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Photo Mask 1987
VISUAL CONFUSION: MY LIFE AS AN ARTIST
by RT Livingston
an excerpt:
"Visual Confusion is an actual medical term defining the inability of two eyes to focus properly,
resulting in a type of confused double vision.
By age seventeen, I made a commitment to spend my life as an artist. The next year,
I was diagnosed with a serious visual problem, right eye only,
tethering me to ophthalmologists ever since.
It's been quite a ride.
The past dozen years have been the most visually challenging.
After nine surgeries, the light in my right eye is finally out:
no more depth of field,
only a one-sided, multifaceted P.O.V."
VISUAL CONFUSION: MY LIFE AS AN ARTIST
by RT Livingston
an excerpt:
"Visual Confusion is an actual medical term defining the inability of two eyes to focus properly,
resulting in a type of confused double vision.
By age seventeen, I made a commitment to spend my life as an artist. The next year,
I was diagnosed with a serious visual problem, right eye only,
tethering me to ophthalmologists ever since.
It's been quite a ride.
The past dozen years have been the most visually challenging.
After nine surgeries, the light in my right eye is finally out:
no more depth of field,
only a one-sided, multifaceted P.O.V."
BIOGRAPHY
R.T. Livingston is a multi-media artist who spent 30 years living and working between her lower Manhattan, Springs, East Hampton and Woodstock, New York studios. In 2003 she came to California to create two large installations: one in the desert, the other in Santa Barbara. She returned to California several times creating an installation in San Francisco and two films shown at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival: 2005 and 2006.
California’s natural beauty resonated with her and in 2006 she made the move to Santa Barbara where she continues to work on a number of projects focusing on the environment.
The environment, and our relationship to it, inspires a body of work that ranges from large-scale installations to photographic-video-graphic series to music to painting and whatever creative vehicle she deems fit to get her point across.
In the Fine Arts Department at Daemon College, Buffalo, New York, Livingston studied with Elizabeth Murray. Graduate work in the History of Photography took her to Princeton where she studied with Peter Bunnell. While working on her Ph.D. in Art History at Rutgers University, she joined the curatorial staff at The University's Zimmerli Art Museum where in 1976 she curated the exhibition "Photographic Process as Medium."
During the late seventies-early eighties Livingston owned and ran Lapp Princess Press, publishing books by Chuck Close, Elizabeth Murray, Sylvia and Robert Mangold, James Rosenquist and others. At the time when Andy Warhol was in charge, Livingston used Interview Magazine’s ad pages as exhibition space for her ad/performance character Her Serene Highness, The Lapp Princess.
In the mid-eighties, Livingston founded The Page Museum: An Alternative Exhibition Space for Art. At that time RT Livingston, Lloyd Allen and Mitch Watkins, formed the band THE LAW. Their videos premiered on MTV.
In 1983 Harvey Lichtenstein invited Livingston to become a charter member of the Producers’ Council for the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. She sat on the board of directors at Franklin Furnace: a Lower Manhattan creative landmark. In upstate New York, she sat on the ASK Board as well as several committees for the Woodstock Guild.
Collaboration is important part of Livingston’s oeuvre.
In 1990, Livingston, and her graphic art partner Nancy Mitchell, created Sprocket Art & Co., Inc., as a piece of performance art. They imitated the corporate world in order to enter it. Their work was seen and sold in museum and high-end gift stores throughout the United States. The Sprockets gained national recognition in 1994 when they created the 4-month performance piece: TRADE WHAT TRADEMARK.
Livingston collaborated, as the cinematographer and creative partner, on two video projects that she and the Santa Barbara choreographer Robin Bisio created in 2003 and 2005: I COULD SING WATCHES FOR YOU and 1 DANCE 2 SEA.
In 2006-7 she was asked to participate in Santa Barbara’s lightblueline [http://www.independent.com/news/2007/aug/09/light-blue-line-not-erased/] project wherein a group of climate change activists planned to mark Santa Barbara’s high water line [using the melting of Greenland as a marker] as a reminder of things to come if we don't curb CO2s in the environment. The project continues in cyberspace.
In March of 2011, 5 days after the tragic events at Fukushima Daiichi, Livingston and Adrianne Davis began the video-graphic project HOT POSSE [https://www.facebook.com/pages/HOT-POSSE/176170415826845?ref=hl], a collaboration focusing on the shift from nuclear and fossil fuel to sustainable renewable sources: SUN WIND WATER.
