Re: EXPLOITATION!

From: Marilyn Brakhage (email suppressed)
Date: Sun Mar 12 2006 - 16:15:18 PST


On Sunday, March 12, 2006, at 12:26 PM, David Tetzlaff wrote:

> But more importantly, this teacher vs.
> artist distinction is wholly false. AFAIK, Stan Brakhage supported
> himself
> through most of his life by teaching. The film work for he may not have
> been 'sufficiently' paid, established his qualifications to attain a
> teaching post, therefore he received a kind of indirect compensation.

Actually, Stan was able to make a living as a teacher because of his
gifts as a speaker, writer, teacher. He made a living of sorts on the
lecture circuit for years, and published a somewhat influential book,
before being hired by first the Chicago Art Institute and then the
University of Colorado. Yes, he was making a name as a filmmaker, but
also as a theoretician and speaker. Stan was a teacher as well as an
artist. Not everyone can do that. There are many great artists who
could never make a living as a teacher. What about them? . . . And
Stan, like you, probably would have gone on teaching in some way even
if he wasn't paid to, because that was also something he just naturally
was and did. But that was not his art. And he also dreamed of being
"allowed to just be an artist." (Not because he "enjoyed" it though --
but just because that's what he was.)

> Almost everyone in academia creates scholarly or creative work for
> which
> they receive no significant direct monetary compensation.

I am aware of the expectations for "research and creative work" and/or
"administrative duties" that come with teaching positions. What work
is actually done, and the relative value that much of it has, would be
another topic which I don't really want to get into. However, an
obsessed artist is not necessarily well-suited to many aspects of that
environment. While it might be fairly natural for a scholar to both
teach and write about his or her scholarly interests, it is not
necessarily quite as natural for an artist to be an academic advisor,
or to do university committee work, or for that matter even to teach,
as I noted above. . . . And as for Stan, the creative work that he
produced went way, way, WAY beyond the requirements of his teaching
position.

Marilyn

> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>

__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.