The Working Artist

Just as you regularly go to your Doc for wellness checks you should also be doing the same thing with your brand.  The pulse of your brand’s heart and subsequent ability to circulate your message through out you tribe is extremely important to your success. You should make it a habit to check its’ health several times a year.  The best way to do this is to ask your tribe through a survey.

In addition to a survey of your tribe it is important to regularly review the health of your brand by looking at the following areas:
Are you known for a unique and distinct identity? Are you known for something more than your work?

• Check to see if you are known by who you are rather than what you make.
• You should be identifiable by your values, your presentation.
• People should see your work and be reminded of you how you see the world and what you represent.  In other words potential followers should be able to recognize the totality of your value, interactions with you should be seen in the context of their total interactive experience. They should think of you when they feel the need for bringing more art into their lives.

Are you known to the people you want to serve?

• is your uniqueness known to you
• do you know what makes you attractive
• what drives people to choose you over someone else.
• is your uniqueness known to potential buyers  do the people who would best be served by what you have to offer know

Is your message consistent?

• Does everything you present to the public project the values and quality you want to be perceived as offering? or are you materials, you booth, your image disorganized, inconsistant and lead to unfaithful representation of the value you offer.

Does your pricing reflect and communicate the value of what you offer?

• Your pricing should reflect your value not what you think the buyers will pay. It must not only cover your costs but also reflect your own value in what you have to offer.

Do you have to sell?

• In a nutshell you should not have to sell. People should be able to easily associate you with what how well you satisfy them and how enjoyable the experience of working with you is. You should automatically come up in their minds when they have an art related need.
• Having to sell implies persuasion or even worse happenstance…connecting with your buyers eliminates both.

Do you have little or no repeat buyers?

• More than just repeat transactions you should aim for repeat interactions as part of a long term relationship with your followers.
• To have repeat buyers you need be a leader, and a friend with your buyers. The most important element of repeat buyers is staying in touch.

Are you stressed and feeling a lack of joy from your work?

• This really needs no explanation….if you don’t derive joy from what you do you shouldn’t be doing it!

Audio version…click the arrow to play or click the download to download and listen later.



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Everywhere I look lately I see another Guru offering up another version of “how to succeed in tough time”, usually in form of simple check lists. Today I received a couple of them in my e-mail and I was struck by their similarity and realized that what is going on is everyone is saying that their lipstick works best for changing the look of the pig of our current cultural shift. In doing so for the most part they ask us to have “faith” in their lipstick without addressing the nature of the pig, they want us to assume that all pigs are alike and we all see pigs in the same way. Thus making their particular solution to the problem the only one or the best, or the most magical.

The lipstick solution is based on

• The assumptions most people look for the easy way to solve problems, the way that seems simple at first and appears to offer a quick solution.
• Fear generated by the impending changes
• Magical thinking that if you ignore something “bad” it ceases to exist.
• One size fits all thinking ( a mindset that is still stuck in the Mass approach to problem solving)

So before you take up the lipstick take a look at the problem, examine it through your eyes and your life then look at the lipstick to see if and how it can be adapted to you. If it still doesn’t change things or requires you to be something else other than who you are (not a pig) then toss it out! It is far easier to approach problems and bumps in the road when you have clarity about who you are and what makes you tick.

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Seth Godin is one of my favorite business and marketing  authors because he is a thinker, and a leader…and I am drawn to those types of people. One of his most recent books addresses the problem of well…quiting. More precisely when to quite and why quiting might be good and when sticking it out mignt not be the best strategy. In everything we do we often come up against a challenge, one that makes us question what and why we are doing what we are doing. Our ability to look deeper into those questions and examine if the fight is worth it, in many cases may open other doors for us we were not able to see when we were hanging on so feverishly. When we are able to answer to the positive, we emerge or maybe are reborn with greater focus, strength and sense of direction.

Take the time to listen to Seth as he talks about “The Dip”.

