F o r   t h e   L o v e   o f   Dogs

An interactive performance by Marcy B. Freedman

(Tarrytown, NY) On Sunday, February 12, 2012 from 11am to 2pm, members of the public will be able to experience a one-on-one interaction with artist Marcy B. Freedman at Coffee Labs Roasters, 7 Main Street, Tarrytown, NY 10591.  The performance, which is called “For the Love of Dogs,” is the latest in a series of works that Freedman has presented – for free – in various public spaces.

In this case, visitors to the coffee shop will be invited to converse with the artist about a dog that they have loved.  Freedman will jot down information about the dog, and she will create a special “valentine” in honor of the animal.  She will also provide each human participant with a special souvenir – perfect for any dog-lover!

Freedman explains the motivation for her series – and this project – as follows:

I am convinced that most of us are spending too much time in isolation from others, because we rely upon “virtual” forms of communication, such as email, texting, blogging, social networking, etc.  I believe that humans need human contact, and therefore, I want to create situations that engage real people in real time and real space. In this particular performance piece, I will be exploring an additional phenomenon: the powerful and meaningful connection between humans and dogs.

For further information, please contact Marcy – (914) 271 5891 or mbf @ bestweb.net

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I know a few performance artists in New York read this blog. Here is a space that may suit your needs:

HERE Arts Center, 145 6th Avenue New York, New York 10013, United States of America is accepting applications to their Spring Artist Lodge – a hybrid performance series that offers bold artists space for up to one week for technical rehearsals and 4-5 performances. The Lodge will run from March 12-April 22

HERE provides space, equipment, box office services, and technical support, include artist series on their website and in a weekly e-blast to 16,000 subscribers.

Artists are responsible for production expenses, artist fees, marketing and any additional staff required for their show. Running time may not exceed 80 minutes.

Tickets sales: Performance tickets are $15. The first 20 tickets go to HERE, followed by a 50% / 50% split of the box office between HERE and Artist.

Deadline: Applications /proposals are due Monday, February 6. Artists will be notified by February 10.

Questions about the Series can be directed to programintern@here.org.

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My previous two posts, How To Save Money By Making Your Own Paints, and More Tips On Saving Money in the Studio brought such enthusiastic comments from artists on Google + and other social media sites that I decided to write one more–Part 3: On Saving Money in the Studio.

Buy fine art paper in bulk 

Did you know that you can get many fine art papers directly from paper manufacturers at greatly reduced prices? For instance, Thai Unryu paper, (25 x 37 inches) sells for $4.00-6.00 dollars per sheet at this US artist supplier and this artist supplier.  I purchased the same Thai Unryu paper (25 x 37 inches) in packages of ten sheets, and paid about $00.25 cents per sheet purchased directly from paper manufacturer in California. ( I calculated the shipping cost and added it to the amount I paid per sheet for the price I mention above.)

As you can probably guess, that paper manufacturer had other fine art papers including fine drawing papers and print-making paper such as Coventry Rag, as well as digital print papers at low prices. Check their overstock store. Not all papers are available at all times so check back often.

In the book, Living The Art World Dream, Alternative Strategies For Working Artists, written by sculptor Eric Rudd, the author includes a page or two on buying paper in bulk from paper mills. He suggests taking a tour of a paper mill, if one is nearby, as an “eye-opener.” Rudd said that he purchased 1,000 sheets of drawing paper for as little as $100. Since he lives in a large warehouse studio he had space to store large quantities of paper. He also makes the point that artists may be more cautious and less productive when working on paper that they purchased for $1.00-5.00 per sheet. That having so many low-cost sheets of fine art paper in his studio made him much more productive–he did many more drawings!

If you belong to a group of artists, you may be able to jointly divide a large paper purchase. Research paper manufacturers in your region. You may be surprised at how many such companies exist! Not all produce fine art papers but some make acid free papers also used by artists.

Today, I am posting follow-up tips on supplying your studio for less.

Containers:

One problem you will likely encounter when making your own paint will be the continual lack of enough clean containers with lids to store your paints.  I discovered American Science and Surplus has many plastic and glass bottles in assorted sizes at super low prices. Because they stock surplus items you can even find art supplies as well as paint-making devices such as a mortar and pestal at a fraction of the cost of the same items sold in art supply stores. If they are not in your geographic area perhaps you will find a store like this near you.

