December 24, 2020
Closing out the Year of the Pandemic, please consider making a payment, as little as $1, to any, some or all of our VAS contributing writers. Select one or more whose work you are impressed with, and drop some coin into their cup. These folks are pros, and they have things to say, about art and more, that we think you want to read about. And ponder. And compensate them for. 20% of your contribution will be added to support our staff that produces and administers the Weekly Newsletter and the VAS website. We all thank you!
Celebrating the End of a Difficult Year and the Start of a Much Better One
by Bill Lasarow, Publisher
Here's wishing all of our VAS Weekly Newsletter subscribers, all 50,000 of you, a happy holiday season and a very hopeful New Year. The unique challenges of 2020 were not necessarily apparent one year ago. The art world comes out of it permanently altered, like so many other sectors. But art, its creativity and its discourse, has never been more relevant to all of us. So this holiday season I want to make a pitch on behalf of our writers. It's a select group, spread around the country from the West Coast to Chicago. Many of them appear along the left column. And yes, their cups work and your year-end gift will be much appreciated.
Since we resumed publishing the Visual Art Source Weekly Newsletter (VASWN) during the Summer, we haven proud to publish commentary, reviews and opinion about art and more than art. Most galleries and museum have been limited to presenting virtual exhibitions, interviews and events online. This will remain a feature of the art world even after public exhibitions fully resume, hopefully by the Fall. Many venues have, sadly, been forced to closed down. So we invited our contributing writers to write short essays—on art, sure, but really whatever their current passion might stimulate them to write about in these times,

We think the results have been pretty amazing.
The other thing we did was to launch this direct-to-the-writer compensation system. You’ve been seeing it near the top of each VASWN, the pencil-filled cup symbolizing the difficult power of the written word. Along with our standard solicitation: “Compensate our writers. Each has their own cup.” A lot of publications have played up their subscriptions, mostly asking you to pay a monthly rate. We decided to ask you to pay our writers direct, to whomever and whenever you are so moved. And that’s exactly what we are doing. Pay a buck to a writer. . .that buck drops directly into their bank account.
What I want to do today is to attract more of you — a lot more — to the idea that doing this is OK. It’s not a donation, it’s compensation to professionals who do what they do very well. It’s the right thing to do, not all the time, but when a piece hits you the right way well, click the button. And technically speaking, it’s really safe and secure.
The thing about this arrangement is that it’s really about YOU, the reader, who may love art, but you also enjoy the discussions that it produces. Even in normal times when our writers are mostly sticking to exhibition reviews (yes, and the columns for sure), it’s not about rating shows, it’s about the ideas that art plants in our brains and the feelings it arouses. Reading what a good writer has to say about art is itself an art, one that bridges the experience you have of art images and the impression, fleeting or lasting that art is able to exert. We’ll keep the subscription rate at zero, as it has always been, precisely because we value you as a fan not only of the art and artists we love to write about, but because the worth of what these writers give you in each edition is REAL. And it is each individual writer bringing something of interest to our table.
So, if you are among the initial thousand or so who have taken our bait and clicked through to see where the pencil-filled cup takes you, and maybe also that initial fraction who have paid in, you know that what you pay a given writer is entirely up to you. And it starts literally with a buck, as in $1. Maybe you think, hey if I pay a buck that’s being a cheapskate. No, it’s not. I’ll put a little more meat on that bone, but suffice to say: it adds up. Just ask Bernie Sanders. Small amounts of money add up. And if movie stars and major league athletes can be earning $30 million per year, do you see anything wrong with a thousand one dollar payments falling into the hands of a damned good writer, because I sure don’t.
So I ask you: vote with that dollar, let a writer know that you get their point, were moved by it, that you maybe learned something new; that’s worth something, don’t you think? And whether you are rich as Croesus or a student scraping by … well, it all starts with that buck. You see how as we move from one paragraph to the next one and then another writer’s cup comes up? None of them have a byline this week, but maybe this can get us off to a fresh start. You may have one … or two … or three … or more favorites. This week, show your appreciation for them, click through and drop a buck (or more) into their pencil cup. And while you think about that, let me say a few words about YOU, or rather some of the cohorts that add up to our readership, one or more of which you probably belong to.
I expect that ALL of you are art fans or professionals. You don't need to be part of an intellectual elite or an art world insider to be a fan; and if you are bravo, and of course you are also a fan. The late, great Ray Zone used to say that what we all share in common is that we are “visual junkies,” and if you aren’t one of those I have to wonder why you are even here. Now we take the added magical element: reading probably still means something to you. And, sure, you value personal growth and exploration beyond the known and familiar. If this, broadly speaking, makes you nod in agreement, then you’re in the right place. So express its worth to you, it will make you feel good and probably make you just a little bit more attentive.
