposition F.

Technically, Prop F and Prop G are not incompatible. If they both pass, Lennar would still get to redevelop the neighborhood – but it would have to build at least 50% of its housing units as affordable. According to Lennar, that’s unacceptable. “It’s a poison pill,” said spokesman Kofi Bonner. “No private developer is going to be able to create something on this scale of development, including parks and infrastructure, and be able to provide 50 percent affordable housing.” So Lennar will campaign against Prop F.

I support mixed-use development in Hunters Point Shipyard,” said Daly, “and it’s not inconsistent to support both Propositions F and G. But I just have issues with Prop G’s conceptual framework – and how trustworthy Lennar is. What they’re really doing is a land grab, and we’re calling their bluff. I told them they should support Prop F if their real plan is to deliver what Bayview-Hunters Point needs: jobs and affordable housing. But if their plan is to extract as much profit, Prop F may be a poison pill.”

As far as I am aware, we have no position as to which prop best represents our interests. As other artists in the city are looking to see where the artists at The Point stand on the choice of the two we have some responsibility to take a position and let if be known. After all, in June all will vote on these issues.

While promises are well intentioned, the outcome of the redevelopment will be widely influenced by a host of complex issues, largely economic. The redevelopment of Bayview – Hunters Point is intended to be profitable, so it may be that sacrifices will have to be made to make it more so. I’d like to influence what corners may NOT be cut.

We artists, as members of the Bayview community want to have the best chance for survival and to thrive. I believe that Proposition F is more likely to encourage that outcome. And while Lennar is also our partner in realizing a new center for the arts, we do not yet have the option of a proposition to support that intention. So I suggest as a group that we endorse Proposition F—and by that I’d like to open the discussion.

Coincidentally it is in June, when the first building – 103 is slated for demolition, that we cast our ballots.

I also like Proposition 99.

Cheers, April

Tell me,

“Tell me, What is it that inspires you most, and what would you like to do? And why is it that it’s important to you to see me succeed? (this is a genuine question from curiosity)”

These questions are from a young gifted sculptor with whom I’ve had the pleasure of showing at one of my earliest open studios in San Francisco. An effervescent and wonderfully talented sculptor Tachina Rudman brought her own lively and challenging atmosphere to our group.

Since, Tachina has worked to define her voice and develop her art while exploring ways to engage her viewers. Her ambition and need to survive forces her to be creative in reaching an audience. Outgoing and personable she teaches her audience; physically engaging them as students in dance and movement – and pot making.

I think she has a need for people not for adulation, but for literal inspiration. It’s a rich give and take with Tachina. She crafts her life with the shear love of being; she creates her life as she makes her sculpture.

And so it goes, she is one artist I can point to who connects with people through her art. You cannot separate her from it. Attend her exhibition opening or one of her classes and you partake in her exuberant creative force. And do not doubt: if you own one of Tachina’s sculptures you have a part of her.

Her first question is the easiest: why encourage her? It’s my belief that as she grows and succeeds she leads. Her passion enlarges the world for the expression of other artists. Tachina inspires me. I love to hear her incitements, sense her enthusiasm and somehow I share her victories.

As to what inspires me the most? Other artists, their lives and their artwork do. I wake up, feel more alive and my desire to paint reaches new heights. I love the feeling of being overwhelmed by a great work of art, or a piece that I’m completely in tune with. Affinity creates an excitement and I am utterly grateful to have found my way to being an artist.

What would I like to do? Inspire those feelings in another artist.

You can see some of Tachina’s work here: http://www.acga.net/acgamain/tachinarudman.html

Cheers, April

Friends and Collectors

A friend bought a painting today.

But I have to back up. We met a couple of years ago while staying at a mutual friend’s home and continue to get together whenever we are both in the same town. I enjoy seeing him because I like what he does, he’s thoughtful and can’t help being a great conversationalist. Though he has a strong appreciation for the arts, I never thought of him as a collector. It was last June, on one of his San Francisco stops that he first asked to see my studio (it may be the only time he actually had time).

Showing my abstract work for the first time to someone I know is always a little tricky. Rarely do I guess correctly what a non artist friend expects to see, so I watch carefully. My visitors are usually comfortable being observed as I talk to them about the painting they are viewing. I see surprise, pleasure, satisfied curiosity, or surprise, consternation, intrigue. As we talk, the painting and I start to “click” for the visitor, whether he or she is aware of how they feel about the work.

