A Review: Akron ArtWalk, September 5, 2015

On Saturday, September 5th a new friend of mine, Erin, joined me to discover Akron's Downtown in the form of an ArtWalk. A little unsure as to what we should expect, we NEOH newbies (Northeast Ohio for those who are confused) drove into Downtown Akron with visions of the booming Brooklyn arts scene clashing with visions of abandoned steel warehouses and creepy alleyways. I think what we found was closer to Brooklyn...

Akron, Ohio, also known as Rubber City because of the tire industry, is located in the Rust Belt, that economically shocked part of our country that saw the steel, car, plastic, and polymer industry money flood in and right back out again with just as much force. The Goodyear Blimp still flies around here and the mansions still line the streets in certain neighborhoods but the devastation is palpable. As you drive around various parts of Akron there are overgrown parking lots, empty weedy squares where houses once stood, and broken windows in hollow warehouses. I think Akron could identify with Eric Clapton as he sings "Once I lived a life of a millionaire..." Even the river still struggles a bit with healthy levels but has come a long way from the blaze of a dump site it was in 1969. Much like the city.

Amid these gloomy facts are glimmers of flames. That is not Akron's only legacy. Not at all. The rocks and parks and trails and trees are gorgeous. The natural resources are delightful. The Cuyahoga River is rushing and most definitely not on fire anymore. The buildings built in Akron's heyday still stand and command reverence along brick streets. New buildings glimmer with hope for more progress towards a healthy and vibrant community. And, even without the money, tourism, and packed streets of other cities, Akron's arts and crafts scene is active, innovative, and entrepreneurial.

Not surprisingly, The Downtown Akron ArtWalk as well as another recent event called PorchRokr showed an abundance of rust, found objects, industrial souvenirs, and steam punk vibes. But usually not in some kitsch angsty way. I got the feeling that ideas reigned over depression, spirit over gloom. Cool things are happening here.

Erin and I enter the scene. People and energy filled spaces as we followed our map and the delightfully bubble-like stickers from the warehouse studios and Crafty Mart of Summit Art Space to the funky upstairs Ro3 Gallery. The atmosphere was down to earth and inviting. People were talkative, hanging out, meeting each other, showing each other artwork and eating and drinking. I downloaded the Akron Art Prize app for the evening where I could find pieces on display and save them to my list. I had 5 votes to use and I wanted to be sure to choose my top 5 favorites.

Restaurants, music venues, shops, and galleries were all on our map for the evening. We covered as much as we could and could've seen more. A trolley drove about picking up and dropping off happy art seekers. Akron Glass Works was a highlight since they were hard at work in the hot studio. A human anatomy book cut into topographical incisions also caught our eye. We meandered into Urban Eats, a coffee shop/cafe with large plywood pieces on the wall holding graphic black and white stencils. There were multiple paint nights going on in public spaces, giving people a chance to see and experience the process of making. Or remaking. Like Akron. 

Erin and I made our way back to our car and passed a long line of young people waiting for a flashy club to open. The combination of events over the course of the evening surprised us both and prompted Erin to exclaim, "This is actually Akron!" #ActuallyAkron is my new hashtag for the city. #ActuallyAkron is pretty cool. The Akron Art Prize will be chosen and given out at a later event. I'm definitely going. 

 

"Dancing with Failure"

Would you say yes? If failure walked up and asked you for this dance? Would you say yes? I'm not sure I would. 

Source

Chris Horne is a devil of a failure. He says so himself. In fact, he just spoke to a gaggle of creatives and community members in Akron, OH about his dance with failure. Now, just to clarify, he is the successful creator of The Devil Strip, an art, music, and culture magazine/ newspaper/ online news source covering everything hip and relevant in Akron. He also won the Knight Foundation grant to do something called Unbox Akron which is rolling out this fall. Unbox Akron is incredibly creative and the anticipation of its debut is killing me. But how did he get there? Through great failures, he says. 

Creative Cog Akron, an artsy speaker series put together by Katelyn Gainer, kicked off with Chris Horne's "Dancing with Failure." Horne took me by surprise. In his conversation about failure he directed us toward community rather than self-realization. He said that "we are wired for connectivity and being connected is what gives us confidence ... Being local is being human." 

