Monday, February 28, 2011

Practicing





Here are some samples of the works that use glass nuggets in its creation. Unlike traditional mixed media, mine is clean and the aim is to capture light that subtly can touch artwork from any angle. I find that paintings if not under proper lights can be dead objects. With the use of glass, texture and light colors I can capitalize on even the faint light from another room that is just touching the art for a stunning effect. Let me know how do you like my practice run. I think it is promising.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

New Postcard Designs

I've been making postcards using images of my fine art and images of some beautiful photographs by S. Agic, my better half. I think postcards are a wonderful thing and since I am romantic soul, I like sending them and receiving them! There is nothing better than a surprise postcard in the mail from a dear friend or relative.

To see the entire selection of postcards, please visit my online store.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

New way to reproduce some cool art



I invented this - totally take the credit.... I just think it is so cool to mount the photographic prints on wooden blocks. I am sure it has been done before, but I did come up with this idea on my own. The blocks rock! It makes an otherwise expensive piece of art affordable in a smaller but equally fun and interesting form. Well, I am keeping the original forever but you can have "Contrasts" reproductions on wooden blocks. Let me know if you like them!
Sorry, this item is sold. Please let me know if you would like me to make one just like this for you.

Monday, February 14, 2011

My child beat me in sales this weekend

I was at a HeartFest, an art show this weekend. I was not impressed being in the Mall for the art show, but it is the only event we have in Iowa during winter, so showing and selling artwork during February winter is a nice opportunity for artists.

At the same time, my 9 year old entrepreneur was setting up a shop. Right in front of the fireplace in the living room, he arranged a counter desk, a price list and opened something like a snack shack. His previous business was to give massages to mom and dad for $1 per minute which was very cute, but after we started complaining that the back hurts more after his treatments, he decided that business needs to fold and opened a snack shack.

In this new business you can have a variety pack of snacks in the zip-lock bag for 4.99 and water bottles for 1.99. Extra snacks are available at .99 a piece. Eddie would wake up, open his store at 8 AM and sit there all day waiting for his best customers: mom, dad and brother. We have also informed aunt and other family to come visit his snack shack to support his local business.

The first sale of the day was of course mom before going to the art show. I blew $10 on a snack pack, couple of bottles of water and 1 extra snack. After I left to the show, Eddie was getting new sales. We will not discuss the issue who paid for his inventory, but I should just say that a diligent work over the weekend earned Eddie $80.

At the same time I was trying to beat my booth fee at the art show. Sales were slow and people were very price sensitive. I felt the only way they would get something if I offered it to them for free. Luckily there were supporters showing up, mostly my friends picking up something for $20, $30, and some prior contacts who liked my body of work.

I was able to sell enough art to cover all the expenses of this show and the expenses of making art, but the profit was only around $50 for two days of entertaining people in the booth at the Mall. These last couple of years are so tough on artists that we consider it successful when we cover the expenses.

So, in the end, Eddie made better profit with his snack shack with only 3 good customers than I did as an artist for 18 hours working on the art show. Perhaps I should start a new business, a snack shack partnership with my young entrepreneur would be wonderful!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Commission Project

I love doing commissions. Especially when a client gives me a little creative freedom. This last client gave me a lot of freedom in creation of collection of heart paintings for her office. I am currently working on painting no 5 of 6. For this one I decided to follow an anatomic idea of heart, just to make it even more dramatic with blues and reds. The painting is not completed yet, but I though to perhaps share the progress pictures. I am pretty happy with this one. Let me know what you think!

Progress - step 1
Progress - step 2