The Modern Day Artist Living In The Modern Day World

May 9th, 2008 admin

Editors note: This is a guest post from Meilena Hauslendale Founder of Silence Speaks for Artists & Authors.

An artist in today’s world faces a variety of challenges that may or may not have been present before. Our goals have changed, our desires to share our imagery and visualization have taken on a whole new set of guidelines and rules. After all, artists have become just as divided as religions with the many facets they are labeled with. When it comes down to it though, we all bleed red, despite the medium we choose to use, and starving or not, we need to create art and make a living simultaneously.

Granted we have programs in place now that allow us to support a livelihood and our desire to create art, but not every artist will be a part of this luxury. It can almost be a full time job just seeking funding, art supplies, applying to residencies, and publishers. The reality is, we don’t have time to go work our day jobs, pay the bills, do art, and seek a valid presence in the art world, but by all means we do make such attempts.

No longer is an artist required to carry their portfolio around to every gallery they can reach locally. With the glory of the internet, land is no longer a boundary. We no longer need to open up a brick and mortar gallery as we have these things called virtual galleries that allows the entire world to visit our domain, browse our collections, and purchase our art. No more heavy commissions that have to be mustered from our already sunken in pockets. No more gallery rental fees have to be paid. For now we have web hosting and the freedom of a 24 hours a day gallery that shows 365 days a year.

With this new found freedom, we are given new responsibilities and challenges. Now that we have alleviated our local gallery owners from creating postcards of our art and sending out invites to their mailing lists, we have also taken on another hat of being an artist. For now, we are marketing representatives seeking a market for our work that is nestled in our homes or hanging in a frame somewhere. No longer are we just creators. Now we are marketers, customer service representatives, and for some of us even web designers. We will be in charge of press, in charge of our production, and in charge of our creating even better new pieces of work.

Some of us will pay an institution for this heavy title ‘artist’ and others will acquire this gift at birth and seek no educational facility to disprove our talent. Regardless our goal is to be an ‘artist’ full-time, however due to modern day inconveniences such as rent, gas prices, food, and other amenities, we still have to keep our day job. In fact we may have several day jobs that have nothing to do with being an artist, but everything to do with supporting ourselves and even family.

We await for the day when we can gain gallery representation, or our print editions become sought after by collectors all over the world. We await the day when we can hit the snooze button on our alarm clocks, put on our comfy clothes and get out of bed only to greet a fresh canvas calling for our visions. For we want nothing more than to be that which we love… an artist.

Meilena Hauslendale

Founder of Silence Speaks for Artists & Authors, http://silencespeaks.com

Inspirational Artist, http://www.meilena.com

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ZAF622 Episode 002: Kirsten Savage

April 16th, 2008 Daryle Dickens

For Episode 002 I sat down for a brief chat with Fort Collins artist Kirsten Savage. She has a studio in The Gallery Underground and is offering oil painting classes. I tried some new things with this one and though I am not were I want to be it is an improvement over Episode 001.

You can find Kirsten at www.savagepainter.com.

Thanks Kirsten for the interview.

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How Do You Define Success Has An Artist?

April 9th, 2008 Daryle Dickens

Ever think about that? Your artistic goals and how you know your hitting them? I think more artists should. The other day my inbox was graced with one of Cole Thompson’s newsletters. Cole is a photographer who works in black and white. Cole has told me that he does not think he does a very good job as a writer. I think he does a really great job. This is from his latest.

As a young boy I dreamt of being a "great" photographer, but I’m not sure what "great" meant to me back then; fame, fortune, women? (no, that was the unrealized rock star fantasy!)

For the last month I’ve been forced to ask myself: what are my goals, what am I trying to accomplish and what defines success for me? As I was pondering this I ran across some interesting thoughts on success:

"Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally." David Frost

"I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Bill Cosby

"Some aspects of success seem rather silly as death approaches." Donald A. Miller

I wonder if one can separate success in art from success at work and at home. Can we be successful in one area our lives and a failure in another? Or is it all rolled up into a single measure?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said this of success:
To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded! ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

To achieve true success there must be balance, integrity and a purpose beyond self. I believe that true success in one area of our life permeates into every other area.

Good stuff to think about. And a great way to have Cole write a post for me. (Thanks Cole.) You should thank Cole too by going to his web site and checking out his work. You can find it at www.colethompsonphotography.com.

That is all I got,

www.zaf622.com

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ZAF622 Episode 001

March 26th, 2008 Daryle Dickens

In case you did not know it this blog is part of another web site called ZAF622.com. I started ZAF622 to help art and artists through Q&A style interviews. That was way back in 2005. I’ve done 22 interviews in that time. (One is still in the works.) The interviews are a slow and cumbersome process. It has been frustrating for me and for the people I interview as they wait for them to be published. That is why I am now pushing my tiny boat out into the waters of video interviewing.

Bryan Collins is the artist in Episode 001. Bryan has been a good and supportive sport as I begin this new adventure. I am hoping there are more artists out there like him willing to get in front of the camera. I believe video will enable me to get artists and their art out to more people. These days a lot of people would rather watch a video than read a page full of text.

I still have a lot to learn and a lot to improve. But I have started. And starting is often the hardest part.

Check out Bryan’s website: www.bryandrinkscoffee.com.

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Tinkering With A Novel?

February 25th, 2008 admin

Men With Pens is one of the blogs I subscribe to. The focus of the blog is freelance writing in relation to business on the Internet. But recently they began covering creative writing. Today they did a post stating "Why Your Novel Isn’t Written Yet," that I recommend you read if you have been tinkering with a novel.

