Monkey Business

[Susan Taylor Glasgow]

Hi All! It's been requested that I talk about my experiences in the business end of promoting my work, stemming from my applying for a patent on my technique. Now that I'm on the spot I may have to think here for a minute.... First off I guess there is an attitude about what you're doing--not the art end, but the business end. I had to decide straight out that this was going to be my livelyhood, and not an expensive hobby. Once that decision was made I set up my goals--On the top of the pyramid was the ultimate goal, and under it all the layers I thought would get me there. It was very hard not to get distracted, (or starve) but I had to keep asking myself if this is going to get me closer or distract me from "the plan". There is a big danger of course of being so focused on your goal that you don't realize (as you grow) that your goal was not exactly what you want anymore, or not taking a fun detour because it's not in the path of your goal. I've personally adjusted my ultimate goal a couple times to allow me to be more creative in my art and frolic a bit. I'm always amazed at what a little self promotion will get you. I spend Mondays sending out slides/postcards to appropriate people,museums,mags, shows, etc, with a little info about moi. Even if you only get a small return, the price is minimal compared to the cost of an ad in AC. A quarter pg. color ad in AC is $1,200. I've done it, but I have to take a stiff drink each time I make the call. If I was rich enough I'm sure I'd be famous! Often your galleries will share the cost if you ask them, especially if it is advertising an expensive piece. Gallerie Alegria in Birmingham always splits the cost with me. Half the cost and 3,000 times the exposure of just their gallery setting. Wow, you put a quarter in me! I guess I should let someone respond here! XO, Susan

[rosanna gusler]

great info susan, thank you. this is going in my 5 , i mean 4 year plan folder. (just had a birthday) i am phasing out boatwork, ladders, scaffolding etc in favor of glass , kilns and climate controll by the time i am 50. this sort of practical, been there done/doing that info is perfect. rosanna

[Cynthia]

Me thinks you are going to do just fine Susan...just fine.

Now, I need to follow your lead, get back to what I do well instead of what I think will make it in the market and promote the hell out of ME so that I can make it in this market. I'm currently paralyzed with lethargy and no direction. I need a good swift kick, and in imagining the look on your face as you post this topic, I feel a little foot against my right buttock. Dale ain't selling glass, he's selling Dale, but it helps that the glass is good. You have an even stronger body of work, so what's not to succeed?

I'd love to own Cinderella's Purse...Partly because I love the piece, and partly because it will connect me to very nice thoughts of you and your body of work, your sense of humour in particular. Ooooh... a pillbox hat with some wonderful netlike embellishments...beaded and buttoned. That would plug me into fun memories even more than the purse. Have you considered hats? My grandmother was a church lady and always wore stylish hats and gloves that matched her hand sewn two-piece suits. ...Now I am wandering about with my memories surrounding hats. Bold hats, silly hats, your hats...

Take care Susan. Thanks for making work that makes me think and feel.

[Susan Taylor Glasgow]

Hey Cynthia! Thank you for that nice posting!. I can't imagine you stalled for any reason. Ok, I guess I do understand... I know if I don't have a deadline coming up I really stall. Maybe the trick is to overbook yourself. Nothing like a good dose of panic to get the creative juices flowing! Hey, have you applied for the Smithsonian Show yet? It would be great to see you again! S

[Cynthia]

A response to Susan, but keeping it public since it started that way. Who knows. Perhaps this is interesting to others.

I haven't submitted, and doubt I will this year since I have only a few dozen new pieces since last Spring. I would love to see you again though and will figure out a way to make that happen. There's always 2005.

I would love to do the Smithsonian show again, but I have changed directions and am working up a lot of 2-D work. I am a painter as well as a glass worker, and have been working up some fired painted pieces incorporating non-glass and non-fired materials. I want to stick with glass because I love it. I am using mixed media so to speak with Paradise Paints, mica, wire... It is a lovely combination of materials, and they look good, yet the pieces aren't good enough. I am missing something and can't seem to get there from here. This is where I am stuck. I know what's holding me up too, but can't get beyond it. I call it irrational and ridiculous fear. I haven't shown them to many, but a select few who's opinions I trust and respect. They agree that the work isn't quite there and needs to be developed further. But can't give me the push (smack upside the head) I need. I had a professor who said once that my work would benefit if I would learn to paint naked in public. IN other words, let go a little honey, it aint about pretty.