He suggested that whether you will fail or succeed in your pursuit is not the question. The questions are, rather, whether you are taking action that makes us better, whether you are telling stories, and whether you are connecting people. We all seek a purpose, a drive, and a mastery. Can we help each other in these pursuits? Horne says yes. We know ourselves through our community, they help you find energy for your ideas and push you forward. But they can also catch you when you fail and help gather the pieces of failure to try again. 

Dancing is such a whimsical word to use with something as weighty as failure. Trying something potentially incredible could take off and soar or it could crash into a burning wreck. That burning wreckage is exactly why failure is weighed down with so much fear. But Horne said that to dance with failure isn't to try to lighten its reality. To dance with failure is to let it be a possibility. And in community, that isn't such a scary prospect. 

Live Local. Dare Greatly. 

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." - T. Roosevelt 

Community Inspiration

Picture from Lifehacker  

Kathryn Coneway is an inspirational community arts advocate and an incredibly hard worker. I had the pleasure of working with her in her Northern Virginia Art at the Center not too long ago. She recently blogged about her work and I loved the following paragraph: 

"Shared spaces support creativity by making greater resources available than might be available to an individual. Shared spaces also create a center for creative energy so that makers working in the same space might benefit from the energy and influence of others working side by side, as well as other groups who gather there at different times.  Makers leave traces and these in turn inspire new work." 

(Read the full post here)

Heres to hoping you leave some inspirational traces today in making art, playing with your kids, or talking to a friend or stranger! 

What is "Creative Placemaking?"

There's a new hot word going around: PLACEMAKING. Before you ignore it or pass it off as a fleeting trend, you might want to jump on this band wagon; it's a fun one.

Photo from NatGeo

Placemaking is making places. Take a second to think about that obvious statement. What does it mean to make a place? What is a place? When you use that word, to what are you usually referring? An area or building or establishment that has some specific purpose, right? "That place we went to for dinner..." Or "that place with the great hiking trails..." Some places just exist - Niagra Falls for example. Other places have been made - the visitors center at Niagra Falls, for example. 

"Placemaking" or "Creative Placemaking" is a movement striving to put some more thought into the places we make, to include more people in the process of making community oriented spaces, and to infuse these places we make with a creativity that is life-giving/inspiring.

Will our artists and creatives be reintegrated into communities as vital resources? Will we become a more flexible, creative, and human society? I sure hope so.
"A good public space ... is not only inviting, but builds a place for the community around an artwork, or culture venue, by growing and attracting activities that make it a multi-use destination. Alone, no designer, architect, or artist can create a great public space that generates and sustains stronger communities. Instead, such spaces arise from collaboration with the users of the place who articulate what they value about it and assist the artist in understanding its complexity. Public art projects that engage the community in aspects of the art-making process can provide communities with the means to improve their environment and the opportunity to develop a sense of pride and ownership over their parks, streets, and public institutions. Ultimately, however, public art projects will be most effective when they are part of a larger, holistic, multidisciplinary approach to enlivening a city or neighborhood. In this way, public art can contribute both to community life and to the service and vitality of public spaces. This is the promise of the emerging “Creative Placemaking” movement."*

I love the idea of a community of workers from various fields combining their tools and ideas to create a place. I love this call to unsilo our professions when it comes to creating public spaces. Main Streets, walkable town centers, multiuse parks... Find out what your community is doing on this front and see how you might contribute. We must learn to be active participants in what we enjoy rather than passive recipients.

Read more on the NEA website.

*http://www.pps.org/reference/collaborative-creative-placemaking-good-public-art-depends-on-good-public-spaces/

Movement

The movement in this old video is incredible. From an article in Hyperallergic about NY Public Library's new archives of major historical dance videos.

Ice Drumming

I've made it to the island of Dominica where I will be living for the next year! 2014: The year of wetness and heat! Maybe the heat has gotten to me already (I hope not - its winter and apparently cooler than usual) but I found these awesome ice drummers through an artist friend in New Zealand.

The longer they go, the cooler it gets. I love creative people!!

