My Evil Art Empire

Ok, I hope everyone realizes that the title of this post is pretty tongue-in-cheek. Okay, VERY tongue-in-cheek.

"My Evil Art Empire" is what I call my art business--the locations you can find my art and it's general reach. It's funny (no really! It's funny!) because my art is not very evil. It's very happy in subject matter. And it's not nearly empiric. I'm still kind of a small fry.

But the best part? My Evil Art Empire is expanding! Growing! Taking over more corners of the globe! *cue diabolical laugh*

So where can you find my art, you ask? Well here's a handy-dandy guide!



View My Evil Art Empire in a larger map

First off, The Art Bank, my gallery home base. I've been showing there now for 2 years and am super involved with operations. I've learned a lot in those two years! I'm happy to have such a fun place to call home base, so First and Second Fridays--I'm there!

Kacia Palmer

But that's not the ONLY place you can find me. It's good for artists to branch out and be seen in as many places as possible. You never know when a fan may stumble upon a piece while in the most unlikely of locations. You know, like if you're finding that perfect designer bag at Butterfly Consignment on 82nd St in Indianapolis. Kacia Palmer curates the art there, and their walls get spiffed up, and my art gets scene while women shopping for high-end designer consignment. Deal.

Marye Lawrence-Robinson

Heading back down to Fountain Square, behold, Urban Kitsch. I describe it as a brick-and-mortar Etsy. There are tons of interesting pieces here, and vintage clothes as well!  Marye Robinson has had my art there for quite a while, and it's fun to visit with her and her wee doggie, Jojo.

Shannon Cagle-Dawson

The Dawsons have helped to build the Empire too! Rick Dawson has a few of my pieces in his office space at WFYI, especially the appropriately themed "On The Air." And Shannon Dawson currently has "Bouquet-Rose" at their bookstore, Cobalt Blue Press in Knightstown, Indiana. This after "Swimming Fishies" was shown there for a grand total of 2 days before finding a home in Chicago!

Rick Dawson

And my lastest landing pad for art is a basket of Wee Paintings and "Autopilot" at Everyday Artisan in Westfield, Indiana. A small gallery with beautiful architecture and no piece over $500, I met Lori at my December RAW event, and we've worked out the details. This makes Everyday Artisan the only other place in Indiana, besides the Art Bank, where you can find my Wee Paintings.

Lori Miller

And then there's always Facebook and my website. You can always find me there. Ahh, the comforts of the 21st Century--I've done pretty good with the internet!

So thank you to all that have hosted my art! I appreciate the support and every opportunity that comes my way and gladly welcome more!

Second Friday is Picking Up Steam!

Beyond RAW and holidays and trying to just accomplish things, we've been doing some cool things at the Art Bank, and that's been keeping me plenty busy.

We started a "Second Friday" event, on--you guessed it-- the second Friday of each month. Yeah, we could have opted for some kind of catchy title for the night, but you know what? I have to answer enough times "WHEN" First Friday is (ummm the FIRST FRIDAY of the month?) that I didn't think we needed to complicate things with Second Friday.

Each month we pick a charity and do a drive to collect whatever is needed for the charity. For instance, in January, we teamed up with Horizon House, a homeless shelter that said they needed thick warm gloves, double-bladed razors for shaving and men's deodorant. We encourage patrons to bring these items with them when they visit and help us fill our Campbell's soup can bin. Then, we donate the entire bunch and start again with a new charity for the next month.

On Second Friday, we have more space, we have, at this point, fewer visitors than on First Friday (hey, we're still starting out on this) so we have more time to speak with folks that would like to just have a conversation with the artists. Some artists even do art demonstrations to give an insight on what they do. We just have a good time. We have an art party.

The extra time and space has worked out well too--we had a visit from a group from Bosma Enterprises, a local organization that helps folks adapt to blindness. If you are of limited sight, getting bopped around in a crowded venue has got to be unnerving. So they came to visit us on a Second Friday and they had the time and space to take in the art at their peaceful leisure.

We also had figured out that there are just so many things going on on a First Friday that we can only split the pie so many ways, the pie being potential patrons. If you are already wanting to go see a show at another gallery, you may not be able to come down and see us, so hey, come down and see us on Second Friday. We'd be happy to see you. And please bring some razors. Or deodorant. Or warm gloves. Horizon House will thank you. WE THANK YOU!

Just a Few New Pieces I Whipped Up

"On The Air"

The latest stuff. The RAW stuff.

Now that RAW is over, I've started fitting the pieces I'd created into the rest of my regular show at the Art Bank. I figured I'd do a big debut post here, though.

First off, we have "On The Air," a piece I'd started on during our November Second Friday event at the Art Bank as an artist demonstration. It was a picture I'd taken at work, near the studio, and just kind of came together after that. I made it hard for myself, though: Usually, I start with the stencil, and THEN paint the rest, but this time I reversed it. I'm not sure why, but an animation technique sure did come in handy when trying to transfer the painting to the stencil to get them to (somewhat) line up.

