Charlotte Street winners extra lucky in tough times for artists

By Scott Wilson in Art

Wed., Mar. 4 2009 @ 3:48PM

Andrzej Zielinski

"Arancione Paper Shredder"

The National Endowment for the Arts reports today that working artists are unemployed at twice the rate of professional workers. The NEA's study, titled "Artists in a Year of Recession: Impact on Jobs in 2008," indicates that the economic squeeze is forcing many artists to leave their profession altogether. (The Los Angeles Times has more. A PDF of the full study is here.)

Three local artists have a little breathing room this week, though. Jaimie Warren (a Pitch contributing photographer), Dylan Mortimer and Andrzej Zielenski have been named this year's Charlotte Street Foundation Award winners. Each will receive $10,000. Artspeak and samples of the winners' work here.

UPDATE: Warren responds by e-mail to news of her award: "This comes at an incredible time! I only had $64 in my account when I found out! The new funding is going to allow me to work on projects I really care about and cut back on some waitressing and other random jobs -- even though I love my jobs. But life is short, so I would love to work more on things like my photography and the kids show [Whoop Dee Doo]."

And Mortimer was already having a big week: "My wife and I just had our first son the day after I realized I got the award!" he writes The Pitch. "As for what I'm working on next, for now I'm consumed with a baby, but hopefully soon I can start some new work. For my last show at the Leedy-Voulkos, I made some larger lit signs, kind of marquee-style. They were expensive to make, but with the grant I might be able to explore them further."