Last Minute Market

I wasn’t sure I’d be in town, but looks like I will be here for the Cleveland Handmade Last Minute Market, taking place at the Screw Factory. If you missed the open studios on November 7th, come on down and get some gifts or just poke and see what we have going on. There will be vendors as well as other artists in the buildings opening their doors.

Together with our friends, IMadeIt! Market and The Screw Factory Artists, Cleveland Handmade is once again enabling, and even encouraging, holiday shopping procrastination.

The Last Minute Market will be a wonderfully unique shopping destination with more than 50 regional artists and craftspeople. In addition, artists whose studios are in the building will open their doors to offer a peek at their workspace and an opportunity to purchase their work. Don’t miss this Market!

December 19, 2009 10am-6pm
Lake Erie Building at Templar Industrial Park 13000 Athens Ave. Lakewood, Ohio 44107

Dealing

My friends came up with a great idea yesterday to start a collection agency for artists, when galleries and curators don’t pay up. Sadly this has been happening more and more, and this is the first time I can remember when I have heard more than one story about bounced checks from galleries. Eep!

Though I worked at a snazzy Melrose Avenue art gallery for a short time, boy did I learn about greed, and the stories, oh the stories. Even artists who were considered well respected and famous; not being paid for a sold out show; having works on loan to museums without payment; gallery owners taking money and losing it in the stock market. In fact I had my own incident with the sculptor John Buck who, as it turns out, hadn’t been paid by my boss in 2 years or more. I of course had no idea, but it was an uncomfortable situation to be in when he stormed into the gallery and my boss was not in — embarrassing and a tad frightening too. Of course there are the galleries that are a delight to work with, who are reliable and pay without you ever having to ask, who actually like art, are fun, and embrace the artistic community.  It is the greedy and badly managed ones that ruin it and give the industry a bad reputation; the art world is populated with just as many sleazy people as the music industry ever was. You never want to think this as a young artist starting out, but boy do you learn.

So speaking of which, How’s My Dealing is a great resource for artists about galleries and art fairs. They just finally added a Los Angeles section, but it is still in the works as far as a comprehensive list. I haven’t visited the site in a while, and now they have a death watch for what galleries are going to go under. Though I feel guilty about finding humor and joy in the misfortunes of others….maybe I’ll file it under: Entertainment. There, now I don’t feel as bad.

Milkshake Monday: Monkey Crisis

Milkshake adores toys that look like monkeys — although granted — he is very particular about what he likes. Curious George monkey is his pal, he sleeps with him and takes him around everywhere. It has been this way since he was a wee baby…

Milkshake also has a girlfriend monkey, her name is Snowflake. We never understood what it was about her, but his life is not complete unless he can hump her about 3 times a day…

So, lately there has been a problem. It appears on Milkshake’s last trip to stay with his aunt and uncle while I went away to Boston, he lost Snowflake somewhere in their house. There was a massive search for any odd place he could have left her, but no sign yet. I think Milkshake’s brother Spike, or his best friend Giles, stole his woman and they’ve been hoarding her in a crawl space in the house somewhere.

So at night — as if sleep weren’t hard with this cat anyways — Milkshake howls for Snowflake for hours. Hours! And trust me, he is loud and heavy with sorrow as he keeps me awake until who knows when! I tried getting him a new monkey girlfriend, an expensive fancy-pants sock monkey, but he was not having it; he wants his special fuzzy monkey who was falling apart and getting kinda gross to the point where I almost retired her anyhow.

Funny how attached a pet can get to an inanimate object. Here’s hoping Snowflake is one day recovered, if not, I will continue my search for a suitable replacement that he will approve of. I mean seriously, he was crazy about that monkey and I doubt he’d show as much interest in an attractive real female cat!

Update: Snowflake has been found! Milkshake is back to monkey humping again.

Darcy

This is 5×7″ and in a thick gold frame. She turned out sort of looking like a DJ that used to work the goth club circuit in Los Angeles in the 90s for a while, funny that. She will be on view at Eclectix Gallery in December.

The Fabulous Life of an Artist

Lately I’ve been wondering “what’s the point?” because I’m definitely not one of the lucky few who actually make a living at art — I break even. If I am in the black, it is enough to get the ever slightly better frames sometimes. Everything goes back into the art; supplies, shipping costs, promo materials, studio rent, you name it. The only reason I can even do what I am doing now is because I have a husband with good job that he can’t stand, and we live in a cheap city. If we were back in Los Angeles, or Boston, I’d be neglecting my art as I was then because of having to work one or more jobs just to stay afloat; I’d be too damn tired, pissed off, or stressed to even get to it and the work suffered except for a few fortunate pieces. It is true, my art got better once I was able to do it full-time, but this, will not be a situation that lasts forever.

I’ve been wondering if I should have just done the film editor thing, real estate agent thing, joined the FBI or find something else to “do” before I get too old. The problem is I get bored so easy that I’ve never stayed at one job for more than two years, tops. The older I get the thought of jumping from office job to retail, to bartending to whatever else I’ve done depresses the hell out of me. Let’s face it, I’m not good at much except for film and art, and I don’t have a patron who will take care of me for the sake of supporting someone who contributes to culture. Think about it: an artist who sells out a show at $100,000, take away 50% for the gallery (if you are lucky enough to even be paid your half!), another chunk of change for taxes, more for supplies, and really they make about as much as an administrative assistant — without benefits. I always wondered how artists have money to travel all over the place, even for group shows. I’m going to Art Basel Miami for a whole 2 days and I really have no business doing that. Maybe there are more trust fund babies and people with rich spouses than I thought in the world? Or maybe I’m just better at not living beyond my means. Jim Shaw once complained to me about how he had to spend money flying to Paris for a museum show he was in, and that everyone except him just showed installation pieces that looked really expensive to make and they must all be rich. I didn’t understand why he was complaining about it, but now I do.