How To Make Your Own Pastels

I’ve made lots of my own pastels and have always found it super easy. Even if you do not consider yourself a pastel painter there may be instances where you want to draw with a large stick of pigment onto canvas or paper. You can make pastel sticks to fit your needs and your hand, or even make sticks with graphite powder, charcoal powder, metallic powders or plain white chalk powder.  A kilo of the highest quality white French chalk powder retails for as little as eight or nine dollars. Mix white chalk with a dry pigment powder to make a tint of that color.  Knead in the wet binder, gum tragacanth–which is easy to find and use. This full description on how to make pastel sticks

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seems a bit much more complicated than I have personally found it to be. For instance, the instructions recommend adding a preservative. I have pastel sticks that I made  4-5 years ago that are still in perfect condition even though I never added any special preservative but used only distilled water and added a little Isopropyl alcohol to the gum tragacanth.

If you have tips for saving money in the studio that you would like to share with other artists feel free to leave a comment.

Image by austinevan via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Painters who make their own paints have control over what’s in them. Making paint is easy. Here is the link to several paint-making recipes.

You will find dozens of recipes for making your own paints and mediums in the book Formulas For Painters by Robert Massey. I’ve owned a copy for years and have tried many of the recipes in this book.

If you don’t want  to work with powder pigments, it is even easier and more economical to purchase pigment dispersions in squeeze bottles and add color to a medium, such as acrylic matte medium, to make your own acrylic paints. A gallon of acrylic medium and several pigments in dispersion will produce much more paint at a lower cost than purchasing the same quantity of paint in tubes or jars from any art supply store. I have used pigment dispersions for several years and have found Guerra provides consistent quality and fast delivery.

Pigment dispersions and a gallon of gum arabic produces a lot of watercolor or gouache. You can buy gum arabic dry or liquid.

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Oil painters have many more options open to them for mediums that will work with pigments, either dry or in dispersion.

If you work with oil paint perhaps you have used cold wax medium– a small jar of cold wax medium costs several dollars in the US at your local art supply shop. That is why I want to share this simple recipe for making much more for much less. This is a recipe I have used myself so I know that it is simple and easy and produces a quality product. You can find inexpensive blocks of white wax at stores that sell candle making supplies, and you can pick up a can of turpentine at your local home improvement store.

COLD WAX MEDIUM RECIPE

1 part white beeswax

3-6 parts turpentine

Melt the wax in a double boiler, then turn off the heat source. Gently mix the turpentine into the wax. Allow to cool. It will thicken into a soft paste and will look identical to the cold wax medium you purchase from art suppliers.

Store the cold wax medium in a container with a lid. Use it with or without added color. Cold wax medium will go on smooth and easy and then harden on your canvas or panel.

Image by kevin dooley via Flickr

The Research Center for Arts and Culture has a special project called Art Cart to organize and document the work of professional artists aged 62+. Artists receive honoraria for public forums.

The arts organization Terminal  will award four – $500 stipends to assist in the creation of new internet based art works.

Are you familiar with Artonomy? The Artonomy site offers free resources such as a list of several places to sell your art online. They also accept submissions for an artist feature.

Artist Residency in New York accepts international artists and provide all residency artists with financial support. Here is the link:  http://www.cactroy.org/residencies.php

(please ignore this verification code: {EAV:f3a728645d545cb0}) If you like using Google+ you may have noticed the option to create a *page* and make it *public* to all Google+ users. Yesterday, I created a Google+ page for the Transmedia Artist Amazon store. I named this Google+ page Art on Amazon.

I used the Artists on Amazon logo above, but simplified the page name to Art on Amazon to bring more people interested in art to the page. This new Google+ page is more than just a static profile page. I will continue to post items to a stream from this page and encourage artists selling in the store to do so as well.  I have already added several items listed in the Transmedia Artist Amazon store. Visitors may comment on these and other  posts.

The Art on Amazon Google+ page is a great place for artists selling in the Transmedia Artist Amazon store to post more about their art and interact with buyers. For instance, artists may share details and behind the scenes details and photos about the making of an artwork, or share photos from an art exhibition, and more. This will help bring interest and buyers. I plan to post to the Art on Amazon Google+ page daily, and would like to see store artists post as well.

All are welcome to the Art on Amazon Google+ page.