Artspan Blog

http://imprint.printmag.com/daily-heller/osama-been-reject/

 

 

This is an interesting article and video...

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roger-wolfson/post_2019_b_859209.html

Check out this link:

http://thedailywh.at/2011/04/28/office-propaganda-of-the-day/

I actually knew a big oil company that had a personnel (sp?) manual hundreds of pages of long with explicit instructions on everything from hygiene to how to properly pass someone in a narrow hallway. I wish they had used imagery like these posters...

 

 

 

 

 

Artspan at the TCE in Boston. From left to right are John Foster (marketing), Eric Sparre (brain trust) and Mariana Sparre (creative director).

The new templates are almost here. They look fantastic but the Artspan tech team is rigorously testing them on every browser under the sun...it's rumored they've even made it work on an abacus (okay....that was not exactly true).

They're beautiful, incredibly easy to use for both the artist and visitors.

Official announcement to come soon.

 

The following is an interview with Pennsylvania artist Annette Allessi, who was recently included in a book on the Brandywine Tradition. (Note: I’ve left the questions I asked Annette out of the blog post - I believe it reads fine as is).

 

About the book: Written by author Catherine Quillman, this book tells the history of the birthplace of an important art movement known as the Brandywine Tradition.  This is the home to the late Andrew Wyeth and Howard Pyle.  Many nationally known artists, graduates of the Penn academy, and self taught artists who have been inspired by this Wyeth tradition have built successful careers. 

Catherine found and chose my work to be included in this book among the 99 others by locating me on the Hardcastle Gallery website, a gallery who represents me in the Brandywine Valley area, as well as the Chadds Ford Gallery and a few others.  My inspirations with the Wyeths, especially NC, Andrew and Jamie, as well as my studies with Karl Kuerner, lead me to the career path I have chosen as an artist. My first true inspiration with the Wyeths was during the NC Wyeth's tour in Chadds ford, PA.

The inclusion in the book allowed opportunities to show my work in various places and have book signings.  I was able to show a piece along with my former teacher and mentor, Karl Kuerner, in his Berman Museum exhibit showcasing over 50 of his originals.

The randywine Valley is a beautiful place to paint not to mention the history connected to the Wyeths.  There's a history of artist to artist study through the generations.  It goes back to Nathaniel Wyeth studying with Howard Pyle. I think that artists are drawn to that energy and that is why so many paint here.

It's really hard to dissever  how and when i determined I was a professional artist.  It's a combination of things.  I think it happened over a period of time.  I think it includes a sense of confidence in your work, a level of skill about your work, and maybe even realizing, as I did, that one can teach what they've accomplished.  I started teaching in 2006.  Of course no matter how good you think you are, there is always room to learn more!  It's endless.

The first Figurative piece that I sold was one called "Waiting to Dine" which was what started the "fine art" portion of my career.  There's a story to this. I'm going to go back into my career.  Prior to the year 2000 and before my children were born, I had a career in the fashion advertising industry. I had my hands in every aspect of the this field such as...fashion illustration, graphic design, t-shirt design, hand painted clothing, portraiture, and finally art direction where I handled everything from coordinating and directing photos shoots to the concept and design of campaigns for shopping malls.  I'm sure I missed something there was so much.   I definitely felt that I hit a milestone when I became an art director.  I felt that I had achieved my goal as a professional artist.  It was the best job I ever had.  But I gave it

ALL up when I had my children.  I felt that I had enough of that particular industry.  I had my first child and decided to keep my hands in it a bit and freelance from home doing similar work for malls but not as extensive.  After the second child was born,  I was forced to take a break.  This was the year 2000.  The creative juices needed to be released by the time 2002 came around.  So when we moved into our first "real" house, not townhouse,  I wanted to find art to hang on the walls of this new home.  I dug into my old college portfolio and found a sketch that i created from a very old menu from the 20's, given to me by my grandparents.  I recreated a woman in fashion from the 1920's in color with a little research and imagination and called it "Waiting to Dine", hence the menu.  This was what I would hang on my wall AND at an art show along with a series of women in fashion through the eras of history.  I called the series the "History of Fashion".  It included 1920, 1940, 1950 and 1970.  This sparked the beginning of my career as a FINE artist.  I sold my first Giclee print of it to my first client in 2002! 

