Word of the Day: Faux-portunity

I think I coined a new term: "faux-portunity."

It's the word 'faux' plus the word 'opportunity.' It's something frequently presented to emerging writers / artists / filmmakers. It's presented kinda like an opportunity, but there's always a catch, which is usually a demand for something you're not really comfortable doing, which would usually require great effort and commitment on your part, and would really only serve to make the other person look good (and probably momentarily at that). Oh, and you can't get the opportunity part unless you agree to the catch, so it's basically a hustle. Usually a faux-portunity is followed by a hyped-up promise that can never be delivered. In other words, it's a complete waste of your time, and time is the most valuable thing you have as an artist. My theory is that a real opportunity will not have a catch. And of course there are great opportunities out there that are disguised as modest, under-hyped experiences that yield great rewards. And you may have to work really really hard for them. But just keep your eyes open for the real, and for the faux.

That's it, I'm calling Merriam-Webster, or at least Urban Dictionary.

UPDATE: I did it! Check out faux-portunity in the Urban Dictionary!

:: bogna ::

Keeping up with Kathryn Jaroneski: New Work, New Studio

Kathryn Jaroneski is an abstract painter who lives in Los Angeles. I really enjoyed her solo show "Looking for something and maybe almost finding it" in Silverlake. Since then she's shown some more, and she was accepted into Roland Reiss' Painting's Edge, the advanced painting residency in Idyllwild, California.


Now she's got a new studio, and she's doing new things. Her sharp instinct for color and composition threads through her work as she explores brighter shades and experiments with technique.


:: bogna ::

Pin Ups Revealed

I am a big fan of art photography which is as strong in concept as it is in execution. And I feel like I haven't been stumbling upon it that often in galleries lately. Mostly I've either seen technically well-executed photographs without a complex concept, or, I've seen complex concepts without a commitment to photographic execution. So I constantly yearn for the best of both worlds, where concept meets execution at a peak, elevating photography - and any aspect of it - to the higher art form that it can be.
Luckily, I recently saw an exhibit which was terribly satisfying. Currently at Regen Projects, you can catch Gillian Wearing's Pin Ups. And if there is anything worth catching, it's that exhibit. Gillian questions our need for transformation and artifice by offering exactly that to amateur models who want it very badly. She then shares the results with us; it's like a scientific experiment to expose a hunger in our modern psyche to be made over, airbrushed, and presented to the world as the sexiest beast alive. And it's not just the ladies who want to be objectified, "Pin Ups" is an equal opportunity exploiter, granting sexpot transformation to both men and women, making their Pin Up dreams come true.

Wearing presents her Pin Ups as gorgeous, colorful photo-realistic airbrushed paintings, based on photo shoots of the models in sexy attire and attitudes. But Wearing also anchors the eye candy with a strong narrative component. Behind each painted panel lie snapshots and written essays from each model, offering the viewer a healthy dose of reality behind the fantasy, quite literally. The subjects, often self-diagnosing their self-esteem issues in handwritten pleas to be photographed, are given life by their own words. And while their words express a desire to be presented in sexy perfection to the public at large, the casual snapshots reveal how far from that each model is in daily life. The viewer might feel a bevy of feelings - such as temptation, compassion, scorn, pity, admiration, intrigue - all at the same time. By showing us both the vulnerability and the magnificence of each model, Wearing continues her explorations of identity while sharing with us the manufacturing process of image, the way a magician might reveal a slight of hand. And at the end of the day, the The Pin Ups have been humanized. You might feel a little educated, a little human, maybe even a little dirty afterwards, but like most successful art viewings, it will linger long after you leave the gallery.

:: bogna ::

Rolling along with Bucky

I think we all know I have a soft spot for animals and road trips, (my recent solo show SAFARI AMERICANA: SCENES OF DELIGHT pretty much proves it), and I recently saw another artist's take on those two subjects that are close to my heart, so I'd like to introduce you to David Dechant's Bucky Rolls Like That (pictured below).


