When I send out blast emails, I have a standardized footer on the bottom that allows people to opt out if they so desire.  I’m ethical in how I gather email contact lists.

I try to keep the contacts limited to either people I know, folks who have opted in, or folks who may be interested based upon other lists that they have appeared on.  Yes, I harvest contacts from mass mailings.  I am aware that others may do this as well, which is why when I send out a blast email, I address it to myself and blind copy everyone else. It’s a practice I wish more folks would follow.

There have been times when I have been included in a blast mail and did not wish to remain on the person’s list for one reason or another, so I politely ask to be removed, and I am removed. There have been times when I’ve been solicited by artist spam emails in the past.  The end result was quite interesting, and, judging by the comments, helpful to others.

It is in that spirit that I post about an email that ended up in my inbox recently. It was from Alborques Galeria Online <alborques@gmail.com>, and had only a web address and an attachment, which you’ll see reproduced here after the jump.

I visited the website and found it to be poorly designed and ugly to look at.  Very busy and not at all user friendly.  A little googling revealed what I thought — the guy is into SEO and is looking to build traffic to create revenue for his site.  Nothing wrong with that, but at least have some decent content.

I replied to his mail with a request to remove me from his list and then hit the REPORT SPAM in Gmail link. I’d encourage anyone else who gets this type of email from this guy to do the same.  The funny thing is that the address to which he sent the mail is not my marc.moss.art@gmail address.  Funny.

Click to enlarge

REBOOT_ East Wall

Originally uploaded by love not fear

Joe Nickel wrote a great article today in The Missoulian about the state of the arts in Missoula. Joe points out that a recent survey of data released by the Natioanl Endowment for the Arts reported that Missoula ranks 44th in the nation in terms of the percentage of local workers who make their living through the arts”. “Artists in the Workforce 1990-2005″ is a 150-page survey of data compiled from census records. A portion of the article was reproduced over at Talk Missoula, and it ended with a question:

What are the advantages and challenges of being an artist in Missoula? Name one project, resource or service that could be developed to promote and support Missoula’s professional artists, musicians and writers.

The problem with the question is the word “professional”. There are many artists here in Missoula who cannot make a living at what they do here, not because they are not talented artists or they don’t produce a good body of work, but because their contemporary art is too edgy or risky for Missoula and the people who visit here.

Missoula is on the cusp of coming into its own as a cultural destination for travelers across the world. One thing many of those travelers want when they think of visual arts is western themed or “outdoor” art. Because of that, much of the visual art produced by professional artists in Missoula is reflective of that need.

Thinking of Missoula *only* in terms of this type of art is doing a disservice to the many very talented contemporary artists who live and work in this city, producing a huge body of work that might sell for thousands of dollars in a more urban city like Chicago, New York or Los Angeles, but here, if they sell at all, it’s for a pittance. And that is if the work is even seen.

A resource I would like to see is a dedicated space *downtown* that includes a gallery and affordable studios for working artists. Missoula is lucky to have the Ceretana, and more recently, the Zootown Arts Community Center on the North side. Both of these facilities are beautiful and offer many opportunities for both artists and the Missoula community. I would like to see something similar downtown. A place for artists to show that is not a coffehouse, a restaurant, a computer store, a boutique. Somewhere that is for art and art alone, and a place for lesser known 8local* artists to display. I am not taking away from the Missoula Art Museum and what they have to offer our community. I’m suggesting something more, something different. Something that could help artists who *don’t* make a living as an artist work towards that goal by giving them the same treatment a professional artist might get.

To view the full results of the NEA survey, “Artists in the Workforce 1990-2005,” visit www.NEA.gov and click on “News.”

REBOOT_ East Wall

Originally uploaded by love not fear

When I arrived in their little office in downtown Missoula, I was greeted with warm smiles. S. was pretty excited to have me deliver the piece, and I was pretty excited to be able to sign it in her presence, help her decide where it should hang, and finally, hang it on her office wall. The women there provided me with a small metal hammer which was painted in “feminine” colors and had flowers on it. They got a kick out of it when I drove the nail using the provided hammer.

The piece looks great in her office, and I meant to photograph it, but was caught up in the contagious excitement of the women as they admired the piece. We talked about it for a while, before easing into friendly talk comparing office humor and other daily life conversations.

After it had been hung, E. commented that the wall looked a little lonely, that maybe S. needs more of my pieces to compliment the existing one. S. had already mentioned the possibility of wanting another piece, and I was glad to encourage her, picking up a dry erase marker and drawing on the whiteboard how the wall might look with the addition of two complimentary pieces.

As I left the office, I was remembering the first time I had completed a similar project. I remember how personally involved in it I was. This time was different. It was less about the emotion, and more about presenting the work in such a way that the emotion came through in a humorous way. I re-learned some of the things I learned the first time around, namely that vellum applied with spray adhesive is much better than self-adhering vellum.

This version of the project was much more coherent, all of the pieces being almost of uniform size, all being a uniform shape. I enjoyed using two different models for the photographs as well. And the distance and time between me and the models involved made creating the project more enjoyable. Yeah, I was stressed about finishing it on time, but I enjoyed the entire process more and was more deliberate in the way that I went about it.

Finishing the show felt good, and it generated a lot of brainstorming on my part for subsequent shows I’ll be doing. Brainstorming around concepts of content, but also around concepts of logistics about how I want to pull off the ideas themselves.

Right now work has got me pretty busy. Working three jobs currently. I’m tying to do something creative every day, and am constantly thinking about the next project, when i can start it. In the meantime, I’m learning how to use a new camera. I’ll be posting some of those photographs here as time allows.

score

Originally uploaded by love not fear

I’m not finished writing about REBOOT_, but I am also looking towards my next two projects.

One just jumped ahead of the other, which I’ve been pondering and working on since December. I still don’t know the shape it will take, but I found the means to make it happen.

An old dentist’s office right around the corner from me was recently reinvented as a (what is for Missoula) high rise condo. It has rusty tin on the outside of the building as a nod to the terrain vague style of architecture, which I really enjoy. I definitely have some critiques about the building, but that is not my point here.

I have seen, as I ride my bike past the site, the discarded tin rusting on the ground. Recently, that tin had been collected and placed into a trailer along with a variety of aluminum and steel to be hauled to the recycle. Tin is fetching $0.04/lb right now, so I wasn’t concerned when I began collecting it last night.

Apparently someone else was, and began yelling at me, asking if I had permission to take it etc. Said he was going to call the police. Whatever.

I put it back.

This morning, on my way into work, I stopped by the business of the person who owns the trailer and its contents. He said my timing was perfect, and that he was planning to haul everything away tomorrow. Gave me permission to pick through the tin and haul off what I wanted.

My bike trailer was destroyed yesterday when I was hit by a car (I’m fine), so I was trying to figure out how I was going to efficiently transport this very heavy rusted tin to my garage. I found an old wheeled suitcase and trucked it over to the site.

To my great joy, there was an old shopping cart in the trailer as well. It was missing both front wheels, but it would be much more efficient in hauling the tin back to my place.

The rest of the story is that I got a full shopping cart full of beautiful rusted tin for a project that has been brewing for years, though I didn’t know it.