My Three Shows

Ever wished you could be in two places at once?  How about three? I have work in three shows right now: my Post-Consumerism solo show at UIC, The Doll Project at Flourish Studios, and a group show at the Fine Arts Building.  That's why I haven't written anything for this blog since February.  Dividing my schedule between a full time job, a long distance relationship, and preparing for two solo shows and a group show, I just haven't had the time to blog about what I've been doing.  I did post some pictures on Facebook and Pinterest, which I recently joined.  But now I finally have time to write about them on here.


Post-Consumerism at UIC

Through 4/27/2012

The Doll Project at Flourish Studios


Through 5/8/2012


This is my first solo exhibition of work from The Doll Project.  Those of you who've been reading this blog for a while may recall some of the earlier pictures I took back in 2008.  I have taken many new photos this year that have never been exhibited before.  The photos, most of which measure 11"x14", are priced at $60 and up.  10% of the profits from art sold during the opening reception (Friday, April 20th from 6-8 p.m.) will benefit Demoiselle 2 Femme, a Chicago based nonprofit that empowers urban girls.

Paradigm Shift: The Art of the Chicago Spring


Through 5/10/2012



This is my first time organizing a large group art show, which proved to be a huge undertaking.  I consider it a labor of love in service to the Occupy Movement.  Solidarity is a beautiful thing, and artists are the 99%.  Most of the artwork in this show is for sale, but no commissions will be taken from the artists participating in it.

I still have not decided on a title for my newest recessionist piece, but here it is, made of shredded money and vinyl letters on canvas panel.  Believe it or not, this is only the second time I have exhibited a recessionist assemblage in a show, even though I have been working in this style since 2008.


And here is work from the other artists in the show, many of whom I found at the Revolution 2012 show at Jackson Junge.  The others were artists I met in other shows and venues, or through the Occupy Chicago Rebel Arts Collective.

prints by Fotios Zemenides

painting by Robert Sebanc

Paintings by Patricia Larkin Green

Mixed media piece by Jeanine Hill-Soldner and painting by Robert Sebanc

Sculptures by Fleurs de guerre and mixed media piece by Jeanine Hill-Soldner

Painting by Robyn Alatorre

Quilt by Jeremiah Jones and photos by Charles Miller

Drawing by Fleurs de guerre and photos by Serge Lubumudrov

The Rebel Arts Collective also set up a table with stencils so people visiting the gallery could make their own wearable protest art.

They also performed a piece entitled Machine Breaks Down, People Rise Up, telling the story of the financial crisis and the Occupy Movement in just four minutes.


If you will be in the Chicago area before May 10th, stop by the Fine Arts Building to see this show.

American Autumn #OWS

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

"Harlem" by Langston Hughes

photo by Michael Kappel

Our lost generation, having graduated into a lost decade, has finally found its purpose and its voice.  I don't know what took us all so long.  For too long discussions of the issues we were struggling with were atomized into too many far corners and niches of the Internet, from the boards at Quarterlife Crisis to the varied Facebook groups of the student loan justice movement.  Finally, in cities across America and even across the globe, we have converged upon public spaces to call attention to the issues that matter so much to us.

I have written off and on about these issues here on this blog.  I  have detailed my frustration with the economy, my disgust with the licensing laws governing the field of interior design, and my battle with my arch nemesis, Sallie Mae.  I have also written on my other blog about what it was like to work in a store that was going out of business due to corporate greed, as well as how it felt to be mal-employed in retail.  I have graduated into three recessions and/or job market downturns, first in 2001, then in 2006, and finally in 2009.  There is evidence that those who graduate in recessions earn less over their lifetimes than those who do not.  That certainly has been the case for me so far.  I am finally earning the kind of money I'd hoped to make 10 years ago, but can't really enjoy it because most of it goes toward servicing debts I racked up when I was broke.

None of my degrees have paid off for me financially.  Many of my friends' degrees haven't paid off, either.  Sure, some of them were humanities majors.  A few are writers who lost jobs in print media or never got to work for a magazine or publishing company in the first place.  Some people would chide them for not studying something in the sciences or technology.  With them, I'd like to share the sad tale of my fiance, who after 10 years of rejection and mal-employment, had no other choice but to go back to graduate school to make himself more employable in his field, which is engineering.  Still, he is better off than this electrical engineer with multiple advanced degrees who is now homeless. So much for the STEM careers being the magic bullet to fix everything.


