Can’t Say It Better

“The bright flatness of the California landscape needs a dark, vaulted interior.”
Raymond Pettibon, 2003

“Drawing with Kloe”

Here’s my OTHER big project, besides the “Trade Show” and the bungalow restoration, both of which are pretty much wrapped up—a series of videos in which I teach drawing. (See a little plastic Bratz lecture on proportions of the face, etc.) I’ve been working on them for a year, gradually getting more technically professional equipment and expectations. Now I’m really serious!
More to come.

Make Love, not War

Student work, Kloe style.

Patriot

Oh dear, I’ve gotten quite behind in this blog. Spent the 4th of July sitting on the porch of a house overlooking a neighborhood where people set off lots of amateur fireworks. After so many years of synchronized civic shows, it was refreshing. And nothing caught fire!

Kloe’s Prozac

Here’s what I recommend for depression: heavy exercise. It’s like a drug. I can be miserable before I get on my bike, skates, or walking shoes, but, moving into the sunlight, I begin to calm down. I start to think more clearly, I get hopeful again.
Of course it helps to keep that fantastic-plastic figure of mine in shape…

Coping

Over a year ago I realized teaching as a career wasn’t going to work out for me. I started to look into other options. But really, there’s nothing to compare to teaching at the college level for autonomy, creativity, and compensation. Not to mention the respect other people have for college professors.
Earlier this year my private college let me go, along with most of their other part-time teachers. Now the State of California is finishing us off. My normal teaching load was 4-5 classes per semester/quarter, or about 250 students. This fall I’m down to a three-hour-per-week art history lecture. Possibly one other short course through an adult ed program.
Those 200 students I won’t have in my classroom will be out of luck, because we adjuncts are not being replaced. I’m hoping this is where the public will be outraged, because these are not the poor or elderly who are affected, but the average taxpayer and his kid. I have an art historian friend who lost both of her upper division Renaissance classes. That means anyone trying to finish an art history degree won’t be able to, as the classes required no longer exist.
Anyway, it’s amazing that, though I knew the destruction of my career in education would happen, I’m still shell shocked. It’s like when you expect someone you love to die, you prepare for it, but when they do, you still can’t believe it, and your mourning is no less intense.
Well, life is short, we shouldn’t waste it, right?
A fitting masterwork, and one that continues to disturb: Giacometti’s “Woman with her Throat Cut,” 1932 at MOMA

Bad News

Lost my main teaching job for fall, my only studio cancelled. Can't even pretend it's OK anymore.

Surprises by Post

One of the best parts of curating the Trade Show has been getting the works in the mail, from both American and Turkish artists. It’s so exciting to open up a fat envelop and fine incredible artworks inside. Nothing has been damaged, although unfortunately, a few things seem to have been lost in transit (my fault).
I’m still accepting works—send me something!

New York and my Little Corner

I didn’t get a chance to write about my New Your art trip earlier this summer. Saw wonderful stuff--glad I did, as now I’m so down on art (or maybe it’s just the horrible prospect of me and most of my friends losing our jobs).
Anyway, went to Mary Boone, saw this highly designed paper work by Jacob Hashimoto. It was both lovely and cold somehow. The space is impressive with exposed rafters. It’s also a reminder not to show too much, not to overfill walls with work.
Last night my studio building was open for the first time during the local gallery walk. I had several series up, but it was overload.
Just opened two boxes of paintings from almost 15 years ago that were in storage. Don’t quite know what to think. I don’t even remember doing the paintings, which are citycsapes. They were produced right before I entered grad school, when I quit painting entirely.
Have I improved/developed/matured? Can’t say. Am not thrilled with the old work, but that’s typical—the only work I’m ever really happy with is what I’m doing NOW.
The best thing about last night was that Kid.02, on his own initiative, put prices on the stuff he’s been making in my studio, and sold a pirate painting for $5.