At any rate, I’m looking forward to teaching in January because maybe it will get me out of this mindset. It will also be something I’ve never done before in the way I have it set up, so it will be a little journey for me as well; there’s a big difference in teaching a class full of young girls fashion illustration, and doing one-on-one oil painting lessons with everyone from teenage boys to adults. I have no shows planned or anything going on after March (unless any galleries out there wanna offer me something?), and maybe it will be time for a break, who knows?

On a happier note, my former visiting professor at CalArts, Richard Wright, has been nominated for the Turner Prize. He was one of the few visiting artists we had who was totally awesome and not full of you-know-what. He had good taste, could actually draw, and his talks made sense. It doesn’t hurt that I totally had a crush on him too! Hey, at least I didn’t cuss him out and storm out of his class like I did with Raymond Pettibon.

Screw Factory Open Studios

I’ve actually got quite a few things I’m showing, paintings, framed drawings and prints, as well as deals on old sketches, animation studies, and color studies that I’ll be offering at rock bottom prices. As in $15-$30! For a while I went through a phase of drawing hot indie chicks have bar brawls. One lucky customer already snagged a few things including “Hot Girl Riot #4″ a personal favorite…

So if you want some erotic drawings and other deviant subject matter, come early –  they’re going fast!

The Screw Factory is hosting an open studio event on Saturday, November 7th from 3-9pm. Included are works in glass, ceramics, mosaics, jewelry, fiber art, prints, drawings, paintings as well as clothing.

This includes work from over 20 resident artists including: Ann Brown, Gina DeSantis, Robert Durr, Michael Hudecek, Peter Jennings, Karen Jewell-Kett, Phyllis Kohring Fannin, Chad Hansen, Marc Konys, Chrissy Lapossy, Level Design, Christine Mason, Michelle Mowery, M.C. Nagel, Mary Beth Norton, Nadine Norton, Shannon Okey, Steve Ollay, Ann Onusko, Arabella Proffer-Vendetta, Dan Pruitt, Kari Sanford & Kate Tobin. Visiting artists include: Elizabeth Emery, Frank’n stuff, Mallorie Freeman, Erika Kleinhart, Kylee Koszela, Deborah Pinter, Sandy Millman, Alicia Nagel, Suzanne Sebold, Second Saturday Artists, Ruth Sholtis-Furyes, Small Screen Designs, Nancy Spotts, Udella Spotts, Bart Virtunski & Cheryl Weinstein.

Oil Painting Lessons

Starting January 4th 2010 I will be offering private lessons for beginning, intermediate, and advanced oil painting for teens and adults at my studio!

I’d like to try and teach the way in which I wish someone had taught me. The basics, the structure, and “my” rules of painting, but once those basics are learned I want to fully encourage students to break those rules and do what feels good to them. That’s how individual style is made, taking what they know and doing what they want with it, changing it how they like, and applying a DIY mentality. I believe there is no one right way of painting.

We will be working from photo references as well as still life set-ups, but lessons will be tailored for each person and their skill level. A supply list will be provided.

Fees: Lessons are 3 sessions at 2 hours each and scheduled at your convenience.
$90 Beginning
$90 Intermediate
$90 Advanced
$250 Beginning thru Advanced package

Studio: The Screw Factory is located at 13000 Athens Ave, Second Floor, Suite C288 (Arabella Proffer/Knitgrrl Studio) Lakewood 44107

Contact: arabellaproffer@gmail.com for questions or to schedule lessons.

New Bitches

“Edwina” 5×7″

“Nora” 5×7″

“Ingrid” 8×10″, still can’t seem to get the color of the greens to reproduce exact in photos or by scanning, but this is close enough I think.

Murder Mystery

I finally came up with a biography for this painting…

The Mirrensley Girls (1550 – 1600)
The daughters of a diplomat and a one-time opera singer, the girls known as Merri and Kerri spent their youth traveling from one school to another while their father was assigned to posts all over the Continent. By the time of their presentation to society, each made what was considered a good catch in the marriage market thanks to their beauty and reputation as minor celebrities, but neither lasted long. A Lord Deputy, whose dissipate lifestyle would drive Merri into the arms of his brother, and a Lieutenant Colonel who was killed in action during the Kronin Wars, leaving Kerri a widow. With money from their father, the sisters purchased a townhouse and began a small perfume business that did quite well. Their bodies were later discovered in the attic; the door locked from the inside. One sister emaciated while the other appeared extremely obese, and each having a wound to the head. Their bizarre deaths remains a mystery.

I just shipped them off to The Hive Gallery in Los Angeles for the Feminality exhibit if you are in the area.

Halloween Art Special: Vampirella

Just in time for Halloween, I have a little painting up in my Etsy shop of Vampirella. She comes in a fabulous gold frame, and despite her epic jugs, I think it still borders on being classy…kind of.

She was originally part of the “Identity Theft: reinventing the comic hero” show at Guilford Arts Center which also included artists such as Eric Fortune, Tom Haubrick, Derek Hess, Andy B. Clarkson and Aaron Kraten.