A Giant Pastel To Brighten The Day

Some days you win and some days the worry worts attack you. What I need to learn is not to get too carried away with any of it. Just do what you do and trust that it will flow your way, which is not easy for a control freak like me.

I will be potentially teaching at four art centers in the coming months, designing the curriculum in two, and found a sustainable side-line (Have Kiln Will Travel) to help small nonprofit organizations raise funds. Sustainable meaning that I'm not just donating time and art work, but have found a way to do what I do, make some money at it, and give the lion's share towards a good cause. All that is not bad for a former computer nerd.

Yes, there are days when someone says no or my emails are never returned. But there is really nothing else to do but stay excited and believe in what you are doing.

The image above is a large 5 foot by 2 foot pastel painting. I started doing pastels as a quick way to design my glass powder paintings. Well, they are kind-of quick, but man... pastels are expensive! I have spent over $300 on them so far, and working in that scale is really messy. The powder floats all over and onto anything near by, mostly because my style is very broad 'brush' with a lot of arm movement and the sticks often shatter and fly about under the sway of enthusiasm.

Years ago when I first picked up pastels I use to do little paintings where you smoothed in everything and most of the work is done just with the finger tips in a somewhat anticipative manner. In contrast now my whole arm and wrist swing wildly sometimes laying down whole fields of color, and using up 1/2 stick of chalk in several swings of my arm... fun but expensive at $4.50 a stick! The only way this style is antiseptic is if I wear a dust mask and vacuum every five minutes!

Anyway... this is no way to experiment. Below is a Photoshop version of a glass powder painting study.I'm about half way done with the study. With drawing tablet in hand I can whip one of these out, do prints of it at high resolution, sell the prints, and it cost me nothing to create the original. That's a much smarter business model.

Maybe I'll leave pastels for now, but the key is too just keep working and doing and pushing forward. No one is going to do it for you.

You Can't Do It All

Sometimes I hate to admit my limits. The last few days I've been feeling a bit out of sorts, because there are some exciting opportunities available in the form of  large and highly visible commissions which I've decided not to apply for. It was hard to come to that decision, and just a little depressing having to realize that my plate is full, and adding any more large commitments just wouldn't be wise no matter how alluring they may be.

The main thing I took away from my recent pondering is that I shouldn't be applying for any grants or commissions for the foreseeable future, and maybe not at all. I've always felt at odds with bending my work to fit some theme or goal of most grants, and worse to propose something I would not be aesthetically engaged in but might win. If you have the free time that's one thing, but chasing down commissions and grants at the expense of your creative direction just isn't right.... for me.

Right now I'm more involved and in tune with my Have Kiln Will Travel adventures, and teaching in general. My engagement at the Chicago Ave Fire Arts Center will be a very substantial commitment of time. Defining and polishing a whole series of glass fusing classes is no small task and is a large responsibility... Let alone the time involved in setting up the glass studio.

On top of teaching I need to push into commercial areas for glass. I would love to be part of one or two local design teams where I'm called in for custom glass applications for home decor.

Then there is the whole adventure of actually doing my own work, and keeping my personal creative direction alive. That is no small matter and can easily languish if my Do It All tendencies are allowed to run away with all of my time.

No, I can't do it all. I need a steady income stream and not the happen stance of grants and commissions at this point.... all the while insuring I'm still having fun.

Its the New Year and New Adventures

I get up every day and while I wake up with my first cup of java I ponder which of my myriad of adventures needs attention today. Last week I did a little product photography for the Igneous Rock Gallery from Mechanicsburgh, PA. The owner Robert Wertz and I formed a virtual relationship over the web after he saw my sculptures in Sculptural Pursuit magazine. That was last summer and we've be chatting ever since.

Take a look at the site and read the igneous story. These are very unique items that took nature eons to make. The image above is a collection of the rock candle holders I shot.

I've been spending most of my time refining the Have Kiln Will Travel (HKWT) story. I'm very excited about potentially holding the fundraising events are several art centers in the Twin Cites area. I will be meeting with several organizations next week.

