I checked The War of Art by Steven Pressfield out of the library three months ago. It’s a quick read, so I had finished it within a few days and immediately started back at the beginning. It inspired me, motivated me, and changed my mind about the self-help shelf. I thought for sure it would be full of corny metaphors and common quips, but I actually found it entertaining, thought provoking, and massively… well… helpful. “I need to share this with the Side Arts community!” I thought to myself.

So, I copied down some of my favorite quotes. I took some notes. I brainstormed some cheesy introductions and hated them all. And then…I did a whole lot of nothing. “Write War of Art Review” sat ignored on my To-Do list for weeks. I came up with tons of excuses and reasons to keep putting it off – none of which were actually legitimate. Mostly I worried that my review would end up sounding stupid, and consequently no one would want to read the book.   Wah, wah, wah!  I wanted to write it – I really did – but something or other kept getting in the way. I want to introduce you to that Something. Pressfield has identified it, named it, characterized it in detail throughout The War of Art, and most importantly, he has described exactly how to obliterate it.

Side Artists, meet Resistance. Resistance, meet the Side Artists. Entrepreneurs, creative minds, and big dreamers, don’t go anywhere. Your introduction is next. You’re probably all well acquainted with Resistance by now, even if you haven’t been formally introduced. For instance, If you’ve ever procrastinated, sold yourself short, thrown the towel in, or simply doubted your ability to create, then you and Resistance have already met head on, wrestled, played chicken, and/or dueled to the death.

I am shooting laser beams at Resistance right now as I write this. Because Steven Pressfield taught me that the best way to beat Resistance is to suck it up, sit down, and do my work. He makes it sound impossibly simple, and it is. In fact, he tells you exactly how: just change your mindset from the weekend-warrior amateur to the full-time professional. It has nothing to do with getting paid for your work or quitting your salaried job or printing up business cards. It has everything to do with your intention, your resolve, your passion, and your love for the work.

• “A professional is patient.”
• “A professional acts in the face of fear.”
• “A professional accepts no excuses.”
• “A professional does not take failure (or success) personally.”
• “A professional endures adversity.”

These are a few of the headings in the second section of The War of Art called “Combating Resistance: Turning Pro.” The book is a quick read in and of itself, and it is further divided into these short, bite-sized ideas that are easily digested over a morning coffee before sitting down at your desk or as a last thought to mull over while falling asleep at night. Either way, it helps reset your mind and give you the motivation to tackle another workday and another battle with Resistance. It is only then that we can be open and responsive to our own ideas and creativity and have the courage to bring them to fruition.

If Something (aka Resistance) is getting in the way of your creativity, your productivity, and your ultimate potential, read The War of Art. I’ve maxed out my renewals at the library, so I won’t be hogging it much longer. Or buy a couple of copies from Amazon so you can read it, share it, and read it all over again!

Written by Carina Giamerese: Contributing Writer, Side Arts.

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April 6 thru April 28, 2012

Opening Reception: First Friday, April 6, 6-9 pm

“East Meets West”

Michael Diven recently relocated from Northern California to the Philadelphia area. He has exhibited in this area in several group exhibitions, but this will be his first solo show of paintings, mixed media pieces, drawings and sculpture. He is represented by the James Snidle Gallery in San Francisco.

Inspiration for Michael Diven’s figurative, narrative art comes from dreams and dream research, memories, stories, statistics and political or environmental concerns. His work is intellectually and spiritually provocative.  A subtle sense of humor is evident in some of the pieces.  Many times he works in a “series,” and the figure represents a participant, an observer, a witness, a victim, or a survivor.

Art critics have described Michael Diven’s art as, “Broad and rewarding,” “Infinitely rich,” and “Bold and captivating.”  Michael Diven has an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and taught painting and drawing for 15 years at several West Coast colleges and universities.  His art has been exhibited nationally in major galleries and museums including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Seattle Center Art Museum,  The San Francisco Hall of Justice, The San Francisco Arts Commission and the Peoples Bank of Seattle are among his many collectors.

