High school students to display, perform artist work

Fergus Falls Daily Journal 

Published Friday, May 18, 2007

Fergus Falls High School celebrates the artistic talents of hundreds of students during the annual Fine Arts Festival on Monday, May 21. The festival, which is free of charge and open to the public, will be from 6 - 8 p.m. in locations throughout the High School. Visual arts will displayed in the halls and in the media center, and there will be music and drama performances in the foyer, the media center and the choir room. Refreshments will also be served. One of the highlights of the festival will be the unveiling of five student-created murals that center around the theme of diversity. Students worked on the murals with professional artist Lance Albers through an artist-in-residency funded by the Lake Region Arts Council. The murals will be installed at Cleveland, Adams and McKinley elementary schools, and at the Middle and High schools. This activity is funded in part by a grant from Lake Region Arts Council through a Minnesota State Legislative Appropriation.

Diversity Is A Way of Life

  Lance Albers Art Studio is working on The Diversity Murals Project with The Fergus Falls Minnesota School District.

    Along with Fergus Falls High school teachers, Kely Wakely and Eric Van Sickle, we are assisting approximately 80 to 100 students towards the creation of four large (4'x8') murals based on the theme of cultural diversity. These portable murals will be on framed masonite panels so they can be displayed at many locations within the school or through out the area. Living in today's world, one can clearly see the interconnected relationship between all people. This project stresses to highlight this fact and also to challenge young  people's ability to work together as individuals creating within their own thoughts. This is a very exciting project.        

Bohemian Today, High Rent Tomorrow

Creative Types are essential to urban and regional economic growth. Here’s why artists are an indicator of coming gentrification

By Maya Roney, BusinessWeek March 13 2007

Want to know where a great place to invest in real estate will be five or 10 years from now? Look at where artists are living now.

Sociologists and policymakers have long touted art and culture as a cure-all to economically depressed neighborhoods, cities and regions. The reason? It has been proved that artists -- defined as self-employed visual artists, actors, musicians, writers, etc. -- can stimulate local economies in a number of ways.

Artists are often an early sign of neighborhood gentrification. "Artists are the advance guard of what's hip and cool," says Bert Sperling, the founder and president of Sperling's Best Places, based in Portland, Ore., and the compiler of BusinessWeek.com's list of the Best Places for Artists in America.

Creativity leads to growth

Artists, because of their typically lower incomes, usually need to seek out cheaper neighborhoods where they can afford the rent. But because of their creativity, they are able to fix up these areas, eventually attracting hip boutiques, galleries and restaurants. Not all artists are starving. Though some achieve success through writing, acting, painting or dancing, others get tired of scraping by as waiters or bartenders and sometimes apply their abilities in more-entrepreneurial ways.

Anne Markusen, an economist and professor at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and a leading researcher on the effects of the arts on regional economics, once profiled an abstract painter whose work is now displayed on ceilings and in MRI machines in hospitals across the country. In Markusen's research, artists have also been found to stimulate innovation on the part of their suppliers. For example, a painter may need a certain type of frame that is not manufactured, forcing the frame maker to create a design that happens to also work well for other artists.

But Markusen also maintains that artists bring more than culture to a community. "Businesses don't often understand the extent to which art affects them," Markusen says. "(Artists) are just as important as science and technology companies."

Nonarts businesses also use artist contractors to improve product design, help with marketing or even use dramatic theory to solve employee relationship issues. Being a cultural center also helps local businesses attract employees who want to be able to regularly go to the ballet or the theater, hear authors read from their latest books or attend art-gallery openings.

Follow the money

Due to the individual nature and economics of their work, artists are also some of the most itinerant professionals out there. When relocating, they often look for cities and towns that already have high concentrations of artists and a young and racially and ethnically diverse population. The presence of a nurturing art community in the form of art societies and centers is also essential, especially to young artists.

A low cost of living is important, but many artists make financial sacrifices to live near an art-rich urban center or in a cheaper neighborhood. Few struggling artists can now afford to live in neighborhoods like New York's SoHo and Greenwich Village, or even Williamsburg, which once were artistic havens before attracting wealthier residents. Now you are more likely to find New York-based artists in the Bronx, Brooklyn or even Philadelphia.

In addition to the presence of like-minded individuals, proximity to wealth is also important. The fact of the matter is that artists can seldom earn a living, let alone become rich, selling to other artists. They need wealthy benefactors to buy their paintings or support their local symphony, which explains why each of the places in the U.S. that we found to be the best for artists are in or near centers of wealth.

Los Angeles, No. 1 on our list, is most commonly associated with the film industry. While the city provides great opportunities for actors and directors, there are equally rich prospects for musicians, artists, writers and dancers. Of course, the majority of these people can't afford to live in Beverly Hills -- at least not until they get their big break -- and instead opt for more affordable digs in areas such as Echo Park.

Where to go now

BusinessWeek.com and Sperling's Best Places came up with a list of the best places for artists in the U.S. by identifying the metro areas that have the highest concentrations of artistic establishments. We also looked at the percentage of people ages 25 to 34, population diversity and concentration of museums, philharmonic orchestras, dance companies, theater troupes, library resources and college arts programs. A lower cost of living played a part in the selection of some cities but had to be overlooked elsewhere because of other very favorable factors.

