Art fair, day 2
May 2, 2010
Riverflow is doing its job as a showstopper quite well--we're attracting visitors from across the hall.
So, at the end of day 2 of my first art fair, this is the tally:
- Lots of compliments
- Conversations with couple of interior designers, a gallery and an architectural firm
- A couple dozen requests to teach casting, pate de verre and moldmaking
- Four requests to cast glass for other artists (a sculptor who works in bronze, a glass artist looking to upscale, a ceramic vessel-maker and one other)
- Several photographs of booth and layout by other artists (and two requests to barter for signage and booth design help)
- One sale (Terry’s)
Conclusion: Our booth may be the hit of the show…for other artists.
Lessons in artsmanship: Dealing with galleries
March 28, 2010
It’s official: I’ve had my first “me” show in an art gallery, where I was one of the attractions instead of one of the crowd. And boy did I learn a lot, mostly about what NOT to do.
(For the record, the show is at Guardino Gallery on Alberta Street in Portland–if you missed the reception you missed a really nice party and a really beautifully laid-out show, including Leah Wilson’s wonderful paintings. It’ll be up until April 27.)
Biggest lesson: It’s one thing to send a couple of pieces to somebody else’s show. It’s quite another to BE the show. [Read more]
Partied hearty
March 25, 2010
No idea who these folks were at the gallery tonight, but when they saw me snapping iPhone photos for the blog, they wanted to be in the shot and say Hi.
Wow. That was fun.
One thing I discovered tonight: People like to pet cast glass. "It's silky. How did you get it like that?" "Four pieces of wet-dry sandpaper and two full-length movies," I replied, and she shook her head.
Leah did her paintings in a town about 100 miles away, and we only met once. We were amazed at how well our work paired. I guess that's a sign of a great curator. This is Wave Vessel, in Bullseye pate de verre.
Just got back from the reception for my first advertised art show, and I had a ball. The work got a pretty positive reception, I loved the way it fit with my gallery partner Leah Wilson’s paintings (so did she) and people couldn’t have been nicer. The folks at Guardino Gallery (and the myriads of friends and family who showed up to support me) made it a wonderful experience.
Riverflow, sitting under my favorite Leah Wilson painting in the show, probably took the award for "most petted sculpture." I used a pre-show shot because people's hands were usually in the way during the reception. The piece, BTW, is about 25 inches long and 5 inches tall, 3 inches thick. It's in Gaffer lead crystal, so it weighs a ton.
I got a kick out of watching how people responded to the work. Most saw it as extremely tactile, which surprised me. I’ve spent most of my life struggling NOT to touch the art in galleries, but tonight’s crowds pretty much petted everything. Obsessively.
Dayjobs, realjobs
February 16, 2010
She was about as far from my mental image of a wildlife painter as you can get, the classic nerd-in-glasses. Her work called to mind tramping up mountains, crampons in one hand, paintbrush in the other. Where else were you going to see the mountain goats she painted?
“Bighorn sheep,” she corrected idly, “Although I suppose they’re pretty closely related.” Her work glowed with life but was only a cherished hobby. In real life, she designs quality control processes for embedded operating systems.
In other words, world-class nerd. And she set me to thinking about people who only get in bed with their art at night, when they get home from work.
Juried competitions
November 15, 2009
You know all those stupid, persnickety, idiotic, officious entry rules that show organizers dream up just to ruin an artist’s day? And those smug, supercilious (and expensive) suggestions they make regarding your need for better photography, displays, artist statements, etc…?
Uhm… They’re pretty much on target. After pulling together a (very small) juried competition for a local exhibit, I take back everything I’ve ever, ever said about that stuff.
Well, 90 percent of it, anyway. I’ve only walked maybe five feet in a show organizer’s shoes but as usual it’s an invaluable perspective-changer. [Read more]
The art of evolution
October 25, 2009
What’s the right level of evolution for an artist? (And I know, I know, it depends on the artist. Bear with me.)
I was invited to preview an opening for an artist I’ve admired for maybe 20 years. I eagerly slurped in the entire virtual show…and midway through it hit me: The work hadn’t demonstrably changed in 20 years.
I could put any image, from any time in this artist’s career, in the current show and it would fit right in. Be indistinguishable from the others, in fact. And I started wondering why.
Open sesame
October 10, 2009
Day 1 of Portland Open Studios draws to a close and I’m hanging out in my usual space, tired and content. Did some selling, did lots of talking, introduced a bunch of people to pate de verre and actually got some stuff done, art-wise.
Undo-it-yourself
October 8, 2009
Paul hesitated. “Do you really need the stands for these pieces?” he asked, “I think they’d be more effective if I shot them on the table…”
So he laid a pate de verre panel down on the sweep instead of the neat metal stand I’d brought. He adjusted the lights, climbed up on a stool to take the shot, and transformed the entire piece. [Read more]
Picasso and the business of art
August 5, 2009
The trick to being a successful artist, apparently, is not to spend too much time doing art.
Scratch the successful artist and I suspect you’ll find a businessman who wishes he/she could get in more studio time. I’ve talked to perhaps 70 successful, full-time artists in the last few months and what continually astonishes me is how much time they spend on business and marketing, and how little time they actually spend in the studio.
Given that, it’s surprising how few art schools spend much time teaching artists how to do this business stuff. Maybe they figure students will absorb a business sense osmotically, after the bankruptcy hearings. I’ve looked into MFAs at some of the best institutes in the nation…and the number of classes they offer to help artists manage the business of art is appallingly low.