I switched careers…

Yes, I am still an artist, but I left the world of being a retail executive to go the non-profit world.  About a 1 1/2 years ago  I was starting to feel that I needed to belong to something that had some social redeeming quality to it. I was getting tired of hearing people complain about how bad the economy was and how much money they lost, but could still drop $2,000 on an Armani jacket. How bad could their life really be? So I joined the Junior League of Greater Fort Lauderdale. I was probably one of the older,”new girls” in the group. My first year was great and I actually won “provisional of the year” for exceeding all the first year requirements. That same year, I won every award at my company. The Jr. League award meant so much more. Because my volunteer hours and fundraising helped people. I knew that this was what I wanted to do. So the Susan B Anthony Recovery Center is a Jr. League Legacy project and a friend told me to come and volunteer there, so I did. I knew it was the place that I wanted to be. So one month ago, I walked out of my executive life and decided I would just do more volunteer work at the center and do some art and figure it out. But to my good luck the center hired me as a consultant the same week I left my retail position and I am know in  the Development Director position. My job goal is to raise $8m dollars!!!!!! This center is a recovery center for women that allows the children to stay with them,so the children stay out of foster care. It is the only center of its kind. Go to www.susanbanthonycenter.org to find out more.  And we need donations of art supplies for our art therapy room, so all my fellow artist out there help>>>>

My Studio is organized but..

I regularly organize my studio space. I like everything in its place. But just like most artists we tend to get messy. Usually I organize and clean my space which leads me to be more creative. I can’t work in mess. But that got me thinking about my recording keeping. At my job, I am organized and love, love, love my excel files. With all the neat columns and I can find all my information. Being a retail executive, I am meticulous about my daily, weekly, seasonal and yearly sales, and I can tell you what sales I did last year compared to this year, to the exact day. You name it and I have it. If you worked for me and you lost track of your sales, have no fear, I have it.I know how much inventory I have on hand so I know if I can make my sales plan. It is my daily ritual to look at those numbers. My department has annual sales of $7-$10 million and I only missed sales plan once in 4 years (I use the excuse that I got promoted to a new division in the later part of the fiscal year, and it takes at least 4-6 months to get acquainted to a new area and new people). With all that said, why do I not have an inventory of my artwork and a system that I can search and access of what I need.  If I want to support myself with my artwork, I need to approach it the same way as I do for any other business. So I have to remind myself that AJ Grossman is a business.

Yes, art is a business. I say this all the time to young people who I meet that think art and business are opposite and do not mix. Everyone that I know wants to sell their work. When money is involved it is a business. So what that being said, it was time to get my art business organized. Since my goal is to start a marketing campaign to local galleries, I needed to inventory my artwork

So I took out the digital camera and started snapping away. Then Photoshop to create a high resolution .jpg. Many people in the art biz tell me to purchase FileMaker or an art program to organize and inventory your artwork. Almost every book I read, suggests a program to purchase.

Since my husband is a computer architect and builds these systems, I asked him to build me one. He looked at me and I quote ” build you one, you are a wiz at excel and organization, you build yourself one & remember since you use multiple computers, you would have to install that program on each computer you are at”.  Well he was right, so I opened Excel, custom made a spreadsheet and now I have a fabulous inventory of my artwork.

Now I just have to make it a habit to update.

Starving Artist Show

I missed the opening of the Starving Artist Show that was held at Gallery 6 at the Ft.Lauderdale Library. I was amazed of the big space that the library has. I was not amazed that my work was hard to find. It was hanging with photography. I am assumimg because the pieces had been small, but since I am the only artist who works in encaustic, my work doesn’t “match” any other type of art. I work in abstract so I always think I would get hung next to abstract art. The only way I will ever get my artwork to be hung the way I like it is to get a show of my own. Here is a video of the 2 pieces that I entered into the show.

You tube + iPhone=marketing my artwork

I just purchased a 3g iPhone and I love it. I learn a new app everyday. I went to a few social networking workshops to learn some of the basics. I am still figuring it all out. But since I have some computer apptitude I am sure that I can manage. So today, while on break from the studio, I decided to have my big break and post how I do my art on You Tube. Part of this is to help with my memory. Many times I do something and I am so in the “moment” that when I go back to do it again at a later point in time, I forget. So here is my first You Tube posting.

Works on Paper

In the studio

wax on paper

I started to work today, but decided to work on paper first. Since I work on wood panels, I can experiment on the paper and then I can work on the panels. I actually like working on the paper. I just have to be careful and not put on too many layers of wax. Here I am in the studio preparing the paper and one of the final pieces. I am now working on a large panel with the same technique as the paper and will develop a series of these.

