Making Art Usable

Some artists are what I would consider 'purists'. They only want their artwork in it's original state. They turn their noses up when customers ask them if they offer their artwork in prints or card form and scoff and take insult when customers ask if they've considered turning their art into textiles. To an extent, I can understand the mentality of these artists. I see that they fear diminishing the value of their work by transforming it into cheaper versions of itself. However, I also see this as stubborn foolishness. When a customer is asking you if you offer prints, they aren't meaning insult. They love your artwork, but can't afford one of your originals. I don't know about you, but I WANT people who love my art to be able to have some of it.

If this isn't enough of a reason, then there are always the financial benefits to consider. When you are a purist, you will only earn whatever that piece of artwork is sold for and you only earn money from your art IF that piece is sold. However, if you aren't a purist, then you will earn whatever that piece sells for as well as earnings from the sale of prints, shirts, etc. You don't have to wait for your original piece to sell in order to begin earning money on the artwork that you have created. There is a limitless income to be earned as long as you keep that image in production. Considering that museums these days offer prints, cards, glasses cases, umbrellas, etc with the works of some of the greatest artists in the history of mankind on them, how can any artist in this day and age consider their artwork ' too good' for the same type of consumer products?

There are many websites that allow artists to make their artwork accessible to clients in a variety of forms. One of my personal favorites is www.society6.com They keep the integrity of the artwork while allowing the artist to transform their artwork into prints, cards, t-shirts, iphone covers, etc.

' Fairy Kisses'  ipad Skin

'Little Mermaid' iphone cover

Most recently, society6 has begun to create throw pillows. I am very excited with this idea. I understand that in this economy, people WANT artwork, but they would prefer to have it in a usable form rather than purchasing something that will just hang on their walls.

When creating these pillows, you have to provide Society6 with a high resolution image that is at least 3500 x 3500 pixels square. I have created some pillows using my latest Four Seasons series.

                                                                      
                                                                        'Autumn'

                                                                           'Summer'

' Winter'

                                                                             'Spring'

Aren't these fun? I can just imagine rearranging these on your couch or bed and playing with which season goes where...

What are your thoughts on making your artwork accessible in a variety of forms? Are you more of a purist? Or do you embrace this new way of selling artwork? If you are a purist I would LOVE to hear your reasons for being so. I truly want to better understand this type of mindset. I have spoken to several purists at a variety of art shows, but they weren't able to voice their reasons very well.

Hope that everyone is having a wonderful week!!

Wearable Art Runway Show

For the past five weeks I have spent over 200 hours working on a project for the Armory Art Center's Fashion Artillery Show. (a wearable art runway show) The theme of the show was Daydreams and Nightscapes. As I mulled over the two I decided to go with Daydreams. Daydreaming essentially consists of a person dreaming about the things that they might wish for. You might daydream about being famous, or beautiful, or rich, etc. Once I had taken it to this point, I began to ponder the ways that we might make a wish. (blowing out candles, wishing on a shooting star, etc) In the end, I chose the act of throwing a penny in a fountain and making a wish. As I often daydream about living in a bygone era, I chose a retro look for this dress. This is how my dress, 'Throw A Penny, Make A Wish' was born.

The Armory Art Center requires that you provide them with your idea and concept sketches in order for them to accept you into the show.

My initial sketches were quite rough. I originally intended to create the piece out of photographs. ( Photographs of things that people would wish for, mixed with photos of water)

A clear plastic with pennies would create an overlay.

As I contemplated the logistics of the dress, I came up with the idea of drilling holes in pennies so that I could lace up the back. Knowing that the weight of this dress would be considerable, I also devised a possible strap option if this should be needed.

 

 

My finalized concept sketch for 'Throw A Penny, Make a Wish'

 

Once my design was accepted into the show, the hard part began. I had to actually MAKE this piece. I also learned something that I hadn't known before. We would be required to attend a dress rehearsal as well as actually walking this piece down a runway. Once I knew that this piece had to last through essentially TWO shows, I decided to toss my original idea of working with paper. I have both worked with and worn paper clothing in the past and I didn't feel that this medium would last through two nights. While figuring out the actual logistics of this piece, I also didn't think that there was a way to make the paper sturdy enough to hold up the weight of the pennies. So I had to do some revisions to my design and decided upon muslin as my base medium instead. I chose this because it's essentially a blank canvas. My 'wish images' would be created using image transfers and I would create the watery look that  I wanted using paints.

