Art Collecting: No Idiot's Guide Will Do

I have been a professional artist for forty years, and some visitors to my home are shocked when they see my wife and I are modest art collectors as well. I buy and sell art all the time. That is because I KNOW art as a product, with real value. When I buy, I have a natural process of decision making which governs the search, and the purchase, and I rarely break from it. 

 

There is no one way to collect, as art has many markets and venues and too many variables. Each is a unique adventure, and each has its own lures and pitfalls. I have watched this free-for-all most of my life, and it has only grown, so maybe I can spare you some pain... So here is my brief “artist's guide” to art collecting.

Any idiot can collect art, but no idiot could build a responsible collection. If you are going to truck in the arts, you gotta have smarts. Art and collecting art is fun, but experienced collectors make it look easier than it is. If you care about something beyond immediate gratification, or want to build a true asset with art in your financial portfolio, you will have to engage your whole brain, and temper your purchases with wisdom born of study and heart.

Primarily, I have to really like something to buy it, regardless of other concerns, and think I would be happy with the art even if everybody else hated it. I buy things I want to live with. After all, I may have to! I often consider my wife's tastes as well, as she has to live with it too. If I love it, a lot, especially for more subjective, non-artistic reasons, I may have to ask myself a different series of questions, because I may be losing my objectivity and pay too much, or fall into a narcissistic trance. Too many purchases like that can lead to disaster. The trick is to combine objectivity and restraint with an aggressive, inner passion.

It has to be priced realistically. Could I, if push comes to shove, sell it and at least get most of my money back? After these two questions are satisfied then the only other concerns I may have are about placement and the amount of disruption this addition will be to my overall collection arrangement. I do not mind buying art that will be temporarily stored if it is a good enough purchase. It will eventually find its place.

As an artist, I frequent many possible art markets and venues. Almost all are struggling right now. Consumer trends are presently shifting in a sea change that is leaving everyone unsure of what may come. The loss of many art galleries throughout the country has caused some alarm. Regional art shows are diminishing, and longtime collectors have tried to cash in on their collections at auctions and sometimes found a fairly soft market. As gold, silver, land and other investment opportunities become lackluster, nothing seems to be a safe investment.

Although all of this is true, I am glad to report that the art world is far from dead. The old game has died and a new one is emerging. Many artists are being hurt or lost in the change, but the free market will establish new trends with new leaders, and reward new survivors. I enjoyed vigorous sales at the end of last year, totally confounding all of my fears. I had adapted my marketing strategy and it paid off. Savvy art collectors will learn to watch artists and their art and not magazine ads. The Internet offers many art sites which help buyers find their art, with a million twists never before possible. So you will be able to find something you love. There is a ton of variety in this new art game and the quality is out there. The question is how do you sort it out? Who can you trust? When do you know it is time to pull the trigger?

If you are a new art collector with these or similar questions, I have a few suggestions. First of all, take a trip.

Go to a known art market... like Santa Fe or Carmel and observe the contents of as many of the galleries as you can. Go back and revisit your favorites to cement them in your mind. Or visit some art museums in a major city. You need to know what the art, truly great art, looks and feels like in real life. Experience the richness of color and texture of a Monet in person. See the shadow of an Oldenburg across the room and across your shoe. Caress the rugged texture of Rodin in a garden. These physical, tactile responses are what make you human- and art essential. They are what separates the digital illusions on your computer monitor from the handmade, blood, sweat and tears creations of flesh and bone visual artists.

Educate yourself. If you like landscapes, look at Turner or Moran or Church. If you are drawn to portraits, spend an hour melting into a Sargent, or a Rembrandt. If you are into Contemporary, know what made good modern art good. Because of its freedoms, there is a lot of counterfeit modern art being made by hacks.

FORGET, for the moment, the critics or historians, and become sensitive to what the Masters found important. There is very little new under the sun. Art is a language that has been spoken without words for centuries. Learn the vocabulary. Sensitize yourself to just one favorite “great” painting, taking in the various hues of green, or the weave of brushstrokes, or the use of design to move you through the composition. See if you can identify an artist's stylistic techniques... his fingerprints so to speak. This is sort of looking into the soul or DNA of an artist. During this rational, whole-brained process, your right side of your brain, the creative side, is feeding essential information to your Left brain... your business manager side, and it will come in handy later to provide the appropriate response.

Most people handle the left-brained skills adequately... knowing your budget, the Google search for facts and figures, and basic art history. But after you have really experienced art, inspected, smelled, and truly felt Fine Art, and you start thinking you know what the artist was thinking when he made this or that... you have started to utilize the right side of your brain...Then you are ready. You have begun to utilize the two lobes of your brain... right brain for creative analysis, the left brain for organizing your conclusions... Now you have a trustworthy frame of reference.

