One of the most important items for all artists to have is a business card. It is the best way to market yourself to clients, friends, and new acquaintances. Another crucial item for the working artist is the hard-copy portfolio or “look-book”. Wouldn’t it be nice to include your business card in your look-book in an elegant and professional way without the concern of having it fall out and get lost or damaged? This is why we are now offering a clear plastic protective sleeve designed especially for the business card! It has a double adhesive the back making it easy to attach to any surface and a single opening allowing the option to remove the business card while keeping the sleeve perfectly in place. This little sleeve is a must-have for any professional artist!
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Artist’s Block: 10 Techniques To Get You Through
You thought it was just the writers? Not true! Artists get “blocked” too. If you, like many others, find a blank canvas rather daunting to stare at while trying to think up your next subject, here are a couple of techniques to help get your creative juices flowing.
- Research: Start looking for images that you like, or ones that consist of certain elements that you would like to incorporate into your own work. Look up artists that you like and analyze what it is that you find appealing in their works.
- Take Pictures: This is another means research, one that comes directly from you. Taking pictures helps us generate ideas and allows us to experiment without too much effort.
- Sketches: Sketches are also a means of research. Sketch what is in front of you; doodle any ideas that are floating around in your head. The important thing is Continue reading
Design & Advertising Competition: Call for Entries
Communication Arts is having its annual competition for design and advertising! This is one of the most prestigious competitions in the industry of graphic design, and offers tremendous exposure to the selected designers. For information on how to enter, click here.
Research Studio: Art as experience / experience as Art
by Georgia Lange
At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, all students in the first year program are required to take a research studio class. These days, it has developed into multiple research studio classes. As a first year student, I chose the research studio entitled “Art as experience / experience as Art.” I will say now that it was a wise choice, as it turned out to be one of the most interesting classes I ever took.
The idea itself is almost philosophical. Art is an experience in itself. To look at a work of art is to take your mind places where you would never have thought to go, and the journey Continue reading
The Unpredictable Pricing of Fine Art – What Artists Need to Know
by Georgia Lange
Over the past few months, I have attended many opening (and closing) receptions for art exhibitions at various galleries in the Santa Monica area. Many of the artists displaying their works were new to me. Some were well known to me, though I had never had the honor and privilege of gazing at their original pieces in person before. The most memorable of these artists was Dave McKean and the work he had on display at the Billy Shire Gallery last month. Then there were those artists whose works I had been watching Continue reading
Featured Artist – Spring 2010: Klaus Lange
SECRETS OF OCEAN LINERS
Impermanent Art — Surprising Beauty
My abstract art photographs are a collection of close-up images of the worn and rusting paint on ships’ hulls. With my camera on the high seas I capture fascinating patterns and characters from weathered and repainted ship’s steel. I am a lifelong self-trained artist, and currently give my creativity free reign as a seaman on the San Francisco pilot boat, stationed 12 miles outside the Golden Gate. While pilots go up and down the Jacob’s ladders in near hourly intervals, I stand camera-ready on deck of the pilot boat, down near the waterline, where the best motifs for my fleeting photography offer themselves so wonderfully. Here for mere moments I find myself presented with surprising Continue reading
POP CULTURE AND THE ARTS: A LOVE AFFAIR
by Georgia Lange
I was watching an episode of Mad Men the other day (for those of you who have never seen the AMC television series, the plot follows the somewhat disturbing cultural aspects of the 1960’s and the advertising that both reflected and reinforced the principles of the generation). Watching the show got me thinking about the influence that pop culture has over Continue reading
Papercut design leads to Louie Award winning cards
by Nancy Haberman
My fascination with paper cutting and paper crafting began in the 70s at an exhibition of Jewish folkart at the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles. To be honest it probably began in kindergarten when I was given a pair of scissors and colored construction paper, but then that would be a different post.
I suppose an attraction to the graphic nature of paper cuts is not uncommon given that many religious and cultural traditions have used paper cutting in their folk art and marriage documents for centuries. I saw a lot of this kind of art on the walls of friends and family – they are part of my earliest memories.
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Georgia Lange, Fall 2009 Featured Artist
Although collage is not my primary medium as an artist, it is one of my favorites to work in. I find the process of collage to be limitless in its rewards. When I have been painting or drawing for an extended period of time, collage can be a breath of fresh air. The manipulation of text, paper, and found imagery has the ability to generate ideas that would have otherwise remained undiscovered.
I tend to approach collage as a puzzle, and the puzzle always begins with a pencil and a page of old text. I usually use vintage books that I find in alleys, dumpsters, or antique stores (I think I feel less guilty about defiling literature that has been discarded or damaged. I also prefer the look of aged paper for aesthetic purposes). I scan the text for words that grab my attention, and slowly circle those fragments to weave out a stream of consciousness that takes to form of a poem. I then paste small scraps of paper over the unwanted areas of text exposing only the manipulated prose. This “found poetry” is the backbone of the illustrated aspects of the collage.
When working with a collage piece, I usually choose either a piece of panel (wood of canvas) or a shadow box (using an old dresser drawer is a popular technique for making shadow boxes). When working on panels, my collages are usually double sided with one side showing the text and the other showing images. All of the images that I use in my collages come from books of clip art and copyright-free vintage illustrations.
I also use paper lace, handmade colored papers, and sheet music for backgrounds and textures in my collages. When all the pieces of the puzzle have come together, I sometimes finish it off with washes of acrylic adding touches of color to specific areas of the imagery. When complete, I seal the piece with acrylic matte medium.
Making a collage is a lot like an act of brainstorming. When an artist feels that his or her creative well has run dry, collage can be a source of newly generated inspiration. To keep our creative juices flowing, it is important for us always to try new things. You never know what you might discover.