Other Artists
Next Entries »Christerical
Sunday, September 28th, 2008
Besides being a place to share creative processes and sell and promote my own Art, if this blog can help a fellow Artist in any way, then it serves the best possible purpose.
There’s a commercial on TV – I think it’s for life insurance – where the generosity of one stranger is seen by another, then that person helps someone else who in turn passes kindness along, and on it goes. Artist Chris Bolmeier is one of those rare people who inspires exactly that sort of automatic generosity. Chris features interviews promoting other Artists and offers her award-winning blog entitled Christerical in a sensitive, light-hearted manner.
One of her recent paintings, Blue Tree is about the most intelligent painting I’ve ever seen done by a modern Artist. I truly mean that. First of all, she has the audacity to paint a blue-leaved tree with all the sincerity of a Realist. That alone reflects her bold, fun and quirky nature. Beyond that, the genius of the painting is in those branches. On the left a branch juts out and gives the impression that it’s connected to the trunk while it is also conveniently part of the forest in the background. The centrally located, furthest branches also recede into and are the establishing focal point of distant trees.
These seem like such simple solutions, but this is the kind of thing that makes Artists envious that they had not come up with it themselves…like me for example! The envy is short-lived however, because it melts away in her light-hearted responses to her “million friends”. Unfortunately Blue Tree is not for sale, but at least prints are. I highly recommend that you become Friend million-and-one!
A while back Chris came up with a brainy idea and created the Artists’ affiliate program. Gallery owners and Art groups charge Artists at least 20% of profits if work sells, and it’s not surprising to be asked to share an unreasonable 50% with others who sell our work or provide the venue. To participate in the AAP, an Artist only needs the permission of fellow Artists to earn 20% of profits from the sale of any work if they are linked to promoting it. This requires some honesty and trust from all parties involved, but this is part of the intrigue I think.
I have just learned that October 25th is International Artist Day. Looks like the event has been celebrated in Chicago for twelve years already. What a great idea to publically celebrate our vocation by positioning an offical day for it annually! In that spirit I acknowledge a few other Artist friends I really appreciate: Patricia Gay Stonehouse, Karen Xarchos, and Virginia Wieringa, listed in the order we met.
Patricia Gay (Gay for short) and I became fast friends during a Canadian government Small Business program in 1989. 
As an extremely creative person she also offered vital strength and support, helping me organize the legal end and official side of my business. At the time I was swamped with all the start-up details, manufacturing and selling faster than I could produce. Her straightforward manner and high ideals were and are invaluable. With full-time priorities as a grade school teacher in Ottawa, Ms. Stonehouse sells her Millinery Vaults, pictured right: cleverly designed, stackable transparent hat boxes, mainly wholesale in quantities through the internet.
I worked with Karen Xarchos during the late ’90s/early 2000’s back in Canada. At the time demand was extremely high for in-home and model home custom-designed wall murals. Karen was a neighbor whom I knew was an Artist, but we did not meet until I finally walked across the street and suggested we take on the backlog of work orders together. Although our styles are very different we designed and painted together for about two years. It was such a nice change collaborating with someone else. We also did faux finishing, all the rage at the time, with or without accompanying murals. Some of those jobs could only be managed by two people or they would have taken too long to complete.
Mural Artists are under a lot of pressure to produce work quickly; it’s pretty brutal work, and physically, mentally, creatively exhausting. It’s also everything opposite to that – the challenges are always rewarding somehow, and an Artist has the opportunity to do what they love and learn many skills within a short period of time. Cheers! to Karen because she is still doing murals. Desiring to stretch in new directions, she has started to paint assignments on canvas in her home studio rather than work on-site so much, then installs the pieces like wallpaper when done. The best things I’ve learned from Karen are to slow down, evaluate, and give more attention to finishing details. She does the most amazing writing with brushes and a steady hand!
Virginia Weiringa and I met on wetcanvas.com, an Artists’ interactive website. 
