A n d e r s e n S t u d i o D a y s & N i g h t s

In Defense of Etsy - the local and global designer craftsmen community

2011-11-25T15:57:00.000-05:00

This is an excerpt from an internet discussion on buying local. This post is my response to the claim that I am being hypocritical if I support buying local and at the same time sell on Etsy.

First- a disclaimer! do not intend to say one should ONLY buy local when I argue in support of buying local. Nor do I intend to suggest there is only one measure by which to be guided in shopping. I support shopping in many different venues for many different reasons- and of course I support shopping on Etsy

Not only do I sell on Etsy, but I openly support Etsy on our Facebook page, on my blog, The Art of The Etsy Treasury where I post treasuries that I created or selected, and I even support Etsy in our email newsletter.

Some may ask why? Am I not supporting the competition? I suppose I am but I am also supporting the global community of workers who own their own businesses- which is not the same as the state owning the means of production and parlaying it as the workers owning the means of production.

One of the qualifications for being on Etsy is that the owner of the business must have a hands- on involvement in production, which excludes designers that outsource production. This is our family story. While my parents were part of a young urban designers movement tin the 1950’s they took a different path when instead of designing for large manufacturing companies they moved to Maine and started their own production with a hands-on involvement in the manufacturing process.

Etsy is the only business model that I know of that is priced for the micro-economy. The cost is so low that it is even accessible to those workers in countries where labor is dirt-cheap. If such a person prices their work competitively on Etsy, one sale can equal a month’s income from working for a large manufacturing company.

This contrasts with Wal-Mart, which may provide service jobs in this country that are perceived as better than the “sweat shop factory work”, - Marx’s depiction of manufacturing-, it only shifts that manufacturing- sweatshop or otherwise- to countries without benefits or labor rights laws- or environmental standards- such as China, one of the most polluted countries on the globe. And I doubt those workers are getting health care benefits.

Support for the artist designer community is part of Andersen Design’s story. My father formed an early American Crafts Association when he was in Ohio in the 1950’s. My parents were founding members of the Boothbay Art Foundation, and I have in my possession a hand written notebook of the minutes of an early Maine Crafts Association, for which my father was the last person to record those minutes.

Etsy is the cyber evolution of the designer craftsmen community- only it is not a non-profit organization it is an organic, self-governing, self promoting global private enterprise community of designer craftsmen.

I once attended a marketing forum put on by the Maine Arts Commission. We were told that we must not take our own photographs but hire a professional. I thought as I was listening to this that if my parents had to abide by these rules, Andersen Design would not exist today. They took their own photographs and created their own promotions. They didn’t have the start up capital to hire a professional. This is also the case with Etsy. The artist-designer, who starts with limited capital because they want to be involved in the engaging and mindful process of creating something. The designer-craftsmen who start their own businesses often have to do so with boot-strap capitalization. They have to do their own photography and marketing- and much of it is very creative, especially when filtered though the circles that each individual creates himself.

And I need to mention that Etsy has a genius networking system that is based on self-created circles that generate an unending flow of activity from the creative global micro- economy community. It is important for artists and designers to keep in touch with the living evolution of creativity that Etsy offers- and I enjoy this aspect of Etsy as a form of downtime which is also productive.

There is nothing hypocritical about supporting Etsy- it supports values that I believe in globally. The reason why this country is losing manufacturing jobs is because we are up against unfair competition from manufacturers in countries that hire labor dirt-cheap and offer no benefits. Etsy is an alternative to that –globally. If we were not faced with global competition from countries that violate our own principals and way of life, there would not be the need for a “shop local” movement. We would be operating in a fair global market. Etsy is, to my experience a fair global market.

I recently came across this article that describes the unemployment problem in Great Briton as not so much an unemployment problem but that the British have become unemployable. The British are not just having jobs exported overseas, even the jobs in Briton are going to a foreign work force.

There are a lot of parallels to be drawn from what this writer describes about the British dilemma and what is taking place in Maine. It boils down to the British have lost their work ethic. This is where the labor intensive designer craftsmen community can have a rejuvenating impact. Speaking for the ceramic slip-casting process - it is mindful and engaging process, resonating with the image of manufacturing that the author reminisces about- a time when Briton took pride in her manufacturing, and of course one of those industries was ceramics.

The author, An Wilson has this to say about the current state of affairs of the Bristish potteries:

Whereas Germany retained its manufacturing base, British companies went abroad for their manufacturing to take advantage of cheap labour, cheap fuel and cheap goods.

Stoke, which I knew so well, still makes pottery, but all the better ware is now made in the Far East. The same is true of what is left of Wedgwood. Incredible!

Britons-dole-motivated-foreigners-job-vacancies.html#ixzz1ehOsPBc3

Andersen Design - Andersen Studio Contemplates Taking the Quantum Leap of Faith

2010-09-19T09:12:00.007-04:00

Andersen Studio's new Internet presence is seeing growth potential and looking for ways to calibrate production and shipping to a potentially greater flow of orders. Like most in the micro-economy private sector, there is not a lot of capital available to us other that that old American convention- sweat equity.

Earlier this year, I redesigned our website, using the open source Joomla template, which has a very sophisticated back end for processing orders and other information. I took the photographs and wrote the text myself. I researched SEO and incorporated what I learned into our website design. I also activated a social networking marketing effort, for which our line of classic American ceramic art and design is ideally suited- (being that we became a collectible exclusively through the grass roots). Social networking is better suited to the micro economy than it is to large corporations. Etsy has been a great resource for us - both for generating new business and for greater exposure to design and shopping blogs and printed publications.

At this point, I do not yet have our entire line represented but I have created catalog pages for each section. The catalog pages play an important role in search engine optimization as they enable Andersen Studio to be discovered by a larger public through targeted search terms. I started with our line of birds. I knew that we had a chance of getting a rating with a "ceramic birds" search thread, where as our chances are pretty slim if the search term is "ceramics". Before I redesigned our website. I went through ten pages of the search term "ceramic birds" without finding Andersen Studio. Now we are either the last listing on page one or the top of page two. NOte _ I recently checked to find we have been bumped to page 3 of a Ceramic Birds search on Google. This may be due in part to pulling back on the marketing until We can better synchronize production and shipping- but that is just specualtion - it also might have to do with Google changes.

I would like to bump us up on the list so that we remain on page one but not at this time as we need to calibrate our production and shipping with our marketing efforts. The flow of orders that came in during July and August, which is usually a slow online season for us is steady and consistent. It can clearly grow once we have a well managed production and shipping team.

To this end I believe we also need more space, which is a risky investment at this time but it seems necessary to realize the growth potential that the Internet makes possible for a small hand crafted production like Andersen Design. I have driven by Industrial Way in Boothbay , where I like the feel- but that is the extent so far of my searches for more space. Since we have to invest in space and employment before we achieve a greater flow of orders ( so that we are capable of handling such a flow), I am looking for a very affordable space to begin with. ( There are other family members involved in this business as well)

One of the great challenges and rewards of ceramic slip casting production is that it depends on great team work. There are those who really love this kind of work. A business such as our has many different facets involving many skills. We will eventually be looking for a great manager.

I have also long been looking for a way to get other people involved in such a way that this business can be carried on by future generations and to that end, I published a visions statement a number of years ago. Essential to the success of such a vision is to have a licensing agreement that satisfies, financial, aesthetic, and philosophical needs. We also need legal council to develop a system of governance.

My vision statement- written quite a number of years ago is HERE.

The idea is a network of small independently owned production studios, united by marketing and a company identity along the lines of fashion houses which are started by unique designers but carried on beyond their own life time. Andersen Studio- Andersen Design has established such an identity and is also recognized in the field of mid-century design See Andersen Studio in The Media

This is an unformed project at this time. We will be looking for new employees and are also open to new partnerships. In a time when the government targets businesses making a profit greater than 250,000.00, this seems like a good time to develop a small independent network of ceramic art and design productions, which individually might remain below the radar, so to speak- at least for now.

Andersen Studio has developed two large and comprehensive lines of ceramic design since the mid-century - original contemporary functional forms and wild life sculpture. Our originating philosophy was to create a hand made product affordable to the middle classes. Through out our history our collectible line of American ceramic art and design has been marketed in both middle class and high-end venues, we have also sold over seas most notably in department stores in Japan and Denmark. Because our line is affordable but also appeals to a higher end buyer, we have an unusual marketing flexibility. Because we have always been a micro-economy production we have never flooded our market, even as our designs have maintained their marketability over the course of half a century. Because we became a collectable solely through the wisdom of the grass roots, and because our line is expressive of genuine American individuality, Andersen Studio has a fair probability of weathering the unpredictable economic and political patterns that the private economy is currently confronting.

We are also open to partnerships in other states, especially sites with small government that favor the free enterprise system.

Andersen Studio's Response to These Uncertain Times

2010-02-15T09:46:00.002-05:00

New Pictures of Andersen Studio'sclassic Turned Gull sculpture, which is available in three decending sizes
are shown through out this post.

I have started an informal diary of our foreign visitors in Facebook Discussions section of our Facebook Page

In these unprecedented times there are very good reasons to consider exporting. In the past, Andersen Studio has been marketed in a major department store in Denmark and Itoya in Japan, but these were accounts that came to us through the gift shows. I read today that the most effective marketing for small businesses is called "Inbound Marketing", i.e., marketing through social networks, where the customer finds you, as opposed to "Outbound Marketing", where the seller finds the customer, which includes trade shows. Tradeshows are still important but this season the winter storms put a damper on both the Atlanta and Rosen Shows. During the Rosen Show the airports were shut down.

So, I have been learning and exploring Search Engine Optimization and other forms of Inbound Marketing, which involves paying more attention to our website stats and Google analytics. I was astounded when I saw our benchmarks results, which showed over 5000% better than "other sites of the same size". I thought it must not be a very meaningful measure, but when I think about it, it is unusual for a business of our small size to be designing, producing, wholesaling and retailing our own product and to have done so for over half a century and during which time we developed an established base of collectors.

As our government continues to spend unprecedented amounts of money, endangering our national security, and threatening run away inflation, while taxing businesses to make this country one of the most expensive places in the world to manufacture anything, a business such as ours must consider all options. When I hear our president saying that his energy plan will "necessarily skyrocket everyone's cost of electricity", my first instinct is to explore fair trade venues for exporting production. As I listen within, however, I feel less alarmed, and consider the possibility that our product- or at least a part of our line, can continue to be made in America, and that our line can be sold abroad as a higher priced item, which considering the future cost of manufacturing in the United States, would have to be the case for most, if not all American exports.

I am by no means knowledgeable in these matters but I beginning by paying attention to our own website statistics. I have noticed a consistent trend on our server stats in which The Russian Federation, China, and the Czech Republic show up more prominently in the visitor’s pie than other countries. On Google statistics I found that the most recent highest average of pages per visit viewed by country start with Argentina, followed by China, Malaysia, Israel, Denmark, Australia, and then the United States.

January and Februrary

2010-02-05T08:12:00.000-05:00

I have been working on our website, as well as creating a FACEBOOK page for Andersen Studio. This involves belatedly learning CSS code and taking new pictures of our work, which is a huge project. There are many items which have never been offered on our website due to a lack of an appropriate picture such as the Fin Whale on a wave that you see here. We are also always creating original spontaneous works, particularly on our small cobble dish, which is quite popular at 28.00 but which is actually difficult to photograph- at least until I discover the right way to light it, which I will do. Then I hope to offer the cobble on line in both our "standard" patterns (which are always unique renditions) as well as some of the one of kind cobbles. Below is a picture of one such cobble:

You can purchase the cobble here You can purchase the Fin Whale here

Become a fan of our FACEBOOK page and spread the word about our line of original hand-crafted, slipcast stoneware, all made in Maine from the raw materials of the earth of the United States of America for over half a century,

2009-11-17T09:02:00.000-05:00

SUBMITTED AS LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE BOOTHBAY REGISTER

Dear Senator Trahan and Representative Bruce McDonald,

I wrote to you couple of days ago about The Small Business Growth Fund.

This fund was created in 1995 and appears to be a state government investment in private entreprership for high growth companies doing "public good" (which raises the question who decides what is for the "public good"-does the taxpayer have a voice in this or just the fund managers ?)

I asked what does the taxpayer get out of it? I would think that if tax-payers have invested in a private investment company that this information would be readily available and assessable to the general public but I cannot find it.

I would assume that if every dollar the taxpayer puts in is matched by nine dollars of private investment, that the taxpayer is a 10% shareholder in the company- But as I have never seen this stated, it remains only an assumption.

On the basis of that assumption, it leads to the question- Why is our state government in so much debt? I saw pitches at the Juice Conference that speculated profits in the billions. If this is the sort of "high growth" that SBGF invests in, then, why haven't the taxpayers, like the good citizens of Alaska, under the governorship of Sarah Palin, received dividends in the mail?

Is it because of the even higher costs of our state entitlement programs?

Entitlements help, especially when people do not have jobs- but even slaves have entitlements. Entitlements are an investment that slave owners have to make to maintain their assets.

