Interested in this phenomenon

[JAZ]

I started off by asking advice of you all, and now it's time to backtrack and introduce myself. I have not done this on-line conversation thing before, which I'm sure is obvious to some of you already. I don't have a website yet through no - one's fault but my own - but there are five images on the ISC site portfolio page and also on the New England Sculptor's Association site under Members.
Sculpture is a challenge. It caught me by surprise when I was at the Museum School in Boston and now I'm working mostly in steel. I'm exhibiting, haven't hooked up with a gallery yet, and do a lot of arts advocacy work in my area. I am also the sculpture co-ordinator for the new (small!) Somerby's Landing Sculpture Park in Newburyport, MA.
I just heard about this site today. It's good to find a community. I looked at some of your websites and read some of the conversations. I won't be able to be as involved as some of you, but when I have time...
JAZ

[anne (bxl)]

welcome on this site, Jaz.
I can't find your name into the ISC portfolio. did you use another name for it?

[JAZ]

welcome on this site, Jaz.
I can't find your name into the ISC portfolio. did you use another name for it?
My name is Joyce Audy Zarins. (Audy is my maiden name, which I keep. It does confuse people because it's not hyphenated.) Look under Zarins, way down at the bottom of the pile.

[Stephen Casey]

I was able to locate the page at the following,

http://www.sculpture.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/isc.woa/4/wo/dcZWuPHxoQuExyBhVTmEKw/2.10.0.3

I particularly like Potential 3x3. Is that copper mesh for the skin? I dig wind kinetic sculpture.

Wecome to our sculpture community. I think you will find almost everyone supportive, receptive, and patient. I know I have. And don't worry you won't get an F if you don't show up for class. ;)

[fritchie]

Joyce, JAZ - I see by the eight foot pine cone on your ISC portfolio site that you are the person who posted questions about contracts, et al, yesterday. Welcome to the site, and I hope you can post as often as you are able. The other issue is about the worst I have heard regarding these organized exhibits, but I’m sure such problems are common. I think you took a good approach, and I hope things work out well.

On another note, I couldn’t get into your specific ISC portfolio through Stephen’s URL, but it did get me to the main portfolio, and typing in ‘zania’ took me the rest of the way. ISC provided a ‘time-out’ message. A nice portfolio page, and quite a variety of work!

[JAZ]

I was able to locate the page at the following,

http://www.sculpture.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/isc.woa/4/wo/dcZWuPHxoQuExyBhVTmEKw/2.10.0.3

I particularly like Potential 3x3. Is that copper mesh for the skin? I dig wind kinetic sculpture.

Wecome to our sculpture community. I think you will find almost everyone supportive, receptive, and patient. I know I have. And don't worry you won't get an F if you don't show up for class. ;)

Stephen, Actually, Potential 3x3 is weathered mild steel coated with Penetrol. Initially, I cut out three of them for an artist-orgainzed outdoor sculpture show in Newburyport, MA, but only had time to build one for that show. The title then was Potential 3 (as in cubed, but doing a superscript doesn't work for a lot of formats). I rigged a support for it out of rebar that was embedded in the soil, so it really looked like the thing was just planted there. Then people were caught by surprise when the wind shifted. The next summer three different sculpture shows wanted it, so I finshed the other two, making the finished triptych I originally envisioned, but for that summer one was in Maine, one in Massachusetts and one in New Hampshire. Finally all three were together at the Attleboro Art Museum, as originally intended.

[JAZ]

Joyce, JAZ - I see by the eight foot pine cone on your ISC portfolio site that you are the person who posted questions about contracts, et al, yesterday. Welcome to the site, and I hope you can post as often as you are able. The other issue is about the worst I have heard regarding these organized exhibits, but I’m sure such problems are common. I think you took a good approach, and I hope things work out well.

On another note, I couldn’t get into your specific ISC portfolio through Stephen’s URL, but it did get me to the main portfolio, and typing in ‘zania’ took me the rest of the way. ISC provided a ‘time-out’ message. A nice portfolio page, and quite a variety of work!

