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A Conversation with Michael Craven - photographer
2008 Long's Park 2D Juror |
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| The Jury Process |
| The scoring was one through five and the jury was charged
not to eliminate the middle number, which might force you into a lesser or
greater determination about this artist. We were told that if you think
the score deserves a three, give it a three, and if there are a lot of
similar scores, the show will break those ties. They didn’t want us to be
forced into giving scores that were a little better or a little worse
because of a mathematical issue. I respected that because when you jury
even a particularly good show with hundreds of artists, there are going to
be a portion of them that are not bad or not great but just average. So if
I were looking at something that was average but had merit, I was going to
let the totality of the jury dictate what happened to that person. We
started out at about 20 seconds per artist after the five second per
artist slide show. But when we went into mixed media we slowed it down to
about 30 seconds because mixed media was challenging enough to comprehend
what we were looking at and we needed the extra time to read the artist
statement. Slowing it down was smart, and because mixed media was a
smaller category it didn’t add much time to the overall jury process. For
photography, the 20 seconds felt comfortable enough considering the volume
of artists to jury. |
| Photography and Mixed Media |
| I didn’t have a problem with photographers applying in
categories other than photography if their work met the definitions of
that category. For example, I didn’t have a problem with them applying in
mixed media if they worked in more than one medium to create their art,
and if that’s the case, they’re probably correct in moving away from
traditional photography definitions. Like when you start collaging and
pasting stuff in or drawing and painting on your photography. But hand
colored black and white is a traditional photographic technique. I don’t
really consider that mixed media, but I’m sure that someone could make an
argument that it is from a technical definition kind of way. In fact, the
first color photography was hand painted. If I felt that a photographer
was trying to do an end run to reduce his competition, I might deduct
something. But if it’s not really clear, it becomes a question for the
show people because it comes down to their definition of the medium, which
in turn may throw the question back at me if they consider me the expert
in that medium. If I felt that it was within my authority as a juror to
make that determination, I would do it. But you have to give an artist
some leeway because mixed media isn’t a heavily defined category. |
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| The Booth Slide |
| Long’s Park charges the jury to look for the art images
to match the booth and to question in your own mind if it doesn’t. They
also ask you to place about 20% of your total score weight towards the
booth slide. There were a few artists that did not have the images in
their booth that were represented in the individual art images and it did
count against them. In the case of painters that may have sold their
paintings prior to shooting the booth slide, if the style had matched, it
wouldn’t have hurt their score. But if they did portraits and showed a
booth filled with abstracts, it would have hurt them. For photographers,
because of the nature of the medium, there would be no excuse and I would
be more discerning with them. |
| Horizontals, Verticals, and Squares |
| In a situation where they’re projecting two over two, if
verticals wound up on the top and bottom opposing one another, they tended
to look congested like they were running into each other or violating each
other’s space. There was better separation when they were all horizontal (or square) and when horizontals were side by side they didn’t appear to be
running into each other at all. Four horizontals had more separation of
space than four verticals did. I’ve never felt that vertical images are as
effective for jurying because horizontal images are less stressful and
less challenging. Of course if you create vertical work, this doesn’t
apply to you. |
| Art Shows and Photography |
| Art shows should not be inventing criteria relating to
photography. I believe that the ultimate authority for standards are the
museums of modern art. I’m sure that curators in major museums have had to
take into account that many photographers are creating differently now
than in the past. My gut feeling is that most of them feel that as a
museum, they should take into account changing technologies. If I were the
guy making the rules, all this nonsense that shows ask; is it digital, is
it film, is it inkjet, is it giclée, is it silver gelatin, would be asked
only to better understand the artist’s chosen path to final exhibition
print, not to endorse or reject a particular material or process
preference (excepting archival characteristics of course). Show
requirements for an artist statement of materials and process that the
public may read is of course proper, let the person buying the piece
ultimately decide. But as far as thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs sideways
about what materials and processes photographers use, I would never place
a photographic artist at any disadvantage by telling them that they had to
do it a specific way or use only certain materials or processes. |
| Breaking the Rules |
| I want every artist to find ways to break “the rules”
about how they create their art. History has shown us that the artists
that break the rules are the most exciting, often bringing the rest of the
art world kicking and screaming to a new way of “seeing”. Those are the
guys and gals to be admired, shows that throw boulders in their way should
be ashamed of themselves. Any show that creates its own definitions of a
medium that are at odds with museum standards and long held parameters for
that medium or new paradigms created by changing technology, does both the
artist and the general public a disservice. They end up limiting the
artist expression and are misinforming the public. |
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| Whore Décor De Jour |
| When I see artists lining up to create the same clichéd
“Décor” formula that has emerged on the circuit I refer to that as
whore décor de jour. I always look for the artist doing something no
one has seen before. It’s the innovative artist that makes the arts
vibrant. I don’t care how well the clichéd work sells, If he or she hasn’t
shown me anything new, found a new was to express him or herself I believe
they have failed as an artist. The art fair world we inhabit contains way
too much mindless decoration for interior spaces, highly caloric but very
little nutritional value for the soul. Unfortunately, the need to make a
dollar seems to have become a scoring system of success for many artists.