The system that so many of us were taught to work within is not working anymore.  As kids we were told by our parents, teachers, and even celebrities in public service announcements to work hard, stay in school, and go to college.  Borrowing for college meant taking on "good debt."  Going to college was supposed to be the price you paid to get a good job.  But many of the good jobs are gone, or have too many applicants and not enough openings.  A lot of the good jobs were lost in the recession, and the new ones that have been created in its wake do not pay well.  (Thanks, job creators!)  So many new graduates can attest to that, as can those facing unemployment in this crappy job market.  And people of color were hit hardest by the recession.  And things still haven't gotten much better.


I'm thankful to have a job at a time like this.  My job is like a lifeboat in an ocean full of sinking ships. As the great catastrophe of joblessness spreads across industries, it seems like no field is safe.  At first I lamented the dearth of interior design jobs and later I berated myself for not choosing something "safer."  By now the "safe" jobs in the public sector aren't even safe anymore.  And I recently read that even on Wall Street they might be laying people off soon.  Who can say how long it will be before my own "lifeboat" springs a leak?

Unfortunately, this level of empathy has too often been lacking in the discourse about unemployment, mal-employment, and debt online.  I have read countless stories and message board posts that drew hateful comments from smug people who brag about how they made all the right decisions who ask why they should be obligated to help others who are less fortunate.  After all, if you can't find a job in this supposed land of opportunity, it's all your fault.  And can we really call impoverished Americans poor if they have a refrigerator and a TV at home?  They deny the reality that things have gotten much worse for the poor in this country since the recession began and would accuse them of being lazy and looking for a handout.

Now I don't want to generalize and paint all the people who work in finance or for large corporations with the same broad brush.  There are so many good, decent, kind, generous individuals working for large corporations and on Wall Street and in Chicago's financial district. I don't think it's fair to characterize all the people who work in a particular industry as villains.  Sometimes good people work for a bad system.  Take it from me, I used to sell carpet.

But with some of these corporations, as with carpet retailers, what's problematic is the system the industry works within.  I understand that corporations need to make a profit, but when banks charge people to use their own money, I have a problem with that.  When they foreclose on homes without getting all the facts straight first, I have a problem with that.  And what about loans?  It's one thing to owe and pay interest on a reasonable sum of borrowed money, and another for the debt to become a form of modern-day indentured servitude.  That's why people are protesting the student loan lending system, which currently does not allow protections like bankruptcy or even--in the case of private loans--refinancing.  So many who have borrowed money for higher education in the years since the rules on student loan lending were changed are crushed by the burden of their debts.

Some  have fled the country while others have been driven to suicide. 

With all the frustration and despair that has beset the foreclosed-upon, the downwardly mobile, the long-term unemployed and the mal-employed, the only thing I find surprising about this movement is that it took so long to actually happen.  That some politicians are "surprised" by its rapid spread just shows how out of touch they are with their constituents and the real issues they face.  Many names for this movement have been circulating, with the general consensus being The American Awakening.  But I think American Autumn is also quite fitting.  In autumn the leaves turn brilliant shades of gold, orange, and red.  But these colors were there all along, though the chlorophyll the trees produced in the spring and summer made their dominant color green.  This movement is like the color of the leaves.  Things that were once hidden are now vibrantly displayed.

from Salon.com article, "Student loan debts crush an entire generation"

photos by akagoldfish

I find myself inspired to work on some new Recessionist pieces. 

I'm going to have a lot of fun with that winking Ben Franklin. The caption next to him reads, "This time will be different!"

Yeah, we'll see.

