This term, I decided to sit in on the Art 1 class at san jose state. It's a class about art and careers, and in today's lecture, the professor, Mark D'Estout gave an overview of his work, and his career path. My notes are in the extended entry below, and not all things will make sense to people, in fact, it probably won't.
Art 1 - March 7, 2005: How I came to a career in Art.
What happened to the Sphinx's nose? legend napoleon shot the nose off the sphinx's nose in egypt. around 1800. 50 years before that there were pictures of the nose already missing. maybe the muslims broke it off. nobody knows the answer to the story.
i was clueless
high school: drew pictures and didn't pay attention in class
music, art and cars were the big deal
applied for a scholarship school at academy of art in sf
2 semesters at art school, went to community college (chabot)
cal state hayward
took every art class i could
wanted to be abstract painter
tried everything out. helped him out in the long run.
experiment all you can. easy to experiment when you're young.
i didn't want to keep working at the mexican restaurant. low guy on the totem pole.
visiting artist at cal state hayward.
bruce m(?)elman nalman? naltman? assisted him. built a piece.
taken that as a sign to apprentice myself. learn a lot rather quickly. came out of that experience. the building went so well. reported to the gallery. opening at the gallery for an assistant to install exhibit. job title was preparer. part time job. working with a diverse variety.
clayton bailey. little catalog produce. drafted to do this catalog. little stepping stone. not graduated yet, and a couple lines on a resume. gallery job ended when he graduated.
olivera art center. looking for someone to teach drawing and painting class. adult ed art class. pay was lousy. hired him. they were looking for someone to hang exhibits.
first drawing class was scary. 12 people. older. half were parents' age. not paying very well. 3/4 cyclinders. more lines on the resume. city run non-profit organization. city of fremont. the curator quit. let him curate rather than search for a replacement.
director for the gallery. got into political hotwater with city officials. forced out. if you don't align yourself correctly, you can get in trouble. he became directorof the olivera art center. dedicated. worked very hard. might put you on the line for something that might come next. moved to the south bay. mont pablo center of the arts - saratoga. teach drawing/figure drawing.
after a few years, he realized he was putting together exhibits for masters and mfas, and he felt out of his league. decided to go back to school, get a masters in sjsu. in the 70s, soldering/leaded glass windows. selling windows in saratoga/los gatos.
3 years to get an mfa. 3 most exciting years of his life. as part of a masters/mfs/ they have you teach a class. more on the resume. taught at a college level. more doors open up. junior college/community college level. he needed more money. looking at artweek. job openining for director of triton museum in santa clara. stayed there for 8 years. fair chunk was administration. non profit. lots of fund raising. el camino and lincoln. extremely small. build the museum up into something else. it grew. on the job training. exhibition flyers and small catalogs. did some writing, press releases, etc. more elaborate poster and catalog design.
he picked up a job at chabot and mission. overdid it. monterey museum of art. art director and curator. he was recruited. more art and design stuff. he still kept his hand in teaching. after 8 years in the monterey museum. new executive director. first major crisis took place. did not see eye to eye. absolute nightmare. worked for 3 months. this guy was out to get me, so he quit and found a new job at uc sd extension. there were a couple that he really wanted, he got the interview, didn't get the job. he did not want to leave the bay area. if you leave the bay area, many more possibilities.
10 years. ten years goal. full time for 30 years. i was trying to maintain my personal art career by making artwork. drank a lot of coffee. doing a lot of little gigs, including this morning he was hired to teach sculpture at santa clara university.
his slide show of art.
Yuma Arizona exhibit
San Diego, 1950
no wonder if feel comfortable with mid century design.
bali hai - tiki restaurant shelter island. his father was a pilot. served in world war ii. aesthetic of south sea island brought back to the states. dad had phot albums. french immigrant. sweeping aircraft hangars. aircraft industry was just begining. he saw lindbergh take off. teardrop shapped prop planes. people would dress up to go on airplanes.
dirt racetrack. midget racers.he built models for the smithsonian institute.
other influence was mother's father. first sculpture. it's a cow. father had old magazines in the garage. regalo wing.
