Brainard Carey

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

-Alice Walker

You are powerful. Whether you woke up feeling like you could take on the world or as though it was bearing down on you, within you lies untapped strength. Too often we give away our power, decline to embrace it, shrink from the implication that we ourselves may hold the key to conquering our own obstacles. For some, perhaps, this is an unconscious abdication taught from our earliest age, the subtle insinuation that we should move quietly through the world, allowing others to speak up but never doing so ourselves. Claiming our power can be a daunting step, a shaking off of a lifetime of being told we can’t, we aren’t.

Fran Shalom spoke to us from Jersey City, just across the Hudson from the Lower West Side of Manhattan, where she has lived for seven years. She describes the area as a growing community where she holds a studio inside a converted industrial space. Lower rents than can be found in Manhattan and Brooklyn draw people to Jersey City. Of course, the last year of pandemic and political strife has been strange on a personal level as well as within the community. For Shalom herself, the year has brought the non-COVID illness of both of her parents as well as the sudden, unexpected death of her brother. Despite this, she has had the refuge of her studio. To hear more from Shalom about her abstract, whimsical work, her experience of this extraordinary time and more, listen to the complete interview.

Charlotte Becket spoke to us in February from Brooklyn where she is in the process of relocating as well as working remotely as the pandemic drags on. Although she says New York persists in some sense, all activity takes place in an abbreviated format. Before the pandemic, Becket completed a residency at the Center for Book Arts where she worked as an artist using the materials of bookmakers. In the past, she has made many pieces using paper so this residency offered the opportunity to learn more about the materials. Throughout the pandemic, she has been working on abstract forms using paper to build up what looks like wood with parts that appear to be bursting out. These works speak to the ideas of movement and mechanization but are static works. To hear more about this and other aspects of Charlotte Becket’s work, listen to the complete interview.

A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket:

Believe and stand up.

Interviews are available on iTunes as podcasts, and for Android please click here. All weekly essay pieces in a shareable format are here. The full archive of interviews here.

Books to Read

What are you reading? Add your titles to our reading list here. A Shoe Story: Van Gogh, the Philosophers and the West by Lesley Chamberlain. Charlotte Becket has been listening to a series of interviews called Soft White Underbelly.

Deadlines:

The fifth SMACH Biennale invites artists to consider the term fragile. What do frailty and fragility mean in our world? This opportunity not only intends to deepen people’s interest in art, it also aims to heighten awareness of the Dolomites region in Italy where selected work will be displayed at 10 sites. Each of the 10 selected artists will also receive a cash prize. For more information, visit the website. Deadline for submissions is March 28.

Brainard Carey is an author, artist and educator. He is the director of Praxis Center for Aesthetics. He has written six books for artists; Making it in the Art World, New Markets for Artists, The Art World Demystified, Fund Your Dreams Like a Creative Genius, Sell Online Like a Creative Genius, and Succeed with Social Media Like a Creative Genius.

A career in art comes with some measure of expense. There are materials to purchase, studio space to consider, and of course just the general expenses of living day-to-day. Sometimes an opportunity worth having might come with a small fee for entry, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. What’s more, there are plenty of opportunities that not only waive any submission or application fee but also offer funding for artists selected to join. You spend enough on your art career, check out the opportunities below that are zero expense – and may even earn you a little green.

Dezentral announces an open call for AIR in Austria. Selected artists will receive a stipend plus accommodation and materials as needed. This call is open to both Austrian and international artists and residency will last for one month. The resulting show will have a festival atmosphere followed by a two-week exhibition in temporary spaces in Hallstatt, Austria. For more information, visit the website. Application deadline is March 17.

The fifth SMACH Biennale invites artists to consider the term fragile. What do frailty and fragility mean in our world? This opportunity not only intends to deepen people’s interest in art, it also aims to heighten awareness of the Dolomites region in Italy where selected work will be displayed at 10 sites. Each of the 10 selected artists will also receive a cash prize. For more information, visit the website. Deadline for submissions is March 28.

Video Sound Archive explains in their own words: “Rather than a festival or exhibition,  we are carving out a space, a working archive, dedicated to video and sound works that reconsiders the current restructures and parameters.” Work will remain on the archive indefinitely and each artist will be highlighted with a link to their artist website. For more information, visit the website. Deadline for the season 1 open call is March 31.

Praxis Center is in the business of artists. We know what it takes to navigate a career in art and we’re here to make sure you know, too. Our team of experts guides you every step of the way and our wonderful community of artists supports each other through trials and triumphs. When you join Praxis, you are opening the door to so much more than just the tools and skills you need to help your art career excel, you are inviting in a world of opportunity and camaraderie.

Brainard Carey is an author, artist and educator. He is the director of Praxis for Aesthetics. He has written six books for artists; Making it in the Art World, New Markets for Artists, The Art World Demystified, Fund Your Dreams Like a Creative Genius, Sell Online Like a Creative Genius, and Succeed with Social Media Like a Creative Genius.

Photo credit: SMACH

“Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.”

-Langston Hughes

Holding onto hope is perhaps one of the most important and fundamental parts of living a good life. Finding your way to optimism when things are their darkest helps ensure the strength to carry on no matter what comes next. Hope helps us navigate troubled waters, it buoys us above despair and keeps us moving forward. It takes great strength to maintain this but in building our resilience and believe that there is a light ahead, we can move through the tunnels of life emerging perhaps not unscathed but changed in ways that build new skills to get us through the next time.

Kristin Marting spoke to us from New York where she is the founding artistic director of HERE. As a people-oriented person and theater maker, the pandemic has been a very strange time for her but it has also been a time of great learning and change. Among the lessons she has learned from this time is the ways in which the structure of her organization must change in order to achieve greater equity. While HERE had already been moving in this direction, the events of 2020 have pulled this need into sharp focus and made it even more of an imperative. Marting also says she has learned a great deal about work-life balance and will take with her the wisdom to slow down and not overwork herself as a habit. This year Marting decided to send homemade valentines to her friends, a gesture that received tremendous feedback. To hear more about how her life has changed during the pandemic and more, listen to the complete interview.

Judith Page spoke to us from Brooklyn shortly after Valentine’s Day. Throughout the pandemic, she has been spending her time at home focusing her time on photography, something she can do in her apartment. For over a decade Page has incorporated photography into her work, combining it with other media. She uses her home as a studio and for the last year has been working on a southern gothic style series called Shadowlands. The series examines the new place Page finds herself in – namely her experience of suddenly spending the majority of her time alone in her apartment. To hear more about this series, one of her strongest artistic influences and more, listen to the complete interview.

A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket:

Let hope lift you through.

Interviews are available on iTunes as podcasts, and for Android please click here. All weekly essay pieces in a shareable format are here. The full archive of interviews here.

Books to Read

What are you reading? Add your titles to our reading list here. Kristin Marting is reading Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. Judith Page is reading The Irascibles: Painters Against the Museum. 

Deadlines:

BBA Gallery in Berlin, Germany announces an open call for their 2021 Artist Prize. This competition is open to international artists working in all media who are at least 18 years of age. There are three cash prizes for first, second and third place artists as well as the opportunity for broad publicity. For more information, visit the website. Deadline for submissions is March 15.

Brainard Carey is an author, artist and educator. He is the director of Praxis Center for Aesthetics. He has written six books for artists; Making it in the Art World, New Markets for Artists, The Art World Demystified, Fund Your Dreams Like a Creative Genius, Sell Online Like a Creative Genius, and Succeed with Social Media Like a Creative Genius.