Bucky Rolls Like That is an ode to Rauschenburg, since there is the presence of taxidermy, there is a tire, and the lines between sculpture and painting are blurred (see Rauschenburg's "Monogram" pictured right). Dechant adds a playfulness to his subject. The vibrant pigments painted on the bear's fur, nose, and even tongue, give the beast a surreal beauty and humor. David also painted the tire treads white and repeated their geometry in three substantial panels mounted on the wall behind the piece, using that visual language to promise us a nice flowing ride. And by adding exaggerated, ornamental low-rider style handlebars, Dechant poses the question, is Bucky the bear simply roadkill? or is he actually in control of the ride?

And by using Rauschenberg's Combines as a point of departure, David is practicing his own manifesto he calls Varyism by arranging art objects spatially in order to construct intellectual, not physical, relationships. Bucky Rolls Like That is constructed as an interactive arrangement, where the visceral and the elegant can coexist.

:: bogna ::

Group Show at the Bird Museum

To those who think art is for the birds, artist Michael Giancristiano salutes you! He has recently created the Eli Bird Contemporary Art Center, a miniature museum in which
he curates art shows with accurate miniatures of original fine art pieces. I am happy to say his first show features a wide range of work from many contemporary artists, and it includes a miniature of my abstract color photograph the abyss.

I can usually spot Giancristiano's work right away. He knows how to work with wood and media to create something elegant yet organic. I've mostly seen his 'On Thin Ice' series of paintings on plywood which minimally reveal the deeper layers of his work, showing a process that feels persistent, measured, and natural.

As for the Eli Bird Contemporary Art Center, otherwise known as the EBCAC, part of Michael's concept is to have work that invokes nature, and I believe that the EBCAC shows will also benefit children's foundations.


The inaugural EBCAC show has work by the following artists:
Lori Agostino, Dori Atlantis, Arlene Bogna, Paul Blieden, Richard Bruland, Ellen Cantor, Rebecca Hamm, Yoichi Kawamura, Linda Kunik, Daniel Lara, Lynda Lester, Erika Lizee, Rebecca Lowry, Freyda Miller, Amandine Nabarra-Piomelli, Hung Nguyen, Ana Osgood, Paul Pitsker, Bryan Ricci, Gina Stepaniuk, Elizabeth Tobias, David Eli Vaughn, Valerie Wilcox, Karen Frimkess Wolff, Kyoung Ha Yoo.
It's nice to see how many artists find Giancristiano's concept absolutely irresistible.

:: bogna ::

'My Life as a Filmmaker' and other soapboxes

Recently I was asked to speak at Gabrielle Kelly's "My Life as a Filmmaker" class at Los Angeles Film School. I was happy to come and talk about the skills of survival needed in the big filmmaking world out there, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to fill in the hour and a half. But the students were very cool and very excited about their projects and their goals after graduation. I was impressed that they all seemed to specialize in a trade that complemented their long term goals.
I shared my stories of survival, showed a couple reels, talked about Vista Point Pictures, and listened to their concerns. Then I gave a little bit of tough love that I wish someone had given me: that it is your responsibility as an artist to be resourceful and to do some strategic planning so that you may continue your art and your craft. That it's okay to have professional experience, or to learn something about finances and commerce along the way, without worrying that knowing those things might somehow make you less of an artist or a pure creative. And that it is up to you to keep developing and strengthening your craft and your voice. I think many artists just want a patron to swoop in and develop their raw talent for them, but this ain't the Renaissance. There are things you can do to buy your own independence, even if only in little chunks at a time. Being savvy isn't something that need come only after huge 'overnight' commercial success. Self-reliance means being authentic and responsible throughout the process of your journey as an artist. And as an artist, you may not have a way out of that...
Before I knew it, the class was over, and I was all pumped up from having jumped onto my soapbox. I don't know if my talking was helpful, but I hope to see great things from these students in the future. We are all in this together, after all.

:: bogna ::

Getttin' ready for SAFARI AMERICANA

Yes, it's just around the corner. 'It' being SAFARI AMERICANA: Scenes of Delight, my solo show this summer at Gallery 825 in Los Angeles. I'm excited that I get to have the big space that I wanted in the back, and I get to fill it. And I will. With big, fun colorful images taken with toy cameras from my road tripping. And it's analog, baby. Except for the multimedia component of course. But it's mostly large format color photographs dominating the walls with the images that dominated me when I saw them in "real" life. And since I am about to experience a very rewarding process both as a visual artist and as a filmmaker, I am pulling up my sleeves, rubbing my hands together, and giggling on the inside. I cannot wait!