Top Ten Lessons Learned about Fine Art on the Artisan Tour

Sharing a Note To Self Moment

I am a lessons learned kind of girl. I assess and analyze things to death before I do them (now) and then I do it again afterward. From valuable quality time well spent to financial compensation, I am constantly searching for the most effective, productive, and profitable use of my vertical time. Some of these lessons were obvious no-brainers, others I would never have known without having experienced this open studio event. 

#1~ Never lose sight of the reason(s) you have chosen to open your studio space to the public. Are you just excited to share and show the work? Is money the main objective? Are you hoping to create or discover a new audience for your work? The motivation is as diverse as the work. Just know what your own motives are going into it and stay focused as the tour progresses. 

#2~ Miniature reproductions sell better and faster than the larger, higher-priced, more difficult to transport,originals but it is STILL necessary to hang and show some of these originals. 

#3 Offer an assortment of sizes

#4 ~ Keep it light. Reserve the serious context and conversations for gallery shows and exhibitions.
Although some of the travelers may enjoy the more intense aspects of your work, sharing with ALL of them will leave you exhausted and spent before the tour ends.

#5 Before the tour, make sure your demo space or work space(s) is easily accessible to multiple viewers. IF possible choose a central location.
(Late Saturday, I moved this around so that more people could see from the front of the studio space.)

 #6 Be sure there is plenty of room for visitors to look around and offer multiple displays so that everyone isn't trying to get into the same corner of the studio at the same time.

#7 Be sure to have at least one friendly assistant to greet the public while you are demonstrating the work that you do. Visitors are coming on the tour to see how the art is created. If you are too busy greeting and managing sales, you will not have time to do justice to the demonstration aspects of the open house nature of this event.




#8 If you are a multi-media artist, plan several projects in assorted media that you can demonstrate while visitors are in the studio. For me this means using ALL of the work stations in my studio but don't forget lesson #5 as you are planning this out.

#9 IF your work space is designed for reasonable accommodations for a disability, use this in your demonstration. Reasonable accommodations in the work place don't always mean just having room for a wheel chair. The more employers realize that there are options and low-cost methods to meet these needs, the more likely they are to hire or maintain people with disabilities without resentments of the obligation to do so.

#10 Have a plan but be open-minded and willing to make adjustments as the tour progresses.

Myself the Studio Elf

Seven Days and Ten Hours Left to be ready for The Allegany Artisans Studio Tours.

In my first year as a member of the Artisans I am making many changes in my studio space to make it ready for public access. I suppose (and hope) that the more frequently you do this, the less prep and adjustment you have to do. I understand that each artist would want to accommodate the supply and demand associated with the anticipated increase in studio traffic. Ideally though,  wouldn't a daily practicing artist eventually just open the studio as it is while it is in use?
I am not sure if the other Artisans are conducting business as usual in their studios or if they, too are working long days and later evenings (NIGHTS) to prepare for this public event. 


I have this image in my mind of all us ...well the ones I have met so far...wearing horizontally-striped socks, pointy boots, and stocking hats (and the rest of our clothes) as we brush, twist, turn, scrape, pound, mold, etch, glaze, melt, pour, polish, stitch, print, cut, paste, sodder, frame, check, re-check, display, and repeat.  Unlike the gadgets & gizmos and whozits & whatsits made by the elves, most of our work probably does not have a pre-determined destination. As I excitedly designate a space for each studio offering (sacrifice), the thought crosses my mind that by the end of the month "that one" might not be sitting there anymore. Some work takes months, or longer to finish, it becomes a part of your space and a part of your environment. I think as an artist, if you want to make any kind of living doing this, you have to be prepared to rearrange your environment on MANY levels. There are items here that it would be difficult to part with but, I remind myself that each piece was created with the intention of sharing it with other people. I have had to remind myself not to borrow trouble by imagining the impression the item will leave behind but, to focus on the impression it will take with it when it goes.

 I finished painting the porch just before the rain began. Wind from speeding trucks not-withstanding, my sign is up...most of the time.

I remember four or five years ago when I first started to consider participating in the tour, I was asked how I would paint enough pictures to make it worth while for the patrons AND myself. I am looking at this first year of participation as an educational experience to gain an understanding of what people are looking for when they stop in to a studio this way. 
All items sold in my studio are made using my original art.

 SheilaLynnK Art studio (A Fine Art Connection) 2013 Offerings Include: 
A diverse price range on all items = 25 cents to $450
Note Cards, Post Cards, Poster Prints, Coloring Books and some of the original pieces used to create these reproductions.
This year I will be doing a studio clearance sale during the tour. This sale will include a large assortment of small prints and miniatures reproduced from original studio art. These will range in price from 25 cents to 5 dollars each.
Order forms for items NOT in stock in the studio are available.
If you are interested in scheduling a commission consultation appointment ($40) you may do so at this time.