Still yet another adventure will be applying for a large $140,000 commission. Sure... anyone can apply, but I think we have a decent chance of actually winning! I've been working on a design with another local artist, both of us have IT geek-land organizational skills and we both are aspiring sculptors. We'll need to form relationships with a couple other folks to pull this off. There is an informational meeting at the Minneapolis Institute of Art later this month. I would imagine every serious sculptor in the Twin Cities will be there... so, maybe on second thought it might not be very easy to win the commission. But if you don't play... you can't win.

Actually, there are a whole set of grants and commissions available over the next few months. It would be great just to get a smaller one.

So much to do and so little time. Over the next few days I'll be heads down planning out classes and equipment purchases for glass classes at two different art centers while at the same time thinking through the paper work for those commissions.... hmmm where is the time for art in all that?

But that's the beauty of it. There are so many varied things to do and I get the chance to wake up every day and choose something and can actually get things done without having to wade through corporate quagmires.

That's nice... real nice.

December Newsletter

Wow! Only one post this month so far, and I'm not likely to get another one in. I've been way busy creating a new website that turned into a blog called Have Kiln Will Travel. I'm still in process of fine tuning the business model which I'm very excited about.

You can read the details at the blog or by reading the FAQ.

The newsletter wasn't hard to write but thinking through where you've been and summarizing where you're heading can be a bit time consuming. Sort of a mini business brief. I kept it brief - and you can download the newsletter here.

The coming year is looking very good with many teaching opportunities, and I'll continue my Designs For Good efforts by mostly concentrating on Have Kiln Will Travel.

There are a few grant/commission opportunities that I'll be pursing, as well as maturing my glass powder painting work and starting the process of marketing them.

My photography skills will be more sharply focused on serving other photographers in the photo retouching area (aka Photoshop magic), and in establishing my layout and design presence for event and wedding albums.

That's it in a nutshell.

Hope you have an enjoyable Holiday Season!

Oh.... and please support my efforts by forwarding the information for Have Kiln Will Travel to your favorite small nonprofit organization so that I can help them out.

thx

details, details, details

Now I know why the stereotype of artist not having good business practices probably has some truth to it. I've been spending the last few weeks weeding through the minutia of the why's and how to's of setting up an LLC. That's even less exciting than watching paint dry. Then there are the tax reporting issues. I've always filed jointly (with my wife), but now with an LLC and being self employed who knows what the tax attorney will tell us. That's another meeting.

Last week was mostly dealing with liability and property insurance for my many adventures. Seems that insurance companies still don't know what to do with you unless you fit neatly into one of their 'classes' for coverage. Thankfully, with a few phone calls to several groups that specialize in helping 'ceative' groups and individuals, I was able to find agencies that can be creative in setting up coverage for us round pegs trying to fit into square holes.

Fractured Atlas is one of those organizations as well as Springboard For The Arts. Thanks to these organizations I didn't have to spend twice the amount for coverage, and was able to trust that I might actually have a policy that isn't full of loopholes.

Without these organizations to help I can easily see why creatives sometimes avoid doing basic business practices. It isn't that creatives are lazy or ignorant of such... it's just that the business world in many cases just doesn't know how to work with creatives, and translates that into what appears to the creatives as (and in some cases actually is) over charging.

More details...

Last week I had my first test of the "Have Kiln Will Travel" concept. The test class at local high school was a success. This was gratifying since a few months of prep as well as thousands of dollars went into getting ready for the test. The amount of gear and glass going to a site turned into a bit of logistical problem. I ended up with a truckload of 80 gallon tupperware roughneck containers to hold all the stuff (including 6 kilns).

OK... now what. Do I have to load, then unload the truck full of gear after every event? No way! I just want to keep it locked up in my truck when I'm at the studio. Which means that I have to buy a set of equipment that is dedicated just for Have Kiln Will Travel and not for studio use. OK, no problem. But the gear must be covered and secured. So that means a $1500 topper for my truck!

