In my first year at SFAI way back when, I had a creative writing class with a great teacher whose name I’ll insert once I find it. He would read short stories, have the class discuss them and would impart wisdom, passion and humor and remains one of my most memorable teachers.
…what can you do, the awkwardness of forgetting a name but remembering a voice…
One of these stories was Shirley Jackson's: The Lottery and one of the points was how the author actually tells you the story’s ending in the second paragraph but you don’t actually realize it until the ending… And perhaps the fact that you can only read it once with the innocence of not knowing that end…
I was thinking about that Thursday while once again bringing three works to the city’s museum for this years art biennial. (See You can try but you just can't win, a post from two years ago about it.)
Presenting ones artwork to any kind of juried show seems to pretty much be a lottery. You can be accepted for as many reasons as you can be refused but assuming your art has a minimum of “at the moment necessary socially accepted qualities”, most of those reasons have little to do with your work and a lot to do with the inner dynamics of the group of hopefully art knowledgeable folks chosen to exercise their mixture of talents.
Encountering art is not unlike reading a short story, it doesn’t take too much time to get through it but much of your response depends on your momentary disposition which in turn depends on many factors, most of which have little to do with the story.
Already like the writer? Not? Never read but heard good things, bad things? Never heard of her / him? Ate too much pizza at lunch? Had a fight with your loved one last night? etc, etc… And in the case of the art jury: intimidated by such and such member of the jury? Annoyed with them? Feeling seductive? The Moon’s aligned with Mars?
Yet there again, how many times have you not been that impressed with a book, movie, play or other artwork. But have it come up at a later date discussion – or something – and suddenly you realize that you may have completely missed what it held. So you have to see, hear or read it again!
Some times your senses are closed and you need help to open them.
So, there will never be a way to satisfy everyone in the juried art show environment, and you can still get stoned…