"EJ3"

The other blatantly teevee image would be "EJ3."  EJ is actually short for ENG, which is short for Electronic News Gathering. It's how we designate our receive sites (big dishes that take in our signals) at work. I was working a lot. It kind of seeped in. One of my coworkers really liked it in a WPA/1940's kind of style. Heh. Receive site propaganda.

"Bars and Robot"

"Bars and Robot" is just that: Test Pattern Bars and a robot. But I like them both! They work so well apart, why NOT put them together?

"Robo-Plight"

"Robo-Plight" kind of came up as an image in my head of a robot reaching out. I don't know, maybe he has some issues. Maybe he needs some oil. Can someone please lend a robot a hand?

"Ba-Bomb"

"Ba-Bomb" was a suggestion by the Boyfriend to "paint a bomb." I had an 18 in. x 24 in. canvas left and wanted to make one more piece before the show. He came up with a grand narrative of a bomb that said different things and could symbolize... strife, struggle, apathy, destruction......you get the idea. He told me this while I was driving home from visiting my family and I had about 4 hours to think about a bomb. So it became a cartoon bomb, acme-style, and I left any of that symbolism off of it, so, you know, you could add your own. Or just like it for thinking it looks cool. BOOM!
 

 

I Got This: The RAW Wrap-up!

On December 6th, I got to participate in my first RAW: Natural Born Artists event!

Photo by Michelle Craig (Spitz) 

I was very excited to get this chance, and glad it came along when it did.  I'd been looking into what to do next, in regards to my art. I'm happily showing at the Art Bank, Urban Kitsch, and Butterfly Consignment, and am doing pretty well, internet-wise, but you never want to get complacent. So here I offer up basically an overview, a rundown of my RAW experience.

I'd gone to their site and filled out the application and was accepted. I had to do an over-the-phone interview and, to tell you the truth, I was nervous! In my art, I just do my thing. But there's always the lingering doubt about whether or not I'm "cool enough." I don't paint the broody stuff with creepy dolls and bloody faces, or whatever it is that I'm seeing so much of lately. I like happy stuff, and if I'm not happy, I honestly can't paint! So: Robots make me happy. Interesting things I see make me happy. Cartoon-y things make me happy.  Eh, be yourself, I guess.

Photo by Michelle Craig (Spitz)

On RAW Day, I had to show up at 2pm with my entire set-up in tow. We were being hosted by Bartini's, a bar in downtown Indy, converted from a former train station. That means old bricks, a train rattling overhead, and high ceilings with many pipes. We had taken a walkthrough and selected our spaces. I'd taken photos for reference, and brought the elements they said I'd need for set-up: rubbing alcohol to clean the bricks, 3M sticky wall-hanger things, and those aluminum lights that you hang in garages while you work on your car. And a TON of extension cords and black duct tape.

Photo by Michelle Craig (Spitz)

I was glad I came in with a plan. It took me three hours to complete my set-up! I just kept working diligently and making sure everything looked nice, and, at the end of the night, I was lucky as none of my pieces fell off the wall and I had no infrastructure problems at all! I even had enough time to clean up and consume nourishment!

The event began with a little pow-wow at 6pm, kind of a "Okay, team, we can do this!" moment. We were also taken aside for a photo shoot and a video shoot, that we could use down the road for our promotional materials. This was definitely something I was interested in: Promotion. Something I knew only a little about. I feel like I have a better handle on it now, and what I need to do down the road.

Photo by Michelle Craig (Spitz)

We had a DJ with a giant Lego head bopping away, we had a fashion show, we had performance art, and a several bands, including one called Robot Love Song, and they were very pleased with my art! (Heh, robots, who'd have guessed!) I had several friends show up and support me and made some new friends and new contacts for opportunities down the road. It was an incredibly long night, and by the time 10:30 came around and we began to tear down, I was already exhausted! But once again, since I'd planned pretty well, everything went right back into the bins I'd brought, tear-down was a snap, and the Yaris was filled back up. I'd sold quite a few of my smaller pieces and made some good profit on the event.



The crowd was interesting to watch. There were the folks and friends that had come to support their artist friends, there were the 'scene-sters' that just wanted to show up to something cool, and there were the art crowd folks that were genuinely there to check out the latest art that Indy had to offer. A different mix than a normal First Friday.

Photo by Michelle Craig (Spitz)

I'd started out trying to do art related to television, and was wondering if I should go back into more of a realism style instead of the aerosol stencil + acrylics that I'd been doing all summer. But that aerosol is just too addicting (metaphorically!). I ended up doing a combo of the TV stuff, with the On The Air sign, some of our microwave receive sites (how we take signals in) and the bars and tone test pattern, but then I just kind of got into the robots. Robots are fun!  The final piece, a cartoon bomb, was suggested to my by the boyfriend as a last minute addition. The kind of painting you visualize on a long drive back, and as soon as you get home, you can just execute it, because it's been completely planned out in your head.

Now that I've done one RAW event, I can do several more throughout the next calendar year. I'll definitely be doing more of them, especially now that the nerves are overcome and I've got set-up down pretty well.

I got this.

RAW: Natural Born Artists