BEcon, Day 0.5

Artlovers’ tip: When attending a busy Bullseye Gallery reception and all those warm bodies raise the temperature to sweatworthiness, visit the work in the front window. That’s where the best air conditioner vent is positioned and, since the art in the window is generally a showstopper, you can enjoy both a warm contemplation and a cool breeze.

Just don’t expect to be there alone; an amazing number of the throngs attending the BEcon opening reception tonight seemed to know that trick. I met quite a few of them already hogging my spot.

All in a days work for Bullseye’s BEcon, this year a conference on glass casting. This first day was, by turns, heartwarming, fun, fascinating, annoying and humorous, with a touch of old home week thrown in for good measure. I pretty much enjoyed myself from start to finish, met a whole bunch of faces to put to lovely names and personalities I already knew, and found some excellent grub.

More art, more philosophy and a LOT more tech tomorrow–today was mostly about hooking up, with a few highlights. (But you can find day two here)

Art & philosophy
We started with a gorgeous slideshow of attendees’ work, played in the background during the introductory speech. It was an impressive (and humbling) survey of casting possibilities. I got a kick out of hearing BE prez Dan Schwoerer detail the inherent problems in making a casting glass.

Saleshead Jim Jones probably took the discussable humor prize for telling what happens when perfect planning goes astray, although I laughed loudest at Clifford Rainey’s depiction of the left-leaning members of an SF arts committee.

“I avoid the studio movement as much as I can. I do not like to be called a glass artist, I am an artist who works in glass. The glass movement is sometimes its own worst enemy.”
–Clifford Rainey

I was afraid that Richard Whiteley’s “Behind the Actor’s Studio”-style interview with Clifford Rainey wouldn’t be much more than an awkward artist’s retrospective. I was wrong–it relaxed into a thoroughly enjoyable gabfest, with between-the-lines tech tips and a great chance to view a body of work. I’ve not always been a fan of Mr. Rainey’s work, but some of what I saw (and heard) was definitely worth a mind-change, even if he hadn’t been such a delightful speaker.

Tech highlights
The conference tech display isn’t huge this year but the important folks (for me) were there. I skimmed the BE books and squinted at the really cool billet display (I didn’t realize the BE casting palette had that many greens).

I talked refractory kilnshelves with Western Industrial and speculated on the carvability of a new refractory board they’re promoting (I’m thinking I could make one ginormous color sample mold and possibly play around with some negative sculpting…). Played with Dyson’s hollow extruded kilnshelves for awhile, monopolized Bob Stephan of HIS Glassworks for a half hour or so over my favorite diamond bits for coldworking.

Keynote
They say a successful keynote is one that provokes discussion, and by that measure the conference keynote was successful. Speaker Janet Koplos is a former editor of Art Review, currently interim editor at American Craft, and known for less-than-flattering assessments of “glass artists.”

I once saw Steve Jobs start a military conference keynote by explaining that he didn’t really mean it when he said that Apple would never sell to military “babykillers.” Ms. Koplos tapdanced just as nervously, but to a plantation drumbeat. She explained that glass was the highest-paid “craft medium,” that she was hugely a fan of decorative arts (I’d imagine some of her best friends are glass, in fact) and that “the crafts have a noble history of human service.”

Gist of the speech seemed to be that, with only a few transcendental exceptions, glass would never be art, and anybody working in glass should be satisfied to sit at the back of the bus. And then, after carefully establishing glass as not-art, she proceeded to review it…as art. If it looked too realistic or too abstract, if she had to wonder about how it was made, if it was transparent or shiny or colorful, if it was not obvious or too obvious, or possibly if it had been created on a Tuesday by a one-armed man with a monkey on his head, it didn’t make her list.

To be fair, I don’t disagree with everything she said. Craft shouldn’t have to be considered art to have value, and there’s nothing wrong with a good bowl that’s also beautiful. And, IMHO, too many artists let the glass do the talking and call it their art. Yet we aren’t in a country where craft is just as honored as art, and telling a group they’ll never make art in this “craft medium” is tantamount to artistic apartheid. I do, however, give the lady credit for showing up with such a message.

Food
Found a new favorite, Paccini’s, and ate a wonderful hoagie (a real hogie) stuffed with Italian coldcuts. Unless you feel like rolling out of the place, order a half sandwich. Nice view, quiet seats and good food, reasonably priced. Can’t ask for much more than that.

I can ask for more at BlueHour, and I usually get it. In this case, we asked for savings, and BlueHour’s happy hour obliged. Bar food is half-price…and their bar food includes some great salads and pizzas, a wonderful hamburger, cheese fondue and the first deep-fried olives I’ve ever eaten. My only complaint was the noise level (not surprising in a hard-surfaced restaurant).

All in all, this was a glorious day.

PS. If you want to read the whole BEcon report, here are the links:

• BEcon, Day 0.5 (this post)
  
• BEcon, second day
• BEcon, finis
• Winding down a week of glass

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