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Erika Mock - Venus Exhibit

NorthEndArt Gallery and Red Mug Coffeehouse invite you to
What: the 4th event of Venus: Poets and Fiber Artists Reflect
Intertwined
2 groups of writers, read their poetry
group1) Rachel Mock, Jennifer Derrick, Tera Freese, Kyle Elden
group 2) Deborah Cooper, Ann Niedringhaus, Candace Ginsberg, Anne Simpson, Ellie Schoenfeld

When: Sat Oct 11 . 7pm

Where: Red Mug Coffeehouse
1323 Broadway… Corner of Hammond and Broadway… Superior WI

Event Description and Poet Bios
This event is the 4th in the 7 week series in conjunction with the collaborative exhibit Venus: Poets and Fiber Artists Reflect.

Each of the poets reading on Oct 11,has written poems in collaboration with a textile artist. These poems are on view with the partnered fiber pieces, in the NorthEnd Art Gallery and at the Red Mug Coffeehouse. Each of the poets belongs to a writers group. Intertwined is an opportunity for those attending to not only hear the voices of each individual poet, but to honor the weaving of ideas, the learning from each other, that takes place within these 2 groups of writers

Group 1

Kit Eastman

Rachel Mock is a mama, a kitchen creatrix, and a founding member of the Park Point Hula-Hoop Squad who labors to keep writing, despite being in love, which she finds to be cryptonite for original poetry. Rachel’s fiber partner is Marge Lindemann, Cumberland WI

Jennifer Derrick loves living in Duluth and feels most inspired to write during the long cold hours of winter, when life becomes slower. But even then, she obviously looks forward to spring and new beginnings, as both her Venus poems illustrate. Jennifer is paired with felt artist Joan Jacobowski, Hayward, WI

Tera Freese is a mother of two, inspired to write by the natural world around us. Her fiber partner is Kit Eastman, Minneapolis, MN

Kyle Elden lives with her beautiful daughter Stella and fiance Aaron on top Duluth’s hills with a stunning view of the majestic Lake Superior. She enjoys writing poetry when she finds space to do so among being in Grad school, working, and being a mother. She believes poetry helps untangle the oftentimes messy and beautiful process of life and helps bring clarity, transformation, and connection to all sentient beings. Kyle is paired with paper maker Nancy Daley Lutsen, MN

Group 2

Brenna Busse

Deborah Cooper is the author of three poetry chapbooks, most recently ‘Between the Ceiling & the Moon’ published by Finishing Line Press. She and her husband Joel, a printmaker, have exhibited their collaborative images throughout the region. Deborah is paired with artist Brenna Busse, Minneapolis, MN

Ann Floreen Niedringhaus’s poems have been published in two poetry chapbooks, Parallel to the Horizon, (Pudding Head Publications, 2007) and Life Suspended (Poetry Harbor, 2003) and in numerous journals and anthologies. Ann, a social worker/nurse, is retired from teaching and advocating for teen parents in the Duluth, MN, school district. Ann’s fiber partner is Leslie Williamson White, Duluth, MN

Candace Ginsberg is a sailor, geographer, aspiring meteorologist, a former stone mason apprentice, and is currently tied to a professorial desk. Candace is teamed with felt artist Kristen Anderson, Bovey, MN

Kristen Anderson

Anne Simpson moved to the Cities three years ago but she couldn’t part with her poet’s group so once a month she drives two hours each way to meet with them at Sara’s Table, share hugs and laughter and wine and sweet potato fries and … oh, by the way … brilliant literary critiques and insights for their writing. She has just published GROWING DOWN, poems for an Alzheimer’s patient ( Calyx Press, 2008 )

Ellie Schoenfeld is a poet native to Duluth, MN. She is the author of two collections of poetry and is part of an anthology with the four other women in her writing group. Schoenfeld enjoys collaborating with
artists of other genres, especially musicians. Her work is featured along with the music of some of her favorite musicians on the CDs “Personal Ad” , “Almost Through the Rinse Cycle”, and “Taking It Off.”
Ellie is paired with bead and fiber artist Jo Wood, Duluth, MN

Event is free and open to the public.

Funded in part by grants from the Community Opportunity Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation and the Wisconsin Arts Board.

For more information contact:

Arna at 715.392.6007 or
info@neartscouncil.org
Erika Mock at 715.392.1150
www.neartscouncil.org

What are your thoughts? Have you visited the exhibit? Have you been to one of the events? Help us by joining our collaboration, leave a comment by clicking on the “comment” text at the end of this post. Thank you the world needs our creative energy!