In the meantime, a few of my favorite articles on the subject:

Roger Ebert, "The One Percenters" (written several months ago, actually)
Jim Forbes, "Occupy Wall Street will not come to our utopia"
Alisha L. Gordon, "Occupy Any Street: The Deferment of the American Dream"
Barbara Ehrenreich, "The Guys in the 1% Brought This On"
David Sirota, "Pitying billionaires as America starves"
Mike Konczal, "What do the '1 percent' actually do?"
Charlotte Hill and Robert Fuller, "Occupy Wall Street and the Promise of Dignity"
Jay Smooth, "Outing the Ringers"

Recessionism in the University of Chicago Magazine

Guess what, everyone: my Recessionist artwork is being featured in my alma mater's magazine! They are using my artwork to illustrate this month's issue because it focuses on the economy. To see the article, click the link below:

Peer review: Tiffany Gholar, AB’01

Designers, interrupted: NeoCon 2009 and the Great Recession

photo by by Patcraft Designweave

Beneath the festival atmosphere at NeoCon 2009, there was a sense of sadness. I ran into a designer I know and he told me how hard it's been lately, as did the 2 architects and 2 designers he introduced me to. And on the morning of the ASID Career Exchange, well coiffed and well heeled design grads flocked to the 7th floor cafe with their portfolios in hand and panicked expressions on their faces. Would they find good jobs? Maybe not. Times are hard, and many firms are not hiring now. At least they had the decency to tell us so.

Veteran attendees of the trade show quickly realized that the lavish parties the showrooms had given in previous years were scaled down significantly. And so amid the live jazz, flowing champagne, tinkling cocktail glasses and platters of hot hors d'œuvres, there was still a palpable air of melancholy. What will become of interior design? Where are the clients? Where is the money? Who can afford to hire us now? If only things were different...

The unfortunate reality is that few of my fellow design alums are working in the field, and neither am I. And after three solid days of immersing myself in the interior design milieu once again, it hit me: I miss working in my field. It breaks my heart to not be a part of it anymore. Even listening to the textile showroom reps talk about how many double rubs their upholstery fabric could withstand made me feel sentimental; I had sold and specified upholstery fabric once. Every piece I liked I wished I could specify for a client. But I don't have any clients.

Our design careers have been interrupted by the unfavorable economy. We are all part of the great diaspora of displaced designers who are doomed to labor in the dreary world outside the field of design until the economy improves. But we found solace at NeoCon this year, discovering that we are not the only ones.

My quest to find work as an interior designer has been like an unrequited love affair. Being excluded from a field that you are passionate about is just as painful as being in love with someone who does not love you in return. It engenders the same sense of heartbreak. The Merchandise Mart is like a monument to that heartbreak, a mausoleum for my dead dreams of design. And now, even though a week has passed since I attended NeoCon, I still long to be a part of that world. But instead I have returned to work at a job that has nothing to do with design. It's a good job, and I am glad that I have a job at all in these circumstances, but it is not interior design. But at least when we moved into our new office space last year they let me put a few finishing touches on things.

Still, I am hoping that NeoCon 2010 will be a much happier occasion for all of us. I hope that what has happened now will prove to only be an interruption, and once it is over we can get back to doing what we do best.



By the way, if you are a displaced designer, check out the free Rework career workshops, sponsored by The Mohawk Group. The one in Chicago will be held Thursday, June 25th. Click the link above for all the details.

Artistic Vengeance

I have smothered my grievances and buried them beneath an inactive volcano, but eventually, with time and tension, they will come out in a fiery eruption.
--taken from my Fall 2007 morning pages

In 2007, while taking a creativity class and doing the exercises in The Artist's Way, I found myself writing the best piece of creative non-fiction I'd written in a long time. It is the kind of writing that I was supposed to be doing when I was in my fiction MFA program, but could not bring myself to do. It is the kind of writing that is honest and raw and revelatory, the kind that leaves the writer feeling exposed. And I feared exposure. So for almost 2 years I sat on it because I was too afraid of the bridges I'd burn if I ever publish it. What would people think of me if they knew how I truly felt? I had tried so hard to hide it, and had a lot of them fooled, I'm sure. But I am realizing more and more that I do not want to go on living with all this hidden anger. That critique I wrote about on here was the first time I can remember ever challenging a critic, and I felt a lot better after I did. So why not post my story?

