Building Your Art Career Pt.4

Set your goals

Whenever you set out to do anything it's ideal to have a list of goals in place. This holds true for your art career and it doesn't matter if you are a painters, writer, sculptor, actor, filmmaker, producer or a singer...you all should have short and long-term goals to strive for.

With the help of curator and artist Rhonda Schaller's post from her blog archives, I've pulled together this week's Art Tip Tuesday.

Films of Color

Black films continue to have a hard time tapping into the mainstream movie scene. The ones that actually make it to local theaters near you are usually subject to ridicule and bad critiques.

Take this past weekend for example; Think Like a Man Too hit theaters and generated roughly $30 million during its opening weekend, which placed the film at No.1 in the box office, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Movie critics were harsh prior to the release. US Metro, film and tech editor, Matt Prigge’s headline read, "The second 'Think Like a Man' ditches the self-help and the laughs,” Kate Erbland of Film.com wrote, “It’s all, quite strangely, boring,” and Anita Gates of the New York Times thought that, “Things turn loud and desperate and stay that way.” The critiques on Meta Critic goes on and on but none of the negative critics made any comments once the numbers rolled out Monday morning.

Behind the Canvas: Kara Walker's A Subtlety

For this installment of Behind the Canvas you'll catch a glimpse of Kara Walker's exhibition in the Domino's Sugar Refining Plant. Although I would have liked to get Walker on camera I thought it was just as important to give my personal view on her first sculpture. 

*The exhibit has since left the building. But the good thing is my view on the Sugar Baby remains ... click the play button to hear and see more...

Did you get a chance to see A Subtlety? Share your view in the comment box below, or tweet me @TCsView.

Construction of Sugar Sphinx

Sugar Baby Face

  

Kara Walker's research 

Art Tip Tuesday: Do You Have a Card?

Stemming off of last week's tip of the importance of having an online presence (see: Artists, Where Are Your Websites?) I thought it would now be ideal to stress how important it is to have your own personal business cards on hand.

You'd be surprised how many talented multicultural artists I've talked to who did not have a business card. I can understand when an artist run out of cards but it baffles my mind when they say they never had them. It shows me that they may not be ready to take their art career to that next level. The level of professionalism.

Art Tip Tuesday: Artists, Where Are Your Websites?

To change things up a bit, I’m stepping away from Rhonda Schaller’s tips for a brief moment. Don’t worry; I have at least seven more of the curator’s tips to share with you in upcoming posts.

As I stroll through art shows, street fairs and art galleries, the main question I hear from art aficionados is, ‘Do you have a website?’ Too many times I hear artists respond with, ‘Oh, I’m working on it. It’s coming.’ But nothing ever comes.

This week I wanted to emphasize the importance of your online presence. It’s one of the key things that will get you into the doors of exhibitions at a museum or an art gallery.

Got Painters Block?

There are times creative minds hit a road block. As a writer and journalist I get a bad case of writers block, so I can relate when artists say 'I've got painters block.' The one thing that usually gets me back on track is to read an inspirational quote. You know the ones that slap you in the face so hard that your creativity jumps back into you.

Well here are some quotes that I’ve collected that gave me a good back hand. 

Building Your Art Career Pt. 3

Get Back to Class

It’s another installment of Art Tip Tuesday. As I mentioned in the first post of Art Tip Tuesday, I found an abundance of information from artist and curator, Rhonda Schaller, which I figured I share with you.

This week’s tip: Take a business course for artists. As told by Rhonda Schaller. (This post has been edited for clarity.)