m a r k / s t r a n d q u i s t

vcuphotofilm: Congratulations to the Class of 2013! (More...

Sun, 19 May 2013 02:36:14 -0400

Congratulations to the Class of 2013! (More pictures here)

oh geeeezzz…so many amazing people in this group. excited to see where they all go. goobers in front

"1. Art requires time, there’s a reason it’s called a studio practice. Contrary to popular belief..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 02:33:00 -0400

“

1. Art requires time, there’s a reason it’s called a studio practice. Contrary to popular belief moving to Bushwick, Brooklyn this summer does not make you an artist. If in order to do this you have to share a space with five roommates and wait on tables, you will probably not make much art. What worked for me was spending five years building a body of work in a city where it was cheapest for me to live, and that allowed me the precious time and space I needed after grad school.

2. Learn to write well and get into the habit of systematically applying for every grant you can find. If you don’t get it, keep applying. I lived from grant money for four years when I first graduated.

3. Nobody reads artist’s statements. Learn to tell an interesting story about your work that people can relate to on a personal level.

4. Not every project will survive. Purge regularly, destroying is intimately connected to creating. This will save you time.

5. Edit privately. As much as I believe in stumbling, I also think nobody else needs to watch you do it.

6. When people say your work is good do two things. First, don’t believe them. Second, ask them WHY? If they can convince you of why they think your work is good, accept the compliment. If they can’t convince you (and most people can’t) dismiss it as superficial and recognize that most bad consensus is made by people simply repeating that they “like” something.

7. Don’t ever feel like you have to give anything up in order to be an artist… I had babies and made art and traveled and still have a million things I’d like to do.

8. You don’t need a lot of friends or curators or patrons or a huge following, just a few that really believe in you.

9. Remind yourself to be gracious to everyone, whether they can help you or not. It will draw people to you over and over again and help build trust in professional relationships.

10. And lastly, when other things in life get tough, when you’re going through family troubles, when you’re heartbroken, when you’re frustrated with money problems, focus on your work. It has saved me through every single difficult thing I have ever had to do, like a scaffolding that goes far beyond any traditional notions of a career.

I would like to leave you with a quote from my dear friend Félix González-Torres, who was an extraordinary and generous artist.

“Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that’s why I made works of art.”

If there is a single thing that you remember from what I’ve said today let it be that being an artist is not just about what happens when you are in the studio. The way you live, the people you choose to love and the way you love them, the way you vote, the words that come out of your mouth, the size of the world you make for yourselves, your ability to influence the things you believe in, your obsessions, your failures, ALL of these components will also become the raw material for the art you make.

—From Terecita Fernandez’s commencement speech at the VCUArts graduation ceremony

”

- Awesomeness from our commencement speech…thanks to the wonderful kate fowler for finding this!

Hazza! Got selected to present at this year’s South...

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:48:41 -0400

Hazza! Got selected to present at this year’s South Eastern College Art Conference…second conference presentation this year!!…my paper’s subtitle is; “Investigating the Social Aesthetics of Contemporary Photographic Processes”…probably not the most exciting thing in the world for most people. But the conference did send me an email with the the title,“Professor Strandquist”

Life is silly, stupid and exciting

Dangers! Got one of the 12 Look 3 Photography festival education...

Mon, 13 May 2013 21:31:08 -0400

Dangers! Got one of the 12 Look 3 Photography festival education week scholarships! So excited…free pass to the fest, awesome sounding courses and portfolio reviews. Gonna be an awesome fest…just hoping to meet Martha Rosler!!

http://www.look3.org

http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/?p=10271 Awesome...

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:33:39 -0400

http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/?p=10271

Awesome website featuring the People’s Library…they showcase some really cool projects. Check it out!!

"When the child was a child It walked with its arms swinging, wanted the brook to be a river, the..."

Tue, 07 May 2013 22:44:10 -0400

“

When the child was a child
It walked with its arms swinging,
wanted the brook to be a river,
the river to be a torrent,
and this puddle to be the sea.

When the child was a child,
it didn’t know that it was a child,
everything was soulful,
and all souls were one.

When the child was a child,
it had no opinion about anything,
had no habits,
it often sat cross-legged,
took off running,
had a cowlick in its hair,
and made no faces when photographed.

When the child was a child,
It was the time for these questions:
Why am I me, and why not you?
Why am I here, and why not there?
When did time begin, and where does space end?
Is life under the sun not just a dream?
Is what I see and hear and smell
not just an illusion of a world before the world?
Given the facts of evil and people.
does evil really exist?
How can it be that I, who I am,
didn’t exist before I came to be,
and that, someday, I, who I am,
will no longer be who I am?

When the child was a child,
It choked on spinach, on peas, on rice pudding,
and on steamed cauliflower,
and eats all of those now, and not just because it has to.

When the child was a child,
it awoke once in a strange bed,
and now does so again and again.
Many people, then, seemed beautiful,
and now only a few do, by sheer luck.

It had visualized a clear image of Paradise,
and now can at most guess,
could not conceive of nothingness,
and shudders today at the thought.