I had taken all that pain, all that frustration, all that humiliation caused by the management of a certain evil furniture store I used to work for and created a narrative about it. The furniture store had fired me, the only Black designer in the whole store, and the only one who actually had a design degree, after less than 2 months for no good reason. But I told no one. I was hoping they would pay me for my silence. But after waiting almost 2 years without so much as a verbal acknowledgment of what they did to me, I have decided to break my silence and tell the world how they wronged me. And on Sunday when I clicked the "publish" button and uploaded my story on my blog, it was so deliciously cathartic. It was an exhilarating act of artistic vengeance.

I have realized that a lot of my visual art is also an act of artistic vengeance. A few months after starting my work on The Doll Project, it occurred to me that I had applied to both Mattel and MGA for jobs and internships. One spring break in college, I spent the whole week applying for internships while my roommates went on a trip to Hawaii. Mattel was one of the companies that said, when I called later to follow up, that they get so many resumes that they couldn't possibly know where mine was but if they were interested, they'd call me. Of course, they never called.

I was also interested in advertising. But no one would ever give me a chance to work in that field, no matter how many internships I applied for. Same for film. Same for television. So I think my current interest in deconstructing the messages of the media comes from a desire to strike back at the fields that would never let me join them.

Likewise Recessionism is also born of frustration. How long must I and others like me remain underemployed in a job market that has completely failed us? How will anyone be able to retire? What's the point of saving? What's the point of investing? What's the point of money? Why do we give it so much power? Why don't I have more of it?

My frustration with working in retail for all those years is probably the inspiration for Post-Consumerism, which is what I am planning to call my series of works made with cardboard and shopping bags, 2 things that constantly surrounded me when I labored in the various circles of retail hell. I get to tear up the boxes and melt the shopping bags with a hot iron, and it gives me an incredible sense of release.

I never set out to get revenge on anyone. But I am realizing more and more that my art is often an expression of my own subconscious anger. It is made like pearls and diamonds are made, from irritation, from years and years of pressure. I like being able to take all the ugly things that are bothering me and make something beautiful out of them.

I know I am in good company. A lot of other artists have done it in the past and other artists are still doing it now. So for my readers out there who are also artists, tell me, what have been your acts of artistic vengeance?

Photos from the student show

Silver Whisper

Bailout

Michael Costanza
Park Barbecue

Christopher Clark
The Intercession of the Saints (or Their Equivalent)

Margie Glass-Sula
Autumn's Mash

Kim Panozzo
Stacking Dolls

These are just a few of the pieces at the student show. I hope no one feels left out. I plan to take more pictures of other work in the student show and upload them sometime next week. There is so much great work in the gallery. I feel honored to have the opportunity to study with so many talented artists. The show continues until May 14th. If you're in the Chicago area, stop by. It's free. And you'll have a chance to support emerging artists, and maybe even add some original art to your collection while it's still at a low price.

The student show is open now

I am featuring 2 pieces in the show. Remember that untitled silver painting? Well now it has a title. I am calling it Silver Whisper. It looks great under the gallery lighting. I've taken pictures but will have to wait until I get back home to resample & upload them. Also in the show is my first installation piece, a readymade entitled Bailout. It is the first and only readymade in the Recessionism series. It's 5 pounds of shredded money. The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing says it's about $10,000, though in it's confetti-like state, it is worthless. I took a picture of it too and will post it here.

The show will run until May 14th. The gallery is open Monday-Thursday from 11 am-4 p.m. Tonight it will be open a little later for the opening reception which will be held until 9 p.m. Click here to see the official site for the show. If you need directions, click here.

Era of Economic Gloom

detail of Era of Economic Gloom| 12"x18" | Shredded currency and newspaper on canvas panel | 2008

I have been in a recession for the past eight years. It all began when I was about to graduate in 2001. I feel like all the requirements for a successful entry into the workplace were irrevocably changed my senior year of college. I had once inhabited a world where all you needed was a Bachelor's degree and it could be in anything. But by the time it was my turn to look for a job, everyone was very specific, specific about majors, specific about experience. Gone were the signing bonuses, the cars, the wine-and-dine whirlwind interviews my predecessors told us of just a year before. Eventually my career counselor washed her hands of me and told me to sign on with a temp agency.