Though our views and missions differ superficially, basically our hearts and Arts are in the same place, and we create with the fundamental inspiration that most Artists do: expressing, learning and hoping to encourage others through our work. It’s a beautiful thing to watch other Artists as they stretch and grow and to witness their work evolve. In the two short years since I’ve known Virginia, it’s been exciting to watch her Art career sky-rocket to fame in Michegan, U.S.A., with one exhibition after another in churches, hospitals and local galleries. She is probably the most gracious person I know, and that over-rides any aversion to organized religion I may have, a topic so personal and elusive to define I would not normally bring it up on my website, but since meeting Virginia she has given me pause to consider the larger, universal aspects of life in general. Life is large, we can be sober-minded and hard-working but still have a lot of fun, and Life is beautiful; that we agree on, and these are the messages that come through all of Virginia’s Artwork.
I strongly encourage other Artists to sign up on Chris Bolmeier’s “Sell my Art” list. It makes so much sense to support a fellow Artist rather than give money to someone who has invested nothing toward creating it. If you’re interested in adding your name, listing your work and reciprocating, or purchasing any of it please contact me or Chris…or hey, start your own AAP network.
She sings and she paints…
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
Chris Bolmeiere calls herself an Accidental Artist. Previously a professional actress, she still sings and posts the songs on her blog. Her “accidental” oil paintings are colorful, energetic and expressive. Her methods of painting are rather impromptu: she paints, scrapes away, applies more then removes more, and somewhere along the way a successful painting emerges.
Her crude, straight-from-the-heart illustrations of childhood memories are hilarious; one might be inclined to label them Naive Art, but in no way is Chris naive. This “accidental” Artist is honest and direct with her approach to all of the Arts; painting, writing, singing, whatever, has little fear and is full of fun. Multi-talented, and as the name of her weblog implies: she’s Christerical!
Not only that, if you sell her work she’ll give you 20%….so, If you buy this painting from Chris and saw it here first, please let her know. I’ll give you 10% for telling her, because otherwise you might not…meaning you get 10% off and we’ll all come out winners.
New marketing strategies
Sunday, May 11th, 2008
Grackle Party, Dallas Texas, 11H x 9W inches graphite and colored pencils, white double mat, white frame with crackle finish
In her Wed. April 30th blog post, my friend Chris Bolmeier writes about an older painting she revitalized, and in this case it improved dramatically. Surprise 2 supports what I wrote in yesterday’s post: many paintings need a period of rest before we know how to solve them. In any Artist’s home/studio there are at least ten or so paintings hanging around or put away in unfinished states. If it isn’t sold immediately, chances are 50/50 it will continue to change as we attempt to improve it until we know it’s truly finished.
Chris is trying new marketing strategies, and offering anyone who sells her work a 20% cut. A little out of the ordinary to show and offer another artist’s work for sale on my own website, but this is a brilliant idea she has, and I don’t mind trying to help promote her work. Good Luck with your sales, Chris!
Out with the old, In with the old!
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
My studio is filled with all the things I love, including inspirational images and shelves of favorite objects. I still have Art supplies that I used in Grade 2, and hang on to various space-consuming materials like too much cardboard and a bulk of previous work. All this needs paring down at least once a year, and it’s always enlightening to sort through.
Rediscovering things long-forgotten, like this cartoon by Saul Steinberg (1961) that drew my attention years ago, I spot links and relevancy to my recent work, revelations about short and long-term goals, and patterns of recurring themes I still wish to explore.
One immediate association that comes to mind through Steinberg’s cartoon is how our visual sense speaks a language of its own, even completely on its own. For an artist, what a boost to take a second glance at how powerful images can be. We have high unrealistic expectations for words, speech, and logic alone; as if they are complete and final once expressed and need always be perfect. Beyond that, it’s a curious thing how, even if we speak the exact same language, words can fall short, be misinterpreted or misunderstood. Personally, I’m grateful to rely on a creative drive that allows for infinite forms of expression.
In our progressive age of high technology and wireless everything, it’s the Human factor that now needs refining. We still need to develop the abilities to effectively communicate with each other. Intrinsic to the intense desire to communicate, creativity thrives… always has and always will. The power of our emotions, usually given values of negative or positive, are all rather the same when it comes to Art and creativity: they become useful in learning, as a means to transformation and going beyond our own personal limitations.
What I thought was going to be a simple tidying and organizing of the studio became a surprising source for renewed perspective and motivation. I highly recommend it, but you will probably be sidetracked by all the old pictures!
Next Entries »