I now have an online commercial web presence! You can see what items I currently have up for sale at my Etsy Store or on the purchase page.
My brain is dripping out through my ears. After screen gazing for days on end I’ve basically finished a compilation of all the artwork I’ve done since birth. Whew.
The next project for Visual Hierarchy is the inclusion of a new Etsy store featuring inexpensive current works.
The more I work on this social network the more it feels like endlessly chasing the wind. From [edit] and dolphin, to revolart.com and elgg, and now I’m switching yet again. I’m staying with elgg to be sure as it is the best out there for what I need, but my web-dev-tech-savy-ness-less is catching up. Today I was able to play around with php, mods, and themes in order to get this:
Its as far as I’ve been so far. I am learning a great deal. An aquaintance (who is quite skilled with webdev and design) of mine is setting me up on his own servers and helping me out a bit with this project. I’m eternally grateful just to have this guy on aim teaching me more in five mintues than an hour of searching on the web. Part of the difficulty is that Elgg (the base I’m using for this social network) is very young and there isn’t a whole lot of info out there on it. Most of the people using it already have the skills to use it effectively.
So, I’m taking a new approach. I’m going to build the site on paper, put down everything I want, fill my imagination to the brim and then build from there. I know its possible and little by little I’m gathering the necissary tools. It will work.
In other news I’ve opened up a second etsy store. One might wonder why I need two and the simple answer is that each store showcases different styles of work. The original store has sketchwork and studies, the crude raw stuff. The new store has more polished works and even framed prints.
I’m exhausted.
Stress levels returning to normal, workload transfer complete, engines cooling. As of tonight I no longer have class for what seems like a wonderfully long period of time (2 weeks). My busiest semester by far is over, my house is clean, my computer clean, I’ve got a meeting w/ Sovine about the Collegium Sorcerorium commission tomorrow, a show with Library Donut in madison this weekend, and I’m feeling pretty damn good. Had my final critiques today and turned in some ok projects (above and below). Definitely not as high caliber as I wanted, so next time I’ll start a little earlier…
One thing I’ve been meaning to write about is a recent sale with a user on Etsy. This person bought two drawings from me and when I was prepping to ship the works I noticed it was a gallery I was shipping to. The gallery is called the USpaceGallery based in Atlanta Georgia. I checked the site recently and they have the two drawings they bought priced six times higher than what I sold them for. I think it is a good idea, buying art on the cheap from artists online and reselling it. Its only I find it somewhat humorous that these are works done in about two hours at most and one is being sold for $120.00. Damn. If they actually sell one of those drawings… damn.
One can expect more blog posts since finals are over and I’ll probably be hibernating in front of my computer for the rest of break.
I’ve surprisingly been making sales on Etsy of late. After trying so hard to sell work online last summer it seems odd that now I’m selling work within days of putting it up. I think its definitely related to my growth as a student of visual spaces. Its crazy how quickly things change and shift, go up and down. [Just to note, I don't claim to have great knowledge on the ways of the art world, these are just some things I think about in my spare time.]
One thing I wanted to mention was that over the past years I’ve been in art school I have noticed such a disconnect with our art classes and the real art world. I think technical skills are essential, because they are the foundation upon which we craft our ideas. Thinking and creative skills are also important because they provide a direction for our skills. But one thing I think is oft left out is the business side of art (UWM has perhaps 1 or 2 classes for upper levels and other business topics come up in guest lectures like the a Artists Now Lecture series, that is all).
So many of my fellow peers have some pretty amazing ideas and works developing. The image is from a classmate’s facebook group where he frequently posts his new work, a lot of which I find absolutely fantastic. There is so much potential, but many students are hesitant to try and push their art because they don’t feel it is good enough. In addition students aren’t encouraged enough to explore the many ways that artists practice successfully (be it monetarily, be it growth as an artist, be it whatever the artist sees as success). I’m not saying this doesn’t happen, many teachers will go out of their way to encourage us and provide us information about opportunities outside of school. However, the number of older students I’ve talked to tell me they have no idea where to go or what to do with their desire to make stuff. I’m hoping the artist social network will be a good participant in helping artists find inner confidence, awareness, direction, and knowledge.
Artist and instructor Kathryn E. Martin Meurer is definitely one of my favorite instructors and artists. Once she brought a class over from MIAD to Santiago Cucullu installation at the Inova gallery (vogel I think) to talk with Santiago about his career and how he works his personal art business. (Because being an artist is the same as being an entrepreneur of your own small art factory that is you). Learning how to run your art factory is crucial to producing art and something I really want to learn how to do well.
Back in the summer of 07 I made it my goal to make a living off art. Naive, inspired, and determined I sought to sell my work, because.. well.. thats what I really wanted to do. And I did. It took quite a bit of research, experimentation, and courage. I lost money, but gained knowledge and experience that was well worth it. I was trying to not only find ways to sell work, but also to find work to sell. Because I had only been in art school for one semester I had no work suitable for sale (or so I thought). One result of trying to find work to sell was the creation of the Parallax Print Series (PPS).
The PPS was born from some inspiration I had from drawing class. We had been doing ink washes and when school was done, I decided to play around with it some more. What resulted was a short body of work that was energetic, exploratory, and fun. Over several weeks I produced a large number of ink splatter paintings which I digitally ‘vamped’ with high contrast. It was later, from the suggestion of my roommate, that I overlap the photographed paintings and then manipulate them. This brought the work to a whole new level. By the time I had the PPS printed and starting to sell, new digital works were being created including the Beyond Parallax series.
However, because of the way I was thinking about my work at the time did not harness the potential of growth and critical artistic thought. My commercial interests were more important and so once I began selling work real artistic growth stopped. I began seeing through a lens of what could sell. I think it is good to be aware of the art market’s personality, but I was unaware of what my own potential really was.
The internet was one of the main venues through which I tried to sell my work. Over the past year I had profiles on RedBubble, DeviantArt, Etsy, CGSociety, Facebook, Myspace, Yessy, Boundless Gallery, Artist Rising, and more. Eventually I built a template website for myself, which I rebuilt from scratch into what it is today. Despite my persistence online I never sold anything. Until now.
Last night after a night celebrating with Obama and the world I came home inspired and finished setting up my Etsy Shop. Today I sold two works. Now, it is too early to make to many conclusions about why I sold these works. However, when you compare the old Etsy store featuring the PPS and the new one featuring sketches and studies the difference is clear. The PPS is about art for profit the Sketches are about art for understanding. There is something to be gleaned from a study that cannot be found in a PPS work. Its about effort, thought, exploration.
As a general lesson I have learned something about what it is to sacrifice one’s artistic skills as a thinker and as a craftsman, in exchange for an understanding of art business. Now that I have been to the extreme business side and have returned to the extreme artistic side I feel like I can merge the two together to suit my needs. With my new store that sells only exploratory works I can both grow as an artist and help fund my education at the same time.
After such an inspiring night I decided to get some work done that has needed doing for sometime. I won’t be getting much sleep tonight, but on the plus side I’ll wake up tomorrow with a new president elect and an Etsy store that is up to date.
I’m starting up my Esty shop again. Instead of selling the Parallax Print Series online I’m going a completely different direction. I will be selling select sketches for ultra low prices to help fund art supplies and to generate a small flow of donations to non-profit organizations. Also, I’d love to see the response of some of my work in a place like etsy. My recent war drawings for example. I’m eager to see what will happen with this.
Current Talk