Tag Archives: life in wisconsin

art and art-lovers unite!

So, I have been thinking awhile about how artists need community because we have a tendency to be alienated and isolated in our studios (and that’s just soooooooooo Abstract Expressionist and we don’t have to worry about McCarthyism and HUAC locking us up because we’re degenerates and subversives) and that people who love the arts need to be part of that community–since who else are we creating for but those that love art and each other–and I was talking to Miss Carrie at the Art Garage about this very thought.

 

She suggested that I take a look at Artini–Arts Management with a Twist written by the incomparable Ellen Rosewall–who basically is on every board of ever arts-oriented thing in Green Bay–because she had recently been voicing a similar thought.

 

My response to her post was

It seems like getting people into situations that they are likely to even start speaking to each other would be the first step–like Gallery Night, but Gallery Night has the draw-back of happening so infrequently and being kinda art-touristy. I keep thinking about the writing group that I used to be a member of before I moved to the Green Bay-area; we would get together a couple of times a month and talk about writing, exchange stories, and support each other. It’s not precisely what you’re talking about here, but it seems like we need to get ourselves-as-artists out of this removed, individuated-to-the-point-of-isolation mindset so that we can connect with audiences and help them to become something more than audiences.

I don’t see why an “artists group” should be just artists. Why not have something like these groups where anyone who is interested in art could come to play?

And isn’t this true?  It’s hard for artists to meet other artists and for artists to meet people who are interested in art outside of a Gallery Night  or an art school sorta context, and when you’re terminally shy like me, it’s even harder to meet other artists or, when you meet them, to talk to them.  <–If y’all haven’t realized this, “socially awkward” is my middle name.

 

(Okay, so this is something that might totally exist already around the country where there are huge-upon-huge art scenes, but what about Green Bay?  Couldn’t Green Bay totally use one [or seven] of these?)

 

So, this brings up the age-old questions:  what can we-as-artists and art-lovers do?

 

We can form groups!  Get anyone and everyone we know that has an interest in art and tell them to invite their art-interested friends and meet and talk and drink and just totally BS about life, the universe, and everything.

 

If we all set up groups and met even just once a month, imagine the art communities that we could build!  It could be a place for artists and the art-interested to trade ideas, concepts, and methods as well as receive critique (which is another one of those things that artists miss when we’re all alone in our studios) and form potential art co-operatives and find other artists working in similar concepts and/or materials.

 

It could even be away to bridge that huge gap that exists between the older generation of artists and the younger generation, bring arts to schools via the community, and get people to realize that, hey, you’re never to old or young to start making art; that, like everything, art takes practice and determination and critical thinking and someone to bounce ideas off of occasionally.

 

And booze.  Don’t forget the booze.  <–Okay, art really doesn’t need alcohol involved, but for the adults, it takes some of the sting out of critique.

 

So, artists and art-lovers, for groups!  Even if it’s just to talk about artists that you like or exhibits that you’ve seen.

 

Hey, if writers and poets can do it–why can’t artists?

Tuesday blog preview

Tuesday’s post is going to be about Faerie Fest in Bonduel, the Art Garage fundraiser at Barnes and Noble, and Gallery Night.

I might even manage to put up the project sheets! Oh, the humanity!

fiber porn at the whitefish bay farm gallery’s shepard’s market

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My step-mother-in-law’s birthday was last Friday, so over the weekend, the Husband, the In-Laws Wisconsin Edition, and I schlepped up to Door County to check out the Whitefish Bay Farm Gallery and the annual Shepard’s Market.

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There’s a complete list of this year’s vendors, so go take a look.  It’ll be well worth the time, especially if you’re fiber-inclined or think you’d like to learn to spin.  *is resolute about not learning to spin*  Oh, who am I kidding?  I’m so going to end up learning to card, spin, weave, and cause general mayhem with wool.  *sigh*

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But, as you might have guessed, Door County is fabulously beautiful (if full of cherry trees, which, I discovered last year in Baltimore, I’m really allergic to when they’re blooming), and the Whitefish Bay Farm Gallery is no exception.

