Where in the World is Meredith Arnold?

I’m here!  I’m here!  I was teaching in Tucson at the JOGS Show and it got very busy.  I had planned to blog from there but it didn’t work out.

The JOGS show was great.  Actually it ends tomorrow but I had to get back.  That thing is huge.  I could lost just in that one show alone.  My big thrill was when my friend Bee discovered they had wheat free chocolate cookies in the coffee bar there – oh and the fabulous Spectralite Labradorite from Madagascar at jaw dropping prices… Of course I bought a bunch.  How could I not?

This year I got to see some of the other shows though I didn’t get to some that I had planned on.  I was thrilled to get to Tucson Electric Park and find Kent’s Tools, (they’re based in Tucson).  I found just what I needed from them: heavy duty plier-like metal punches that are good down to 18 gauge metal.  I bought two!  Also, I found out that if my students break the punch part, I can have that replaced through Kent’s, too, so in the long run I just saved myself a few hundred dollars because that is the tool my students break.  I had one class go through four metal punches in one class.  That cost me about $100 alone.

The classes being offered around town were numerous and varied including resins, jewelry design, wire working, and more.  The JOGS show set up a free shuttle to all the main shows in town so it’s easy to get around.  If you have never been to the Tucson Gem Show, plan on it.  It’s a blast and Tucson is a beautiful place.  I’ll post some pix shortly!

Being Paid as an Artist, Part 2

Okay, so a recap of yesterdays post:

1.  Know the value of your work, communicate the price without apology.

2. You are the expert on your work and how it’s valued comes from you.

3.  You are enough.

So let’s say you’ve done the things listed above and a gallery still isn’t paying you for your work in a timely fashion or you’re only receiving partial payments.  What do you do?

My first question as a potential advocate for your best interest would be: is there a contract? If so, does it stipulate how and when you’ll be paid?

If not why not?

This is where a contract protects you.  If someone sends me a contract, I always look for the information outlining how and when I’ll be paid.  If it isn’t in there I’ll put it in.  Yeah, you can do that!   A contract is not something that is imposed on you for the benefit of the one sending you the contract.  A contract is supposed to be an an agreement that outlines what each party gets out of the deal.  It’s your job to make sure that you’re getting something out of the deal to your satisfaction and that it is in the contract otherwise, what is the point?  The contract is your chance to protect yourself and your best interest.  A contract can be negotiated, too, but that’s a whole ‘nother thing.

So a contract should always have the following points:

1.  All parties involved listed

2.  what each party is doing in this mutual agreement to create such an agreement (i.e. gallery will exhibit/sell the work; artist will supply 10 paintings in 1 year, etc.)

3.  artist will be paid within 30 days of work being sold, %50 (or whatever) of the sales price, OR artist will be paid when commission percentage reaches $50 or more and within 14 days and so on.

Without a contract that states this sort of info it is difficult to have a claim that you’re not getting paid what you should.

Each of these points can be adjusted or negotiated but be realistic.  If a gallery has the same terms for all of their artists, making yourself the one artist that has different or demanding terms can cause you to be viewed as difficult,  so be realistic.   Make it a mutually beneficial arrangement the way it should be.  Galleries work hard to sell your work, don’t treat them like the enemy.

Being Paid as an Artist, Part 1

Artists not being paid or not being paid in a timely fashion is a typical problem.  Often the artist will have items in a gallery, some of their work sells and months later a check is disbursed, sometimes only for the partial amount.  This can be the headache of having gallery representation.

This happens in reputable galleries as well as smaller, lesser known venues.  So what is an artist to do?

First off, I think that artists are always reluctant to talk money when it comes to their work so the first thing is to practice getting comfortable with that.  It’s important.  If you were selling a car and a potentially interested party came to talk to you about it, would you hem and haw over the price?  No.  Do you ask the potential buyer: what is it worth to you?  No.  That would be ridiculous because you’ve just said that you would give it away or didn’t know the value of what you’re selling, didn’t you?  That’s kinda kooky, yes?  As a buyer I would love to meet you as a seller in this case.  I could save a lot of money.