I've made this change in direction before, but always get stuck. It sucks. I believe/hope I will figure it out though. My dear friend and mentor in the painting universe is usually my best critic and can pin me to the wall with his perceptiveness about what is working, what isn't and more importantly, why. He's good at knocking some sense into me too. He is out of reach until November though, the bum. If I can't find my way successfully back to my basic need to paint well and do strong pieces...then I'll do more vessels. I have a nice bit of work there that can sustain me financially and creatively...It's just that I have different work I want to be doing and like I said, I am so stuck (not naked).

If I still smoked cigarettes and drank too much alcohol, I would be smoking and drinking. I have a few options at this point for filling this void. One is to eat a lot of decadant things, but I can't afford a new wardrobe . I could get a real job, or break through this stuckness and work up some decent and fully developed pieces, or stick with making graphicly designed vessels. Only the last two would be truly rewarding, so I'll avoid my impulse to eat cheesecakes whole and gigantic bags of buttered (extra butter please) popcorn.

I usually take a class when it gets this bad. Roger Thomas is teaching up at Firehouse this fall and in Gardena as well. I could audit a class in the printmaking depatrment and do some etchings or litho's. It ain't new tricks or distractions I need though...Hmmm. I really liked the feeling I got when I thought of my grandmother's hats and the nostalgia of my childhood memories as they were attached to certain objects...Americana and the like. Perhaps I should just paint up a bunch of hats and see how I feel about that and where that takes me. I have a lot of language to attach to these projects as well. Maybe this conversation has added a little grease to my sticky hinges alng with that little foot I felt nudging me in my right buttock.

The last set of panels I did for a commissioned job were fun, got them done a week ago and they were more painterly than I have done publicly in the past. I am getting more work of that nature too as more of those pieces find their way out there. I prefer to do work on speculation though and let my own desires drive the outcome. Spoiled little brat that I am...I want it my way.

Okay, time to walk the poochie and come back to fret over these underdeveloped pieces. Or maybe I'll paint me a hat or two.

[Laurie Young]

Cynthia,
its funny I happened to read your post on hats, just yesterday I dug out some of my late grandmothers hats, pretty much as you described, beautiful old velvet and feathered hats with little veils, and I decided to try and recreate them in glass. I have been working on a series of cast clothing, and am moving into footware (Im working on a pair of crystal thongs right now)and millinary- serendipity!
cheers,
Laurie

[Cynthia]

I have been looking at some cast glass clothing, ranging from shoes to dresses. It's curious how clothes hanging on a line, animated by wind, or a flowing gown, a pair of gloves lying together on a bureau...can evoke a reaction from pretty much anyone. I think it's because clothing is so personal, and we make strong associations to clothing and events, the wearer or periods of time...at least I do.

I associate pill box, netted and beaded hats and two piece suits with my Grandmother. French twist hair do's and Laura Petrie capri's with my mother along with the laundry flapping in the back yard, and my emberrasment that she would have the audacity to hang her underwear out to dry for all the world to see. Nehru Jackets go with my brother, and cheerleading skirts and orthodontically straight teeth with my sister. My dad is Khaki...lightweight jacket, pants and lace up boots...My grandpa was overalls, dusty boots and an old felt hat that was crushed into the perfect fit.

Good luck with your cast hats. I would love to see the end results and expect I'll make a few associations of my own. I didn't paint any hats the other day, but did work up some more glass pieces for further development. Ugh.

[Bert Weiss]

Cynthia

I wish that you were headed to WGWE this year. My painting on glass class is aimed at people exactly like yourself. I use a palette of 19 colors that can be used in a variety of painterly techniques. When one applies the style in which they like to work, you can acheive a personal look to the work. The use of the brush stroke is very exciting on glass.

These techniques are not at all traditional. We are using china paint on a transparent or opaque surface. This means that creativity rules and the results will be new and different.

I understand about getting stuck. It happens to me all too often. So in the immortal words of Cher, "SNAP OUT OF IT"

[Susan Taylor Glasgow]

Can you go wrong quoting Cher? By the sound of your personal interest and feeling about your new projects Cynthia, I'm surprised you're feeling like you're "stalled". Maybe you're just working things out in your head toward preparation. Sounds like a great direction. Did you know that there will be a Glass Fashion Show at the next GAS conference in New Orlean next June? Laura Donafer is coordinating it. It will be juried with alot of publicity, and probably a little wild thinking of Laura+New Orleans! Contact the GAS website to learn more, as the details are still in the works. It may be that you have to be a member of GAS, but I'm not sure.