So now I know what it's like to spend 8 years waiting for knockoffs and discounts and end of season clearance sales. I never get manicures. I give myself pedicures when I want them. I have never once paid for a spa treatment. I have been taking “staycations” since before that phrase was coined. I have gone without these small luxuries out of necessity. Now there is a term for women like me: “recessionista.” Now I see articles by the self-appointed experts in this newly invented subculture. Perhaps I could be writing “recessionista” articles, too. If only I believed the hype.

Yes, you can get by with cosmetics and pantyhose from the drugstore, and you can save money by getting your canned goods and condiments at Wal-Mart. You can shop at thrift and consignment stores or take advantage of your AAA membership or your bank’s affiliate program to get discounts. And a plain old cup of Campbell's chicken noodle tastes absolutely delightful with a few sprigs of fresh parsley and cilantro and some diced green onion stirred in. And you could even grow those herbs yourself in your very own windowsill if you don’t have a garden.

Of course, you could work at a store where you like to shop so that you will qualify for an employee discount, but no article addresses how torturous it can be when you are constantly surrounding by things you cannot afford. Nor will they warn you that you may be in danger of turning your whole paycheck over to your employer, or that you may not be able to get the discount without having a store credit card account with your employer, or that such an arrangement is akin to modern-day sharecropping.

But eventually there will come a time when you will resent the fact that you don’t have a choice. This is not the option you have selected of your free will, but a decision that was thrust upon you. Sure, you can get by selling your unwanted possessions to consignment shops, but eventually you realize you’re getting a fraction of what you paid for them. You can even do eBay and other online auctions, but don’t expect to become a millionaire.


The problem with living on a shoestring is that it will eventually fray, and then break, and who will be there to help you when the federal poverty line has been drawn so low?

And what of the unspoken expectation that you will achieve more financial success than your parents? What is to be made of those who have earned college degrees they never get to use? And what of the debt accrued to finance such and education?

These articles tell nothing of the quiet heartbreak and desperation of downward mobility. They do not mention the years of indefinite delay, the projects to be financed by a better job that never comes. Eventually you will come to resent the fact that all your possessions are leftovers, imitations, and hand-me-downs. At some point experts may suggest you take antidepressants to help you better adjust to the world when actually it is the world itself that needs to be readjusted.

These articles will try to convince you that your reversal of fortune is a wonderful character builder. They try to make you feel that things are not so bad. They try to make you forget the useless sacrifices you made for your education and your non-existent career, all the time saying like Pangloss or Pollyanna that “everything is for the best” and we are in the best of all possible worlds--and job markets. For such is the palliative effect of the mainstream media, the new opiate of the masses.

But eventually you will become aware of the widening distance between what you’d like to do and what you can afford to do. It doesn’t matter if it’s big or small, a matter of life or death, or just a much needed vacation. But it will remind you of how long your dreams have been deferred. Not all deferred dreams dry up, fester, or sag like a heavy load. Some really do explode.

And so it is with this in mind that I come to the studio and create images with shredded money. I am a recessionist painter, not a recessionista.

"Countown to Meltdown" now featured on Now Public

I just accepted a request to publish my Countdown to Meltdown video at Now Public on an article about the Stimulus Package. Read the article here.

Countdown to Meltdown finally gets a little recognition

I'd like to thank Anne of Carversville for her comments on my Countdown to Meltdown video:

Can someone please tell me how it is — in the day of viral marketing — that this Countdown to Meltdown video has only 47 views on YouTube?

(I had been wondering this too, Anne, though I chalked it up to my general obscurity and unpopularity in real life.) Thanks, again, Anne, for your kind words and for featuring my video here on your blog. The internet is so crowded these days. It's getting harder and harder to get any recognition at all, and I really appreciate it, especially from a writer of Anne's caliber.