Where are the "opportunity" programs for the small scale and modest growth sector of the micro-economy- which is clearly excluded from investment by the taxpayer- funded Small Business Growth Fund?

We need a new category for the small business sector that is not classifiable as "high -growth" capitalism or non-profit organizations. This is truly the private sector micro-economy- those small businesses on "Main Street", that we heard so much about when our Federal government was selling TARP to the public. We haven't heard anything about Main Street since then but the credit freeze is still alive and well on Main Street whose primary source of capital investment is self-generated profit, which ,with many small businesses filing as S-corporations,(profit reported on individual returns) will be taxed heavily if self-generated profit exceeds $250,000.00. Then the private citizen will be taxed to an increased degree in order to fund our ever expanding federal government and to pay the interest on our federal government's rapidly escalating debt.

Where are the "opportunity programs" for the people? The United States is transforming from the land of opportunity into the land of entitlements. If there was a growth in opportunity, there would not be such a large need for entitlements. When the House was first formulating the "Stimulus Bill" they called the small business sector " the engine of new job creation" and then allocated 200 billion dollars for food stamps and $450 million for loans for small businesses, which includes the "high growth" businesses that are exclusively favored by Maine's Small Business Growth Fund. Add to that continual extensions in unemployment and a federal administration that only recently got the idea that maybe it should focus on job creation- this after months of promoting the citizens of this country to "volunteer" service. Once the citizenry is programmed to accept that they MUST volunteer service, the dots can be connected between receiving entitlements and "mandatory" volunteer service- and there you have it- the people of the United States squarely become the slaves of concentrated power and wealth.

The Small Business Growth Fund was created by our state legislature in 1995. Times have changed. Where is the Small Business growth fund for small scale and modest growth companies, which are the foundational basis of a flourishing middle class? My family business was started in 1952 with the philosophy of creating a hand made product affordable to the middle class. In those days the middle class was flourishing and the distribution of wealth took the form of a bell curve, with the greatest amount of wealth distributed among the greatest number of people.

Both sides of the political divide agree that we need to move back to a more equitable distribution of wealth- but all the solutions for doing so are targeted at funding and stimulating growth at the top. This is not working! When is someone in government going to get the revolutionary idea of stimulating growth at the bottom to middle sector of the economy? Where is the Main Street Economy Growth Fund? It is in our self-generated profits, capped at $250,000.00 before being heavily taxed to fund the hegemony of concentrated power and wealth that is the new face of government.

Sincerely,
Mackenzie Andersen
East Boothbay, Maine

The Juice Conference- There is no creative class- It's everywhere!

2009-11-14T01:38:00.001-05:00

I gave my pitch at the Juice Conference to a response of “Excellent” but I didn’t make it to the semi-finals. I watched about three fourths of the semi-finalist pitches. They were mostly “high growth” and politically correct “green” companies, patterned on policies set by Washington- favoring the same companies working towards “social goodness’ as benefited through the Stimulus Bill. I believe that businesses that are not “high growth” didn’t really stand a chance at winning the grant. But maybe in my premature departure, I missed the exception to the rule.

A popular belief - shared by both sides of the political divide - is that there is an imbalance in the distribution of wealth, which needs to be righted.

My family business was formed in the 1950’s with the philosophy of creating a hand made product affordable to the middle classes. In those days there was a middle class – the distribution of wealth took the form of a bell curve, with the largest amount of wealth distributed among the greater number of people. The middle class is content when it has enough to satisfy its needs. This is different than enforced equality of wealth because middle class values in a capitalistic society allows that needs are individually determined. I wonder if those who are focused on high growth have a purpose that justifies the rapid accumulation of wealth or is the rapid and aggressive accumulation of wealth an end in itself? This is not wrong, but if society exclusively awards the one who pursues wealth for wealth’s sake, then of course there will be a big wide-open space between the rich and the poor.

There were many pitches on "green" technology, one of them speculated profits in the billions- same as with oil- energy equals big profits. The speculated profit, in the billions, only promised to deliver 100 Maine jobs.

The pitchers were competing for a grant- not an investment or a loan, - a grant! So why give it to the highest growth companies? Isn’t a grant given for “non-profit” motivations? The grant is modest and so the impact on a high growth company is minimal compared to the impact on a smaller scale company- but that did not factor in to the decision making process of the judges- well maybe it did in the end, I don’t know, I wasn’t there.

Now – here’s the thing, we have one sector, the non-profits, who consider themselves to be the do-gooders, and then we have the for profit high growth companies that are clearly out to make a profit- the bigger and faster the better- and then we have for profit businesses that are small in scale and modest in growth, based in the middle class economy- you know, the middle class that is content with having enough wealth to satisfy their needs, not driven to create wealth for wealth’s sake because- there are after all other types of wealth, meaning for instance.

The middle class is mostly outside of the conceptual scheme of “the creative economy”. When the “creative economy” talks about the arts, they talk about what non-profit organizations can do for non-profit organizations. That other face of the “creative economy” is the “high-growth” companies- in a specific formulation- capitalism driven by profit motive but cleansed through “social good”.

Seldom in the “creative economy” do we find the middle class- is not the middle class a “social good”? If what we seeking, as a society is a more equitable distribution of wealth, we can either enforce an oppressive equality- or we can rediscover the values of the middle class. Shouldn’t there be somewhere in the scheme of things, a support system for the middle class? For businesses that just want to thrive- not grow rapidly and aggressively? Is there not intrinsic value and meaning in slow growth? While both sides seek a more equitable distribution of wealth, the middle class is being squeezed by frozen credit, taxes, and the only available capitalization is the bootstrap economy of self-generated profits. Wouldn’t it be fair, in terms of equitable distribution of wealth that a modest grant is granted to a situation where it makes the greatest impact? “Modesty” really is a “good cause”. And another thing about the middle class- they are not trying to oversee the management of the whole system. They are content to let God do that.

A Vision becomes a Process

2009-10-24T10:44:00.006-04:00

Early One of AKinf Fish Platter by Brenda Andersen - circa 1952-1968? on slipcast form designed by Weston neil Andersen

An Open Leter sent to Andersen Studio's Email Followers:
A lot has happened since I last wrote. This story begins back in the 1980’s when Joe Randall worked for our production studio in Portland, Maine. It was there that Joe was introduced to the fascinating process of production ceramics, the same process that my father was introduced to by the illustrious Eva Zeisel, when he studied industrial design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, before and after World War II.

Joe was so inspired by the production process that he went on to study ceramics at Alfred University. He has since been involved in the ceramic business but we had lost contact with him.

My sister Elise volunteers her “service’ to the local land trust- (Yes – this is even before being promoted by our presidential family to do so). Elise helps to organize the Boothbay Region Boat Festival, which takes place at the shipyards around the bend from us in August. Last August I saw a slip-cast ceramic whale by a young artist, both different and similar to our work, similar enough so to say that the influence is there. I asked my sister about the work and she told me than she had put the young designer in contact with Joe.

When I saw the competition for a small business grant that the Juice Conference is offering, I formulated an idea for the grant and wrote to Joe for an estimate on doing molds. A few years back, Joe had done a block mold for us when we had a large order of baby penguins for the Smithsonian catalog.

After I had composed my introduction and contacted Joe, I learned that the grant process was an America Idol style oral run-off- and so did not pursue it, but none the less a process had been set in motion, merging with the larger process that began in the 1940’s when Eva Zeisel taught her land mark class in slip-cast ceramic production and a young man by the name of Weston Neil Andersen was a student.

When I called Joe I asked to have the block mold for the baby penguin, which I had never seen. The block mold makes the production of production molds very easy. I am interested in having block molds made of all our small sculptures, which was the basis of the grant proposal. Joe was planning a trip our way and said that he would stop by and deliver the block mold.

Last night Joe stopped by and we had a most interesting and inspiring meeting. It seems that Elise’s introduction of the young designer had set yet another stage of this decades long process in motion. Joe’s is a man fascinated by the mold making process and the design and management of a ceramic production shop. He does not want to do the actual production work but to be involved as a manager who oversees the process on a weekly basis. He has a colleague in New Hampshire who wants to set up a production shop and is ready to go but it hinges on the young designer, who wants only to design and market. The designer is going to the Atlanta and Rosen Shows with his own work and hoping to bring back enough orders to justify the financing of the project. Joe has another long-time associate who is their financing specialist.

Meanwhile, we have been side tracked this year with large projects not specifically related to our field. This has competed with our time and energy for focusing on sales- but the opportunities have been knocking on our door unsolicited. We are currently in the preliminary negotiation phase with three different enterprises that promise to yield quantity orders. We are also experiencing calls from former retailers with whom we had lost contact. The classical success of our line is a draw in these difficult times. Our line has retained its marketability for over half a century through out many fluctuations of the economy.

I was amazed to be sitting in the room listening to someone else as inspired and focused on the entire process – from design- to production – to sales and financing of a ceramic production enterprise. As I have written in my VISION statement, this enterprise hinges on love of the work and appreciation of the life style, and Joe clearly has that love and understanding. He was speaking about associates with whom he had a substantial history of dealings. We, ourselves, are a part of that chain of connections. Here I was listening to someone describe the emerging manifestation of the concepts expressed in my VISION statement, written a number of years ago. - And we are the link that can make the collaboration whole- not only because we can supplement orders should the young designer fall short of his goal and add to orders if he doesn’t- but because we have been involved in every aspect of the process for years-and we would like to have more time to focus on design, ceramic art and marketing – which is complementary to the project that is currently formulating.

It is formulating during a time when congress is discussing bills that may drastically alter the way business is to be done. If worse comes to worse and bills are passed that cripple the American economy with the highest taxes we have ever seen while simultaneously skyrocketing the cost of energy for every American -there is a back up plan. We would then look for a different nation in which to produce our medium priced line, while focusing on an upper end Art line here. Joe has experience dealing with overseas productions. Andersen Design has been recognized for art and design through our history and so we are poised to make this kind of transition. If best comes to best and taxes are left alone or even reduced and the Cap N Tax is defeated we can do both a medium priced line and develop a higher priced line in this country.

Andersen Design will be finishing the bisque ware in our own studio- at least initially. Our glazes are all of our own invention and are part of what distinguishes our work, only one other company has ever produced a line with our glazes and that is because a former employee stole the recipes from us. That company has since gone out of business. We also love the process and look forward to an opportunity to devote more of our own time and energy to that process. We expect to be developing more one of a kind work, which complements production work and often generates ideas for more production pieces.

In order to make this really work, we need to build a new ceramic finishing production here. This will provide interesting Maine Jobs- while the bisque ware production will provide interesting New Hampshire jobs. We will need to find financing for the new facility and possibly other costs.

As a small business we have always slipped between the cracks of establishment financiers. We are a genuine grassroots collectible because our work became a collectible by way of ordinary people deciding to collect Andersen stoneware. There was never any effort or collaborations with outside organizations to promote the collectiblity of Andersen stoneware- it was just the people's choice. By joining this network of ceramic production entrepreneurs, we can reduce the burden on us and that will allow us to improve our customer service as well as focus more on the ceramic process. We have not historically found great support through established channels- our business success is from the grass roots and so I have decided to spread our cause through our own grass roots. Thank You Grass Roots! We Love you!

Sincerely,

Susan Mackenzie Andersen;

http://www.andersenstudio.com/

Green Energy grants- Tied to Small Business survival Projects?

2009-10-23T10:32:00.000-04:00

Since there are likely grants available for green energy entrepreneurs, and since businesses such as our own face the possibility that if the Cap and Tax Bill passes that it will become too expensive to continue to produce our line in America- which has been our committment since 1952, when our company was established with the philosophy of creating a hand made product affordable for the middle classes - I am wondering if there is a way for the recipient of green energy "stimulus" grants to develop energy saving windmill technology at a drastically reduced cost for busnesses threatened by what is reported to be a 40% hike in the cost of energy - or in Obama's own words Cap N Tax will "necessarily skyrocket everybodies energy consumption"

We would like to develop anplan for transforming our family business into a private economy business that we can leave to the benefit of future generations- and since such a plan would involve creating new production spaces, it could be designed as an energy efficient, environmentally controlled building. I do not know how any manufacturing can survive in the country if energy costs go up 40 percent unless they have access to an inexpensive form of energy such as windmill technology is reported to be.

Slip-cast production provides for meaningful and satisfying work. Our best employees have always come from the deeply rooted Maine community. Meaningful work is important to well being. It took years of difficult struggle to get our business off the ground through bootstrap capitalization. It would be a shame to see it lost forever.

But these days with Obama targeting those making over 250 thousand dollars for escalated extraction of funds to finance a rapidly increasing federally controlled government, even boot-strap capitalization is being threatened. Small businesses that file as s-corporations report business profits on a personal return. The profits reported on personal returns are used for both personal expenditures and re-invested into the business as "boot-strap capitalization”. The more the government extracts to fill its own pockets, the less there is available for the bootstrap capitalization of the small business economy

The upside – maybe this is a good time for investing in slow growth businesses, that might see a escalation in profitability in the future, when we may have a more private economy friendly administration.

The Grant Proposal that wasn't.

