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For a while I have been thinking about giving away my art. Not because the art I make is not valuable, because it is. I want to give it away because I cannot put a price on it. I was thinking about the “open source” model of software development. Many of the software applications I use every day are developed to be given away or used for free: Firefox, Gmail, Open Office. Musicians, too, are exploring this new model of distribution. Issa (formerly Jane Sieberry) uses a ““self-determined pricing” system,Radiohead experimented with the pay-what-you-will economy, and NIN has been giving away his stuff for a while now (his new album is the best non-instrumental NIN since The Downward Spiral.) Why not open source art, then? Giving away my art raises many questions. Does the art I sell become less valuable than the art I give away, merely because I put a price tag on it? Does the art I have previously sold become less valuable? There are more questions, but those are two that came up for me, and I would argue that the answer to both questions is no. I’ve written before about how to price artwork, but I wanted to bypass all of it and get straight to the good stuff: bringing people joy and beauty. So I load up the car and head downtown to set up in the invisibleAlley. When I arrived, I had 4 framed photos, 7 framed collage, 5 mixed media pieces from the 404 NOT HERE & REBOOT_ series, and a rack of about 30 matted artworks of various kinds that were enclosed in Mylar bags. As with previous times I’ve done art in the alley,I hadn’t done any formal advertising, no email blast, no SMS blast, nothing really. Just word of mouth and, this time, a little bit of Tweeting and Facebooking. I started with the #freeartmissoula hashtag, but quickly forgot what hashtag I’d decided upon, and switched back and forth between that and #missoulafreeart. @nShontz even stopped by for a visit with his wife & son. (His son had a blast racing his toy car through the alley, smashing into the artwork. Very fun.) Oh, right, then Twitter goes down for scheduled maintenance. The evening itself was so much fun. People’s responses were as varied as the people themselves. The biggest initial reaction was one of surprise and wanting to know WHY? The biggest answer is that I want people to enjoy my art. I also want to make room for the new art that I am creating, and instead of destroying or throwing away the old stuff, I thought I’d give it to folks who could appreciate it. Some folks said that they felt guilty taking artwork from me, but took it anyway. Some wanted to donate cash. Some wanted to trade for other artwork, while others offered to buy me dinner, or breakfast, or a beer. One woman in particular couldn’t believe I was giving it away for free and walked right past the alley. Then, about 30 minutes later, she stopped back, chose a piece and ran off. She turned back long enough to say, “I’ve never stolen anything before!” She seemed pretty pleased, being able to “steal” something without having to face any unpleasant consequences. After people’s surprise wore off, they were genuinely enjoying themselves. People loved the art and had a good time deciding what they would take home with them. I made some new friends and had a blast watching everyone smiling and laughing in the cool of an early summer evening in the best gallery in town. The evening was about gifting, about appropriating public space, about making art accessible to everyone, exciting and affordable. I won’t give away all of my artwork, but I’m thinking about matting up some of the other stuff I have lying around and doing another free art show in July. I used this photo in this piece. The only work I did on it in the digital darkroom was to adjust levels, contrast & brightness. The distressed effect of the photo in the final piece is from the glue that I used to apply it to the glass. Finished another one. Learning a lot about love, myself, relationships in this process. The love I have now is real, true, and lasting. I am so happy. Also learning much about the logistical process of putting these pieces together. One major struggle I’m having is that the metal upon which I’m mounting everything is so thin, I’m having to mount the metal itself onto a piece of wood & hanging it with wire means it pulls away from the wall quite a bit. Using the “teeth” style hooks may be an option, but there is so little control with those, I think. That, plus pounding them into the wood may break the glass in the artwork. I may just be having to figure out how to cut my own metal and tack weld a box frame fro these pieces. If I pay Bitterroot Welding to do the same thing, it’s $60 a pop. Worth it, but I don’t have that kind of money for the amount of work I’m planning to produce with this series. Back in the studio after what seems to me like a long abscence. Completed four new pieces. Will write more about the process soon.  ¡VIVA! May 15-16 @ Orchard Gardens in Missoula The fine folks who are The Open Field Artists do it again with an amazing performance combining mysticism, magic, love and beauty while acknowledging the difficulties and atrocities of modern life. From the moment of our arrival we were welcomed with love and peace by the OFA performers. The next 90 minutes or so were filled with emotion, inspiration and community. Go to this performance. You will be transformed. “Driven by the Jan. World Social Forum in Brazil to deliver the global south’s message to their northern homeland, the Open Field Artists present ¡VIVA!, a multi-media evening of dance-theatre, visual art, live music and vocals…” Where: Orchard Homes Country Life Club, 2537 S. Third St. (just west of Reserve) When: 8:30 PM May 15 and 16 Cost: $7. Call 396-3104, 369-2806 or 531-0930.  Once Upon a Time (detail) Miss Zula’s and Marc Moss are proud to announce a Marc Moss retrospective this First Friday, May 1st, 2009. Reception 5PM – 8PM. Just in time for Mother’s Day and Graduation. Looking forward to seeing you there. Miss Zula’s See all you Missoulians at The Dana Gallery 05.01.09.
