I am so truly blessed to have had so many opportunities over the past ten years as a practicing artist. Here are some highlights from the last ten years.
A Retrospective of Jennifer A. Weigel’s Art Career
As Noted through Thanksgiving, Nov. 22, 2012:
Jennifer A. Weigel has shipped artworks overseas to two countries, and to twenty states for various group & mail art events, exhibitions and projects: Alaska, Arizona, California, France, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ireland, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Jennifer A. Weigel’s artworks have been shown in over two-hundred fifty group events, exhibitions, and projects, including all-inclusive, alternative, boutique, cold-calling, curated, fair, happenstance, invitational, juried, local, market, membership-based, non-local, plein air, spontaneous, themed and more.
Jennifer A. Weigel has had twenty solo shows, personal projects & curatorial group exhibits in various bookstores, coffee shops, commercial galleries, non-profit managed alternative spaces, restaurants and other venues, throughout the St. Louis metro region and into Missouri.
Jennifer A. Weigel’s works have been offered for sale on an ongoing basis in twelve art cooperatives, boutiques, businesses, and commercial venues.
Jennifer A. Weigel has won ten awards through art competitions & juried shows. Weigel has been featured in seven publications worldwide, both in interviews and with her own writing, and has given four presentations & workshops about her work. She has been selected to serve on a jury panel for one art fair and to serve as the sole juror for one exhibition.
Jennifer A. Weigel has been rejected from over two-hundred fifty open & invitational calls. Sixty-eight declinations were for solo & curatorial proposals.
Jennifer A. Weigel has held memberships nationally in over twenty-five art cooperatives, galleries, groups, museums, non-profits, organizations and more.
Jennifer A. Weigel has donated artworks to more than forty art auctions, events and fundraisers supporting various causes including advocacy, animal, art, child, feminist, health, political, social welfare, women, and more.
Jennifer A. Weigel owns one website devoted to her art, with help from her husband Charles G. Wilbur, and manages five blogs, one Café Press store, a YouTube account, an eBay store, and is inactive in over seven social networking sites. Pages devoted to Weigel’s works can be found on three other websites.
On the darker side, I have encountered hostility, maltreatment and unprofessionalism over the course of my career. Here are some selections from among those trials and tribulations:
ReplyDeleteArtworks lost, misplaced, stolen, trashed, etc.
Artworks repriced lower by the venue representing them without consulting me.
Artworks uninstalled for one-day events with no warning, despite my promoting those events beforehand as opportunities to see my art there.
Avoided, bullied, ostracized, given the run-around & stigmatized within different sectors of the art community.
Cat urinated on my art.
Commissions for sales of my work entirely neglected or paid out to other artists.
Contacted via phone after 11 PM less than two nights before a show by the curator to discuss details of my proposal, which the curator had misinterpreted, and then told that the curator's vision for my piece was better than my own and that I should make that version happen despite not having the logistical means to do so and the deadline for acceptance & declinations having passed much prior.
Cross-credited with another artist whose name is slightly similar to my own but works in a totally different genre.
Dog defecated in the gallery and chewed & rolled on sculpture.
Entries lost or applied to different themed shows than I had entered (to which, unsurprisingly, they didn't get in).
Event dates listed wrong in art calendars.
Exhibitions uninstalled for events and reinstalled badly without consideration or respect for the art.
Expected to clean up and help manage gallery space (cleaning, construction, painting, etc.) despite having no discussion beforehand to that effect.
Expected to honor agreements made by others on my behalf without them first consulting me to see if I could or was able to do so.
Fellow artists responded unprofessionally or did not respond at all to show guidelines concerning drop off, installation, nomenclature, other instructions, etc.
Gallery engaged in major construction the week prior to the show, not out of necessity or something breaking but just to do the work then.
Lack of declination responses (not even a mass-email), even when charging entry fees.
My name constantly misspelled.
Personally insulted by those within the art community based upon non art-related factors.
Propositioned for sex.
Roped into becoming more involved than originally implied by not truthfully divulging the actual situation at hand.
Screamed at and cursed out for my art or for asking questions seeking clarification on entry & submission instructions.
Shows cancelled or changed last minute.
Talked about behind my back.
Threats made against my art, life & person.
Told to my face that I would make a better curator, supporter, writer, etc. than an artist.
Told to my face that my art is disgusting, horrible, worthless, etc. and that I should pursue something else.
Told to my face that the rental space event the following day was more important than the show and that the gallery owner didn't care if the gallery was in order for the reception with the out-of-town juror that night.
Venues noted wrong in promotion and publicity.