2009-10-22T10:34:00.004-04:00

I saw that there was a business grant being offered through the Juice Conference- a conference of business , non-profits, banking, and entrepreneurs, promoted by the Maine Arts Commission.

I prepared an introduction and contacted a mold maker for a cost estimate before I learned the terms of this grant which requires that one register, pay fro and attend the conference and then present an oral presentation in what strikes me as an American Idol style format.

Since grants are very speculative, we had been thinking that we can submit an application without investing a great deal of time. We would like tioattend the conference- but we cannot do so at this time.

I decided to submit the following to the conference anyway- having already requested an inquiry as to a place for those who cannot attend the conference to submit information. Well see what happens- and in the mean time, since the effort has already been put forth, I am publishing the introduction I provisionally prepared here.

Proposal for a Small Grant:
Andersen Design is a long established Maine Business. We are the first ceramic production studio on the Boothbay Peninsula, which now is home to a small industry of slip-cast productions. This industry has fostered the growth of a skilled labor class- skilled in the art, craft and science of ceramics, one of humanities first traditional crafts. As private economy businesses we must pay our employees as we train them, often at a loss until the employee has developed a level of competence. Whenever Andersen Design has been forced to lay employees off, these employees have been immediately snatched up by other ceramic enterprises. The illustrious Eva Zeisel trained Weston Andersen, and the second generation of Andersen’s have learned from Weston.

Andersen began selling our original ceramic art in a 200-year-old barn on Southport Island in 1952. Our clientele immediately began collecting our work. Today there are many collections dating back to the 1950’s or later.

Our line of classical wildlife sculptures and original and contemporary functional forms is identified with Maine through out the world. We produce our art from raw materials all sourced in the United States and our glazes and body are as original and unique to our product as are our original sculptures and forms. Andersen Design has always been difficult to categorize because we are at once art, craft, a private economy business, a production line and one of a kind art.

Ceramic production provides for a lifetime of creativity and continual development. Because our forms are produced in molds using the stoneware slip-casting process, they can be made into production pieces that can be ordered by retailers for resale- or treated uniquely as one of a kind art. The design and production processes complement each other. A perfect example is our popular cobble dish- a small dish that can be reproduced in one of our patterns- which are identifiable but never exactly the same as each rendition is unique- or the can be used for experimentation and spontaneous expression- a process from which new production ideas emerge. Each piece is individual – a metaphorical representation of American individualism- and this I believe is the quality that has fostered the continual development of the Andersen Collector.

Andersen Designs best employees come from the rooted Maine Community. We provide a life style that offers intelligent and disciplined, and talented employees daily challenges and continual development of their skills.

Our line has sold in retail shops, museum stores, galleries, antique stores, department stores- as far away as Denmark and Japan, and catalogs- most notably the Smithsonian catalog for which our classic gentle sandpiper has been a number one seller for over thirty years.

In these difficult times we have been receiving unsolicited inquiries from established stores such as LL Bean and Days of Maine, who are ordering at first very cautiously in very small quantities to see how the work sells. We know that it sells well even in these times, as stores such as Lovell’s, in Portland, Freeport, and New Hampshire, have been surprised to discover as recently as last spring. The House of Logan, a long established home décor store in Boothbay harbor was taken aback by the marketability of our lie when they began carrying it a few years back. We are also seeing unsolicited calls from retailers with whom we had lost contact. They are telling us that in these difficult times they are gravitating to classical items- and in over fifty years of sustained marketability, Andersen Design has established that we are indeed a classic, both in Maine and throughout the world.

Still we need to put more money and energy into developing our marketing. We lost contact with the wholesale market when we stopped doing the New York Gift Show in the late eighties- and of course marketing has changed with the Internet. An increase in our internet profile is an increase in both retail and wholesale business. Retail business provides a higher profit margin, while wholesale business provides a flexibility that can sustain one through slow retail seasons. We have an active retail website- www.andersenstudio.com and an inactive wholesale domain. We need to research and develop targeted advertising and to also continue doing shows in which we bring our work directly before the public. This is an area in which we would like to develop partnerships with others.

This grant application is targeted at creating new production molds of some of our most popular items and at funding a marketing campaign-, which needs to be properly researched. Some places where we might advertise if we had the budget include Downeast magazine, Maine Home design, Maine & Boats and Harbors (where an article about us by Weston’s grandson, the author Colin Woodard, is tentatively scheduled to be published in the early spring)- Architectural Digest, Elle Home Décor. Metropolitan Home - or other national or international home décor publications. We have been interested in doing the Fine Furnishing and Fine Craft Shows put on by Karen Little Shows, which happen four times a year. In this regard we hope to find collaborators or partners. We need to put more research into shows in order to determine which are best for us. We also need to be researching foreign markets.

New production molds would decrease our production time by about fifty percent as well as producing a better quality result. New production molds reduce fettling time, as the mold marks are minimal. They reduce decorating time because the lines of the pieces are crisper.

Joe Randal of Birchstone Studios in Denmark Maine produced an excellent block mold of our baby penguin for us when it was on the cover of the Smithsonian Christmas cataloged a few years ago. The block mold dramatically reduces the cost and ease of creating fresh production molds. If we receive the grant we would contract with Joe Randal to create production molds on these items and possibly others:

Chickadee

Chicakee with Berry

Wren.

Junco,

Hedgehog,

Small loon,

Large Loon,

Sand Piper

Baby Seal

Mother Seal,

Seagulls

We are waiting to meet with Joe Randal so that we can figure out what part of the grant money would be required to finance block molds, and what remains for a marketing budget.

In Defense (And Support) of the Private Economy

2009-10-16T19:26:00.004-04:00

I have started a new cause on FaceBook -In Defense (And Support) of the Private Economy. Image copywrite David Dupree 2008

And I found this FaceBook Page sponsored for the Chamber of Commerce: American Free Enterprise

Minutes after I finished creating In Defense ( And Support) of the Private Economy, I was at a loss about who to invite and so I went to Ning.com and saw a number of Freinds request- One from Create Culture. I had never heard of John Rouse ( who invited me) but his philosophy is written on the same page as In Defense ( And Support) of the Private Economy.

The timing was so liquid, that it becomes evidental that meaningul coincidence is a living existence

Opportunity Calling !

2009-10-15T10:26:00.000-04:00

Greetings to the world of Artists, Designers, and Marketing Geniuses.

We at Andersen Studio have been interested in doing the Fine Furnishings & Fine Craft Shows run by Kate Little Shows for a number of years but it is hard for us to get away. Kate Little sends very chatty emails and seems to be an excellent promoter. Her shows have been on going for over thirty years. She reported that the recent Milwaukee Show was the best show ever.

Fine Furnishings & Fine Craft Shows attract an interior design market and have strong media connections. Those in the show have their work represented on the Fine Furnishings and Crafts website as well.

Kate knows our work and is excited about having our participation. There are several booths that may still be available on a last minute basis. One can create an exhibit on a gallery basis.

Andersen Studio is looking for others who might like to collaborate in doing this show. The expenses could be shared with a smaller commission- or if you cover all expenses the commission will be larger- these are details to be negotiated.

Christine Andersen does Tiles. Andersen Studio has a line of wild life sculptures and functional designs that have retained their market appeal for over fifty years. We also represent the paintings of David Dupree, which you can view on our website.

We are open to ways of collaborating and are willing to negotiate the cost of the space, if needed- and negotiate other terms with others. We are willing to show in a gallery display as long as we feel the other work compliments out own. Otherwise there are several booths available.

Even if it is not for the upcoming show, we are still interested in the possibility of future shows. If the shows are as successful as Karen Little’s emails claim, this is an ongoing venue involving four shows with an interior design clientele and strong media connections. This is a great opportunity for a person with a talent for display, a talent for selling, and a love of travel as well as for talented artists and crafts(wo)men.

This opportunity is open to for- profits and non-prrofits alike, provided all are subject to the same terms of agreement cot within the private economy sector.

Please contact Mackenzie@andersenstudio.com if you have any level of seriously committed interest and would like to take part in formulating a team.

You can find info on the show at www.finefurnishingsshow.com

From Kate Lytle’s recent email:

On the heals of our most successful Milwaukee show yet…this is the….

LAST CALL for booth space at the Providence show!

- half booths – SOLD OUT

- 3 10x10 standard booths

- 2 10x15 standard booths

- 2 10x20 standard

- 1 corner 10x10 or 10x15 front of show due to a health cancellation this week!

Karla Little

follow us on twitter.com - finefurnishings

Fine Furnishings & Fine Craft Shows:

Milwaukee - Oct. 3 & 4, 2009

Providence - Oct. 23-25, 2009

Baltimore - May 1 & 2, 2010

www.finefurnishingsshow.com

80 Main Rd, Suite 203

Tiverton, RI 02878

401-816-0963

Andersen Design and the Transformation of America

2009-10-14T12:18:00.002-04:00

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Andersen Design and the Transformation of America

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

As many of you know, Andersen Studio, Andersen Design was started in the 1950’s with a philosophy of producing a hand made product affordable to the middle classes. We have a life long commitment to producing our craft in America.

However, we did not foresee what is taking place today. It is time to face the new reality. With the successive bills, the anticipated taxes to pay for them, and all of the spending that our government is manifesting- and combined with the cold shoulder that same government turns of the credit freeze existing in the small business economy, it is time for Andersen Design to begin exploring the possibility of having our medium priced line produced in a business friendly nation and to explore marketing abroad.

Our primary asset is our extensive line of wild life sculptures and functional forms that have retained their marketability for over half a century, but due to the small size of our production, the market has never been flooded. We need partners as well as financing. We have no idea how this works or where to begin researching. We welcome any tips or information.

It is our hope that if this is a course we must take, that we can use it to the benefit of the line that we would continue producing in our own studio. This is not a course we would consider under different circumstances but with our country undergoing a “fundamental transformation” it is time for us to consider fundamentally transforming the way that we do business.

I have long had an eye on how we can transform this business into an enterprise that out lives ourselves. Here is my original Vision Statement. I do know if that vision is still viable. While we await to find out the fate for small business in the United States of America. We need, at least to be creatively exploring our options.

Tips, and suggestions welcomed.

Mackenzie Andersen

Thoughts on Continuing The Art Of Handcrafted Productions

2009-08-21T08:49:00.002-04:00

I am pondering whether to continue my meetup group- The Art Of Hand Crafted Productions. It has attracted no followers and my six-month contract will soon need renewal. On the plus side, there is a benefit to developing one’s own views by writing them down. The non-linear format of the Meetup forum is more dynamic than that of a blog. And then maybe I am just ahead of the curve- Maybe if I keep on keeping on, the curve will escalate as the public begins to understand the importance of small business and that the only real way to repair the economy is through real productivity. Andersen Design have always been committed to remaining an American –made craft - but programs that are discussed by Congress, may place that dream beyond realistic expectations.

2009-08-08T10:10:00.002-04:00

Passing along this announcement from Pete the Carpenter

Pete the Carpenter has invited all to the event 'FREE Constitutional Webinar series The Making of America , Part 2 of 4' on Paint Maine Red!

"Part 1 was very informational. In order for us to preserve the Constitution we must educate ourselves about our Constitution. This is a great chance to learn and it is Free "

Time: August 11, 2009 from 9pm to 10:30pmLocation: National Center for Constitutional Studies on your ComputerOrganized By: Pete the Carpenter
Event Description:The Making of America , Part 2 of 4 Join us for a Webinar on August 4th.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/381238603Few Americans today know the real story of how America was made. The struggle of the Founders to discover the ideas of freedom will give you a deep appreciation of these people. As each American today experiences this amazing story, he will surely become an advocate and a teacher of America 's formula for freedom.

See more details and RSVP on Paint Maine Red:http://paintmainered.ning.com/events/event/show?id=2731571%3AEvent%3A13503&xgi=bYth9I8

About Paint Maine Red
"We have drifted away from the visions of our Founding Fathers. It's time to lead this Nation into the future by preserving our Constitution."

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Boothbay Region Art Foundation Loses It's Non-juried Status

2009-06-29T11:17:00.005-04:00

Note- The explanation given by BRAF for the calendar listing of a "juried" show is that it was a mistake. However the mistake remains in place on the calendar for the August Show- and so, in my view, the "mistake" remains rhetorical until it is actually corrected.

It is with great sadness that I learned to day that The Boothbay Region Art Foundation has become yet another juried show.

Over the years in numerous blogs I have praised The Boothbay Region Art Foundation and their unjuried show- open to all artists to submit work of their choice. This resulted in a transformative creativity blossoming and evolving at The Boothbay Region Art Foundation.

With the passing of the Boothbay Region Art Foundation’s original intent, there is a void in our community waiting to be filled

The Maine Arts Commission recently announced that stimulus funds are available for non-profit organizations. -I hope that someone will answer the call of the void and give birth to a new Art Foundation representing the rare and wonderful unjuried show.

There is a genuine need for a non-judgmental venue in which artists can present their work, be they young or old. I believe the unjuried venue encourages artists that might not otherwise take the step of showing their work to the world.