Yikes! How many thousands am I going to pour into this?

Well, thankfully I think I'm done with all the major expenses. Now I'm off to create the web site for Have Kiln Will Travel, and I'll do most of that myself. I might call in a Flash expert to do a little work, and hopefully it won't cost too much.

It is ofen said that it takes money to make money... I guess that is even true when you are doing fund raising.

A Have Kiln Will Travel Update

Nothing is ever simple with me. I'll bend twist and turn an ideal inside out until either it is dead or something unexpected comes to mind. The Have Kiln Will Travel concept hasn't even been implemented yet, and I can already see it working in multiple forms.

The original idea was to teach at Community Ed centers. Shortly there after came the idea of doing it at art centers throughout my region, and now the third form of the idea has me really reeling with possibilities.

Why not give fused glass parties just like Tupperware parties? The Designs For Good flavor of this is that the 'host' gets most of the 'take'. It goes like this... A nonprofit or charitable group needs to raise a bit of change. Not a lot mind you, maybe just around a thousand dollars or so. The nonprofit group (aka host) calls 12 or so 'donors', and invites them to a glass fusing party where they can make all kinds of gifts (belt buckles, earrings, pendants, money clips, etc). The host knows just about how much to ask a donor to attend the party. Depending on who the host calls they stand to make a considerable amount of money just for an afternoon of fun.

• The host gets to have fun holding the event and (of course) sorely needed funds.
• I walk away with some portion of the proceeds to support my costs.
• The guests have a grand time making stuff and also go home with a pocket full of jewelry and other 'wearable' glass items which could be valued far beyond the amount that they donated.

I might get arrested for this idea it is soooo goood!

Of course there are a LOT of details to make this happen, but leave it to my IT background to be designing and testing out every technical and logistic nuance of the idea before bringing it to the public.

Well... actually I'm so sure that it is going to work that I have contacted dozens of centers of various sorts and I'm already scheduled....

This is going to be such a great Designs For Good initiative!

Getting Feedback & Food For Thought

To carry on from some thoughts from the prior post.... Getting feedback is critical for growth and can help confirm that you're on the right track. Finding that feedback may be difficult when it comes to your career. In my case I'm changing careers so I have to relearn where and how to get suggestions and advice.

Entering competitions I'm finding is very gratifying when you win or place well, but unless you can corner a judge and ask specific questions all that you come away with is that you did good. At the Twin Cities Professional Photographers Association (TCPPA) yearly print competition I did fairly well for a first time entrant. I made some novice mistakes in presentation that probably turned excellence into just above average entries. I'm not happy with that of course, but more to the point there were so many entries that it was impossible to get real feedback. I got scores, but don't really know in detail what needs improvement.

Winning the yearly competition held by Sculptural Pursuit magazine was the topic of a prior post. A few months after that I entered into another magazine's competition, namely Aesthetica. Aesthetica engages with contemporary art, contextualising it within the larger cultural framework. It was founded in 2002, and Aesthetica Magazine is one of Britain's leading art publications.

I was recently notified of being a finalist in their competition and recieved the following from them to be used as a blub...

"The second Aesthetica Creative Works Annual explores the imagination. This book showcases artwork and creative writing from over 30 countries. The anthology contextualises the larger cultural framework by asking probing questions about the current state of affairs: the economy, globalisation, technology and the environment. Moreover it offers a platform from which to analyse the art we producing today. Its cutting-edge nature offers you autonomy. As the reader, this book provides an insight into our deepest thoughts, anxieties and aspirations. Art becomes the tonic for the modern world."

I'm honored of course, and probably will feel more so when I become familiar with the magazine. However, I'm not sure of the judging criteria and consequently do not know what I should feel good about specifically. The photographs sent in were judged deserving of publication. I should be happy with that alone.

After all, my images where chosen from 12,000 sent into the competition from many countries!

Time to grow up Jim... is what I'm telling myself. You're doing good. Stop being so insecure.