“Me-tail”
I’ve never been the kind of girl who likes to wear things straight off the department store rack. I’ve always found there to be something deeply unsatisfying about pouring myself into someone else’s mold. Luckily, I have a mother who has always been pleased to alter (or make) my clothing and one who was as ready to let her sixteen year-old daughter take over her kitchen with dye projects as she is willing to participate in them today!
But my customization-happy lifestyle extends well beyond my own peculiar sense of fashion. I’m interested in how one-of-a-kind and, in particular, specially made objects change other people’s worlds too, and it’s got everything to do with how I’ve made my career choices, both artistically and financially.
Art made for the open market no longer has a place in today’s world. It isn’t that every work produced from here on out must be made on commission—and certainly not in the way that involves a specific patron’s wants and needs fully determining the piece’s meanings and means. It’s more a question of redefining art for the 21st century. Gone are the days when art which is made only for the artist’s sake (and out of the lint gathered by studio assistants from the artist’s navel) will have any lasting interest for anyone but the artist. In a world where M&Ms and sneakers alike can be emblazoned with the client’s own photos for a reasonable price, I can’t think that art that’s not looking to communicate and engage with specific audiences outside the artist’s own circle will survive.
All of which is to say: bring on the new age of folk art! While some will try to keep on feeding their audiences the same “open market = the only real art” line and others will try to make customization itself an assembly line product, the rest of us will find an art market eager to exchange money for value, regardless of the state of the economy.
This is what my You Bags, like the one made based on this photograph, are all about.
It’s a matter of making art that’s integral to the everyday.
This particular bag is for me.
It’s a portrait of my sweetheart.
And, as often happens in portraits of David, I had a little trouble capturing his nose!
Here, it was too long…
...and all wrong.
But I fixed it…
...and learned to paint an upright bass at the same time.
Gwenn Seemel
David
2008
acrylic on one side of a canvas tote
14 x 14 inches
(detail below)
RELATED ARTICLES:
- How to make art on commission
- Complete
- Paint your life.
CATEGORIES: - Process images - Business of art - You Bag -