I hope that The Boothbay Art Foundation is continuing it's polices of funding it's operations through the sales of artists work. This is the best thing for the artist and the gallery. June Rose deserves special recognition for the work she has done over the years in both managing the gallery and as chief sales person of the artists work.

In Defense of the Private Economy

2009-06-15T10:24:00.008-04:00

I have started a busines meet up group called The Art of Handcrafted Production, I also welcome anyone with an interest in the fate of the private economy. So far I am the only member. I invited the writer and economist Charles Lawton to join, after reading his article about the growth of government jobs and wages in Maine, which exceeds the growth of private economy jobs- posted here on my meet up discussion board. Mr Lawton didn't join but I received a call from the small business administration to ask how they can help our business, which came down the pipeline from Mr. Lawton, who is apparently related to the head of the national small business administration. I am not yet sure what that actually means- but it shows that if we make the effort, we can get a response.

I have also posted a discussion about the new campaign started last week by the National Chamber of Commerce- a Campaign for the Defense of the Private Economy. The Chamber is on the same page as my own effort and will be working with grass roots organizations.

I have started this meet up because the economy is at the front of a social war. Many feel that the private economy is under attack. The government created a big stimulus program and all we got was the lousy debt and more and more taxes. Not only does the growth of government jobs outstrip the growth of Maine's private economy, but we are also one of the states with the highest number of non-profit organizations. Both government and non-profits derive their financial support from the private economy so something is seriously wrong with this picture - but it's not going to change unless the people demand it.

Please join in the private economy grass movement. If our economy has a sustained recovery, it will be because of the ingenuity within the private economy- despite the actions of our government-or at least until we can get our government to understand that it is in their interests to support the growth of the private economy.

The Art Of Production

2009-05-22T01:17:00.008-04:00

I have been trying to instigate a meet=up group for hand crafted productions at http://www.meetup.com/The-Art-of-Hand-Crafted-Production. The idea was first inspired when we joined Etsy.com. Etsy is an online open market for handcrafted items. It is often referenced in Design blogs. The cost is very reasonable but one has to promote oneself to be noticed in the thousands of handcrafted items on the site. Etsy has provided various tools for that purpose. One of those tools are the teams, but when I looked at all the existing teams, there was only one in which I felt that we fit and that is the Maine team.

I have a vision of a team that would focus on handcrafted productions. This is because I am aware of the misunderstanding of handcrafted production work that we have encountered throughout our history. I was not surprised, when, shortly after joining Etsy. I received a email from Etsy management asking that I answer a few questions-purportedly because Etsy wanted to know more about us so that they would better know how to place us.

True, or false, I instinctively identified the questionnaire as having been instigated by another crafter challenging our handcrafted status due to the reproducible nature of our product. I responded in the spirit of that instinct, knowing full well that we satisfy the guidelines posted on the Etsy website. Perhaps my interpretation of the request was transmitted because the simple response was that we comply with the guidelines of Etsy.

I have no idea how many handcrafted productions exist in the United States. I tried googling the term without satisfactory results. If there are statistics on handcrafted productions, those statistics are not using the language that I am using and I have no idea what that language would be. I have not ever encountered this category in common usage. There seems to be a huge gap between large automated craft productions such as in the dinner ware industry- and one of a kind crafted products. The concept of small scale handcrafted productions deserves it's own category.

The category is more identifiable in the global-tribal community- American Indian pottery and basket weaving is a contemporary hand crafted production, and there are similar global crafts from all over the world. I once contacted a website dealing with global handcrafts but they didn't represent handcrafts made in the USA- which seems to be excluded from the category of "global crafts- but then so is most of Western Europe, with the possible exception of some Italian pottery.

Technically, in terms of the team I have in mind for Etsy, all of the above can all be included, but for other purposes, having to do with our national economy, I am interested in the hand crafted productions in the United States because, quite frankly, it is one of the few remaining manufacturing bases in The United States as hand crafted products are , after all. "manufactured" - or made by man.

Regionally we have many small slip-casting ceramic productions with Edgecomb Potters and Sheepscot River Pottery coming immediately to mind. I have noticed that you will not find these potteries listed as members of The Maine Crafts Association, for good reason- The Maine Crafts Association has little to offer production crafters and I have never seen the MCA grant recognition to the professional production crafters community. In fact there seem to be many unspoken categories of crafters who do not mix, mingle or recognize each other as though we all belong in separate worlds even as we all share the art of hand crafting.

Hodgdon Brothers Shipbuilders are handcrafters- marvelous ones. I don't know that they are technically production crafters. It depends on of you define production crafts by a product that is reproduced or if you define it by a production process. I believe that Hodgdon Brothers must have a well organized production process. I do not know if they ever repeat the same boat twice.

Then there are the fine furniture makers- Thomas Moser produces a line of furniture that they market in a catalog and so they are production crafters. You probably wouldn't find Moser on Etsy though. I don't think they need Etsy as a marketing venue. Nor would you find them on the Maine Crafts Association - this probably because Moser doesn't need to be there, although they are in fact crafters.

Both Hodgdon Brothers and Mosers are small businesses but their high end products and international markets places them in a unique category from other small craft businesses.

I'll save more thoughts on this subject for another post and for now I will close by going back to the beginning- when the term "The Art Of Production- American Style" first came to mind. This was when I was adding the photo of two bowls that you see on the page to my Politico profile. The form asked for a title and, as I was at that moment involved with a conversation on socialism vs the United States Constitution, I called it "The Art of production- American Style"- and why did I call it that? Because the American Constitution is based in individualism versus the collectivism of socialism- and because Andersen Design is not tribal art- it is individualistic, which makes it culturally American (meaning here - the United States) art- as the United States Constitution is founded on the principles of individualism.

Andersen Studio to be in the Pembrok Elementary School Economic Fair on May 21, 2009

2009-05-19T10:38:00.006-04:00

We are pleased to have been invited by the sixth grade students at Pembroke Elementary School to be represented in their economic fair. It is a fair that focuses on Maine history and jobs in Maine and we are pleased to be recognized in both categories by the students at Pembroke Elementary School. We think an economic fair at the elementary school level is an excellent idea.
The Fair is to be held on May 21st and the products donated will go toward funding a trip to the state capital for the students.

Following is the letter we sent to the student that invited us>:
LETTER TO A SIXTH GRADER

Thank you for your letter. We are very interested in being represented in the Maine Economic Fair that your school is presenting.

I am the second generation of the Andersen family and we do not have a generation following us to continue the Andersen Design enterprise. I have a dream of finding others who will continue the enterprise that my family has started. Due to the unique nature of our enterprise this is not an easy thing to do. I have published a vision statement on my website expressing my personal ideas about a direction in which Andersen Design might evolve through the participation of a larger community. I am including that vision statement with the package that I am sending to you.

My parents were Designer-Craftsmen who started Andersen Design with the philosophical intent to create well designed, hand made products affordable to the middle class. That was during the Golden Age of the Middle Class, circa United States 1952. At that time the distribution of wealth in this country took the form of a Bell Curve with the largest number of people sharing the greatest amount of wealth. You may have heard on the news that we have gone off that course since then.

It took many years for this business to get off the ground and we were poor when I was growing up, but, to tell you the truth, although we often didn’t have money for things, I didn’t take much notice of being poor, for we lived in natural surroundings on Southport Island, Maine and my parents had carved out their own independent life style which can be described as the merging of art, business and the middle class work ethic.

You ask what made us successful and of course it is first of all what you have expressed yourself, that we created a product of classic appeal that can be affordably crafted by hand. People started collecting our work, of their own accord from the beginning and passing those collections down from generation to generation. The slip-cast method allowed us to develop both a wholesale and a retail business, which gets us through the seasons.

My parents presented their line at the New York Gift Show. The New York Gift Show is a wholesale gift show where people who create products display them and people that sell products come in search of merchandise. It was the decision to participate in the New York Gift Show that launched Andersen Design in the national market.

However after many years there came to be so many gift shows in so many locations and the cost of doing the shows went up while the numbers of buyers attending the shows was diluted by the number of shows that had come into being. In the early nineties, we decided that it was not worth the money and expense to continue doing the show. In truth, we made a mistake at that point, in that we didn’t substitute doing the Gift Show with another form of marketing, but we were going through some family difficulties and that is what happened and as a result our wholesale business decreased with some people even believing that we had gone out of business.

Today we are going through some struggles but the demand for our product remains strong. Even with the economic recession that hit last fall, our retail sales increased over the same period of the year previous. In this way our business is very successful. We have a product line that has sustained its marketability for over fifty years- and we a small enough production that we have never saturated our market. Also our price point is moderate while our quality is unique and valued – and so- because of those factors, when the economy shifts, we are somewhat like a bicycle in a traffic jam. There are many paths that we can take and many markets in which we can sell. We sell in museum stores, catalogs, department stores, retail galleries, and of course on the web. -and last but not least in our own retail gallery.

Because we use the slip-cast method we can recreate our line in endless ways. We have our established way of decorating our products from which stores and individuals can order, and we also finish our products in many unique ways as one of kind creations. This is a work intensive lifestyle but it is a very rewarding life style. Like a farmer we create our product from the raw materials of the earth that we mix together using our own unique recipes to make our body, glazes, and decorating colors.

Ceramics is a merging of art and science. My father always emphasizes measuring everything exactly, but between you and me, when it comes to measurements- I have a remarkably reliable intuition- and I use that as well.

This is mindful work in which one must retain an aware connection to everything in the environment, especially since we do not have a climate controlled environment as many larger factories do. That means that as the seasons change we have to make adjustments in our processes.

If you want to run your own business, having a good book keeper and office manager is crucial and you also need to have good marketing skills. This is a wonderful creative endeavor but we have to wear all the hats- or work with others who wear those hats well. It is an orchestration to keep all the different aspects of a business in tune with one another.

That said- the number one key to the success of Andersen Design is perseverance, which also requires a great deal of faith to get through the difficult times. My parents persevered where many would have given up and we do the same when we encounter difficult periods.

I hope this introduction will help you with your project. I realize there is little time before the fair and so I am keeping it short but feel free to write or call or email to asks further questions.We will be sending you some products for your fair via UPS

Sincerely,Mackenzie Andersen, Andersen Design

Andersen Studio starts the Art of Handcrafted Production meetup group

2009-05-01T10:27:00.004-04:00

Andersen Studio has started a meetup group for handcrafted productions at http://www.meetup.com/The-Art-of-Hand-Crafted-Production/ .

This is a meetup venue for small hand crafted production enterprises to collaborate on our mutual concerns and to stimulate a grass roots economic movement that benefits the Main Street economy.

The Main Street economy is a forgotten faction, which is receiving little benefit from "stimulus" funds while it is experiencing the credit freeze that TARP funds were supposed to ameliorate.

Production crafters are often overlooked by non-profit arts organizations and state-run arts commissions while we contribute to the real wealth of our country, the basis of the real economy from which the funds that finance government and non-profit organizations are derived.

Because we are small, we are often overlooked. As a group of small productions we become a more effective force for addressing government and, if necessary, for promoting legislation, for pooling resources and benefits, and for increasing awareness about the social and economic value that small production crafters add to the cultural and economic landscape.

Not only can we provide jobs, but also we can provide meaningful, interesting and diverse jobs. This is a call for production crafters to unite in the interests of our industry, our country, and for the preservation of an American way of life that is unique and individualistic.

All production crafters, would-be production crafters, entrepreneurs and other interested parties are herby invited to participate in The Art of Production grassroots meeting ground.

The 5000 Year Leap.

2009-04-09T10:56:00.006-04:00

Greetings, after a long absence,

I have been posting everywhere but here.

We are working on new sculptures. I have two Tufted Titmouse sculptures, and Dad has a Feeding Water Goose, a bust of Brenda and a Standing Woman sculpture, all waiting to have molds made, which is the hold up at this point. I am not sure when that phase will progress. In the meantime both Dad and myself are going to be working on Eagle sculptures.

I have become involved in the Constitutional movement that is growing in this country. I attended a recently formed group last night that is reading the book. The 5000 Year Leap, which tells the story of how our constitution came into being. A positive effect of recent economic and political developments is that awareness of our constitution is moving toward center stage. For a number of years I have been involved with an online philosophy discussion, in which, most participants were more familiar with the doctrines of Marxism, while barely aware of The Federalist Papers, which is the correspondence between our founding fathers during the time that they were formulating the constitution. It strikes me that while Marxism is based on the principles of class warfare, our constitution was modeled on the human character, and takes into consideration the full spectrum of human character, which is distributed across class boundaries. Publius crafted a governing system based on checks and balances of power. It is hopeful that as these troubled times unfold , the wisdom of our forefathers will once again become a mainstream influence that can guide us back to the founding principles of our nation.

Chop-Wood-Carry-Water

2008-07-21T03:26:00.003-04:00

Work in a small un-modernized ceramics studio is a direct relationship with nature. By “un-modernized” I am referring to a production environment, which is not artificially controlled, as is the case with much larger commercial productions. A future and potential partner with Andersen Design, may chose to build a modernized production studio, for the purpose of gaining greater control over the variables, but others may welcome the vanishing opportunity to interact directly with elements of nature in one’s day to day working process. In a uncontrolled environment, the liquid slip and even the firing of the kiln responds to the changing seasons and weather-related factors as humidity and outside temperature.

