Facts About Famous Art

Did you know that Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe is one of pop art’s most famous images and contains 50 images of the actress from her publicity shoot for the 1955 film, Niagara? How about the fact that The Scream by Edward Munch actually has four different versions? By knowing a little more about the art that you love you will be able to impress your friends and have more to talk about when you have visitors. This is because it is easy to get your favorite works of art in your home by purchasing a reprint of the original. You can frame the art that you love without having to pay enormous prices at auction as well. In addition, the art that you display in your home can say a lot about you and your family. Learn more about the ten most popular fine art reprints by reading the infographic that follows. Created by Coastal Printworks, provider of provides Museum Quality T-Shirt Screen-Printing, Digital T-Shirt Printing and embroidery.

My artistic year in review

New Years Day. The one day of the year which causes you to stop and reflect and (if you're ambitious) make a plan for the 364 days to come. I don't generally spend a lot of time looking backward. It's too easy to get stuck there. I am usually more future oriented but I thought that this year it might be advantageous to take a look at where I've been to help me make a plan for where I am going.

 In my private life, I had a very good year which might seem like a strange thing to say given that my husband had a near fatal car accident in March, my father in law had 2 strokes which nearly killed him in May and I had a health scare of my own just this December. I say that it was all good, because we are all thankfully ok and going through each of these experiences caused me to draw even closer to God and to rely on Him for my strength.

Here are highlights of what's gone on in my artistic life.

January 2013- Had a blast with a bunch of crazy artists at Atelier 273 Toulouse Lautrec party

February 2013- Visited the Salvador Dali Museum and the Morean Art Center in St. Petersburg, Fla. 

April 2013- Mini Retrospective at The Grand Opera House in Wilmington, De.

May 2013- Bellefonte Arts Festival-funkytown!

June 2013- Featured Artist/Author at Palette and Page in Elkton, Md.

July 2013- Got my own kiln!

August 2013- Spent a day collaborating with other artists

September 2013- Became Philadelphia Area Arts and Crafts Examiner for Examiner.com

October 2013- Started teaching painting at the Art Studio, Wilmington, De.

November 2013- Held a very successful Open Studio

December 2013-  A busy, busy, busy month of sales on etsy and local shows including some custom made challenges.

These are the happenings for the year. I had a lot of successes in terms of my work and grew a lot both as a person and an artist. I had quite a few accomplishments, but the one I am most proud of is having lost 33 lbs. to date on Weight Watchers. I still have a little ways to go, but that will be listed on next years blog- 

Wishing you all good health, peace and prosperity in the coming year!

Making Your List and Checking It Twice

Some great ideas to plan for a successful artistic  2014. Reprinted wth permission from Alyson Stanfield, Arts Business Coach.

Click here for full article

Today's article is short and sweet because you should be enjoying the day. But . . . tomorrow it will be time to get back to work and start thinking about how you want to start the New Year.

Here is an idea for finishing up 2013 and preparing for a prosperous 2014. I'm fairly certain that Santa uses a similar process to keep track of the many deliveries he must make today.

Identify Your Projects

Spend a couple of hours this week assessing all of the projects on your plate.

Projects are undertakings that require multiple steps to complete. You can't finish a project in one sitting.

You might not be actively working on certain projects, but they are on your radar. You want to stay on top of them.

Here are some examples of projects:

- Overhauling your website or blog
- Creating a new series of work
- Moving
- Organizing an exhibition
- Planning an opening
- Arranging an event
- Marketing campaigns
- Writing an article or book
- Teaching classes or workshops
- Scheduling travel

It's likely that you have 10-15 projects or more at any one time. Each exhibition is a separate project. Each article is a separate project. Each teaching gig is a separate project.

This first step is simply to capture all of your current and future projects in one place. You can do this on paper, in a document, on Evernote, or in a project-management system.

It doesn't count to do it in your head. You must write them down.

Add The Tasks

After you have a good idea of your major responsibilities for the year (and beyond), you can add the tasks associated with each project.

Remember that a task is a single action, which might be dependent on an earlier action. Be sure you drill down your tasks so that each one requires only one step.

Add deadlines to your list.

Click here for the entire article

 

Alyson Stanfield is an artist advocate and business mentor at ArtBizCoach.com. This article was originally published in her Art Biz Insider, which is sent weekly to thousands of artists who are elevating their businesses. Start your subscription now and read more articles like this athttp://artbizcoach.com

My Yearly Date with My Overwhelming Mess

 It's that time of year again, and this very busy artist has a lot to deal with. The problem with being someone who works and creates daily in a small space is that eventually it gets to the point where you just have to stop and clean it all up. That time for me usually comes once a year when I host my annual Holiday Open Studio which is this weekend November 16 and 17 from 10-5 both days. If you are in the area and would like to come, I'd love to see you. Just click on my home page for more info.

Cleaning up my studio always takes me at least 4 days. At one point, I literally couldn't walk through it. It gets very overwhelming. I have clay and painting materials, packing and shipping materials, finished paintings, greenware, finished clay pieces, paintings in progress, canvas, paints, glazes, my wheel, stacks of paintings and boxes of clay pieces going from show to show and on and on.. you get the picture...

 Every year, I don't know if I will get everything done in time  or if I will be able to recover from the smell of the stink bugs that cause me to have to vacuum every nook and cranny of my 12' x 20' foot space. Vile creatures!!!

These photos show where I am right now. I'll keep you posted on how the cleanup progresses. Its really quite remarkable. Usually, by the time I am done, people often come into the studio and ask if I work in here.  Oh, if only they knew….Stay tuned...

