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Spring 2014
Volume 1, Issue 1New work, first look
Studio Insider: Outdoor mosaics -making them to survive theelements
Art Junkie: Cagney King
Exposure kills, man
On the worktable …
WelcomeI’m very pleased to bring you the inaugural issue of Shattered.This new publication has several purposes. One is to share mynew work with you and keep you abreast of news and upcomingevents, much like an email newsletter would. However, this newplatform offers so many more tools to work with, I can includeso much more.
One new segment is called I love to search out newand different art, art of a style that I would never think toincorporate into my body of work. The appreciation of work thatfalls far outside of your own creative impulses can add a richnessand understanding, not only of art generally, but of yourrelationship to the world and your place in it. I’ll share artworkthat resonates with me, whether from current artists or fromartists of the past, without commentary so that you can bringyour own experiences to the party and develop your own responsewithout prejudice.
Another regular feature will be This section is forfans and fellow artists alike, and will feature a link to a short videoon my Youtube channel. This will give clients and collectors a peekat just what goes into the making of a mosaic, and benefit fellowartists by sharing some of the things I have learned over the yearsthat have made things easier, added interest, saved me money,or give general instructions for techniques that might not be thatcommon.
On the subject of making the life of an artist a little easier, I willalso include a column titled which will addressways that artists struggle stay creative, juggle life inside andoutside the studio, and keep up with the demands of running an
art business. This will give an interesting insight into the life ofan artist for those who don’t practice art themselves, and aimsto be a helpful resource for those who do. If you are an artistwho would like to share your experience with us in an upcomingissue, please email me at [email protected]. We’re alllooking for a fresh perspective.
So please, enjoy this first issue, share it with your friends, andby all means, send me feedback (email above).
Lee Ann
ContentsNew Work
● Flight of Fancy p. 4
On the Worktable
● Bellafiore
News and Events
● Unfurled dedication p. 8● Edible Bits and Pleasing Pieces p. 8
Art Junkie
● Cagney King
Studio Insider
● Making garden mosaics that last p. 12
Angst and Issues
● “People die of exposure, you know.” p. 13
Miscellany
● Jonesborough’s Music on the Square p. 17
This is the smallest piece I have ever created. It is only 4” X4”, and was made to those specifications for the 4 X 4Miniature Masterpiece event held by the Johnson City AreaArts Council. This is an annual fund raising event, in whichevery piece of art donated is exactly 4” X 4”. For those wholive nearby, the Arts Council gallery on East Main Street inJohnson City will feature all those tiny works at the FirstFriday event on March 7, 2014. The actual fund raising eventwill be March 23 at the Carnegie Hotel.
The dragonfly was constructed first of glass and beads, thengrouted in black before starting the background. Thebackground is ungrouted white Carrara marble and glassleaves.
This piece is not for sale, but something similar can becommissioned. Please contact me for details.
Flight of Fancy
On the worktable …
When I lived in New Hampshire, I owned a garden designbusiness, Bellafiore Gardens. This piece is based on a photo Itook in my gardens to use as a logo for that business. I am nota good photographer by any stretch of the imagination, so I haveto rely on chance and synchronicity to occasionally produce agood image that can be used in my art. The photo was taken ofrudbeckias on the north side of the house in late afternoon, andsomehow the combination of lack of skill, low light, and cheapcamera produced one of my favorite images ever. I can’t explainwhy the background is so blue in the original photo, but I loveit!
This large piece (30” X 36”) has been underway for over a yearnow (it has hibernated for extended periods). At the risk ofsounding schmaltzy, it feels appropriate that an artwork basedon my gardens should have spent several months hibernating.
Bellafiore
Now available is , a cookbookby Pam Givens and Jacqueline Iskander. It features somewonderful-sounding recipes, and 64 gorgeous pieces of food-themed mosaic art from 49 artists. Happily, my piece
was accepted for inclusion in this exciting project.The book is available on Amazon.com. See it here.
In January, the official dedication and ribbon cutting was heldat Ciel Gallery in Charlotte, NC for the mosaic muralOver 50 artists contributed to this - the photo on the facing pageshows the first of three flowers, the one I contributed to. Mysection is the pink and yellow streaky petal on the far left. Tosee pictures of the ceremony and of the entire mural, pleasevisit my Facebook page here.