Seek, find, scrutinize the art, apply all of your head “knowledge.” After the art passes these tests, PAUSE.

Then I'm going to ask you to change channels... Use your Right brain and enter a totally different line of reasoning. Buy because of an inner, emotional response to the art, not a superficial, rational one. Your right brain is the one who knows. This leaves right-handed people (who are left-brained dominant!) at a disadvantage, in the beginning, until they learn to stretch and use the other half of their brain power. If you are searching and buying because of subject matter, ( preconceived notions- a left-brained thing) you are only genre enthusiast. Many things with the desired pictorial elements will trip your trigger and you will buy a bunch of crap. I am in Texas, and here we have a lot of theme-art buyers who will hang a $15,000 masterwork across the room from a Coors poster, because they feature a culturally popular subject matter. In both cases they might well live to be disappointed in their choices, as trends come and go, and they learn what really good art feels like.

This second, less popular brain function takes time to cultivate. Ask yourself questions like,

“Does this art inspire an emotion, or does it just satisfy one my predilections (like a favorite subject, color, etc.).

“Does this art have any flaws that will bother me after I have looked at it a few times?”

“Does this art leave me with a feeling I want to preserve, and engage with often?”

“Is this art a masterpiece, which I would respond to even in a busy airport or an abandoned storage building, or just a masterfully executed image, a predictable product, which has won my attention by artistic skill and marketing?”

Sooner or later, you will develop your own Right-brained questions. And you will be buying art like an artist. You will buy better art and you will enjoy it more.

Don't “settle.” Save your money and pay a little more and start by buying a modest, special work of art. Wherever. You might not have a good gallery near you that carries art of your persuasion, so look at all the fabulous art on the Internet sites. As you look at the prospects, compare their qualities to the qualities you have experienced in person. (left brain) How do they stand up? Demand clear, close-up photography. Don't buy from anyone that does not offer a fair return policy. Usually, if you like it on the Internet, you will love it in person. The biggest problem with today's new collectors, who have seen so much “virtual” reality, is that they have trouble adapting their tastes to reality.

Don't get too caught up in the word on the street. Talk with other, more experienced collectors who share your interests. Ask to see their collections. Find out what they like about the art. You may be very surprised- or underwhelmed with their reasoning, or sometimes inspired with their insights. Still, these conversations expand your frame of reference.

Research the name. Any artist worth anything is easily researched on the Internet. Usually you can find comparisons to evaluate your buying opportunity. True, there are many great, unknown artists whose works will never appreciate much but whose art is affordable and will bring you joy daily. I have plenty of that kind of art. You just don't want a whole collection full of these kinds of paintings, which will not bring much upon liquidation. Soon you will have a whole mental “stable” of artists you are seeking. You will find that the artist you like had friends or associates who will often intrigue you as well. A smart way to build up some background on a school of artists is to collect old illustrated auction catalogs. Tons of useful info there.

Don't follow the crowd. Avoid “starving artists” sales. A great deal of imported art has flooded America in the past decades, with phony names and flamboyant frames, and it will never be worth as much as the frame it is in... (as in the time of purchase!) I see a lot of art buyers buy because of social and decorator trends. Many, like a school of fish, follow what “THEY say.” I know too many folks who buy something they literally dislike just because “THEY” are all buying something, and these folks do not want to miss out on a so-called opportunity. This is because they have never given art a thought before and do not trust their own judgment. Their likes and dislikes are governed by ignorance and insecurity. They depend on “they” to guide them. Usually these kinds of art opportunities are fleeting scams. It is not hard to educate yourself and become knowledgeable about the basics of art, and buy things with lasting value, even INVESTMENT VALUE.

Art is a great investment and a great pastime. Collecting is fun and rewarding and the investment can also be rewarding. Out of all the things you acquire in a lifetime, the furniture, technology, tools, collections, machines and clothing etc. will get randomly discarded, but your heirs will usually covet the good art left behind. Art creates and stores memories. If chosen properly, it will be worth at least what you paid for it when it comes time to dispose of it... unlike most other things in your home, which will be of little value. Antiques, coins, and even metals will fluctuate, and art usually performs as well as them. My collectors have followed my career and very few ever want their money back. (I am always glad to give it, as I can make money on those terms!) Outside of beautiful land, there is no other investment you can make where you can feel good about the expense and literally be entertained by it every day, and anticipate an increase in value. I have known several couples who collected my work, who got divorces, and in each case almost everything was negotiable but the art, which they both fought for. I suppose a good policy would be to buy TWO OF EVERYTHING!

So now you are ready to buy and you know what you want. I will tell you, the art world is your oyster, and there has never been a better time to buy art... because the art is good and artists are hungry.