Owen Mortensen: Nature.

The time lapse segment at the end is awesome!

Enjoy!

Video: Svend Bayer

If you are curious about the full pottery process and the life of a full time potter, watch this 20 minute video. 

"I think we're kind of dinosaurs, really... heading for distinction... Interest in that horrible word tradition isn't being reinforced."

"Your technique, it's only there to help you. In itself it's nothing. It can in fact hinder you."

(link: http://www.goldmarkart.com/scholarship/svend-bayer-potter/)

Bernard Leach and Striking a Balance

Pottery has an endless array of subjects to explore, from chemistry to structural proportions to philosophies behind creation. I think the most intriguing part of functional pottery is it’s ability to connect the artist, the material, and the user. The marriage of function and beauty in pottery demands a sincere awareness of and commitment to reality from the artist. 

Bernard Leach 

I have mentioned Bernard Leach before and have been thinking about his journey recently. Bernard Leach was a British potter who, after a trip to Japan, brought a new energy for pottery back to England and eventually America. His ceramic work, books, and lectures inspired the emergence of studio potters across the West. He brought bits of Eastern thought into a Western mindset, something intriguing if we seek to marry community and tradition with individualism and new frontiers. Leach says, “We cannot all be like a star of the films. No, there are stars born, but there will never be many. We do not need to be a star to make beauty.” 

In this vein, Leach is also keen to promote the value in making repeat work, similar to Hans Rookmaaker’s value in perspiration, saying that no art is instant; it comes from long hard work, practice, and repetition. It is not merely 'good genes.' Leach demands a balance both in the artist and in the pot. He demands thought behind every action, analyzing the clay, the foot, the form, and more.

“We are searching for a balanced form of self expression, and potting is one of the few activities today in which a person can use his natural faculties of head, heart, and hand in balance. If the potter is making utensils for use – simple bowls, pitchers, mug and plates – he is doing two things at the same time: he is making ware that may give pleasure in use, which provides one form of satisfaction to the maker, and he is traveling in the never-ending search for perfection of form, which gives a different gratification. As these two activities come together and the potter is at one with the clay, the pot will have life in it.” 

To use my new arts management lingo, that "pleasure in use" is rather like 'external marketing' or thinking about the user, while the "perfection in form" is like 'internal marketing' or thinking about your personal standards. We can't get stuck on just one or the other. As usual, it is about striking a balance.

by Sarah Coffin

How can we take these practical ideas of non-star seeking external and internal balancing into our thought processes? The idea of thinking of others just as much as we think of ourselves is quite counter-pop-cultural (New term. Just coined. Spread the word.). As I embark on a year or so to another culture (Commonwealth of Dominica, West Indies), I look forward to seeing how this move will affect my professional and personal direction, my artwork, and my outlook. That connection of artist, material, and user in pottery is one that I hope to find in Dominica as well... perhaps not in ceramics per say... but we'll see what I find or what finds me. 

Everyday Object Sculptures

A Japanese artist makes incredible tiny architectural work out of everyday objects like rolls of tape and toothbrushes!

See the work here! 

Paper... gone weird.

Check out this Chinese artist...



Do you like it?

Crazy, right?

A Delightful Puzzle

Grad school started up again this week. The (mostly) lovely whirlwind of paper, words, people, and ideas are swirling once again. This semester is my most exciting yet. I am incredibly blessed to have a number of things that are coordinating like a puzzle coming together.

First Puzzle Piece: I am taking care of a little house while the owners are away. It is closer to school. It is closer to my internship. It is in the midst of a delightfully artsy and tight knit community. I can walk to a locally owned coffee shop and see incredible architecture each time I walk, drive, or run around the neighborhood. I have space for creating and thinking and sharing. 

A 1920's Bungalow

Second Puzzle Piece: I am so stoked to have gotten an internship at Red Dirt Studios. My program at school requires internships and this is beyond what I thought possible. Many of the internships are in offices for organizations and it just wasn't quite right. But get this. I am at a ceramic arts collaborative! What?! I will be learning their daily grind, how they sustain their practice, installation techniques, management of a space like that (under Margaret Boozer), and meeting loads of artists. On my first day we talked about community art issues, welded some large scale frames for plaster pieces, planed ceramic cheese boards, and went campaigning for getting artists involved in their local community. 

