Final Week

The Call To Artists was, essentially, my final examination; so that only means that my work here at the gallery is soon to come to a close. I whipped out a gallery poster for the upcoming PK Yonge Honors Show last week (see below), and wrote up/sent out some acceptance and rejection letters for the gallery. All that's left is contract signing and something tells me that getting students to come in between finals week and summer vacation is going to be the most difficult way of finishing off the semester. I do think I'll miss the authority of the position, but it's been a great run and I do think I've done the best I could and learned the most possible from the job.

Week 13

The Call to Artists has been conducted and there is a new show up in the gallery called "Las mentiritas (The Little Lies)". This time around there were a lot of issues with the artist: after sending her poster in at the last minute and having us print them off, she wanted to change the design. Unfortunately, we were unable to do that for her, so when it came time for the press release I chose not to include the picture of her poster, but a previously supplied image of one of her paintings; which she also disapproved of. What's more, several of her works in the gallery were peeling off the wall.

But, everything is in order now and we had the committee meeting to vote on next semester's exhibition schedule. The meeting went incredibly smoothly for the most part except that the artists who submitted work somehow found out where and when the meeting took place. They really thought that they were able to vote for their own and others' proposals. So, many people were turned away and another had to get their scorecard withdrawn. There were still other members who expressed a bias only after the fact, so their scores had to be highly considered. The votes were tallied today, so now it's all a matter of emailing the artists with their respective good and bad news.

The rubric is as follows, (based on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best):

Communication of concept through work
Effectiveness of artistic elements and principles
Appropriate use of tools and materials
Development of proposal
Overall rating

I think that it was a great rating system! The only thing that took a long time in the meeting was reading the often over-wrought artist statements. But in the end, I was very surprised -happily so!- by the winners. This will be a truly unique exhibition schedule with a lot of variety in work.

Oh yeah, and not only did I get a job in the Reitz Union with a print graphics position, but I have an interview today with an internship at Giggle Magazine. This internship has definitely helped prepare me to move onto greater things.

Week 11

This weekend, my new show will be installing. It;s been a very different experience this time around; the group was extremely easy to please: they had no objections to any catering options and they didn't want to insure anything in the show. I learned that we would have to get an explicit statement from them for waiving their insurance; so I had to write up an email asking them to word it "more specifically". It was strange twisting words that way simply to make it legal, but I understand. You see, they chose not to insure because all their work is digitally based and on their computer hard drives, and the gallery will not insure computers or even the files located on the computers. This is a very interesting look at how technological advance is challenging the way fine art traditionally practices in the gallery setting.

Very simple poster design, eh? I think it actually suites the show concept rather well.

Aside from preparing for the next show, I remained true to my word and organized the hell out of the office. I'm talking major file organization and scrap paper tossing. Also, the emails -which go back in the inbox as far as 2009- are all properly put into their own folders. Something tells me this won't last though. And it may be the three files that suddenly appeared on the desktop after I returned from a lunch break. That's what you get when you share computers!

Week 9

Very little to update this week as I've been primarily keeping myself busy with portfolio review work. Before Spring Break, I wanted to send out a small icon to go on the gallery webpage to attract attention. It took some time going through all the red tape with the webpage guy, but it's finally up there.

I'll be leaving for my home town soon, but before I go, I plan on hanging the posters in the Fine Art Building areas, but also around town at places like Maude's, Recycled Bikes, Burrito Brothers, etc. I look around the office and in the email and everything is so, so messy. I've decided that the first thing I'll do after I get back is get this place in order again!

Week 8

This week, I made the Call to Artists poster in order to prepare for next semester's set of exhibitions. It took a surprising amount of effort as I aimed to create a very simple, clever, and, most importantly, eye-catching design. Color was an exceedingly challenging aspect; and I learned a lot about how things on the screen don't always turn out the same in print- in fact, color even varies from computer to computer! I've definitely discovered that my laptop screen does not depict colors truest to their original form; so from now on I will be doing a lot more work off of my laptop and onto my desktop computer. Here she is, the poster and the flier versions:

For next week, I'll be working on turning the palette into a transparent image with Calling All Artists text on the front to be placed on the website to draw people to the application page. It's a great idea, and hopefully it will get me a job at the Reitz Union this summer.