CONTACT: Michael Diven, m.divenz@gmail.com (530) 321-5120

Artist website: www.michaeldiven.artspan.com

Phoenix Village Art Center, 207 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, Pa, 19460

www.PhoenixVillageArtCenter.org

Posted by Side Arts Contributing Writer, DoN Brewer, all material provided by artist Michael Diven

Debra Leigh Scott described the current exhibition of art by women at Hidden River Gallery and Salon, “Women of Vision 2012, we have six women, very diverse kinds of artists to celebrate Women’s History Month.  The show will be up until at least mid-April, we’ll be doing a First Friday for the show in April as well and probably one other event.  We use this space as a salon so we are having live music, we’re having readings and today we are having two singer/songwriters who are performing.  And two readers, because it’s Women’s History Month all of the artist are women, we are celebrating female creativity this month.”

I asked Debra Leigh Scott, publisher, writer, pro blogger and art maven, how she selected the group of artists for the Salon?  “I’ve known most of these artists for a while now.  Well, Lilliana Didovic is with the Da Vinci Art Alliance, I’ve known her work for quite some time.  Pam Peitzman and I have known each other since High School – should I admit that? – it might have been Junior High!  Maria Soloman and I have been very close friends, she and I both show at MCGOPA gallery, she’s a wonderful artist.  Barb Gesshel I met I met six months ago, she and I are the most recent acquaintances.  We have one student, Madeline Bates, I did not know Madeline until a month ago.  She’s with Tyler, her’s are the black and white photos, she’s a photo-journalist.”

“To celebrate Women’s History Month I wanted to do a show at the former Enclave Gallery, but it closed just before the show.”  I joked they just wanted to shut her up and Debra laughed but she said, “As you look at these images, you’ll see they’re mouth-less.”  What about the current political discussion in the media?  “It’s horrifying.  Governor Corbett wants to zero out the arts budget.  It’s hard to corporatize the value of the creative economy, we now have a culture that prioritizes and doesn’t see value in anything that can not be a commodity.  Here’s the thing, and you know this as well as I do, the Creative Economy brings in so much money with the theaters, the museums, musical venues, and the galleries.  If not for this. what would people come into the city for?  When you come to the city you may do a little shopping or go to the restaurants, the money comes back into the city.  People in Harrisburg are short sighted, and they’re short sighted in Washington now, too.”

“The artists have learned that we have to fend for ourselves and fend for each other.  One of the reasons I established the gallery was so there would be another space for artists to show.  You know this, you’ve been out there doing the same thing.  It’s a very challenging time and it’s discouraging time, but, it’s not just for artists, it’s for educators, it’s for anybody at this point who’s trying to earn a living wage.  We’ve got a country that’s falling apart.  Women in general are earning seventy- three cents on the dollar and most of the precarious jobs are women’s jobs.  I think we are losing a lot of the rights we’ve had so everything about being a woman is harder.  One of the things that I hope women artists do is raise a voice creatively, to talk about that, to not just worry about making art but making art that really has an impact on the public discourse.  Because, I think, any avenue that we’ve got is really important to take.”

“Women of Vision, Philadelphia 2012, ” a show in celebration of Women’s History Month at Hidden River Arts Gallery and Salon through April 20, 2012, read interviews with artists Laura Acton, Lilliana Didovic, Barb Gesshel, Pamela Peitzman at DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog.  The show includes work by visual artists Maddie Bates and Maria Lourdes Solomon. Singer/songwriters Rosa Diaz and Zoie Salowitz and novelist Nikki Beard.

