Call for Artists - is it worth your time?
Call for Artists
City of South San Francisco
I was interested in applying to this project having completed the successful public art piece at the Excelsior Library. The very professional guidelines packet had all the necessary information except for the deadline. It merely stated "deadline extended". I phoned the Cultural Arts Commission Staff Liaison and asked about the new deadline. Strangely, she didn't have one but was enthusiastic about my interest. The "enthusiasm" part threw me a bit because no one ever in the art field has responded so warmly. So, I got suspicious....
I read the guidelines closer. The chosen artists have a 4 week window in which to complete the accepted design. Surely, an original piece of work would take a month to think about and produce. At least for me, a minimum of a month to do one of my "trees posing" subjects is what I would allocate. So the bad news....this is a non-paying gig. Your recognition comes in the form of your signature on the utility box no larger than 3 " X 5 ". A month of my time is worth something. For sure, I would do something for charity for free but this is a city that receives taxes from large and profitable corporations (Genentech, Cel Genesys, Exelixis, Tularik, Genemed Synthesis, FibroGen to name just the biotechnology companies I am familiar with) - couldn't they have budgeted money for public art?
I love this idea of transforming utility boxes into works of art. I don't love the fact that the organizers think artists should work for free. Being compensated for work is fair but also, it could be as simple as paying for supplies and a small stipend. There are 10 utility boxes that need painting - couldn't the organizers get $1,000 so that each artist is compensated at $100 each?
So, I thought about how to make this doable and doing stencils in the style of Banksy would work beautifully. The design and preliminary work could be done in the studio and the execution shouldn't take more than a weekend. And to the delight of everyone, Banksy's work is accessible and he does the work for free. So, someone out there, knock yourself out. It would be great to see interesting public art on these boxes. As for me, I would give it a try if I wasn't busy with painting my Iceland series, creating a couple of new trees posing paintings, and getting ready for Open Studios, which will be November 2, and 3.
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