The internet really has connected me with many people.  I put out news blasts about exhibits, redirect them to my website which I also update periodically, I am linked on many other sites through my memberships with different organizations and with galleries who represent me, and of course Artspan who has brought quite a few leads my way.  It also has been helpful with networking my classes that I teach.  I would like to have someone help me in the future with marketing my site a little more.  It's a juggle to be a jack of all trades!

Speaking of "Jack,”  I've always been one to try to "do it all" myself  during my entire art career.  I am a bit of a perfectionist, I guess.  It does become extremely challenging to keep my life balanced.  I am married with 2 boys, Johnny age 13 and Tommy age 10 and I take care of all the business aspects of my art career, all while making sure I KEEP painting!  The one thing that does help is being very organized and YOGA!  My husband John, is very supportive too.  He comes to all my art shows, gives me business  advise when needed, and most of all he is the reason I have the technology to handle my business such as my computer, iphone, etc..  My husband owns a business as well called Socketlabs, Inc., which provides software and services to help companies deliver their bulk email.  He's been in business since we were engaged 18 years ago and has proven very successful.   I am very thankful for being blessed with the many God-given gifts that I have been given.


As far as my most effective marketing tool, I would have to say it is a combination of many things.  Email and my website,  word of mouth has also been an excellent tool, getting around in lots of art shows, representation with art galleries, and even teaching all help to get your name out there.  I think that is the key, to get your name out there. I really do not see one particular method of marketing being the answer.  It's like spreading your eggs all around the neighborhood instead of keeping them all in one basket.   Hopefully, since being published in the book 100 Artists, there will be much more recognition and maybe even more art sales.


I believe that I have 2 high points.  The first was when I began painting landscapes in 2003/4.  I was taking a figure workshop at the Community Arts Center in Wallingford, PA weekly with a group of artist and we planned a plein air lunch event at the end of the session.  I had only been doing figurative art prior to this.
I walked around the garden of the artist's home where everyone was painting and took a look at what they were doing.  I then found my location to paint.  I didn't even have an easel. I just sat the board on my lap and used pastels.  It was a bench in a garden scene.  I discovered  that I had an interest in landscapes.  At lunch, I suggested that we make a weekly thing out of this and everyone agreed. It became a weekly "thing" for all the artists.  I started to build a collection and then decided to show a few pieces in an art show.  The first piece I attempted that day at the lunch was the piece that sold. It was called Bench in Swathmore.  From then on I developed a style that continued to sell and lead to being published in quite a few books as well as newspaper press releases.  I always thought that the figurative work would be the HOT selling work but maybe that is for a later time in my career.

The second hight point was this past October when I won 1st place for a painting called Carriage House at the Grange Estates in Havertown, PA at a plein aire festival with Tyme Gallery.  Not only did I receive 1st place but the painting sold the night of the reception for $1200.00.  It was a good night for me! 

My advise to emerging artists is keep painting from the heart, be consistent and get your name out there.  And always be thankful for what you have and where you are in your career.  The present is what creates the future.

An upcoming, 5-part series from the BBC How Art Made the World -- this one looks fascinating. check out the link for more information:

 

http://www.travelzoo.com/vacations/europe/1014000/?utm_source=top20_us&utm_medium=email_top20

After a brief hiatus in preparation for the TCE (more on that to come) the blog is back, and this time with pictures. That dilemna, however, is this: do I look good enough in the pictures from the TCE to post them? Do I post the pictures I shot at Artspan HQ a few weeks back, knowing that the tech guys have already threatened to just pull them down, and possibly wreak online havoc against me?

Stay tuned...

If you're in the Boston-area late next week, stop by the Transcultural Exchange held (mainly) at the Omni Hotel. We'll be there with a table on Friday and Saturday, and are very excited to meet atrists and lecturers from around the world. Here's a link to the website:

http://www.transculturalexchange.org/index2.html

Hope to see you there!