In 2002 she began the HERD AROUND THE WORLD [http://www.herdaroundtheworld.com/] global collaboration wherein plastic farm animals travel the world, with their respective HERDERS, looking for reality and the meaning of life.
Livingston paints in series. At present, THE CiC, IMPOSSIBLE/CRUCIAL and “I draw the line where the water meets the sky" invade her mind.
VISUAL CONFUSION: MY LIFE AS AN ARTIST: MEMOIR COVER
Cover Portrait: 1987
California’s natural beauty resonated with her and in 2006 she made the move to Santa Barbara where she continues to work on a number of projects focusing on the environment.
The environment, and our relationship to it, inspires a body of work that ranges from large-scale installations to photographic-video-graphic series to music to painting and whatever creative vehicle she deems fit to get her point across.
In the Fine Arts Department at Daemon College, Buffalo, New York, Livingston studied with Elizabeth Murray. Graduate work in the History of Photography took her to Princeton where she studied with Peter Bunnell. While working on her Ph.D. in Art History at Rutgers University, she joined the curatorial staff at The University's Zimmerli Art Museum where in 1976 she curated the exhibition "Photographic Process as Medium."
During the late seventies-early eighties Livingston owned and ran Lapp Princess Press, publishing books by Chuck Close, Elizabeth Murray, Sylvia and Robert Mangold, James Rosenquist and others. At the time when Andy Warhol was in charge, Livingston used Interview Magazine’s ad pages as exhibition space for her ad/performance character Her Serene Highness, The Lapp Princess.
In the mid-eighties, Livingston founded The Page Museum: An Alternative Exhibition Space for Art. At that time RT Livingston, Lloyd Allen and Mitch Watkins, formed the band THE LAW. Their videos premiered on MTV.
In 1983 Harvey Lichtenstein invited Livingston to become a charter member of the Producers’ Council for the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. She sat on the board of directors at Franklin Furnace: a Lower Manhattan creative landmark. In upstate New York, she sat on the ASK Board as well as several committees for the Woodstock Guild.
Collaboration is important part of Livingston’s oeuvre.
In 1990, Livingston, and her graphic art partner Nancy Mitchell, created Sprocket Art & Co., Inc., as a piece of performance art. They imitated the corporate world in order to enter it. Their work was seen and sold in museum and high-end gift stores throughout the United States. The Sprockets gained national recognition in 1994 when they created the 4-month performance piece: TRADE WHAT TRADEMARK.
Livingston collaborated, as the cinematographer and creative partner, on two video projects that she and the Santa Barbara choreographer Robin Bisio created in 2003 and 2005: I COULD SING WATCHES FOR YOU and 1 DANCE 2 SEA.
In 2006-7 she was asked to participate in Santa Barbara’s lightblueline [http://www.independent.com/news/2007/aug/09/light-blue-line-not-erased/] project wherein a group of climate change activists planned to mark Santa Barbara’s high water line [using the melting of Greenland as a marker] as a reminder of things to come if we don't curb CO2s in the environment. The project continues in cyberspace.
In March of 2011, 5 days after the tragic events at Fukushima Daiichi, Livingston and Adrianne Davis began the video-graphic project HOT POSSE [https://www.facebook.com/pages/HOT-POSSE/176170415826845?ref=hl], a collaboration focusing on the shift from nuclear and fossil fuel to sustainable renewable sources: SUN WIND WATER.
In 2002 she began the HERD AROUND THE WORLD [http://www.herdaroundtheworld.com/] global collaboration wherein plastic farm animals travel the world, with their respective HERDERS, looking for reality and the meaning of life.
Livingston paints in series. At present, THE CiC, IMPOSSIBLE/CRUCIAL and “I draw the line where the water meets the sky" invade her mind.
VISUAL CONFUSION: MY LIFE AS AN ARTIST: MEMOIR COVER
Cover Portrait: 1987
RESUME
E D U C A T I O N :
Ph.D., A.B.D. Art History, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
Princeton, History of Photography with Peter Bunnell.
M.A. Art History, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
B.S. Studio Art, Daemen College, Buffalo, N.Y.
