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!

I'm not dead yet!

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written. The past month has been busy! We moved into a winter rental down in Marshfield, MA and Jen has just stared a new job helping to save and fund historic structures at the Massachusetts Historical Commission. So much has happened, I’m going to break it up into several different posts and hopefully I’ll be posting every day for a while.

First, just before leaving Maine, we had a meeting with the Stephen Popp at the Old Crow Gallery in South Portland, ME.

It’s a beautiful historic home converted to a custom frame shop and art gallery. Steve and his wife were incredibly helpful, supportive, and offered me an opportunity to show at their great holiday show and a solo show in the spring!

This is incredibly exciting and I have already lined up about 10 pieces that I hope to finish by the show. These pieces will all be scenes from Maine with my specialty: Nature and Architecture being the main focus. I’m working on one now, my most complex piece and largest at 20x27 will hopefully be one of the centerpieces of the show. I was originally going to be making several additional pieces for the show, but Jen and I had the opportunity to go to Boston and stroll Newbury street galleries and we saw that the typical solo show usually has far fewer pieces than I was planning. Plus, the pieces tend to be larger than I typically do so I decided that it may be more impressive and challenging to whittle down the number of pieces to only the very best, and make those as large and as complicated as I possibly can.

After a full day of work, I’m about half done with the first piece, but it is coming out great. Perhaps I’ll give a preview soon…

Okay, that’s it for now, so many more things to talk about, but that’s for tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. Here’s what you can expect, so check back again and again: Another show! The view! New Pieces! New Setup! Working from home! Full time artist! Traveling Lecture on the History of Papercutting! And much more…

Our new space

So we've been making improvements to our "studio" in our temporary living space. We'll be moving to our permanent place in the next couple weeks, but meanwhile check it out! Joe spent last weekend building this REALLY functional and REALLY beautiful storage unit. It's large enough to house all of his huge pieces of paper, mat board, cello bags, and even his finished unframed pieces! It's the cat's meow. Ha.

Also thought I'd share the cool bulliten board system we arranged. Each person who contacts us about commissioning a custom piece gets a post it note with their name and a description of what they'd like. Then as we progress through the stages of custom work their post it moves from the "Contact" board to "Design" then "Cutting" then "Shipping." I think it's a pretty ingenious way of staying organized. It's helped us get through this last crazy bout of custom orders.

Finally, Joe completed his weeks long dream of creating a map that identified each town he's sold art to. We started with a map of North America since so few sales are international, but it's really cool to be able to visualize all the cities in all the states (and territories) that he's sold original art. That's a lot of red dots. Maybe some day we can fill them all in!

And finally, a bit of good news- We have an appointment on Monday with a local gallery who is interested in featuring Joe's work, and may even want to do a solo show! We've got to talk it over so we're trying to stay calm, but we're hopeful that it will lead to good things

Christmas in September

Ok, so even though most people would say "it's only September!" from a production standpoint it's more like "oh no! it's already September!" which basically means we need to make sure we've got appropriate inventory for those winter holidays.

We're not really sure what kind of demand there will be for art this holiday season. Last year we weren't as serious about getting art selling for Christmas, but lately we've been on a roll. Basically we're trying to make some new fun pieces, especially making sure we cover a broad price range.
One of our bigger pushes is creating tasteful ornaments/decorations. We're looking to find reasonably priced silver (at least silver plated) small squared frames, similar to those from crate and barrel or pottery barn. Then include classic winter papercutting designs, perhaps even on a colored background (either evergreen, cranberry, or blue)We'll keep you updated on Joe's designs for these, as well as the progress (and ultimate unveiling) of his new Maine themed pieces.

Oh yeah, and we finally made an offical listing for a "Custom House Papercutting" since these have become quite popular lately. So if you're in love with your house, your old house, or your friend's house, just send us a picture and Joe will creat a beautiful piece of art for you.
Enjoy!

Buy Local!

With Joe recovering (but still working!) it's time to regroup and plan some more. We've been working hard to juggle the dozens of custom orders that have been flying in and are finally almost all caught up.

We're going to stop taking as many custom orders in the next week or two and focus instead on revamping the stock of readily available pieces. We've done a few photo shoots in the beautiful state of Maine (great to be back!) and Joe will be working on starting several new designs inspired by the coast/sea, Portland architecture, and the inland plants and trees.
We'd really like to appeal to the local art scene which is sooo vibrant in Joe's home town of South Portland. Practically every car supports a "buy local" sticker, and art is always one of the most popular local buys!

Also, keep a look out for a new PapercutsByJoe business card design and new business-card-like fridge magnets. Tons of things going on!

Rule #1 of Papercutting

Rule #1 of Papercutting:

Cut the paper. Do NOT cut your hands.

We take time now to remember this important rule of papercutting. Joe had a bid of an accident while working on trimming shipping materials for his art and ended up needing stitches to attach his thumb. Yeah, not a fun way to start the working day! We'll keep you posted on how he's doing, but for now we leave you with this amusing picture of his sad boo-boo face.

Scherendoodle- Original Papercutting unfolded

My first video of a quick folded papercut I did while still in Florida. Unveiling it for the first time! I'm thinking of doing snowflakes for charity this winter. Perhaps donating any money to cancer research. Sound good?

Souvenir

So we were at Starbucks a few days ago, shocking I know, and I saw this cup and had to get it. It was on sale too! I figure since my very first show at a real museum was sponsered by starbucks, was about scooters, and I actually sold my piece this was pretty perfect. It holds tons of coffee too!

Strike up the band

Thought I'd share one of the more recent custom pieces Joe has been working on. Most of the custom work lately has been for anniversaries and birthdays, but this piece was going to some of our former coworkers who just moved into a new house. They have a dedicated music room and aspirations of starting a band together. What better inspiration than a funky tryptech of a bassist, drummer, and pianist. There's a possibility that a guitar will someday follow, but for now it's these three energetic images which will inspire the three steadfast musicians.

More pieces to come later (I think there are currently four in the works...)

International Shipping!

We now ship everything world wide, so please be sure to check out your favorite pieces to see the new revised shipping. Are you in Mexico? Canada? the UK? EVERYWHERE else? No problem! We'll get the art to you!Also, if you aren't on the mailing list, please check out the link to the right. We occasionally send out email updates telling you about events, new pieces, and discounts.