Thanks for your supportive comments. Actually, my name is Zarins. I guess it would be beter for me to include the actual links when telling people about those sites. I'm learning. Thanks for your help.

[fritchie]

Thanks for your supportive comments. Actually, my name is Zarins. I guess it would be beter for me to include the actual links when telling people about those sites. I'm learning. Thanks for your help.

Sorry about the misspelling. I'm in the bifocal era.

[Stephen Casey]

Cubed or otherwise, they look great. Thank you for the background.

[jwebb]

Welcome ! I too followed the story of the contract and the Chicago Pier Show, etc., with great interest, but unfortunately had nothing worthwhile to suggest. But I've thought about it since. It's a classic case. Maybe there is some kind of "Public Interest Group" (like the various "SPIRGS" or Student Public Interest Research Groups) that take on Environmental Law issues on campuses across the Country, that would do the same for Art Issues. I'd think a legal case against such outrageous practices would easily prevail, but an individual Artist can't or doesn't want to, bring such a case against one of the hands that feed us. Whereas a PIRG could bring, or threaten to bring, such a case as a Class Action, leaving the individual artist out of it. In my experience, a letter from a lawyer threatening a lawsuit is often as effective or even more effective than an actual suit, and costs much less. Anyway, welcome aboard.

[JAZ]

Welcome ! I too followed the story of the contract and the Chicago Pier Show, etc., with great interest, but unfortunately had nothing worthwhile to suggest. But I've thought about it since. It's a classic case. Maybe there is some kind of "Public Interest Group" (like the various "SPIRGS" or Student Public Interest Research Groups) that take on Environmental Law issues on campuses across the Country, that would do the same for Art Issues. I'd think a legal case against such outrageous practices would easily prevail, but an individual Artist can't or doesn't want to, bring such a case against one of the hands that feed us. Whereas a PIRG could bring, or threaten to bring, such a case as a Class Action, leaving the individual artist out of it. In my experience, a letter from a lawyer threatening a lawsuit is often as effective or even more effective than an actual suit, and costs much less. Anyway, welcome aboard.

Thanks for the supportive comments. I like the suggestion about the support group, however, I don't know of any (though I could probably find out), but one big issue with how to deal with this situation is that since I would like to continue exhibiting, I need to be careful about my approach. That's why I started off by asking advice, rather than just making an appointment at a lawyer's office. For one thing, since the maximum $$ I could possibly expect is $2,000 minus the $280 - $500 for moving the piece to where it is now, the legal costs would obviously eat up most of or more than that. I'm sure PierWalk and all the other venues who follow the same artist-unfriendly philosophy realize that. I spoke on the phone with the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts thinking they could just advise me on what I could realistically "demand" (in my own quiet way). I thought it would be better to ask them than some other lawyer around here in part because they deal with a lot of arts issues, where other lawyers don't. Unfortunately, they require that I fill out a form and send it in with $30 and a copy of my tax return from last year. The problem with that is I am married and file jointly with my husband, who just retired from a real job. My studio expenses are my problem and everything is very separate and of course my meager income as a sculptor (and adjunct drawing professor) is almost entirely eaten up in paying for heat (New England winter!), buying materials (steel, new angle grinder to replace my worn out one, consumables, etc.) and trying to upgrade my studio equipment (I just spent $275 on a hydraulic worktable because one of my problems is material handling. I have a small electric winch, but even so... I'm not even 5' tall and weigh 110.). But his numbers are there on the tax return, which means I might have to pay full price for legal assistance,which I can't afford and I've already spent so darned much on that sculpture between what it took to make it and the expense of getting it there (a two-day drive hauling it in a trailer). What I'll do in the future is pay more attention to the contract and ask for better wording, but I didn't submit anything to this year's Pierwalk even though I'd love to because they just aren't doing their job and who needs to get screwed twice in a row?. Meanwhile, I haven't done anything else about it in the last week since I asked everyone for advice. I'm still thinking. Believe it or not, this is not the only situation of its kind I'm dealing with right now. I used to write and illustrate children's books and one of my old books was reissued a year ago last month and I have not received a royalty statement or one cent from that either. I've been on the phone with them three times so far and it may be straightened out next week, but nothing would have happened about it if I didn't speak up. All that stuff sure gets in the way of the work, emotionally and time-wise. But here I am, in my studio, working away.