13 - i think i'll be an artist. ability to draw things. abstract painter. he was the worst. couldn't paint to save his soul. absence of praise by his instructors. ripping off sam richardson. Art support system. need money, but can't get to it. sculpture. Public service announcement for hang gliding. in the hills. 6 guys out there. regalo wing, and turning them into these gliders. to reconnect with his deceased father. expert in palo alto and made a aluminum kite. made his own. south of big sur. what would it be like to fly through a cloud. spiritual experimence, can't see anything. land in the field with horses, scared the horses.
canvas and bamboo. that glider. abstraction of gliders that he was lfying around with his friends.
drawings about flight.
curvy air. lift. metaphor for the flight. sculptural pieces of the flying. wood and fabric. hover off the wall. the brackets were hidden.
part of an exhibit at the palo alto art show. first solo show. one more year. get the mfa. flight was too much of a crutch. try another style of piece. 4 white walls please about the stress and about putting yourself out there for the critics to tear your pieces apart. richmond art center. a gallery within a gallery. blinded you. a sign and a door. go inside and shut the door. 4 white walls, hardwood fllors. electronic device. 20 second cycle. lights started to dim.
"a place where art is displayed, a place where the artist is splayed. when you opened the door, the lights would come on.
conceptual one-liner pieces.
now he has the mfa degree.
triton museum of art. curating exhibits. designing exhibits. built the wall system. make his art and curating, spread thin. crime and punishment - funded by fmc - who make tanks.
independent artists. fujiwara 48 hour performance. used to do dance posters. hired by bill graham for doing some posters. studio used to be where guadalupe and julian street. 90 dollars a month. lived on the top floor. 7 year lease. print shop on the bottom floor.
made art between 11 and 3 in the morning. food grows at night. whole series of pieces. nocturnal activity. night time alienation. drawing in sketchbooks. pick them up and start drawing in them. started thinking about how much he was spending on the installations. started drawing his furniture with signs. thinking about objects and design. more commercial quality to it. uncontrollably swerving towards balance. rejected -- too frenetic.
italian designer. 1980 - 1983. memphis movement in furniture. turned the concepts upside down. peter shire in california got involved. he put together an exhibit at triton museum for it. he made a coffee table in that style. the feet are bocce balls.
california furnishing exhibit. line up work you want to borrow. lots of planning. the exhibit was december 12 1987 through feb 28 1988.
can you design a dining table for me? he did it. he jumped at it. he didn't know everything. make another one to put it in a show in san francisco. cocktail version. carvell table. snowballing. husband was dirk. steel and wood. minimum amount of elements. painted with a catalyst paint. on display at san francisco. architect saw his work, commissioned some more works.
spirals kept coming up. hugo sconces. aluminum. named after hugo ball.
made a bunch out of copper.
more chairs with least amount of elements.
started moving back toward airplanes. geebees. jimmy doolittle. gee bee chair. graphics products by design. in the book. phillipe stark also in the book. he has 3. professor has 4, and the cover. he gets something in print suddenly more valued.
remillard's. bar. domed ceiling recessed ceiling. x and y pattern on the floor and ceiling.
end slide tray 1
slide tray 2
shelves for the same restaurant. tall stools.
more lighting. shields. pattina'd ridged. too expensive to make, robin williams bought a set for his house.
had trouble with the one legged table.
walked around in france and resolved the shape of the leg. based on josephine baker leg. fan shape. table bolted to the wall. made two and sold them.
spiky barriers in france. witch barriers. leftover from medieval times.
not having a conventional balance. a lamp that leaned against the wall. called fang. 6 feet tall. switch in the middle. cocktail tables. make simply and sell easier.
monitor table. take the name from civil war monitor and merrimac. gary hutton sold a lot of these.
rescue tables, made out of wood. one inch thick lucite. end table. lim gallery. 20 calif. gallery create a piece for their 15th anniversary.
lamenetti. got to keep the piece. lamenetti paid for all the materials. sold to a collector in boston, silver leaf on the end.
learned how to forge metal. making bits and pieces. big spiky things. shelf attaches to the walls. sold to someone in pebble beach. themes keep reappearing in his work. sandblasted witch barrier deign into the glass.
made monitor tables for about 10 year.s helped him build up a selection of tools. a piece called temple. he still wanted to make a chair. made a little maquette of a chair. minimal. looks uncomfortable, but it's as comfortable as any metal folding chair . genie and tiki. the radius is the same on both, but look different. congo. 3 legged chair. if he eliminates too much it's a stool not a chair. leftover leopard skin fabric from 1950 studebaker coupe.
he spends a lot of time fetting over the precision of the design. should it be half an inch higher or lower.
compound curves in his metal. ron cobell. get a compound curve into his work. the problem with sculpture is you need a lot of tools. he wants to be a digital photographer in his next lifetime. don't need so much stuff.
this piece on tour on 4 museum on the east coast.
bleeder. 1964 t-bird. open it up, lots of rust. the rust inspired him to make a sculpture thinking about the rust spots.
a piece called spine. started out as a shelf.
end slide tray 2
Leave a comment