Follow us on twitter!
Amidst jars of flowers, video installations, and coloring books, families, friends, professors, and fellow graduates crowded the maze-like gallery of the Spring Arts Tower in Los Angeles. The show, "Why Theory," was the CalArts MFA Graduate Exhibition 2009, and ran for a week in June to recognize and celebrate the MFA graduates' culminating work. Now, the party is over and reality is setting in. Back at CalArts, James works in his campus studio, now empty since school has let out. Perhaps it was the influence of his sobering, colored-in thinkers, but James is, as he puts it, "broke and scared." Across campus, MFA graduates Lisa Miller and Chanel Eddines were similarly contemplative. "I feel sort of in shock," Miller said, speaking for both, "I just can't believe it's over."
James, Eddines, and Miller are just a few of the latest CalArts MFA graduates who are transitioning from the academic realm of art to the professional Los Angeles art scene. It took years, effort, and above all, talent to graduate with a Masters of Fine Arts from CalArts, one of the most highly regarded educational institutions in the art world. Yet, it is a world still affected by the economic turn.
"ANYONE who's either recently, or soon to graduate from an art school, will find an entirely different art world from what existed when they began their education four or seven years ago," said Robert Gunderman, co-owner of ACME gallery. Los Angeles has been suffering with the cuts in staff and budgets at museums like MOCA and the Getty. Numerous galleries, such as Mesler&Hug and Acuna-Hansen, have recently closed. It's no wonder James is a little anxious. The venues for exhibiting his art are dwindling. With the survival of galleries on the line, James sees a disheartening trend in this recession.
"The galleries seem to be taking less risks," said James." They are more inclined to go with what is going to sell than with emerging artists like us."
Desperate times call for cautious measures. Tom Jancar, owner of Jancar Gallery, was honest about the prospects for young artists, "They have much less chance than ever before."
However, if these theorizing CalArts graduates have learned anything, it is to think creatively and produce practically. "One of the things with the economy is that we have to create our own jobs," said Miller. "We'll pick up odds-and-ends jobs. Like I have a scanner, who needs to scan?" For James, it means going back to commercial photography, an industry in which he has prior professional experience.
Teaching is an option as well. "With a master's degree, everyone thinks you want to teach," explained Eddines as she applied glitter to her latest oil painting. And rightly so, Eddines continued. "The information and knowledge we have would be great to apply to junior high and high school students. Think of it — CalArts MFAs exposing them to their graduate studies." They have conspired feasible means of financial support for the time being, perhaps even using that to raise another generation of artists. Above all, these recent graduates will continue to make their art despite what the economy dictates. "There will always be a market for young artists," said Jancar, a sentiment recently evidenced by Miller. Recently, she sold work to an individual collector whom she met at the opening of "Why Theory."
Yet as James observed with galleries, there is risk with the new — not just for galleries, but for these emerging artists. "It's really exciting because there aren't as many preconceptions," James said, "but it's also terrifying as to how am I going to pay August rent?"
Time in their CalArts studios is up for Miller, Eddines, and James now. After that, the canvas of their future is blank, unknown — where they go, what they create. Perhaps, it is time to start coloring outside of the lines. ■