This is a great example of an informative, effective artist's blog...

http://artistsvoicesopenforum.blogspot.com/

It's that time of year, let's squeeze a few pennies out of the arts and humanities. The link below leads to an intelligent - albeit politicized - defense of the NEA and NEH.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-j-learsy/governor-palin-viewing-th_b_837409.html

 

Interview with Switzerland/Florida/California-based artist Peggy Hinaekian.

 

1.     How and when did you determine that you were a “professional artist?”

 

I was 11 years old, in elementary school in Cairo, Egypt and participated in a drawing contest for children at a cultural club. I was given a prize "hors concours" meaning "out of contest" because the jury found my work non-amateurish to compete with those of other children. I was very disappointed and cried my eyes out but my father encouraged me by saying that what happened was good, I was now considered a "professional" artist and not an amateur. It was determined for me.

 

2.     What was the first piece of work that you sold and how did it come about?

 

Still in elementary school, I used to sketch portraits of everybody - teachers, students, family, etc. - on the back of my school books.  One of my teachers confiscated a book (with her portrait) then a week later gave it back to me minus the portrait, which she bought for about $ 10. I was ecstatic.   

 

3.     How has the Internet impacted your career?

 

The Internet has been a great help. As I have most of my paintings on the net, I can do digital submissions to galleries instead of compiling all these art folders and sending them out by snail mail and never getting them back although providing an SASE.  I can look up artists and galleries and do hundreds of contacts. Time consuming but better than snail mail. 

 

4.     Have you ever had a “day job” to support your artistic career (if you like, you can even balance out what percentage of your life is supported by your creative work vs. other work) – and if so, what was your worst/best non-creative job?

 

I have had several day jobs to support my artistic career. I am no spring chicken so I started out by being a graphic designer in Cairo (a male profession there in the l950's), then a secretary in Montreal then a fashion designer in Boston and New York and finally a research assistant at one of the United Agencies in Geneva. I also consider being a mother a full time "day job". All the jobs being non-creative I cannot think of the worst one. They were all bad except being a mother. The best job was with the U.N. agency because I met a lot of people, illustrated their monthly bulletin, exhibited in the main hall and did a little selling on the side.  I always envied male artists who could consecrate more time to their art as they had wives or girlfriends taking care of the kids and the house and treating their "artist" husbands like Gods. I was once asked in a radio interview what was the thing I wanted most in life. I said a "full time wife". My husband has been very supportive of my work but he says he pities husbands of women artists because they have to be their gofers and honeydos. (This is true of all the husbands of my female artist friends.)    

 

5.     How do you balance the business side of your career, such as promoting your work, with the creative side?

 

I try to balance it as best as I can but it is very difficult and frustrating at times. Specially when I make a contact with a gallery and am told "we are not taking new artists at this time".  They say this without having looked at the work of the new artist.  Only one gallery was frank enough to tell me that they were not selling their artists and it was risky to take on a newcomer. Promoting my art and taking care of the business side of it takes more time than the painting. I wish I had a good agent who could take care of the promotion for me. I once had a woman whom I trained to be my agent in Geneva, Switzerland and she did a very good job placing my art in hospitals, corporations, etc., but then she fell sick and that was the end of it. So now, I spend 1/5 of my time painting and 4/5 on promotion and contacts.

 

6.     What is the most effective marketing tool/method that you are using?

 

The Internet and yakking about art to anyone I meet. The latter they call the "Arabic telephone" in the Middle East. You say one thing to someone and you can be sure it will be repeated to someone else and so forth.

 

7.     How does where you live affect your art?

 

I live in three places, Switzerland, Florida and California and have studios in all three locations. Where I live does not affect my work, as my work is mostly in my mind and I capture colors and shapes during my outings or travels and these rest embedded in my subconscious. I daydream a lot and look around me all the time while I am walking, thus discovering colors and shapes which I then use in my paintings.

