Atmosphere

Visiting the SOFA art show in Chicago taught me something really important about art, and that is that the general atmosphere of a venue is overwhelming. I'm not so sure about the rest of the world, but since I am working on a small scale and not showing in any galleries, the only atmosphere I ever think of is the one that my piece creates, the atmosphere that I hope passerbyers (and internet voyeurs) will pick up on. I like to set moods, as I'm sure most artists do.

The mood here is, there's a lot of people, and a god awful lot of lethargic highschool students.

The thing about SOFA is . . . well, the overwhelming atmosphere that slapped you in the face was 'commercial' and 'aesthetics'. That is to say that all the craft I saw was visually appealing and it had a big price tag, but it never once evoked any sort of feeling from me. There were also no written blurbs that were posted with the art - as there are in museums in some galleries.

When I brought this up one of my teacher's insisted that if there had been conceptual work at SOFA and if it were strong enough that it would have shone through the fog of commercialism and established itself, but I don't agree with it. How about you?

I'd sell my right foot for a Libensky though. Owning one of these is definitely a goal in my life.

At this point in time I don't imagine an event like SOFA will ever be a goal in my future. Sure, making a huge profit based off of your years of experience (well earned of course), and the value that goes with your name is wonderful, it's probably the well deserved reward for years of living as a 21st century starving artist, but I don't think it's for me. Perhaps it's not the same everywhere, but at SOFA I believe the air of large price tags actually cheapened the work; please remember though that I'm just a poor (probably jealous) art student, and not a wealthy art collector, nor even your ideal audience. But I digress, the point I was trying to make is that if my work is extremely conceptual, I don't want the sight of an unnecessarily large price tag to make people think my work might juts be a cop out.

I may have been a bit harsh on this $20,000.00 chunk of glass. Honestly, it took a LOT of coldworking and the gallery gets a good cut. (but still, 20k?)

Finally, I don't know what my ideal price point is, but it isn't half a million dollars, or even twenty thousand dollars - and you know what? Maybe that's something to think about.

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