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It’s situated on a farm a bit outside of Whitefish Bay (which is a super-cute little town), so it’s a bit of a trek to get there.  Yet it’s completely worth it.  There were noisy/nosey guard sheep that I’m sure alerted the entire county that there were people–strange, maniacal people hell-bent on shearing them of their lovely fluffiness–within a field’s breadth of them.  But they were so cute!  And there was something brilliantly tranquil about the greenest-greens with little (re:  freaking huge) dirty white and chocolate sheep nibbling away the day.

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Needless to say, there were a lot of sheep-derived products for sale (okay, really they were just yarns and stuff like that), but there were some things that really caught my attention that I thought y’all might like to hear about.

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Here are my absolute favorites in a huge pile of awesome.

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One of my favorites were these accent yarns by the incomparable  Bonnie Paruch of Icelandic Lamb and Wool.  The neat thing is–Bonnie’s a plein aire oil and pastel artist whose studio is located in Sister Bay, Wisconsin.  The beautiful accent yarns that she makes and sells are, as she phrased it, a hobby.

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I don’t know about y’all, but I really love that idea:  that artists can have hobbies, can have something in their lives other than just their art, than teaching, than activism.  That we are not limited to one realm of experience and expression or one gleaming interest.  That we are no more singular in dimension than anyone else–even thought artists of all types always seem to be classified as such when there’s really very little evidence to support that kind of imposed self.

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Really, though, her yarn is art in and of itself.  Each batch is hand-dyed with acid dyes in small batches and hand-spun.  Yes, these yarns are intended to be used as a raw material, but what could be better than a skein wound lazily into a loose ball in a perfectly clear glass bowl or vase?  If it weren’t that I was a kept-artist, there would have sooooooooooo been yarn bought.  As it is, I’ll have to wait until next year or see if she sells her yarn somewhere online. <–I have, however, not found any inclination that they are for sale somewhere.  *is sad*  But, maybe, that is a forthcoming endeavor?

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A person who I was excited about seeing was Barbara Heike of Wildflower Studio Arts, who is a Green Bay area artist that I know from The Art Garage. Incidentally, she’s the person that told me about the Shepard’s Market at Whitefish Bay Farm Gallery.  Talk about kismet, yeah?

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Doesn’t she look lovely and confident?

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Barbara does Viking Knitting which she describes as

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Before the advent of chainmail, and as early as 850 AD, the Vikings used a knitting technique in making armor.  Today, the ancient art form of Viking Knitting can be used to fashion fine silver wire into bracelets, necklaces, and other beautiful jewelry.

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I can attest; they’re really awesome.  They make my little SCA-heart go pitter-pat.

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She teaches classes at The Art Garage on Viking Knitting as well as demos at conferences and such.  She was the big surprise at the Shepard’s Market since, while she’s weaving, she’s also working with metal.  And, for anyone who hasn’t tried to weave or crochet with metal wire, it is a job of work.

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One of my other favorite vendors was Apple Hollow Fiber Arts.  I was draw to them because of their amazing baskets.  But!  They also have magnificently beautiful spinning wheels and looms!  Unfortunately, the lovely baskets that I feel in love with are not currently listed on their site but hopefully will be soon.  So.  Pretty!

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I am particularly fond of the pink one.  *hands*

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And, to round out this exclusive about a (mostly) off-season event, more pictures!  Okay, I admit that I kinda lost track of who the vendors were for some of these, but seriously, check out the vendors and check their sites (where available)!

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This lovely scarf was make by Karin Hoagland of Quiet Creek Ranch.

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All in all, a fantastic adventure and amazing event that I’m going to go back for next year and, hopefully, have a ton of money with which to purchase pretty, pretty sheep-products.

Here we are. In insomia-land again.

And, of course, I’m going to Door County with The Husband and The In-Laws Wisconsin Edition.  We leave in 5 hours.  *headdesk*

So, since I’m awake and it doesn’t really matter if y’all are awake ’cause you can read this later, there are questions to pose.  Namely–what an I going to display (and sell) at The Art Garage?

While the obvious answer is everything, I’m thinking I’d like something a bit more specific, so I’m taking suggestions.

*goes off to catch up on email*

at The Attic–

So, I’m at The Attic, which is a coffeehouse/used bookstore near The Art Garage and is just off of Main Street.  I’m sitting beneath their art wall and thinking thinky-thoughts and killing time before I go volunteer at The Art Garage at noon.  <–See, this is me totally plugging the places I like to go.

