Frau, a recent piece from 2011, starts simply from a cylindrical base of coin-sized concentric circles of blue, olive and bronze, and then shifts upward to flowing stripes of colored dots in greens, blue-greens, browns and rust. After the soothing steady rhythms of its middle, the upper portion of the sculpture comes to a gentle crescendo. It is a vertical, but without the thrusting, imposing definitiveness of a tower or a totem. It looks as if it could support weight, but not like the static sturdiness of a pillar or a beam, but as a growing thing. The shapely undulations of its surface could hide muscle and bone, its strength derived from the their dynamic tension, their responsiveness to its particular shape and weight.

While one can easily imagine the sculpture’s growth originating from a mysterious force of nature, it is also satisfying to notice how obviously it is made by a human hand. We can imagine the artist rolling out coils of color, slicing, placing, molding, stretching, building up from bottom to top. It is this paradox of magic/mystery created by such a methodical, obvious and gimmick-free craft that makes the work so exciting.

What I am drawn to most in her work is what happens to be least like mine. While starting from the same level of complexity, her work is unified with a holistic template and forms a composed beauty.  Maybe this is the reward of having two perspectives on the same landscape: the two views multiply and increase their individual value. Viewers can feel the distinctions—can feel the difference between harmony and dissonance, viscerally, specifically, through contrast. And for the artist, as it is in my case, it leads to questions—why do I make sculptures this way rather than another? What is this tendency to make sculptures on the verge of aesthetically falling apart? Is it habit? Is it a false avant-gardism? Or is it a real, meaningful, necessary impulse? What if I tried something different, tried for more unity, instead of falling again for an easy dissonance? Of course there is no answer to these questions here. Such inquiries can only be worked out when absorbed into the work of the studio.

Even though Arendt remains a stranger to me, I like having the company, one that lives in another country but inhabits the same territory. It feels as if we are having a conversation that progresses at the pace of sculpture, slow with long gaps of silence between finished thoughts.

To see more of her work, visit her website.

A Few Things I Saw on Spring Break by Sharon Butler, Two Coats of Paint, 2010

Beating Them or Joining Them: These Are the Only Two Options? by Edward Winkelman, EdwardWinkelman.com, 2006

Reviews

An Ethos of Industrious Neurosis by David Brody, ArtCritical.com
David Brody, in a wonderfully clever article, writes “Wiener’s exploratory, morph-or-die universe is the reverse of our inertial one: objects never remain at rest.”

A Mess of Art by Blake Gopnik, The Daily Beast

Haiku Review by Peter Frank, The Huffington Post

Making is Thinking Video Tour by James Kalm/Lauren Monk, ArtReview.com
A walk-through of my recent show at Lesley Heller Workspace, in April.

2010

Words with the Artist: Daniel Wiener, Part 1 and Part 2 by Jessica Pleasants, FXFOWLE

Daniel Wiener at Calvin Morris Gallery by Ephraim Birnbaum, Romanov Grave

2000

Almost Something—Deceptive Abstraction by Ken Johnson, New York Times

1997

Prizing an Animated Approach to Life by David Pagel, Los Angeles Times

Things and Objecthood by Johanna Drucker, Sculpture Magazine

1996

Daniel Wiener: Bravin Post Lee Gallery by Amy Sillman, Thing Reviews

Suspending the Limits on Imagination in Sculpture by David Pagel, Los Angeles Times

1995

The Shape of Things to Come by Raphael Rubinstein, Art in America

1992

Some Funny Business from Daniel Wiener by David Pagel, Los Angeles Times

Collocation is a word from linguistics which defines a sequence of words that commonly go together – “companionable silence”, “crystal clear”, etc. Even though they are separate words their meaning is made from being together. When we are combining words to make sentences and paragraphs the words we are choosing are part of a continuum, according to linguists – ‘Free Combination’  to  ‘Bound Collocation’ to  ‘Frozen Idiom’. This spectrum, I find, is uncannily analogous to 3 ways of making in this project – freehand composition and fixed interlocking shapes and already produced leftovers. And so I have named the project Collocation.

The images below show the process up to this point. It is just beginning and there are no completed objects that have been produced. In these images you will see – Planning and Making Templates, Making Positives for Molds, Making the Rubber Molds, Organizing Some of the Leftovers, Using the Press Molds and Beginning to Piece the Parts Together. Hopefully it will give you an idea of where it is going.

James Kalm/Loren Munk posted a video of me talking about my show. He writes,”Daniel Wiener takes viewers of an unrehearsed tour of his latest sculpture show, “Making is Thinking”. With the use of Apoxie-Sculpt, Wiener fashions whimsical sculptural forms that meld humor. organic forms and a psychedelic Surrealism into colorful and unique pieces.”

