Illustration Friday - CHOOSE
Ilffeb_4
Illustration Friday Word of the Week: CHOOSE
Back in November we went mattress shopping for a King Size Bed...it was not as hard to CHOOSE as we thought it would be. It was a very Goldilocks-like experience. We used Yelp.com to find the the stores with the best deals, and we did!
We had been wanting a king bed since adopting Alice back in 2004 so there was room for everyone....of course now that we have it: Izzy refuses to join us...she is so stubborn in her old age!
PS...This image is a scanned page from my sketchbook that I inverted with Photoshop.
Art Sharks at the Shedd...
Sharks_4
I just received my invite to the cocktail portion of Friday night's Art Sharks Fundraising event at the Shedd Aquarium. This is a thank you for donating my painting "More Frisbee Focused Pups". The premise of the event is a clever concept ... complete with 10 second induced feeding frenzy. Names are drawn from a hat every 10 seconds... those called dart over to their preferred piece of art and tag it. Tickets are $600 for two guests and one piece of art, $450 for one guest and one piece of art or $3000 for a table of ten and five pieces of art. Quite a nice return for the price of admission and a lot of fun. Check out the Program of available art.
Art Fairs...How do we get there?
Picture_13_2
I've already submitted several applications for the 2008 shows and whisked off a few more for a January 31 deadline yesterday. Most people have know idea the lengthy process artists go through to get into the art fairs. In addition to paying to rent our spaces, months in advance we spend time filling out applications, labeling slides, writing checks for jury fees, booth fees, SASEs (stamp self-addressed envelopes) including 100 character (yes character not word) descriptions, and in some cases resumes ..(this is the prompt I have every year to update mine). We are all competing with other artists based on 4 slides (3 for some shows) and a booth shot and also paying a jury fee for them to look at our slides. Picking those slides becomes very important, I learned some tips from a workshop taught by Bruce Baker. I visited his website and saw that he now has a cd available on the topic: Your Slides and the Jury. Since my images are now digital I use iprintfromhome.com to have my slides made, you can upload digital files and they ship the same day.
Picture_3_2
There is a great new on-line art fair application process which streamlines the whole system dramatically, it's called Zapplication (Zapplication.org). We upload our images to the site and can apply and manage our applications on-line to the shows that subscribe to the service. The downside is it's simplified the application process so much that hundreds more are applying to each show and competition is higher than ever before. I recently received a rejection letter from the Brookside Show in Kansas City: they received 1,300 applications for 170 spots! and painting is generally the largest category so with odds like that you do the happy dance if you get in! If they like your work and it's a tie, it often comes down to your booth shot, which I have not had professionally taken outdoors...one of these days. Below are the images I am using for the 2008 show submissions. So anyways...if you are still reading...thanks! and I hope this was somewhat informative if you are interested in jumping into the art fair circuit.
Art Biz Coach...Alyson Stanfield
Picture_9
Gallery_framed
Alyson is based in the Denver area and I've worked with her off and on for several years via phone and email. She is a great art business coach: ArtBizCoach.com. Her blog: ArtBizBlog.com and Newsletters are a constant help and resource for me and thousands of other artists.I finally had the pleasure of meeting her in person over the weekend at the Art Marketing Workshop she held in Lake Forest for the Deer Path Art League. I helped with sales of her new book : "I'd Rather Be In The Studio" (hot off the presses last week) and her other educational art marketing cd's. It was great to see her in action, she is a wonderful presenter. I then had the added bonus of having her visit my home & studio and take me to dinner on Sunday...she even got to meet Izzy & crazy Alice. Thanks Alyson!
Brutus....inspired new portrait design!
2brutusfinalsketch_2
I've been working with a wonderful new customer on this handsome sweetie's sketch all week...he lives in Alabama and his name is Brutus. He is a rescue and has brought much joy to his new home and canine playmates. His owner told me that he loves pig ears and I thought hmmm..those aren't going to look so great in a painting, so I thought of the cute little pig with words and pulled this design idea through for his other favorite things. I love it, this is part of the fun of doing commissions it makes me think 'outside the box', well I guess I tend to think 'in the box' with my style...but you know what I mean!
I hope to meet Brutus in person next year if I get back into the wonderful Kentuck Art Fair again.
Al8057807841x_2
#10 is my Nemesis...
Picture_26
I get lots of emails from other artists looking for tips and help. I have collected a great referral list of sites and other inspring artists to check out among them is Keri Smith...she posted the list above on her Wish Jar Journal and I had to laugh when I read it because I happen to be having a miserable artist's week: Numbers 1,3,5,9,10...especially 10. I'm not supposed to feel this way in January, this should be free and easy catch up time but instead I feel like I'm never going to get caught up.
On a positive note here are some very helpful resources to check out:
www.cherylphelps.com/workshops.html
www.karenrossi.com/faqs-licensing.htm
www.maryengelbreit.com/ForArtists/GettingStarted.aspx
A River Runs Through It
Prairieshore_3
On Saturday I delivered my painting, A River Runs Through It, to Prairie Shore Properties on Central Street in Wilmette for display in their lobby. This opportunity came by way of the Wilmette Arts Guild, which I recently joined. Good to get some work up to the North Shore, I'll also be participating in a group show at the Wilmette Public Library in the spring.
After that I headed back into the city to an art opening for my friend Heather Gentile-Collins at a beautiful new venue called Flourish Studios. It's retail, therapy, art gallery & more. Heather painted a beautiful mural in the kid's playroom and her wonderful paintings and prints are on display through the end of February.
And as long as I'm posting...my dear friend Erica Huntzinger...(who has this great new website!) had a very exciting opening at the Chicago Cultural Center in a group show called People of the Mud 2 - great turnout...and some wonderful artists..all clay. Also included, another friend of mine, Jason Messinger's cool tiles.
Join our mailing list.
Be the first to know about new classes and workshops, sales, exclusive offers, and special events.