The market has been soft due to the economy, and there have not been the traditional venues for buyers and artists to find each other. Social media, ebay, blogs, estate sales, garage sales, could all be worth your time in locating good art. I have seen outrageous deals at well-attended collectibles auctions where name artists sold for fractions of their old prices. In time those old prices should return. The opportunities abound. Elderly couples are downsizing and divesting, their kids do not care or are ignorant about their collections, and great stuff is getting plowed back into the market through secondhand shops.

But your best bet is to go direct. Artists are selling direct on the Internet as their gallery connections disintegrate, and they can and will sell cheaper with no middle man. Artists are marketing through facebook, and starting to show up in unexpected places trying to connect with their audience. This puts the collector in the driver's seat. I have taken advantage of this art bonanza and made the best art purchases of my life in the past year or so.

If you still feel a little hesitant, I recommend a visit to http://www.invaluable.com/blog/how-to-start-a-fine-art-collection/ where there is a whole section on guidance for collecting art.

So now that you know all of this, be gentle with my compadres. They have been going through a rough time, and yet I believe they are the best evidence left for our humanity, and remember it was an artist that gave you these tips. Good luck!

Diversification... the key to our times

Times are hard but miraculously,  I have stayed busy... all those various art skills acquired over a lifetime have paid off and kept me always (so far) with something to do... Here are the highlights  of the past few months... some of these projects are the results of many months of negotiations and meetings... it was pointless to even tell you about until now...

 The Riverside Nature Center commission...
 I have been negotiating and then executing my part of this project for way over a year... This was the original design... since morphed and modified to fit the situation... Long story... but upshot of it is that the Riverside Nature Center of Kerrville, Texas is installing a water feature with a mural... and I have been asked to help design it.

 Proposal using Photography, Photoshop

The Mize commission- actually last spring...  The Mizes of Washington County asked me to help create a manikin which would be a sort of monument to their beloved gardener, (still very much alive) named Benigno, who is of average height. They provided a six-foot manikin and I gave it Benigno's face... so I called him "Magnigno."

Manikin, epoxy putty, acrylic paint...

The Williams commissions... Tracy and Leesa Williams of Huntsville, Texas asked me to look over their ranch aned find some suitable scenes for landscapes to decorate their new home there.

 "Noname Falls" Oil on canvas

This was the property which I made a video about ... the fabulous waterfall there (after the spring rains) and then made two paintings... 

"Swan Lake," Oil on canvas.

The First Baptist Church (Navasota) design - We made coffee cups to give away to visitors of First Baptist Church...  This design was made to greet them and remind them of their visit.

Photography- Photoshop

The Swank commission: Ben Swank IV asked me to compose this scene to commemorate the toil and memories of the Swanks over four generations. It was a real pleasure to do this as I knew his grandparents, looking proudly on in the background.

  "Can't Thirty," Oil on canvas.

 The Tubie commission- Recently local recording artist Tubie Pushee contacted me about doing his next album cover for Tubie and the Touchtones. Needless to say, it took little coaxing, as I am a fan of theirs and instantly had a concept for his title song... which he loved- it will be released soon!

 Photography, Photoshop

The summer is over (whew!) and I look forward to some travel and finishing the project in Kerrville. Right now I am working on SIX new canvases in my studio... for the Christmas season... (eternal optimist) I guess if they don't sell I will just give them away!

My Culture Clash at TCU and North Texas State - 1974 - 1975

When I enrolled to study art at Texas Christian University in 1973, I never dreamed of the formidable forces of opposition I would soon face from my various art professors. Fresh out of High School, I had studied art privately for almost seven years, and was already consigning my work at 2719 Gallery in Dallas. They had sold one of my large canvases to the Mars Candy Company in Waco. I was a budding professional artist, or so I thought. The only male in most of my college art classes, I made good grades, and my instructors could not deny that I did my work and turned it in on time. And I did it well. But I represented something repugnant to them and my instructors seemed eager to find every way they could to challenge and humiliate me. 

 

After forty years, I still am amazed at the wall I ran into just trying to study art.

I had old-fashioned values, but I drew and painted well, and leaned towards representational art. This was opposite of everything college art professors of that era were trying to achieve in modern art. In some ways, their success depended on effectively discrediting the art of the past... and me. This persistent challenging on such an intellectual level made me a little arrogant, as I stood my ground, and eventually I became tired of it and disillusioned, and so by the end of my first year of study I began to look for someplace else to get my education.

I transferred out, walking away from the Dean’s List at TCU and a sweet financial aid package, hoping to find a more tolerant atmosphere at a state supported college; North Texas State University in Denton. This only shows how little I understood my plight.

