The Real Life of a True Working Artist: Heyd Fontenot Takes You Behind the Scenes of his Arresting Show (With Video)

Artist/designer/filmmaker Heyd Fontenot — former director and chief curator at Dallas’ CentralTrak from 2011 to 2016 — contributes insider reports from his residency at Artpace. This is the third story in this series, an exclusive for PaperCity.

So, here I am at Artpace with two other artists-in-residence (there are always three at a time: one international artist, one national artist, and one artist from Texas). Martha Wilson, who you heard about in the last story in this series is from New York City, and Lili Reynaud-Dewar, who just arrived, comes to San Antonio from Grenoble, France.

It’s almost like a reality show, without camera crews, because our primary task is to produce on a tight, unyielding timeline. We are each hard at work on solo exhibitions set for late this fall. Getting it done, no matter what.

So let’s discuss logistics for a moment. Eight weeks is not enough time to create a body of work. But on the plus side,  a luxury to have that period of time to INSTALL an exhibition.

The standard for having access to a gallery space and mounting a show is usually just a few days, maybe a week. So that’s how I’m trying to look at it. That’s my silver lining when I’m stressing about seeing my (perhaps too ambitious) vision through.

We contemporary artists have to be “creative” beyond paint and brushes. And beyond clay or video or dance or writing. Beyond our artistic expression and “mediums” we’ve got to manage far-less glamorous schedules and budgets.

It’s important to point out to folks who are NOT working artists: Generally, we artists are our own project managers, producers, craftspeople, and fabricators (the fun bits), movers, packers, PR team, and copywriters.

We have to wear a lot of hats and we need to develop a big bag of tools. I’m sure you can find an example of the ditzy, right-brained, coddled artist who is so “creative” that they can’t manage daily life, but that image is load of bull.

While it may look like fun (and it is) and it may look like we’re “playing” (and we are), but we are also hard at work and strategizing on multi-levels so that we can actualize these exhibitions.

Maintaining a professional career as a working artist is like operating a small business — and if you’ve ever known a SUCCESSFUL small business owner, you know that we NEVER STOP WORKING!!

Below: a cinematic peek into Heyd Fontenot’s exhibition, the fruits of this residency, on view now at Artpace in San Antonio (445 North Main Avenue) through December 31.

Stay tuned for the artist’s final report from San Antonio — the last in “Tales from a Residency.”