This week, I drove to my old house in Pennsylvania to pick up some old art supplies and canvas I had left there when I moved out. My hope had been to assess what was there and potentially use some of it back in my New Jersey studio– art supplies can be expensive, at time, and I am no stranger to using what I have or gesso-ing over an old or failed painting so as not to waste the canvas. When I got there, I found three or four old, painted and half-painted pieces, including a huge 60″x48″ canvas. The date at the bottom of the painting read August, 2005.
And it was terrible. Really terrible.
I loaded them up and drove them to my home in NJ with plans to get each into the studio and painted white immediately. I didn’t want anyone to see them– as far as I was concerned, they didn’t represent my passion, talent, or potential and I didn’t want anyone judging my current work based on this old, awful stuff. Frankly, I was a little embarrassed of them. Continue reading
Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend – I know I am! This week was one of those non-stop-isn’t-it-over-yet-how-can-I-have-so-much-to-do sort of weeks, and I am feeling quite grateful for the weekend. I have promised my fiance that I will most definitely clean the house and catch up on the laundry tomorrow– I’ve been holed up in my studio all week long preparing to hang some new work in a fantastic new restaurant space in Media, PA (House on Jackson Street, if you’re in the area!). So before I commit myself to domestic duties, I wanted to make sure to add a new page to the site I’ve been planning on adding – a page dedicated solely to sketchbook images and drawings. These are the pieces I do in preparation for a painting, just to blow off creative frustration, or sometimes, just because I love drawing with ink. It contains images like this one:
Be sure to check it out here, and I hope you enjoy!
This is by far the largest painting I have undertaken in quite some time. I’m genuinely enjoying the space, and the progress on this particular painting, so I thought I’d share a few shots of the work in progress with you. Enjoy!
Some new work. All acrylic on canvas – see the full details on the current work page.
As always, contact me with questions, queries, or interest! Enjoy!
“Awk Fox” – 24″x24″ Acrylic on canvas
I have struggled with the idea of an artist’s statement for just about as long as I’ve considered myself an artist. As a painter/illustrator, I was sure my visual pieces were capable of speaking on their own– in fact, I figured that if they didn’t, I had failed at what I consider the primary goal of all art, to communicate. Regardless, I kept coming across all the reasons I needed an artist’s statement, all the reasons I “should” have one, all the situations I would come across as a professional that would require it. And so, I struggled. I like to think that I am pretty handy with the written word, but writing about yourself and your work is an entirely different game altogether. There’s so much pressure there. Ultimately, in the years I have spent as a professional artist, I have never successfully written and artist’s statement, and, frankly, I have never needed one– but I’ve recently learned a few things about this elusive beast, and now I’m going to share them with you. Perhaps you will spend a few less years writing terrible things about yourself than I have.
Among those in the art world– and by “art world” I don’t mean you and I, I mean the galleries, dealers, and agents running this business– there are mixed feelings about artist’s statements and whether they’re necessary at all. It turns out, far less of these people require them than you may think, though some still look for a statement in introduction or even use them in shows. The problem is, most artist’s statements are just plain bad. In theory, they should offer some limited insight into the art itself– who the artist is, the technical process, the artist’s belief system of philosophy, or how the piece fits into a larger body of work, and the like– without stepping all over what the art is able to say for itself. The artist’s statement should be demure and totally okay with playing in the background, while the art remains the focus. The artist’s statement should offer insight and information without being required when it comes to actually viewing the painting (as a side note, if your visual art piece is not accessible to the viewer in some way outside of a lengthy and elaborate statement, perhaps you should consider becoming a writer instead…). And the artist’s statement should add to and compliment the work is accompanies, not distract from it.
Unfortunately, the increase in artist’s statements has come along with an increase in awful. Continue reading
Once you become an artist– in any capacity– I can guarantee you that someone, somewhere is going to ask you to work for free. It might be a doodle, a drawing, a “quick” design, a piece that comes along with “tons of exposure for you,” or a “great addition to your portfolio,” and the person asking for it would like to use it without paying for it. For every artist who gets roped into doing unpaid work at one point or another, there is an online rant about why you shouldn’t be working for free; and for every online rant about why artist’s shouldn’t work for free, there’s a post or snippet about how artists have become “money obsessed” and have forgotten how to make art for the love of making art. And every once in a while, some huge company will have to deal with a bunch of angry creatives for trying to offer the “opportunity” for artists to let them use their work, again, without having to pay for it. It happened to Google in 2009, when the mega-company offered dozens of prominent and up-and-coming artists the chance to contribute their work to their newest web project and be paid in “exposure to millions.”
The artists were unimpressed, and even insulted, by Google’s offer. Thousands rallied, albeit digitally, against the company, who reported profits in the range of 1.5 billion that year and still refused to compensate the artists it was asking to participate. Still, despite the artists who refused the offer on principle, Google still found those who were willing to work for exposure alone. You can read the NY Times article here.
So where does the line exist for we creatives? Should we do work without getting paid for it? I would like to suggest that the answer is yes… and no.
First and foremost, as a creative, you are providing a service to society. You are exploring and answering questions of imagination, boundaries, and culture. You are making a visual record of the time and place in which you live. This service that you are providing– whether you are a painter, and illustrator, a graphic designer, a photographer, etc.– is immensely important. As such, you time, your talent, and your services are valuable. That means they’re worth something, and in this day and age, “something” is most often monetary compensation. At the same time, I am not of the belief that a a lack of active payment, clients, or commissions should stop anyone from creating and producing art. There is something to be said for creating for the sake of creating and for the love of what you do. Only by practicing our craft do we get better, and if you are a creative and you do not create, you open yourself up to experiencing great frustration and dissatisfaction in life. I don’t think that the argument of whether a creative should work for free is really asking- “Should you do work unless it is paid for by someone else;” and to approach it as if there is any suggestion that one should not create for the pure love of their craft or for their own sake is to misinterpret the issue.
Inevitably, though, you will be asked by someone to do something for free. Whether or not you choose to take the job without any compensation is entirely up to you and your own professional guidelines, however, here are some general suggestions I would like to offer as a result of my experience over the years… Continue reading