Swallow the Fish Hook, My Friend

I took my advanced students to a lecture on “How to approach a gallery with your fine artwork,” in which a colleague shared her knowledge about the multiple gallery systems. Obviously, it was an optimistic topic.
It’s been 12 years since I seriously embarked on my career, starting with my MFA. By now I know, it’s who you know. Pure and simple. There are so many artists making good/fascinating/complex/deserving work. Only a handful will be seen. Everyone else will give their work away, give up, or keep toiling on in obscurity.
My colleague was honest. Degrees do count, and the better the school, the better your chances. Your famous professors are probably your ticket into the gallery system. You must spend 10% of your time creating the work, 90% marketing. My little-big town has a permanent inferiority complex, so artists from here are ignored for those to the north or south.
Blah blah blah. Doesn’t mean people don’t want to learn to draw. Although come fall there will be precious few classes to help them learn how.
It’s all just too depressing.

First Opening a Complete Success

The first opening of the Trade Show looked great, and the opening was packed. Am still recovering. Glad all that work will be seen several more times in different cities.
Am barely teaching but busier than I’ve ever been. How is that possible? Is the depression making us manic?

Suddenly, Summer

We experienced our usual May Gray and June Gloom here in SoCal. Just when you’re ready for some heat, the weather bores. The best months of the year are January and February, when the air is startlingly clear and the rest of the country is in blizzards…
But a few days ago we awoke to blue skies, and by 10am it was HOT. Bamm, summer is here. Tourists crowd the streets wearing the most god-awful outfits, welcomed for the money they bring.
Our new reality is water rationing, which makes us realize how long and hot the summer promises to be. No running through the sprinkler or taking long showers. No watering the lawns or washing cars.
I particularly suffer at the moment, as my car air-conditioning is kaput. I drive around with all the windows down, kids complaining in the back seat.
Reminds me of when I was 23 and drove cross-country in my non-ac-ed orange GLC with one of my best friends. She was about to leave for what would turn out to be a four-year Peace Corp stint, and I was moving to DC. We made a huge arc in the dead of summer, tent camping through Yosemite and Yellowstone, the Badlands (oh, what we saw!), moving through the breweries of the Great Lakes, then down through the Bible Belt (relatives must have thought me damned forever), Kentucky where we bought shot glasses and used them, to end up in New Orleans somehow.
It was a great education for two freckled-faced young women. Driving with the windows down, drinking lemonade, adventures waiting.
Love these bloopy paintings of donuts and beer by Tracy Miller.

Trade Show Opens Tonight

I’ve been working on this exhibition for about six months. Tonight is the first opening; next month it will move north.
Tonight I’ll be showing about 120 6”x6” 2D works, including paintings, photos, prints and mixed media works. I’m completely satisfied with the work that was submitted--it’s exciting, challenging, beautiful and interesting.
Not to mention, a bitch to hang.
I’ll be adding more works as we go along. As the show grows the main structures will be more apparent, but right now I can see themes of politics, spirituality, the body (especially feminine beauty), connection to nature, and the process of artmaking.
Usually I’m afraid that no one will show up at my art openings, but with so many local artists participating, I think this time there will be bodies.
Above artists:
R. Reiss, USA
T.F. Ucar, Turkey
S. Aksoy, Turkey
M. Guieu, USA
L. Muller, USA

Artist Flees Turkey

And I thought I took risks.

More Trade Show

artists:
M. Tascioglu, Turkey
J. Fabrizio, USA
D. Hill, USA
G. Demir, Turkey
R. Feldman, USA

Trade Show Thrills

OK, I just have to show off some of the amazing work I’m getting for the Trade Show. It keeps coming in and keeps delighting me.
Again, the artists answered the following questions:
“What do I value?
What would I trade?”
artists above:
E.M. Ermis, Turkey
D. Ulker, Turkey
D. Bittar, USA
L. Byrne, USA
B. Iristay, USA

Bungalow Done

Yard: Grass removed, mulch laid, ficus removed, fruit trees planted, electronic gate installed, water heater shed rebuilt, stucco patched.

I hope all this work was worth it. I sure learned a lot! Kloe now does remodeling!

Bungalow Done

Kitchen: New appliances, painted.


Laundry room: Cabinets, heater installed in closet.


Bathroom: Three walls and floor reconstructed, shower installed, toilet and sink repositioned, window installed. The room is totally transformed!

Bungalow, Done

Living Room: Fireplace scraped, enough for now. Sconces rewired. Painted.