Hidden River Arts produces and runs a variety of open mic/reading events where artists of many disciplines come together to perform, participate, show their work and network with others. There are live music activities, poetry readings, literary readings, performance art, workshop events, and visual arts activities. Please see www.hiddenriverarts.com

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer
Other Likely Stories by Debra Leigh Scott

Her Philadelphia Tales, The Art of Lilliana S. Didovic by DoN Brewer

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Bill Hoo’s B&W infrared photograph, ”Island of the Trees,” is being featured at the 20th Annual Phillips’ Mill Photographic Exhibition.   In addition to being accepted into this highly regarded photography show, “Island of the Trees” was the photograph that Phillips’ Mill decided to print on their fundraising T-shirts.  Please see the press release below for more information:

Learn more about Bill Hoo’s work and gain a better understanding of infrared and ultraviolet light B&W photography by reading this article that I wrote for Side Arts: Bill Hoo’s Infrared B&W Photography at Gallery ML’s “Lunatic and the Lover” Exhibit.

Bill Hoo’s work can also be seen at the Monmouth Museum’s exhibit, “Art of Illusion” until April 29, 2012.  A trip to this museum will be a great compliment to your visit to the Jersey Shore.

Written by Cassandra Hoo: Contributing Writer, SideArts 

Seven Steps to a Web Safe Image with Photoshop - Step One

The best part of blogging is creating captivating images to embed in your post.  I use an inexpensive Kodak Easyshare Z981 14 MP Digital Camera with Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 26xWide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom Lens and 3.0-Inch LCD Sreen when I take photos at art shows.  With the camera flash turned off, I select a well lit subject, square up the image in the digital display as best as possible, lock my knees and elbows, hold my breath and shoot the picture.  I take a lot of photos so I have choices when writing a blog post and sometimes shots that look good in preview may be blurry.

In the screen shot of my sample photo you can see some glare from gallery lighting, using the camera flash would exacerbate the glare, but in my blog posts I like to show some reflection to signify the ambiance of the gallery plus the texture of the surface.  The photograph in this demo was taken at The Philadelphia Sketch Club in the Stewart Room, the painting is by Piety Choi.

Step One – Click the pointer tool from the Tool Bar, in the Main Menu Bar select File, select Open, find the image on your computer (I usually drag a copy of the .jpg to my desktop where it’s easy to find and can be deleted later), click the image file to open in Photoshop.

Seven Steps to a Web Safe Image with Photoshop - Step Two

Step Two -  In the Tool Bar menu select the crop tool, click and drag the corners of the image to line up as closely as possible with the border.  Hit the return key, the grayed out zone disappears and the image file is reduced in size to just the part you want visible.  But as you can see the image isn’t quite square to the corners but this is an easy fix with Photoshop.

Seven Steps to a Web Safe Image with Photoshop - Step Three

Step Three - From the Tool Bar menu select the pointer tool, in the Main Menu Bar click Select, click All and a dotted line called the marquee appears around the border of the image.  From the Main Menu Bar select Edit, select Transform then select Skew from the drop-down menu.

Seven Steps to a Web Safe Image with Photoshop - Step Four

Step Four – Using the pointer tool click and drag the corners that appear on the marquee, drag the little boxes until the image lines up with the border.  The boxes can be dragged up and down or sideways causing the image to stretch or contract.  This is a great way to fix a slightly skewed image but not for big aspect ratio corrections.

Seven Steps to a Web Safe Image with Photoshop - Step Five

Step Five – After you are satisfied the borders are lined up and the image is not distorted too much, click the pointer tool and a box will appear asking to apply the transformation.  Click “Apply“.  Now the artwork in the image file is parallel to the borders and extraneous information has been deleted.  The next step is creating a Web Safe image called a .gif, – Graphics Interchange Format.

“The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability.  The format supports up to 8 bits per pixel thus allowing a single image to reference a palette of up to 256 distinct colors. The colors are chosen from the 24-bit RGB color space. It also supports animations and allows a separate palette of 256 colors for each frame. The color limitation makes the GIF format unsuitable for reproducing color photographs and other images with continuous color, but it is well-suited for simpler images such as graphics or logos with solid areas of color.” – Wikipedia

Seven Steps to a Web Safe Image with Photoshop - Step Six

Step Six – From the Main Menu Bar click File, click Save For Web and Devices, a window will open with choices of Original, Optimized, Two Up or Four Up, I use Four Up to compare image quality with the size of the file.  The goal is to get the best possible image in the smallest file size so the image loads fast and looks good without too much loss of data.

