Tag: collaboration

Community and Collaboration Part 2

Since I wrote my last post, and with my lecture series coming up in 2019, I’ve been thinking more and more about Community in the context of a healthy art practice.

 

For me, it can be really easy to isolate artistically. I struggle with some common self-sabotaging creative blocks like:

 

“Someone else has already done this, what’s the point of my doing it?”

“Someone will steal my ideas or get credit for my labor/ideas.”

“My ideas aren’t really important, good, relevant, etc…”

 

These, among a litany of other personal and collective messages about creativity and artists, can really get in the way of a successful creative life. Community, but especially the COLLABORATION that emerges from Creative Community, is a way to break down barriers to art making.

 

Over the next three posts, I will be sharing encounters I have had over the last couple of weeks that emphasize the importance of community and collaboration as an artist. This week, we’ll start with Louis.

 

Louis Chavez

 

Photo of Louis Chavez by Megan May, iphone

I met Louis through a friend of a friend. Louis Chavez is a Southern California transplant like me. They like to say, “We’re both California Girls.”

 

We both escaped our dessert hometowns to find healing and queer community in the cool moist air of the Northwest Coast. We’re ‘85 babies. We both love film photography. And, for now, we both reside in Rochester NY. Obviously, a collaborative duo destined in the stars.

 

Louis has encountered a lot of generosity as they have developed their photography practice. Friends, fellow photographers, willing to lend film, cameras and other resources in order that learning and creative development were possible.

Photo of Megan May by Louis Chavez, Film, Kodak Portra

 

Louis has taken this kindness and paid it forward with me. They’ve been willing to lend me film as well as their time and knowledge so I could understand my love of large format film photography better.

 

We’ve been meeting weekly for the past couple of months now. I feel very comfortable with Louis and during our last session, I started to get into an element of my performance practice that I usually only express when alone. I love the images he captured of my weird expression experiment.

Photo of Performance by Megan May photograph by Louis Chavez, Film, 120mm

 

My first two packs of 4” x  5” Kodak Film came in the mail this week (Ektar and Portra if you were wondering).

 

I’ll be moving much of my photographic practice into large format and I couldn’t be more excited. This wouldn’t be possible were it not for the collaboration and generosity with my friend Louis.

 

My ideas and my expression are important to Louis. He finds me inspiring and says so. His knowledge, patience, and support helps me feel confident and inspired too. When we work together we talk, laugh and create art. This collaborative relationship provides me with an experience to push back against of my limiting beliefs about my work and its importance. It is a very valuable bond.

I’ll be teaching a Lecture Series in the winter titled, “The Art of Being an Artist.” Lectures will take place on the third Thursday of the month January-March. In January my lecture will focus on the role of community and collaboration in my life as an artist. Look out for a full schedule of my lectures and classes and FCAC in the winter schedule!

follow Louis Chavez @llouischavezz & chavezlouis.com

Community and Collaboration Part 1

 

Hi Everyone!

 

Over the next couple of posts, I want to share my experience with community and collaboration as an Artist and why I think they are essential aspects of a healthy art practice.

 

As you know from recent posts, I moved here from Southern California. It’s a big distance to move and besides from several acquaintances and a couple friends of a friend, I didn’t really know ANYBODY.

 

Luckily, I moved here to be an Artist in Residence at a Community Art Center. Like it or not, by default I was going to be part of a community!

 

As a person and as an artist, community and collaboration have given me several very important things over the past couple of months.

 

First of all, the Community is a resource. It is a place to belong, to learn and to share wisdom, knowledge, and experiences. It is a balance between giving and receiving in a social and relational context.

 

Here is why this is important for Artists: sometimes we have BIG IDEAS and GRAND VISIONS. These big ideas and grand visions need a lot of support. They usually require us to develop new skills, find venues to share our work in, financial backing, people power, materials, time and space. That’s a lot for one artist to contend with. Or come up with alone.

 

Flower City Arts Center has connected me with people who have knowledge and skills I don’t have. Connecting with them is helping me grow my skill set and my art practice. It is also helping me refine the concept for my show in April and is helping me build relationships that are beneficial on a personal and professional level.

 

I have also had the pleasure of teaching while at FCAC. I have interacted now with both adults and youth in a facilitator position and this has been incredibly valuable. As an artist, teaching allows me to gain confidence in my own knowledge and skill set. Teaching helps me to experience first hand what value I bring to an environment. This is truly a remarkable feeling.

My teaching experience helps me refine my problem solving and organizational skills, helps me continue to define my value and purpose within the community and helps clarify where I have room to grow.

 

How has your community benefitted you as a person and an artist?

 

Stay tuned in for my upcoming posts on the same theme. I’ll be sharing about specific classes and people who have been integral to my residency so far!

 

I’ll be teaching a Lecture Series in the winter titled, The Art of Being an Artist. Lectures will take place on the third Thursday of the month January-March. In January my lecture will focus on the role of community and collaboration in my life as an artist. Look out for a full schedule of my lectures and classes and FCAC in the winter schedule!