Conversations with Calliope- Art Infrastructure

(Before Dawn)

I like making work in my studio day in and day out, but I'm not so interested in the business side
~ Jenny Saville

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. I missed you yesterday.
JOE: Couldn't be helped. I wanted to finish my column for this week on Nature and Waste and just made it to work on time.
CALLIOPE: How about when you got home?
JOE: My eyes were bleary from working on the computer all day.
CALLIOPE: Are you refreshed this morning?
JOE: I am and ready for more.
CALLIOPE: So you are part of the art infrastructure now?
JOE: Indeed I am. I never realized before what happens behind the scenes. Readings, performances and exhibitions are all that is obvious but much more takes place in the background.
CALLIOPE: Glad you have come to appreciate it. What part are you playing right now?
JOE: Working on announcements and invitations to art and music events and archiving information about past events.
CALLIOPE: I'm glad you are being productive.
JOE: So am I. It makes me appreciate how many people contribute to the arts besides individual artists.
CALLIOPE: Are you ready to get back to it for today?
JOE: I am. Talk with you later.

Conversations with Calliope- AmeriCorps at Last

There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...not going all the way, and not starting. ~Buddha

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. What's up for today?
JOE: A new beginning.
CALLIOPE: Oh?
JOE: You recall that in May I explored the possibility of involvement with AmeriCorps?
CALLIOPE: I do.
JOE: Well, it's finally time. I am going this morning to sign up and get my schedule so I can start my placement in January.
CALLIOPE: Remind me what you will be doing.
JOE: I will be working at GoArt in Batavia. It is the local arts council. I think I will be doing mainly publicity but I'm not entirely sure yet.
CALLIOPE: So you will become familiar with my fellow muses.
JOE: I will. GoArt focuses mostly on visual art, but also music sometimes and community events.
CALLIOPE: Anything special you would like to bring to it?
JOE: I am interested in working with teens interested in developing their creative writing.
CALLIOPE: Would that be something new.
JOE: It is there. We shall see what interest there is. I'll update you tomorrow.

Conversations with Calliope- Writing and Marketing

(Weather Vane)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. I missed you yesterday.
JOE: I missed you too.
CALLIOPE: Where were you?
JOE: On the road.
CALLIOPE: To where?
JOE: Marketing my new CD. I visited some stores I thought might be interested in selling it.
CALLIOPE: How did that go?
JOE: I made some new contacts and renewed old ones.
CALLIOPE: Any success.
JOE: I found a few stores. What I found interesting was the great variety in arrangements.
CALLIOPE: Such as?
JOE: One bought CD's wholesale. One took copies on consignment. Two wanted review copies first. There was also quite a variety of percentages requested, some quite reasonable and some beyond what I could afford to do.
CALLIOPE: Sounds like you are getting to know the real world.
JOE: I am. It's a fascinating place. Talk with you tomorrow.

Conversations with Calliope- Doubt

(Nina Sails)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Tired but energized.
CALLIOPE: How so?
JOE: Last night after golfing with my brothers and nephew, and dinner also including my sister-in-law we watched the movie Doubt which one of my brothers had not seen.
CALLIOPE: How did you choose that movie?
JOE: Those of us who had seen it had various opinions about whether the main character, a priest, had molested a boy.
CALLIOPE: What caused the various opinions?
JOE: It was staged with clues suggesting possible guilt. One opined that he was guilty as sin, another held that he was not guilty and still another thought there were indications but not proof of guilt.
CALLIOPE: What do you draw from the experience?
JOE: A well crafted movie or novel for that matter can elicit various reactions and conclusions.
CALLIOPE: Why does that fascinate you?
JOE: Art can be a way of bringing us together to compare our views and begin to understand each other.
CALLIOPE: I agree.
JOE: I'm glad you do. That's what I want to do with my writing.
CALLIOPE: A good aim.
JOE: I'm glad we are together on this. Talk with you tomorrow.

Conversations with Calliope- A Matter of Taste

(Spring Rock)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. I missed you yesterday.
JOE: Sorry. I was anxious to take a peek at my new website and finally saw it yesterday morning.
CALLIOPE: And?
JOE: I discovered that it wouldn't do as posted. I thought I would try a quick fix and ended up spending most of the day revising it.
CALLIOPE: How does it stand now?
JOE: I'm still working on the revisions but think I have a good plan. We shall see.
CALLIOPE: Did you spend every minute working on it?
JOE: No. I went with Carol and some friends to a Michael McDonald concert last night at the Rochester International Jazz Festival.
CALLIOPE: Did you enjoy the concert?
JOE: Not in the least. It was the first time since I was eight that I so thoroughly bored and agitated by a concert.
CALLIOPE: What was that about?
JOE: I wish I understood it. Those who went with me agreed that his style was repetitious although it didn't seem to bother them like it did me. I thought he shouted everything and that all his songs sounded the same. I didn't like his rendition of the songs I recognized.
CALLIOPE: Do you think it's just a matter of taste?
JOE: I wish I knew. I don't like leaving a concert feeling the way I did last night.