Seven Steps to a Web Safe Image with Photoshop - Step Seven

Step Seven – Compare the four windows, you can see the file size and image quality, I usually pick the second highest file size so the image has good color, low distortion and loads quickly.  Click Image Size, change the pixel number to be the desired width size, the height automatically changes since the aspect ratio is linked. So far in this demo I have made the images 1240 pixels wide in order to show you the details but the column width for the Side Arts blog is 550 pixels.

Change the width number in the Image Size box to the size appropriate to your blog column width.  I use 550 pixels because it fills the entire width of the Side Arts column, your blog may be a different column width.  Often you only get one chance to impress your visitor, if you make the image size larger than the width of the column then the viewer must click the image to see the full size.  This is a good idea if you want to show a lot of detail but a best practice is to take full advantage of that first impression. Click Save and rename the file to something you will remember, format is Images Only.  The file is now ready to be uploaded to your blog.

Join Side Arts founder C. Todd Hestand and Contributing Writers Carina Giamerese, Cassandra Hoo and myself, DoN Brewer at the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy at The University of the Arts, March 24th, 1 -3:00pm for a demo on how to write a blog on Side Arts – free but reservations are required through TicketLeap.

Written and Photographed by DoN Brewer, Contributing Writer, Side Arts Philadelphia Art Blog
Adobe Photoshop CS5

Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers: A professional image editor’s guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC

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FiberPhiladelphia 2012’s exhibitions, “Outside/Inside the Box” and “Distinguished Educators” absolutely knocked my mass-produced snowflake printed socks off. I saw the exhibitions on Friday and I’m still thinking about all of the beautiful and thought provoking pieces of artwork, because they touched me to my core.  I agree with Amy Orr’s statement that “Fiber speaks to people on such an immediate and innate level.”  Fibers/textiles represent such a huge part of our history, culture, and civilization and remind us of where we came from and who we are today.  We also come into contact with fibers/textiles during every part of our daily lives.  So despite the fact that much of the work that I saw was innovative and unique, I always felt a comforting sense of familiarity when I deconstructed each piece of artwork down to its material, function, or statement.  That sense of familiarity made me leave the Crane Arts Building with the same warm and fuzzy feeling that I get after I’ve had an engaging conversation with a group of friends.

The “Distinguished Educators” and the “Outside/Inside the Box” exhibitions were meant to set up the whole framework for FiberPhiladelphia 2012.  The exhibitions both honor the rich history of fibers/textiles and break the confines of what is and isn’t considered fiber/textile art.  The “Distinguished Educators” exhibition in the Grey Area features the work of thirteen distinguished fiber/textile educators from institutions across the country that have influenced the field with their artwork and teachings.  The “Outside/Inside the Box” exhibition in the Icebox Project Space was blind judged by three top notch jurors: Elisabeth Agro, the Associate Curator of American Modern and Contemporary Crafts and Decorative Arts for the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Independent Curator, Bruce Hoffman; and Judith Weisman, the Designer and Curator for the Acquisitions Chair of the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery Support Group.  Over five hundred artists from all over the world applied and submitted several pieces of artwork.  Only about seventy-two pieces of artwork made the cut.

The artwork in the “Outside/Inside the Box” vary greatly in scale, material, technique, and subject matter. This was a very intentional and well thought out choice by the jurors.  There radically were not any perimeters set on scale or material, because the show wanted to stretch the definition of fibers/textiles and make it more identifiable to a larger range of people.  The actual submission instructions for this juried exhibitions are as follows:

“Outside/Inside the Box will showcase innovative fiber/textile art that transcends disciplines; combines tradition with cutting edge technology and/or historic concepts with contemporary perspective. Size, scope, materials and subject matter are open. Submissions may include surface design, woven, 2D and 3D structures, quilts, stitching, body art, etc.”