Even in a controlled environment, ceramics remains a relationship with nature, the more so that one works directly with the raw materials. Measuring has always been stressed by my mentor and father, Weston Neil Andersen, but to my experience intuition is just as vital, and is increased and developed by the discipline of the scientific approach. Monona, our caster, knows my secret, - that I never measure the water content as I am mixing the raw materials that make our casting slip. Instead I measure after I am done and nine times out of ten the measurement is precisely on the mark. My father always instructs the slip-maker to measure the water, just as we measure all other ingredients, but he is well aware of the intuition’s ability to measure, as he has often repeated the story from his childhood about observing the farmers talking by a fence and as they talked, they would pick up handfuls of dirt and run it through their fingers. Ceramic work and farming have many similarities, both create something from the raw materials of nature, and both, as Dad has described, are “very scientific”, and both rely on the grace of greater and natural forces. In every kiln firing the hand of nature makes all the final decisions.

Perhaps someday someone will develop a computer program that can instantly calculate the interactions between all the particles that participate in a kiln firing, but until that day, ceramic results depend on the grace of forces beyond one’s control. As an artist, one has to learn to accept what has been created in partnership with nature, even when it defies the artist’s original intent. Often the artist has to wait until ready to accept the results before passing artistic judgment on the finished work. If one uses one’s predetermined expectations as the measure of the result, one may be blinded from perceiving the more mysterious beauty created by the natural will of nature.

Forms created by Andersen Studio lend themselves to continual re-invention through glazing and decoration. The classic and unique shapes have an enduring appeal, creating a foundational basis upon which to develop further ideas about form, color, and individuality.

Individuality is an essentially American ideal, which is expressed through the creative process at Andersen Studio.

The Importance of Antony Flew

2007-12-09T14:34:00.000-05:00

On November 04, 2007, the New York Times published The Turning of An Atheist about the transformation of philosopher Antony Flew from an iconic atheist toward acceptance of a Deity. The evolution of Flew’s reasoning is a process that ostensibly began in 1985 when Antony Flew entered into a series of debates with the professor of philosophy and theology, Dr Gary R Habermas.

The Times article is framed in an alleged controversy over whether or not Antony Flew’s recently published book, There Is A God, truthfully represents Flew’s views, and is heavily loaded with implications that Flew is senile and that the alleged senility is allegedly being exploited by the theistic philosophy community. The case for this point of view rests upon a series of judgmental conclusions and excerpts taken from Flew in conversation, and presented out of context. Testimonies by Flew, and others involved in the publication of the book, are discounted with accusations of fraud.

Flew’s publisher, Steve Laube published the following statement, credited to Flew, on Amazon.com:

"My name is on the book and it represents exactly my opinions. I would not have a book issued in my name that I do not 100 percent agree with. I needed someone to do the actual writing because I'm 84 and that was Roy Varghese's role. The idea that someone manipulated me because I'm old is exactly wrong. I may be old but it is hard to manipulate me. This is my book and it represents my thinking."

Blogger, Richard Carrier mentions the above testimony in his blog titled Antony Flew Considers God...Sort Of, and then discredit’s the testimony as he accuses Laube of fraud.

The NY Times article ignited a buzz in the blogosphere, where the innuendos, insinuations, and conclusory opinions, were readily transformed, by the atheistic community, to the status of unquestionable truth with atheist calling to have legal claims brought against the alleged “real authors” of Flew’s book. In blogs and articles, placed at the top of a google-generated search, there is little discussion of the content of Flew’s book to be found, or even the interview between Flew and Habermas, which is easily accessible on the Internet. The discussion of the book is overshadowed as the Times article, attacking the character of the publishers, successfully commandeers center stage.

The NY Times article gives considerable space to Richard Carrier, and Carrier expands upon his views in his Blog, conspicuously titled, Antony Flew's Bogus Book. As reported in the New York Times article, The Turning of an Atheist, Carrier carried on a dialogue with Flew. Carrier confesses that he wasn’t familiar with the work of Flew until the much-publicized controversy over Flew’s “conversion”, at which point, Carrier was asked by an unidentified secular group to engage an interview with Flew. Richard Carrier’s blog openly accuses other person’s with being the actual authors of the book. Carrier announces that

“The book's actual author turns out to be an evangelical preacher named Bob Hostetler (who has also written several books with Josh McDowell), with considerable assistance from this book's co-author, evangelical promoter and businessman Roy Abraham Varghese”

.

Carrier offers no justification for this claim, but to Flew’s choir, justification is not necessary as Flew’s allegation is taken as established fact and followed up by calls from his choir to have legal charges initiated against the accused.

Clicking on the link to Bob Hosteller’s site, as provided by Carrier, informs us only that Hosteller was involved in Flew’s book as a free-lance editor, which is hardly an uncommon practice and does not provide a reasonable basis for Carrier’s allegations.

Clicking on the Link to Roy Abraham Varghese informs us that Varghese has written his own books about the compatibility of theistic beliefs and scientific knowledge and insights. Once again, there is nothing there to support Carrier’s allegations, which even Carrier downgrades from a statement of fact to a personal suspicion in the following paragraph.

Carrier refers to Flew’s new book as a “hack Christian track”, without giving any reference to any statement by Flew that Flew accepts Christianity as his personal religion. Contrarily, in the articles leading up to the book, Flew has always described himself as accepting an “Aristotelian God".

In Antony Flew Considers God...Sort Of
Richard Carrier writes,

"Once upon a time, a rumor hit the Internet that Flew had converted to Christianity. The myth appeared in 2001 and popped up again in 2003"

.
However in the introduction to Atheist Becomes Theist-Exclusive Interview with Former Atheist Antony Flew, is this statement:”

"in January 2004, Flew informed Habermas that he had indeed become a theist. While still rejecting the concept of special revelation, whether Christian, Jewish or Islamic, nonetheless he had concluded that theism was true. In Flew’s words, he simply “had to go where the evidence leads."

(The Habermas interview goes on to illuminate the evidence considered by Flew).

If, in his new book, There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, Flew has testified, that he accepts Christianity as his personal religion, this would be news and it would be appropriate for Carrier to provide a quote from the book in which Flew testifies regarding such an affiliation, but substantiation for Carrier’s claim is nowhere to be found, either in Carrier’s blog or in other sources referenced in Carrier’s blog.

On Carrier’s blog, It appears tha I am blocked from further posting after expressing the opinion that Carrier’s accusations consists of conclusory statements, only, and that the interview between Habermas and Flew sets a much needed higher standard of debate between theists and atheists.

I recently commented on the Ross Douthat Blog found at theAtlantic.com, a site that appears to have a greater tolerance for the expression of diverse opinions. The first comment on the blog suggests that the readers might also be interested to read the Interview between Gary Habermas and Antony Flew from Philosophia Christi, as well as Habermas' review essay of There is a God:

The second blog comment begins with the statement

“I cannot attest to the veracity of what’s written in There is a God: However, as an attorney familiar with the standard of "undue influence" its important for all of us not to miss the greater point that our intellectual will (built on wisdom, experience, and study) not be besmirched simply because we are older.”

- And deserves further reading.

In the third comment there is a reference to an unidentified article in the New York Times by Stanely Fish. The comment did not provide a link to the article, which I am making available here:Suffering, Evil and the Existence of God. The comment claims that

the article gave no indication of the unusual circumstances surrounding its creation

. It turns out that the article by Fish is published in the New York Times, on the same date as the more talked about article by Oppenheimer (and includes the following statement about the Oppenheimer article in parenthesis at the end of Fish’s discussion)

(In an article published Sunday — November 4 — in the New York Times Magazine, Mark Oppenheimer more than suggests that Flew, now in his 80’s, did not write the book that bears his name, but allowed Roy Varghese (listed as co-author) to compile it from the philosopher’s previous writings and some extended conversations. Whatever the truth is about the authorship of the book, the relation of its argument and trajectory to the argument and trajectory of Ehrman’s book stands.)

I counted 26 bloggers on the New York Times Blogrunner page for The Turning of an Atheist.

There is 1 entry on Blogrunner for Suffering, Evil and the Existence of God.

However Suffering, Evil and the Existence of God has to date 351 comments. The Turning of an Atheist has no place for comments and so there is no basis for commentary comparison. However Richard Carrier's Blog, Antony Flew's Bogus Book has only 101 comments and Ross Douthat's Blog has 19 comments. Can we believe the New York Times blogging statistics that accounts for only one blog about an article that has generated such an abundance of reader comments? Since I am now publishing a blog that comments on Stanley Fish's article, we shall see if one becomes two - or we shall wonder about the selective methods of the New York Times data statistics.

The importance of Antony Flew is that he stands as a model for a civilized and thinking person's debate about theism vs atheism, rather than the usual tactic commonly found in debates concerning the existence of God, which is of course, attacking the speaker, rather than responding to the thought, of which The Turning of an Atheist is yet another example

2007-11-30T11:45:00.000-05:00

It's been quite some time since I posted, my process being interrupted in part by the events of August 27, 2007. the day that Mars was the closest to earth that it has been in 250 years.

I was swimming in the ocean that day. I swam for half an hour to forty-five minutes in the ocean waters at Ocean Point in East Boothbay. There is a small shore surrounded by a dramatic rocky coastline. I like to come out of the water in such a manner that I am lying on the rocks with the waves gently rocking me back and forth. It was lower tide than usual so this meant I had to eventually step over rocks that are covered with seaweed, which I did with care, but as soon as I stepped on the first rock that was not covered with seaweed, I slipped. I used my right hand to brace my fall against the rocks.

For about two minutes I felt an intense pain, on which I briefly focused until it subsided to a mild feeling of discomfort. I noticed that my wrist was deformed but since it was not painful, my assumption was that I must have sprained it. Fortunately others talked me into going into the emergency room. Surgery was recommended, which took place on August 28th, and at this point my wrist seems quite normal, but my dormancy of posting activities have lingered longer than I would have desired.

We are once again preparing for The Opera House Holiday Craft Fair, organized by Elise. (Actually as time has passed since I started this post, it is now Dec 8th, the day of the show)

I have been developing my one of a kind decorating technique, with some success as the pieces sold throughout the summer even before photographs could be taken. I finally have some pictures of some of the results.

Monona and I have been working on glazes. For a long time, we have been trying to figure out the missing ingredient needed to make the "almost there" Blueberry glaze really sing. In the process we discovered how to make our Verdigris glaze a brighter shade of green, which also gives the glaze a greater depth of varigation. I glazed a couple of frogs, which will soon be available to order on the Internet, and we plan on casting many other pieces in this beautiful glaze. I am particularly interested in bringing back the beautifully formed salad bowl series, designed by Weston Andersen, using this vibrant glaze, also originally designed by Weston.

As for the Blueberry glaze, we tried the same thing as with the Verdigris, but it didn't produce the same result, as Cobalt interacts differently to the other ingredients than does Copper. We have a plan, however, and more tests are in the works. The beauty of the varigated glazes comes about through the flow and interaction of the particles causing the "varigated effect" that looks like areas of a darker stippling of color over the lighter shade of color in patterns that are naturally designed by the hand of nature, and beyond the control of mere mortals. It’s intrinsic to the beauty of naturally flowing ceramic glazes that the end result is a partnership between the choices made by individual artist in interaction with a larger order of events.

There are many more things to write about, but in the interest of actually publishing, I will close for now and so.....

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Joy to the World, and if you would like to receive our Christmas sale, future sales, and general news about Andersen Studio. Please sign up for our email mailing list.

2007-08-09T08:43:00.000-04:00

Here at Andersen Studio we are currently preparing for the Southport Yacht Club Art Show coming up this weekend. The Following weekend we will once again be at Orr's Island for the week starting the 17th of August, after which the show will move to Bailey's Island.

In East Boothbay we just painted our storefront a beautiful shade of Azure Blue so you can't miss us. We are working on a large order of baby penguins and so have lots of baby penguin seconds as well as other seconds and one of a kind pieces that are not available elsewhere. Stop in to visit. We are on the road to Ocean Point, one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Meanwhile, I am following my own private campaign against the New England Cultural Data Base's terms of Agreement, which benefits the tax exempt corporation, The New England Foundation for the Arts. Congress has just historically increased it's funding for the National Foundation to the Arts, which, under other circumstances, I might welcome, but the New England Cultural Database shines a dark light on arts funding, as it exploits the individual artist,(see blog archive), who are also among the small business people community. The New England Foundation for the Arts just received a large grant from Jane's trust, which purports to be established to benefit undeserved populations.

"Jane's Trust was created through the beneficence of Jane B. Cook, who died in 2002. The Trust honors her legacy by supporting organizations and projects that primarily benefit underserved populations and disadvantaged communities.Jane's Trust makes grants in Massachusetts, Florida, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in the areas of arts and culture, education, environment and health and welfare."

