As events would have it, the Boston ComicCon was cancelled in the aftermath of the horrific bombing days before at the Boston Marathon and the subsequent manhunt for the bombers.

For us; a minor bump in the road, for those injured or lost loved ones the Seeking Kali Artist Collective expresses their deepest sympathies.

We will continue on with the development of Art Mysteries #7 and inform our supporters when we hear news of the timing for the rescheduling of the ComicCon in Boston.

We certainly hope so, because what would give us greater visibility at the Boston Comic Con?  Kalicorp Art Mysteries is setting up a table in the wild wild west area of Artist Alley this coming Friday and Saturday (4/20 and 21) at the Hynes Center.  One of about 300 tables in a concentrated hotbed of creative ferver. Can a fine arts oriented, limited edition Zine get noticed when competing with big eyed sexy mangas with guns, space zombies and other assorted super heroes?  Hell no! Maybe? We don't know.  This promises to be a parallel Artworld with comic and graphic novel creators ever bit as hungry and inventive as anyone showing in Chelsea, LES or Brooklyn.

Which is why Susan and I are putting on our best Art Mysteries cosplay outfits and exploring that world by setting up our own little outpost smack in the middle.
Susan and I both consider our Art Mysteries comics as owing more inspiration to fine arts that the world of graphic arts although both of us were inspired at a very early age by comics.  Perhaps I'm teasing out the differences a bit to finely but many artists I know speak quite frankly about their entry into the art world via an early love of comics.  

Art critic, Jerry Salz recently posted that he and his wife, Roberta Smith, art critic for the Times attended the MoCCAA Arts Fest at the Armory in NY. Quoting Jerry from his Facebook page, "What fantastic energy there. Everywhere. Roberta and I were SO irked not to see MoMA and Whitney and Gugg and New Museum CURATORS sifting through the reams of stuff. Alas, as I've written, since we persist in using the term "outsider artists" we should ALL be required to use the term "insider artist."

Although Susan and I appear throughout each issue, we are foils for the real heroes we feature in cameo roles.  We feature many of our artist friends, who are all talented and work hard in a creative field where the normal metrics of achievement hold no guarantee of success. 

Kalicorp Art Mysteries is at the Hynes Convention Center at 900 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.  Find us in Artist Alley on Sat.4/20 from 10am-7pm and Sun. and 4/21 from 10am-5pm.  Table AAW18  
Boston Comic Con

....and we've sunk to new lows. We didn't even think that was possible but we continue on our journey to the bottom of the abyss of ArtWorld in Issue #6.  This issue, subtitled, "The Residency", is rolling off the presses and into mailboxes across the globe thanks in great part to our fans through their generous support of our Kickstarter campaign.  We picked up many new subscribers, a couple of new advertisers and quite a few people just curious about what it is that artists do every day.  

Every week we run into people who say how they would love to spend their days in the studio and create.  But as artists all know the reality is we spend more time tying to promote our work, obtain exhibition opportunities, making grant applications, writing proposals, making ends meet and in this issue of Art Mysteries, pursuing the elusive artist residency.

Big on our list is also seeing a lot of art and reading a lot about art.  It may not change the way we do art but it makes for good comic material that happens in the back story of each issue.  
We need a stiff dose of cynicism in regards to art world trends to keep our own work focused and that satirical streak finds its outlet in the Kalicorp Art Mysteries. 

Some recent writing on Artspeak or International Art English (IAE) caught our eye and made its way into the current issue.  It is infuriatingly dense and serves more to confer status upon artworks through obfuscation.

One the the best discussions we've read on IAE is from an essay in Triple Canopy.
Which led to a perceptive article in Hyperallergic by Mostafa Heddaya concerning appropriation of IAE as propaganda in regards to Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Followed by an equally impassioned defense of it's motives in light of this criticism by the director of the Guggenheim, Richard Armstrong.

We get a chance to bite the hand that feeds us in a few panels concerning the Kickstarter model of creative funding.  To be fair, it worked well for us partially because of a large fan base to begin with and what we thought of as good value for a contribution. Kickstarter doesn't work for everyone and isn't the answer to sustaining an art practice over time but for achieving visibility and offering people a chance to crowd-source a specific artistic project, it seems like a model to build on as arts funding continues to dwindle.

