Giving Their Five Cents
From the Peanuts gallery: Two local artists have created the Art Advice Booth, which offers guidance to aspiring creators around town.
Artists Gioia Fonda (left) and Ianna Frisby behind their Art Advice Booth at The Barn Gallery in Woodland in December
How can I support my artist child? Does my wife have any talent? Should I quit my day job? Should I get an MFA? How do I handle rejection? How do I draw a horse?
Stop by the Art Advice Booth that pops up at fairs and festivals across the region, and Sacramento artists Gioia Fonda and Ianna Frisby (with a little help from their friends) will give you intelligent, compassionate and creative answers to these questions and more—up close, in person.
Modeled after Lucy van Pelt’s advice booth from Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip, the booth is cartoonishly simple—just a table with a banner above that reads “Art Advice,” one below that says “The Artist Is In,” and a coffee can labeled “5 cents” for donations (or not—the can is more like an art object, the advice free). Can’t think of a question? You can pick one from a laminated menu with queries like, “What’s more important, talent or determination?” Or “What does ‘successful artist’ really mean?” You might even walk away with a groovy handout, like an elaborately diagrammed decision tree to help you answer the question, “Should I make art?” (Spoiler: All the arrows eventually lead to one answer—“MAKE ART.”)
“There is so much art education to do,” says Fonda, who by day is an art professor at Sacramento City College. “I do it in my classroom, but so many people don’t make it to the classroom. We could write a book, but there are plenty of books.”
She and Frisby—who also teaches art at City College—met when the two served as volunteers at the Crocker Art Museum in 2006, and they have been friends and “artners” ever since. Both women have studios at downtown’s Verge Center for the Arts, one of the Art Advice Booth’s early locations after it debuted in 2015.
Artist Joseph Finkleman shows one of his paintings to Fonda and Frisby.
Advisees can use the booth as the visual arts equivalent of Pandora’s music recommendation engine. For instance, tell Frisby you admire Wayne Thiebaud, and she’ll steer you to the work of sculptor—and UC Davis alumna—Kathy Butterly, “with her attention to surfaces and pop aesthetic.” Other questions may revolve around how to break into the arts. “Part of being an artist is being rejected, and I think that it’s easy for people to get discouraged and then not try again,” Fonda says. “We can help people navigate the scene with less resentment and confusion and hurt feelings.”
“The art world can be a harsh, unwelcoming place,” Frisby adds. “I think it’s important for people to have some tender moments where they know we’re all in it together—we’re all on Team Art.”
Past gigs for the booth have included appearances at Verge during Sac Open Studios, the Warehouse Artist Lofts for First Fridays, the Crocker Art Museum, the State Fair, and the grand opening of the Manetti Shrem Museum at UC Davis, where renowned painter and professor emeritus Roland Petersen sat in briefly to dole out advice. You can find upcoming appearances via the booth’s Facebook page, but don’t expect to seek out advice via social media post, web chat or Zoom. “We’re unapologetically unavailable online,” Fonda says.
In 2017, a creative economy grant from the city of Sacramento allowed the Art Advice Booth to offer artists a paying gig helping to staff the booth, though the funds have long since run dry, and all the artists are volunteers now. But they are happy to do it. “I think it’s a gift when we’ve let other artists run the booth for us,” Fonda notes. “Especially as an artist, there’s not a lot of ways to gauge your success. People who are not teachers realize how validating and meaningful it can be to help people, because you realize that you have acquired knowledge over these years, your experiences are valuable, and you have something to share.” For Fonda and Frisby, who continue to work the booth as volunteers, those intangible rewards are what keep them coming back. Sometimes, Fonda says, “People walk away and Ianna says, ‘I think we just changed a life.’ You can see it—they look changed.”
“Hopefully they walk away feeling lighter,” Frisby adds.
And perhaps someday, long from now, when that advice seeker is installing their first show at the Crocker or, say, New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, they’ll remember that nickel’s worth of wisdom. Maybe, Fonda says with a smile, “They’ll say, ‘Hey, my turning point was these two weird ladies in a homemade Art Advice Booth.’ That would be fabulous.”
The Art Advice Booth will be at The Barn Gallery in Woodland on Jan. 13, Feb. 10 and Feb. 24 from 12:30–3 p.m. with a rotating roster of volunteer artists. For more info, visit facebook.com/ArtAdviceHere.
