Over a Pepsi light

[Mike McCarty]

I don't waste time over Diet Pepsi or Diet Coke trying to convince someone of the value of an original work and the time, love and angst that go into its creation. It will never work and they will never appreciate it. I have clients waiting and willing to pay for a portrait and just disregard the others.

Alicia,

I envy your backlog. You must be doing a lot of things right. There are times, in the ups and downs of my career, that I would gladly dine on an RC Cola and a Moon Pie to gain a commission. I do take your point though. Not everyone can be convinced of the merits of what we do. I will try to give people the benefit of what I have learned. I will do this if I perceive that they are simply ignorant and seek knowledge. We are all ignorant in some subject. There are others however, who go way beyond the [correctable] state of ignorance. These I try to recognize early and depart their company.

I think it is in this vein that I approach this subject. I don

[Alicia Kornick]

Mike,

Nice to hear from you. A couple of things, it's not a big backlog, its 5 commissions and about 5 more that I am trying to pin down. One of them, I have been trying to photograph all summer. His mother is, well shall we say, a little disorganized. I have done one for her already, which she loved and she wants the other two sons done. So, I blame myself for not pushing the matter and getting those photos. Now shcool has started and his time is limited. A good business woman I am not.

I think another reason I have gotten these commissions is because I am around the clientele with the spendable income for portraits. Doctors and lawyers and I am in the Deep South. I live in a small town and haven't gotten one commission from here. They all come from the larger cities and the small affluent bedroom communities.

One mistake I've made that I won't do again involves the @#$%^%^ photographs. I let the mother of my next commission take about five of the best to help her decide which one she likes best. BIG MISTAKE! She likes them all and can't decide and has shown them to EVERYONE she knows to get their opinion. Of course, everyone has a different opinion and she is even more confused now then she was before. I have given her my opinion on which I want to paint. I will and let me repeat, I will never let those photos leave my hot little hands again. I have been waiting now for three weeks for a decision from her. The linen is stretched and primed and I wait and I wait. I will have to move on to yet another client if she doesn't come around. So you see, I make a lot of mistakes but I am learning.

As for the Kinkade types, I think they fall into two categories. Those that honestly love him and his work (I gave one of them a coffee table book of his last Christmas and she cried!) and those that buy the prints because they are popular and think, well, he is so popular and so many people buy them, I should get on the wagon. There is an artist in New Orleans who is painting red cats, ala the blue dog and cashing in and I don't begrudge him a penny of it. It is putting his kids through college (or whatever) his kids do.

You are right, there are some people who do want to learn and I can bore them to tears talking about art. We, as the sensitive people that we are, have to be clever enough to know the difference between the ones who are truly interested and the ones who are just being polite.

[Mike McCarty]

Alicia,

I'm going to put to rest my diatribe regarding you know who. I not sure what gets these bees so stirred up in my Southern bonnet. I oftentimes get a little too impressed with the sound of my own voice.

About those photos. Sounds like you turned the corner on a good lesson. Maybe you noticed John de la Vega's remarks regarding photos in the other room. It's hard not to give his comments a great deal of weight.

You gotta love this place. Where else can we receive so much and give so little.

[Alicia Kornick]

Mike,
I am seriously thinking about what John de la Vega wrote and I can now appreciate his point. "Pictures, what pictures?" I am not in the photography business and yes, the clients will keep the photographs and compare it to the portrait. Mari are you listening?

As regards this "place", I met with Rebecca Willougby (another Forum buddy)last night at a little ToDo in town. She was showing some of her lovely work. She is charming and sweet and I am sure I have found a kindred spirit. If it had not been for this Forum, we probably would never have met. I also have another dear friend I met through this website. I was searching and I found her. What a gift. We are lucky to have it.

[Mari DeRuntz]

...of course I am listening, I have SO MUCH to learn that I have to think of it as a new language. Like learning Spanish, it requires a lot of rote memorization, a lot of practicing the basics, numbers, verb conjugations. I think we all love that stuff, though--we love the basics, we love the medium, we love the tactile.

I hope one day to be as fluent in paint as the artists who are listed on this site, and those who participate by posting their opinions on this Forum.

There are so many different voices on this site, and so many different levels of expertise/experience, it's an INCREDIBLE resource.

As for the photographs, I am not as talented a photographer as you, Alicia, so I'm not as tempted to show clients the shots, it's just not that big of an issue.

As for Kincade, this country has a certain infatuation with "consistency", which is a nice way of labeling the "homogenous" or the "predictable". People demand it. In the suburbs, everyone shops at Sams, and therefore everyone has the same clutter in their houses/yards. Consumers are like kids--we see Jane has a spotted dog, therefore we have to have a spotted dog. Capitalism almost demands the "generic."

