Mona Lerch of Art Mums United

Mona Lerch is the founder of Art Mums United and the Women United ART PRIZE

You are the founder of an arts platform, a visual artist, and former dance choreographer. When did your life in the arts first begin?
To be honest, I think art as such was always a part of my life in some way. Both of my parents worked in the TV industry – my dad, originally a historian, as an assistant director and my mum as an assistant editor for the news and later in film production. Thanks to that, I had my first (and last) short movie role when I was about two years old. When I turned eight, my mum asked me if I wanted to start attending drama classes at school, I said yes. And when I was ten, she asked me if I wanted to try a dance camp for kids, I said yes. Little did I know that I was about to fall in love with dancing and that it was the beginning of my 20-year-long journey. I had no idea that I would also fall in love with painting in 2012.

What was the catalyst for Art Mums United?
In 2020, I hired my first coach and it was the best decision I could’ve made. I was in the middle of my maternity leave (it lasts 3 years in the Czech Republic) and I wanted to find out what’s possible in the art world. Until then, I believed that my only option is to create and wait for someone to buy my art. I wanted more. I wanted to create, continue healing from the events that caused my postpartum trauma, empower and inspire other art mums and become a full-time artist and artpreneur. I received so much support from my coach who helped me form a solid ground for my own business. And it’s been evolving ever since. We’ll celebrate our first anniversary in September.

Creating an extensive online platform such as Art Mums United must require substantial experience in graphic design, among other technical skills. What was the process of launching this site like, and did you run into any challenges along the way?
Well, believe it or not, I am not tech-savvy. I learn as I go. I am only a human being so I curse a lot when encountering issues with tech. In the end, I always make it and celebrate. That’s one of the most important things – to celebrate your wins however small they are.

But, you are right, it’s a lot of work and a lot of small things you have to consider. It’s a process of trial and error. You have to test out various apps and software and decide what serves you the most and what makes your life easier. And you adjust as you scale.

Have you received any specific feedback from your artist community and/or audience that you have found especially meaningful?
Yes, I also ask my clients and artists for feedback because I want to make sure that I create things that are valuable for them. I think that the most amazing feedback I received were emails from my directory artists who were also interviewed for our blog. They said that my questions made them think about the stuff they’ve never thought about before. Some even described the experience as cathartic. When I read that, everything I do makes sense.

You are also launching the Women United ART PRIZE soon. Can you tell us more about this upcoming opportunity?
Women United ART PRIZE is an idea I had one night when I couldn’t fall asleep. I kept thinking about additional opportunities that would allow me to give back to the art community. While most of the opportunities at Art Mums United are dedicated to artist mothers, online exhibits and live interviews are open to women creatives in general.

With the art prize, I wanted to make sure there’s no confusion and no doubt that it’s a project for all female artists regardless of education, age, sexual orientation, race and location, who work in 2D (the categories being painting, drawing, analog collage, embroidery).

I am partnering with incredible platforms and art collectives such as Create! Magazine, Art Queens Society, Visionary Art Collective, The Curator’s Salon, Art Seen Magazine, PxP Contemporary. The main prize is a cash prize for the first three artists. The judges are professionals I’ve admired for a long time and it’s an honor that they agreed to collaborate with me on this project – Ekaterina Popova (visual artist, author, podcast host, artist coach, founder of Create! Magazine and the Art Queens Society), Gita Joshi (curator, artist coach, podcast host and founder of The Curator’s Salon and Art Seen Magazine), Tam Gryn (head curator at Showfields), Sasha-Loriene (visual artist and founder of Black Girls Who Paint). It’s a celebration of women and the biggest project I started so far. I’m so excited about it and I believe it’s the beginning of something great and truly amazing.

What do you find most rewarding about the curation process?
I love seeing the diversity among artists. I read every single word of the artist bios, statements and other written documents when curating for the directory and interviews. I want the artists to be seen, heard, understood and validated and so it’s important to me to know their stories and provide them with space where they can share their journey and inspire others. It’s also about the healing process and normalizing the taboos such as postpartum depression, anxiety, etc. as many of us faced this and felt lonely and isolated because society wants to see happy mums. To be a woman in the art industry is not easy and to be also a mum does not make it any easier. Getting to know other strong, powerful women is the most rewarding thing about the curation process for me.

