Happy New Year!
Now Showing….
“State of the Art” Red Rocks Community College
Sudan K. Arndt Gallery
1330 West Sixth Avenue Lakewood, CO 80228
Showing: January 9 – February 29, 2012
Opening: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 from 4:00 – 7:00pm
This exciting showcase of textile art will include stitched textile art, art cloth, book art, vessels, jewelry and garment accessories, as well as 3-D sculptural work by members of the Studio Art Quilt Associates and Surface Design Association.
Volunteers Needed: The SDA will have a table during the opening if anyone would be interested in volunteering for that, there would be brochures and a few journals to educate and entice new members. (Unfortunately I will be at work.) Also if you would be willing to do a technique demo there will be some tables available. Please let me know if you would be interested.
Celebrate
After showing her work at the Buell Theatre this fall, Carol Ann Waugh is having a solo exhibit of her Stupendous Stitching work at Parker Adventist Hospital in the second floor gallery. Located at 9395 Crown Crest Blvd, Parker, CO., the exhibit dates are January 9 – March 10, 2012.
Curtains Up–A Fiber Art Show . Members of the Boundless Fiber Artists, a branch of Front Range Contemporary Quilters, will show the results of a challenge to create a work of art from former theatre curtains. January 13- February 17 in the main gallery of the Old Firehouse Art Center at 667 Fourth Avenue, Longmont, CO 80502. Opening reception, January 13 6:00 to 9:00 pm.
Coming Soon…
“Facets of Fiber” Art Institute of Colorado
John Jellico Gallery
1200 Lincoln St. Denver, CO 80203
Showing: January 20, 2012 through February 26, 2012
Opening: January 27, 2012 from 5:00 – 7:00pm
Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 7:30am – 10:00pm
Saturday-Sunday 8:00am – 4:00pm
This is a juried show of SDA members. Facets of Fiber is a diverse collection of both 2D and 3D artwork created using a multitude of techniques and presenting an extensive array of thematic content with one common thread; the use of fiber.
PARKING
To Drop off /Pick up Work: Park at the loading dock, this is accessible via 12th, the alley just east of Lincoln, or enter the parking garage on Lincoln street and circle up until it allows you out, this is the loading dock. Please use your hazards while parked. This is a security building and you will have to walk down to the first floor where the front desk and gallery is to be let in. If you need help unloading go to the gallery and an SDA member should be there to help you. Ask any security guard if questions.
To View Artwork: For the Opening and on weekends you may park in the parking garage off Lincoln St. for free. If you are visiting on a weekday there are a few visitor-parking spots in the garage on your right (downhill) as you enter. If there are none open then you will have to find street parking.
Member Spotlight
Phillippa K. Lack
A native of Jamaica transplanted to the prairie, Phillippa Lack has been painting on silk (mostly self-taught) for over 23 years, and her work has been exhibited in national and international shows. She has written instructional articles for books, online workshops and the Silkworm magazine.
In 2009, she was elevated to the Signature Membership of Silk Painters International, giving her the designation of Master Silk Painter.
She is influenced by her Caribbean background and likes to work in bright, contemporary colors. Her painting style is loose and intuitive; every misstep becomes a design element! The process is different for every piece, and work frequently takes on its own life. The big question is: WHAT IF? From ‘conventional’ silk painting to smocking to hand embroidery, Phil explores every facet of fiber art. Experiment and grow is her mantra.
Opportunities
Quilt Colorado, July 11-15, 2012 at the Embassy Suites in Loveland CO. New location and date. Large, judged quilt show with monetary prizes (enter your works before May 16, 2012). Vendor mall, demonstrations, five days of classes and lectures from 18 nationally known instructors, banquets and more. Visit www.QuiltColorado.com for details. Sponsored by the Colorado Quilting Council.
In the Business Corner…
In the Business of Creating Visual Marketing Plans -Mary Hertert
Self-promotion and marketing are two topics that most of us who sell our art find difficult to get our heads around. The world is full of business plans, self-help and marketing plans that don’t seem to apply to those of us who are independent artists with vaguely defined markets.
Established teaching studios, wholesale production and trade show artists tend to have something solid to promote with dates and times or niche markets with their own additional publicity. It is the artwork “without a niche” that is the trickiest to promote.
What are the marketing options for fiber artists and how effective are they? Galleries, fairs and local markets, art walk installations, websites, social media, print or general media, donations to non-profit art auctions or word-of-mouth. All have a role in building an art reputation and together can make up a formidable name-recognition machine. But the downside is that they do little towards actually developing a financial base.
I can identify the “career woman between 30 and 60 earning $60,000 per year” as a target market for my hand-painted silk scarves, but where does that woman and others like her find the opportunity to buy my work? The bewildering array of marketing opportunities that is capable of getting my scarves in front of my target market is too broad and too varied to be of real value. Unless I can create or find specific market niches for those scarves that get them in front of the women who might buy them, I will continue to be stuck in a marketing vortex.
If I sit and try to write a marketing plan I find it impossible to break out of my mental ruts of the broken record rotating the same target markets and the same marketing opportunities ad nauseam.
Developing a written marketing plan was not getting me anywhere so I looked for a visual technique that would get me the same result. I decided to look back through the years of work photographs and isolate them into photo journals that reminded me of different market categories. The theater work redefined itself as interior spaces; the painted scarves transformed into curtains while also fitting into a journal for high-end dress shops specializing in art to wear. This tremendously powerful exercise allowed me to expand outwards beyond the confinement of my mental boundaries and gain fresh perspective and redefinitions for my art.
The photo journals help me define new avenues for marketing that move me away from the places that either haven’t worked or are financial dead ends. They allow me to be fresh in my presentations to new partners and to provide visual explanations for the type of fiber work I am capable of producing. Most importantly, visualizing or defining my work in new niches gives me the confidence to approach markets I would never have dreamed possible.
Wanted:
Information for the Blog. If you have or know about any upcoming events please let me know.