Not only was working on a gorgeous way to bringartists together to enrich a community, we’re all very proud thatit was accepted into the Mosaic Arts International 2014 exhibitat the Society of American Mosaic Artists convention in Houstonthis year.
It’s been a long time since I did an interview, but on February2, 2014 I was interviewed by RT Thomas of CreativeConnections on BlogTalk Radio. I really enjoyed the talk—wediscussed inspiration, roadblocks, and some of the businessissues artists face today. You can hear it here.
Jonesborough, Tennessee’s Music on the Square will hold theirfundraising auction on April 4, 2014 at the InternationalStorytelling Festival. On offer is a six week garden mosaicworkshop with me, and the opportunity to purchase an originalmosaic, 25% of which will benefit MOTS. See page 17 fordetails.
News and Events
© 2014 Lee Ann Petropoulos$775
© 2014 Lin Schorr/Pam Goode
Art JunkieArtwork that resonates with me, from current artists or fromartists of the past, presented without commentary to allowyou to develop your own response without prejudice.
Cagney Kingwww.cagneyking.com
42 & change
Find your place
Studio InsiderMosaics in the garden are a wonderful way to bring art outdoors, add color to thegarden when not much is blooming, or perk up the landscape in winter. Althoughthe basics of making mosaics for outdoor use is the same, there are a number ofthings you need to know. You certainly don’t want to spend the time and effort ofa beautiful mosaic only to have it crack or fade in a year or less.
I am offering a workshop in April 2014 to teach all the insider info you need to learnhow to make mosaics that will survive in the elements. Visit the workshop page onmy website to learn the details and to sign up.
Below is a link to a short video clip from an interview I did with Debbie Hopkins inwhich we discuss some of the issues with garden mosaics and how the garden ballwas made. Click the picture below to view it on Youtube.
Angst & Issues
If you listened to my interview on BlogTalk Radio, you know I havea real issue with the prevalence of artists being asked to work forfree. This takes many forms: performing artists are asked to performat functions and for group meetings without pay because “it will begood exposure”; visual artists are asked to participate in craft-showtype events that aren’t a good fit because “it will be good exposure”.And everyone is asked to donate their art, tickets to their shows, orclasses to every good cause under the sun.
First let’s consider the good cause argument. Everyone loves to helpout a good cause. The problem is that there are thousands of goodcauses that need help. Economic times being what they are, thereseem to be more and more of them that need help. But I don’t carehow generous you are—you don’t have time enough to help themall. If you consider yourself a hobbyist and don’t mind donating aLOT of art, that’s wonderful. But if you’re a serious artist hoping tomake a living, you have to put some real limits on the time you spendmaking things that don’t add to yourinventory of saleable work. Yes, it’s
that someone at the auction willbecome a future client, but it’s much morelikely that they will simply go home witha warm fuzzy feeling from all the lovelythings they saw and the good that wasdone. Not that there’s anything wrongwith that …
Lots of people can tell you about thecharitable tax deduction trap that artists
face, and we’ll come to that too, but first let’s take a moment toremember that story you used to hear growing up about free milkand the cow. If you get a reputation for giving it away, how muchharder will it be for you to get a fair price for your work in the future?And make no mistake, people are hoping for a bargain when theygo to these auctions. Their mindset is that you have already forgonepayment for the item by donating it so they aren’t cheating you bybidding low. And that whatever they pay for it is more than thebenefiting organization had yesterday, so if they score a big discountthey will walk away from the situation thinking it was a win/win. You(and maybe the organization, too) may think it leans more towardlose/lose. (If had sold your work at full value and donated themoney, the organization would have benefited more.) And if yourwork consistently sells below retail at auctions, how will you evermake another retail sale?
So let’s talk about the tax consequences. Many of the people whocontact you asking for a donation think you can take a tax deductionfor either the amount you would sell it for, or it’s actual selling price.You can’t. You can only deduct the cost of the actual supplies youused. No accounting for time, no value for your experience or levelof accomplishment. Keep in mind, too, that a tax deduction doesn’treduce your tax bill dollar for dollar. So if you claim your supplies asa deduction, only a percentage of that is actually coming off yourtax bill, and you made no income from it. So in effect, you haven’teven fully paid for the cost of supplies to make it, never mind thecost of your time.