But I am not an economist. Artists comprise a very small percentage of the workforce. Realist artists comprise an even smaller percent of that group. You're very lucky, Alicia, to be able to meet colleagues through this site! I don't think any of us shrinks away from being the isolated opinion.

In a week we get to take a road trip, a drive to remote northern Oklahoma for summer vacation, to visit my retired parents, and the drive will take us through the deepest south, Atlanta, Memphis. I really miss the south and look forward to the drive through real southern heritage (as opposed to my Florida of scrub palmettos and Cadillacs).

Anyways, I'll miss visiting this great site but I'll really enjoy the change of scenery, the southern mansions, the real oak and maple trees, the 80-degree weather, the hills, and whatever version of Cafe Guerbois I find near Ponca City, among cattle and dairy farmers, and their wives and children.

[Alicia Kornick]

Mari,

I was intrigued to learn that you are a chef. I also have a Personal Chef business that I started a few months ago. Besides painting, I love to cook. I have found that I do better when I don't follow the recipe exactly. I am trying to be the same with painting, that is striving to be looser and more creative.

Thanks, but I don't consider myself to be a talented photographer. I am glad when I do get a great shot, but I consider it to be luck more than talent. Glad you like the South. There are four live oaks in my front yard, along with Magnolias, roses and scads of other plants. One hour away is New Orleans and fifteen minutes away are the dairy farms on rolling green hills. I keep wanting to paint those spotted COWS!

I find the more I learn about painting, the more there is to learn. A friend of mine who is a professional artist told me a story she read about a famous artist. Can't remember who it was, but he was delivering a painting in his station wagon and he kept looking at it and worrying over it. Claiming how he should have done this or that to make it better and how he tormented himself over it. She has a quote in her studio that says "Each painting is like a disease that I must suffer through and overcome". How true it is.

Have a relaxing and safe trip and enjoy the cows. Check in when you return.

[Michele Rushworth]

In my humble opinion, mass market "art" is just that. It's the visual equivalent of cotton candy or a Big Mac and shouldn't be compared to a meal at a five-star restaurant. Far more people like and can afford a Big Mac than the exquisite and exotic foods at the best restaurants. That's just how the world is.

(I'm not sure where on the continuum of "fast food/five star" my work falls, but at least I hope I'm aiming in the direction of the five-star restaurant meal!)

That said, I've been devoting as much time lately learning P.R. and art marketing as I have to learning how to paint better.

[Michael Georges]

In my humble opinion, mass market "art" is just that. It's the visual equivalent of cotton candy or a Big Mac and shouldn't be compared to a meal at a five-star restaurant. Far more people like and can afford a Big Mac than the exquisite and exotic foods at the best restaurants. That's just how the world is.

Michele, I agree with you. The real imbalance comes when people are paying more than $2K for a Big Mac. It does hurt us as artists as our credibility can be somewhat skewed in the wrong direction.

[Patt Legg]

About those spotted cows - Holstein or Hereford? We have both here along with Jersey, Ayrshires, Short Horn, Guernsey, etc.. Spotted mostly being the Holstein or Hereford dependng of colors of spots, etc.

I have lived near and viewed the Grand Canyon, the Golden Gate Bridge, New York's Statue of Liberty, and Germany's pubs and castles; but give me my rolling hills, cattle spotted fields, a new snow fall and glistining icicles from a rooftop, children not afraid to play in their green grasses and catching fireflies on a cool summer night. I live 1 hour from the great Snowshoe Ski Resort, 10 min. from the 5-Star Greenbrier Resort, golfing place of Sam Snead and the secret underground bunker for our President of the US.

everyone shops at Sam's, and therefore everyone has the same clutter in their houses/yards. Consumers are like kids: we see Jane has a spotted dog, therefore we have to have a spotted dog.

Not all true here. Of course, we are quite rural and my dog of choice is my purebred Boxer named Sasquatch Gingersnaps Samantha. (otherwise known as Sami).

About the Kincade theory, I tend to agree with what Michele states; nor do I know where my art falls in that category. Unfortunately for the majority of art here, it is the old "champagne taste and a beer budget" with tastes often of the Big Mac and cotton candy, both of which I have consumed. Hence my dilemma. I love where I am and paint my heart out, and I am constantly tossing around any possibilities out there to best market my work.The Kincades sell well here. No, I have none personally. I do fair with commissions but even those have become a little scarce. I attribute that to several possibilities, one being of my own doing as I seem to have let life and its happenings kind of halt my creativeness therefore not doing my usual assertiveness.

Well, enough here of my thought processes and I bid you a good night. Love this site!

Patt

[Alicia Kornick]

Patt,

The cows are white with black spots. Or could be black with white spots.