"(BOSTON) New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) announced today that it has received a two- year $200,000 award from Jane's Trust. The funding will support the establishment of a New England public art network to coalesce
assets, address needs, and pursue opportunities for collaboration and knowledge-sharing among the region's public art practitioners, select community groups, and funders. NEFA will build on the models of its existing public art programs---Fund for the Arts (FFA) and Art and Community Landscapes (ACL)---supporting public art projects to address environmental issues with an emphasis on rural and underserved communities in northern New England."

Jane's Trust is administerd by the law firm of Hemenway and Barnes, who as attorneys should have reviewed the New England Cultural DataBase Terms of Agreement

I need to do more research on the veracity of emphasis on underserved communities, but the Maine Governor Baldacci's "Creative Economy" is influenced by Richard Florida's idea that there is a monied creative class that no longer is tied to a particular community for work purposes and that communities need to support the development of arts and culture in order to attract such people, and supposedly, the benefit of having a monied class resident in a community will "trickle down" to the rest of us. In fact such a policy benefits the real estate industry, driving real estate prices up and forcing those who cannot compete with the resources of " the creative class" to move to lesser desirable locations. I haven't heard about "creative economy" projects supporting "affordable housing" for the general public. Perhaps if such projects exist they are not well-publicised. The creative economy links on this blog are focused on affordable housing for the group of people that can be classified as "artists".

Andersen Studio News, Summer Shows

2007-07-27T08:39:00.000-04:00

Elise, of Andersen Studio, and Tony van Hasselt have been collaborating this year to produce the Art Show for the Boat Builders Festival, which is happening this weekend on the 28th and 29th of july. MItch Billis and the Kim and Phillipe Villard have been helping with the decoration of the building which is on the Ocean Point Marina side of the ship yard ( where one turns to go to the post office).

Gaby Kleykamp is working with us and will also be showing her work at the shipbuilders show. Gaby is busy today painting the front of our retail space on Ocean Point Road a shade of Cornflower Blue so that you can't miss us on your way to the Shipbuilders Festival. She also arranged out showroom with her unique artistic touch. We have many seconds and one of a kind decorations of our classic designs in our showroom which is up the street from the Shipbuilders Festival.We are working on a large order of baby penguins for a major catalog's Christmas edition and so we have many baby penquin seconds.

Weston's sculpture of Brenda is finished and is awaiting a mold, along with his new standing female figure sculpture. My Tufted Titmouse is still in the works.

We are also preparing for the show on Orr's Island starting Friday, August 18th through Saturday August 25th, which will move to Baileys Island the following week.

Other up-coming events include the Southport Yaght Club Art Show and the Lincoln Arts Festival.

Relunctant Dialogues

2007-07-22T12:44:00.000-04:00

I've taken a break from posting while I have been exploring publishing Options. For now I am using Google's Blogger, since it is easy to set up. I would like to have a different arrangement of categories but I will learn that as I go along.

I saw June Rose the other day and asked her what results came from the Boothbay Art Foundation's investigation into The New England Cultural Database Terms of Agreement, which I have learned, through June, had been referred to the BRAF lawyer. June relayed that the decision is to do nothing since it is believed that NECD cannot enforce it's terms of agreement. In my view, such a decision is a moral and ethical defeat, and fails to address the question as to why an "unenforceable" Terms of Agreement is there at all. I personally agree that The NECD TOS is unenforceable, but also take into consideration that it is for perpetuity. It is unpredictable how the future legal climate will evolve. I point to to two articles, by Thomas Hartman, which describe the questionable legality of corporate person hood and provide documentation thereof. As per Hartman's article, corporate person hood was given legal status, not by a supreme justice decision, but by an interpretation inserted by a court clerk. Corporate person hood is by now so entrenched in our system that it seems unlikely to be effectively challenged
I received an answer to the letter which I sent to Alden Wilson, Director of The Maine Arts Commission ( See archives beginning on May 19 2007). The point of view of The Maine Arts Commission is that The NECD Terms of Agreement is acceptable because NECD is only collecting names and addresses; and because the artist is protected by copyright laws. I was advised to address my questions to The New England Foundation For the Arts.

I sent the following response to The Maine Arts Commission, receiving a single sentence answer, stating that, since my questions are of such a "technical nature", it is suggested that I contact the New England Foundation for the Arts directly.

Dear Lisa Veilleux,

You have stated that

"The Policy states that the information being collected is: “Your organization's name, street address, postal address, website address, e-mail address (for general inquiries), year founded, year terminated or dissolved (if applicable), a brief description of your organization, and the director's or manager's name.” While this is content, it’s content which is publicly available from other sources--and voluntarily provided by the user. "

However you have not provided a publicly available link where one can find such a statement. I searched for the above statement in the NECD Terms of Agreement , and it is no where to be found. The Terms of Agreement is what the user is asked to sign.

The terms of Agreement provides all inclusive rights to The New England Foundation for the Arts, and those rights are claimed "for perpetuity" and are "assignable" and are "unlimited". If The Maine Arts Commission is justifying the NECD Terms of Agreement by claiming that the "submitted content" is limited, as you so describe, then where is the corresponding statement in the Terms of Agreement? The Terms of Agreement is "for perpetuity", and so one must consider how it might affect the financial fortunes of artist's descendants, who may not be in the position to compete against a well-funded organization like The New England Cultural Database. Statements made outside of the terms of agreement have questionable legal standing.

If the "submitted content" is limited, as you so describe, why must the user agree that The New England Cultural Data Base has "unlimited, royalty free, assignable" rights to the submitted content? Even if one accepts the validity of statements made outside of the TOS, it can be interpreted as giving The New England Foundation for the Arts the right to sell or otherwise assign the rights to the user information to whoever NEFA so chooses, which many would find objectionable, even if they believed that the submitted content is limited in the way that you have described. The sale of user information deserves consideration as a reason why the user must "waive and never assert moral rights over submitted content". ( I have yet to come across another TOS that requires the waiving of moral rights.)

The NECD Terms of agreement states

" You hereby give Us the right, however, to create a deep link to certain pages on Your website for the purpose of offering access to content that We, in Our sole discretion, determine to be appropriate for the NECD",

The above statement contradicts what you have written in your response. Most artists web site's contain pages with images of artwork. The NECD terms of agreement allows for The New England Cultural Database to go into a website and link to what ever content it wants. This is a justifiable interpretation of the actual language of the actual Terms of Agreement. The law is a matter of interpretation and so, once again, a court decision is the final arbitrator of the meaning of this contract.

You then state that "Copyright protects creative expression and the NECD directory does not contain work samples or non-public information"

but since the NECD Terms of Agreement requires the user to "WAIVE ANY AND ALL CLAIMS OR REMEDIES WHICH YOU MIGHT OTHERWISE BE ABLE TO ASSERT AGAINST US UNDER ANY THEORY OF LAW (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWS). the validity of copyright protection is undermined unless the NECD Terms of Agreement is challenged in a court of law.

I have long been aware of the public dangers of non-negotiable online user agreements but this agreement is the most unacceptable agreement that I have ever come across. It is clear that the New England Cultural Database is not meeting it's goals of representing all cultural activities in New England. If I believed the information I find on NECD, I would believe that non-profit organizations out-number free enterprise cultural activity, but I can readily calculate from personal knowledge, many local enterprises that are not listed on the New England Cultural Database - out-numbering those that are listed. The New England Cultural Database is defeating it's own purpose with this Terms of Agreement. I cannot find other voices of dissent, but neither can I find media that will publish my own concern, and so it is reasonable to imply a cultural oligarchy that has the power to silence dissent rather than responding to criticism. This is essentially Un-American. and, in my view, quite dangerous the future of democracy.

Sincerely,

Mackenzie Andersen

I sent, or thought I sent, an email to the Maine Arts Commission explaining that I wrote to Maine Arts because they are a government agency, serving the citizens of Maine, but that The New England Foundation For the Arts is a public charity and a tax-exempt corporation and it is unclear to me who NEFA represents. I stated that I wrote to the Maine Arts Commission because it the Arts Commission's job, in my view to protect the rights of the artist.

That email has disappeared from my computer, found neither in sent items nor drafts, which is quite mysterious, and about which, I can draw no conclusions. I was certain that I had sent it. Needless to say, it did not receive a response.

I am disappointed in both the Boothbay Art Foundation and The Maine Arts Commission and I feel that both organizations are failing in their responsibilities to the people. The Boothbay Arts Foundation is selling space on it's website where the artist can display their work. Regardless of whether one believes that The NEDC Terms of agreement is enforceable, the NEDC terms of agreement explicitly states that the user gives NECD the right to "deep link" to any page on the user's website, which can arguably be interpreted as including the paid pages of artists work. I believe that it is a matter of ethics that the Boothbay Region Art Foundation should be open about the agreement that has been signed with NECD, as a matter of public information, and it should be a matter of course that the information is provided to those that display images of their art on the Foundation's website. The individual artists should be given the option of deciding whether they think the NECD terms of agreement is "harmless" through being "unenforceable".

Which brings us to the question of if the NECD terms of agreement is so unenforceable, why doesn't NECD simply change it, rather than leaving it up there to generate reaction? And why has some mysterious power engineered the disappearance of a topic I started about the NECD terms of agreement from Google search results, - a topic which had formerly been second only to the NECD website?

As For the Maine Arts Commission, it is supposed to represent the people, but it is clear that as a private individual, I have already used up my allotment of attention. If one can't receive a satisfactory response from the Maine Arts Commission, - a government agency, that is also a funding partner to The New England Foundation For the Arts, does the Maine Arts Commission really expect that NEFA will give a private individual something other than a rhetorical response? What does the Maine Arts Commission really mean when it refers my questions to an outside agency (a tax exempt corporation), citing the questions "technical nature", by way of explanation? Is one to interpret such an action as meaning that the questions are too technical for the Maine Arts Commission to answer? As funding partners to The New England Foundation for the Arts, an understanding the technical nature of the NECD Terms of Agreement, falls into realm of responsibility which The Maine Art's Commission has to the citizens of Maine.

It is a growing global occurrence that corporate states are developing greater power than nation states. In the act of referring authority to a corporation, The Maine Arts Commission, a state government agency, is echoing of global relationships between nation states and corporate states.

Contrary to the claim that NEFA is "only collecting names and addresses", The Maine Arts Commission stated the following in the spring of 2004

The NECD will serve as a back end to NEFA's developing Online Cultural Marketplace, a transaction-based online booking service that allows New England artists to market their products and interact directly with presenters.

The above quote is found in this Maine Gov Newsletter

The New England Foundation for the Arts may be currently only collecting names and addresses, but the above projection describes greater intentions, of which, the Maine Arts Commission is cognizant.

Mysterious Oligarchies and the New England Cultural Database

2007-06-15T08:22:00.000-04:00

June 15, 2007, (continued from May 28 discussion)

The discussion on the NECD terms of agreement, which I created at Richard Dawkins.net forum has been at the top of the google search page for the phrase "New England Cultural Data Base", but as of today that topic is so far down on the list that I can't even find it after flicking through about twenty-two pages. It is no accident. It appears that there is a powerful constituency that has manipulated the disappearance of dissenting voices from accessible positioning by the Google search engine. I can only speculate on who the power elite, with such extensive powers, might be. My response to the evidence of such a power is to continue to encourage the media to shine a light on the New England Cultural Data Base Terms of Agreement, which effectively usurps the individual rights of artists, while requiring the signer to agree that The New England Foundation For the Arts is beyond the law and beyond moral petition. The disappearence of my topic from the Google results testifies that someone with interests in the NECD read my views and responded only with an attempt to silence my voice rather than addressing the concerns expressed in my postings. This only further convinces that the usurption of the rights of the individual by the bureaucratic organization is the clear intent, rather than merely a poorly considered effort to protect The New England Foundation For the Arts from legal suits.

I was mislead by the new order of the Google listing into believing that The Maine Arts Commission had recently issued a promotion for The New England Cultural Database, when, in fact the promotion was made in the spring of 2004. That listing is currently occupying the position that my discussion formerly enjoyed. This makes posting in Richard Dawkins Forum less effective. The good news is that NECD totalitarian goal to become a database and sales outlet for all artists and cultural organizations in New England hasn't materialized. If one believed the data posted on NECD, one would think that non-profit art organizations out number private art enterprises, but, on the basis of personal knowledge, I can quickly calculate that the majority of private art enterprises are missing from the data base. The bad news is that I don't hear any other voices of protest against this state-sponsored Terms of Agreement and the threat that such a "model" of an on-line agreement presents to individual rights.

Maybe there are other voices but no one hears them. I don't know of my letter being published in any of the newspapers to which it was sent. The Boothbay Register hand-delivered an editors edit of my letter via the a messenger, I hadn't realised that editors are in the practice of editing "Letters to the Editor", I liked the tone the editor set, and she correctly interpreted many of my thoughts, but I felt the impact of the content was diminished in the editors version.

During the two week interval since I had sent the letter, I had researched the matter in greater detail and so I rewrote the letter and sent it back, a few hours later. I haven't heard anything since and my letter is not published in this week's paper. You can find the revised letter below. The editor's version deleted all direct quotes from NECD, but I re-incorporated actual quotes in a conversational context. According to the messenger, what I had written was "too technical" for the
general public to understand.