On his first visit, my friend was taking it all in: listening while looking, then seeing the work I brought out piece by piece for him. Then he stopped. I’d felt it, that feeling of something of mine belonging to someone else. I stopped.

And my friend began to talk and tell me what he saw and more as he saw more, quite spontaneously.  And I began to relax and feel relief that he should care so about what he was seeing.  It made all the difference in my world.  I began trusting this person in the way that only art can bring about.  I wanted him to see something through my painting, and he was by seeing the painting in his way. As well, I could see him anew.

These last months he told me he was thinking about purchasing it. Today he did.

Cheers,
April

Intimate Acquaintances

Many sites and open studios focus on sales. Better, they are events for viewers and artists to become acquainted. In both situations visitors seem comfortable in anonymity. Generally, studio visitors once engaged would rather listen than speak and most site visitors would rather read than comment. As the artist, the first step is ours.

Carolyn said that my site is “close to being in your studio” (thank you). Some artists speak about their work more easily. I believe that may be because they are used to thinking about it. I make the point because thinking about one’s work isn’t necessary to make art and some artists believe thinking to be antithetical to painting. It may be so, but to think about one’s art as well extends “being an artist” further. I am more of an artist because of it.

It’s the connection of art to artist that I look for when I visit a studio or a website. If the artist speaks about their work I gain more in my understanding of that relationship. It never matters whether I like the work or not. An artist who is willing and able to talk about his or her work creates a ground for my appreciation. The more self aware the artist, the better my sense and greater my respect. An open studio is a perfect for this. A website is also.

My best thinking comes through writing. Writing provides space to finally realize what I’m trying to say. It brings me clarity and understanding of what kind of artist I am. The conversations I enjoy with studio visitors — and my site visitors are deeper for it.

Cheers, April

Worth repeating

And too good to pass up.  Videos by Bill Maynes of painters talking about their process.   Jake Berthot, Chie Fueki, Lois Dodd, Stephen Mueller, Alexi Worth, Scott Brodie.  They’re great, thank you to Bill Maynes and thanks to anaba  blog.

Fear of Painting

We all know community is important, but unless you have a deep respect for your own work you won’t feel right about any community. Long I was puzzled, feeling isolated with in my wide world of art. I had many friends that were artists, I knew dealers, had exhibitions. My work was good and I had solid credentials. I don’t believe I was arrogant, nor self deprecating. With attempted courage, I persevered in career moves.

With hindsight I see I had misidentified the feeling. It was insulation, not isolation — very different. Apparently I sought, and provided myself protection. In so doing, I had cut off access to an important part of my artist self.

Backing up, I know how I painted. Self doubt in every stroke of the brush. Second guessing, scared of, or angry over destroying a particularly good passage. The final result looked like a good painting. I’d wrestled into being so. My work has lots of fans, collectors. But the feeling of invisibility was unbearable.

I was hiding behind my mfa. It is validation of my worth as an artist. Validation comes from within (does it not?) and an mfa from Yale bolstered my self esteem. But along the way I had forgotten that first lesson I learned my first full year out of MassArt: You are the painter, you paint for yourself, it is an exploration and to hell with the rest of the world. Paint what you like, paint pictures that scare you. Paint pictures that you may not be able to see are good.

I’m grateful it’s coming back, that backbone. It’s how I got into Yale. But I had lost access along the way. And as it has returned, my artistic life has blossomed. I love painting and being an artist. I carry my paintings in my being now, because that’s where they come from. I am more unconsciously transparent. And I’m right with my community.

Cheers, April

Oil and Collage

This is 23″x29″ oil stick and oil on paper collaged onto panel.

Brancusi’s Studio, Paris

Brancusi’s Studio is encased in glass within a windowed building. The reflection in the photo is of fall colors behind me reflected in the glass in front of me, between me and the studio.

Hello World!

Welcome to mine!
I’m hoping that these entries will become something of a book; largely about what it is to be an artist. It’s a great topic of interest in my conversation, email, public speaking, and funding or project proposal writing. Artists are obligated to write about their art often and after awhile some surprising realizations occur.

In fact, credit for this blog is due to a very good friend, a painter, who wanted to discuss studio and painting issues. I’m grateful that she made the effort to share. So my first dedication goes out to Susan, in Boston, for her generosity and drive.

Cheers, April