Week 6

Today I created the poster for Noel Kassewitz' painting show titled "Verto Vita", latin for "transform life". The paintings are mostly centered around animal rights and environmental activism. They're seemingly straightforward and "pretty". They remind me of craft show paintings, with brilliant colors and picturesque landscapes; except Noel's includes a speared whale or two. This comparison between grotesque and americana folk art -albeit unintentional- is quite interesting.

The reception is tonight and Odette will have to tough this one out on her own, unfortunately. I've got portfolio review. Wish me luck! A lot of it.

EDIT: And so the editing begins. Before passing it off to Noel, there were further changes to made regarding the Reitz Union and UF logos. Personally, I think there has always been something off about all the commotion made over "making sure the logo is nice and big". If they're on the poster and legible, that should be okay, right? I also had to change "Reitz Union Gallery" to read: "the gallery" (in all lowercase, mind you). The printout looked very nice though, especially the vivid colors.

Week 4

[In]Dispensable Excess has made the "New and Notable" section of Scene Magazine- the week;y entertainment paper associated with the Gainesville Sun. The reception will be tonight and we are expecting a lot of people- which taught me that catering on a budget means lots of hummus, tapenade, and spinach dips with fruit, cookies, and brownies. The cheapest things on the menu, but the most food to go around. It will be served with a really nice sparkling grape and cranberry juice, so that will excite things.

EDIT: The show went along very nicely. Around 75 people were able to make it to the actual reception, but there seemed to be a lot of activity on the comment book prior to the event. I expect that many more people were being exposed to the gallery than we could literally calculate.The show presented some true talent by the two sculpture seniors, and I spoke with Angela Gilland about her reasons for returning for a second show - (she also had a show in the space last semester with Daniela Ettedgui). Being the calm, cool, and collected girl she is, she bluntly stated that she did it because Michael, her partner in this showing, "really wanted to". Michael was absolutely giddy with attention the entire event, as he should have been; but this particular gallery reminded me, more than ever, that showings such as these are about the artists' ego, and greatly take away from the value of the works' core. I'm interested in seeing how such an event could actually contribute to the meaning of the work, more so than mere installation.

Week 3

This week I made a slide to advertise for the gallery opening in the Sports and Leisure Center at the Reitz. Plain and simple.

Week 2

I am excited to begin my leadership of the second show of the second show of the semester, "The Weapons of Mass Consumption" by the artists Angela Gilland and Michael Bauman. Right now, I'm writing a short, 2-liner press release for the show; here's a rough draft:


Weapons of Mass Consumption is the second opening this semester in the Reitz Union Gallery undertaken by multi-medium artists Angela Gilland and Michael Bauman. This collaborative, creative effort aims to simultaneously re-purpose and expose a consumption minded culture.

Notes on their artist statement:
-Spin on positive versus negative
-The multi-media show
-Society and massive consumption
-Angela- more is not necessarily better, repurposed materials, comment on market and sustainability, life-sized to relate to audience
-Michael- societies wanting to spread like viruses with little regard for else, destroying original beauty, questions paths we follow

I am also leading the design initiative on the new call to artist poster. So far what I'm contemplating is making the website where the applications can be found as the primary focus, and including a small map as to where you turn the applications in, since the Arts and Crafts Center is a relatively difficult place to locate.

More to come next week!

EDIT: There was name change of the show to [In]Dispensable Excess. And a new artist statement; thus:

[In]Dispensable Excess is the second opening this semester in the Reitz Union Gallery undertaken by multi-medium artists Angela Gilland and Michael Bauman. The show focuses on the subject of excess; from both the industrial aspects of careless production and consumerist reactions of overindulgence.


EDIT: Another re-do

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

From January 22 to February 5th, the J. Wayne Reitz Union Gallery will be exhibiting the show [In]Dispensable Excess ,featuring the works of multi-medium artists Angela Gilland and Michael Bauman. The show focuses on the subject of excess; from concerns at large about the groundwork covered by and the remains of industrial growth, as well as a microscopic look at hyper-consumerism of individuals in a want-based culture. The work questions the need/reasoning for the behavior behind these issues and their effect on the future. The reception will be held on January 27th, 2011 from 7-9 PM at "the gallery" on the second floor of the Reitz Union.

Jessica Stoun

"the gallery" intern

J. Wayne Reitz Union