Art and Community

Art and community pose an interesting topic. How do artists become more integrated within their community and understand the flow and pulse of what is happening. That is really what it is about. Al art is a reflection of community, either directly or indirectly. The real question is how will each artist choose to interact with others in the community. How will their art become available?

This poses the question of how does an artist choose between a festival, a traditional gallery, and self promoto online, or all three? Art is for the masses. Art can be in corporate offices. That is fine. People can pay a lot of money for art, that is fine as well. However, while it is most likely  goal of most artists to live off of their art work, how does one survive. Selling art of thousands of dollars is great, but it eliminates much of the market from experiencing our work. If you charge peanuts for your work, then it is likely we will feel we are being short-changed for what we are doing, and possibly underappreciated.

I think it takes a very delicate balance to be an artist of the people for the people and still maintain that "higher" academic level of work. Meaning, you try to avoid being labeled just another person who paints to feel good. Yes, their is some serious academic reasoning and research behind art. It is not just painting another pretty flower or landscape, or even screaming at the top of your lungs and saying "Lok at me! My art has meaning! I am a neo-abstract expressionist!" (or whatever other labels are out there)

Here is the bottom line, and I think it is one that we (artists) need to take seriously; art is a language that we need to be able to speak and translate. The educated art community understands the subtleties of imagery, process, context, movements, etc. However, let me illustrate my point by recounting an experience I had with my wife going to SFMOMA. We walked into a room of color field and abstract expressionist paintings and my wife was completely at a loss. Sure, there were a lot of people there besides us, taking in the work. However, how does one understand contemporary thinking and contemporary work? I explained the history, context, etc. to my wife and she understood then more about it. However, this is just like contemporary artists with the modern viewer - we need to translate our work so more people can understand us. Also, for those who paint strictly for visuals and in academic styles, that is fine, but I think it is our responsibility to be able to hold a contemporary conversation about our work and argue for its contemporary relevance.

All art is important and has meaning. It is up to the artist to find their place. My place, I feel, is in the community. For me, all styles are valid, but their needs to be a level of proficiency and excellence and there needs to be an ability to articulate their work to the community. It is up to us to choose how to make our art available to which communities. Art is everywhere and it is up to artists to start taking their place in society and sharing and interacting more with the people. I have heard that "Artists are the conscience of society." I think this is true. However, if the artists do not bring their art to the people and make it have relevance and meaning, then how can we ever hope to be any kind of conscience?

One exception I have to note is my mother. She has raised generations of artists in our family. She has chosen make her immediate community her family. Then, in turn, we have helped to extend that message and art to a larger community by acting as a family co-operative. Art can function in all kinds of ways, and this type of art, that moves from generation to generation and laterally across family members is one of the most valuable kinds because each year we lose more and more art within the schools. So more and more training is going to come from practicing artists and not art teachers. Or, in our case, it comes from within our own family. Just choose a community and share your art, whether it is your own family or your own city.

Jesse Brown

Be sure to come to our openingif you can.

Creating New Art

Copyrights for this art work belong to Jesse Brown 2012

I find that you always learn something new when you push yourself to do more than you think you can do. Brown Art Works - www.brownartworks.com - is going well. We have formed together and we are all pushing to show on August 4 and for the opening on August 10. I posted earlier this summer about the show that is coming up on Saturday. Please come by Pillar Point Harbor and check us out! The other thing that is going on is we are hanging a show on August 5, the day after the festival! Talk about putting the pressure on! The opening for this show is August 10. It is at James and the Giant Cupcake, 6326, Sn Pablo Ave., Oakland, CA, from 7pm to 10pm. This is a wonderful place that works to be part of the community and makes wonderful desserts. It really fits with my point of view and philosophy of trying to get art to the people. I like exposing art to everyday people and this is one of the places we really ae enjoying preparing to show at.

The piece above is a small 4 inch x 6 inch painting that I created recently. This is one of my reactionary pieces where I am reacting to what unfolds on the papers as much as what is on my mind. I like these journal pieces where they are small and personal. What I have come to learn is that is as much about the artist as the art is. If you can understand where the artist is coming from and what their type of thinking is, then you have more insight as to how they may approach bigger and more intricate pieces. Interestingly enough, the inspiration of the bird came from a trip to Redding, CA (I believe) and we saw this small group of geese on the river, near the sundial bridge there.It was a cold and peaceful day. Of course, the rest of the imagery comes from my myriad of experiences and thought processes that I tend towards when I do these small, subconscious works. Of course, also, I combine painting and drawing, as usual. I always enjoy seeing what effects I can create with the combination of watercolor and drawing techniques.

Please see below for the details of upcoming opening!