 

8.     Has there been a high (or low) point in your career and how did it affect your work afterwards?

 

The low point was when I arrived in Switzerland from Manhattan, in the 60's and tried to exhibit my work which was then a cubist/surrealistic couples theme; I was told "this is not for us". The galleries all wanted true to life images and especially that of the water jet on lake Geneva. For God's sake, if you want a realistic depiction of nature, take a photo or buy one. Europe has greatly evolved since and veered more towards abstract.  However these rejections did not affect my career, I just went on doing what I liked most.   

 

The high point was when Christie's Contemporary Art of London ordered five editions of etchings from me. It gave me confidence and energy to go forward. So I opened up a gallery in Geneva and I was in heaven.

 

9.     What is the favorite piece of work that you’ve sold either on the Internet or directly impacted by your use of the Internet?

 

The only piece of work I sold on the Internet was to a business acquaintance who had been to one of my exhibitions (but had not bought anything then). When he saw my work on my website by chance two years later, he saw the painting he had liked most and contacted me to find out whether it was still available. 

 

10. If you had one piece of advice to give to emerging artists seeking to become professionals, what would it be?

 

Work, work, work and never retire from art.  Also never take NO for an answer until the person is dead (referring to a gallery contact).

 

A point I would like to add…

 

There should be more emphasis on art in schools so that people understand art at a very young age and not ask "what does this mean"?

 

I find there is more sensitivity towards art in Europe and the wealthy do not have designers choosing the "art that goes with the sofa".

 

 

* For more information on Peggy or to view her work, please visit her web site at http://peggyhinaekian.artspan.com/

 

Where do you do your best work? Is it always the same place, or can you work any where, any time?

I used to think I needed all sorts of ritual before I was “in the bubble” (my term for being creative) but something incredibly cool happened to me not too long ago. 

I was walking down Mercer St. in Greenwich Village on sort of a deserted block, and a slew of ideas hit me like a rocket barrage. Fortunately, I had my laptop with me and, spotting a loading dock, I hopped up (prayed briefly that a truck wouldn’t pull up and unload crates of cabbages on me) and started writing. Holy crap – I was “in the bubble” with people passing by mere feet away. I worked until the pain of sitting on a freezing loading dock pulled me out of the zone, but was thrilled to have tapped into my creative stream in such an odd place. 

That ever happen to you?

Following is an interview with Lambertville, NJ based artist Robert Beck.

Conducted on February 3, 2011

1.    How and when did you determine that you were a “professional artist?”

When it became the only way I was making money, and I wasn't starving.

2.    What was the first piece of work that you sold and how did it come about? Luck? A helping hand? Hard work promoting yourself?

I don't remember, but looking back at my earliest work I'm sure someone was being very kind.
 
3.    How has the Internet impacted your career?

The internet has changed every way you do business.  My portfolio is on the web (Artspan).  I research everything from past artists to the best route to my next meeting or painting location from one device, instead of going to a library hoping it has the books I need.  (Really, it worked that way once!) One of the most important advances is the ability to contact an entire address book with a decent graphic presentation that costs nothing, using one push of the button, instead of putting together individual mailings of expensive printed pieces.  The painting part is still the same as it has been for hundreds of years.  Very little in the business end is the same as it was twenty years ago.

4.    Have you ever had a “day job” to support your artistic career and if so, what was your worst/best non-creative job?

When I committed to a full-time art career I did work a few nights a week at a frame shop. Being able to make my own frames at cost was almost as valuable as the pay.  After two years or so I was able to leave that and put those hours to work on the business side.  It also taught me frames are important.  I work in standard sizes so I can use good frames more than once.

5.    How do you balance the business side of your career, such as promoting your work, with the creative side?
   

I divide my brain into two departments: Creative, and Promotion.  I don't let them talk to each other.  I paint what captures my passion and get involved in projects that excite me.  It's up to the Promotion Department to figure out how to market what I create.

6.    What is the most effective marketing tool/method that you are using?

 

The most effective one using the web to maintain visibility.  I do this with an opt-in only newsletter.  I reach 500 interested people a month without pissing off others who didn't ask for it.  I also use Facebook, just for my business face.  I show paintings shortly after they have been done, announce shows, and list any events happening at my Academy.  Off-web, I write a monthly article based on my work for a regional magazine.  I keep all of it professional, and highlight the community as well as my own work.