When the child was a child,
It played with enthusiasm,
and, now, has just as much excitement as then,
but only when it concerns its work.

When the child was a child,
It was enough for it to eat an apple, … bread,
And so it is even now.

When the child was a child,
Berries filled its hand as only berries do,
and do even now,
Fresh walnuts made its tongue raw,
and do even now,
it had, on every mountaintop,
the longing for a higher mountain yet,
and in every city,
the longing for an even greater city,
and that is still so,
It reached for cherries in topmost branches of trees
with an elation it still has today,
has a shyness in front of strangers,
and has that even now.
It awaited the first snow,
And waits that way even now.

When the child was a child,
It threw a stick like a lance against a tree,
And it quivers there still today.

”

- Just finished my undergraduate schoolidge…finished things with a screening of Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire…wonderful friends abound. Feeling a little crazy. More questions than answers

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/17/177583008/book-new...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:25:15 -0400

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/17/177583008/book-news-pulitzer-winner-takes-on-a-whole-new-meaning

The People’s Library was featured on NPR’s Book News!!

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pageviews/2013/04/in-richmond-va...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 22:20:46 -0400

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pageviews/2013/04/in-richmond-va-you-dont-have-to-be-famous-to-have-your-story-in-the-library

Awesome People’s Library article in the New York Daily News today! Don’t know how they heard about it but so excited/hopeful that the ‘word’ is getting out there. Thanks to all the amazing people / institutions that have supported this project. Really exciting meeting today at the library…think the installation at the Main Branch in Richmond is going to be so beautiful! More to come!

http://www.lightleaked.com/ So excited to be featured on Light...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 22:09:18 -0400

http://www.lightleaked.com/

So excited to be featured on Light Leaked! Awesome website by an awesome lady…submit to it!

http://rvamag.com/articles/full/19984/the-peoples-library-project...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 08:03:00 -0400

http://rvamag.com/articles/full/19984/the-peoples-library-project-creating-a-diy-historical-record

Awesome weekend of workshops. Made enough paper for close to a hundred people to have their own books in the collection and started binding the books…they’re going to be so beautiful! Thanks to all who came out, and to Brian and RVA Magazine for the article.

http://wtvr.com/2013/04/09/the-peoples-library-richmond/ The...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:13:57 -0400

http://wtvr.com/2013/04/09/the-peoples-library-richmond/

The People’s Library on CBS! They got it mostly right…except that we’re creating a 1000 blank books for anyone in the community to include their histories in…not a 100.

Check out how goofy we look on the news! Free People’s Library workshops this Friday and Saturday at the Visual Arts Center! We always need more people! Come out if you can.

Awesome printmaking workshop with the incredible folks at Studio...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 11:54:00 -0400

Awesome printmaking workshop with the incredible folks at Studio Two Three…did the title pages for 300 books!

www.nomovement.com

http://www.arts.vcu.edu/photofilm/news/2013-anderson-gallery-juri...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:31:29 -0400

http://www.arts.vcu.edu/photofilm/news/2013-anderson-gallery-juried-student-exhibition-winners-announced/

Holy Moly…Lisa Freiman, senior curator at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, honored me with the Dean’s Award / Best in Show for the 2013 VCU Undergraduate Juried Exhibit!!! Hands were shaking for an hour.

http://www.fototazo.com/ Craziness. Some Other Places...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:29:00 -0400

http://www.fototazo.com/

Craziness. Some Other Places We’ve Missed was featured on the front page of Fototazo!!!…they do really really great work. Huge thanks to Tom for his time and support…

Check out their micro-grant program…amazing people doing amazing things

VCU gave us a crazy grant for the People’s Library...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:30:03 -0400

VCU gave us a crazy grant for the People’s Library project! Will pay for everything! So excited. Horrible photo of us can be found below…

http://arts.vcu.edu/opportunities/research/undergraduate/undergraduate-research-grant/

1st Mock-up’s for the multi-site public installation and...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:57:00 -0500

1st Mock-up’s for the multi-site public installation and corresponding gallery exhibit I’m putting together this June in Charlottesville, VA. More to come…

Geeeez! Got the SPESouth East (Society for Photographic...

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 14:58:00 -0500

Geeeez! Got the SPESouth East (Society for Photographic Education) Undergraduate Scholarship!

Going to Chicago for this year’s conference…high on the hog. Excited

Some awesome sounding talks/events…and a million other things in Chicago to see and eat!

https://www.spenational.org/conference

Rough scans. Ruined rolls.

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:17:00 -0500

Rough scans. Ruined rolls.

Some new images for Some Other Places We’ve...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:11:00 -0500

Some new images for Some Other Places We’ve Missed.

Getting ready for a really exciting exhibition of the work…will include audio, video, additional programming, a library of prison books…

People’s Library in full effect! Workshops in March/April...

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:41:00 -0500

People’s Library in full effect! Workshops in March/April every Tuesday and Thursday at the Main Branch of the Richmond Public LIbrary.

2PM, All Are Welcome, All Participation is Free.

Other workshop locations/partnerships announced soon (some really awesome groups, museums, schools, institutions! Excited!).

http://nomovement.com/People-s-LIbrary