C U R R E N T A N D R E C E N T P R O J E C T S:
VISUAL CONFUSION
My Life as an Artist
A Memoir
2013 in progress
EXPOSED
Video, Photogarphy, Audio, Painting, Graphics
begun 1980
ongoing
IMPOSSIBLE CRUCIAL
my defination for anything that truly matters in life
a series of paintings and drawings
begun 2008
ongoing
THE CiC
I draw the line where the water meets the sky
Video, Photography, Painting, Graphics
begun 2009
onging
HOT POSSE
a creative collaboration with Adrianne Davis
focusing on energy issues
begun 5 days after the tragic events at Fukushima Daiichi Japan
2011 ongoing
HERD AROUND THE WORLD
a global photographic-video-performance piece
dealing with the notion of play
as a metaphor for transformation
WIGGLY SQUIGGLIES: COLOR ME ART
designed and created graphic branding for
Myrna Fleishman’s book and website: WIGGLY SQUIGGLIES
S E L E C T E D S O L O E X H I B I T I O N S :
IT'S ABOUT TIME
a kinetic installation underscoring the illusive nature of time
Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara, CA
May 12 - June 21, 2017
LIFELINES
Montecito Aesthetic Institute
January 2016
'handwriting on the wall'
Apex Gallery, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Rapid City, SD, January 16-February 20, 2015
WINDSOCK CURRENTS
United Nations World Environment Day WED,
Crissy Field, San Francisco, CA, with ecoartspace and New York Performance
WINDSOCK RIDGE
Arts Commission of Santa Barbara, CA,
Elings Park, Santa Barbara, CA, July-2004-March-2004
REALITY CHECK:
ARTIFICIALITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Donskoj & Co., Kingston, NY, May, 2003
SPROCKETS DISCOVER ART HISTORY
Marcuse Gallery, Kingston, NY, April, 1997
TRADE MARK TRADE WHAT
Four month Sprocket public performance
May-August, 1994
THE LAW
MTV, premier:
Town & Country, Miss Liberty, World Without Water, 1985
TURN STYLE: TURNS IN STYLE
Center for Contemporary Art, Palm Beach, Florida
Artist in Residence: Center for Contemporary Art
Palm Beach, Florida, March, 1984
SELF PORTRAITS
Black Bird Gallery, Tribeca, 1984
COLOSSAL PORTRAITS
P.S. I: Institute for Art and Urban Resources
a subsidiary of The Museum of Modern Art NYC
Long Island City, NYC
September 1983.
OFF THE BOOKS
The Page Museum
Manhattan NYC, 1983.
LAPP PRINCESS DOES INTERVIEW
Advertising Space meets Performance Art
Interview Magazine
NYC December-June, 1983.
S E L E C T E D G R O U P E X H I B I T I O N S :
UNITE TO LIGHT THE NIGHT
Community Arts Workshop
Santa Barbara, CA
October 6-8, 2022
TIPPING POINT: TOO MUCH NOT ENOUGH
Ann Foxworthy Art Gallery Hancock College
Santa Maria, CA
September 14-October 27, 2022
AQUATIC
Santa Barbara Tennis Club
2022
TIPPING POINT: TOO MUCH NOT ENOUGH
Arts Fund Santa Barbara
March 09-April 23, 2022
THE ART OF THE MASK
Elverhoj Museum
Solvang, CA
2020
OUT OF MUD AND ASHES
OH WE MOURN
performance
Lobero Theater
Santa Barbara, CA
October 5, 2018
THE ART OF THE DRESS
Elverhoj Museum
Solvang, CA
2018
SPRING
Palm Loft Gallery
Carpinteria, CA
April 1- May 6, 2017
BEAUTY
Santa Barbara Tennis Club
April - May, 2017
HERD AROUND THE WORLD
Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science and Technology
November 3 - December 10, 2016
VITAL
Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art
Montecito, CA May 21-June 20, 2015
VISION
The Aesthetic Institute
Montecito, CA May 21-September 10, 2015
SITTING DUCKS: HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT / SITE
FLOCK
Lotusland, Montecito, CA February-May 23, 2015
http://www.lotusland.org/event/premiere-opening-flock-birds-on-the-brink/
lightblueline
Collaborative Global Climate Change Project, in collaboration with
The Bren School, UCSB 2006-7
I Could Sing Waltzes for You
Windsock Ridge Dance Video
Music Video Dance with Robin Bisio & Headless Household
Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Santa Barbara, CA
February 2005
Crust of the World
with Robin Bisio, Santa Barbara, CA
Dance Alliance, January 2004
New Photographic Images
Jasper Center for the Arts, Jasper, ID
July-August, 2004
American Pot Luck
Gallerie Am Buttermarkt
Cologne, Germany
October-November, 2003
Erotica
Studio 8
Kingston, New York
August 2003.