Artists who are very clear about selling their work don’t have as many issues getting paid.  Why is that?  Because there is less room for someone to take advantage of them.  It’s as simple as that.

Do whatever it takes to take that step away from your work so that you see it as a business.  If the piece is too close to your heart, don’t sell it yet because you will not have the right frame of mind to do so.  Hang onto it until you can let it go.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Once you’ve settled on a price for a piece, don’t be afraid to communicate that info.  Ask the price without apology!  It is what it is.  I guarantee that no one will ever apologize to you for the price of band aids.

Remember that you are the expert on your work, you know what it’s worth and you set the value for it.

Remember at all times:  you are enough.

About Opportunity

“There’s no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love. There is only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen.”  (Dr. Wayne Dyer)

” Opportunity’s favorite disguise is trouble.”  (Frank Tyger)

“Spend eighty percent of your time focusing on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday.”  (Brian Tracy)

All good thoughts, to be sure.  So did you know that all opportunity begins with you?  If you are in a frame of mind that no one will ever love your art as much as you do, you will be right.  If you are in the frame of mind that counts up all the things wrong in your minute, your day, your life, then everything will always be wrong because it’s all you will see.

YOU are the opportunity that you are looking for, wishing for… hoping for.  YUP, you.  No one else but you.  So if you’re waiting for someone to do something, go look in the mirror.

How do you make your own opportunities?  Think ‘em up!  Then do it.   Here’s one:  make some art postcards all with different art on them.  Leave one side for an address with the message being your website.  Leave them at coffee houses or send one a month to the gallery you want to exhibit in.  Why not?  What will it hurt?  Every body stops at the coffee shop… you never know what will come of it.  Leave at the same coffee shop once a month for 6 months.  What are you out?  Some great art time, the cost of some blank postcards (or plain card stock that you cut down) and that’s about it, really.

” If you want your life to be a magnificent story, then begin by realizing that you are the author and everyday you have the opportunity to write a new page.”   (Mark Houlahan)

See? there are others that have said it better than I ever could. =)

The Painters Keys

If you have a chance, it’s worth the effort to check out The Painter’s Keys and sign up for the free newsletter there.  I just had one forwarded to me and it was well written by Robert Genn, made an excellent point and invoked a nice point of view on getting your work noticed. Here is the letter:

http://clicks.robertgenn.com/getting-noticed.php

Here’s the link to the site in general:     http://painterskeys.com/

There are lots of resources for artists there and to sign up for the free, twice weekly newsletter:

http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001GfcdKfB8aotf_cW68rNqcg%3D%3D

I see that the topics written on are all related to artists and one of the most popular pages on the site is the Resource of Art Quotations and I can see why.  Here’s are several good quotes from that page:

“Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there more quickly than waiting for the big one to come along.” (Hugh Allen)

“When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” (Alexander Graham Bell)

“I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.” (Joseph Campbell)

Go forth and be artists today!

Making Decisions

I was thinking about being a kid today and how being an artist is similar.  So I asked myself what is the biggest difference between being a kid and an adult besides the obvious?  Without hesitation, it popped into my: making decisions.  Decisions as a kid are much simpler.

When you’re a kid, making decisions ranges from who am I going to play with today to what shall we do?   As an adult the range of decisions is decidedly heavier and more like: which bills do I pay this month? Do I do the dishes or take a nap?   Kids don’t have to decide to take a nap.  They just do it.

So as an artist many of our decisions include what color do I use here?  What happens  if I put this image here and then do that to it?  Just to do our job requires a whole string of ongoing decisions.  They aren’t tough sometimes because it’s a question of what we decide rather than an imposed framework that determines the answer.

So when real life collides with your art work maybe being more like a little kid is the answer:  just do it.

