Art Exposed 2009, Vol 2.1

Welcome to 2009 Art at Naked Genius.  This week launches our second volume of this online art magazine, and we’re going to make it a bit easier for you to read the issue by including all the posts in their entirety on the issue page…including the art!  Hope you enjoy the new format.

 –D. L. Keur, managing editor and editor for this week’s edition.

OUR ARTICLES THIS WEEK ARE: (Note that you can scroll down for the article or click the link here to go to that article’s individual page. These links are not page bookmarks. They DO open in new tabs or windows, depending on your browser settings.) 

• two new blogs | by revad
• Illustrative Art by D. L. Keur for Short Story
• In The Public Eye by artist J. Gracey Stinson
• Winter Texture by Daniel Kazor, aritst and fine art photographer
• Your First Visit to an Art Gallery by artist Edward Kinnally
• Maze by artist Tim Stringer
• Duality by artist Stacy Lee

two new blogs | by revad

Last modified on 2009-01-05 05:04:38 GMT. 1 comment. Top.

Revad Images at http://revadimages.blogspot.com

is a log of my published art and related thoughts. Although in general it will not show or relate my thoughts concerning coded images. Which is where the second blog takes over.

An example image is: working in the past

Coded Images at http://codedimages.blogspot.com

is a log of my published coded art and related thoughts.

An example image is: aeiou 11001 from the prelude

Why two?

On the one hand I have an eye for, and a desire to produce, highly colourful abstract art within an increasingly well defined personal aesthetic, while on the other hand I feel a personal imperative compelling me to work within a conceptual framework. Sometimes these two goals create an engaging dialogue, with minor tensions offering up some wonderful opportunities, but occasionally they instigate all-out war with some very unexpected results.

As I stand so close to the ensuing battle, no doubt you the impartial observer will see the common ground well before I do!

© 2009 by revad

Illustrative Art by D. L. Keur for Short Story

Last modified on 2009-01-05 04:16:55 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Yet another illustration for E. J. Ruek’s story, “The Ghost in the Door(way)” Title is up in the air between Door and Doorway, but I am slowly getting the story illustrated in between snow shoveling duties and end of the year bookkeeping snarls.

All of these images will, ultimately, be reduced to cheap pulp paper, so they all have to be done in grayscale. When the entire set is done, they’ll all be run through a “nugly” filter that makes them look very cheap and grainy, but will let them render well in pulp.

In The Public Eye

Last modified on 2009-01-05 04:22:37 GMT. 1 comment. Top.

Back in late October I was running a search for greeting card companies – not the POD (print-on-demand) type, but places like Hallmark and Abacus Cards that accept submissions from artists on spec. If they select your work, you get paid for the artwork they purchase.

While doing this, I ran across Greeting Card Universe – somewhat like a POD, but a little more unique. Unlike other POD sites, it specializes only in greeting cards – nothing else.

I signed up with GCU on a whim – I thought if the quality was good it might be a worthwhile source for printed cards to sell locally. Within a day of having my first 6 cards approved, I had a random sale. Already I’ve had more random card sales in a month from GCU than I’ve had in a year on Redbubble and Zazzle.

One of the questions I’ve been asked is “Why lower your art to the status of everyday cards instead of keeping them as prints?”   While a large majority of my work is art prints, they are far more costly which means that there are many people in today’s current economy that can’t afford a print, and others who just won’t spend money on items that aren’t considered necessities.

Releasing some of my work as card-art means that my work is still in the public eye. People send more cards during economically tough times than they do gifts, so the card market isn’t likely to suffer as much as other art markets.  Apart from that, at least half of the work I’ve submitted to GCU are simple and quick graphic designs made primarily to sell as cards, keeping the major artwork as prints.

I thought long and hard about this before adding to my holdings on GCU; it certainly isn’t about the money, because the earnings are quite small per card as opposed to the earnings on a print. It’s about exposure, and keeping my work and my skills in the marketplace, even when the marketplace is suffering. In some ways, it is a form of advertising – one that costs me little financially, and it provides me with samples which can be sold.

All-in-all, it isn’t the way I’d normally choose to market my work, but in this particular time, where many are in financial crisis, it’s an alternative that I think is worth looking at.

Winter Texture

Last modified on 2009-01-05 06:59:13 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Living on the Pacific Northwest snow is not foreign, but one usually has to drive up one of the local mountains to experience real winter. In the city maybe a skiff of snow all year and the rest of the winter season is just a lot of rain.

This year has been different. After weeks of record breaking cold we received the most snow to fall in Vancouver since 1971. Needless to say 65cm of snow wreaked havoc on a city unprepared for snow, traffic, transit etc…, ground to a halt.

However I will take the snow over the rain. I find it is brighter, less depressing even with some shoveling. Snow makes for interesting photo ops as well. All the white can cause challenges with the light and colour cast but there also can be great textures and contrasts, white trees against blue skies.

Well, here are some recent shots of the snow, expect them to make their way onto stolenshadows.com.

Your First Visit to an Art Gallery

Last modified on 2009-01-05 04:35:04 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

One way that I try improve myself as an artist is to evaluate the way I react to other people’s work.

If I’m really attracted to a piece of art, I try to figure out why. I want to come up with better reasons than “It’s pretty”. I look at the composition, the lighting, the range of values, the handling of the subject matter, the use of color, the frame, the foreground, the middle gorund, the background. I attempt to really understand what it is that appeals to me and why I react in a particular way. I try to consider the image’s value as a work of art even if it doesn’t suit my particular taste. I might not care for it, but it might still be excellent technically or in some other way, and so I can still learn from it. Also, I look at art that I consider mediocre or bad. I try to express to myself why I have that opinion. What could have been done to have made it better?

If you were purchasing art for your company and had to send a letter explaining why a piece of art is good or not so good, and why you’re spending their money on it or not, what would you tell them? That sort of approach makes us reach inside of ourselves to try to understand what we really see.

When I visit an art gallery, I often don’t just walk in and look around. I pretend that I’m actually going to buy one piece of art. Then I figure out which work in the gallery is the best and I try to express to myself exactly why it’s the best. It’s a worthwhile exercise.

I presently have this eyecatcher below in a local gallery - “Inner Secrets #2″. It’s a stereogram; it’s meant to be viewed normally, but if you cross your eyes and bring the left and right halves together, you’ll see the art in 3D.

Maze by artist Tim Stringer

Last modified on 2009-01-05 05:14:31 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

by Tim Stringer
The last year has been something of a rollercoaster.  As I’ve tried to make headway on various fronts I have at times found myself seeming to beat against proverbial brick walls.  Thinking about some of those experiences lead me to think about how life is sometimes like an unsolvable maze.

Prints available by clicking here.

Duality

Last modified on 2009-01-05 04:43:54 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Duality is about the dark side coming to surface and tension with the light side.  As these moments of tension and conflict arise, the wounded, dark parts have to be slowly and gently integrated into the healthy part of us for us to become whole again.  There is always that dark part that resists wholeness, yet isn’t wholeness what we strive for?  To be whole to is to be one and complete.  To be whole is to be healthy without disesase on any level.  To be whole is to be finished in a glory reflected from the Creator.  In 2009, I am saying goodbye to my darkness and letting the light shine over all my scars.  Once a wounded woman, but now a healing woman.  Once lost, but now found.  Once blind, but now I see.

Happy New Year to all.