Two-fer

Okay, finally giving an update,

The Boston Ahts festival went great! There were so many people I went through the over 300 business cards I brought with in the first three hours of the show. Won't make that mistake again.

It sounds like I may be showing my work at a local boutique that has recently gained a lot of national exposure, lots more on that when the details get worked out.

Four pieces went home during the show. Wish it was more, but I was still happy with the results.

Not much more to say, so here are some photos of the show.





In part two of the two-fer, and the reason it has taken me so long to post these, is that Jen and I took our first days off in almost three weeks and went to the-middle-of-nowhere Maine. We were gone all this past weekend and had an absolute blast. Highly recomend it: no tv, no internet, no electricity except from 7-10pm, quiet, gorgeous, and full of moose. Increcibly affordable too! Here's the website of the resort: The Last Resort, Jackman, ME

And some photos because it was that beautiful!

One day to go!... so I missed a day

Yeah, remember two days ago when I said I had six days worth of work to do and four days to do it. That was before I got seven custom requests in 48 hours. One was an express deal, so I had to set aside everything to work on it. Not complaining, if people want my work, I'll be there!

So I did get lots done yesterday, just flat-out ran out of time and energy to blog.

All morning I worked on a rush-order custom piece, which should be in Florida in a couple of hours (hope you and your husband love it Marisa!)

After that, I really had to mount all the 18x24s or they just wouldn't get done. Since they are the main pieces for the show, thought that was important! My very first attempts of framing on my own. Kudos to Steve for everything you taught me about framing, I think they came out great!


Made a run to Target to get a tablecloth for my the huge 6' table they are supplying me for the show. Still not sure what to do with it, or where to put it, but figured I should at least make it look good. I was completely shocked at how expensive table cloths were, so I ended up buying a flat sheet which happened to be on crazy sale due to college season. Saved me $15 so I was happy.

I also got a box of huge clear bags, which I will use to transport the pieces and wrap them up when people purchase a piece. Looks like it may rain Friday and a bit on Saturday, so I'm determined not to ruin all my work!

Also designed all my "bookmark" pieces for the 8x10 frames. Hate waiting until the last second to do these, but they don't take too long and sell like hotcakes so they're a must. Here they all are unmounted.


Still have to pack everything up and make sure I have everything I need. Also need to mount and frame all the little guys above and two other smaller pieces. My biggest worry about these shows isn't the art, but doing something stupid like forgetting to bring anything to hang the artwork on the wall with, or forgetting my business cards or some other small detail that completely derails the whole thing.

Okay, back to work. I'll try to post again this evening to make up for the lack of post yesterday.

Cheers,
Joe

South Portland Art in the Park

Art in the Park was waaaaay back on the 8th, but as soon as we got back, we both had to dive straight back into work and this is my first chance to finally share what happened.

The event was about 500 feet from my family's home in South Portland, so we had free housing during the weekend. My mother happened to be in a store while we were driving north from Boston and found a white EZ-up tent for less than half I've ever seen it, so I got her to nab it for us. Now I had a great white tent, which, unfortunately, has been proven to attract more people to your work than a blue tent. Weird.

Anyway, on Friday we had to frame the 19 pieces that still needed framing before the show the next day, so that took nearly the entire day but came out great! We also had the opportunity to borrow 8 segments of grid wall to hang the heaviest pieces (thanks Harriet!)

The day of the show went incredibly smoothly. Most of my family was there to help set up the tent, and the rest were able to stop by throughout the day.Weird story- My sister had been on a whale watch tour in Portland the week before the show, and it turns out the boat she was on, was the same boat featured in my piece, Odyssey. She called the number on the brochure for the tour and got a hold of the woman who used to own the boat and invited them to the show with out me knowing. Soon after the show started she arrived, introduced herself and told me she used to own the boat and loved the piece. After leaving, she apparently called the current owner of the boat, who came to the show soon after, and purchased the piece! I'm so happy the piece will really be appreciated!