North Texas had a “state of the art” art department. I soon naively relished in my art history and figure drawing classes, and looking around at my peers whom were considerably more serious than at TCU, I still felt my talent could win me an art scholarship. Since Linda my sweetheart (and future wife!) had moved to Denton that year and I was in my element, my happiness quotient may have been at an all-time high. 

 

At the end of my Sophomore year, I was required like everyone else to go through a “Sophomore portfolio review” before I could take Junior level courses. I considered this something perfunctory, in my case, and to be a mere formality. I was agreeable that North Texas State planned to tell any art student who lacked the stuff to be an artist, that they were wasting their time, to give them time to change their major to something else. I went into my portfolio review with three NTSU faculty members expecting a warm and collegiate reception.

But this was the day that I learned the ruthless and ferocious temperament of Academia.

Quickly I realized that I had come way under-prepared to face what was an adversarial confrontation. The professors barely looked at my work or did so with blank expressions. Time seemed to drag as they made small talk among themselves, rarely engaging with me, but looking at each other, as if to ask, who is going to tell him? There was only one professor whom I knew, and he was my figure drawing instructor, Mike Cunningham. This made me feel some comfort, because he usually gave me good grades, and we had very little conversation during the semester, good or bad, because he was rarely present in the class. He took the back seat however and bowed in deference to the haughty young woman on the team, who began to grill me, as if I was somehow a thorn in her side…

 “Why are you here?” she asked. When I looked at her incredulously, and explained I wanted to earn an art degree, she got more specific.

 

“You know, why do you create art… why do you paint?” She wore a pained and condescending smile, like she had just gotten a mouthful of bad fish.

Suddenly I knew what this inquisition was all about. I was “straight,” a wholesome, all- American kid with short hair, and drew things you could recognize… and did it pretty well. I rarely missed a class. I made A’s and B’s in my art classes. My developed talent was respected by my peers. But I did not fit in. I was ... CONSERVATIVE.  

It was like that Twilight Zone segment when the beautiful girl has to have plastic surgery to make her distorted and ugly so as to conform to the others... or else.

I was Opie Taylor all grown up, I was the epitome of the bright and shining conservative adversary they wanted to rub out of existence. My skills only enhanced the fact that engaging, beautiful art was possible. My approach and style might be attractive, even seductive to the other students, and if allowed to continue, would certainly ruin their designs to reinvent art. Her question was a loaded one, and I gave her the loaded answer. But I unflinchingly told her the truth:

“Ever since I was around 11 years old,” I waxed, “I have painted to glorify God and His creation.” When I became a Christian at age 11, I promised God that if He would rescue me from my miserable life, one that I had wanted to end, I would, in trade, paint to glorify Him and His creation for the rest of my life. Now my female interrogator was incredulous.

“That’s why you paint?”

The three professors looked at one another with veiled contempt. It seems that about right now was when one of them, the Dean I think, excused himself. Perhaps he did not have the stomach for the dirty work of cleaning up the art department... That was fine with me. The female interrogator continued. My answers did not satisfy her. I was beginning to realize that this was no friendly intellectual debate. In this 1970’s college art department, it was not America, with every person free to believe and create what he wanted, with reasons of his own choosing. 

 

“We have discussed this, and we are sure... you will not be happy here. 

You are an anachronism. You and your style are part of the past. You are not part of what we are doing here. And your mindset here tells us you are not going to change.”

“Are you telling me that I am not welcome to study here? That I cannot major in art at North Texas?” There was silence.

“We are telling you that you will not be happy here, and you need to go someplace else to study what you do, which is illustration.”

I argued that I thought illustration, if that was indeed what I did, was certainly as valid an art form as the pornographic ceramics I saw produced in the sculpture department, as honorable as stained glass or pottery or any high craft taught in the art school.

They made it clear that my arguments were pointless and they did not want me there. I was stupefied. I tried to reason with them. “This is all backwards. I am your customer. I am here to earn a degree. I need it and you need me to pay your salary. It’s your job to educate me, even if you don’t like me!” This did not go over well. So I begged for sympathy…

“So I’ve been painting all of my life, all I ever wanted to be was an artist. I’ve sold professionally since I was twelve or thirteen. Now you tell me I am not an artist! Where am I supposed to go? What am I supposed to study?” I finally had changed gears to indignation.

It has been forty years since that day, and I could be imagining this, But I seem to remember her saying flatly, "We don't care!"

They coldly recommended that I find another school, any school, or change my major… to perhaps advertising, where my gift of illustration might be of some use. I looked at Professor Cunningham to see if this was all a joke, or that the female faculty member was overstating it a bit. He did not crack a smile.

I had never given these people an ounce of trouble. But Professor Cunningham had once reprimanded me for naively helping other students when they were struggling with their drawings when he was not present. They had come to me more than once and asked for help, as he was often not present in the class. And he rarely taught anything when he was there. I had never suspected how jealous or threatened he must have been, or how expendable I was. 

