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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Sculpture and Promotion

When do you realize that your definition of art isn't big enough?
Administration and Promotion are required.

I decided to make a video showing the inspiration and process of creating a public art sculpture.

Artist meet your Producer, Creative Director, Writer, Storyboard Artist, Chief Financial Officer, Accountant, Wardrobe and Hair, and talent. Here's your Actor. ("Oh, god, not him again!")

I'm looking in the mirror at a full board meeting of ONE. 
Panic or Excitement?

I hired an excellent videographer who took care of the actual filming and editing.
But to make his work efficient, I had to do my job.  JOBS.

Making this video took several months. Not of actual work. That took three days.
What took so long was being able to define and perform all those different tasks.

Q: Do I like seeing myself on camera? 
A:"No. Get over it. This isn't about you, it's about your work."

That was the understanding that made the video possible, and eventually, fun.
Believing in my work allowed me and the art to grow in many ways.
Isn't that what Art is really about?

"To Grandmother's House," a new public art sculpture by Patrick Gracewood. from patrick gracewood on Vimeo.

Anyone not make the original meeting?
Fact Checker, Public Relations, and Damage Control came on board later.

When I sent the completed video to my client, they suggested several changes.
In making those changes, I made a larger error, miss-peaking the number of artists and art involved.
When you put yourself out there, it's possible to make mistakes on a much larger scale.

After all the good work, I felt so stupid.
"Get over it. This isn't about you, it's about your art. Correct it and make it work."

Re-record voice, re-re-edit the work. And call it Done with a Capital D and in writing.

Then other errors were pointed out,  like misspelling of the City of Milwaukie.
That's a big one.
This episode seemed like an endless loop of errors, large and small. Blame doesn't matter. Responsibility does. I'm responsible for this whole production.
More feeling stupid, but a faster recovery to being functional again.
"Get over it. This isn't about you, it's about your art. Correct it. Make it work."

Call my client, Apologize with a Capital A
Call my videographer, tell him the necessary changes.
Follow call immediately with email to videographer with written cut and paste correction.
(He's dyslexic, I'm half way there myself..            .....or is that apoplectic?)

Re-post re-re-re-re-edited video to Vimeo and social media sites.
I think it's finally done. Hope so.

I really want to go back to my day job: Artist carving in my studio.
Except that my definition of what it means to be an artist keeps expanding.
Isn't that what Art's about?


4 comments:

Deb said...

I love how the music comes in so subtly and then ties it all together on an emotional plane. Also, I'm all for the iterative process since I rarely 'get it right' the first time through. My work is to believe that an exit and a final answer exist.

patrickgracewood said...

Thanks, Deb. It's Mahler.
Don't know why I thought doing something completely new was going to be easy..but I did. Now I know otherwise.

Susan Gallacher-Turner said...

You got a great 'end' product with the video, Patrick. And that makes it all worthwhile in the end. But sometimes, getting to the end feels endless. (Sorry, I spent many years in advertising, doing just what you went through, not the fun part for sure.)

All in all it's well-done.

Elijah Chang said...

Great readiing your post