Studio Makeover

We bought my studio from Amish builders in Gap, Pa. about 6 years ago. They are built as sheds and come unfinished on the inside so what you do with it is left to your imagination. It is 12 ft. by 20 ft. and I got the fancy doors put on it (for an extra charge) and extra windows for maximum light. We also bought the optional window boxes, as I wanted it to have a warm feeling for customers when they came to visit.   My husband and I finished the inside with insulation, drywall, cathedral ceilings and vinyl flooring.
It has served me well, providing me with a wonderful space to create new paintings and pottery, hold open studios, and have collectors drop by. It has also been great just to have a place to escape to, especially in the winter time when I am feeling hemmed in. I have enjoyed it in the form it came in with a white exterior and red trim and window boxes but felt it was time for it to get a  new do this summer. (The smaller building is my husbands shed)

One of the beautiful things about having a college kid home during the  summer is the availability of cheap labor :0) My daughter came home at a time when it didn't make sense for her to look for a 

summer job, so she did a lot of projects around the house to earn money. Having the wonderful artistic

sense that she does, she and I went to pick paint colors to give the studio the pizazz to match my work.

She worked hard and did a great job and now I am just delighted to look at my studio when I go outside everyday. It just looks so happy against the green surrounding it and is a place that I am even more proud of to bring clients and friends to see my work!

Morning Mosaic Madness

Celeste demonstrating

What could be a better way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning than hanging out with a bunch of women artists creating art? I had lots of fun yesterday morning creating a mosaic stepping stone for my garden. As it happens, my awesome hubby Al is in the process of installing walkways on either side of our decks so the timing couldn't be more perfect for this type of project.

I was invited to this soiree' by my friend and multi -talented artist Dragonfly Leathrum. There seems to be no limit to this woman's talent. She is known all over the region where I live for her many murals in downtown Newark, Delaware and elsewhere, as well as for her beautiful stained glass work, paintings and oh, her ART CARS!  When I was first getting to know her she was driving her famous "Turtle". Going to Dragonfly's house is like stepping inside a giant art work. Drop on over to her facebook page to have a  look at what she does. You will be made happy.

Dragonfly (L) Celeste Kelly (R)

Smashing things up

The workshop was being led by mosaic artist, Celeste Kelly. Interestingly enough, she and I have been part of the same artists organization, the Newark Arts Alliance, for many years and only yesterday met each other! I don't know how that happened. Or rather didn't :0)... Celeste was kind enough to offer her time and talents to showing us ladies her skills for a very minimal cost  and the donation of an extra paver for a kids camp.. ..

We started by filling trays from a smorgasbord of broken pottery, pieces of glass, mirrors, plates (which we got to smash up ourselves) tiles, and small sculptures.  Everyone seemed to bring a different paver type to create their mosaic on and Debbie Hegedus (another heavy hitter on the Newark art scene) brought a  birdbath type thingy.

Debbie Hegedus

Celeste demonstrated for us how to cut the glass (which was surprisingly easy if someone tells you how to do it) and cut the pottery into pieces with caliper type tools. She stressed trying to keep the distance between your pieces the same when gluing them into place and also recommended buffing edges with a machine that she had brought. I think most of us were to anxious to see results to stop and buff edges. Artists!

Cutting glass

Laying out the pieces

Variety of pieces in progress

The beginnings of my piece

Some people seemed to have a design or pattern in mind. I think most of us went free form and let the pieces dictate the design. I started out with a pattern in mind and ended up with something completely different..

Me 

In progress still

All done except for grout

I will be finishing this with grout today which will change the look completely. I used a red paver as the base since that is what we are putting in the walkway but the grout will be a deep green. Head on over to my facebook page in a day or two to see the finished result.

All in all, the morning was a special treat. Its nice to step out of your comfort zone once in a while and try your hand at new things. I am so lucky to be an artist and get to spend time with amazingly talented people. I have read stories about artistic rivalries, jealousies and competitions. That is something I have never experienced with the company I keep. The community of artists that I belong to have never been anything but kind, helpful and supportive of one another which has always been a huge blessing in my creative life.

Dave (who promptly vacated the scene) and Karoline Wiliczek

Dragonfly (hostess with the mostest) and guest

If you would like to learn more about my creative friends, check them out here :

Dragonfly- https://www.facebook.com/DragonflyArtStudios
Celeste Kelly-http://www.celestekelly.com


(sadly, some folks do not have a web presence so you'll have to check them out next time you are in Newark, De...)

A Mystery Challenge

I got something exciting in the mail the other day. It's a Mystery Build kit. Cool! Here's why it's exciting. I paid $43 for the kit which covers the contents, shipping and entry into the Mystery Build Art Contest. The challenge: create a work of art using only the box and the contents in it. The theme of the contest this year is "Re-Invent a Work of Art" The work of art can be anything (which I am not sure I agree with) but it can be one of my own, a famous work of art or the Brooklyn bridge if I think it is art.

Every participant gets the same items in the box. The only thing that can be added to the project is liquids, like paint, or oil, or water. Other than that, nothing can be used that adds anything to the materials or leaves something behind (like a staple).

I have to document my process through video or photographs which show me using the materials and creating the work. I am sworn to secrecy. I can't post my process before submitting my piece or tell what's in the box. How fun is that?

I can't wait to get started. I have a good idea of what I am going to do and I think I will get started on it tonight. I have until Oct. 20 to submit my creation to vie for $15,000 in prizes! I am so up for this! Wish me luck!!!!!

Here are some previous winners:

Artist:Majbritt Payne

Title: One Flew Over the Cuckoo Clock 

Theme: Interpret a Movie Title 

Movie- One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

Artist: Leslie Stancil

Title:Hugo and the Mystery Clock

Theme: Interpret a Movie Title

Movie: Hugo

 Artist: Sara Hartman

Title: Tea Time

Theme: Interpret a Story Book

Book: Alice in Wonderland

http://www.mysterybuild.com