 

After a brutal, heated discussion, I felt their resolve, and I knew that they were right. I was NEVER going to be happy there, because I made them unhappy. By the end of the “perfunctory” sophomore portfolio review, I was nearly in tears. Rejection, especially from your peers and especially your mentors, is HELL. I picked up my stuff and walked out of the building in a daze. I could not believe what I had just heard. It had been a grueling, life-changing half hour.

And supposedly, according to my mentors, I was no longer an artist. I went home to look up the word anachronism.

So you say, Russ, you seem to be having a pity party. Maybe I am. Injustice has always pissed me off, and especially when it changed the course of my life. 

 

I thought it would be amusing, with an art career now firmly established under my belt… to revisit North Texas State of Yesteryear… (now University of North Texas) And I did so, a few years ago, and I was in the area and went and asked to visit with the Dean of the Art Department. Poor guy. He was an acting Dean… it was a quiet summer day, he had obviously not prepared for anyone like me to walk in the door.

I told him who and what I was. I briefed him on a few of my accomplishments. He was polite and listened, I’m sure wondering what he was supposed to do. So he finally asked me what brought me there today, the point of my visit. I just had one question… as I have had many young people over the years look to me for guidance in pursuing an art career.

“Would you do the same thing to them today, that you did to me then?” 

 

The gracious acting Dean was quick to say… 

 

“You have to understand, that was the 70’s… there were a lot of standards being challenged then. Everybody was reinventing something. The pendulum has shifted somewhat. We’ve since realized that our primary job is to educate, regardless of a person’s color or creed.”

The dean made all of the right reactions and said all the right words to make me feel appeased, and I walked out with a tiny sense of vindication… I wondered what ever happened to those art instructors who so effectively booted me out of art school, and what kind of artists they turned out to be…

I'm sure even now, they would  not be proud of my legacy in the Brazos Valley. And I wonder what theirs is, in the final analysis of things. But I am sure that they were the big losers then and now. As were the thousands of students under their prejudiced influence.

 Amazingly, we are still insisting that kids get a college education as a prerequisite for success... We are the living illustration for insanity.

The Naked Truth About NTSU & Art School

 The staff of the North Texas Daily in 1975, as pictured in the college annual... the LAST college annual from NTSU...

 

 So I thought it would be fun now to revisit this whole ‘70’s college scene. I even went and bought an old college annual from that year when I transferred to North Texas. I am not in it, but that wild, anarchic world is very much in evidence. I know you are going to find all of this incredible, even now!

North Texas was an old and yet progressive state teachers college, a Liberal Arts school with a capital L. It was striving to join the coveted Southwest Football Conference. The highly admired Hayden Fry had been hired to coach the dream team that would win respect and ultimately entrance into the big leagues of college football. The home of “Mean” Joe Green, North Texas was full of itself. Of course, as a Fine Arts student, I did not really care much about all of that.

The fad of streaking had emerged the year before when I was at TCU. Streaking was popular on campuses all over the country for a year or so… then went away. Nobody ever explained why they started or why they quit. North Texas had streakers too. That is another blog… But somebody came out with a funny song about it, and everybody laughed it off and went back to business. The streakers were not the problem.

The “problems”were the various college administrations who could not handle the extremely clever and devious students everywhere who seemed to know how to get under their skin and make them act foolishly. That even included me. The art/journalism folks had especially made themselves public enemy number one. 

It was an intellectual struggle, and it was a fight to the finish. The student-generated North Texas Daily never missed an opportunity to embarrass and chastise the powers that be, so the university administration did the only reasonable thing, it began to defund certain irritating student-led institutions who had abused their First Amendment Rights, and especially those who could finagle a well-timed last word on various subjects. The old tradition of the college annual was killed outright.

So in its farewell publication, the discontinued annual staff created one hellova document… to forever embarrass and chastise. They must have spent a great deal of time thinking it through… and they had nothing to lose. It may have been the only Playboy themed college annual ever published. 

The North Texas Daily staff posed nude under the bedcovers, all of them together… a la “Bob & Ted & Carol & Alice.” The staff artist placed Playboy nymphs on many pages, spritely frolicking bare-chested amongst the photos of classmates. There was even a chapter entitled “Playmates.”

What is most stunning to me though, as I thumb through this wonderful time capsule, are the excellent articles, on concerns of the day; The dismal job market. It was terrible. So bad, folks were gladly prolonging graduation or going for their Masters degrees to just stay in school; The growing misuse of “student service fees,” usually for athletics; Student drinking; Women’s Rights; Corruption in Government at the highest levels. Nixon and most of his cabinet had finally stepped down. Good riddance, but what kind of country had we inherited, anyway? An unexplainable ENERGY CRISIS and outrageous gas prices; The desperate need for racial tolerance and understanding; The need for Freedom of Speech and the Freedom of the Press, no matter how uncomfortable it made certain parties…

Things have not changed a bit in forty years.

