Art Biz Blog

You never know where the Angel Snakes will appear next

Take a look at Gay Pogue’s Angel Snakes blog. Gay, who has a thing for snakes, started this site to document the wanderings of her Angel Snakes.

Gay says: “Angel Snakes first visited my studio in 2006 as I was preparing for an exhibit. They have quietly taken over and finally convinced me to tell their stories. Angel Snakes are muses and artists, among other things.”

On the blog, Angel Snakes appear at coffee shops (they seem to love their java!), rest areas, and cemeteries. Every so often, a new Angel Snake will join the caravan.

Gay (I think it’s Gay!) uses her vivid imagination to give them voice. You can’t help but smile and want to tag along.

Generating buzz in the New Year

A couple of interesting stories featuring our own Denver artists might be of interest to you.

Self-described "Non-Starving Artist" Bob Ragland talks about making a living as an artist in this National Public Radio short segment. Bob is great! He advocates paying off your mortgage, living debt free, and wants to help other artists do the same. He even wrote me a delightful fan letter, enclosed in this one-of-a-kind envelope.

Bob's passionate advocacy for non-starving artists obviously caught the attention of a major national news network!

Also, Gary Michael’s self-portraits were featured in the Sunday edition of the Denver Post. Michael has been painting an annual self-portrait for 35 years. I just wish the article was accompanied by an exhibition of the 35 works so we can see the progression.

A self-portrait in itself isn't that newsworthy, but one a year for 35 years is quite something. What could you do in 2009 to generate such buzz?

Lucrative art careers

I think I'm going to have a whole lot more to say about this in the future, but for now, just read this article from the NY Times: Transforming Art Into a More Lucrative Career Choice.

Congratulations to Claudine Hellmuth, mentioned (deservedly so!) in the article.

Magical art that's selling

It's a very happy day indeed when I get out and look at art. And today I saw the most wonderful exhibit at the Boulder Public Library Canyon Gallery. It's a terrific gallery that always has first-class exhibitions, but this was one of the best. (Thanks, Laura Tyler, for urging me to see it.)

On view are the magical images of Maggie Taylor, a digital artist who lives in Gainesville, Florida and does the most magical work. Many of the images on view were taken from her illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Modernbooks, Palo Alto). The works were beautifully framed to be cohesive and expertly installed in the space. I encourage you to look around Ms. Taylor's website to be inspired.

The works on the wall were perfectly sympatico with the ceramic sculpture of Caroline Douglas, who lives in Boulder. Both artists used flora, fauna, and figures in work that was simultaneously surrealist and like stepping into a fairytale. 

What a great way to escape the office, get away from the bad news, and indulge in the creative mind of artists. Oh, and one more important thing: I noticed that many of the works by Ms. Douglas had sold--particularly those priced on the lower end. But many nonetheless. Art IS selling!

If you're near Boulder, you have through Sunday to stop in and see the show.

Get your art published in magazines--she did

Artist Nimi Trehan downloaded and listened to my audio program, Get Your Art Published in Magazines, which is also available on a CD.

Within one week, Nimi had a reporter and photographer coming to her home! See her home and studio featured in Washington Space.

Give away your exhibit catalog

Janice Mason Steeves, a client of mine, is opening a solo exhibit of new work in Ontario tomorrow at Abbozzo Gallery.

She and the gallery produced a lovely, small catalog, which chronicles Jan's recent journey to Turkey for the 800th anniversary of the birth of the Sufi mystic, Rumi.

The catalog is available for sale through the gallery (about $7.80US), but Jan did something brilliant. She is offering it as a free download (PDF) on her Web site.

I suggested she have her webmaster put it in the menu column so that it appears on every page on the site. When you click on it, you're taken to a page that describes the contents and gives you a link for downloading it. Check it out for yourself.

Jan could have gone one step further and put a mailing list sign-up form on that download page. Might as well ask while you're giving away something free! But she is mostly interested in sharing this new work.

Art is selling on the Internet

Check out this article in USA Today: Artists Take Painting to the Masses. Mentioning painting-a-day bloggers Duane Keiser and Justin Clayton, the article notes:

Now artists can sell directly to consumers, using blogs or auction sites at prices more affordable to would-be collectors. The result: More people are making a living as artists, more people are buying art, and more art is selling at a wider spectrum of prices.

Once again, it proves that you can make a living selling directly to people. But you have to work hard and be 100% dedicated to your career as an artist. You also have to be among the first to come up with something totally new and different.

(Thanks to Christine DeCamp for the lead.)

Women's creative spaces

A freelance writer for a national woman's magazine says:

For an article about women's creative spaces, I'm looking for locations (residential rooms, studios, outbuildings) where female artists create--i.e. paint, weave, sew, throw pots, design, garden ... The article will feature the woman/artist and her space. Where is it? What does it mean to her? I'm looking for really exceptional inspirational places. I'll be feeding locations to my editor, who will make the final decision. What I need: a brief write up of the woman (name, age, location, what she does (i.e. illustrates books, weaves, sews recycled sweater blankets), and a few JPEGS of her space, which again, should be in her home or on her residential property. Lastly, I need a shot of her, too.

Note that this isn't about just any old studio or functionality of your creative space. It's about the uniqueness of it. If you have a really exceptional inspirational place to create, the writer has asked me to have you post some photos somewhere and your contact info and she'll get in touch with you. All you have to do here is leave the link to the info she requests in a comment with this post. Note: These must be residental spaces.

Visiting David Castle's studio

I was gone last May when David Castle inaugurated his new studio in Denver's Santa Fe Arts District, so it was fun to spend some time with him yesterday and catch up.

David, who was awarded Best of Show in the Downtown Denver Art Festival, has been through a lot of studio woes and finally has a space that works for him. I hope to have him on a teleseminar soon so he can share with you some of his insights about finding studio space. (You listening, David?)

I was amazed when David gifted me this as yet untitled painting that I was admiring. Here's one of David's posts that tells about this series.

(c) David Castle, Shared 8, 2008. Watercolor. Collection of Alyson B. Stanfield and Robert J. Harrington.

Thanks, David!

Not recommended: dying for the sake of your art career

The New York Times tells of the sudden interest in deceased artists' works--artists who could barely sell a thing while they were alive.

Fair? Hardly! Predictable? Maybe. A strategy? Definitely not.

There are some lessons to be learned by reading the article. For instance, how the artists "behaved" toward the establishment while alive. Take a peek.