Dining Room: Mural painted. Wallpaper scraped. Broken windows replaced. Painted.

Bungalow, Done

Here are the “after” photos.

Front: Bamboo eradication in process. Bougainvillea planted. Tires removed, mostly. Trim painted.


Entrance: Concrete paint removed. Doors restored and stained. Windows scraped (glass was painted). Lighting and alarm system installed.

Master of LaLaLand

Saw Llyn Foulkes’ show last month at the Hammer Museum. I say “his” show, because the others in the “Visionary Artists of LA” group had no weight in comparison. His craft is immaculate, and his imagery unlike any other. The works covered the last 40 years, all strong. Apparently Foulkes is not widely known outside California, and that’s just WRONG. Who else can affix a dead cat to a painting that is so weird, you barely notice?
BTW, Mickey is expressing my thoughts these days exactly.

Next

I am facing the prospect of little to no teaching income in the near future. California is about to go off a cliff. Classes and staff at public colleges are being slashed. Doesn’t matter how many students are signed up for your class, or how good a teacher you are. Just when so many people want to retrain, they will be out of luck.
Over a year ago I wrote here about wanting to leave teaching. I've been trying, but can't seem to find something that pays. And so teaching has been my fall-back.
Is now the time to go into industry? Compete against the thousands of commercial artists who are already in the job market, who have experience and portfolios, when I have little to none? The ivory tower has seduced me, and left me with nothing.
Am considering private lessons and critique sessions. Breathe.

Trade Show Update

Almost every day I get new pieces in the mail for the Trade Show. It’s like Christmas, opening the packages. I’m so pleased at the quality of the work.
However, I have new appreciation of what a curator goes through, so much organization, emails, phone calls, wow.
Artists, there’s still time, send me something to trade.

Last of the “Before” Pics

I’m ready to be done.

Dolls Crazier than I

Family sculpture by James E. Watts (kokeshi portrait of him and his kids). He had a little open house to show off the new work before it ships up to LA for a show at the Japanese American National Museum. Congrats, James!

Times Square is Closed for Sunbathing

Isn’t New York City the best?

Like Waffles in the Ice Maker

I have an ongoing battle with freezers. It doesn’t matter what size fridge I have, extra-large American style or smaller apartment-size with no defrost, I always seem to over-stuff my freezer compartment. Things fall out on my toes, I can’t find those donuts I swear I put in there, etc. Giant boxes of soybeans and pizzas from Costco don’t help.
My kids eat frozen waffles, and I had no room, so I put a packet in the ice-maker. Don’t ever do this. The plastic got wound in the mechanism, and pretty soon waffles were spitting out the door into your coke. Which is pretty gross.
Sometimes I really f**k things up.
No one is perfect, especially me.
And I’m sorry.

Kloe in the Big Red Fruit

Waiting to get into MOMA on free night (Target sponsored free Fridays, 4-8pm). New Yorkers saving money and valuing culture—all galleries were packed, except the Minimalist room…

Trade Show

Bungalow is in its final stages. In only one month most of the renovations have been completed. It’s been my job to oversee the workers, be the cheerleader and check writer.
But I’m also working on another project, and art exhibition that I will take to Turkey in the Fall. “Trade Show, California – Turkey” is a swap of artworks between 100 Californian artists and 100 Turkish artists. The artists use a two-dimensional, 6” x 6” format to address these questions:
“What do I value?
What would I trade?”
The work can be in any media. So far I’ve gotten drawing, painting, photography, collage, digital prints, embroidery, and mixed media.
A colleague asked me, “Kloe, why are you doing all this work?” Because, of course, there’s no profit in it. It’s a cultural exchange. But I’ve run into some minor problems, with the exhibition venues, with making mistakes in the promo material, with stepping on some toes.
Anyway, first show is less than a month away.
Artists: send me your work! (If you’d like to participate, leave a comment or email me directly.)

First exhibition venue:
Garage Gallery
4141 Alabama St.
San Diego
July 1-31
Opening: July 3, 7-9pm

Julie Heffernan

These are some seriously amazing paintings. Subversive little contemporary scenes in the background, to counterbalance all that art historical reference.
70K, if you think you need one for your living room.