Joey Piziali interview with Michael Zheng about being an artist
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Joey Piziali interview with Michael Zheng about being an artist
What a great show. I have interviewed artists for years, but alas, they are not on tape. I graduated in 1984, and the art world has changed drastically since then. I created an artist run business for artists called GYST Ink (Getting Your Sh*t Together) so I could provide resources and information for artists who are emerging or emerging longer than they expected, or have been working a long time and a new issue has come up. The tenacity of artists has always been an amazing aspect. I hope what I can contribute to the field of information on how things work can help expand the nature of just how an artist defines themselves and their success (on their own terms). (I also have a hybrid career research project). So, thanks for this show. I’ll get through them all eventually. PS: I have taught at CalArts since 1988, and boy do I have stories to tell!!!
DDDD
Karen, good to hear that you have had similar thoughts and have actually done similar interviews with artists. Yes, how the artists define their own identities and success are the topics that came up over and over during my interviews. I think they are among the most important adjustments that the artists who just come out of grad school have to go through. I wonder if you could share some of the main issues and stories from your interviews?
I also wonder if your students at CalArts (current and past) talk about these issues. Would be interesting to see if there is a difference in their main concerns based on different locations..
michael
I find myself incredibly engaged by your project. The interviews are honest. Watching Mr. Piziali discuss his passion about being an artist and an educator are extremely eye opening to someone like me. I’m not formally trained in Art.
(Side note: I begged my Mom to send me to art school. She didn’t. Got my degrees and found a great job but ended up going to art school for 2 years but dropping out, which is another story. Yes, it had a lot to do with money and having a 9-5 job at the time).
Yet, after all this time, I (still) would love to pursue a career in the Arts (to become an art writer while having personal art practice). That passion and desire hasn’t gone away and I’m 31 years old with a great job BUT still extremely enamored with Art. I’m finding my way back into it.
I also admire the interviewees’ candor and confidence in people brave enough to actually make Art even against a collective ‘no’ because art, as Piziali states has the ability to “break your heart”. I’ve been told, “You don’t need to go to school for that!…You can do that on the side….Just take classes for fun. You don’t really want to make that full time job…Life will be difficult for you (etc.)”.
WHEN I’m confident enough to brave the art world, academically, I will make that leap of faith. It’s gotta be done. I’m pretty sick of being a spectator…
Dorothy,
It’s refreshing to hear your story from the other side of the art school, yet to me in a way you’re speaking to the same issue. Indeed, so many of the artists are figuring out a way to keep that identity. Mr. Piziali spoke eloquently about the artists’ ‘need’ to be artists. And he wasn’t the only one who said that during my interviews. Another artist had actually DONE just that – she tried to NOT BE an artist by doing all kinds of other things. Yet she found that she eventually still came back to be an artist. To me, it’s no accident that you mentioned the word ‘faith’ because it does feel like the feeling is bordering on something like ‘faith.’ But I am interested in hearing in your case, how you would articulate that something that continues to draw you to art; while at the same time you have not ‘taken that leap of faith.” What do you need to have more confidence in in order for you to decide to ‘brave the art world?’ Is it something about your own art or the art world?
(Check here for the snippet of the interview I mentioned above: http://theprofessionproject.com/videos/claire%20brandt_beingartist_artworld.mov.)
michael
Wow. Ms. Brandt’s experience is not too dissimilar to my situation! It definitely helps to hear her story. I hadn’t seen her interview. Thank you!!!
I went to the SF Fine Arts Fair and the SFAI MFA exhibition yesterday and feel an intense pull to the Arts. It’s where I am most happy. Again, Ms. Brandt’s path to grad school is on the cusp of my own grand plan of ‘how’ I will make that leap and how I will make it work. For the first time, I’m finding that I NEED to write about art and make it to be successful (that’s a completely different topic all together as well).
To answer your questions:
What pulls me back? Draws me in? Simple: Art is the only thing in my life that has challenged me to think critically.
What do I need to have more confidence in? My technical skills. I, truly, believe I need to learn the rules in order for me to break them. I can’t lie, as much as I love highly conceptual work…I still want to learn how to draw and paint well. I love discussing art and art history yet I feel compelled to be an artist myself in order to write about and critique art. Again, thank you so much for this project. It’s really forcing me to re-evaluate my own pursuits.