Some of the top 10 are traditional art "supercities." One reason Los Angeles leads the list is because it has 56 artistic establishments for every 100,000 people, a diversity index of 84.2 and an arts-and-culture index of 100 (on a scale of 1 to 100). New York City and San Francisco are also in the top 10. Other places are midsize cities such as hippie havens Santa Fe, N.M., and Boulder, Colo., and country-music nucleus Nashville, Tenn. Smaller, less obvious additions include Carson City, Nev., which ranks third for its high concentration of arts establishments, and Kingston, N.Y., in the Hudson River Valley.

Ready to quit your day job and make art your profession? These metro areas are good places to start. With all the economic benefits you'll be providing, they should welcome you with open arms.

The top 10 places for artists

1.      Los Angeles

2.      Santa Fe, N.M.

3.      Carson City, Nev.

4.      New York

5.      Kingston, N.Y.

6.      Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif.

7.      Nashville, Tenn.

8.      Boulder, Colo.

9.      San Francisco

10.  Nassau-Suffolk counties, N.Y.

They Way We See Is Influenced Though Time



One article I was reading lately was about a woman who was a botanical artist. She mentioned how she learned the proper way to see through an art school called Atelier Lack which is located in Minneapolis.

I am familiar with this school and have been there. The school was founded by Richard Lack and the faculty features some very highly skilled artists. I once attended an exhibit of their school and heard some really blasting comments regarding their focus on realism. However, the study of reality and learning directly from nature is critical to seeing. The methods the school is founded on stem from a direct line of the teachings of the great French painter Jacque Louis David. (Forgive me if I spell something wrong.) One of David's students was another famous painter Ingres and then from this line of teaching emerged the Atelier Lack. I forget the direct connection.

David was Napolean's choice painter and and an example of his work you may have seen is where Napolean dressed for battle rears his spectacular white stallion and has his right hand pointed up to lead the charge. It is very famous. 

One point of interest to me beyond the fact all great artists tend to strongly focus on the need to learn how to see their way is that the group Napolean and David stood with was opposed to the monarchy. The monarchy stood along side the Baroque art movement and featured it widely.

The Classical Realists, along with the merchant class destroyed tons of this art. Thomas Jefferson felt and wrote that it was a extraodinary spectacle. Many useless people such as palace workers were also exterminated. The Classical Realists vs The Baroque / Roccoco Movement. Like the Vikings vs. The Packers with guns allowed.

The Baroque artists were essential in the Catholic movement. (Their major team sponsors really). You see even now the vatican is loaded with Roccoco and Baroque art just as is the palace of Versailles in France. What was left or saved after the revolution.

Oddly, I was raised Catholic and had an early connection with Baroque art and was strongly inspired "to see" by such artists as Rubens and Boucher. This method of seeing is not well understood by even some of the best art historians or critics I have read or met.

Early on, David was supposedly going to learn from the French court painter Boucher. A leading Baroque artist, but Boucher was very old and was no longer eager to teach.

What if David would have had the opportunity to learn under Boucher?

Would the outcome of history and even the way of seeing the woman I first mentioned above be different? Would the way you see be different?

Early in David's life, he was continually rejected by the Royal French Academy set up earlier by Richelieu, a strong supporter of the French and the monarchy.

Do you think this had a serious impact on the young David? According to what I have read it did.

David was later quite happy to be a panel member of revolutionary leaders who signed the arrests and deaths of many people during the French Revolution. He was later jailed for this but soon released.

Yet, artistically, I feel David was a great painter and as I feel Boucher was a great painter. But as the monarchy fell and Boucher and the Baroque died. A change of "seeing" emerged - "Classical Realism".

As Classical Realism evolved from the roots of the Revolution and went on to lead the Academic structure, it too died with the deaths of David and later Ingres. It became over-powered by the roots of the Impressionism. Who saw Classical Realism as too old and stuffy.
They somewhat even embraced the loose color techniques of the Baroque.
One of the fearless leaders of the Impressionists was Frederic Bazille. But you will rarely (if ever) here that name because he died before the Impressionist movement came to full power. But he more realistic and was an early friend and supporter of the young Impressionists. They hung out together a lot.

Bazille at age (I think) 29, rushed into battle in the war againsts the Prussians in 1879. There on the front he was hit by a sniper.

Actually, I feel Bazille's influence and how he must have taught to see is greatly overlooked. His life and style affected visual artists and his death must have been an inspiration for his young friends such as Manet and Monet to forge ahead.

The Classical Realist movement of David and his friends was all about the overpowering of the Baroque and Roccoco yet its lavish beauty influenced them profoundly. The Baroque artists were incredibly deep in their level of understanding in the laws of nature. Such as how leaves or fabric moved or how a shell was so perfect - a perfect nature filled with aethetics and beauty - but beyond the normal way of existence. They saw beyond and made visual art seem more alive. They saw the great beauties in nature to such an extreme level of perfection its richness and luxury angered people and it's main patrons were overpowered. Some were killed!

