Tag Archives: art event

11/17/11

Art Crawl on Friday November 18!

Be sure you check out the last art crawl in central Minnesota before the holidays… the November 18th Art Crawl. This is the first time that Artists at 701 (Dona Koshowany and myself) are officially participating in an advertised capacity. As a result, we have a new website for Artists at 701.

You can meet us and see our art (and more) this Friday, November 18th, at the next downtown St. Cloud art crawl. Come and see us at 701 West St. Germain, from 4:00-9:00 pm. on the 2nd floor.

There will also be a guest artist for the November art crawl — watercolor artist Deb Vander Eyk. All of the artists you can meet this Friday at 701 work in water media, which means acrylic and watercolor, but our work is very different and varied.

We will also have things besides paintings at the art crawl to look at and to purchase, such as cards and other hand-made things, and a few good things to eat too. Yes, that means cookies. Stop by!

09/27/11

Navigating the Aftermath Art Show

I have two paintings in the Navigating the Aftermath art show, one of which is shown in this ad for the event, which is touring Minnesota. If you are in central Minnesota, come on down to the Paramount Theatre on Wednesday night for a very cool and meaningful art and movie event called Navigating the Aftermath. The aftermath is that of the Iraq War, and the movie, which is also free, is called The Unreturned. It’s a good movie, socially relevant and important, and most people who see it learn a sad truth about the Iraq war. It created 4.5 million displaced people who now have nowhere to live. In that respect this will be an eye-opening event for some people.

Though most of the artists in this show are from Iraq or the Minneapolis area, there are several local artists who have work in the show too. My contributing artist page for this tour is here, where you can see some of my other anti-war artwork. I have even more, which I’ll write about here some day. For now, this is it.

07/23/11

Cost of Being an Artist and City Limits Show

The City Limits Show, sponsored by the GRAA in Little Falls, MN, ends today, July 23rd. Check out the featured artists here.

In case you couldn’t make it to the show, here’s a little gallery of my photos. These photos do not include everything in the show.

Many people wonder if it’s easy to sell artwork. It’s not. Artists who are successful at selling their work (enough to make a living at it) are in the minority, especially if they don’t live in a large city. Being in an art show does not guarantee any sales whatsoever, and in fact I have never sold a painting from exhibiting it in an art show, anywhere, ever. I think this is rather typical, as I’ve seen some “sarcastic” pricings on some paintings (over $1,500 or more) on paintings from not well-known painters.

It’s always hard to price things, but if you see a price of over $1,000 for a painting in an art show by someone you have never heard of, and it’s not a stand-out painting, the artist is probably making a statement with their pricing.

Anyway, most artwork I have sold has been online, and there has not been much of that lately either (to put it mildly). However, the need for art supplies and art expenses always persists, if an artist wants to keep working!

Many people do not realize this, but the art you view for free has cost the artist quite a bit to produce and show to you. There are not just art supply costs, but there are entry fees for every art show I’ve been in. And then, after you have paid a juror or venue to look at your art, there is always the possibility that they will jury you out of the show (reject you) and your work won’t be shown at all. This happens to me about 40-50% of the time. There are no refunds. I remember one art show a few years ago where I entered two paintings (that I thought were very good) into an art show at $25.00 per piece. This was locally, so I dropped them off myself. I was not juried into that particular show, so I was out $50.00 and my paintings were not even being shown. To me, that’s a lot of money, and that’s not the first time that has happened. Many people who attend art shows do not realize that these supposed “pro-artist” art organizations in every city actually charge artists to ENTER shows, and entry is no guarantee at all that your artwork will be displayed.

However, when you see “member shows” advertised, those are often free to enter. Unfortunately they are the minority of shows, and you have to pay to become a member of these organizations. Currently I am a member of four art organizations, all of which charge a membership fee on top of the fee to enter “juried” shows.

Then there is studio rent, and art supplies to buy on a regular basis. And I’m living in the midwest, which is not exactly a mecca for art sales.

This is why I’m adding the artist grant donation button on this website as of today. If you can donate or know someone who can, you now have an easy way to support an artist — in this case, me.