A poster of President Barack Obama, right, by artist Shepard Fairey is shown for comparison with this April 27, 2006 file photo of then-Sen. Barack Obama by Associated Press photographer Mannie Garcia. (AP Photo/Mannie Garcia/ Shepard Fairey)
The debate over Shepard Fairey’s work continues, with Print Magazine today featuring the thoughts of legendary poster artist Milton Glaser, he of the Dylan print featured below. While Glaser seems to believe in Fairey’s artistic abilities – and also espouses a belief that artists should build on the work of others – he questions whether Fairey goes far enough in making pieces his own, or simply appropriates the work of a fellow artist. Click to continue »
Mary Yeager's merit badges
I was in scouting growing up and managed to earn my fair share of badges, those little round symbols of glory and success. While they ranged from astronomy to cooking to swimming, none quite looked like the badges imagined by Mary Yeager (and not just because I was a young boy).
From Yeager’s site:
My female merit badges illustrate female “rites of passage” as well as the myriad physical manipulations women undergo to achieve cultural ideals of beauty, such as weight watching, whether or not to shave or wear makeup, etc. I’ve created tiny replicas of female products, such as a birth control pill pack and a pregnancy test. The miniature scale and meticulous, hand-embroidered surfaces convey my impressions of growing up female in our culture.
You can see her work up close in New York at Forget Me Not (Gallery Hanahou) from February 6th to 27th, 2009.
(h/t to Shameless Mag)
The Conservatives came out with their election platform today, and they couldn’t help but include a nugget for artists, what with all their complainin’ and protestin’ at their fancy-dancy TV galas.
As reported on CTV.ca:
“The platform also makes changes to controversial tax eligibility legislation for film projects, which had been passed in the House of Commons as part of a larger omnibus bill. The changes allowed government to have the final say on which projects qualified for the exemption, and many in the arts community said it was tantamount to censorship.”
That’s right, Bill C-10 is toast. So television and film producers will be able to continue to rely on the very necessary post-production tax credits provided by Revenue Canada without the worry of government censorship.
As both CTV and the National Post point out, the move is obviously an attempt to quell all the ruckus over the fact that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives hate art, or at least publicly funded art. Or hate to publicly fund art (particularly art they disagree with).
In any case, it means that $45 million is still missing from arts funding ($60 million if you count the nixed New Media funds). So while maybe Young People Fucking will still get tax credits, Holy Fuck will still be stuck at home, and anyone who cares about the arts should still vote ABC.
Despite statements made to the contrary at the time, the $2.5 million that the Conservative government cut from the National Film Board of Canada's budget in March is resulting in more jobs being lost, including in programming.
The NFB, Canada's sole publicly-funded film agency, has announced it will be eliminating 22 positions, including two of its three remaining staff directors.
Paul Cowan and Beverly Shaffer, two of Canada's most renowned documentary film directors, with a combined 46 NFB films to their names, will now be joining the ranks of Canada's private filmmakers (including other NFB alumni who have seen their jobs disappear during previous rounds of Liberal and Tory backed cuts).
The sole director remaining on staff will be Alanis Obomsawin.
Bredan Kelly has more in a good article from today's Montreal Gazette.
Opposition keeps growing to the Conservative government’s Bill C-10. The controversial bill would allow the Minister of Heritage to rescind tax-credits from television programs and films after production should they deem it ‘contrary to public policy.’
Today the mayors of Montreal and Toronto made the nickel and dime argument against C-10 to the Senate banking committee:
“This industry is of incredible importance,” said [Toronto Mayor David] Miller after telling the senators that it employs 35,000 people in his city — more than the manufacturing sector. Its artistic and financial success depends on its “continued ability to work in a field where the boundaries are well defined and political interference or censorship will not be tolerated.”
Mayor Gerald Tremblay of Montreal told the committee that the film industry has been active in his city for 60 years and that the industry is worth $1.3-billion to his province.
“Having read the bill, we feel obliged to state that the measures relating to tax incentives introduce an element of uncertainty which would have a negative financial impact on the production of Canadian and Quebec film because the minister might be able to call for the repaying of tax credits after the film has been completed,” said [Montreal] Mayor [Gerald] Tremblay.
The mayors also presented letters of support from Sam Sullivan, mayor of Vancouver (which takes in the most money from TV & film production in North America after New York and Los Angeles), and Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly, who argued that hits like Trailer Park Boys may never have received the financial backing necessary if Bill C-10 had been in place.
The saga continues as it is now up to the Senate to vote on the bill. Part of an income tax bill, the government has said the vote on the bill is considered a confidence motion. While many senators have voiced opposition, it isn’t clear whether they are willing to force an election over the issue.
Image courtesy of Blogue PVI
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