Friday Featured Flickr Group: Economic Clusterf*ck of 2008

Named for two-headed Janus, the Roman god of doors, hallways, gates, beginnings and endings, January is a time for looking forward and looking back. I don't know about you, but I am so glad that 2008 is finally over. However, we cannot go into 2009 without looking back to all the mistakes that were made in 2008. We have quite a mess to clean up. The Economic Clusterf*ck of 2008 group shows a vast array of photographic evidence of our present fiscal nightmare. Here's the group's description:

About Economic Clusterf*ck of 2008

Dear Taxpayer:

I am pleased to inform you about the Flickr group "Economic Clusterf*ck of 2008" which started off as a group for the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, but has been renamed in light of the continuing fun, especially this past weekend's Merrill Lynch/Lehman/AIG implosion--looks like we're in this for the long haul!

If you've somehow managed to capture "flagging economy" in a photograph, this would be a good place to toss it. If you've photographed something that wouldn't exist if the economy was stimulated, add it. Just perfected your technique to siphon gas out of your neighbor's car? That's the sort of thing we want to see. If it's related to the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, the mortgage/credit crunch, the sluggish economy, high gas prices, home foreclosures, high food prices (which has now become a worldwide problem), the weak US dollar, tumbling stock prices, or collapsing banks, then let's see your talents. Bonus points for any photo in which the comments degenerate into partisan sniping.

You can view the photos in the group in the slide show below, or visit http://www.flickr.com/groups/stimulus2008/ to join.

new recessionist piece: "Homo Economicus"

Homo Economicus, Latin for "economic man," is defined by Answers.com as "The rational human being that many economists use when deriving, explaining, and verifying their theories and models." This is my portrait of the demise of the "economic man." Click the images above to view them full-size.

countdown to meltdown: the first recessionist video!

So...
I made this video today because I needed some sort of catharsis. This election/economic drama is just getting to be too much!

I had to set it to music, and could think of no better song than Orff's "O Fortuna" from "The Carmina Burana." More than likely, "O Fortuna" is a song you've heard before but never knew the title of, as it is frequently used in trailers for epic or apocalyptic films. I had the great privilege of seeing the entire "Carmina Burana" performed by the Chicago Sinfonietta when I was in high school. I think I fell in love with it because I was still studying Latin at the time. Oh yes, I should probably mention that the song is in Latin. I tried putting subtitles on the video, but they only took away from it. So here are the lyrics in English and Latin:

SECTION I: FORTUNA IMPERATRIX MUNDI (FORTUNE EMPRESS OF THE WORLD)
1. O Fortuna (Chorus) O Fortuna, velut luna statu variabilis, semper crescis aut decrescis; vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem; Egestatem, potestatem dissolvit ut glaciem. Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis, obumbrata et velata mihi quoque niteris; nunc per ludum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris. Sors salutis et virtutis mihi nunc contraria, est affectus et defectus semper in angaria. Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; quod per sortem sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite!	O Fortune, like the moon with its changing phases, you are ever growing and waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; Poverty and power it melts them like ice. Fate - monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel, you are malevolent, well-being is vain and always fades to nothing. Shadowed and veiled you plague me too; now through the game I bring my bare back to your villainy. When health and virtue are against me, are only pain and exhaustion, forever in this vale of tears. So at this hour without delay pluck the vibrating strings; since Fate strikes down the strong man, everyone weep with me!

and a little copyright disclaimer:

I consider this video an academic pursuit. I cited my sources.

This video is also available on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygXYp9PuXLg

it's time for another recessionist (depressionist?) piece

Like so many Americans who have money in the stock market, I try to stay up with financial news. I read books by Suze Orman. I frequent blogs like The Simple Dollar. I read the business section of the Trib, or even the Wall Street Journal on occasion, and listen to Marketplace on NPR, all the while pretending that I understand the jargon. Do I really know what zombie debt or lagging indicators or mortgage backed securities really are? Nope.

As an undergrad, I went to a school that is well-known for its economics program, though I never took a single college class on the subject. At the time I was still too burned out from having taken so many core cases that did not interest me, and was more than happy to get to the “good stuff:” the art / creative writing / film classes that I needed for my major. So all I learned about economics was from reading The Marx Engels Reader for a required humanities class. (Or was it a soc class?) Yet whether I fully understand it or not, I am an active participant in the economy. Even without my IRA, I still would be. But having a retirement fund means that even more is at stake. My perspective of what’s going on in the economy is a limited one. My recessionist pieces are a reaction to how I feel about how the economy affects me personally.