Computer Central, 136 East Broadway Avenue., is pleased to present “Art-Stravaganza!”, a spring cleaning and art clearance sale/exhibition by Marc Moss. Paintings, collage, assemblage – IT’S ALL HERE! Marc Moss originals, nothing over $100. Please join us for a reception, First Friday April 3rd from 5.30 – 7.30 PM.Great art, great people and great refreshments. For more information, call 546-3885 or 542-6540 Click the image below to view a small selection of some of the artwork up for sale.
February 13th through the 22nd, The Wilma Theatre was overrun with filmakers, volunteers, and fans of the documentary film. I was one of the fans (and volunteers), and here I’ll be sharing with you thoughts from some of the almost fifty films I saw this year. The festival is growing and getting better every time, and I’m proud to have been a part of it once again. 
The Choir directed by
Michael Davie, 2007
Was very glad that this film won an award. To sum it up in three words: Music can heal. Poetry in Motion directed by Ron Mann 1982
 A standout section of the film for me was when Charles Bukowski compared writing poetry to taking a beer shit. Most poetry should be flushed away. There’s some good poetry out there, but I’ve found myself shying away from most poetry, and most poetry readings. A lot of it is too pedantic and overwrought. Bukowski provides the spine of the film with his anti-narrative ranting against poets. I enjoyed the film on many levels, especially because it covered so many different styles of poetry, featuring a variety of poets. Ron Mann introduced the film, telling us that he shot over 100 hours of footage. Anticipating the question of how he chose which poets to include from such a huge library of materiel, he said that some poets wrote great poetry and were poor performers, while others were great performers who wrote horrible poetry. Using that as a measuring stick, he was able to find a middle ground and create a great film. I’ve never been a fan of the over the top avant-garde jazz, preferring Coletrane and Davis to some of the other “weirder” musicians. This film was enjoyable, as it exposed me to music I would never had otherwise heard. Watch Cecil Taylor Bill Dixon – Imagine the sound on youTube. Coober: A Desert Speedway Story 
The description for the film alludes to a big race that promises a celebration by the community and lots of fun. The race never really happens, people just talk about how great it is. I think that is the success of the film. Promise never realized. This is a broken town full of tough, proud people, but it’s also a dying town. I Love Alaska directed by Lernert Engelberts & Sander Plug, 2008
 I was talking to one of the BSDFF staff members about this film. He said he didn’t like it. I told him that I’m fascinated with communication, and that I loved it. he said, “Yeah, but there was no communication”. I agree with him in that there was no communication between user #711391 and her husband, which is why the searches took place, and that if they had communicated better, their relationship may have been better, and the searches may hev been less interesting.
Because the movie was so intimate, it was at times difficult to watch. User # 711391 is lonely, desperate, paranoid, and not very aware of the world. The minimalism here is incredible, building a character around user #711391 that is fascinating. I cannot say enough about how much I enjoyed this movie.
Thankfully, you can watch it online. Links below.
Jennifer directed by Stewart Copeland, 2008, WINNER Best MiniDoc 2009
 Growing up in a family of educators, watching this film for me was great. What an achievement for Jennifer to have been able to pull off what is probably the most memorable lesson ever in these students’ lives.
An interesting companion piece to the film would be to track down those kids today and get their memories of the day. The Oldest Tree directed by Dale Elrod, 1997
 The oldest tree in the world gets cut down by a scientist. That’s the film.
Beautifully shot, with a “gotcha” that isn’t terribly surprising if you have a cynical view of humanity. The problem was that Elrod tried too hard to be “poetic” in the film. The Bristlecone is a fascinating tree and the story of Prometheus (aka WPN-114) is one worth telling. This film only gets it part right.
Crude Independence directed by Noah Hutton, 2008
 Hutton does a good job telling the story of Stanley, ND with an objective eye. He first introduces us to the town and its people before the oil men show up and change the town forever. He portrays all sides equally, giving the point of view of the land owners, mineral rights owners, oil workers, company owners, townsfolk, all who have a slightly different take on what’s happening in and to Stanley.
The film, using many long shots of the North Dakota plains, allows the story to seep in and the viewer begin to ask his own questions about oil dependence and consumption in the United States. South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition directed by Frank Hurley 1919
 Incredible story about the ill-fated expedition. The silent film was accompanied by a live performance by the Alloy Orchestra, which made it one of the most amazing film going experiences I’ve ever had.
Goth Cruise directed by Jeanie Finlay, 2008
 Not sure what I expected from this film, but I didn’t get it. More about defining what a goth is than anything, just happened to be set on a cruise ship to frame that definition. I walked away knowing that goths are professionals, own homes, have families, not groundbreaking stuff. The film held my attention, though, and I enjoyed it for what it was.
I Think We’re Alone Now directed by Sean Donnelly 2008  Obsession can sometimes lead to delusion. Very interesting movie about a couple of very interesting people.
Mellodrama directed by Dianna Dilworth, 2009
 This film could have been amazing. The problem with “Mellodrama” is that there *was* no drama. Show me, don’t tell me, and there was a lot of showing going on. Had the people talking been illustrated with more examples and they talked less, this film may have been stronger. Not sure how that could be accomplished without some heavy editing.
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