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The opening at The Art Garage was nice.  My sculptures totally did not look like anyone else’s work, but I’m not entirely certain that not looking like anyone else’s work is a good thing.  The In-Laws the Wisconsin Edition say that it’s good.  The Husband say that it’s good.  Me?  I’m not so easily convinced.  Maybe my art is too different to be successful in this area?

I’m totally the only person who could be stressed out by this, but I always seem to need something to stress out about.  Why not stress about this, right?  At least, it’s important to me.

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But, something that I noticed at the opening that kinda worried me was that my pieces were so much more expensive than other artists’ work (mine were also far larger than anyone else’s)–and it wasn’t just because my sculptures were so much larger either.  I think that it may be the classic instance of artists under-pricing themselves.

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Now, as any artist knows, pricing one’s work is the most torturous endeavor ever.  Critics, professors, fellow artists, openings, grant writing–all of these things pail in comparison to self-pricing.  And, a lot of it seems to stem from none of use ever being told a formula for pricing.  Anything our art school mentors tells us seems to be vague and unclear.  I think the clearest I had ever heard was something along the lines of “figure how much it cost to make and multiple that by seven” (*potentially a very bad paraphrase).

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Mind you, this was not told to me.  It was told to ‘Lainy.

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‘Lain’s fair-going parents (they’re Feywood) told her something similar about pricing, but it was more like “figure out materials and time and then tack an extra 50% on it.”  Again, I potentially really misheard this.  ‘Lain, please feel free to chime in with a clarification.

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The most consistent–and probably fairest–pricing formula that I have found has been on Etsy by daniellexo with a complimentary article about discomfort in pricing by Tara Gentile of Scoutie Girl on Oh my!  Handmade Goodness, and it comes out to something like this:

Cost Price (Labor + Materials Cost) x 2 = Your Wholesale Price

Wholesale Price x 2 = Retail Price

So, basically, the price of materials and labor–how much an hour do we make as artists?  I’ve read it’s best to think in terms of $10-15/hr.  I don’t think this is terribly unreasonable since, as artists, we are highly skilled and trained practitioners.–multiplied by two equals your wholesale price, i.e., the price that people would pay if they were buying a large stock of your pieces to sell in their stores.  Multiple the wholesale price by two again and that’s the retail price, or as I like to think about it since I don’t make a whole lot of multiples (yet), the price for an individual, unique piece of art.  There was another pricing formula that I had that said that the formula should look like this:

Cost Price (Labor + Materials Cost) + 10-15% of cost price (to cover utilities used like electricity) x 2 = Your Wholesale Price

Wholesale Price x 2 = Retail Price

That 10-15% covers any utilities that you used like electricity or water–things that a lot of us take for granted in the art-making process.  I can’t really bring myself to use this second formula yet.  I barely can get myself to use the first formula, and I still end up short changing myself because I’m not used to keeping track of the amount of time or the cost of the supplies used to complete a piece.  I’m getting better, but it’s still really hard.

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The problem is that under-valuing your own art doesn’t just hurt you, but it hurts other artists because potential buyers end up with a skewed notion of what art should sell for.  And, really, accessibly art for all:  isn’t that why we all have smaller, less expensive pieces or prints?

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The formulas take a long time to get used to, and if you’re anything like me, you’re totally going to experience severe sticker-shock and thing “how can my pieces be worth this much and who in their right mind is going to buy them?”  I’m still thinking like that.

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Also, remembering that if you show at a gallery, they take a percentage of your sale to support themselves, so you’ll likely have to accept the loss from your pocketbook or you’re going to have to tack on that percentage to the existing price.  <–I haven’t been able to make myself do this yet.

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According to formula one, unnamed friends:  narwhal should cost $1200 (really, it was higher, but I knocked it down a little).  Most of that happens because it is completely hand-sewn, and that takes forever.

Please excuse the blurry photos.  The Father-In-Law took them.  *sigh*

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According to formula one, unnamed friends:  from the 100 acre wood should be $1400.  Similar reasons apply.

Yes, this is me mugging for the camera.  To give y’all an idea of scale, I’m just under 5 foot (a little more than 5 foot in the shoes I was wearing).  *refrains from blurring me out of the photo*

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So, I feel like they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over-priced, but I also wonder if that’s just me being insecure and small.