As someone who has had a few novels, a whole fictional universe in fact, swimming around in my head for well over a decade I found the article to be spot on. Writing is one of the easiest things that we find so hard to do.

Click here to read the article yourself.

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this post sponsored by BeetStreet.org

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Point Z

January 15th, 2008 admin

Here we are in a New Year and people are expressing their goals. Do you ever think about your goals as an artist? Ever think about where you want to take your art, or where you want your art to take you?

From conversations I’ve had with artists it seems that few think like this. Few artists plan out their artistic career the same way people do with careers in other fields. I believe it would make sense for an artist to put some thought into their art career. To create some goals and start to make a plan to accomplish those goals. Imagine yourself standing on Point “A.” What would Point “Z” be for you? For example mine could be “I will make a living writing about artists and the arts.”

Now I have Point A and Point Z. After having a start and an end I can begin working on the steps in between. (More on that later.)

What is your Point Z?

• I will publish a novel.
• I will have a solo show in a gallery.
• I will have a photograph published in a magazine.
• I will headline a show at Red Rocks.

You get the idea. If you have dreamed about such things take the next step and write down the goal in an affirmative “I will” voice. That is a good simple way to start working on your goals as an artist.

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Oil Painting Workshop

December 19th, 2007 admin

What: Oil Painting Workshop
Where: Roundhouse Art Gallery, 116 N. College Suite 3 (Avery Building)
When: January 15th, 2007, 6-9PM
Who: Instructed by Heather Burger

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Manage The Mundane - Create The Extraordinary

December 8th, 2007 admin

Thanks for Freelance Folder I discovered a handy little e-book called Manage the Mundane - Create the Extraordinary. A 32 page booklet with ideas on how artistic folk can better manager their time. Though geared for graphic designers and writers the book is filled with nuggets of advice that could help anyone.

Find the book by clicking here.

Read the Freelance Folder post about it by clicking here.

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Is This Fort Collins?

December 7th, 2007 admin

So I was doing a bit of research the other day and came across an article in The Rocky Mountain Chronicle that started with this description of what Fort Collins is for a young artist:

“To the ambitious 20-something artist, Fort Collins can feel a lot like purgatory. It’s not half as bad as a small town, where young creative types are often ostracized, if not physically threatened; and it’s not half as good as a big city, where the artist — at least in his mind — stands poised to cut teeth in an environment that is infinitely more eclectic, supportive and challenging. To the young artist, Fort Collins sits on scarily comfy neutral ground, where locals seem relatively attentive, if a little too glazed-over by microbrews, shopping and sunlight to be titillated by the pressing quandaries of the soul. It can feel like a place where music is made for dancing instead of discussion, a place where paintings are made to clutter a coffeehouse wall.

And so the young artist either a) skips town weeks after being handed a B.A. at the university, often en route to a teaching job overseas, b) joins in with the small, dedicated local artistic community, goes to a lot of potlucks and reads poetry at the Bean Cycle, or c) after a certain number of drinks, consistently threatens to leave for either coast, but, to the amusement or annoyance of his friends, never does.”   ~Elliot Johnston

(The article, about the local band Vee Device can be found here. Thanks Rocky Mountain Chronicle.) 

From the many conversations I have had with artists in Fort Collins it seems Elliot came pretty close to hitting the nail on the head. What do you think? Fort Collins is a town with a lot of art happening but is it a place for a young artist “cut their teeth?” Why or why not? How can we improve the art and culture in this town?

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It’s All Part Of The Process

November 9th, 2007 admin

Cole Thompson is a local photographer who produces amazing black and white images. In his recent newsletter he told a story about this photograph:

The following is a glimpse into the artistic process we don’t often see:

Sometimes people think, including photographers, that great images come from extensive planning, great hardship and long waits. While that sometimes produces a great image, I’m usually just lucky enough to stumble onto something great and I take the time to photograph it. Here’s how I came to create “Clouds;”

My family and I had been in the car for 3 straight days as we drove home from San Francisco at the end of a 3 week vacation. We were tired; tired of hotels, tired of restaurant food and tired of driving. The kids were even tired of watching movies!

We were two miles from home and everyone was stirring, excited about getting out of the car and seeing the animals. In mere minutes we would be home!

But then I saw it, an enormous thunderhead, the largest I had ever seen in my life!

My first thought was; “I have to stop.”
My second thought was; “The family will kill me!”
My third thought was; “You made a promise that you’d never pass by an opportunity again.”

So I told my family that I was stopping for a photograph, and while they were screaming at me I quickly set up my equipment and took the shot. Because the cloud was so large (the above mentioned meteorologist said it was about 20 miles wide) I took a photograph of the left side, the center and the right side.

When I got home and looked at the images , I knew I had something special, but I also knew that a lot of hard work would have to go into it before it was perfect (see one of the original images below). First I “stitched” the three images together to make the large panoramic image you see above. Then I had to convert the image to black & white and bring out the power and fury of the cloud. I did this by “dodging and burning” the details in the cloud with a graphics tablet. It’s a bit like painting on the photograph to bring out the highlights and darken the shadows to improve the contrast.

My goal was to have the viewer feel some of the size and majesty that I felt standing there that day. Unfortunately the small image above does not do it justice, you really need to see the five foot version and then say to me “Wow! Where was that taken?”

-Cole Thompson

This is one of the original images used to create that beautiful black and white cloud image:

Please click here to check out Cole’s website and more of his work.

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