Ben Valentine offered some interesting observations in this essay, titled The Dangers of Crowd Funding Art.

At the Residency, we're offered advice on career advancement.  Heard of Yellowism?  Neither had we until a major Rothko was tagged and appropriated into the movement.  All this and much more is packed into our 12 page limited edition comic.  Limited to 150 copies, printed on archival stock with pigment ink.

Preparing the rewards to send to the Art Mysteries Kickstarter sponsors.

It took almost the whole 30 days but the Art Mysteries Kickstarter succeeded.  It took much more emotional toll than I imagined.  It took more PR than I'm usually comfortable with. It took over 80 wonderful sponsors believing in the value of the project.

The project continues with myself and Susan Shulman as Ria Vanden Eynde moves on to solo projects. We are excited at the prospects of this years issues as we continue to explore the mysteries, controversies and hi-jinks of the contemporary art world.

But before we move into high gear assembling the artwork that will make up our 6th issue, I'm pouring over Excel spreadsheets making sure that the rewards we promised are out the door and in the mail to those sponsors.  Best of all many of those people will receive the next four of our limited edition comics.

For those unfamiliar with Kickstarter (we found many more than we imagined), it is a funding platform for creative projects.  It is geared to fund specific projects involving film, games, music, art, design and technology.  Since it launched in 2009 over 36,000 projects have been funded by the broad based crowd sourcing that forms this model of funding. 


Only about 44% of projects that are launched reach their funding goals and the Kickstarter model makes it an all or nothing funding.  Either you get enough commitments to complete your project or you go back to the drawing board.

Backers ultimately decide if you have a worthy project and whether they have confidence that you can accomplish your goals.  Plus, we sincerely believe that backing Art Mysteries amounts to more than a handout. 
Our backers believe in our ability to make a positive contribution to that subset of the art world that includes artists publications, zines and graphic novels.

William Evertson and Susan Shulman in a panel detail from Issue #6 - due out late March, 2013

How does it compare to our usual method of competing for funds from traditional art granting sources? I think we found that despite the initial discomfort of making personal pitches to our friends, colleagues and complete strangers, that we were ultimately very pleasantly surprised that so many people have confidence in our vision. 

Although competing in the shrinking arena of foundation funding has certainly provided a wonderful stack of rejection letters to keep warm with.

Now that the Kickstarter has come to an end you can still support this particular Kali Collective project by buying single issues found in our Graphic Novel tab.
Each issue features many fine under-represented artists, art criticism and liberal doses of satire as we explore what it takes to make it in Artworld.

Art Mysteries #6, cover art by William Evertson, due for release late March_

Is it ever the right time to take the plunge...shake off the doubts just say fuck it and mean it?  Is it time to see if all the Facebook 'likes' have any meaning?  Time to get a reality check on the base of support for a limited edition comic set in the art world?  Time to see how Kickstarter works for raising funds to help with the production costs for another year of Kalicorp Art Mysteries?

Oy...but do I really want to find out?

First there is the discomfort involved in bugging friends (most of them other artists) to support a project while they are struggling themselves.  So let me apologize for that right off. 

But on the other hand, +Susan Shulman, +ria vanden eynde and I started off with the idea that a comic that featured working but under-represented artists as the real heros of art world is a totally unique concept. The shared struggle of making art is what makes sticking to it bearable.

Plus, Artworld is a mysterious place full of inexplicable hurdles and controversies that form the backdrop of each issue.

Art Mysteries #3, detail page 7

For instance, this panel from #3 featuring Damien Hirst's over hyped Spot paintings that threatened to suck all the air out of Artworld also contains two colleagues worthy of art stardom themselves; performance artist and musician, Jane Wang of Boston and artist Angela Ferrara of Brazil.  And the dialogue about CPR? We keep our eyes and ears open; this issue came out in February, 2012 and by November the art world was reporting crashing sales for Mr. Hirst's work. (Daily Mail)

To date over a dozen artists have appeared in cameo roles. (and we include links to their works) 


The first issue frankly wasn't much more than appropriating a comic format and then using the ad space on the inside covers to let people know what the Seeking Kali Artist Collective was exhibiting and where. It was a busy time with a flurry of projects for my collaborators Ria Vanden Eynde, Susan Shulman and myself. 


