Being an artist is a rewarding job.  For many artists it is not the only job held.  This can be a good thing and a bad thing.  You see when you have another job on top of your art, that means you often have a more consistent cash flow coming in.  Unfortunately, holding down another job might also mean that you do not have as much time to go about creating the new art as you wish.  Whether or not you pursue your art full-time or have another job in addition to your art, selling your art can be another job all in itself.  There are some things that you can do to give you an edge though when selling your art.  So, if you are ready for your art to sell, try some of the tips below.

• Have an online presence.  Social media is something that many artists use for their personal life, but they never take advantage of it for work.  It is time for you to take social media to the next level and start getting your name and your art out there.  You never know who might come across your stuff on Facebook or who might like your Tweets and check out your stuff.  It could mean the difference between a sale and not.
• Try out online sales through Etsy.com.  If you are unsure of having your own website to manage and update, why not try Etsy?  The only problem some artists have is that it takes a very small percentage of your earnings, but it is a great site to show off what you do and many people looking for art take the time to look on Etsy.
• Go to festivals more often.  This might be difficult to do if you have another job, but it is important that you get your work out there for all to see.  Local craft and art festivals are great ways to sell your work because most of the people in attendance are likely looking for something to purchase.  If they like your art, then you have likely got yourself a customer.
• Remember quality over quantity.  Sure you might can get ten works done in a day, but are they all up to your standards and would you want you name displayed on them?  When you are creating your work you should surely keep in mind that if you are making it to sell then it should be better than the best.

One of my favorite types of art has to be impressionism.  The beautiful and obvious brushstrokes, the amazing use of color to create a mood, and the time in which the style was popular are all reasons why I am just so fond of the style.  One artist who was not well known or well recognized for his abilities and influences on impressionism was Vincent van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh was born in Holland in 1853.  His life was one that was full of battles with the outside world and also internally.  Vincent van Gogh was a highly emotional individual and his insecurities and lack of self-confidence made his life even more difficult.  Not only was his personal life something that was very hard on him, but as an artist, he did not fare so well during his lifetime.

Vincent van Gogh only sold one painting before he shot himself.  While he might not have done well in his lifetime, today his works are very well-known and appreciated. Museums and people that own one of his works must be sure to have some form of home security to ensure the paintings are safely kept, of course.  Take a look at the short film that goes into some detail about the life and works of Vincent van Gogh.

Glass art has always been popular, but antique and Italian pieces are among the most coveted examples people are readily familiar with.  Many Americans know what “depression glass” is, for example.  Blown glass sculptures and chipped mosaics made of glass are beautiful and colorful works of expressive art, even when they are not deliberately made to resemble anything naturally occurring.  One could surmise that glass, in itself, is a form of art, regardless of how it is used or displayed.  

In the case of the infographic below, you will note that even consumers who are not in the market for art pieces prefer glass to plastic for just about every practical use.  When it comes to how certain beverages taste, people are usually sure that drinks taste better from a glass bottle than from a metallic can or a plastic cup.  The same is true with artistic taste, we believe.  Check it out and see what you think.  And don’t forget to leave us a comment.   We would love to hear from you.

Everyone loves to get Christmas cards in the mail, especially around the holidays.   Yuletide greetings help us reach out to our families and our friends during the Christmas season, making them feel loved, even if they are a great distance away.  This is a way to bond with people you don’t get to see as often as you’d like, and Christmas cards are an art form unto themselves.  There are colorful Christmas cards, pop-up cards, cut-out cards, and even singing Christmas cards that you can purchase and personalize to send out.  But what about making home made Christmas cards yourself?  

Once you have your other Christmas business taken care of:  the shopping, and the meal or travel planning and home security, why not make your very own Christmas cards for an extra-special touch? By adding even the most minute handmade details like recent family photographs, you will touch someone’s heart with love. Here is a video showing some ideas for making your very own cards at home.

If you are looking to find the type of art that tends to be the most influential, then look no further than propaganda art.  This type of art is designed to be seen by the masses and the main intent for its creation is to influence individuals’ ideas and beliefs about an issue.  It’s main purpose is to tug at the emotional strings inside of us all which allows for our rational thoughts to become overwhelmed by our feelings.  

Propaganda is nothing new.  It has been around long before Medieval periods of time.  Some of the most memorable propaganda for many in the United States though started with World War II.  Let’s take a look at some of the most memorable pieces of propaganda.