What are some of the challenges that you face?
Haha, where do I begin? First, let me tell you that I love challenges because they make me stronger. This year, I actually make sure that I add more challenges to my life. I am an introvert and showing up constantly, hosting webinars and conducting live interviews with other artists is way out of my comfort zone. Well, it used to be. Once we step outside of our comfort zone and face our fears, do the things we are afraid of doing and look back, they don’t seem so scary any longer. And if I was to be specific, I must say TIME! Mostly, I work when my son’s asleep so I don’t intrude on our time together. Sometimes, that means working till late night hours. I wish my days were longer but doesn’t everybody?

Are there certain qualities that you look for in artists in deciding whether they will be pleasurable to work with? And on the contrary, any areas for improvement artists should be aware of?
This is a great question and I feel it relates more to my coaching practice. Coaching, and specifically 1:1 coaching, is a very intimate relationship between the coach and the coachee. You need to make sure that you create a safe space for your client and that you are a good fit. That’s why discovery calls are crucial in getting to know your prospect. Together, we identify the client’s challenges, struggles, needs and goals and possible solutions during the call. The match has to be perfect. The potential client has to make the decision. They have to be ready to say yes to themselves and invest in their future.

One thing I can definitely list here as an area for improvement is the quality of photos and written materials when submitting to calls for art. My experience is that artists often don’t follow the submission requirements which may result in their exclusion from the selection process. I have created a submission guide that is available on the website but there are so many valuable free resources regarding this topic on other platforms too.

Do you have future plans for Art Mums United beyond what it is today?
Absolutely. I have many ideas and plans that I want to introduce. I always take one step at a time so I don’t get overwhelmed with too many tasks. It helps me keep my head clear and identify what works and what doesn’t. I can definitely share that I am planning on launching a podcast and a self-guided course. These are plans I have for this year. Ideas keep coming so I bet there’s much more coming up!

https://www.artmumsunited.com/

John Seed - Art Writer and Curator

John Seed is an award winning art writer, author and curator based in California

 

John Seed with Kyle Staver's "Biker Triptych" at the exhibition "Honoring the Legacy of David Park," Santa Clara University 2017. Photo by Marie Cameron.

When did you first recognize your passion for the arts?
I remember standing at the easel outside my kindergarten classroom painting a picture of a red airplane in poster paint that I showed to my teacher. So that is an early memory. Art was always there for me growing up and it took many different forms. I built model airplanes, drew cartoon characters and made puppets. Surprisingly, when I came home from college and told my parents that I wanted to major in art my parents were stunned because art did not seem like a career path to them. They had thought art was a hobby that I would grow out of.
For me, making art was just a natural continuation of the creative drive that had always been there. I had to be an artist: it was a done deal.

Were there any specific events that led you to your role as curator and art writer?
During my high school years I had excellent writing teachers that provided me with the kinds of skills that got me into a good college and helped me write essays and term papers. Still, I didn’t really connect writing and art until I had been teaching art and art history at a community college for about 15 years.
Then, when I helped start a group called EBSQ that was for artists who sold their art on eBay, I became the editor of an online zine which I sometimes wrote for. A few years later I had a health crisis in the form of testicular cancer and during my recovery from chemo I researched and wrote a magazine article about Arman Manookian, an Armenian American artist who had taken his own life at the age of 27 in 1931. A year after it was published the article was given a Society of Professional Journalist’s Award. That award woke me up to the idea that maybe I should keep writing about art.
My big opportunity came when I was given a blog by the HuffingtonPost Arts page in May of 2010. I dove in and wrote a blog a week for seven years, establishing myself as a writer and developing my own voice and inclinations. Although I wrote in a variety of formats, including reviews, profiles and satires, something I kept coming back to was writing about representational art and artists. That specialty made friends and brought me my first opportunities as a curator.

What do you feel is the ultimate purpose of art within our society?
Art gives us all something to talk about. The other day on Facebook an art collector I follow put up some information about an artist he has been collecting. I told him (in a friendly way) that I didn’t care for that artist’s work. He replied: “That’s fine,” and went on to say that knowing my taste he figures I would like about half of what he collects. That figure is a little low, but as our Facebook discussion continued I loved the way that we could have our opinions and it was all OK. We so need more of that in the world—the ability to respect each other when we see things differently or have different tastes—and art can provide that.
Art can give us a center, something to have in common even as we acknowledge our differences.