And the headlines of campus excitement, like the issues of today, were very similar to those of today… High profile football games, Willie Nelson singing on the campus… Troublemakers getting in trouble after making trouble for the administration…It’s all the same after 40 years! (Willie just played with his son at Texas A & M a few months ago...)

 Yes, absolutely, I took Life Drawing... TWICE... in fact that was where I found my purpose in life... and got myself uninvited to the art program at NTSU...

So this was the toxic bed of intolerance and discontent I walked into expecting to be treated fairly. There was so much negativity behind the scenes it is a wonder there was not more of a physical revolution emerging than a few dudes and chicks running around naked. And if you were in any of my life drawing classes, that was not a very big deal.

That was the seventies… which were pretty much like the eighties… and so on…

The only difference seems to be the technology employed. Now today’s youths run around naked on the Internet. And the means of debasement is the only development in the system. Those elusive desirable jobs are even more scarce, but now you can apply for the job you are not going to get online. You can save yourself the humiliation of knocking on doors… And the government is even more corrupt, but now they can employ all kinds of technologies to rob us, violate our rights and invade our lives, via Internet surveillance. Energy is still a wild economic roller coaster,  but we can know instantly what the price of crude is in Saudi Arabia, which we can never control or beat or compete with in a million years.

All of those educated fools in all of those colleges with all of those degrees, and we still have not solved any of the challenges of the Twentieth Century. And we are fifteen years into the Twenty-first. Makes me glad I did not invest my life in Economics, or Science, or Humanities, since they have learned and solved nothing in a half-century. At least in art school, I was told I was NOT going to be happy AND TO GET OUT OF HERE and I was a pathetic ANACHRONISM on a good day. This was all very sound advice. Those caring folks tried to save me a lot of time and money.

It seems any kind of art was considered art at NTSU, which had a very respectable art program in 1975. Any kind except mine of course.

I went back to school later at Sam Houston State and finished my degree. In the end I was absolutely sure my professors at NTS were correct. I was a throwback to the past, and I did not fit this era I am living in. Thank God! It turns out neither did they. 

So I have spent the last forty years being an anachronism. I’m a proud, lifelong ANACHRONIST, repelled out of art school by artist-anarchists. I was told by educated experts that I was not an artist… I’ve spent my whole career not even sure how to professionally define myself.

Pardon me for this observation, but after a life in art, or something akin to it, fifty years of painting and sculpting, PROFESSIONALLY, I have to call what I encountered at North Texas as a hostile hub of lies and revolution… something akin to THE SPIRIT OF THE ANTI- CHRIST.

I think I will stick with my brand… I could have done a lot worse.

A Change in the Wind

Photo courtesy of Jim Rogers

Listen to this voice crying in the wilderness.  Yes it has been dry and fruitless, for a long time; a veritable drought in retail sales, especially in art.  I think perhaps the hugely successful Plein Air show out in San Angelo (see below!) signified the beginning of a significant change in the winds of the American art market. As the economic and political scene settles down, I foresee a remarkable recovery in the art market, at least in areas where it used to be good, and some of those places are the oil rich regions of Texas.

When the oil field is booming, it trickles down to every community in Texas. So if you are an artist, get to work, in a few months you will wish you had some whoppers on hand, as the wheels of commerce begin to grind again. 

What makes an art town?

Fountains, Murals, Sculptures...

 Everywhere, beautiful, magnificent, lighted bridges,

A serene river winding through, parks and parks and more parks,

And San Angelo, Texas has it all. Check out  these various installations lurking in what they call "Art in Uncommon Places"...

Under the bridges...

A mosaic tribute to Van Gogh's Starry Night"

Junk vehicles transformed into mosaic masterworks.

Collections of fine art bolted to the embankments.

Sculptures throughout the city...

Because of the density of art, the critical mass of this enviable collection makes it the most beautiful city in Texas. And now San Angelo is the official host of the En Plein Air TEXAS art competition. So keep reading!

San Angelo Makes Art History

And I got to be there!

After a solid week of painting and partying, and then SELLING, what's not to love?

I've been talking about this art show for months, and now that it is over, I will never shut up about it. And I especially want to thank all of those who help put on this event. San Angelo just hosted a major plein air event that will set the bar for future such shows all across the southwest. 

The first annual En Plein Air TEXAS invitational competition was a smashing success on all accounts. 29 juried artists from 12 states (and France!) converged on San Angelo for four days of intensive outdoor landscape painting, to turn in their best two plein air sketches and compete for $13,000.00 in cash awards, and then sold over $100,000.00 worth of their freshly produced art! This overwhelming success surprised even its most optimistic supporters.

