spawn

That is the point. Physical galleries are not as needed as they were, nor are agents, because we have the web. The web is actually becoming a far more effective place to show and will continue to improve. We also have coffee shops in this region that have shows that do very well, while there is a gallery directly across the street that is not doing well at all. We also have many events in this area that are very successful. People come from around the world to visit our Renaissance Fair in Kansas City. Here in this tiny little river town we have a fall art show that brings people in from all across the country. Events and websites are very effective ways to sell, but still require some theme. People just don't buy unknown art for investing like they once did. They buy it to have a token of some place they visited or something they were part of.

It really isn't about the selling. It is more about making a difference with me ~ to do some good. I do art to have an impact. If I get paid ~ that is good only in that it provides funds to do more art.

The Bordellos evolved from there to selling clothing, makeovers, massage, much more jewelry, and nineteenth century bordello antiques. We catered to only coeds and those coeds were invited to spend the day doing homework and being pampered as well as spend money. They all needed to spend that money. Most especially when heading out at the end of semesters so they could have some memento of so strange a place as The Bordello. Again, this is another example of Life Theater that sells art. It puts those hyphenations about the work ~ much like Dali's mustache.

I should add also that the age of the art gallery is past ~ as is the age of the agent now that we have the internet. Galleries don't matter anymore. When they do they are like the,

There is another thing about paintings that makes it difficult for some to sell. This is a delicate subject. I tend to step on artistic toes when I bring this up. Many artists tend to think in terms of emulating dead styles and dead technology, forgetting how conscious those like Da Vinci and Dali were aware of technology and those tricks it can lend the artist to trick the eye. That is what we do. We trick the eye. We are illusionists tricking the viewer into a sense of perspective, luminance, and life.

As an example, I pioneered a method before computers made it so easy to animate a painting that was executed on multiple layers of Lucite. The layers were not only painted, but they were engraved, etched, and abraded to refract light to predefined ends as one changed position relative to the image and the ambient light. As one moves about the room what was static becomes dynamic.

We need to start painting beyond the canvas. We need to start thinking beyond painting when we paint. It was Dali who infuriated his master by lifting the paper to capture a beard as part of a sketching assignment. We all know who Dali is, because such a trickster. No one really knows who that teacher is, because too uptight to play our game.

There is so much available to us now. Not to use all available to us is the leading cause of artist failure.

'Sounds interesting! So what is cabochon?

A cabochon is a very simple way of finishing a stone or piece of glass. All that is needed to do it from raw material is an inexpensive diamond band saw and a wet belt sander. I also do Lucite, a high grade of acrylic, into cabochon. That material can be done intirely by hand. It is basically just flat on the back (where the image will be applied) and rounded on the show side. They are most often oval or egg shaped. One can buy them ready made, but even in stone the setup and skill in making them is very doable. It is rather relaxing at that. There are tricks to doing this well of course. I will gladly get into the whole thing in detail ~ but later. I am in the process of doing an upgrade on SPAWN ARSENAL and will be doing some online courses this summer when that is complete. I will gladly link that here. I don

Selling can be fun... If you ever actually manage to sell anything!

Maybe I can help with that as things progress. It is an area I don't have trouble with. When I blossom in the spring I do photo shoots that more or less demonstrate a concept that never fails. I will try to post some of this years coming out here.

Mind you, there are some important subset details that are very important ~ especially with the economy the way it is. I address those as well. For example, a painting is dead weight, market wise, right now. But there are many ways that a painting can be processed ~ especially in the digital age. Maybe I can

Many struggle with this issue of selling. Many also struggle with the muse, running out of creative ideas at times. I deal with these two issues as one and in a different sort of way. If we find the true nature of demographic, it is way too diverse for our muse to ever abandon us. As for selling, we are cunning enough to create, are we not? We merely make marketing our canvas and we are certain to sell as well as we create.

The nature of the SPAWN series is

Speaking of primates ~ you ever notice how the macaque throughout Southeast Asia tend to have characteristics like the indigenous human populations? For example, the Cambodian stubs tend to be male and aggression dominated while the Japanese snows tend to be more female and intelligence directed. I find those species especially fascinating for that and their tendency to

I do everything that way, really. Cowboyed for a spell. Was out there on horseback with the same enthusiasm. Did primate behavioral research on everything from canopy dwellers to the macaque and gibbon in your neck of the woods. Lived for over two decades among macaque and chimps. Then with robotics, it has been everything from the cute little ones pictured on my website to giant web press complexes that print lottery tickets. I would dance inside robots that had literally lost their mind puzzling out why they had gone crazy while giant steel arms weighing tons song by without a clue. I love that stuff ~ finding that perfect harmony in the chaos, and dancing to it with intensity.

Well, don't know if you would call anything I do a cause... but some would say I do art as though a cause. I think it breaths a bit of fire into it.

We endure our governments ~ like so much bad weather. We must go the way of our culture (if wise, joyfully) the way a surfer does a wave. The artist paints that wave.

I am an older artist and a master engraver. We engravers tend to count rather prestigious and famous people among our customers. We even have the opportunity to shape their opinions. I will mention only two of my past collectors to make my point ~ Elvis Presley and President Lyndon Johnson. Now, of those two, who rules more over the long run ~ the popular artist or the political president??? Who shapes our outlook and future more???

No, no, no! Radical Art is not art whored out to radical causes. It is the position that art is more in power than government. There is an infamous photo of Salvador Dali sitting with the dictator, Franco. Dali was severely criticized for sitting for that photo. His critics argued that he gave credence to Franco in doing so. I say that a closer look at that photo in the light of history shows Dali to be KING.

I have come to this board round about, looking for some serious discussion. I really don

Just an introduction. I am an artist with over fifty years of professional experience. I am presently retired, but in the arts that really only means we become our priority customer at last. I am working on two primary tangents in my work but they are being worked to merge. One is a line of solar powered sculptures called SPAWN (in all capital letters). For example one of those is SPAWN ARSENAL. It is the one on my bench at this time. Along with that is the webart. It is in storyboard form right now, but can be viewed. Some elements of it will always be in storyboard, while some will be in text. Those portions are well over a thousand pages. Then an even larger segment still getting the lick and polish is in Flash interactive animation. The SPAWN launch from a compound here by the Neosho River in Burlington, Kansas. So the webart does have definite river motif in some areas. The sculptures are functioning work centers designed around wheelchairs and with a goal of inspiring and enabling the challenged to live fuller more creative lives.