Conversations with Calliope- Ars Gratia Artis

(Fishing Nets)

JOE: Good Morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. Welcome to a new week.
JOE: Thank you. You will be happy to know that I followed through on my art commitment.
CALLIOPE: I'm all ears.
JOE: I found a brief period to work on drawing and sketched a lighthouse in my handmade paper notebook.
CALLIOPE: Were you satisfied with it?
JOE: I aimed to draw not to reach perfection. I enjoyed the process and tried not to judge the outcome.
CALLIOPE: Good move. Was that it?
JOE: I enjoyed it so much that I went back later to practice painting in the style of Linda LeKinff, an artist I have liked for some time.
CALLIOPE: Did you stay with the experience here too?
JOE: I did and for a longer stretch of time. I also worked with matching colors, not an easy task at least until I get more practice.
CALLIOPE: I'm glad you're back into it. By the way, being a Greek Muse, I'm not quite sure about the translation of your blog title.
JOE: It means "Art for Art's Sake."
CALLIOPE: I thought so. On with the show.
JOE: I agree. Talk with you tomorrow.

Conversations with Calliope- Dancing with My Grandmother

(My Grandmother)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: I woke up with a smile on my face.
CALLIOPE: Where did it come from?
JOE: I dreamed about my grandmother last night.
CALLIOPE: Tell me about it.
JOE: She died in 1966 and I was not able to go to her funeral. I lived at her house for the first three years of my life. In my dream, she was at a party in my current life. I danced with her creating joy in both of us.
CALLIOPE: A nice memory.
JOE: Also a fantasy. I don't remember ever dancing with her when she was alive.
CALLIOPE: Fantasies are the foundation of art in my opinion.
JOE: I share that opinion with you. Much of art is based on dark fantasies and memories as a way of resolving leftover conflicts.
CALLIOPE: I can't argue with you there.
JOE: I think pleasant fantasies and memories provide optimism to carry us through difficult times.
CALLIOPE: No argument there either.
JOE: I guess I'll take my fantasies and get on with the day. Talk with you tomorrow.

Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good morning, Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning, Joe. Did you get any writing done yesterday.
JOE: Of course. But I had to do it early. After our conversation, I got down to work and wrote a chapter about my wife in her kayak and thoughts she had about the marriage.
CALLIOPE: And that was all you had time for?
JOE: Not exactly. I took my son to Wyoming, a gaslight village about twenty miles from here. It was an artist colony at one time and is making a minor resurgence in that direction. Anyway, Pete had arranged to deliver some of his prints on consignment to the W.G. Handyside Gallery of Fine Arts.
CALLIOPE: So where did your writing come in?
JOE: While he was negotiating, I looked around the shop and found that she sold books as well, but mostly about art. I asked her whether she sold other books and she was open to the idea. Flash. I just looked outside and found the most beautiful sunrise I can remember seeing. Wow!
CALLIOPE: Glad you enjoyed it. Sunrises are in a different department from mine but I enjoy them too. You were telling me about the gallery.
JOE: Anyway, I got to talking to the owner, Dianne Burnham, about my books and she took several copies of both of them on consignment.
CALLIOPE: Congratulations. Did you talk with her about your art as well?
JOE: Yes, somewhat hesitantly. I am less sure of my painting and drawing than of my writing and have trouble evaluating it.
CALLIOPE: Most artists do.
JOE: I remembered the old sayings, "Chacun a son gue" and "De gustibus non est disputandum" and talked with her about the relativity of impression of art on different people.
CALLIOPE: So are you going to show her some of your work?
JOE: Yes, I am. I might also put together a set of photos similar to the one I am preparing for the Christmas show at the Arts Council.
CALLIOPE: My, you are getting bold. Good luck with it. Well, back to the writing.
JOE: Yes, Ma'am.

(Main Street in winter)

Poi Pounder

On one of my trips to Hawaii I learned that poi is created from mashed taro root with a tool appropriately enough called a poi pounder. I met a man who made a good side income fashioning poi pounders from monkey pod wood. I was so fascinated that I bought one from him and have admired it on a shelf for years. I must say it has never pounded poi. Sometimes the functional can become our art and delight us more than any amount of intended use.

The Art and Science of Life

To look at the newspaper, one would think that living is a scientific endeavor with all there is to be said about medications, medical discoveries, nutrition, etc. In the leisure or living section, we find references to the arts but they are not presented as being essential to our survival, as if they are an afterthought. Lifing life scientifically can be practical but drudgery while living it artfully brings us joy and also an understanding of life's difficulties. As usual, a productive life lies in the balance.

(Carol and Joe at the Mardi Gras Museum- Algiers, Lousiana)

Rodin and Writing

At our writers' meeting on Tuesday, Bill talked about the process of creating written art as a gradual one. The author starts with writing a general group of ideas and then gradually refining them until they finally emerge as a work of art. I thought of Rodin's Gates of Hell and all the refining it must have taken to produce this masterpiece. I remember watching my son starting to weld steel welding rods together bringing to life a mother polar bear and her cub which gladden my heart every time I see them

on my wall. I am grateful for Bill's observation and for the inspiration for my writing which accompanies contemplating sculpture.

(Auguste Rodin- Gates of Hell; Peter Langen- Polar Bears)

Capricious Creativity

Two summers ago I was drawing and painting almost every day. Last summer I was not in the mood but missed art. I have tried to get back into it on a number of occasions. It didn't work. I have felt a connection between my art and writing. When I can draw or paint, writing seems to come more easily. I tried to force myself to draw, and of course that didn't work either. A few days ago, the urge to draw suddenly returned and I am getting back in the habit, making me feel better and also contributing to my writing ease. Like many other things in life, this remains a mystery to me. I guess it is just up to me to accept the vagaries of my mind and its inclinations.