Bruce Hoffman, one of the jurors for the “Outside/Inside the Box,” gave a really compelling speech about why the jurors made a conscious decision to stretch the bounds and discusses the reasons why fiber/textiles arts has become such a mixed medium:

“The fascinating thing about textile and fiber art within the decorative art world is that if you are a ceramic artist, you have to work with clay.  If you are a glass artist, you have to somehow function with glass.  If you are a painter, you need to work with a material that is liquid or that can be from one surface to another.  If you are a fiber or textile artist, it envelops the process and the material.  So if you stack something or pile something — piling is a traditional idea of making textiles — you can actually weave… metal.  There is a piece in the other room [The Grey Area] by Warren Seelig that is made out of metal and rock.  He is actually weaving the shadows, so it’s a conceptual idea of looking at the secondary element of the material and its relationship to textiles.  This is what allows for such a large broad scope and the reason why critics have had fifty or so years of disputing whether it falls in the high side or the low side of the art world.  And within that context, especially in the Sixties and Seventies — when many Feminist artists were working with textiles and using them to explore sexuality and political issues — critics put it on the low side of art world, because it related to Feminism and functionality in women’s work.  And many men like Robert Morris — and some women who made it to the other side — that were working with textiles and didn’t use the material as their first statement were put on this side of the fence.  And women like Sheila Hicks and Lenore Tawney, who came from traditions of Eastern Europe and European ideas of traditional textiles, the critics said that it was decorative art and not high art.  So it’s a very interesting thing that’s been explored for the last 60 years, and that is one of the reasons why we wanted to present this exhibition on such a broad scope.”

I have hand picked some of my favorite pieces of artwork from the two exhibitions.  Please scroll down to get a preview of what you can expect when you attend these two stellar shows.  If you would like to learn more about FiberPhiladelphia, please also read my article: FiberPhiladelphia 2012 Opening Night with Amy Orr and Bruce Hoffman. 

“DISTINGUISHED EDUCATORS” EXHIBITION

This piece of artwork intertwines metal, stone, shadow, and light in such a beautiful way.  Notice how the “Shadow Field” part of the title comes before the “Granite Path” part of the title.   The woven rays of light and shadows that the art piece creates are just as important — if not more important — as the art piece itself.

“OUTSIDE/INSIDE THE BOX” EXHIBITION

 I love how these pieces channel the architectural undergarments of the past to create a visual metaphor for women’s deepest desires and insecurities.

I am a eco-friendly nut, so I am always jumping for joy when I see sustainable artwork.  It was interesting to see how the artist combined oxygen tubing, plastic lids, gutter clips, bottle tops, med-testers, florist card holders, and cable ties for this spunky and funky basket.

“Basket,” a piece completely made out of glass, definitely shattered the notion of what can and can’t be defined as Fiber/textile art.  Amy Orr commented on the piece to my tour group by saying, “It’s an interesting approach to consider how the artist first of all decided to apply for this exhibition and consider this her medium and her field … and for the jurors to actually choose it in that same light.”

 I like the bright array of colors and textures in this piece, as well as the social commentary that is created by the careful placement of each of these figures.  When I first saw a picture of this on FiberPhiladelphia’s website, I thought each of the figures were life sized.  In reality, they are at most 4-6 inches tall.

The undulating lines that this dynamic geometric piece creates is just spectacular.  The high level of technical skill, imagination, and mathematical understanding is also beyond impressive.

There are so many more amazing photographs of art pieces that I wish I could show you.  However, I think it would be better to not give it all away and ruin the surprise for you.  Stay tuned for more FiberPhiladelphia 2012 coverage!

Written and photographed by Cassandra Hoo: Contributing Writer, SideArts 

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