The editor is either under-estimating the general public or else there is another issue, unspoken, that is impacting the editor's choice not to publish my letter. If the public is not capable of understanding the language of the Terms of Service Agreement, then, on that basis, shouldn't the public decline to sign the agreement? Shouldn't a Terms of Agreement that is "too technical " to be understood by the general public render the database ineffectual ? What is the rational behind such a statement and the associated deletion of direct quotes for the NECD Terms of Agreement? In the age of the Internet, we, the public, are constantly being presented with terms of agreements that we must testify to having read. Isn't that supposed to mean that we did read the agreement, i.e, that the agreement is understandable to the general public and written in a generally accessible language?

The editor's revision deleted mention of this blog, which I included in my revision. This blog is an attempt to bring the issue into greater public awareness, and as far as I have been able to discover the only venue for bringing attention to the issue of the state-sponsered, federally financed data base and it's associated terms of agreement.

I recently received an email from the head of The Maine Arts Commission, lobbying the public to write to our representatives in support of increasing the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts. The email annoyed me, both because I am aware that The National Endowment For the Arts is funding the New England Cultural Database, but also because the head of the Maine Arts Commission didn't think it necessary to give the public any reason why one should support the increased budget for The National Endowment for the Arts.

A Dangerous Agreement: The New England Cultural Database

2007-06-04T08:28:00.001-04:00

June 04 2007 ( continued from May 28 discussion)

Check out our New Andersen Studio Creative Economy Awards

The New England Cultural Data base, does not define "content", but it does state policies about protection against infringement of copyrights and intellectual property. Below is an excerpt , You can read the entire agreement here

...WAIVE ANY AND ALL CLAIMS OR REMEDIES WHICH YOU MIGHT OTHERWISE BE ABLE TO ASSERT AGAINST US UNDER ANY THEORY OF LAW (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWS) THAT ARISE OUT OF OR RELATE IN ANY WAY TO THE CONTENT AT THIS SITE OR OUR RESPONSE, OR FAILURE TO RESPOND, TO A COMPLAINT.

Most people who would be signing this contract are unlikely lawyers. Those who cannot, or will not, hire the services of a lawyer to review the terms of agreement are left to rely on private sensibilities. Common sense can determine that the agreement is laden with double messages.

The NECD TOS states that NECD does not allow content that may constitute infringements of
intellectual property or violations of federal state or local law,. This
statement should encourage
trust in NECD.

Another statement says that the signer agrees not to pursue NECD under the law, If the signer
agrees not to pursue NECD under the law, then can NECD be governed by law?

Upon searching the NECD TOS agreement, for the word "copyright", I did not find an explicit statement recognizing that the submitter of the content retains the copyright. There are many provisions forbidding the user from posting material protected by copyright, but no statements to the effect that NECD honors the copyright. However as posted, above, there is a stipulation that the user agrees never to assert any claim against NECD under any theory of law. To my layman's interpretation ( which is the type of interpretation that most users of NECD have to rely upon), There is a loophole in the agreement, which permits the user to post material which for which the user has copyright authority. However the Terms of Agreement never specifically state that NECD will honor the user's copyright, The forbidding language about copyright infringement is always framed in terms of what the user may or not do, which includes that the user may not assert any claims against NECD under any theory of law.(Remember that this is an agreement for perpetuity). The Terms of Agreement would have one believe that NECD can exclude itself from recourse by law. Whether the terms in this contract are legally sanctioned is another question, requiring a court decision.

NEFA can afford the services of highly qualified lawyers who could have written a Terms of Agreement that withstands examination by the ordinary lay person, but NECD didn't do that. One might wonder why NECD didn't write a more trustworthy agreement, and speculate that the expectation is that most people won't bother to read the terms of service agreement, the same conclusion that I have drawn about our many local arts organizations that have signed the NECD agreement.

A legal agreement that lasts for perpetuity has to be considered in the context of the extremes of uman character (for a good example of such considerations, read the Federalist Papers written by the framers of The United States constitution).

The NECD Terms of Agreement threatens the artists rights to the fruits of their own labor, with potential loopholes allowing that those rights (as per submitted content) can legally be usurped by the well-financed bureaucratic organization, and imitating Marxist philosophy. By co-incidence of not, the company that provides the technology for NECD is called Cultural Logic, which also happens to be the name of a Marxist publication (with an impressive list of editors and advisers consisting of 45 academics from almost as many universities across the United States) The NECD Terms of agreement states that there may be additional terms of service incorporated by Cultural Logic, whose current website is but a paragraph long with a single link to NECD . Very little information is offered about Cultural Logic, which is why I did a Google search and came upon the Marxist magazine of the same name ,as the numero uno Google search result. The search results also included several other books that use the term "cultural logic", in their title. Those books are described using the language of "globalization" and "late capitalism", but not necessarily Marxist, at first glance.

NECD TOS: Our site is being hosted by Cultural Logic, Inc. ("CLI"), a third
party service provider, which may also have an acceptable use policy to which We are bound. This policy, if applicable, is expressly incorporated by reference herein to the extent that it applies to Your conduct while using Our site. Any violation of the CLI acceptable use policy, if any, by You shall constitute a violation of this section. For more information, You may view the CLI website at: http://www.clinc.us/.

(It is not my intention to suggest that NEFA is a Marxist organization, is not my intention to suggest that NEFA is a Marxist organization, but on the other hand isn't our culture about ripe for a TV series involving a covert Marxist plot to transform America, operating through hidden manipulations on unsuspecting organizations and centered in the hotbed of American Marxism – American universities?)

It can be considered that by presenting a Terms of Service Agreement on a state-partnered site, that the National Endowment for the Arts is supporting the arts, and also the legal industry. What's next? Is the NEA going to try to correct the obvious social legal imbalance by creating a program for legal advice for the masses who can't afford a lawyer to interpret such a contract?

We live in a world of corporations and corporate states, increasingly competing with the authority of nation states. The laws of nation states apply within the borders of nations.

We are left with the following questions:

If NECD claims "worldwide" and "unlimited" rights over content. What are the laws that apply on a "world wide basis?

Why does NECD need to claim "unlimited" rights over submitted content" ? See Comparison with Google's TOS

Why does NECD have a clause in which the signer agrees to "waive and never assert moral rights"?

How might the statements be put into use? Is the public to trust an organization merely because of it's name, or because it is "non-profit" or state-sponsored or state-partnered? And will any organization retain any status for "perpetuity"?

Why does NECD even need a terms of agreement? The Maine Arts Commission offers many services to artists for free and publishes content without a terms of service agreement.

NEFA offers many reports online, free of charge, which one can download without signing a legal
agreement, which amplifies the question: Why is a user agreement is required for NECD? And adds the question - Can NECD offer any cultural reports that cannot be found elsewhere without signing away one's rights - including one's moral rights?

it is stated that NEFA administers and maintains NECD, but not stated who owns NECD ( who benefits from the asserted rights over submitted content). There is a statement that NEFA administers the Database in partnership with states arts agencies of the New England States, but "We," "Us," "Our" are identified with NEFA, so apparently the "party of interest" is NEFA. But who is NEFA? NEFA is described as "in partnership" with the "states art agencies of the new England States",as opposed to "A partnership of the arts agencies of New England States". NEFA is a separate entity. It is assumed that NEFA is a nonprofit organization, but that is never actually stated. In the annual report it is found that NEFA is a public charity and has received qualification as a tax-exempt corporation under the provisions of the U. S.Internal
Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). BINGO! The beneficiary of the rights asserted in the NECD terms of agreement, is a public charity, a corporation with tax-exempt status that operates in partnership with state agencies.

Do we really need a government sponsored data base? Isn't the Internet a free-form cultural database? How reliable can a "cultural impact" report be when the requirement for submitting content is the signing of a dubious legal agreement? The reports offered by NECD reflects only those institutions and individuals that sign the terms of service agreement. The rest of the cultural world is simply not on the DECD map -although you can find many of those, outside of the DECD map, on the Internet (including on The Maine Art Commission
website) or down the street, as anyone knows who is reading this blog.

My advice is, play it safe: Don't sign. There are many other resources in which one can participate Consider that if Google can create a reasonable terms of Service Agreement, then why can't DECD? See a short comparison here

submit
your link to Andersen Studio'd American Art Colony Trail here – or your local link if you are a Boothbay Region Artist.

The New England Cultural Database: Undermining Democracy

2007-05-28T08:47:00.001-04:00

May 28,2007

BOOKS OF INTEREST

The Nonprofit Economy
by Burton Weisbrod

The Economics of Art and Culture by James Heilbrun, Charles M. Gray

When Governor Baldacci came into office, he established an economic intitiative called "The Creative Economy". Upon hearing the term, I first interpreted it to mean "thinking creatively about the economy, but I soon learned that the term intended stimulating the economy through the arts. In the process of researching the creative economy, I found The New England Cultural Data Base, which is funded or partners with multi-state and non-profit organizations. The New England Cultural Data Base is administered and maintained by The New England Foundation for the Arts, which receives grants from The National Endowment for the Arts I intended to set up an Andersen Studio account but upon reading the user agreement, I concluded that the agreement is highly exploitive of artists. In that regard, I am submitting the following letter to The Boothbay Register and The Lincoln County News and other Maine newspapers.

Below is the latest version of the letter sent to The Boothbay Register on June 11. 2007, and emailed with minor editing to the Governor of Maine

Dear Editor;

I have some major concerns with the New England Cultural Data Base, which is maintained by the New England Foundation for the Arts, and funded in part with federal grant money through the National Endowment for the Arts and also funded by the Maine State Art Commission, and other state art councils of New England . The New England Foundation for the Arts is a private charity and a tax exempt corporation as well as the entity referenced by ""We," "Us," "Our" in the New
England Cultural Data Base Terms of Service Agreement.

It is not clear to me that the New England Cultural Data base has any thing to offer that is not already available through the Maine Arts commission or The New England Foundation for the Arts. Neither of the afore-mentioned organizations have a terms of service agreement. Maine Arts provides an online
database of Maine artists and organizations .The New England Foundation for the Arts provides many online reports about the impact of the arts sector on the larger economy, which one can download for free without signing an agreement.

In order to access the services of New England Cultural Data Base website, or to be included in it's database, it is necessary to create an account. To do so, one must accept the terms of NECD's agreement, which states that The New England Foundation for the Arts has

"perpetual, unlimited, irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive, assignable,and worldwide license, to make, copy, perform, publish, display, distribute, transmit, translate, modify, prepare derivative works and use the content in other works in any form, media, or technology"

After laying claim to such all pervasive rights over the submitted content, NEFA's Terms of agreement requires the user "to and waive, and never assert, any moral rights to the content", which is followed later in the agreement by a statement that the user

" WAIVE ANY AND ALL CLAIMS OR REMEDIES WHICH YOU MIGHT OTHERWISE BE ABLE TO ASSERT AGAINST US UNDER ANY THEORY OF LAW (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWS"

The user must also agree not to bypass The New England Cultural Databases' homepage or "deep link" to other pages on NECD's website or use it in another medium without their written permission. However NECD states that it is allowed to deep link to pages of the user's website and access whatever content that NECD base deems appropriate This can arguably be interpreted as giving NECD permission to select "submitted content" from the user's website.

The agreement includes a section titled "Good Samaritan Content and Complaint Procedures Policy , in which NEFA makes vague promises that, in some instances, NEFA, at its sole discretion, may decide to protect submitted content from third party copy-write infringement, but NEFA remains essentially uncommitted to taking responsibility in protecting artists from copywrite infringement. The language of the contract states that "The provisions of this section are intended to implement this policy but are not in any way intended to impose a contractual obligation upon Us to undertake, or refrain from undertaking, any particular course of conduct even so, the account holder must agree to never assert any legal action against NECD and to waive and never assert any moral rights against NECD."

Most of our local non-profit organizations and some of our local art galleries have accounts on this New England Arts Database. I have spoken about this subject with the Boothbay Art Foundation where no one claimed knowledge of how BRAF came to be listed on the New England Cultural Data Base.

I for one have a problem with NECD's agreement. I would like to hear from other artists and art organizations as to how they feel about what appears to be unlimited control over the user's submitted content by this data base agreement. I would also like to hear from the cultural institutions as to whether they signed up for accounts or if their names appeared on the database in some unknown way. My web blog contains an incomplete list of local organizations that have accounts on NECD. My blog also presents a comparison between the NECD user agreement with the Google user agreement, explaining why I decided to trust Google but not to trust NEFA, from a my layman's reading of the user agreement, which reads as understandable in ordinary language.

Why haven't art organizations, including the state arts councils such as the Maine Arts Commission, demanded terms that protect the rights of the artist? After all, they owe this much to those whom they represent.

As I see it, many of our arts and cultural organizations are non-profits to which the community has generously donated, and I feel there is a moral obligation to protect the rights of the individual artists, but it appears to me that by signing this agreement, arts organizations have failed to protect the artist from copywrite infringement, while agreeing to waive and never assert any moral rights or pursue any theory of law against NECD.