Thanks, Loren. You can see his work, writing and videos at http://www.lorenmunk.com/

ArtWeLove presents “curated limited editions, by some of the best artists living today, irresistibly priced for every budget.”

Why WordPress?

While I have listed other easy and inexpensive ways for artists to create online portfolios, I urge you to consider using WordPress with a theme. WordPress uses open-source technologies, is open-source itself, and is backed up by a generous, enthusiastic, and active community of developers, designers and users. Unlike blogs and paid web services you will have total control over the content and design. Websites grow and develop over time. To remain affordable, many of the other alternatives are inevitably standardized and limit what can be done with them. While WPFolio is also limited and standardized, you can alter its template or change themes as your artwork changes and develops. Once you have entered your content (text, images, video, etc.) in a WordPress site, it is easy to change the layout, design, structure and navigation of the site, without having to enter the content again. Because it is so flexible and extensible, ultimately a WordPress site could better reflect the creativity and do-it-yourself spirit of your artwork.

Student Examples using WPFolio

Nathanael S. Absher
Amanda Stohl Hendershot
Chrissie Carlson
John Emmerich
Jennifer Cheek

Other WordPress Templates

With WordPress it is easy to experiment. Download a theme and activate the new theme by going to Appearance->Themes in the WordPress Admin. Try out different themes with the same content. See how they look. It is easy to change back to WPFolio if the new one does not work out.

Some of the following themes cost money and they are all created for photography but could easily be tweaked to be used for any form of art.

Viso
Aperture
Photo Blog
Flashlike Photographer
Modularity
FolioBlogger
AutoFocus
Photocrati Themes
PhotoMinimal (using Flickr)

Now, onto the tutorial, in earnest. But remember to come back to this page and try out some other themes.

Alternatives Hosting Services

Below are some alternatives to BlueHost along with links to tutorials for installing WordPress. I have never used them and cannot help students and others troubleshoot the set-up process.

HostIcan
One-Click Self-Installation of WordPress with HostICan

Media Temple
1-Click Self-Installation of WordPress with Media Temple

DreamHost

One-Click Self-Installation of WordPress with DreamHost

Purchasing a Domain Name and a Web Site Hosting Plan:

Before you start you should choose your desired domain name, plus some alternatives if you your first choice is not available. And you should have your credit card and a way to copy and keep the usernames and passwords that you will be creating.

You should have:

1. desired domain name
2. alternate domain names
3. credit card
4. a notepad, document or program for safely storing and organizing usernames and passwords
5. patience

NOTE: If you already own a domain name, BlueHost can help you transfer your domain name to them.

NOTE: If you are planning on using a paid portfolio service like CarbonnMade or Arlo only purchase the domain name. If you buy both domain name and hosting plan together there is a discount for the purchase of the domain name. My total cost for both was $17.14.

Sign Up:

Go to BlueHost, click “Sign Up Now”.

Fill in you desired domain name in the textbox on the left. Click “Next” to continue.

If you already have a domain name, fill in the textbox on the right.

Enter Billing and Account Information

Fill in your account information. Choose a password. The password must be 15 characters or less. To create a secure password use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and characters like $,&,*,-, etc. Make sure that you write down your password and save it in a safe place you will remember. This is the password for you BlueHost account and will also be used to FTP files to your server.

Choose you account plan and fill in your credit card info or choose to pay with PayPal.

Click “Next” towards the bottom of the screen.

Congratulations

This next screen echos your bill information and the purchase process is complete.

You will receive 2 emails confirming the purchase of your domain name and hosting account. One email will include your username and password for BlueHost account. Please save it in a safe place you will not forget. The username and password will also be used for FTP.

Once you have checked the accuracy of the information click the “Control Panel” button.

Control Panel – Help and Tutorials (optional)

On the next screen, close the pop-windows trying to sell you stuff.

If you want to learn more about using BlueHost, you could spend some time now reading over some of their tutorials or you can skip onto the next section. To read BlueHost’s tutorials click “Get Started Now”

On http://tutorials.bluehost.com/started/ BlueHost lists its help links. Of particular interest for us are:

Simple Scripts
http://tutorials.bluehost.com/started/ss.htm

WordPress Installation and Configuration
http://tutorials.bluehost.com/started/WP_install.htm
http://tutorials.bluehost.com/started/WP_use.htm
http://tutorials.bluehost.com/started/WP_themes.htm
http://tutorials.bluehost.com/started/WP_plugins.htm

You can also find the tutorials in the cPanel by clicking on the these buttons:

Finding your FTP username and password on Bluehost (optional)

Go to Bluehost.com
click Control Panel

To enter the cPanel at BlueHost
–enter your domain name e.g. daniel-wiener.com
–enter your password – you have received an email with the password from bluehost.