[Pama Designs]

Mondays sending out slides/postcards to appropriate people,museums,mags, shows, etc, with a little info about moi. Susan

Hi Susan, I curious about the bookkeeping part, particularly since I'm not adept at that yet, although I've gone to the extent of buying a DOME Simplified Monthly Bookkeeping Record book because the counselor at the Small Business Administration said I didn't have to bother with computer software for accounting at this point, and I'd like to reduce the amount of work I do on the computer anyway. I have a folder full of receipts from expenditures and another (unfortunately smaller) folder full of notes from sales, and I've yet to put them in the DOME accounting book. Can you offer any sage advice on how to go about the accounting? (I've been in business for myself before as a business writer, but the accounting was very simple and I didn't have such things as inventory and all these supplies).
Alice

[Susan Taylor Glasgow]

Hi Alice,
My husband Brian writes software, so naturally I have more than I need. I use the direct method of accounting and inventory to keep things simple. Basically, I pay as I go and try not to let things go unpaid from one fiscal year to the next, just to keep things straight. I do not do an inventory count at the end of the year and enter work paid for when the check comes in. All major equipment purchases are depreciated, small tools deducted. I also have to keep record of travel expenses and miles on the truck, as I deduct that too of course. Along with deducting the space/utilities I used in our house for the studio. If you have an accountant helping you that's great. Unless you have a lot of activity--buying, selling, shipping, travelling--you should be fine, but enter info into your book at least monthly so you don't get overwhelmed or forget things. S

[Pama Designs]

Hi Alice,
I do not do an inventory count at the end of the year and enter work paid for when the check comes in. ...enter info into your book at least monthly so you don't get overwhelmed or forget things. S

That's a good tip about entering info at least monthly. I wondered if people do it every couple of days or by the week or what. Did you mean to write that you *do* an inventory count at the end of the year? Is such a count needed for tax purposes? Unfortunately I don't have an accountant at the moment and may not be affording one for a while.

[Susan Taylor Glasgow]

Hi Alice, I DO NOT do an inventory at the end of the year. I have never been asked to in the past. Maybe this is an error. I use all of my materials fairly fast, so there is not much carry-over anyway. And how do you inventory tupperwares full of scrap? It's pretty much frit foder, and that's it. I'll check into that inventory thing, as at worst it would be a good account of what has come and gone out of the studio. I do know lots of artists that are careful about what is coming in and going out and record on a weekly basis. I'm less excited about it and do it monthly. S

[Ann Demko]

I did my raxes for the first time for my studio, which was very little since I just started. Anyway, I was is a quandry sbout inventory and how was I going to do that with all those boxes of glass shards etc. I finally read in the tax code somewhere that a small business, which by IRS standards is in the hundreds of thousnds of dollars, does not have to do and inventory. Hope I'm not wrong on this or if there any IRS auditors out there my real name is Mrs. Bill Gates.

[Susan Taylor Glasgow]

Thanks Ann, for that note. I'll check too, but maybe that's the reason it's never been asked of me. Since I know I can't know everything anyway, I have absolutely no interest in getting to knowing things I hate! Ouch. That hurt my brain.

[Don Burt]

clip:
I am using mixed media so to speak with Paradise Paints, mica, wire... It is a lovely combination of materials, and they look good, yet the pieces aren't good enough. I am missing something and can't seem to get there from here. This is where I am stuck.
clip

I'll take a guess from the above statement that the genesis of your recent work has been from the materials you're using. Maybe its time to start with something other than the materials. A different spot in the brain, if you will. I can see myself sometimes trying to do the right thing with the materials, instead of exploring something outside the materials and trying to let the materials work independantly. So just a suggestion: start from a different point, one thats less comfortable.

Some words I think about:

A piece can be
comfortable good accurate fine restful harmless even durable nurturing illustrative representative resolved perfect noble pleasant

But its more fun if its
Interesting dangerous provocative evocative confusing amazing revealing distrbing disquieting tense surprising maetaphorical ambiguous heroic instructive

It doesn't matter if its
True useful good evil