And of course, on a personal level, art satisfies my visual inclinations. I’m a visual person and remember that as a little kid I used to be found by people with my mouth open just staring at things. In our home I have a downstairs room, kind of a “Cultured Man Cave” just crammed with art that I have collected. I stare at it all day, one piece at a time and of course add new things and rotate the collection now and then. Having those works of art—some expensive, some inexpensive, some by friends, some by people I have never met—allows my eyes and imagination to roam and be satisfied. Each work of art takes me on a journey into the thoughts and experiences of the person who made it, offering me a connection with them.

Tell us a little about your book “Disrupted Realism: Paintings for a Distracted World”. What compelled you to compile and write about such artworks and what were some specific qualities of the artists you chose for this project?
While blogging for the HuffingtonPost I interviewed over 100 artists and many of them were, to some degree, realists. Over time I noticed a lot of variations and realized that many artists had things to say with their work that didn’t fall into any convenient or existing categories. After my friend F. Scott Hess gave a lecture on “Discombobulation” in art, which dealt with movement and visual complexity and confusion, I realized that I needed to keep exploring those ideas.

As I gathered artists for the book the most important thing was quality. I made an effort to choose art and artists that I responded to and felt were both serious and original. I was also looking for strong individuals who had moved away from Realism and had come up with a hybrid or personal style that said something that couldn’t be expressed any other way. I looked at the work of several hundred artists to choose 38 for the book.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764358014/

You offer artist critiques. What are some of the most common areas of improvement that artists should be aware of?
I often tell painters to ask themselves a few key questions. One of them is “Why does this need to be painted?” That question and all its implications is meant to get artists thinking about many things. One is that paint itself is a very flexible and expressive medium that each artist can find a way to vary his/her use of. Another is that subject matter is very important and should be worthy of an artist’s time and energies. And of course, I want to urge artists to be introspective and keep examining their own inner lives and motivations.

Another thing I urge artists to do is to make experimental work on the side. Many artists get very caught up in making that “body of work” that they can show to gallery owners or use to apply for an MFA program. In doing that, they can forget to simply have fun and keep exploring. You should make work for yourself, not just for the public.

How do you feel about the trending transition from brick and mortar galleries to online platforms?
Like many internet-related phenomena it cuts both ways. On the positive side it is very easy for artists to have their work be seen and sold. On the negative side, some art just doesn’t work well when reduced to a web image, so work that is bold and Instagram friendly is “winning” over more subtle work.

Also, I think dealers can be really important. Their vision and support can make an artist’s career and as more work is shown and sold online the role of dealers is being diminished. I know that there are and always will be dealers who are dishonest or incompetent, but the good ones are extremely valuable to artists and play a vital role.

Finally, there is so much work online that the sheer glut works against deep engagement and discernment. Immediacy rules the day. Work seen in person has more of a chance to let its complexity unfold and bloom.

What do you find most rewarding about the curation process?
Helping artists makes me happy. When I am able to give an artist wall space, award them a prize, or introduce their work to people who appreciate it I have done my job. I can be self-centered when I need to be (which is often) but curation gets me out of myself and puts me in a position to help other artists.

What do you find most challenging?
The challenges of actually gathering and assembling physical works of art can be daunting and shipping can be expensive and perilous. FedEx recently lost (and then found) three precious works headed for a show I organized in Michigan and that was nerve-wracking.

Do you have future plans for curatorial projects, beyond what you are doing today?
Writing is my main activity, but I curate when asked. I’m working on a “Disrupted Realism” themed group show for the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia that will open this fall, and another for a gallery in South Carolina that should open in 2022. As things open up more post-COVID I’m sure there will be other projects.

In the past few years my interest in Asian Art has increased and I have been doing research and writing for Arts of Asia magazine and Sotheby’s Asia.

I also find myself doing a lot of webinars. Here are some online talks I’ll be doing for the Winslow Art Center:

https://winslowartcenter.com/product-category/online-courses/lectures/

http://www.johnseed.com/

Artist Spotlight: Christiane Cegavske

 Enter the dark and enchanted world of
 
Christiane Cegavske: Creator Extraordinaire.