So after that great start, tons of people stopped by to view my work, and were incredibly kind and supportive. We had a great time. Jen told me that at one point there were 19 people in the 10x10 tent! Not bad considering there were 184 other artist at the same show!

Ten smaller pieces went home after Odyssey was purchased.

At the very end of the show, many people started breaking down about a half hour early and I refused since there were so many people that expressed interest in pieces that were still remaining. Literally five minutes before the end of the show, my mom, who was helping break down the display,grabbed the largest piece, Hand, off the wall and began carrying it out to the truck.

A woman and her daughter stopped her and asked if someone had purchased the piece as they were interested in buying it.

Turns out the daughter is completely redesigning her bedroom and wanted a piece of art for it. Her mother agreed and out of the 185 artist there, she chose my piece for her room! I was incredibly excited. Two of my largest pieces found great homes that day.

In the end, 12 pieces went home, and I sold most of the remaining 2008 Christmas ornaments (have to start designing the 2009 ones soon!) The weather was perfect, the people were great, the other artist were kind and had incredible work on display. Didn't go home with any prizes, but my stuff is too "not-a-painting" to get much interest by judges, but I bet I sold more than almost anyone at the show.

Now, as a somewhat odd consequence, I have to really crank out some new pieces for the Boston show. It's three days long, so I really need to pack the tent incase stuff sells as well as it did at the Art and the Park. Wouldn't want an empty tent on the third day. Acutally, that would be nice:)

Dare-I-Go

My new body of work, composed of about 12 pieces, is titled Dareigo. It is the body of work I plan to feature at my solo show at the Old Crow Gallery next year.

It is a take on the Maine state motto: Dirigo (pronounced deer-ee-go) and is meant to reflect both the topic of the work (Maine architecture and nature), my homecoming back to Maine, and my enterprising full-time dive into the art world.

As many of you know I am a professional archaeologist with a degree, tons of experience, and everything, but 98% of archaeology in the US is conducted before major construction and development projects. There is not exactly a lot of construction and development going on right now so the job market is tight. Jen and I were let go a few months ago from our full time jobs after work dried up. It’s crushing when it’s something you are passionate about and truly love.

Well, I’ve decided until things start looking up, I’m sticking to art, which is somehow actually paying the bills (that and the fact that Jen is working full time for the Massachusetts Historical Commission).

Okay, back to the art, I really want to show you some of the new designs, but I really want the solo show to be an official reveal of the new pieces. But I’ll happily describe them.

They are about half-half nature and architecture scenes. The nature scenes come from Portland harbor, Old Orchard Beach, and the Lakes Region. The architecture pieces are exclusively historic structures in Portland including (but not limited to) Old Port, the wharfs, and the Portland Observatory.

A few weekends ago Jen and I spent Saturday in Boston and wandered around two of our favorite neighborhoods: Charles St (antique district) and Newbury St (art and retail district). There are some fantastic galleries on Newbury and truly an inspiring place for anyone interested in art (creating, viewing, or buying). It gave me a good perspective on where the market is, what is currently appreciated by galleries, and the clientele. Very interesting.

My overall impression is that gallery shows typically have only a few pieces, they are the best-of-the-best work, and the pieces are very large. I think this is mostly because big is in (people want a lot of art for their money), galleries want to look clean (not too many pieces on display), and no crap allowed.

I took this into consideration and have made some, I think, good changes to the body of work I am currently creating.

First, I have reduced the number of pieces by about half, resulting in a good trimming of the fat and a hard, but needed, self-examination of what actually is good piece, and not just my ego showing through.

Second, I have increased the overall size of the pieces, since this art form allows me to completely design my pieces before cutting, I can take a digital version of the design, crop, modify, and enlarge it before ever cutting. It also allows me to completely organize and edit the entire body of work before I begin creating it.

By enlarging the designs, I was able to include a lot more detail into the piece, which will, I hope, make them even more visually interesting and impressive.

Okay, hope that has wetted your appetite!