Fresh VUE: dOCUMENTA(13)

A glimpse of the overwhelming display that was dOCUMENTA(13), in Kassel, Germany, this September. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, artistic director of the international exhibition, included 500 year-old Karlsaue park as a venue for more than 50 projects. 
Cathy Byrd reviews dOCUMENTA(13) in the online art journal ...might be good. 
Upcoming on Fresh TALK: Marcos Lutyens (Hypnotic Sessions in the Reflection Room) and Christian Philipp Müller (Swiss Chard Ferry).

Images: Cathy Byrd

Fresh Talk: Helena Reckitt

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Conversations About Creativity in the 21st Century   

On Skype, Cathy Byrd speaks with London-based curator Helena Reckitt about the artists she selected to participate in Nuit Blanche, Toronto, 2012. Projects in Once More With Feeling, Helena's curatorial zone, will animate notions of repetition, remaking, renewal and revolt. The annual art event that brings a million people out onto the streets of the city from dusk to dawn takes place this Saturday, 29 September.  

Sound Editor: Leo Madriz
Photos courtesy Helena Reckitt 
Episode Sound, in order of appearance: Katie Paterson, Hadley+Maxwell, Susan Stenger   

Once More With Feeling Projects Planes, Trisha Brown Dance Company  | Earth–Moon–Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon), Katie Paterson | Smells Like Spirit, Hadley+Maxwell | Thought Balloon, Brian Cauley | Moth Maze, Oliver Husain | The Structures Of Everyday Life: Full Circle, Susan Stenger | The Day After, Tomorrow, Dave Dyment | Tremolo, Maeve Brennan, Ruth Ewan | Ensemble for Mixed Use, JD Walsh | Body Xerox, Simon Denny, Yngve Holen

Fresh Rx.9 with Kesha Bruce

Solutions for Your Creative Dilemmas
   
I'd really like to quit my full-time job so I could practice for a really important symphony audition that's coming up, but considering today's job market, I'm afraid to take the risk. What should I do?               

The bigger question within your question seems to be: “How do I transition out of my day job, so I can work full time on my art?” This is a challenge to many Creatives. 

Here are three really important factors to consider before you take the leap:
 
1. How much monthly/yearly income will you need to be able to sustain your lifestyle?
2. How long will it take you to get your career moving in the right direction so that you can sustain that comfortable lifestyle? 6 months, a year, longer?
3. Do you have enough funds saved to cover your basic living expenses while you’re making the transition?

So, let’s explore your options:
 
Option A: Quit your day job as soon as possible and throw yourself head first into becoming a full-time musician. This is what most Creatives dream of doing, but it’s not really feasible unless you’re willing to make huge lifestyle concessions and aren’t adverse to risk-taking. Likewise, you’ll need to live off your savings account (assuming you have one) until you start making regular income.

Option B: You stay at your day job, and continue working on you creative career on evenings and weekends. The biggest drawback to this option is that making progress in your creative career will take much, much longer. And unless you’re really disciplined and focused it’s easy for the other demands in your life to take-over. Also, you need to be realistic about how much you can get done in the space of a day. We all need sleep!

Option C: (My favorite option) Work your day job part- time and work on your Creative career part-time. As your Creative career develops and you begin to bring in more income on a consistent basis, completely phase out the day job. Note, you may have to leave your current day job and exchange it for another day job that allows for flexible hours. This may sound like a lateral move, but it’s actually quite clever. Think about it. You wouldn’t need to quit your day job in order to practice for that big upcoming audition if you could simply ask to be scheduled for a few less hours to accommodate your practice schedule. With this option, flexibility affords you a bit of the best of both worlds. You still have steady income while you build your creative career, but you also have the time and energy to do the work required to reach your career goals.

The final point I’d like to make is that it’s not enough to quit your day job and hope that everything works out. You need a plan. Leaving your job before you’ve taken the time to think everything through sets up a situation where even though you may have more time to focus on your craft, you end up being unproductive because you’re so stressed about making ends meet.
 
You need to be both optimistic and realistic when deciding how to transition into working on your art full-time. As with most things in life, having a solid plan is a key factor that will determine either success or failure.
 
ClickHERE to watch a great YouTube video/podcast by guitarist Tom Hess on how to move from working your day job to a full-time music career.

Send me your questions: freshartinternational@gmail.com. I'm here to help!

Kesha Bruce

Fresh Talk: Jen Ray

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Conversations About Creativity in the 21st Century  

Cathy Byrd connects by Skype with Jennifer Ray, a contemporary artist from North Carolina. Based in Berlin for the past eight of years with her husband Jason Forrest, aka DJ DonnaSummer, Jen heads back to the U.S. this fall. Jen talks about life in Berlin, her recent exhibitions and her new book, Ain't We Got Fun.

Sound Editor: Leo Madriz 
Photos courtesy the artist
Episode Sound:  Jen Ray,  Double Action, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, 2010

Fresh TALK: Joan Jonas and Jason Moran

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Listen to Jason Moran      

Conversations About Creativity in the 21st Century      

On September 14 and 15, Joan Jonas and Jason Moran perform Reanimation at dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel, Germany. Fresh Art International takes this opportunity to share a double feature Fresh TALK in their honor.  

In Austin, Texas, Cathy Byrd talks with seminal video and performance artist Joan Jonas about how context affects each presentation of The Shape, The Scent, The Feel of Things, a project commissioned by Dia Beacon in 2004. Joan considers the evolution of her transmedia process since the 1960s and the inspiration she gets from working with jazz improvisor Jason Moran, Joan's collaborator in The Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Things (2005-2006), and Reading Dante (2008).

Jason Moran, a jazz pianist/composer based in New York, speaks with Cathy by phone. The MacArthur Fellow and artistic adviser for jazz at the Kennedy Center talks about when he first started improvising, how he collaborates with contemporary artists and what unfolded during Bleed, the suite of events he created with his wife Alicia Hall Moran during their Biennial residency at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

    
Sound Editor: Leo Madriz | Known image credits noted | Music: Jason Moran, He Takes His Coat and Leaves 

Fresh Talk: Artpace San Antonio Artists in Residence

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Conversations About Creativity in the 21st Century 

This episode features participants in the most recent International Artist in Residence Program at Artpace San Antonio. Cathy Byrd speaks with Leslie Hewitt, Jacco Olivier and Mike Osborne, artists selected by curator Sarah Lewis, about their residency experience. The projects they created while in residence are now on view at Artpace in New Works: 12.2 through September 23, 2012.

Listen to Cathy's conversation with Sarah Lewis on Fresh TALK, August 27, 2012.

Sound Editor: Leo Madriz | Photo credits noted in captions | Music: Soundtrack of a video work by Juan Miguel Ramos titled Yo Vendo Unos Ojos Negros, 2012