Starting New Years resolution early…

Since I never plan my New Year’s resolution, I just announce it on Jan 1 st, I decided this year that I need advance planning. I am sure that this is why the resolution never comes to fruition. This year I decided to being a full time artist who supports oneself from their art. Well, just announcing it is one thing, making it happen is another. I just thought I would twitter, facebook, and blog my way to accomplish my resolution.  All of those vehicles have a purpose, but without a strategy it just makes me very efficient of learning every iPhone app to keep them all updated. And I don’t have a strategy for that either.

As I sit here planning my strategy for my day job ( I handle $9m in sales) I realized that I would have to start to plan my art career strategy. I have always been successful in my careers, but always for someone else. So tonight instead of working on my sales plan for work, when I am home it is about me.

I guess tomorrow I will not have my strategy ready for work, but I will have one ready for me. At this time in my life, that is more important.

Come this New Year when I announce my resolution I would have laid the groundwork this year, to make next year happen.

Shawna Moore at Jackson Hole

I just attended Shawna Moore’s workshop at the Jackson Hole Art Association. It was well worth the 5 hour flight from Florida to Salt Lake City, Utah, and then the 5 hour car drive through the farms of Idaho and then through the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. The facility was great. I found Shawna from a movie that she has posted on You Tube and had to take a class with her. I have to say that I am so happy with what I learned  from her. Not only did it confirm that this is what I want to do, I want to do it NOW!!!! Each time I take an encaustic painting class I know that I am one step closer in developing my own voice. Since I was a commercial art director for my entire career, I am use to designing product and art to what the customer wants and not what I want. So I am very, actual excellent at making the client happy, but now it has to be about me.  See Shawna’s movie   and I hope you are as inspired as I still am. thanks Shawna

Painting during a thunderstorm

It is rainy season here in South Florida. It is actually hurricane season, but since no threat of a hurricane, I will just say rainy season. Had a day off from work and it was a stormy day. I love to paint when it is like that. I guess it comes from my childhood. Growing up in NYC, you only had 8 weeks of summer weather and my mom would not let you stay inside. We went to the beach almost everyday and even when it was not summer, we had to be outside in the nice weather. So I guess I feel guilty to be inside when I have a day off to spend in my studio. I keep telling myself that it is always nice weather in South Florida, and there is no winter, but you know how mom’s just get that “guilt” into you. So I tend to work very late at night, or when I have a rainy day and can’t be outside. So I worked all day on this one piece. I can’t think of a name for it, but since it is a dark painting and it was storming all day, I should name it “Storm”  I used my small little iron that I purchased while at the Third Annual Encaustic Conference. The iron works best with small pieces, and it was a challenge to use the small iron for this size painting. So I had to use the blow torch for most of it.  So if anyone can think of a name for this painting, I am open to suggestions. I must have 20 layers of wax on this piece.

see all the drips

encaustic wax and gauze

Miles Conrad 3D encaustic class at Monserrat

"twist" mounted and ready to hang

my little wax creations

I am still decompressing from the Third National Encaustic Conference. After the conference I took a workshop with Miles Conrad. It was titled encaustic in 3D. Sculpture has never been my thing, but this class was amazing. Too bad I didn’t have an extra piece of luggage to bring all my mini-sculpture pieces home (and the airlines would not allow me to carry them on) so I had to leave my little creations behind. So all have have are my photo’s to show what I did.  Miles set up the workshop so that everyone had all the materials for each project in small bags and each numbered so that we all started with the same “stuff” but each piece was unique to each artist. I will incorporate many of the sculpture techniques that he showed us. Her are a few photos of my wax sculptures

Fusing with the Hot Iron

When I walked into the vendor room at Monserrat College, there was a table with small irons that I have seen from the UK. Every demo that I have seen on the internet show this little iron, making landscape and floral paintings. Since my work is abstract I never thought of any use for this tiny iron. When I experiment at home, I have used a small travel iron, but have found that I can’t do anything but make a mess. So when Iwalked into my class this morning and saw that the iron demo was with this little aqua handled iron that I had already put on my list as do not bother with, I was in for a big surprised.

Teaching the class is Andrea Bird from Canada, and the AMAZING things that she showed us that you could do with this iron was beyond amazing. Of course I could not wait for the demo to be over, just so I could run back over to her booth to purchase my iron.  Here is the link to her site www.waxworkencaustics.com  for info on her and her iron. She also had encaustic medium that her son produces and it had the best label I have seen.

Andrea demonstrated how to make drips flat- I know that sounds odd, but flat drips just look great.

Here are pictures of the demo that Andrea pre

demostrating flat drips

collage with iron

texture created with the iron

sented

Andrea Bird