Great advice: useful for professional artists

It's been a while and I apologize - I have a large project going on and have had to shut down all other artwork, including my Etsy store, to stay focused. However, today my husband shared an excellent article with me "Client Red Flags? Ask These 4 Questions." By Steve Tovak.

Some artists seem to have as long a list of "bum" clients as "good" clients. Sometimes the bad list is longer. I know I often feel obligated to take any and all work that comes my way, sometimes despite my gutt reaction to the client, because, well, I need the work!

I'm comitting these four questions to memory for the next new client who contacts me.

Medival Market or Fair. Artist unknown.

Have a great weekend everyone!

The Wishing Well

Here's a little project that is no more. I've been trying my hand at paper-engineering. This is the beginning of a sculptural version of the well that also features prominently in another project. Unfortunately, I was using paper that was too heavy-weight and rubber cement as adhesive. As soon as humidity set in, it started to fall apart - rather elegantly, like a rose, first leaning and drooping (as you see it doing here) then quietly losing it's petals - but falling into oblivion none-the-less. Also, the rubbercement yellowed and collected dust in all the crevices. It was pretty forlorn in the end.

However, I learned a lot and Percy has some new tricks up her sleeve we'll have to try.

Notes to self:

Try a light Canson paper

Good ole Elmer's glue

Work from ground up - not top down. Seems obvious, I know, but remember my background is in costume and clothing is usually draped or "sculpted" top-down.

We'll see what happens next!

An Old Favorite and A New

The old favorite, and an all-time favorite forever, is Elsa Mora or "Elsita" (right); more on her in another post. The new favorite is Carlos Estévez. He and Elsa Mora are opening together in a show called "Laboratorium" in Los Angeles. Both are Cuban artists living in the US. Their artwork touches my soul; it somehow manages to capture much of my emotional memory of Ecuador and Colombia, even though they are from Caribbean Latin America. I long to be able to capture such feelings in my own work.

A post on a new piece I created will be coming up in a few days. Until then, enjoy these other beautiful pieces from Carlos Estévez.