7.    Has there been a low point, a true debacle, in your career, and how did you deal with it?

No debacle.  There have been times when I put a lot of effort into things that have fallen through, but I never lose sight of the fact I can devote all my time to my art, and still feed myself.  I'm very lucky.  My limits, for the most part, are self-imposed.

8.    Has there been a high point in your career and how did it affect your work afterward?

 

Two of them.  Getting my work seen was hard in the beginning.  After six years of submitting to shows and being rejected by all of them, a painting of mine was not only accepted to a high profile exhibition but won Best in Show as well.  It was published in the New York Times.  That was an enormous validation.  The paintings themselves didn't see a major change but it raised my mental game as a professional.  The second high point was seeing that same painting again, positioned under my name, as one of 37 works by me exhibited in a Museum.  Like being accepted to my first show, it gave me permission to proceed without doubt.  It says that what you are doing is appreciated in a significant way, and it's supremely encouraging.

9.    What is the favorite piece of work that you’ve sold either on the Internet or directly impacted by your use of the Internet?

 

I don't use the web as a sales platform, just as a portfolio.

 

10.    If you had one piece of advice to give to emerging artists seeking to become professionals, what would it be?

Creative excellence and commercial popularity are mutually exclusive.  If you want to be popular, paint kittens in a slipper.  There are, however, people who will appreciate your journey at every level.  Respect them.  Try something different every time you paint (or whatever your medium) because doing the same thing twice is craft, not art.  Learn from others, but don't imitate.  Make mistakes.  Make discoveries.  Continually evolve, but never arrive.

There’s been a lot of noise surrounding the Smithsonian’s decision to yank a video by artist David Wojnarowicz (deceased) entitled “A Fire in my Belly.” Apparently the Catholic League (those excellent arbiters of art and taste – okay, excuse the personal vitriol) complained about a scene in which ants crawl across a crucifix.

 

 

So they pulled the video.

 

“Cowards!” I say.

 

Isn’t art the place where conversations begin? Where ideas are put forth before they can be discussed by everyday folks at the water cooler or – Zeus preserve us – before the government can weigh in?

 

Look, I’m not weighing in on whether it’s a “good” piece of art or not, I’m just defending it’s right to exist and be shown. In my opinion, to fetter art is to diminish its power. I know that when I write (fiction) I force myself to “write with the door closed” as the saying goes – meaning that I can’t let myself think about the opinions of others or I’ll start self-censoring. In a larger sense, if artists operate under the premise of “I can’t go there” because of societal pressures, will dangerous or taboo ideas ever be addressed?

 

(I’m trying very hard here not to even venture into the territory of allowing a particular religion dictate “what is art” – I’m not….going…there…)

 

Oftentimes a negative response to a piece of art induces an even more amazing flow of thinking than a positive response. It certainly leads to good, healthy, muscle-building debate. In my more optimistic moments it may even represent a society’s first, stumbling steps towards addressing a difficult subject.

 

Bottom line, we live in an allegedly free society and there are a lot of things out there that rub me, personally the wrong way. There’s an argument that goes something like this “but I don’t want my taxes/donations going to support XYZ” – to which I would respond – “I hate the fact that the Westboro Baptist Church can protest at the funerals of fallen soldiers – the very soldiers that my taxes support - but I’m so damn proud of us that we are mature enough intellectually to let that happen and to realize that free expression means we won’t always like what we hear.”

 

The Smithsonian is a great institution but I think they blew it on this one.

 

Anyway, I know what I’ll be ranting about at the pub tonight.

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• It *is* historic...but this is how we made it relevant to artists
• Using art to stop an execution
• Office Propaganda Posters for Modern Times
• Artspan goes on the road - Transcultural Exchange in Boston
• Almoooooooooost heeeeeeeere!
• Interview with artist Annette Alessi
• How Art Made the World - BBC
• To photo or not to photo
• Boston-Transcultural Exchange
• Example of an effective artist's blog

• General [17]