parking lot PICNIC

Shame eaters raise your hands, or avert your eyes, whichever is most comfortable. I shame eat junk food while I am running errands. I could go inside and order and eat my less-than-healthy food and eat with the rest of the herd, but instead, I convince myself that I’m in a hurry, so I’d better get it to go. Then, I end up taking the same amount of time to eat sitting in the parking lot inhaling my $1.69 chicken nuggets with buffalo sauce and an occasional milkshake. In theory shame could be a healthy preventative for discouraged behavior. But I really just find ways to limit the exposure of my shame to others, hence the parking lot shame eating.

Shame is far more often an unhealthy tool of abuse, or self-abuse, taking the shine off a source of pride or casting shadow over behavior considered ordinary in other circumstances. For example, I had oral surgery recently, and as part of the get-to-know-you-before-I-cut-you-open session, the doc asked “so, what do you do for a living?” I replied, “I’m an artist” while quickly diverting my eyes in expectation of some version of the “what’s your real job” follow up question. But, I self-shamed myself into that expectation. He, instead, asked about my media, asked additional follow up questions, and shared the media of a couple of his other patients. In this particular case, my expectation of being treated as illegitimate led to my behaving as illegitimate. How many of you avoid describing yourself as an artist to non-creatives? We have to stop. There’s always something new to work on. This next Call is all about shame in all of its many manifestations. What would your shame work look like?

Check out this Call for Entries from Hera Gallery (Wakefield, RI) for Shame. $35 entry. 30% commission. This is a great juror & the venue has an exciting history. Take a look…

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CALL for ENTRIES:
Shame
from Hera Gallery

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ELIGIBILITY: Open to all artists 18+

MEDIA: Open to all media

THEME: Shame. “The exhibition SHAME attempts to lift the veils of submission and silence by exploring shame in its many dimensions . . . . To feel shame is an act of self-erasure. To be shamed is a means of controlling others. To act shamelessly is a misguided path of self-empowerment. Shame has different cultural connotations yet is understood universally.”

DEADLINE: February 10, 2019

NOTIFICATION: February 27, 2019

ENTRY FEE: $35 up to 3

JUROR: Anna Dempsey is a Professor of Art History at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA. She received her Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University where she was the recipient of a Presidential Scholarship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from M.I.T. Her research interests center on the intersection of public culture with a focus on urban street art, as well as museum spaces and gender politics in modern and contemporary installation art, painting, animation and film. Currently, she is working on a book titled Working Women Artists and the Construction of American Modernism, based on research she did at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware, where she was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship.

SALES: Hera Gallery retains a 30% sales commission.

Tag: Shame exhibit