This depiction of good old Uncle Sam calling the men to action for the US Army is one that we have seen many, many times in our lives.  When I was working on my human services degree one of my psychology courses spent an entire week analyzing this image and its effect on people, especially men during WWI and WWII.  This was created by J.M. Flagg in 1917.

The “We Can Do It” poster by J. Howard Miller was created to empower women who went to work in the factories as men were off fighting in WWII.  The image is still used today as a symbol of women’s strength and value to the economy.

This is another propaganda piece my J.M. Flagg from the year 1918.  It celebrates the fact that the United States and Britain were allies during WWI.  Uncle Sam and the eagle obviously are representing the United States, and the lion and Brittania are symbols of Britain.

Victory, or war, gardens were grown at homes and parks all over the United States to reduce pressure of food supplies.  All of the propaganda to encourage citizens to grow the gardens made people feel patriotic because their efforts made a difference.

In the arts, paintings and posters are king at the moment.  One of the most significant improvements to how and why artists currently create informative works, especially artists in the fields of graphic design and print and Web media creation, has been developed alongside the evolution of Web design.  In other words, people have come to expect from their art the same kinds of visual stimuli they encounter through Web graphics — such is the world’s preoccupation with the Internet.  It is a similar phenomenon to what the world experienced in the 1950s when the television became standard in American homes.  Based upon the experience of what life looked like on TV, people developed expectations for their reality.

Later, paintings and posters took on semblances of what television had brought to the world.  This, in turn, made its way into the kinds of art and media found in movies, in live theater, in dance, and the other arts.  As movie posters began to resemble Web graphic trends, the trendiness soon spilled over into paintings.  This is a cycle that seems to re-invent itself every few decades due to some strong influence or emerging technology.

Here is an infographic that explains how Web design evolved;  use it to inform your interpretation of Web design’s influence over art in general.

(New Delhi)  Celebrated Indian artist MF Husain, often called “the Picasso of India”  for his moody and sometimes controversial paintings, has died at age 95 in London following a heart attack.   The young Husain lost his mother before he was two years old.  His father and new wife moved the family from Pandharpur, Maharashtra to Indore.  Years later, the family moved again, this time to what was once Bombay.  It was here that Husain attended art school for the first time.  Husain’s art career began with work created for Bollywood, where he painted cinema hoardings to eek out a meager living, but by 1940 his work finally began to capture the attention of India’s artistic elite.  He was one of the founding artists leading the way for India’s avant garde movement.

In 1952, his first solo exhibition was held at Zürich, Switzerland, and over the ensuing years his paintings  were finally seen in Europe and the US.  From here, his work garnered even more international attention and favor. In 1955, he was awarded the prestigious Padma Shree prize by the government of India, his homeland.

His more recent career has been studded with controversy and political pressure that caused him to leave India in 2006 following death threats from Hindutva groups who were offended by his artistic depictions of Hindu deities — particularly goddesses who in Husain’s paintings were often featured nude.  Since that time, he lived in London and Dubai.  Husain, a Muslim, always loved India, and despite accepting an offer of citizenship from Qatar he maintained that India would always be his true home.  He had reportedly wanted to return to India someday, and to die there, but continuing threats from angered groups over the depictions of nude Hindu gods and goddesses, and an unbailable outstanding warrant against him, prevented his return.

In April, 2011, Time Magazine named him among the world’s 10 Most Persecuted Artists.  Husain’s name has also been included in the list of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World, published by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Amman, Jordan. Fellow artist Pranava Prakash said, “Artists such as Husain and Raza sell because of their PR machinery, not because of their artistic merit.”

Now, Husain’s homeland mourns the loss of this well loved artist, even as they experience the shame of having never embraced him back to the fold of his cherished home country.  Husain will not be returned to India for burial.

Paper art has been around for a long, long time, and there’s no sign it’s going away anytime soon.  For many people, the first thing that comes to mind when “paper” and “art” are mentioned in the same sentence is the Japanese art of Origami, or paper folding.  We are all pretty familiar with the pristine white paper cranes, and cherry blossoms, and various plants and animals that can be made by following very specific and elaborate diagrams.  Most forms of paper art originated in Japan, but Origami is the not the only form of art involving the use of paper.  Here today we will look at a few other kinds of paper based art that you may find enjoyable to look at or to try for yourself.