Sharky Shark’s Girlfriend

So I know we haven’t heard much from Sharky for awhile.  He’s been hanging around, still in the kitchen, latched onto a cupboard now for a bit.  He doesn’t seem to want to let go of that magnet so he just sticks wherever, kind of like a Remorrah eel, (don’t tell him I said that).

The other day, my friend Ann, the one that tortures me with orange and actually gifted me with Sharky in the first place popped up with yet another shark!  This one was a hammerhead shark.  I am not a very good shark mother though.  Somehow I lost her in Belltown in an hour.  She was very interesting with her eyes so far apart (I think Sharky would like that!) and she had one heck of a under bite with lovely teeth.

She Shark with the serious under bite.

We decided that she has now become the invisible She Shark with the severe under bite.  If anyone has seen her, please let me know.  Sharky is lonely biting this seriously strong magnet in my kitchen.

The JOGS Show in Tucson

View from Tucson airport.

This week it’s all about packing and getting ready to leave for Tucson.  It’s time for the biggest gem and jewelry show in the U.S. and I’m going.

I hear that I should bring my hip waders and I just found out that the shows got together and made sure that the shuttle service is going so I didn’t have to rent that car this year… oh well.  In the rain, the car will be lovely I’m sure.

Here’s a video on YouTube that our class coordinator made about our classes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym4HxVzgxGI

Think of me next week, going to a private party in the Tucson Museum of Art.  WooHOO!   That’s always fun.   Maybe I’ll remember to take pictures this time!

OH and check out the Art House that the museum is RAFFLING off, no kidding:  http://www.tucsonmuseumofart.org/support/estate-of-the-art.php

Without Creativity…

Watching Star Trek Classic, Jim Kirk tells “Landru” the machine, “Without creativity there is no life”.   Right on.  As an artist, I understand this.

Some cool art made on a Clie PDA. You can be creative anywhere if you really want to!

This totally dovetails with what a friend of mine was saying to me recently.  It all started when I got slammed with too many things to do for various jobs and instead of attending my favorite monthly painting get together with a group of artists, I ended up working 4 different jobs all day.  I was exhausted by the end of the day and feeling like I had really missed out on the gift day that I had been looking forward to.   So this scenario culminated in an email message from my friend, the meat of which was:  as an artist I need regular “soul food” and so she decided, when feeling particularly depleted by work, to go into her studio and create.  That was the soul food she was talking about.

So remember to keep your art dates as inviolable ones, feed your creative soul every day and as much as possible.  You will be happier for it!  And yes, I am taking my own advice.  To begin with: I’m not committing to working every day possible which is a switch.  I just had someone ask me if I was available for private lessons and I had to tell them: if you can wait until mid-May.  I’m not scheduling myself to work or teach 7 days a week this year.   I need some soul food days.

One Idea

In a split second, one idea, one second in time, one friend, one thought, one leap of faith can change everything.  If we took one idea that we really believed in and put five minutes of work to bring it true – say five minutes of thinking about ways to begin, then another five minutes choosing one course of action.  Then pursuing that course of action, no matter how long it takes, that would be it.  Instead of being at the beginning of the road, we would be down that road.

Just one idea.  One idea for a day or a week or a lifetime.   For example, I have said that you only have two choices in any given situation:  one is to change it and if you can’t change it outside of yourself, then you must change how you look at it.  I have sat for five minutes and thought of different ways to look at a thing so that I could change how I’m looking at something.  I’ll set a number of ideas to generate, say 6, and then just throw down on paper whatever I can to make the quota.  It can be ridiculous, way out or down to earth.  It doesn’t matter.  For example, how many ideas can you think of to get apples from the TOP of a tree without climbing it?

1. Shake the tree (an obvious solution)

2.  Get a fire truck and use their hook and ladder assembly to put you above the tree.

3.  Glide into the tree in a glider.

4. Chop the tree down…

Once the creative ideas start flowing I am sure to come up with a solution or a new way to see a thing.  It makes a hard thing a little more doable.  Try it and see!