We are throwing a party for all the artists who have taken the GYST class over the years. Come celebrate your success with other GYSTers, have some BBQ and meet other artists!

This is a potluck, so break out your culinary arts skills and bring something to share.

September 13, 2008
6-10pm
Sidestreet Projects
730 North Fair Oaks
Pasadena, CA
www.sidestreet.org

Get Your Sh*t Together

The Ultimate Workshop for Artists.

Registration for the next GYST Get Your Sh*t Together Workshop begins now. If you are anywhere the LA area and are looking to kick start your art career, get organized, and learn just about everything it takes to make it in the vast art world then this class is just what you’ve been looking for.

Register TODAY through Side Street Projects, an awesome arts non-profit that has offered this class for years.

Seriously, sign up today because this class fills up very fast.

Click here to download the registration form

or call Side Street Projects directly at (626) 798-7774 to register over the phone
using your Visa or MasterCard.
Questions? Email info@sidestreet.org

About the Class:

Get Your Sh*t Together
The Ultimate Workshop for Artists.

Created by artist, curator, and legendary CalArts professor Karen Atkinson, Get Your SH*T Together (GYST) is the often-imitated survival workshop for emerging artists, and for artists who’ve been “emerging” longer than they expected. Over 400 artists have graduated from GYST since 2002.

GYST teaches you the business stuff you should have learned in art school, but didn’t. GYST values self-sufficiency and presents you with information, tactics, and strategies to make things happen for yourself without necessarily waiting around for some arbiter of culture to validate your work. We’re not concerned with producing slick, commercialized artists, nor is this some new age, touchy-feely “find your inner artist” crap. GYST is a program for artists, by artists that will teach you bare-knuckled, practical strategies for negotiating the baffling terrain of the contemporary art world.

Over 8-weeks, you’ll create and refine your “presentation package,” artist statement, resume, portfolio, and more, with the full editorial and technical support of GYST staff and Side Street Project’s digital lab.

GYST culminates with some good old-fashioned Curator Speed Dating. Get real-world feedback from some of the area’s hottest curators, like LA Times Art Critic David Pagel, LACE Director Carol Stakenaus and Christopher Russell from the Getty Research Institute.

Students also get a complimentary copy of the new GYST CD ROM, which usually retails for $150. The MAC and PC based program is chock full of organizing tools & tracking software every artist needs.

Duration: Wednesdays (7pm - 9pm) October 1 – Nov. 19
+ 1 Saturday (10am-2pm) Nov 22

Location:
The New Los Angeles Theater Center
514 South Spring Street
Downtown Los Angeles, CA

Tuition: $275 ($247.50 for Side Street Projects members)

REGISTER TODAY! This class fills up FAST!

For more information visit http://sidestreet.org/services

To register fill out the registration form:

http://sidestreet.org/registration.pdf

or Call (626) 798-7774 to register on the phone using your Visa or MasterCard.

Questions? Email info@sidestreet.org.

SUCCESS STORIES

In just the past 2 years, our workshop alumni have won over $18,000 in grants, including:

• Taz Yisrael received a project grant from the City of Santa Monica shortly after completing our workshop.

• Chuck Feesago & Emily de Araujo both won a 2008 artist grant from the City of Pasadena shortly after taking our workshops.

• David Lovejoy and Michael Markowsky both won a 2007 artist grant from the City of Pasadena shortly after taking our workshops.

“Two weeks after finishing GYST, I had a studio visit from Robert Berman. Because I had recently gotten my sh*t together, I was able to send him a portfolio before the visit. I think it really helped - he offered me a solo show. Thanks, GYST! Really, thank you. I mean it.”

- Alumni Cameron Gray had his first solo show (ever) in 2007 at the renowned Robert Berman Gallery and sold several large canvases. He’s currently represented by Berman.

This past spring, Ari Kletzky was the subject of an extensive article on the front page of the LA Times Sunday Arts section. His featured Islands of LA project was developed over the course of our GYST & WEB workshops. Kletzky (who has a BA in business) recently quit his day-job at a loan agency and was accepted into the CalArts MFA art program. He begins classes this fall.

Sí, Money!
making money work for you

When “Safe” Investments May Actually Be The Riskiest

By Michael Grodsky

How does one determine risk and safety when it comes to financial planning for the future? George Harrison’s Savoy Truffle lyrics from the Beatles’ White Album tell us “what is sweet now turns so sour,” aptly describing the plight of Ron, a 70-year old Pasadena, California man with his life savings of $200,000 invested in only CDs because he thought it was safer than the stock market (Los Angeles Times, Banks hit by fallout from the crisis at IndyMac, Jul 15, 2008, page A.1). While it’s true he is protected from the risk of fluctuating dollar account value (except to the extent his account exceeded FDIC insurance coverage), he is nonetheless exposed to the risk of losing the value of his money.

What exactly is money? Currency is the answer that pops into most people’s heads if they’re asked for a definition of money. Greenback dollars hidden under your mattress can come in handy during the aftermath of a big earthquake when grocery store registers could be offline.

Read more…

By Karen Atkinson, GYST-Ink Founder

“I’m not famous but I always kind of assumed that it would be a bit like having a memory disorder. So everyone knows you, but you cannot fathom who anyone else is, but must always be polite just in case.” Unknown

I thought that fame would be a good topic to address in ARTISTs* AT WORK because, in the past few years, I’ve heard an increasing number of questions and concerns from emerging artists about the subject. Some are very up front about their aspirations while others are not willing to admit that they want to be famous and instead keep it a secret fantasy. And for those who aren’t interested in fame, it is good to be prepared because it can happen even if unexpected and unwanted.

