Tag: documentaries

Artsy on Film: Twenty Feet from Stardom & Thoughts on Artistic Success

At least one weekend night at home usually ends up as a movie night for Mr. F and I. While we love comedies and well told drama, we like to mix in interesting documentaries occasionally. After hearing about it on NPR, we sat down to watch Twenty Feet From Stardom a few weeks ago, a film chronicling the stories of the backup singers who literally stand behind some of the biggest names in popular music. After watching, not only did I have He’s a Rebel stuck in my head for days, it also prompted a good many thoughts on how we define artistic success.

The film follows several back-up singers and their stories, the most interesting aspect to me being how they each defined being successful. I think most of us might assume that the “star” is the pinnacle of success and what all are striving for. But I found it interesting that in the case of one singer, Lisa Fischer, fame, fortune and all the trappings were within reach, yet her idea of success was more in dedication to her art than in becoming a household name.

Recently, while working on art direction with an artist ( I do that ya know, among other services for artists! ), I asked her to define what success as an artist meant for her. Before we could go further, I needed to know what her goals were for her artistic career– selling work through galleries? Being her own boss artistically and selling directly from her studio? Having work accepted into juried exhibitions? Having work shown and sold to museums? Simply making work that makes her happy regardless of whether anyone else cares about it or buys it? All legitimate measurements of success.

Some artists may have a firm idea of what success is for them from the very start. For others of us, our ideas of success may grow and evolve over time. As in the Lisa Fischer’s career, sometimes a taste of what could have been changes our ideal of what we want to be.

How do you define artistic success? Has your idea of success changed over the years?

Image above via the Twenty Feet From Stardom website.

May 27, 2014
Artsy on Film: Beauty is Embarrassing

Mr. Forager’s tastes are a bit unpredictable. I never know which artist’s work he’s going to connect with and I’m often surprised by the ones he choses as favorites. But when we were looking for something to watch after an afternoon of imbibing at a local home-brew festival, I knew we couldn’t go wrong with Wayne White. Neil Berkeley’s Beauty is Embarrassing takes a look at the highs and lows in the career of this Southern boy turned media and art world darling.

There are a lot of ways in which Mr. F & I identify with White and his journey. Growing up in rural Tennessee, White knew the struggle of loving home yet finding it suffocating. Knowing that to stay might mean to give up on who you truly are, to forfeit a dream. Leaving Tennessee was a turning point for White, just as leaving Florida was for both Mr. F and myself. Sometimes, it is only upon leaving the familiar to realize our dreams and our authentic selves.

We’ve both at times found ourselves not quite buying into the expectations that were set before us. That in order to belong, we had to conform to the commonality around us. Traveling has opened our eyes to different ways of thinking, different ways of living and being. We’ve learned that there is no right or wrong way, there is only the way that is right for you.

For White, art-making does not mean being a serious artiste. His self-proclaimed goal is to “bring humor into fine art. Not art world funny but real world funny.” Mr. F has a wicked sense of humor and we are both huge believers in the insight and ease humor brings to complicated subjects and feelings. Just because White’s work makes us laugh, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have something important to say.

As an artist, White also allows himself and his work to evolve, yet retain his own genuine artistic voice. Whether he is illustrating a cartoon, designing sets or gigantic Lyndon Johnson heads, what comes out is authentically White– irreverent, playful, but filled with dark truths. It seems that for White, the finding happens along the way, different paths of creativity lead over, around and into one another. His artistic journey mimics the connectedness of the way our own pathways evolve and intersect. But he does it while playing the banjo. Match point to Mr. White.

If you’re looking for a few hours of inspiration and truth veiled in lots of Southern humor and explicit language ( the “F” word is White’s fave, he & Mr. F have that in common.. ), check out Beauty is Embarrassing. Wayne White wants you to persevere in whatever your creative path and after you watch, you’ll believe you can.

See more of Wayne White‘s artwork on his website and check out interviews, film stills, etc. on the Beauty is Embarrassing site. And guess who I’m now following on Instagram..

Top photo found here. All others via the film’s website.

April 29, 2014
Artsy on Film: Cutie and The Boxer

Mr. F & I have recently established a democratic movie-night selection system. It goes something like this, His, Hers, Ours. We love a well done documentary and after the last two disturbing political picks by Mr. F ( Dirty Wars & The Act of Killing ), it was time for a joint movie night selection. Documentary for Mr. F + art-related story for me, we settled on Cutie and the Boxer. Win win. The Sundance Film Festival winner follows the story of the 40 year marriage between famed “boxing” painter Ushio Shinohara and his artist wife Noriko.

image found here

Ushio Shinohara came to notoriety as an artist in Tokyo in the 60s, eventually leaving Japan for New York, where he was a relatively unknown working artist and met Noriko, then an art student around twenty years his junior. Not long after meeting and falling in love, Noriko became pregnant with their son, Alex. She would spend the next forty years raising Alex and taking care of Ushio, a temperamental alcoholic ( who is now sober ).

images found here and here

There are obvious parallels between the relationship of Ushio & Noriko and that of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner— the boisterous, alcoholic artist husband overshadowing his artist wife and caretaker. But in Ushio & Noriko’s story, the long-suffering wife regains her artistic identity not with the death of her husband, but by taking it back for herself.

images found here and here

I do wonder if, had Pollock lived and gotten the treatment he needed, whether that couple’s story would have had a similar ending– the tortured artist finding health and peace while his wife finally comes out from behind her husband’s shadow to find her own voice. Krasner, of course, would eventually gain her own well deserved notoriety but only many years following Pollock’s death.

We love documentaries for all the questions they bring forth, leading to great conversations between Mr. F & I, usually over coffee the next morning. Cutie and The Boxer led to questions like Is there truth to the stereotype of the tortured artist? Why do so many female artists end up putting their own work on hold while caring for husband and family? Was that a generational thing or is it still happening today? Is all art cathartic for the artist in some way? What say you, Artsies? Would love to hear your thoughts on these questions and the film, if you’ve seen it!

All image sources linked above.

February 4, 2014