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The community loom opens colaboration to the public

Saturday Sept. 20 approximately 30 artists and community members participated in the round table conversation for the Venus exhibit. My intention for the conversation was to provide an opportunity for

participating artists, poets and community members to sit together and have a conversation about what it means to collaborate. To share the challenges and joy, the process of what happened in creating pieces for this exhibit and the relevance of this work to other aspects of work and life.

What is collaboration?

The dictionary defines it as working together. Somehow that isn’t enough. Successful collaboration requires willingness and intention. The words of Napolean Hill about intention and risk taking certainly ring true for this endeavor.

Let me take a moment to give some exhibit background, to outline some of the process participants worked within. Fiber artists and poets were paired at random one cold January evening by poet Ellie Schoenfeld, bead artist Jo Wood and I. We gathered in Ellie’s Duluth hillside home over a bowl of chocolate, and 2 bowls of names…. 1 with invited fiber artists, another with invited poets. We drew from the bowls between bites of chocolate and the pairings were created. At a meeting of invited artists and poets in Oct 2007, the group decided that working in the create and respond method would deepen the collaboration. Two teams chose to work fully collaboratively…. the rest created, exchanged, and responded.

What did the round table reveal?

• artists and poets took risks in creating that they would not have taken working alone. Many allowed themselves to create experimental work that is inspiring new directions of working.
• Surprise at how well partners were able to work together. Styles of working together ranged from fully collaborative with regular meetings between the partners, to only occasional email idea sharing until the night before the deadline.
• There is more interest, curiosity, understanding, respect for the other’s medium. New relationships have been formed.
• Energy was high, people were inspired, and a deeper level of conversation was opened that carried a new level of seeing and richness into the reception that followed.

Perhaps J.Ruth Gendler’s words from her book ‘Notes on the Need for Beauty’…summarize best.

“We live in a reciprocal conversation with the world. There are so many ways to say this…. Whatever we work on — music, creek restoration, teaching, gardening, cooking — works on us. It is always a conversation between the cook and the vegetables, the gardener and the plants, the artist and her materials, the bee and the flower, the body and the soul.
How do we honor this exchange, the generous reciprocity that sustains us? …. Praise, celebrate, honor, bless this moment…. remember to trust the wisdom of beauty…. Beauty connects us to what is holy…. Beauty lives in heirloom apple trees and seeds and the soft luxuious wool called cashmere, in so many things that I don’t think about in my world — in motorcycle dealerships and junkyards, in hospital corridors, the tender tentative steps of people walking after surgery, in the birds-eye view out of the airplane of the line of the river and the patchwork quilt of the field and forest.
We are travelers passing through. We belong to this place, to this time. Growing into ourselves, we meet each other.”

venus poets and fiber artists reflect

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Cultivating Venus by Angela Haworth

NorthEndArt Gallery and Red Mug Coffeehouse

invite you to an event in conjunction with the collaborative exhibit:  Venus Poets and Fiber Artists Reflect.

Eclipsed:

• a multimedia performance by videographer and poet Patrick Eller, Poet Sheila Packa and Cellist Kathy McTavish.
• come experience the  journey and soundscapes and spoken words of these 3 improvisational artists

Where:
Red Mug Coffeehouse
1323 Broadway… Corner of Hammond and Broadway… Superior WI

When:
Sat Sept 27 . 7pm

This event  is the 2nd in the 7 week series in conjunction with  the exhibit Venus:  Poets and Fiber Artists Reflect.

Patrick Eller calls himself  a collector of moments.

“I don’t know, I have never really known… there are people who will tell you that they know but I don’t know. I am an easily distracted witness.  I am an artist and these are my crops.  These are the crude soundtracks I leave deep in the caves of the past so that I may be reminded in the future of just what my story might be..”

His poetry is also on view in collaboration with Angela Haworth’s exquisite contemporary quilting… see  image above.

Sheila Packa grew up on the Iron Range, is the granddaughter of Finnish immigrants, and lives in Duluth. She has published poems, short stories, and essays in many literary magazines and anthologies. Most recently, her work has been featured in New Rivers Press book, To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present, edited by Joyce Sutphen, Thom Tammaro, and Connie Wanek. She’s received two Arrowhead Regional Arts Council fellowships for poetry, two Loft McKnight Awards and, this year, a career opportunity grant from ARAC.