This kind of competition, on this scale, with these kinds of results is absolutely unprecedented. Not to mention that it was the most fun I have had in a long time. Here are some highlights of this event which made Texas art history!

Event judge Stephen Doherty (left), editor of Plein Air Magazine, visits with several artists at a catered luncheon on Thursday, hosted by Dr. & Mrs. David Harvey. Ray Hassard (far right) of Cincinati, Ohio, was to win the first place $3000.00 award.

Ray Hassard poses with the Judge and one of the show patrons

The artists were directed to sites all around the San Angelo area, including ranches, a winery, downtown San Angelo, and historic Fort Concho. Some painted as many as three or four paintings per day, searching for the winning composition. On Wednesday David Csont of Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania and I found this charming creek scene far in the outback of Tom Green County.

David Csont does his plein air landscapes in watercolor.

I waded across and painted about a hundred yards downstream , looking back at David...

Photo courtesy of Jim Rogers

Occasionally the artists would throw together impromptu exhibits wherever they were...

Notice all the different styles of paint boxes.

Transplanted Texan Melissa Arthur came all the way from Colorado to compete. She puts the finishing touches on the painting which would later earn her the coveted Artists Choice award.

Melissa smartly found refuge out of the wind and sun behind this truck brought by another artist. Plein air paintings are usually small, around 8 x 10 inches to 11 x 14 inches. The absolute limit in the competition is 20 x 24.

Ray Hassard loves to paint hay... hay in Ohio, hay in Texas... but he especially loves industrial subjects. He works in pastels, and achieves very intense hues and values with them.

Each artist brought not only luggage to cover a week of activities, in any kind of weather, but art supplies and frames for the paintings to be done. My Tahoe was packed to the ceiling.

Led by visionary Barbara Rallo, an amazing team of devoted volunteers made this event a golden moment for the participants. They made the highly unlikely seem routine. San Angelo has great people, great weather, and a great diversity of rich and inspiring subjects. Rallo and her sidekick Treva Boyd made it all come together.

Jimmy Longacre of Dripping Springs, Texas was one of around a dozen artists from the Lone Star State.

Joan Mertz was another cash award winner, and one of several local San Angelo artists invited to compete in the event. She is also the go-to girl for any question about local San Angelo history.

Floridian Karen Ann Hitt here uses an underpainting much like the old masters, as she starts a canvas depicting the cypress-lined creek that runs through the gorgeous Christoval Winery. 

 I managed to win an honorable mention at the "Quick Draw" on Saturday, saving my pride somewhat, but I felt lucky to just get into such a show. Another Texas artist confided in me that they felt pretty good about themselves until they saw the incredible competition... and the confidence turned into shame... It was humbling to see the fierce competition, some of the most talented painters in the country, cranking out fabulous art every few hours, as we got our artistic butts kicked. But we cannot ever get where they are until we face the challenge. This show made that happen. Many of us who were left in the San Angelo dust just raised the bar of our ambitions several notches. It was an enlightening experience, and that is a good thing.

Numerous bridges cross the Concho River while it meanders through San Angelo and provide infinite artistic opportunities. There is a stunning collection of public art along this corridor, which makes the search fun and inspiring.

The sights along this beautiful  little river have been barely explored...

Most of the artists at the show promised to return. San Angelo has a new goal: To be the Plein Air Capital of Texas!

Part II Art and the Law: RESIST TEMPTATION!

So you are broke and you need a gig and somebody approaches you with what sounds like a real career boost. You are willing to almost agree to anything to get a paying job, to get your work out there… What should you do if they hand you a contract and ask you to sign it and “get on with it…”?

I’m going to answer this question indirectly by sharing some of my experiences with my own art project contracts. My brother Ralph is an attorney and taught me a long time ago to treat contracts very seriously. He impressed on me the basic truth that lawyers design contracts for their clients to protect them and their interests, even to give them the legal edge, and they have no intention of designing anything remotely fair.  These contracts are inherently skewed in the favor of the employer, and after paying for their services, companies are not likely to ignore the “best counsel” from their own attorneys... So often the result is a stalemate.

Still, contracts are often the necessary step to commence with projects for design consultants, general contractors or architects. And they can get pretty adversarial. The State jobs will always have a contract requiring bonding and a certain amount of liability insurance.  And nowadays schools will require a contract that requires a criminal background check and total access to all your files, equipment and computers.

My first contract wrangle was a doozy, and worth telling for what you can learn.

I won a bid to create a sizable amount of art inside a school, ($12,000.00 worth of murals and sculptures) and although endorsed by the architect, I technically was going to be hired and paid by the general contractor. The contractor, who I will call Dime Construction, told me to come pick up the contract and review it, and I elected not to sign it immediately, and instead chose to look it over during the weekend.

