Art Matters! Scion x-CHANGE is matching donations made to selected arts-based nonprofits by up to $30, 000 this year, and RED DOT Project is proud to be one of the selected 30 non-profits in over 30 cities.  Scion believes artists drive the cultural identity of a city, and that this support provides the necessary workspaces, materials, educational opportunities and support platforms to these artists. The company also recognizes that brand awareness can be more than purchasing ad space… it can be a catalyst for community support and artistic expression.  The Scion x-CHANGE Program connects people, online and on-the-streets, to these featured nonprofits. 

Save the weekend of July 24 and 25 and join us at Phoenix Coffee House on Coventry to drive for x-CHANGE and support your artistic community and plan to hear more in the days and weeks to come.

Robert L. Stockham is a Cleveland-based fine art photographer and a principal in Great Lakes Design Cooperative, which specializes in commercial and retail design with a focus on environmental sustainability. Robert’s photo art runs the gamut from portraiture to urban landscapes to prints like the one you see here, in which he uses traditional darkroom techniques to develop ethereal photo images on canvas. The results are moody and textural, inviting the viewer to collaborate with the artist to reflect on these environment based compositions.

More of Robert’s work can be seen (and purchased) at the Endure collection launch on February 11, 2010, at www.shopreddotproject.org.

Chris Zielski’s career began in arts education but bloomed into an exploration of textiles, photography and metal. All these disciplines inform her work today as she creates collages that combine metal, etching and photo transfer. Organic objects — leaves, insects, water currents — find their way into her metal art. So do geometry and geography. One of her favorite commissions was a grid of tiles that made up a map of the Great Lakes, featured here. This work, a commission through RED DOT Project, has led Chris to further explore the creation of maps large and small — and maps are now an important piece of her business, resulting in additional commissions and sales.

Chris uses an electrolytic, environmentally-friendly alternative to acid-based etching. Each metal plate is coated with up to eight layers of acrylic glaze that creates a surface with rich color and a high gloss similar to that of an enamel, but without the use of hazardous materials. Her works reflect the environment and her processes reflect her commitment to sustainable art practices.

More of Chris Zielski’s work can be seen (and purchased) at the Endure collection launch on February 11, 2010, at www.shopreddotproject.org.

Call this the era of The Next Big Thing. From cell-phone gadgetry to biomedical discoveries, big-screen TVs to big-industry bailouts, lots of today’s energy, enterprise and attention are focused on what’s going to make tomorrow’s headlines. Which made Red Dot Project wonder: What about the value of what endures?

So next week RED DOT Project launches Endure, our first theme-based curated online collection featuring art by Robert L. Stockham, Qandle Qadir and Chris Zielski. We chose Endure for its importance to the work of our featured artists, both in terms of technique and materials. Canvas, metal and stone – they’re all time-tested. All evoke art and artists that have come before. All depend on the enduring gifts of nature. We also chose Endure for what it means to art and the art-loving community at large. What does it mean to endure in a changing world and a shaky economy? What are the practices that keep our heads above water? Who are the people we count on, the pleasures that matter? Where do we go for sustenance and succor? What are the values that have sustained us in the past, and promise to do so in the future? These questions (and maybe some answers) are hinted at in the works of our featured artists. And as we enter our fifth year, RED DOT Project will continue to explore new ways to help the artists of Northeast Ohio prosper and endure.

One of the ongoing issues for artists is pricing their work.  In a pithy post titled “Wandering Prices” posted in “The Painter’s Keys” Robert Genn gets it right.  Artists are best served when they take control of the prices of their work and keep the final retail price consistent, and also recognize the context in which their work is exhibited.  Exposure beware!  As Genn says …”Whether your work is in the National Gallery or in Heidi Fleiss’s House of Ill Repute, your prices to the general public need to be the same. This means that only you control the final price. The percentage that various venues take is negotiated from your standard pricing. If you don’t take control no one else will, and some brigands will run over you. Wandering prices are most unfair to your collectors and spoil the steady upward progression an artist can enjoy during a lifetime of creativity.  Keep reading here…. http://clicks.robertgenn.com/wandering-prices.php 

I am often asked what art sells best.  My reply takes on a rambling quality about the variety of art styles, colors or visual content has been selling.  The art that sells is the art that satisfies an individual requirement.  Sometimes it is color (‘we need something blue to go with our carpet’). 

 Betsy Molnar, Cosmos

Sometimes it is content (‘we want to show Cleveland’). 

Barney Taxel, Downtown from Garfield’s Monument

Sometimes it is style (‘we want something contemporary’).   

Brock Winans, Untitled

More recently, a client found a print she loved by Kate Ward Terry.  Her sister had gone to school with Kate, and she was thrilled to add Kate’s piece to her collection. 

Kate Ward Terry, Disordered

It is hard to quantify what sells best because each decision is based on an individual’s or company’s goals.  What does work best is discovering an artist or a piece of artwork that you love and buy it, hang it up, and enjoy it.

This image comes via Housemartin.  Amy Butler sums it up best, “Great style comes from confidence.  Love what you love, and don’t be shy about it.”

Check out the story that was in today’s Plain Dealer in the Business Section

Feeding the idea that local artists shouldn’t starve 

A great picture of one of our artists, Nancy Richards-Davis in her studio.

Catch up with RED DOT Project artists, events, installations, and updates to our website.  We are connecting regional artists to business opportunities and want to take you along for the ride…