WINDSOCK ZIGZAG
What’s Going On
between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges
The 21st BWAC Outdoor Sculpture Show
Empire Fulton Ferry Park
Brooklyn Waterfront
NY State Parks Commission
July-October, 2003
WINDSOCK GRID
Kingston Biennial Sculpture Exhibition
Kingston, NY
Windsock Grid,” Curator Judy Pfaff
July-October, 2003
Inside the Box
The Art of Assemblage
A.S.K. Gallery
Kingston, NY
July, 2003
EarthWorksNow
High Desert Nature Museum and Copper Mountain College
Joshua Tree, CA.
March-May, 2003
Drawings
Donskoj & Co.
Kingston, NY
March 2003.
EXO: Contemporary Approaches to Nature
Kleinert/James Arts Center
Woodstock, NY
May-June 2002
Ulster to Ulster
Belfast Exposed Gallery
Belfast, Ireland
January 2001.
Utopia/Dystopia
Byrdcliffe Outdoor Invitational Sculpture Exhibition
Woodstock, NY
May-September, 2000
Elements 2000
Newhouse Museum
Snug Harbor, Staten Island
January-May, 2000
Rondout Biennial Sculpture Exhibition
Kingston, NY
July-October, 1999
Rondout Biennial Sculpture Exhibition
Kingston, NY
July-October, 1997
Woodstock Festival, Mural Project
Saugerties, NY
August 1994
La Maja
Plexis Theater Group
Lower Manhattan NYC
1986
Purgatorio
Plexis Theater Group
Lower Manhattan NYC
1986
Boxed
Palladium, NYC,
Guerrilla Girls
1985.
Portraits
Gracie Mansion Gallery
East Village NYC
1985
Fluxus Events
curated by Ken Friedman
Manhattan NYC
Spring, 1983
Clouds
Stuart Neill Gallery
curated by
Peter Frank
New York, NY
Blackout
Museum of Modern Art
Manhattan NYC
1978
S E L E C T E D L E C T U R E S :
RT Livingston and The Meaning of Conceptual Art
Arts and Antiques with Elizabeth Stewart
KZSB Santa Barbara
March 26, 2010
Practical Implications of Environmental Art and the Collaborative Process
Gallatin School
New York University
Manhattan NYC
June, 2003
David Hare: Catalyst Toward Change
Pollock Krasner House
East Hampton, NY
August 2002
Determining Value in Art
New York University
Manhattan NYC
July, 2001
Emmet Gowin
Cosmopolitan Club
Manhattan NYC
1977
George Tice
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ
1975
Photographic Process as Medium
made possible by a grant from
The National Endowment for the Arts
Zimmerli Art Museum
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
1975
P R O F E S S I O N A L A F F I L I A T I O N S :
Sprocket Art & Co., Inc. Co-founder, 1990-2009.
Future Phase Computer Systems, Consultant, 2000-2002.
College Art Association, 1970-2002.
Woodstock Artists Association, Permanent Collections, Exhibition Committees, 2000-2001
Woodstock Guild Exhibition Committee, 1999-2001.
ASK (Art Society of Kingston), Advisory Board, 2001-2004.
ASK (Art Society of Kingston), Board of Directors, 1999-2001. Curator: We Do Windows
Woodstock Guild, Benefit Committee, 1997-1999.
New York State Small Business Development Center: Delegate to China, May 1997.
The Page Museum, An alternative exhibition space for art, Founder-Curator, 1983-ongoing.
Freelance Art Consultant, 1986-1990.
ASCAP: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, NYC 1985-1990.
The Law: Musical collaboration with Mitch Watkins and Lloyd Allen, 1983-86.
Brooklyn Academy of Music, Producers' Council, 1982-86. Charter member.
Franklin Furnace, NYC, Board of Directors, 1982-85.
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The First New York Art Parade, Conceived Project-Advisor, 1983.
Krumville Artists’ Retreat, Founder-Curator, 1980-1983.
Lapp Princess Press, NYC, Owner-Publisher of Artists' Books, 1979-83.
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, Assistant Curator, 1973-76.
Curator and Author of: Photographic Process as Medium, 1975.
C O N T R I B U T I N G C O R R E S P O N D E N T
Family PC: Review on-line art sites, 2000.
New York Cooperator, CEO Profiles, NY, 1999-2000.
The Family Adventure Travel Directory, Editorial Advisor, Woodstock, NY, 1999-2000.
Mountain Eagle, Lifestyle in the Arts, Tannersville, NY, 1998-1999.
T E A C H I N G E X P E R I E N C E:
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Kean College, Union, NJ
St. Aloysius Academy, New Lexington, OH
Daemen College, Buffalo, NY