Mackenzie Andersen

Andersen Studio, www.andersenstudio.com

Full NECD agreement found here

The following is a list of organizations local to the Boothbay Region,
which have signed the NEFA terms of agreement.

THE BOOTHBAY ART FOUNDATION

THE BOOTHBAY OPERA HOUSE

BOOTHBAY RAILWAY VILLAGE

BOOTHBAY THEATRE MUSEUM

COASTAL MAINE BOTANICAL GARDENS, INCORPORATED

BOOTHBAY REGION HISTORICAL SOCIETY

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

ROUND TOP CENTER FOR THE ARTS, INCORPORATED

FIREHOUSE GALLERY

FRANCISKA NEEDHAM GALLERY

VICTORIAN STABLE GALLERY

MAINE ART GALLERY

WISCASSET BAY GALLERY

LINCOLN FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS

BACKROADS GALLERY

A Rumor at The Boothbay Region Art Foundation

2007-05-19T09:01:00.000-04:00

May 19, 2007

Under the direction of native born, June Rose, The Boothbay Art Foundation serves our community as an open representation of the artistic expression on the Boothbay Peninsula.Any artist can join and have their art displayed in the group shows at the Art Foundation. The existence of such venues is as vital to furthering artistic development as is any art scholarship. The un-curated show is an undirected reflection of the art of a community and is a channel through which an artist's work can be presented to the community.

I recently heard a rumor that there is a proposal under consideration by the current board of directors of The Boothbay Region Art Foundation. The proposal is to create juried shows at the Foundation. My reaction to that rumor, is informed, in part, by Andersen Studio's own encounters with the board members of The Boothbay Art Foundation, who, have already presented stipulations, that limit the art that our, private enterprise, Andersen Studio, can exhibit[1]. Most notably, last fall, when, in no uncertain terms, the notorious board members, made Andersen Studio Artists and Artisans, feel most unwelcome at The Art In The Waterfront exhibition, held on labor day in the waterfront park in Boothbay Harbor.

We were welcomed into the Waterfront show by the Boothbay Region Art, foundation director, June Rose, who welcomed us, in part, because she believed that the inclusion of our work would increase the revenue generated for the Art Foundation by the Waterfront show. June was late arriving that day and so was not present during our encounter with the infamous board members

.We arrived early and there were plenty of spots available. Most of the artists were painters and used high folding screens to display their work. A board member indicated that we should set up our work in a back corner, where it was obvious that our work would be obscured, as though in a closet, by the many walls, of the many screens being placed in front of the location in which the board member attempted to place (obscure) us.

Seeing no point in displaying our work under such conditions, and having arrived, timely, in order to get a good spot, we set up on the front of the platform. The height of our display was shorter than any of the others and would not obscure from view any of the other displays. As we were setting up, the president and board member of the Boothbay Region Art Foundation, attempted, repeatedly, to place a display of his two-dimensional photographic reproductions against our display, in such a way that our display would be obscured from view, by his own display of photographs, which, like are own work, is a form of artwork, based in a reproductive technique. When, we, at last. had set up our display of original ceramic sculpture and functional forms, a third board member came up and asked us to move it “because we want to see art and not crafts” At that point we accommodated the board members by leaving the show.

Andersen Studio is a private enterprise. The Boothbay Region Art Foundation is a non-profit organization. Weston Andersenis a founder of both Andersen Studio and The Boothbay Region Art Foundation, but stopped participating in the Boothbay Region Art Foundation, early on because of attitudes politicized by some other artists, that Andersen ceramics is a craft and not an art. Throughout Andersen Studio's history, we have received recognition as artists from many different sources, but above all by the Boothbay Region community, who independently decided that Andersen’s work is worth collecting.There are many collections of Andersen work that started, as early as the 1950’s, when Andersen started. During all those years, Andersen has been part of The Boothbay Region Community. We receive many letters from our collectors expressing their appreciation for our work, often identified as “art”.

The board members of our local non-profit foundations tend to be new arrivals to the Boothbay Region Community.Those who have lived in The Boothbay Region, for several decades, or those of you who may have read Colin Woodard’s Book, The Lobster Coast, (dedicated to his grandfather, Weston Andersen, to whom Colin owes his considered good fortune of being a native born Mainer), understand that Maine is an unusual place because of Maine’s high propensity of citizens with deep historical roots to this land. Colin Woodard writes about the disconnect between “the two Maines”, the Maine of the deeply rooted community, and the Maine of fluctuating transients ,new arrivals, and long term summer residents.

Often new arrivals have time on their hands and perhaps more money,and perhaps because they are looking for a way to connect to the community, become the mainstay of the board members of our local non-profit foundations. This also happens at the state level, where one finds shows of “Maine Art” filtered through the views of out-of -state academics or out-of -state art world professionals, who have been brought in to select which work best represents the state of Maine.

I haven’t, at this point, taken the time to study the laws that govern non-profits, although, as I continue to write on this subject, that is likely to happen, especially, as I am aware that if the current board members of The Boothbay Region Art Foundation, succeeds in their goal of usurping the Art Foundation for their own purposes, that there will be a new void that will create a new need for a new foundation to serve as a reflection of The Boothbay Region Community of artists. I do not need to read the laws, however, to understand that non-profits can generate operating capital through fund-raisers, and can reduce operating costs through the use of volunteers. I do not know if the laws say anything to the effect that non-profits are required to serve the larger community, but it is, at least, a popular concept that non-profits should serve such a role. When one looks a bit closer, it is unavoidable, that non-profits are beholden to large donors, and that there exists the danger that the non-profits, in practice serve the purposes of the largest donors, rather than the community at large. Andersen Studio is a part of the larger community of the Boothbay Region that, as members of the free enterprise community, must generate operating capital through the sales of work, or services, and pay their employees.Throughout it’s history, Andersen Studio has given many times to the cause of many fundraisers for non-profit organizations, including The Boothbay Region Art Foundation, which, in recent years benefited from the sale of Andersen work, which was the highest priced work that The Boothbay Region Art foundation had ever sold. That year June Rose featured a long story about Weston Andersen, in her early spring newsletter. Perhaps the board members were all out of town at that time, since they subsequently behaved as though they never read it. .If non-profit organizations do not support the ability of free enterprise to generate income, there will be less to give to sustain the existence of non-profit institutions. Last fall, at the Art On the Waterfront exhibition, Andersen Studiowas involved in an activity to generate funds, in accordance to the rules governing private enterprise, when we were prohibited from doing so by the current board members of The Boothbay Region Art Foundation. Andersen Studio is art,and this opinion has long been supported by the Boothbay Region Community. Andersen Studio would never have survived it’s early days, were it not for the support and recognition of the Boothbay Region community

And. now, I, Mackenzie Andersen, author of this blog, offer these suggestions to the community at large:

Dispose of several of the current board directors of The Boothbay Region Art Foundation.

TheBoothbay Register should publicize the meetings of non-profit organizations, whereby board of directors are chosen with a coverage comparable to the coverage given to non-profit fund-raisers.

Board Members and would-be board members should publish their ideas about the direction in which the Foundation should grow, just as in any political campaign.

Artists and collectors alike should participate in the July decision-making meeting at The Boothbay Region Art Foundation!

It should be under consideration, that the by-laws of non-profit foundations, in this community, should include that every board must have on it a specific ratio of native Mainers to new arrivals!

It should be under consideration whether one has to be a paid member of the foundation in order to have a voice in the selection of board members. Currently that would include only artists and not collectors who would also be affected by current proposals of the current board members. Also some artists may not currently be participating members, precisely because of the policies perpetuated by the current board members (such as myself, who would join, if I knew that there were viable alternatives running to replace current board members).

BOOTHBAY ART FOUNDATION WEBSITE SUGGESTIONS

Post the ORIGINAL Mission statement of the Boothbay Region Art Foundation on the website.

Post June Rose's name and position on The Boothbay Art Foundation website, along with an email address which is received directly by June and only June. Preferably also include a web page about June Rose.

Post the names of the board members and president, preferably with resumes and a descriptions about how they perceive the purpose and future of The Boothbay Region Art Foundation.

Institute a mailing list on the website that can be categorized according to artists, collectors, or general public. This would make it possible o contact artists privately about purchasing publicity on The Boothbay Art Foundation website, rather than having such an advertisement posted in the central location on the website as it currently is. Such a news letter could also be served to alert the general public as to when important decision making meetings are scheduled to occur.

My next installment will include suggestions about a more acceptable way to create juried shows, if that is what one desires. And more about why crafts are an art of the people, especially an art of the people of this state, which only recently emerged from a hundred–year depression ( read about it in The Lobster Coast, by Colin Woodard.

NOTE OF INTEREST. I recently came across a handwritten journal of an early Maine Crafts Association, dated 1948. Any one with an interest in this journal, please contact mackenzie@andersenstudio.com .

[1]The Boothbay Region Art Foundation board of directors is opposed to showing vases, having defined vases as “craft" and not “art”. I find it ironic that If I create a painting on a hand-casted form of original design by Andersen Studio, it is categorized as “craft and therefore not art” but if I were to purchase tiles produced by a commercial manufacturer, and, using such tiles, create a work of art as a two-dimensional wall hanging, it is more likely to get through the rules imposed on artists, by the board members. I am not sure, even of that, maybe I would have to work in a completely different medium to be accepted by the current board of "jurors",at the Boothbay Region Art Foundation. However that would violate my own philosophy of life, which is based in the traditions of the Hermetic Cabala, and has everything to do with my chosen media.

Andersen Studio News March 2007

2007-03-16T01:45:00.000-04:00

March!
The day is mild and sunny; Night drops into the low 20’s. The afternoon sun stream thaws the stirring waters of the Mill Pond.

The Year 2006: Elise and Christine were active volunteers at the recently re-created Boothbay Opera House, which has been notably successful in attracting nationally recognized musicians to our small Maine Coast Peninsula, names such as Jackson Browne, Mark Knoffler, Marty Sterwart, Don Campbell, and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.

In late November, when the Opera House was festively attired in it’s Christmas greens and colored lights. Elise produced an impromptu Artist’s Craft Fair and posted fliers around town inviting the public to come and to “relax and enjoy”. The Fair became a local Christmas “happening”, pleasing the crowd with the abundant quality of Boothbay’s Artisans. For many weeks to follow, townsfolk still talked about how fun it all was! Noel Arrington followed suit with Ole Opry, featuring local musicians from around the state. It was a sold- out affair. On a cold night in February, usually the deadest time of the year, every parking spot in town was taken.

Dad (Weston) is working on a standing female figure sculpture as well as finishing up his bust of Brenda that he has been working on for several years. He is waiting now for Christine to make the molds. She is busy working on new molds of our established line, also needed.

Recently, Weston commented that when he told Eva Zeisel that he and Brenda were starting their own ceramic production studio. Eva was taken aback because, she said,”it is such a hard thing to do!”

Weston studied production ceramics under Eva in the industrial design department at Pratt Institute. Eva is a world-renowned ceramic designer recently celebrated her 100^th birthday. She was the head of The Russian Ceramic industry until she was thrown into prison and solitary confinement for allegedly being involved in an attempt to assassinate Stalin. Fortunately Eva escaped, which, as dad tells it, was due to the efforts of a group organized to aid artists and intellectuals in escaping to the free world.

Eva and Dad became close associates and friends as well as student and teacher, each admiring the other’s work, but while Eva was from a sophisticated European background, Dad grew up on a farm in Iowa. Dad remembers Primghar, Iowa, as an ideal society, even during the depression, when the two banks in town had $100000.00 dollars each, which in those times was considerable. Dad remembers Primghar,as a time and place when the food was good, and the community was close, and the homes well kept and clean. However, as dad became of age, it was also that era when family owned farms disappeared and were replaced by corporate farming

Running a ceramic studio is indeed a complex operation. Designing, production, wholesaling, retailing, and marketing, business management and maintenance - all under one roof. Which hat will I wear today? As “difficult” as that may be, it is also provides for creative independence. In an age of specialization, Andersen Design is an anomaly reaching back to a time when family farms were a common life style. It is difficult, but it’s
worth it. - In my humble opinion.

With all that has to be done, it has not been easy to find the time to design, -but not impossible - Elise is working on a cat sculpture, a duck, and a finch, and I am working with glazes and decorating colors to create both one of a kind pieces and new ideas for our production line

Dad sometimes wonders if he should have taken that apprenticeship with Russel Wright, or that job at Cranbrook, Perhaps it might have been an easier life, but then Andersen Design and Studio wouldn’t exist.

NEWSFlASH!
Weston’s grandson, Karen’s Son and our nephew, Colin Woodard has completed his new book, The Republic of Pirates, on the shelves on May 15^th. Check it out http://www.andersenstudio.com/Pirates.html

Colin’s other books are Ocean’s End, about the global state of affairs of the waters on planet Earth, and The Lobster Coast, about the history of the Maine Coast, a best seller in the State of Maine.

Cheerio,
Mackenzie Andersen