“I spent months resisting the reality that The Stranger is not currently a viable place for me to do the work I’ve always cared about,” she said, announcing her departure on Twitter this morning.
Graves, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for criticism and a nominee for the best art reporting award from the U.S. section of the International Association of Art Critics, was an increasing rare entity: an art critic working full time at a major city newspaper. The number of people in that role has dwindled in recent years as the media business has struggled and publications have cut staff.
In an interview by phone today, Graves told me, “The Stranger supported my work for a long time in an environment where nobody else was supporting this kind of work, really. Critics have peeled off in Seattle.” When she moved to town 11 years ago, she said, every other major publication had a staff art critic. Following her resignation, none will. “Whatever kind of strategy infected those other places may have reached The Stranger,” she said.
I waited, hoping I’d have time to devote, waiting to write a Great V-Note: something worthy of this woman and the work she’s done. But time is not something I can wait for. Best not to wait until the perfect moment to offer my homage, my monumental thanks to Jen Graves. If it didn’t fall right off her sneakers, I would offer her my sniveling worship, but if I’m going to do it at all I’d better do it NOW.
I have the urge to paint her on a canvas 9′ tall, on a throne surrounded by flowers people like me would give her. The flowers are white, the painting and the woman is in shades of warm white and pink. Pink. I’m sorry, but yes, it’s pink. It just is.
Maybe it’s her friendliness. Her sharp mind blossoms into an open face that I can, and did, easily tell everything to on several occasions.
The woman hasn’t died, I tell myself. She’s still here. And to my knowledge she isn’t leaving the city. I pray she doesn’t. Not because I need her directly and not because I’ve read everything she wrote and would again when she again takes aim at the keyboard (I didn’t, but I should have), but because knowing she’s there, knowing she’s doing the work she does, just makes me feel better. Having Jen Graves as a weekly arts critic is like having a superhero, fighting for your cause while you keep focused on your own battles.
She is one of the smartest and savviest people I have ever met. She’s sophisticated and raw, beyond smart and hilariously funny. And she’s friendly. Warm. I trust her. I knew immediately that she would never do anything to hurt me or my career. How many artists can easily say that about an art critic?
She looked at, she thought about, she celebrated, she supported art.
There are others, of course. And anyone who breathed an unkind word about Jen Graves did it, admittedly, because they wanted more voices in the city, not just the One. I agree, but I fear what happens in the absence of her post will be the opposite. Our city artists wanted more, and now we’ve lost our One.
I don’t know what happens to Jen Graves (she’s not dead, she’s just changing business cards) and I don’t know what happens to our city after this, but for the turn the print culture has taken, I am very very sad.
[image_with_animation image_url=”9888″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Wordsmith Studio Found poems are the literary equivalent of a collage, often made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, books, online texts (v-notes?), or even other poems. For today’s challenge, take an existing text and refashion it, reorder it, to make a poem. Thank you for sharing your …
Aurore de la Morinerie began as a fashion designer in Paris. She then spent two years studying chinese calligraphy, and traveled in Japan, India, China, and Egypt. She says that through calligraphy she learned concentration, strength and rapidity of execution. She now illustrates for clients like Hermes and Le Monde, with a parallel career as a fine …
[image_with_animation image_url=”9791″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Connie Pierson, Art: Before/After League Scientists say that making art improves your happiness quotient. Happy creatives have been posting work all over the everywhere on Facebook and Instagram pages. Connie Pierson, Lucy Garnett, Alex Walker, Bolinas Frank, Siobhan Wilder, Madeline Mimi Torchia Boothby, Elva Frances, Mahala Mrozek, Marina Vogman, Laura …
Today is day 28 of our 30 day creative challenge. Fridays are comics day. For today’s comic challenge, you’ll illustrate a quote from a random idea generator. As usual, feel free to draw, paint, print, collage, assemblage, photograph, or build an igloo out of sugar cubes. Here is your quote: Post it Post your work …
Jen Graves
I was a week late getting the news. Jen Graves resigns her position as Art Critic at the Stranger on February 8th.
From ArtNews:
“I spent months resisting the reality that The Stranger is not currently a viable place for me to do the work I’ve always cared about,” she said, announcing her departure on Twitter this morning.
Graves, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for criticism and a nominee for the best art reporting award from the U.S. section of the International Association of Art Critics, was an increasing rare entity: an art critic working full time at a major city newspaper. The number of people in that role has dwindled in recent years as the media business has struggled and publications have cut staff.
In an interview by phone today, Graves told me, “The Stranger supported my work for a long time in an environment where nobody else was supporting this kind of work, really. Critics have peeled off in Seattle.” When she moved to town 11 years ago, she said, every other major publication had a staff art critic. Following her resignation, none will. “Whatever kind of strategy infected those other places may have reached The Stranger,” she said.
I waited, hoping I’d have time to devote, waiting to write a Great V-Note: something worthy of this woman and the work she’s done. But time is not something I can wait for. Best not to wait until the perfect moment to offer my homage, my monumental thanks to Jen Graves. If it didn’t fall right off her sneakers, I would offer her my sniveling worship, but if I’m going to do it at all I’d better do it NOW.
I have the urge to paint her on a canvas 9′ tall, on a throne surrounded by flowers people like me would give her. The flowers are white, the painting and the woman is in shades of warm white and pink. Pink. I’m sorry, but yes, it’s pink. It just is.
Maybe it’s her friendliness. Her sharp mind blossoms into an open face that I can, and did, easily tell everything to on several occasions.
The woman hasn’t died, I tell myself. She’s still here. And to my knowledge she isn’t leaving the city. I pray she doesn’t. Not because I need her directly and not because I’ve read everything she wrote and would again when she again takes aim at the keyboard (I didn’t, but I should have), but because knowing she’s there, knowing she’s doing the work she does, just makes me feel better. Having Jen Graves as a weekly arts critic is like having a superhero, fighting for your cause while you keep focused on your own battles.
She is one of the smartest and savviest people I have ever met. She’s sophisticated and raw, beyond smart and hilariously funny. And she’s friendly. Warm. I trust her. I knew immediately that she would never do anything to hurt me or my career. How many artists can easily say that about an art critic?
She looked at, she thought about, she celebrated, she supported art.
There are others, of course. And anyone who breathed an unkind word about Jen Graves did it, admittedly, because they wanted more voices in the city, not just the One. I agree, but I fear what happens in the absence of her post will be the opposite. Our city artists wanted more, and now we’ve lost our One.
I don’t know what happens to Jen Graves (she’s not dead, she’s just changing business cards) and I don’t know what happens to our city after this, but for the turn the print culture has taken, I am very very sad.
12 best articles by Jen Graves
How to Succeed In Art, Without Even Trying
The Lies of the Artists: The Unbelievable Pressure Artists Are Under to Just Completely Make Some Stuff Up
Behind the Ball Gag: What Seattle Artist Ruthie V. Left Out of Her BDSM Paintings
Thanks Jen
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