We loved the feedback we got and got more serious about parody as we put a second issue out. We started using news of the art world as a back story; usually the things that bother us about our profession.  We did panels on Soethby's striking art handlers, strange fundraising at MoCA with Marina Abramovic, OWS, art forgery and the worldwide over saturation of Damien Hirst.

By our fourth issue I think we hit our stride and found that the comic was part tongue-in-cheek, part art history and part critique. 

Now we've completed five of these hybrid comic limited edition collages it's time to take stock and see what form they should take in the future. Ideally we want subscribers and advertisers and we want to continue to produce these by hand so that they bridge the worlds of comics and zines. 




Hyperallergic ran this article last Oct. 31 around the time when we were first considering running a campaign.  Valentine wrote about some real concerns that we shared as the two quotes typify.

Link to Hyperallergic's The Danger of Crowd Funding Art by Ben Valentine. (with two quotes from the article)  
"Commodifying our friendships felt more and more like a real danger"
"Kickstarter doesn’t offer a way of maintaining a consistent practice over a long period."

My head spins as I over think Kickstarter.  I've contributed to others; yet I wonder, "should I be  putting this out there?"  But ultimately the comic is about artistic risks and the mystery of art making and it helps if we keep our sense of humor about the whole endeavor.

The cover to issue #5 was also the thumbnail image for the Art Mysteries Kickstarter

Kalicorp Art Mysteries #5

One of the collaborations that Seeking Kali worked on over the last year is a series of five comic books; the Kalicorp Art Mysteries.  These along with other works will be shown at our summer exhibition in Bayshore, N.Y. at the Firehouse Gallery. Information on this show can be found at the Seeking Kali website.

Graphic novels may seem a strange departure since our previous colabs tended to be a bit more serious.  The fact is that since our collaborations are experiments in long distance art making we are constantly testing new forms that are workable for our group. Ria Vanden Eynde, Susan Shulman and myself have experimented with video,  print editions, performance, net centric work and artist books over the past two plus years. Ideas that are carried forward are reached by discussions on G+ or chats in our Facebook group.

Initially a comic seemed like a fun and quirky way to send out a bit of PR to people and to put exhibition information, our web pages and current projects in as advertisements.  We never intended to make more than one until we got to the last page and threw in the “To Be Continued.” 

 Kalicorp Art Mysteries #1 last panel detail

We found that they were fun to produce and we could base it on a back story that almost all artists share; What the hell is the art world all about and why is it so damn difficult to get anywhere?  With photography and Photoshop we could easily work out scenes, story-lines and most importantly share files in our virtual studio. Note to new readers...I work in Connecticut, Susan from Montreal and Ria from Belgium.

Artist Joan Harrison is woven into a scene concerning the Soethby's Art Handler strike.

Along the way we started to include some of our artist friends and art world notables in various roles.   We began our collectives journey after discussing the various iconography surrounding the Hindu goddess Kali. This  led to other historical explorations as well as sparking conversation concerning myth, contemporary art making and cultural mores. We find plenty of art world controversy and drama to weave into each story. So while we are not above a cheap laugh, at the heart of each comic are real issues that effect us as players on the contemporary art stage.

In issue #6 Kalicorp tackles unpaid internships and artspeak.

Examples from the Seeking Kali virtual studio collaborations as well as the comics and art from them will be on display at Long Island's Firehouse Gallery, 17 Second Ave., Bayshore, N.Y.  Opening reception August 4th from 6 - 8pm. Gallery is open Saturdays during August from 12 - 4pm.

Many thanks to our two most recent advertisers, artists Mara Thompson and Bibiana Padilla Maltos for their financial support. 