Read more…

From GYST-INK:

image courtesy of the Smithsonian Museum

Studio visits can be arranged with gallery dealers, art consultants, other artists, nonprofits, curators and others. It can be as formal as meeting with a dealer in the hopes of being asked to participate in a gallery or as informal as inviting a friend over to discuss the work. Dealers survive by selling art, so they look at your work to decide whether it will sell. They will consider many aspects in addition to talking about the content of the work. If they cannot sell the work, they may not be interested. You should take this into consideration when having a studio visit.

Studio visits can be arranged a number of ways and for different reasons. It may be a way to get something you want from a curator who has already included you in a show and is interested in your progress. It can result from a formal request or a casual invitation. Sometimes artists will do studio exchanges with each other. This is a great way to practice talking about your work, hashing out ideas and overcoming nervousness. The more you meet with people you know and respect, the more comfortable you will be with strangers in your studio. Things To Consider:

- Have basic tact, humility and politeness.

- Have your artist statement and resume at hand, even if you have sent one already. Reviews, announcements from shows and other printed materials can help them understand the work. A description of the work can also be useful, as well as providing additional descriptions of past work. This can be in addition to the artist statement, especially if your work is fairly complicated.

Read more…

by Bernard Brunon

Bernard Brunon owns a company called That’s Painting Production located since 1988 in Houston, TX. Originally from France, Brunon is an internationally recognized artist, writer and curator. Bernard has curated shows for museums and non-profit galleries in Europe and the U.S

Over twenty years ago, when my day job as a house painter transitioned as my activities as an artist, I took the name: That’s Painting Productions for the company. This development didn’t happen over night, but was the result of a decade-long investigation of the concept of representation, when my practice shifted from easel painting to house painting during the year 1988. Until then, the paintings were motivated by a search for a form of painting that stood outside of the traditional codes of pictorial representation. Overtime, I realized that when painting a house, I was doing the paintings I had been trying to make in the studio: paintings that were void of all form of representation, including abstraction.

That’s Painting Productions was conceptualized in 1989 and two years later was registered as a DBA (Doing Business As) in Houston, TX. The practicality of forming the company enabled me to adopt and implement business structures to manage both the workload and the painting teams more effectively. The name was intentionally generic so all of my activities could be housed under one umbrella: painting, curating, and writing for art magazines. The company is a tool, like any other, designed to make the work easier. It’s only later, progressively, that I recognized the aesthetic implications of operating in a business structure, but that was not the original intent. It happened gradually, as I analyzed the viability of this position

Read more…

The fine line between protecting the rights of animals and the freedom of speech of artists has come crashing down recently.

From The Art Newspaper:

“A committee in San Francisco’s city government has introduced a bill that would allow misdemeanour or felony criminal charges to be brought against any artist or financial backer who causes “the death, abuse or suffering of an animal” when making a work of art.”

This raises serious questions: At what point in the process of making a work of art is the artist responsible for the well-being of animals involved? Does this mean outlawing certain materials like rabbit skin glue for sizing canvases? A ban on fur or leather

Is this law a good or a bad idea?

First there was ART STAR, a little-known reality TV show where a motley crew of artists came together to make work for a group exhibition for Deitch Projects in New York. No one was “eliminated,” and everyone seemed ot get along.

Now, with creativity reality-tv everywhere, with blockbuster shows like Project Runway, Top Chef, So You Think You Can Dance, Top Designer, and of course, American Idol, it’s no suprise that the world of Fine Art has come into the spotlight.

A new show called American Artist may soon air on Bravo and will be hosted by Sarah Jessica Parker. According to Reuters: “Aspiring artists compete to produce various styles of artwork (painting, sculpting, etc.), which is then judged by a panel of experts. Parker’s Pretty Matches production company is helping develop the project.”

What are your thoughts about this? Will this show actually produce interesting art or will the series itself be the most thought-provoking work of all? Is this kind of reality-tv presentation influencing the way Americans view creativity and careers in the arts?

Got any interesting ideas about how contestants might deal with having to make a painting one day, a sculpture the other, a video work the next, an installation, dance, text piece, public art? It may be a little overwhelming (or impossible) but it just might make for some crazy TV!

How about having them compete to make boardwalk spraypaint art?

While politicians often use strange general language to talk about the arts, this panel discussion between politicos and non-profits is actually quite fascinating.

It’s filled with great quotes like, “Too often culture is thought of as a commodity instead of a public good.” It touches on topics as varied as the culture wars, copyright law, the NEA, booze and music, and the state of arts education.

The discussion is moderated by Sally Steenland, Senior Policy Adviser for Faith and Progressive Policy at Center for American Progress. She talks with Robert Lynch, President and CEO of Americans for the Arts, and Bill Ivey, former head of the National Endowment for the Arts and author of Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) also makes an appearance.

See the video here:
http://www.americanprogress.org/events/2008/07/arts.html

For anyone in Los Angeles!

Self Help Graphics is an indispensible LA arts institution providing resources, printing materials, and a much needed venue for artists and activists in East LA. This place has been the saving grace of independent, politically conscious artists for years. Unfortunately the Catholic Archdiocese Secretly recently sold the organization’s historic building and the non-profit needs help.

Click here to read more info about Self Help Graphics and how you can help them.