It just so happened to my great advantage my brother from Alaska, an attorney, was in Texas and we were able to go over it. After reading it he stated flatly, “If you sign that, I’ll never speak to you again.” Assuming he was kidding, I laughed and said that I was probably going to sign it in some form because I needed the job. I needed the business! I’ll never forget what he said…

“You may need business, but you don’t need THAT kind of business.” I began to realize he was dead serious. “Can you afford to do all of that and not get paid? Because that could happen with this contract.” Now he had my attention.

“If their forklift runs into your mural and destroys it, can you afford to do it over and not be compensated?

If their forklift runs over your palette knife, and somehow disables it, can you afford to fix the forklift?  

If they for some reason do not get paid by the ISD, they don’t have to pay their subs… can you afford not to get paid?

If they for some reason are not pleased with your work, they don’t have to pay you… Can you afford to spend months, and thousands on payroll and materials, and not be compensated?

Can you afford to work for free?”

“Uh… no.”

“Well that’s what this contract says! If you sign this I can’t help you… You do not need this kind of job… you may need work, but you don’t need a job that could bankrupt you.”

He was right of course and we red-lined the stuff I could not abide by and I submitted the amended contract to Dime that next Monday. In no time Dime Construction contacted me and said thank you very much but I would not be getting the job. End of conversation.

Welcome to the game of business hardball!  A couple of days later the architect, thoroughly disappointed, asked what had happened. He wanted me to do this job. After hearing my explanation, he arranged for me to work directly for the ISD. I went to see the Assistant Superintendent and we had a nice visit… Everything was great until I told him I would need a deposit to buy materials and make payroll for my sub-contractors.  He shrugged that off, as it was against district policy. End of conversation. I shrugged it off too, as by now I was fed up with the striving required in the “big leagues.”

Then the architect called me again, incredulous. Finally, thankfully, he agreed to hire me and pay me and get reimbursement. That was how I got my first major contract, and this story has a moral: Dime Construction failed to meet deadlines and standards on this project and did not get paid, and went under. Had I signed that contract, I might never have been paid. It would have been a debacle.

Now fast forward sixteen years… Recently I was invited back to the same school to do my third extra mural since that job. They love me and I got the bid and hired a helper and purchased materials. Then I got an email from my friend, the principal, to hold everything …

It turns out the State of Texas now requires that every ISD contractor with direct exposure to schoolchildren has to submit to a criminal background check (absolutely fine with me) as well as his employees (OK).  AND he must pay to join a criminal background checking service (not so happy, but OK)  AND agree that the State inspectors, for any reason, at any time can demand access to and total  disclosure of all of a contractor's files, papers, computers, equipment and anything connected to his business. Since I office in my home, this would include my home.  Hmmmmmm. Not only that, but this process of just getting cleared to execute the contract can take several months, or longer to complete! I would not be able to complete the job in the time window I promised.

So my twenty year career as a school muralist came to an unceremonious end.

Contracts.  Gotta have ‘em! But more and more the legal eagles are tightening the screws on their perceived adversaries. And they have become greedy bullies in the process…

Even more recently I agreed to lead painting sessions at a national chain franchise “paint & sip” studio, the going thing these days. It’s getting to where folks are only curious about their talent if it involves drinking wine… anyway I jumped through all the hoops until finally I was handed a contract. Which I knew by now,  I had better take it with me, sit down in a quiet place, while very sober and consider it. But how contentious could this fun and light-hearted kind of place be?

The studio required that the teachers do all the preparatory set up and after-class clean up, but the artists would only be paid for the hours of instruction (2@ $20.00 hr). They were required to provide availability schedules, but were not promised any particular set number of hours of work. The artists are required to provide, for a measly $40.00, one completed painting per month to be used as a model for future sessions. No royalties will be paid, not even credit for doing them. Forever.  And here was the kicker… The artist leader that meets these expectations joyfully gets to lead more sipping sessions…  But can you imagine what this company could make off of one talented moron who willingly submits to this conscription, over the next decade?

That will not be me. I let them know as nicely as I could that this contract was very objectionable to me. As somewhat of a leader in the arts in my community, I have an obligation not to appear to endorse the wholesale, corporate violation of artist’s copyrights and intellectual property. 

So by now you can see the trend. We are screwed. Corporate America and the government have teamed up to rob us of our privacy, our earnings, and even our just residuals. So you need to define your limits and brace yourself.

I am old school, and I cannot make the turn. And I pity the next generation who has to fight this fight, for the rights our forefathers fought for and established long ago. But there is a real fight ahead for artists to maintain the respect, incomes and professional leverage they have enjoyed.

God Bless, and let me know how you do!