“People die of exposure, you know”
More >>>
This is a good time to make the disclaimer that I am not a taxexpert, nor even an accountant. You should obviously base yourdecisions on advice from someone who is, but this at least givesyou some things to think about and discuss with your tax preparer.
It’s also important to point out that this is in no way intendedto ask artists to stop donating to causes they care about. It’sjust to make sure that they understand what the impact is ontheir own business. As you can see, if you want a successful artbusiness, you can’t spend a lot of time making things that willhave a negative impact on your cash flow. You have to choosewisely. I personally think it’s a good idea to ask that anyorganization asking for a donation be willing to split the proceeds50/50 with you. You will have to report that 50% as income, butat least you will have fully covered the cost of supplies. (If not,we need to talk about pricing!) Again, see disclaimer above.
OK. Let’s say you feel the need to begin to take control of whatyou will and will not donate art for. How will you respond whenyou feel the need to say no?
Alyson Stanfield writes a very helpful blog chock full of advicefor artists on how to run their businesses, stoke their creativity,and generally exist in this world as an artist without losing yourmind. I highly recommend it. Recently she wrote an article aboutjust this issue, and offered links to sample letters to help youget started. Each one offers a unique perspective on how toapproach the subject, and each one can serve not only to giveyou support for your decision, but to help educate those whorequest donations about what it is you have to take intoconsideration. Start with Alyson’s blog post here and follow thelinks from there.
But what if you would really like to help, but don’t want to ( orcan’t) take a financial hit? How can you work it out?
I was recently asked for a donation for the fundraising auctionfor Music on the Square in Jonesborough, Tennessee. EveryFriday night during the summer, Main Street is closed off andthe community comes together to hear a wide variety of musicalartists. It’s a wonderful way to bring the community together,and having been a musician in a former life, I support any effortto bring music to the masses.
I asked whether minimum bids were typically set (in order toprevent a piece from being sold far below its value). They werenot. If the piece were to sell quite low, it would not representme well to the auction goers, thereby canceling the benefit ofthe “exposure”. So … what to do?
What I settled on was to donate a six week workshop, one-on-one instruction, for garden mosaics. These workshops are givenin my home studio, and students supply their own substrate. Iwill only need to provide the time (time IS money) and someglass (in the neighborhood of $25 worth). This will advertise myclasses for less than most newspapers, blogs, and magazines,and still provide a reasonable donation to the organization.
I could have left it at that and we all would have been happy.But I thought this could also work to promote real sales of myoriginal pieces as well as benefit the organization. I decided thatfor any sales of original pieces during March and April where theclient mentions Music on the Square, I will donate 25% of thatsale to MOTS. This is less than a gallery would take from a sale,and by taking home 75% of the sale of a piece, I have myexpenses well covered and then some. Yet if no sales occur asa result, no harm done.
Now what I call a win/win.
Prints, mugs and miscellany available with my images at
Society6
Click the photo below to see current offerings
Websitewww.MosaicArtbyLA.com
Bloghttp://mosaicartbyla.blogspot.com
Phone423.946.5690
Google+https://plus.google.com/u/0/+LeeAnnPetropoulos
Pinteresthttp://www.pinterest.com/lapetropoulos/
Links and Contact
Garden Mosaic Workshop
This six week course of one-on-one instruction willbe auctioned off at the Music on the Squarefundraiser at the International Storytelling Centeron April 4, 2014. You will learn to design for thegarden, what types of tiles are appropriate forexposure to the elements, and what adhesives andgrout to use. Make a stepping stone, gazing globe,or birdbath!
$300 value!
Music on the Square Fundraiser
25% of purchase goes to MOTS!
Purchase an original mosaic between March 3, 2014and May 1, 2014, mention MOTS, and 25% of thepurchase price will be donated to MOTS! A greatway to help a wonderful project and beautify yourhome at the same time. To view the available art inperson, call 423-946-5690.
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