Too many artists talk about the dollars and cents made at this show and
that show as if it’s a scorecard. We all need to make a living but
ultimately money is a poor measure of artistic success. If someone comes
into your booth and says that you really moved me with that, or I would
never have thought about seeing something that way. That’s what it’s all
about. I really believe that artist that create vision, evoke an emotion,
and communicate ideas will have the money they need to live (with sound
marketing). |
| Looking for Creativity |
| The formula that I’ve used in judging my own work and the
work of others is, has this artist shown me something I haven’t seen
before or something I have seen before in a way that I haven’t seen it or
thought about it. I think that’s the ultimate challenge to any artist.
Artists that prove there IS something new under the sun, that is their
take on it, automatically get extra points in my book. I think every show
should charge their jury to look for originality and that artists need to
hear they must justify being an artist, you can’t just be number nine in
the herd of artists with similar work. (Unless you found a way to take
that genre, which you know to be a cliché, and present it in a way that
hasn’t been considered before). |
| Art Show Artists are Like Farmers |
| The only groups of people, in a vocational sense, that
you can compare art show artists to are farmers. They are the only ones
that take on a tremendous amount of risk based upon short-term events that
they have no control over. |
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| The New Booth Slide |
| I feel that some care should be taken in producing a
booth slide that doesn’t look like it was taken at an art fair with the
associated canopy clutter. I don’t set up my Craft Hut anymore for the
booth slide. I just set up my panels in an L configuration of two walls at
right angles and shoot into it from a diagonal view. I don’t feel that
there is anything wrong with it because my booth slide uses the same
panels and work I take to an art fair. The look and feel is basically the
same. I even include a bin coming off one of the panels. My idea is, that
when I show someone my booth slide, I don’t want to show a car parked in
the back, which I saw in some booth shots. I don’t want to show them
canopy awnings that are sticking out. I noticed that about 20 to 25% of
the artists in the 2D category have adopted the same idea of booth
presentation. |
| When an individual walks into my booth,
they’re not seeing the Craft Hut, they’re not seeing the awnings, and
they’re not seeing the exhibition clutter and the mechanics of it all. All
they’re seeing is my clean panels and the artwork itself. But when you
take a camera with its cold monocular eye, it’s seeing all the crap and
the clutter along with the artwork. I feel that there is nothing dishonest
whatsoever about cleaning it up so the juror(s) get the same experience
that my potential customers would. |
| In every case, I felt if an artist took that tact in
setting up their booth slide, they had a stronger booth slide. And, for
those artists that did that and also set up their own tungsten lighting
that they would used if an art show gave them electricity, they were the
strongest booth slides yet. I’m talking about artists that just put up
their panels and had their little goose neck tungsten halogen lamps. It
looked more galleryish, it looked more inviting, and it was warmer. In my
opinion it was a stronger presentation. The last thing I want to add to
this was the use of some kind of flooring. Not lawns or asphalt, but the
use of a carpet or those soft interlocking tiles, even vinyl flooring. In
every case, it always added to the professional look of the booth. Once
again, it’s that little edge you’re looking for and it’s the culmination
of all those little edges to make your work and booth more interesting
than the artist being juried before or after you. It all comes down to
having a clean looking booth picture, and if you think you can just whip
out your trusty digital camera at a show, odds are way against you. |
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