Handing off Issue #4 of Kalicorp Art Mysteries to Hennessy Youngman (aka Jayson Musson)

Sure enough our Kalicorp Art Mysteries is in that big fancy Artworld show thanks to Jayson's YouTube call out for works to fill the new Family Business Gallery in Chelsea.  The tiny 125 s.f. Family Business gallery is a walled off  section of Anna Kustera at 520 W. 21st. recently opened by Maurizio Cattelan (retired?) and New Museum curator Massimiliano Gioni.

Jayson in his Hennessy Youngman persona invited the world wide web to drop off art for his show.  As fans of his video observations on Artworld and in part because our Kalicorp Art Mysteries is about this kind of high drama we wrote him into the story line and brought a comic for the show.

We even got it there in just in time because Jayson was receiving a ton of art and 125 s.f. of space is...well...tiny.  The shutters were coming down for a regrouping but the comic is in. (see top photo)  and despite being just a little distracted he did mention he was a comic fan.

But for anyone not lucky enough to get in, there was some consolation.

Hennessy Youngman's Itsa Small Small World open April 3 and runs through the 16th at Family Business.

So why isn't there a comic book about it?  Well, there is.  The Seeking Kali Collective has been publishing Kalicorp Art Mysteries since November 2011 and judging from readers reactions to our latest issue, we're achieving our desired results. 

I like to think of our comic as a slow motion blog. We publish one every three months and they combine our art lives; the art making, trying to snag exhibition space, getting press, getting grants and making a few dollars with current events and controversy in the larger art world.

For instance, remember Damien Hirst's world wide exhibitions of Spot Paintings?  Issue #4 details our efforts to stop seeing spots.  Or last Fall; the controversy surrounding forged Abstract Expressionist paintings?

Issue #2 Panel detail page 1

Since  my two collaborators, Susan Shulman (Canada) and Ria Vanden Eynde (Belgium) and I live  live too far apart for hands on collaboration the fast pace of putting out a timely graphic novel suits the nature of our "virtual studios".  We can work independently on different panels or the story line itself and assemble the comic over the web.  The actual printing is done from my studio in Connecticut on an Epson 3800 with pigment inks.

Putting the story line together does present problems, we'll often wake to a request for an off the wall picture or pose to help move the story...everything stops and scavenger hunts for a wheelbarrow, limo, bicycle built for two etc ensue.

Issue #2 Panel detail page 5

During the MOCA gala fundraiser Marina Abramovic's human centerpieces raised eyebrows in the art world.
Naturally we worked it into our story line.



We use many of our friends in cameo appearances and although their artist personalities are usually not the same as portrayed in the comic, they all are significant artists and our readers can find links to their web portfolios on the back cover of each issue.

Issue #2 Panel detail page 6



Even as the information age reaches overload the Art World remains largely an impenetrable confusing mystery that Kalicorp is dedicated to shed light on.  

Issue #4 Panel detail page 12

As Ria says. "pack your bags"...we're in for a long journey.

Thanks also to new advertiser Bibiana Padilla Maltos for support and to artist Keith Buchholz for placing our graphic novel in the archives of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Getty, Yale and MoMA.

Kalicorp Art Mysteries is also now carried Down Under at Sticky Institute.

In Issue # 3 we spoof the market manipulations of mega collectors and as luck would have it Damien Hirst's Spot Paintings are scheduled to be shown in over-lapping exhibits at Gagosian Galleries around the world.

Our second comic is now in the mail.  Kalicorp Art Mysteries started as a "one of" project, meant to highlight some of our current projects in the 'advertising'.  It turned out to be a lot of fun to produce a comic look at the mysteries of trying to navigate the Art World. We're artists....We all want to exhibit our work...we want to sell a few pieces...we want that damn grant!  So, we soldier along putting in the studio time and filling the grant applications, networking and all the rest.  Plus looking at a lot of art and wondering, "how the hell is THAT getting shown." So to take our frustrations to a new level we're working on a limited run comic that explains the Mysteries of the Art World.

And a word about our "guest villains" - They're actually some of the nicest and most talented artists out there. We include links to their websites and art, be sure to check them out.

if you don't find Kalicorp at your local newsstand you can always get an issue by emailing us at seekingkali @ yahoo.com

So stay safe out there because the Art world is a dangerous place.