Ornate paper cutting is an art form that requires measurement and planning, just like Origami, but the end result is not a always a three dimensional object.  Often, with paper cutting, the goal is to give something three-dimensional aspects when it is still two-dimensional, such as cut-out design work on lampshades, stencil-cuttings, or silhouettes. Another example of this is when people cut out decorative snowflakes with fine and precise geometrical detailing.

People have sculpted entire miniature villages, castles, and landscapes out of heavy stock (A4) paper, with realistic looking details that can seem astonishing to those of us with less aptitude for this sort of thing.  That, I suspect, would be most of us, because I can’t imagine making a convincing looking paper airplane, much less a museum quality replica of Windsor Castle, and yet there are people so skilled that they can accomplish exactly that.

Papers of various colors and textures can be cut into strips and woven together to make baskets and containers.  With lacquer applied after the completion of the shape, these paper containers can be kept for a few hundred years if taken care of properly, and can be used to store various items in a beautiful way.  People also use paper mache to form containers, boxes, and even beads for jewelry making.  As you can see, paper is a versatile medium for many kinds of art.

The art of calligraphy, while not necessarily focusing on paper, cannot be separated in terms of ideal from the pen with which it is made.  A beautiful artisan paper, one that is hand made, can make a lovely backdrop for calligraphy writing, or even slow artistic letter printing for sending someone a personal communication or invitation, or a thank you note.

Paper can be used to make decorations for nearly any type of seasonal party, whether indoor or outdoor.  If using the paper art outside, you just have to treat it with something to make it sturdier to the weather.

And so, paper is a wonderful medium in the hands of many kinds of artists, from those who paint and fold, to those who cut and build.  Paper is one of the oldest materials of art making, and it is still available today.

Throughout the ages, humanity has struggled to pinpoint the definitive aspects of art.  What makes something art, versus just a lot of scribbly and colorful stuff on a canvass?  There seems to be no single answer to this timeless question.  The world repeatedly fails to reach a consensus on what makes something “art” instead of just a collection of random, unrelated, and non-thematic shapes and colors that can be detected visually or audibly.  We can agree, however, that you know it when you see it.  This brings in a highly subjective contribution by the audience of the work of art.  The one experiencing the art must also bring his or her past encounters with the colors, themes, and lines to this current time, and formulate an analysis of what he or she is viewing.

Still, it is all extremely subjective.  Three people can look at the same painting for the same amount of time, and see three different things.  Two of them can see art, while one may see rubbish.  In this case, beauty appears to truly be in the proverbial eye of the beholder, and there can be no deciding settlement of such an argument, since the person’s opinion is drawn upon to assist in the rendering of the images.  An opinion, by default, cannot be ‘wrong.’

Have you ever seen an art exhibit that featured something you looked at very intently, but finally decided was just a lot of meaningless gobbledygook?  Well, you are not alone.  It has happened from time to time to everyone who frequents museums and art galleries.  It is especially embarrassing, though, when the artist featured is well known for being creative and masterful in his or her medium — and yet, try as you may, you cannot see it.  You find yourself surrounded by others who are full of thoughtful commentary on the art in question, and you suspect it may be a case of  The Emperor’s New Clothes, but you don’t want to say anything that might make you sound adroit and uneducated (and you also don’t want to spoil the fun for everyone, or offend the artist in any way) and that creates a very awkward situation.  In that case it might be best to just not say anything for a while.

Art can be so tricky to define.  I have seen paint splatter art that looked like it was done in a pre-school class during nap time, only it was created by adult artists who earned quite a lot of respect and cash from its production.  It can be baffling, trying to understand all of the ins and outs of the art world, but it’s not impossible to hone your skills as an art observer.  Soon, you will find that, while you may not always agree with others as to the quality of any given piece of art, you will at least know to some better extent what methods they are using in order to evaluate the art.  That is the first thing to get better at.  From there, it’s all cake.

Months are passing fast, and I started wondering what do for my grandchildren for Christmas. Last year, after years and years of no cable or internet, I purchased them a year’s worth of cable internet bundles. What would be a good gift, and something to remember me by. I decided to make decorated Christmas ornaments with little red hearts on them with their names under the hearts and the date and year. As fate would have it my grandchildren continue to grow in number, and the tree ornaments continue to grow, including a set of twin not quite sure what to do about the twins, I’m still looking for two ornaments fused together.