 

 

 

The finished underdress pattern in muslin.

 

I thought that I would be able to drape my piece on a dressform,but couldn't find a dressform to borrow or rent in time. Therefore I had to create my dress by creating a flat pattern. It was essential that the piece be VERY fitted as I wanted it to be strapless and it would be carrying quite a bit of weight with all of those pennies.  I decided to model my own dress out of necessity. I didn't have a dressform, so to ensure that it would fit correctly, I had to be my dressform. It's sort of difficult to pin a dress when it's on yourself but somehow I managed it.

 

                                Once I had the dress fitting snuggly enough, I dismantled it so that I could begin creating the surface painting and transfers. I had never worked with image transfers in the past so I took great care to do alot of practice runs beforehand. I used gel medium for these transfers and found it to be a rather inaccurate science. Some transfers would come out quite well and others not so much... I created a fun ombre look using acrylic paints. It was exhausting painting so much material but I enjoyed having so much control. By handpainting the piece I could be very specific about where I applied the darker blues and where I applied my green and gold tones. To help give myself a more hourglass shape, I applied darker blues at my waist and hem so that those areas would recede to the eye.

 

The hardest part of this project was the pennies. I had originally thought that I could sew the pennies into the plastic with my sewing machine. I sandwiched the plastic with tissue paper thinking that this would help to keep it from sticking on my machine's feeders and foot. Sadly this wasn't the case. After much trial and error I came to the rather horrifying conclusion that I would have to sew all of the plastic components by hand.  So I creating a sewing pattern with the tissue paper, mapping out all of the sewing lines like a grid and began sewing the pennies in by hand.

 

 

After I finished the bodice pieces and added the muslin drape, I worked on the 'peplum'. (again by hand)

 

                                                       The finished dress and peplum.
                               

                                    My original idea of lacing up the back was kept. I had my dad drill some holes in the center of pennies so that I could lace up the back. I like the use of the pennies because it doesn't interrupt the flow of the top as traditional grommets would have.


To see some backstage photos from this show as well as some video from the runway show, stay tuned!! I'll be posting a continuation of this post tomorrow! Hope that you've enjoyed this post and have a great day!

 

A Change in Perspective

I recently participated in a holiday arts and craft show. Art shows are always an interesting experience. I always seem to learn something new with each one that I do. Sometimes the new learning experience is something pertaining to setting up my booth, or storing the items in a better way. This time the learning experience pertained to my customers and more importantly a change within me.

How people treat you and your work is very interesting at these shows. Some carelessly grab things and sort of throw them back on the table, others rather indifferently touch things and the rest seem to touch the work in an almost reverent fashion. There are people who won't even acknowledge your presence, even though you've welcomed them and said "hello". Then there are the customers who really want to know about you and your process.

This was the first time however that I had ever had someone ask me if I would take less for an item. My initial inner reaction was one of anger. It frustrated me that this person was treating my artwork as if it were something at a garage sale or flea market. I was insulted. I've always felt that each piece I create is a small part of my soul. I put so much time, effort and love into each piece that I create. I felt that this person was telling me that my work wasn't worth the price that I was asking. Thank God for parents because my mom helped me to change my perspective on this. She told me to think of it more from the perspective of this person really loves the piece but is on a strict budget and can't pay the price being asked. However, because they really love it they are hoping that I could make some sort of exception for them. This completely changed my attitude and I'm grateful that my mom was there to instigate that change.
Since then I have helped other artists change their perspective when faced with similar situations. I have discovered that the inital anger response is quite common amongst artists. ( must be an ego thing. hee hee hee)

Overall, I really love going to the shows because you meet such wonderfully creative people there. The most satisfaction I get however,is in getting to witness the change that your work can create in a person's face when they first see it.

My New and Improved Booth Look

This is the most inventory I've ever had for a show! I had a few people seem to be more interested in whether I was selling my display butterflies than in the work itself!

Liked the Shelf/ Bookcase. It really added some nice height to the display.