If you have visited my studio, I would love to hear about what items you felt were successful, which ones you felt didn't work for this venue, and what you might like to see that wasn't here this time. Please leave your comments below.

Make sure you enter your name in this year's Raffle. Entry  Forms are available in each studio.



Art; a step in the right direction.

Down Time

Back-pack -check, camera- check, sketch book- check, unplugged-check.
Rapidly approaching burn out and meltdown, we made a break for it on Friday.


Firey Fall Foliage

Surprisingly warm weather and lovely fall foliage perfectly framed a long weekend away from it all. 


A Country Dog at Heart

Warm winds & drifting leaves were interrupted by thunderstorms just long enough to inspire 3 games of Clue and a bottle of Port. A perfect prescription for weeks of perpetual insomnia; the solitude, accompanied by a healthy portion of home-cooked pork, mushroom & sauerkraut stoup, induced seven hours of un-interrupted sleep. 
Did I mention the home made Concord Grape Ice Cream (from the fresh-pick 'em- yourself grapes we got at Jerome's in Naples , NY) that was in the freezer... m-m-m-m-m good.

Usually confined to the house and a dog-run in the back yard, my dog was over-joyed to be included on this retreat into the wilderness. Unaccustomed to such outings, we were all quite exhausted (and somewhat crippled) following an afternoon hike to the spring that quenches the house. Several hours later, I attempted to play fetch with him. I threw his stick. He trotted to it, plopped his body on top of it, and looked at me as if to say, "Go Lay Down."

I forced myself to exhale, rest and enjoy the smell of acorn and buttercup squash roasting in the oven in preparation for a yummy, spicey squash bisque prepared by loving hands (NOT my own). A speculative sports announcers' hum about the New York Giants and the opposition lulled me into an afternoon cat nap. "Turnovers, possessions, making their way back to the line of scrimmage..." z-z-z-z-z-z did somebody say "turn-overs"? z-z-z

Back at the studio in the village:
For the first time today; my grandson rode the bus from pre-school to visit with me in the studio. A session of construction site, four games of Candy Land, PB & J and a cup of chocolate milk later; we fed the dog and finished our after school time watching Elmo videos on youtube.

Returning to work tomorrow, I will continue preparations for the 2013 Allegany Artisans Studio Tour and the collaborative exhibition, A Round Now In A Square Time ,with fellow artist & friend, Allison Midgley.

The challenges haven't changed, the obstacles remain, but the blessings are recognized.

Day 30~ Oh The Thinks You Will Know!

"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!" ~ Dr. Seuss (Brainy Quotes)

$16.99 to Buy and Print This 
or Buy the Inverted Digital File of this colored pencil drawing

In the end, the imagery in this drawing just seemed inherently Dr. Seuss-esque. It was not intentional but, I did find the resemblence comforting.
The end of this thirty-day commitment seems to be just the beginning. I am intrigued to learn what, if anything, it means when certain colors interrupt others. Are there parallels between color relationships and human relationships?

Is the Mandala a Magic Mirror that heals with its revelations? Like the mirror, are they a tool to connect us to humanity?

Without any premeditated determinations, this one gives the impression of a spiral and a mandorla, positioned as an eye, taking up the same space. Why?  All of which are juxtaposed in a manner which creates a basic landscape instead of a specific pattern or shape as the previous ones had done. Why?

Of the magenta, Fincher says, "I have seen it in the mandalas of women who are establishing autonomy, identifying a vocation, and enlarging their world view. These women are taking action while staying grounded in their true femine nature."
She goes on to define the positive vs. negative aspects;
 motivation,focus, and liveliness
vs. impatience, egotism, or a loss of focus in excess emotionality respectively.
Is it just conincidence, then, that this is the central color choice which dominates this drawing?

Considering that, just hours before doing this drawing, I had an uncharacteristic emotional meltdown in the privacy of my home in response to my current ambitious efforts toward "autonomy, identifying a vocation, and enlarging my world view," I am inclined to think there may be some merit to these well-established symbolic associations.

The more I know, the more I think.

Even now, as I revisit the image above this post, I am somehow reassured by the observation that the area below the spiral/eye is made up of relatively consistent, unwavering, layers of earthy-tones...perhaps a representation of solid ground? A form of validation that, in spite of the oppositional relationship between arachnoiditis and autonomy, my ambitions are just and well-supported by my life's work to date? I will need to review the on-line resources from this series of work and text references at hand to make the determination whether this is a legitimate assessment. In the mean-time, the making and the looking have comforted me greatly on this difficult day.