Relationships

are what’s on my mind as I sit down to write my bi-monthly update to you my regular readers, and btw, speaking of relationships, thank *you* for showing up to support my practice.

I’ve mentioned on this blog and probably to many of you in person that I have a whole, additional professional practice in clean energy. I’m proud of what I can literally point to (from consumers who now use efficient lighting to large, solar photovoltaic generators) that I’ve accomplished in that part of my life, which I attribute to my efforts to forge strong relationship (tldr; I’m in sales/BD). And, recent changes in the market have necessitated that I begin a search for my next role, which I sort of teased a while back. The search has given me the opportunity to reconnect with some great people that are doing important work to decarbonize our electric grid- it’s been edifying on a number of levels and has lead to some new friendships as well that I already cherish dearly. And, my relationship with my current team, in particular our shared value of honesty, has helped immeasurably as we have had to navigate a totally surreal and frustrating set of circumstances.

I’ve tried to foster openness and honesty in relationships in general. None more central and crucial to my wellbeing than my spouse. There have been some health challenges in our household in the last week that have strained my ability to manage my ADHD-fueled general anxiety disorder (that’s not an excuse, it’s normalizing mental health challenges), and without a robust set of language around mental health and a prioritization of boundaries a stressful week could have spiraled into a disaster (not that it was easy at all points, probably obviously since I’m pointing at the thing). Love you, babe.

The next, big thing happening in my art practice is all about relationships, too, specifically the 6 amazing creatives listed on the announcement below. That’s right- Open Source part II opens very soon. I’m beyond grateful to have these people in my orbit, in particular as several of them have made time to jump in and take over coordination or tasks that would normally fall to the curator, even though they obviously have lives as well. Conversely, timing for this show hasn’t been great for a few of us and, I think, it’s the trust from solid relationships that has enabled us to negotiate how to distribute work and help reach our collective finish line.

Also, the show foregrounds, for me, the relationship that curating has to my practice, and in general is an attempt to highlight several relationships: that of contemporary practitioners to both history and this moment in time; the relationship of object-making to culture generally; and the positioning of the viewers of this work as central to the “content” that non-figurative work creates and embodies…

Open source, in the world of software code (the hidden structure of much of the world as we view it) is source material that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Open source is a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration.  At our current point in the history of making Art, there is also a decentralized framework within which abstract artwork can be and is made. No single artist or group owns the source of meaning for this modality, and a wide range of collaborations with and utilizations of the elements developed out of the historical canon is possible, as well as incorporation of content and materials from outside that world. In the space needed for and occupied by abstraction, an openness is required, for creator and audience. The artist must be open to the ways in which the source materials of the work, including subjective content, inform decisions about everything from composition to titles. And the audience must be open as well since abstraction’s signifiers (color, shape, surface) are non-literal.