This project inspired Sheila to put together a chapbook just for the exhibit, “Love’s Cloth.”  She hand colored the cover of her chapbook…it’s available as a limited edition

Event is free and open to the public.

Funded in part by grants from the Community Opportunity Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation and the Wisconsin Arts Board.

For more information contact:
Arna at 715.392.6007 or
info@neartscouncil.org
Erika Mock at 715.392.1150
www.neartscouncil.org

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Today begins an amazing cross media collaboration in of all places…our frozen North! Actually, Duluth, MN and its’ sister city Superior,WI have a very active art community on the shores of the greatest muse of all Lake Superior.

My dear friend Erika Mock is not only an amazing fiber artist but also very devoted to bringing art to everyday people which as it happens is one of the Major goals of this site and the programs I am developing through it. An interesting aside the photos you see on this site of weaving looms, hands knitting thread and yarn bins are all Erika. Beginning in ‘4 Erika, our mutual friend Brenna and I collaborated in a couple year long project we dubbed Persephone’s Voice. Over the span of a year I photographed them as they worked and as they exhibited their work. The goal was to document the creative process in a way that they as artists could use to share with their patrons. The year culminated in a gallery show that was nothing short of amazing.

So the rest of this post comes from Erika who will be providing me with updates and news during the course of the show…take it away Erika!

Yesterday we hung a  huge tapestry loom  (5ft X 13 feet tall) that we are inviting anyone who wishes, to weave into.  The loom project will be ‘unveiled’ at the reception. This interactive weaving is to invite the community to have an opportunity to

The Venus Loom for collaboration

add voice and hand,  to create  with textiles and poetry  in harmony with the theme of  the exhibit……Venus…
(planet.  Morning Star.  Evening star.   Goddess.
The fool.  Spontaneity.  The ability to laugh at self.  The aha moment.  The energy present in communication and creative process that transforms and engages in new ways.The ability to expand viewpoints.  Life force.  Beauty.)

In the spirit of the exhibit, we are taking a broad approach…..participants can use the materials provided or bring something personal or worldy to include… whether it be tangible, fiber or not, a wish, a hope, a statement.
As well as fiber: fabric, grasses, wire,  plastic bags, etc, we invite words, wishes, poems also.  These can be written on fabric strips of paper and woven in.  We are telling people the following things:

• since the beginning of time our textiles have held our stories
• community is that which you wish to share
• collaboration is willingness to work together.

Please invite….. your creative imagination,  a sense of play, and an open heart

Wednesday nite the Duluth Knitting guild (an offshoot of the MN Knitters guild with an office in the Textile Center) lended their hands and spirit and patience to help finish the warp and prep materials.  A knitting group…. you are asking.  I was thrilled with this because it  was a wonderful stretch and opportunity to bridge worlds for all of us!  I look forward to having them back.
below is a quote from their guild leader:

Thank you so much for opening up this opportunity. I, like you, believe that we all have an artist within and projects like this help to legitimatize the art - work women have done for centuries.

Poster for the Venus collaborative event

North End Art Gallery and Red Mug Coffeehouse cordially invite you to join us for a dynamic collaborative exhibit and 7 weeks of events, featuring 20 renowned poets and 20 regarded fiber artists.

Venus: Poets and Fiber Artists Reflect
Thursday Sept 11 -  Thursday Oct 30

• Sat. Sept 20:  Round table conversation… 2-4pm Reception…  5-8pm (music by Georganne Hunter, harp and  Kevin Ostedahl, hammer dolcimer)

• Sat. Sept 27:  Eclipsed… 7pm  Patrick Eller, Kathy McTavish, Sheila Packa  Multimedia Performance

• Sat Oct 4: Poetry Night … 7pm Barton Sutter, Liz Minette, Rebecca Paradis, Connie Wanek, Cal bennson

• Sat. Oct 11:  Intertwined … 7pm 2 Writing Groups

1.  Rachel Mock, Jennifer Derrick, Tera Freese, Kyle Elden
2.  Deborah Cooper, Ann Niedringhaus, Candace Ginsberg, Anne Simpson, Ellie Schoenfeld

• Fri. Oct 17:  Signs Out of Time …  7pm Belili Productions documentary film the story of archaeologist Marija Gimbutas

• Sat Oct 18:   Poetry Afternoon…  3pm Louis Jenkins, Jim Johnson, Yvonne Rutford, Bob Monahan, Richard Gruchalla