Photo Credit: Robin Loznak

In this world, we are plunged into a Victorian-esque dreamscape where otherworldly beings magically spring to life. An amalgamation, these creatures may be reminiscent of what we see in the real world, yet are spun entirely from Cegavske’s unparalleled imagination. You might find them frolicking in sunlit fields or lurking behind spindly, web laden trees; either way, you will find yourself drawn into their intense, dream like allegory.

Christiane Cegavske is an award winning stop-motion animation artist best known for her feature length film Blood Tea and Red String. Recognized internationally for her distinctive talent, the film has seen 47 official screenings in numerous countries across the globe and has received excellent reviews from The New York Times, The New York Post, Variety and others. She was recently awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in support of her current intriguing creations in progress. Among her other outlets of creativity include puppet and doll making, painting, drawing, costume making, and poetry. She is a creator extraordinaire, to be sure.



Still from Blood Tea and Red String

Everything in her films, from the puppets and the costumes they wear, to the miniature sets in which they are brought to life, is handmade. Cegavske often works in isolation for hours on end in her home studio in Oregon. In the spirit of the old masters of stop-motion (Jan Svankmeyer comes to mind), her worlds are created with painstaking detail and include the use of natural objects, such as animal bones and seed pods, as well as household materials like cellophane and cotton balls, to create life mimicking effects.

One thing that strikes me most about Cegavske’s work is that it is heavily steeped in symbolism. Select objects such as seeds, eggs and gemstones represent spiritual sentiments that are in turn reflected by the demeanor of the characters. The dichotomy of compassion and societal corruption is experienced through the feverish, winding plot in Blood Tea and Red String. Here we encounter flute playing forest creatures that look like a cross between rodent, bird and human, which represent innocence, play, and trust in their fellow forest neighbors. The softness of their nature is contrasted by a clan of regally dressed, blood tea drinking mice who attempt to steal the thing that is most dear to them: a hand sewn marionette doll who births a flying bird girl. This bird girl was conceived from an egg after it was planted and sewn, with red string, into the hollow fabric belly of the lifeless marionette. Overall the tale is heartrending, hypnotic; I would even say psychedelic.



Still from Blood Tea and Red String

After seeing her film for the first time 11 years ago, I was compelled to check out what other seductive creations Cegavske had made. I was thrilled to discover her 2D works, which can be interpreted as an extension of the 3D realms seen in her films. These images are also rich with symbolism and even contain biographical elements, according to Cegavske. In this work we often witness dolls, whose stitched placid smiles only partially disguise an internal mourning. We find them embraced by menacing skeletons, ravished by crows, or wandering aimlessly in a never ending sea of sand.



  Death and the Doll

In 2018 it was an immense honor to curate a show at the Art Queen Gallery in Joshua Tree, CA, titled Fever Dream, which featured Cegavske’s multi-faceted work. The show included a series of paintings and drawings to be viewed as a type of daily diary, several haunting life size marionette dolls, and a life size paper boat which lay center stage. Upon the opening reception night, she graced the audience with a presentation of a previous short as well as snippets from her current work in progress, Seed in the Sand.

Her upcoming film Seed in the Sand will also be a stop-motion animation feature and is sure to be another deeply enchanting tale and perhaps even more refined, given the newer technologies available for animation artists today. The film’s production is in collaboration with talented music and voice artists Karie Jacobson and Drew Kowalski, with specific scenes driven by unique compositions. Sneak peeks of this work reveal characters such as a shimmering sea monster and furry red beaked critters immersed in complicated ritual and synchronized dance.



   Still from Seed in the Sand

While we all (impatiently!) await the completion of Seed in the Sand, hop on over to sites such as Amazon or Vimeo to either re-watch -or behold for the first time- her previous masterpiece Blood Tea and Red String. And by all means, don’t stop there: peruse her website for a complete taste of her creative offerings which will include other short films, paintings, prints, dolls, puppets, books, fabric designs and more. If you are interested in supporting Cegavske’s current project, become a patron on her Patreon site, offering various membership levels and perks.

http://christianecegavske.com

https://www.patreon.com/cegavske

Still from Seed in the Sand