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I do think I need a time-clock.  A really big one that goes kachunk and ticktickticks and dings.  Make myself clock-out of the studio.

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What do y’all think my little artist-y friends?  Do you think that these formulas will help you?  Do you feel like you’re work is totally under/over-priced based upon them?

Birthday Update.

So, sad squid is sad.  I wasn’t able to go to The Art Garage‘s Gallery Night due to Winter Storm Francesca and the 19+ inches of snow she dumped on our heads.

 

As y’all can see.  Snow.  Lots.  Of.  SNOW!  /o\

 

It’s mostly gone now.  o.O

 

I also didn’t get to retrieve my prizes for placing in the College of Menominee Nation‘s World Water Day art competition sponsored by the Sustainability Institute.

 

*this is me annoyed*

 

But!  I did get to go to The Art Garage yesterday with the lovely Sara and Spawn #2.  It looks like I may be doing some volunteering for the nice peoples.  I encourage everyone else in the Green Bay area to volunteer also.  They are completely dependent upon volunteer help, and they are a totally worthy institution to volunteer for–bring art to the community!

 

Also, if anyone is a local Green Bay artist and would like to be shown at The Art Garage, they have space for rent that’s really reasonable.

 

And The Husband got me the best teacup for my birthday.  If y’all hadn’t guessed, I like all things tentacled, and Anthropologie has the perfect teacup for those who are cephalopod obsessed.

 

It’s really fantastic.  The handle is textured like a tentacle, and there’s a picture of a little sailing vessel on the inside so that the implication is the tentacle is coming to drag the ship down into the briny depths.

 

*happy sighs*

 

Definitely a present that some who knows you really well would get you.

 

I’m also doing some revamping to the artwork section of the blog.  It’s going kinda slowly.  As always, the “instant gratification” part of viewing my art is to go check it out on my Flickr.  One day, everything will be consolidated!  (raise you hand if you think this is a complete and utter lie *raises hand*)

 

So, just ’cause I can and because it’s fun to watch Mr. Morph be all flumexed and silly, a video.  Morpheus the Kitty-Dog trying to make friends with The Little Black Cat and failing miserably.

 

I shouldn’t think it’s funny, but it really is.

 

 

Poor Morph!  It’s just lucky he’s pretty.

World Water Day=snowpacalypse

It’s kinda ironic, if you think about it.  Not that the now isn’t beautiful (and I have totally been taking night photos of the snow storm–they are forth-coming).

 

So, last week, I told y’all about the two pieces that I submitted for “The Voice of Water” competition at College of Menominee Nation‘s Sustainability Institute.

 

Both of my pieces placed!  The photograph placed third, and the painting placed second.  Honestly, the third place means more to me because there was more competition for it, but both of the pieces placing is very exciting since neither medium is my preferred medium.  <–Although, the painting is kinda sculptural due to the use of modeling paste medium.

 

What I didn’t remember to tell y’all is that “The Voice of Water” prompt was for World Water Day (I’m not sure I actually knew it at the time I entered).  I went to the little showing at CMN because I totally wanted to see the Best of Show (it was an art quilt; it was awesome).  I also wanted to see the little kids interpretations of water.  They were looking really good.  Loads of potential.

 

Also, today–because World Water Day and a snow storm just wasn’t enough–I did my guest lecture thing for the Husband’s Humanities class.  There were a whole four people, but it seemed to go well.  Since an hour-and-ten-minutes really isn’t enough time to do more than a cursory drive by of the 20th (and 21st) century, I did a more “let’s talk about how we perceive and define art and how that has changed through the 20th century” thing.  The kiddos talked (*shock* *awe*), and there was even a bit of contention between students about what constituted art.  I did a drive-by of ontology and a reminder of semiotics, and I got the chance to show them some of my favorite artists.

 

It was shiny.  Probably in my top ten teaching experiences.  And!  There wasn’t all the normal pressure of teaching since I was just a guest!

 

Later this week, there will likely be another blog.  I wanna show y’all the night photography I’ve been doing (got a new tripod, thanks to the Husband), I can tell y’all about the fabulous coffee and cheese prizes I got for my art placing, and I can tell y’all about Gallery Night at The Art Garage.

 

*points*  If you’re going to be in Green Bay Thursday night, come to the Gallery Night!