Several months ago, pre-crisis, I became fascinated with the talk of the stimulus package, and was also intrigued by the way no one wanted to say the dreaded “r” word. It is a word that people (other than Suze Orman) still are reluctant to say. Call it a meltdown, call it a crisis, call it anything but a recession. All I know is that it has definitely felt like a recession to me, and to many of my friends. You see, most of us are underemployed. For the past eight years, I’ve been stuck in a financial rut. I have yet to reap the benefits of our so-called “new economy.” Maybe the analysts were all too comfortable enjoying the trappings of upper-middle-class life to acknowledge the trials those like me have endured. Perhaps it is not officially a recession as long as people like them still have good jobs. Or perhaps it’s all in my head and I am just a whiner. Like I said before, I am not sure exactly how these things work.

So I thought, well we have expressionism, impressionism, secessionism, why not recessionism? I am painting the previously ignored 800 pound gorilla in the room. Or, rather, making collages about it.

It’s hard to believe that even after what happened last week the business journalists are still reluctant to use the “r” word! Speaking of last week, that really scared me. Let me re-post what I put on my Facebook wall so I don’t have to re-invent the wheel:

Is it time to party like it's 1929? They just interrupted Oprah to report on the things Bush is going to do to try to fix the economy, but is it too little too late? The last time I was watching Oprah and it got interrupted, it was because of Hurricane Katrina. I have never seen a program get preempted for business news before, so this scares me. Perhaps my friends who were Econ majors can explain the situation to me. In the meantime, I am submitting this video clip from Annie. These are the singing hobos from Hooverville.

The song goes,

We'd like to thank you, Herbert Hoover
For really showing us the way
We'd like to thank you, Herbert Hoover
You made us what we are today

but I like to sing it this way:

We'd like to thank you, Bush and Cheney
For really showing us the way
We'd like to thank you, Bush and Cheney
You made us what we are today


And as for the bailout, it can be hard to get your mind around a figure as immense as $700 billion. I’ve always learned better from things involving cartoons, Muppets, or at the very least, music. This is the video from Square One that taught me how big one billion is.



Now just multiply that by 700…

I really needed this article today...

Reading the financial news makes me feel like the sky is falling, and everything is coming apart and the center cannot hold and my IRA is worthless. . .
But then when I opened my e-mail I found a great article from Clint Watson's blog:

Don't Panic, You are an Artist!

Calm down, don't panic over the current economic news. Think about this: Our bodies and brains are wired to react quickly to emotional stimulus. The old "fight or flight" response. The pressures of the modern world puts stress on these ancient responses and, if we're not careful, will put is into panic mode. Panic mode is dangerous because that's when we make bad decisions.

You can read the rest of it here.

Thanks, Clint. I needed that today. Now let me get out of here so I can start a new recessionist painting.

Recessionism

uncle sam wants you to spend this cash - detail
Originally uploaded by missdesigndiva

Sometimes I wonder where I get all my crazy ideas from, but when I really start to think about it, I find they were inevitable all along. And so it is with Recessionism, a style of assemblage using shredded money. I first became aware of what goes on in the basement of the Federal Reserve Bank here in Chicago while on a field trip with INROADS, an internship preparation program I participated in while in high school. All the old checks and worn out dollars were shredded there. They even gave us bags of shredded money at the end of the tour. Shredded money. Could there be anything more paradoxical? Something so valuable rendered worthless by being grated down to confetti.

In my first painting class in graduate school, my professor suggested I purchase an old suitcase at a thrift store for a project I was working on. Later that semester, while watching American Gangster, a film with plenty of money-filled suitcases, an idea came to me: why not fill the old suitcase with shredded money? I went online and ordered two 5 pound bags of shredded money. Unfortunately, they did not arrive in time for me to complete the project. By the time I got them, I was painting again. And also by that time, I had decided that I wanted to use that suitcase for Worth Waiting For instead. So the money ended up on canvas and the rest is history.