• Sat Oct 18:   Beauty:  The Invisible Embrace  10am -3pm Fiber Workshop with Erika Mock …. call to register  715.392.1150

• Sat Oct 25:  Closing Reception …. 5-7pm (music by Kathy McTavish, Cello)

Exhibit coordinators Erika Mock, Ellie Schoenfeld, and Jo Wood have arranged events to foster artistic expression, invite community conversation, and  raise imaginative energy in all of us.  Collaboration was intentionally chosen  to unleash possibilities The participants reflect the diversity of poets and fiber artists creating work in Wisconsin and Minnesota.  The activities scheduled offer an opportunity for artists and the community to come together, share thoughts, and enrich one another.

Events are free and open to the public. (workshop offered on a sliding fee scale)
Funded in part by grants from the Community Opportunity Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation and the Wisconsin Arts Board.
…………………………………………….
For more information contact:
Arna at 715.392.6007 or
info@neartscouncil.org
Erika Mock at 715.392.1150
www.neartscouncil.org
…………………………………………..
“This collaboration has created fertile ground for the imagination to soar…”
Kit Eastman,  complex surface design
St. Paul, MN

“Artists and writers spend a large part of time working in solitude.  I am glad to collaborate with visual artists because their images trigger my own creative work.   This project inspired me to put together a chapbook just for the exhibit, “Love’s Cloth.”    I hand colored the cover of my chapbook…it’s available as a limited edition.  ”
Sheila Packa, poet
Duluth, MN

“When a poem arrives full grown, the result is a delight like no other.  I crave those mystical visits of the muse, whoever she is, whenever she comes.

But there is another ecstasy which I experience on occasion in the writing of poetry, an experience which is represented in this show.  That is the spark created by collaboration — collaboration between emotion and nature, between idea and experience, between word, form and music, and, in this show, the collaboration between fiber artist and poet.

Leslie Williamson White shared with me her sense of an aging woman’s body — in a self-portrait fiber torso and in her words.  She also shared a book she loved about the mythology of Aphrodite or Venus.  I responded from my own experience as a woman older than Leslie and with my knowledge of poetic forms that could order images — both those from Leslie’s fiber creation and from the earth.

I believe, working alone, Leslie and I could not have created works with the resonance which came from the echoes between us.  I am convinced this complex creativity is a mystical experience which is no less miraculous than my hoped for visit of the poetic muse.  ”
Ann Floreen Niedringaus, poet
Duluth, MN

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Welcome to the final lesson on using Zapplication as a means to apply for Art Fairs. So far we have covered

• In Part 1 signing up and registering with Zapplication to create an account into which we will upload our images and make our show application selections from.
• In Part 2 we covered in detail how to resize your images to meet the standards for Zapplication. We covered briefly the use of Adobe Photoshop Elements to do so.

This lesson will cover uploading your images and applying to shows.

Future lessons will cover software every professional should have in order to compete in the digital world. All of the videos can be either viewed through your browser or downloaded and viewed at you leisure just right click on the link below  and select “save to desktop” or “save link as” and select where you want the link saved to.

Enjoy and as always you are welcome to comment and participate in this and all posts here, your feedback is important.

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Probably the most confusing and intimidating part of using the Zapplication process has to do with capturing and preparing your images for submission. While I won’t go into a great deal of detail here about taking digital photos of your work (that will be covered in another article), I will offer up a few key suggestions…

• Unless you have experience with lighting and still photography save yourself some headache and find a professional to do it for you.
• If you insist on doing it yourself make sure you have a good camera, good lights and a professional background. You may have a hot little digital point and shoot with a bazillion megapixels just know this …all megapixels are not created equal!
• Save yourself more headache and have your photographer prepare a set of your images that meet the standards required for Zapplication. Do not attempt to prepare your images unless you have the proper software to do so and you are familiar with how to use it.

I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements in the video, it is a scaled down and very functional version of Photoshop and probably the best software for this purpose. I would also suggest viewing software that will display your images in thumb nails so you can accurately sort and select the best. Again this subject will be covered later in much more detail.

If you have any questions about the video or anything digital leave a comment below and I’ll be happy to get back to you.

To see the video just click on the booth shot below and the video will open in another screen.

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