But the art of visual beauty lives today in many ways.

The Botanical artist I mentioned above paints beautiful flowers because she says she was taught to see. By who? An Atelier that is a direct line back to the French Classical Realists.

Yet, today there is profound diversity of how we see. Visual art has cast nets wider then ever in so many cultures and in so many ways. Think of what the invention of the camera did...... But we always seem to be attracted to intelligence and beauty - as we see it.

How we see is taught as the evolution in time continues. I could go on and on and you could add to this in your own thoughts as you see life.

Lance Albers

Volunteering on a School District Task Force

 Currently, I serve on a community task force to assess the issues facing the public school system of Hutchinson Minnesota. I suppose, this could be considered under "Public Projects", however it is not solely art related and involves volunteering.

  I have served on volunteer situations before working side by side with other groups, but I must say this is unique and I am learning a lot about how schools function from the inside. There are a great many factors to consider. Years of experience assessing other big projects makes it easier to grasp.

  The issues facing the schools are numerous and very costly. Within the task force, we have been assessing the needs for many weeks. Minnesota supplies very little state aid and the burden falls on the local taxpayers. However, these are challenges that can be overcome.  The school district is working towards positive solutions to make the schools better. Yet, the public wants to know how the improvements will make their world better. It is important for those within the school administration to publicly convey very clearly what the needs are in a very direct way. This works to alleviate some doubts that exist among the general public. As the general public often feels outside and sees it from that perspective, even if they are standing inside the school. Like participants at an art show, you see the art, and may assume how it was made, but there are many other factors involved. So it is important for the public to not assume and work with the schools to create better conditions for education as that improves the future.

  Within the task force, which includes a broad range of community members, the school system and project planners has been very forthcoming with the issues. Which again, have taken weeks and months to assess. Now they want to create solutions.    

  It has been very interesting, exciting and fun to work with the school district.

Another Monday Visualizing Art

 It was my 10:30AM meeting and a beautiful Autumn day.

I am asked to come to a home so I can create visual art for a grandmother who is most proud of her two grandchildren. This is what I classify as an "Individual & Family Project" (See some of these in the Portfoilio section). These are usually very diverse and very personal. I look at it from the customer's point of view and will create a result that is aesthetic and tasteful. I should also add that these projects can be so different that it is nearly impossible to give an accurate quote without first assessing the many variables. So basically that is what I am doing today. This woman has been my customer for over 10 years and she knows I can achieve the results and level of quality she wants.

  First tea is in order, so she gets out artsy square plates and big colorful cups and begins to make chai tea. While she quick grabs the door to sign for a UPS package, I examine many fine pieces of art she already has in the kitchen. (Yes, my customers can be so cool!) After she is ready, we mosey over to the dining room and carefully examine the grandchildren pictures she currently has laid forth.

  But we also spend a few moments examining the fine art in that room, too, which is tastefully presented. She is very good at matching themed objects with the art on the wall. Then we settle in and I must say, the tea smells great!

  Then we begin. Her cute granddaughters live very far away, so I am asked to go off of photos. There are a lot of them and the more the better so I can get a better sense. The portraits she wants are small, less then 2 x 3 inches, tiny really. She has two pretty colorful pearly antique “bake-lite” frames she has picked up and wants these portraits to go in these frames, which will then be mounted together side by side in a shadow box. These will look great. Randomly, I point out one photo of the older girl that I like and she says she does not. The reason is because she always looks more like this, as she pulls up another photograph she prefers. So I set the one she likes aside and move on. Then we talk about the personality and character of the girls for about well, a long while, as we keep sifting through the pictures over and over to get a clear sense of how they will go together. It is important not assume what the customer wants until they tell you or show you. Everybody has very fine increments of preferences and I can create an award winning project based on their ideas. I assist them in guiding what they see in their mind into a visual reality.

 Time flies and with my help, she feels we have picked out their best characteristics, the best angles and the best light and have decided they will look great together in the little frames. Some pictures show the girls with better hair but the smile may be off, sometimes it is grat pose but the lighting is poor. So I will combine the very best features from many pictures to create the objective.

We then discuss the medium these will be and it is decided to be fine pencil work on cotton antique paper, acid free, of course. 

  Sounds good. So we discuss the costs and she sets me up with a deposit. The deal is on and she is very excited. We then gather the photos, the frames and carefully place these in bags. Then we talk shop, as she is a professional well-established artist too. The clock says 1:00 PM and time has truly flown by so we say good-bye and I am on my way.

Another Monday Visualizing Art

Printing is one the aspects of what I do.

Learning to print in many different formats is a challenging experience. The slightest variations of color adjustment can change the look and feel of a picture. The printer itself is a mechanical instrument that needs the most careful attention. There are so many things that can go wrong, the waste can be tremendous, but when it works right, the results can be most satisfying.........

If you have ever spent time to print fine art, you would understand. There is certainly a very fine art to printing and it can take many hours to perfect.

That's what I am working on today.