In cPanel->Files click on FTP Accounts

Next Screen scroll down to Account Management and click on “Configure FTP Client”

ON the FTP Accounts screen -there are manual settings at the lower left. These are what you need to enter in your ftp client.
OR
Click on FTP configuration link for your chosen ftp client – CyberDuck, CoreFTP or FileZilla and follow the instructions.

A few FTP client suggestions(optional)

MAC
Fetch – http://fetchsoftworks.com/ Trial for 15 days – $24.00
Transmit – http://www.panic.com/transmit/ – $34.00
Cyberduck – http://cyberduck.ch/ – Free

WINDOWS
CoreFTP (Windows) – Free
Filezilla(Windows) – Free

There are others. Too.

Setting up Cyberduck as an FTP client if using Bluehost (optional)

After downloading Cyberduck, start the application.

Click: “Open Connection”
Server: ftp.domainname.com
username: username@domainname.com
password: your_password
click “Add to Keychain”
path: /public_html
click “connect”

NOTE: some ftp clients are set up differently. Be sure to read the instructions for your particular ftp client.

FTP programs are essentially file browsers, like the Finder on Macs and Windows on PC’s. They work in a similar way to the Finder and to the Windows Browser where you can move files and folders by dragging and dropping, etc. but instead of moving things around on your own computer you are moving them from one computer to another.

You are done purchasing your domain name and hosting account.

The next step is to install WordPress.

Installing WordPress

If you are not signed in at BlueHost, go to http://www.bluehost.com and click the “Control Panel Login” button at the top right. Sign in with your domain name and password.

On the main cPanel page, scroll down to “Software Services” and click the “WordPress” button.

Click the “Install” button on the “Install WordPress” page.

Choose the most recent version, even if it is the “beta” version. It is good to be up to date. – In this instance it is 3.0-beta1.

Under “Step 2: Advanced Options” click “Click here to display>”. Don’t worry it is not very advanced.

In Step 1:

Optional - fill in a foldername where you want to host your WordPress files.

Pros – Your wordpress files will be consolidated and organized.

Cons – It is harder to set up – with some techy- stuff – e.g. writing htacess files

DON’T fill it in, if you are anxious about tech stuff.

In Step 2) Advanced Options:

Choose a name for your site. For artists it is usually their own name – it will appear in the header and in the title bar. You will be able to change this later, if you change your mind.

Choose a username and password.

DO NOT USE “admin”, the default, it will make it easier for hackers.

Write down your username and password someplace safe that you will remember. Make sure to note that this logon is for WORDPRESS.

BlueHost will send you an email with the logon, as well. Save the email, too.

Check “Automatically create new database” (don’t forget).

In Step 3) Legal Information:

Check “Terms and Conditions”

Then click “Complete”

NOTE: Installing WordPress in its own folder, an optional preference expalained above, can cause a problem. If a user goes to http://www.yoursitename.com they will see a generic “Site Coming Soon” screen while the content of your site is located at http://www.yoursitename.com/folder-name/. There are 2 ways to solve this that are explained in the comment section of this page.

In the next screen BlueHost lists the url’s for your WordPress site and your logon info. Save the url’s or bookmark them. It takes a few moments for BlueHost to install WordPress. To check if it is installed click on the Site Url or the Login Url. Also BlueHost will send you an email to inform you that WordPress is installed.

Once the installation is complete if you return to the main page for “Simple Scripts” you will see a list of MY Installs – which will include “WordPress”.

https://www.simplescripts.com/account/main

NOTE: if you click “Advanced” you will see a list of important info about your installation, as shown below. This is good to know about if you are trouble-shooting or have a question for me. There is also a “Resend Login Info Now” button, if you forget your WordPress logon.

Congratulations. You are done installing WordPress.

Check WordPress:

Once BlueHost has installed WordPress ,check the front page. Go to http://www.yourdomainname.com/ (or http://www.yourdomainname.com/wordpress_folder/ if you created an install folder.

If you installed WordPress 3 you should see something like this:

And you can check the admin section of WordPress as well. Go to:

http://www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin/ (or http://www.yourdomainname.com/wordpress_folder/wp-admin/ if you installed wordpress in a separate folder.

Enter your WordPress username and password and you should see a screen like this:

Next is installing WPFolio and plugins.