Now some art fans are fabulously wealthy, at least enough that you may buy original art, maybe have built a collection. And you may be one of those; then, hey you really have no excuse. VASWN (and other editorial platforms!) help keep you informed and your mind open and sensitive to the wild and crazy things that artists are so good at. You think that’s worth something? Consider the dealer(s) you trust. When you buy the work of an artist you believe in part of the reason is certainly based on what that dealer says and does. They earn your trust; and they and their artists deservedly earn the money to pay for the work(s) you acquire. But remember, selling is their business and their job. Our writers are only invested in art for the sake of the art. Their informed knowledge paired with the integrity of their perspective is unpolluted by any other consideration.
Of course, the majority of art fans are only infrequently going to be buyers, and to the degree that they are it will be relatively modest. VASWN provides you with this way to exert your influence without having to bust your budget. You probably are employed or own a business, probably have to manage a family budget each month, and are pleased to own a home and pay for big ticket items like the kids’ education, vacations, the family cars. Shelling out much over $100 for a dinner out, or for concert tickets or for a charitable donation has to be selective. And getting out to see museum or gallery art (in normal times) is a darn good cheap date. A lot of shows are free entry; and at $20 or so per ticket to go to a museum show, that’s on the lower end of the entertainment cost spectrum. Buy any Laker tickets recently? So, c’mon now, you can do this either regularly or from time to time without altering your lifestyle. In fact, if you are part of this group, this arrangement may fit better with you than anyone else.
Real working folks, students and seniors are also part of our mix, and you are important. You are getting by, but only that. You are on an hourly wage; a part time job maybe with some help from your parents; or living on a fixed income. That gives you a really small margin for error. But chances are that you are paying, at least, for streaming media like Netflix and Spotify. Maybe you have a few magazine subscriptions. Chances are you eat out some, surely not the fancy stuff. You are no more likely to go to Spago than to buy an original Hockney or Bradford. And in normal times you are a lot more likely to catch a movie than to go to a Beyoncé concert. VASWN helps feed your head and life your spirit, and sure you don’t need to pay, and that’s OK. But I’ll bet that dropping a buck on a writer who hits you where you live means more and feels better that for anyone else that we are talking to here. And in a very real way, that buck coming from you feels better to us than $1,000 from a collector in Pacific Heights or Lincoln Park. It means something. You make space for us in your life, and it's the writers that fill that space.
That brings me to those of you for whom the financial deck is stacked. You’ve been laid off or furloughed. If you are working it’s at more than one job; or you are scrapping by in the gig economy or packing boxes in a warehouse because your old job no longer even exists. You’ve got debt and you may be on the edge of eviction. That picture is way too familiar these days, and it’s wrong, wrong, wrong. To you I say: bless you for being here, and do not pay. This is more than just a nice little free service. Your connection to art and the ideas our writers’ spawn are, by our intent, a form of sustenance, a safe harbor to fortify the struggle. We are here for you, and until you are at least in a place of some degree of stability and security, please do not pay anything, not so much as a buck. OK? 'Nuff said?
Now I want to address all of you artists, and that includes you writers that I know we reach. Most of you, not all, are probably getting by, doing OK, maybe are among that substantial minority that are doing pretty well or better. I know, each of you has your own story and deals with your own issues. But you share a lot in common, including a common interest with our contributors. If ANYONE should be dropping some money in those cups it’s you (unless you are in the at risk group just addressed). You know how it feels to be compensated for your creative work, and please none of this bullshit about the work itself being the reward. We all get that part of it. When you get paid you feel good, even if you have the integrity not to be swayed by that. I can tell you that a pretty fair number of writers make the occasional art purchase; you need to return that favor, and recognize what I already pointed out: when a writer engages the work you and other artists do, they do so without a financial stake in it. That is all about credibility. And to you writers, you know that artists often trade with each other and buy each others’ work. If you take yourself seriously, you appreciate good writing by good writers. So show it.
Finally, I want to address those of you who are art professionals, but not creatives, starting with gallery owners and dealers, curators, and maybe a number of you who work in other capacities in those venues. It is your business to draw a circle of collectors to the artists you work with and represent. Some of you help pay the freight for what we do, and have done so in some cases for decades. We thank you for that and hope that VAS continues to provide good things in return. But let me separate the role that the writers play from our service: it’s two very different sides of the coin. When you drop money into a writer’s cup you aren’t doing it to extract favorable mention in a review or article. It’s because you appreciate their skill, their smarts, their artistry. They may turn around and write something unflattering about an artist you work with; but we both know that is not a betrayal but the highest form of professionalism. Each of our writers knows that VASWN stands behind their freedom to express honest opinions authentically arrived at. I’ve seen for a number of years that those of you who operate galleries or work at museums and other public spaces support that independence. It’s what you expect from our best artists and, really, it’s a primary reason we are all here. For my part, I mix it in with the creativity that I crave. It’s what keeps me feeling that special energy, that eternal flame.
Contact Information:
PO Box 2029, Thousand Oaks, CA 91358 • Ph: (213) 282-3444