[JAZ]

Cubed or otherwise, they look great. Thank you for the background.
Stephen, I looked at your home page. I think your goal is admirable. I hope the chess set works out the way you envision it and that it makes certain important things clearer to people.

[fritchie]

JAZ - Joyce - I'm afraid this sounds like the average sculptor's life, but you are taking a positive, hardheaded approach to problems, and that bodes well. It DOES seem that exhibitors try to exploit the hopefulness that sculptors bring to these shows. Several other threads cover similar issues. I remember that someone wrote about the Venice Bienniale (sp?) roughly in June, ‘03, and this thread went on quite a while. They seem to have invited everyone in the ISC Portfolio to participate in this “selective exhibition” (I got an invitation), and comment in general was relatively pessimistic.

You are giving all of us a valuable education. Keep pushing!

[sculptorsam]

Sorry to be so late with my welcome, JAZ. I hope I'm not out of line by observing that you've picked an interesting profession for someone of your physical size. You're even smaller than my wife and she can struggle helping me with my work the little bit I ask of her. Your can-do attitude is quite evident! Keep it up.

Speaking of other shows, Fritchie. Anybody else get a couple emails about an International Sculpture Exhibit in Switzerland? Sounded like their first one and space rental was $200/square meter, minimum 9. This sounds like it falls under the catagory of that Venice Biennial. I'd be interested in the motivation and experience of artists paying that type of money to crate up their work, travel across the ocean, and pay for the show. Doesn't seem like a good deal to me but maybe I'm missing something.

[anne (bxl)]

Speaking of other shows, Fritchie. Anybody else get a couple emails about an International Sculpture Exhibit in Switzerland? Sounded like their first one and space rental was $200/square meter, minimum 9. This sounds like it falls under the catagory of that Venice Biennial.

Is it for an exhibition in Zurich? If it's so I receive their advertisement for years now. Even if Zurich is a very rich city, this exhibition is not well quoted on european market. Open to everyone ready to pay, without selection (no galleries or commisionned artists) and with very poor mediatic release.

[JAZ]

Sorry to be so late with my welcome, JAZ. I hope I'm not out of line by observing that you've picked an interesting profession for someone of your physical size. You're even smaller than my wife and she can struggle helping me with my work the little bit I ask of her. Your can-do attitude is quite evident! Keep it up.

Speaking of other shows, Fritchie. Anybody else get a couple emails about an International Sculpture Exhibit in Switzerland? Sounded like their first one and space rental was $200/square meter, minimum 9. This sounds like it falls under the catagory of that Venice Biennial. I'd be interested in the motivation and experience of artists paying that type of money to crate up their work, travel across the ocean, and pay for the show. Doesn't seem like a good deal to me but maybe I'm missing something.

In regard to the size issue, that's what winches, hydraulics and other mechanical advantage are all about. Though I have to say, I need a lot more in that department - for instance last Thrusday I spent an hour and a half trying to turn over something I was working on until I figured out how to do it with both the winch and my new little hydraulic table. I'm sure that if I were a six foot 190 pound guy (like Scot and Alan at the welding shop where I first rented space when I got out of school - actually, they were more like 6'3") it would have been trivial. About the Switzerland thing, I agree with Sculptorsam that it doesn't sound like it's worth it. Interestingly, one of this year's PierWalk artists was also from Switzerland. We all know that he didn't get any financial help from them with crating and shipping or anything. But, aside from the $25 entry fee, it didn't cost him to participate at least and the show looked very good. I think I would pay to have a piece shipped overseas if it was for a show with good visibility and a good reputation, just to get it on my resume now, because I only have USA credits so far. I tried for the International Shoebox Sculpture show, which travels all over the world, but I didn't get in. But I agree that to have to pay for the space, especially when the show itself isn't good, is a ripoff.