Margaret Boozer and Elle Brande

Third Puzzle Piece: I've always dreamt of starting some sort of studio space or retreat idea for artists. This semester I have a unique opportunity to start something of the sort with no venue cost. Two of my colleagues from my program jumped on board and we've got The Empty House Studio. I am doing it for credit at school and my professor who is overseeing the project is just perfect. She is challenging me and pushing me to get the most out of this temporary experience. I am taking a class called Gallery Management (actually with that same professor) which will give me an even better understanding of the nitty gritty behind a venture like this. 

Click the picture and go to the Mission and Vision tab. 

Fourth Puzzle Piece: My own creativity hasn't quit. Its a funny thing, this artistic impulse. It won't go away. And learning to train and hone and use it 'correctly' has proven quite a task. A number of people, all congregating currently, are the perfect sounding boards and collaborators. I've set goals for studio time, projects, and collaborations. I've missed this community around creation ... and I know that the lack of community cause me to burn out in the past. I will foster this and revel in it while I have it. 

www.sarahcoffin.blogspot.com

If you are on Facebook, you can follow along by "liking" The Empty House Studio community and Sarah Coffin Pottery. 

I am so excited to share the process with you all. 

Thanks for reading. 

Change your mindset. Be grateful for something each day. 

Happy New Year!

Traditional Turning from Artisan Media on Vimeo.

Bikes in Madrid

Sustainable living is a topic of conversation around the globe... green is definitely the color of the decade. In this hue, bicycle shares, lanes, and shops are popping up all over the place as people seek an auto alternative, green-style. And, after reading Shop Class as Soulcraft,  the bike is looking much more attractive as a material possession that I can actually manage. (Read the book, its a good one.) 

Friends of mine, Reid, and his wonderful wife, Clara, live in Madrid. They are starting a very cool project. He called it a "project/space/shop dedicated to urban cycling..."

"The focus is practical, simple, and if possible cool-looking bicycles and accessories, coupled with a full-service workshop and strong focus on making available practical information for potential cyclists to make it easier to make the switch to a bicycle."

See the work in progress with a simple but inspiring video featuring obvious passion and skill.




http://dailybicycle.co

The following is a translated excerpt from their business plan. So cool!

Buena Suerte, you two! 

Handmade. Local.

This video is beautiful. I love to watch the crafters' hands as they do what they do best. Plus, I'd like an old bike like that.

Stephen Kenn : Inheritance Collection from Process Creative on Vimeo.

Enjoy.

Salvador Dali on What's My Line!!! Hilarious!Especially around 6:55....

Drawing Life

Matisse. A video for the museum of modern art in Brisbon. Short and beautiful.

A Little Vintage Inspiration

The 1920's....




Highlights:

Fashion: Keep your eye out for the clips of the woman around 1:55-2:10... Talk about back in style!
Motor Car Designed for Women: 1:10
Liberation from a prison of Hair: 2:12

Eva Zeisel: A "Maker of Things"

This is a wonderful TED talk by Eva Zeisel. Here is the description on the TED Talks website:


"The ceramics designer Eva Zeisel looks back on a 75-year career. What keeps her work as fresh today (her latest line debuted in 2008) as in 1926? Her sense of play and beauty, and her drive for adventure. Listen for stories from a rich, colorful life."

She speaks softly but, if you have some patience, listen through the whole 18 minutes. There are some gems in there!

The Power of Making

"Making is life. It is what I do."

This video, by the Victoria and Albert Museum, is about the human act of creating. The peace and serenity with which these people talk about their craft is that same peace and serenity that I feel when I am engaged in creating. Its hard to articulate because the work itself is the articulation. So, when an artist or craftsman has a hard time telling you about their work, it is usually not for lack of thought or intellect; it is merely that they now must say again, in a less fluid or natural way, what they've already said in their creation.

"I think its really important for people to reengage with actually making things."

Power of Making from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo.

[Thank you to P.B. for sharing this video with me!]