Thanks to everyone who read and or commented on my blog this past week!!
It was so wonderful to hear from everyone. Thank you for the compliments and feedback on what this blog has meant to you and your advice on what I should do with it now. You all made me think a lot this past week and smile more than a few times as well.
This is what I have decided. I am going to take a break from this blog for a while and regroup, work hard, learn some things, and finally try to put some of this information into a lecture or class format like I always intended. I am going to really try to find new venues and audiences for my art as well as try to expand my etsy offerings. So, let's meet back here on the first Friday of April. A full month off and then we will check in with each other and see where we will go from there. I might be full of new information and stories or I may say goodbye for good. Like I said you won't completely lose touch with me as I am around on the internet in various creative forms if you just look. :) and there is always my website www.meganchapman.com. Also please remember the archives and the condensed version links. I am sure there are posts you haven't yet read that you might enjoy. Oh and I am also now on twitter for any twitter folks out there. http://twitter.com/meganchapman
I wouldn't be me if I didn't leave you with a few last plugs. My next show "Selective Evidence" opens next Thursday March 5th from 5-8pm at the ddp gallery in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Locals please come out and see me and my work! I will be recreating my studio in the gallery and you really must see my paint encrusted easel as well as the fifteen paintings never before shown in the region. The show end Saturday March 21st. So don't miss it! Also "Fire and Noise" closes on Saturday March 7th at the River Market ArtSpace in Little Rock, so please try to make it there before that show closes as well.
Alright (drum roll please)....The winners of the small, original, paper paintings (from my etsy shop) are: 1.Kev 2.Matt 3.Geri 4.Shanna 5.Ginna Congratulations!!! Please email your physical address to me so I can get these into the mail ASAP. My email is megancha(at)gmail(dot)com
Thanks everyone for your time, energy, support, and love! Good luck with your art and your lives. I'll be thinking of you until we meet again.
This will be a mixed bag post as I have a lot of ground to cover.
First of all thanks again to everyone in Little Rock, Arkansas who came out last Friday night to view my exhibition Fire and Noise. I really enjoyed speaking with everyone there and I was extremely honored by my friends who drove several hours to attend the opening. Fire and Noise will be up until March 7th so please, if you are in Little Rock, Arkansas or are planning to visit, stop by the River Market ArtSpace and check out the show. Gallery hours are Tuesday- Saturday 10am-5pm. Visit www.rivermarketartspace.com for more information. Here is a slide show of the exhibition along with photographs of the opening itself. Enjoy.
For all you locals out there (Northwest Arkansas). I am happy to announce I will be having a solo exhibition at the DDP gallery in March! I will be showing 15 pieces never seen before in the region, including two large diptychs. The exhibition is entitled Selective Evidence and the opening reception will be held Thursday March 5th from 5-8pm and the show will run for 3 weeks. My birthday is the day after the reception- so come on out, view my work and celebrate with me. To preview Selective Evidence visit my website and click on the work tab and then the DDP Gallery. It has been a while since I have shown any work in town so I am very excited to share these works with you and especially in the lovely DDP gallery.
The next topic I want to discuss is this blog. When I started this weekly studio blog April 20, 2007 (I can't believe I have maintained this for that long!!). I wanted to share a little about me but mostly how to promote, market and get your art seen in the world. I was encouraged to start this blog as way of organizing my thoughts on what had worked for me and what I knew would work for others. I remember feeling fearful of putting myself out there as any type of expert or mentor. I also remember receiving very few comments and having few regular readers when I first started. Back then, I was mostly writing it for myself with the idea that I would then condense some of this material into future lectures or workshops for other artists. That hasn't happened yet but I am hopeful it will at some point. Then the blog took on other roles as well; it became a promotion tool for my own work as well as other artists I knew and admired. Once readers found my blog and I started cross promoting it on other networking sites it really came alive (those paper painting give-aways didn't hurt either!) This studio blog has changed my life in many ways, taught me a lot about myself and improved my writing skills. Just the act of having this weekly post gives me a sense of stability and responsibility to you the reader. It also connected me to a wonderful community of artists and art lovers all over the world. For this I am extremely grateful. At the same time, I see my readership dwindling, as are comments so I wonder if this blog has served it's purpose? I don't know what more to tell you in order to help, guide, or inspire you. I feel like I have covered the basics of "how to be an artist 101." I added my own personal feelings and struggles throughout, my personal inspirations, hopes and fears, and lots of paintings. Perhaps, the blog just needs another brief hiatus. Or perhaps you have questions that have not been answered, or suggestions for a new direction the studio blog could take. Feel free to email me or leave me a comment below regarding this. I am honored for all the feedback and positive energy you have given me over the years.
Today I also thought it might useful to index some of the most helpful blog posts from my archives for those just starting out or continuing on this path of being an artist. Here are 16 helpful posts- think of it as the super condensed version of the studio blog. You can bookmark this post for easy access to my most practical advice. I wish you all nothing but success and perseverance with your art.
In other news, I know I have been neglecting my Etsy shop while working on Fire and Noise and I look forward to taking some time to create new small works on paper and filling the shop with these pieces. I love being able to create affordable, original art for all, as well as pay some of my bills. Please keep checking back at artmaven.
So, there you have it. Fire and Noise is on display, Selective Evidence will be up next month at the DDP, and I am leaving you with 16 key posts to hopefully motivate and inspire, and with more etsy paintings on the way. So, with that there is only one thing to do but say thank you for all your support, friendship, love, and comments and then end with a PAPER PAINTING GIVE AWAY. That's right!!! Leave me a comment between today and next Thursday at Midnight. I will randomly pick 5 lucky readers to each receive a small paper painting. I will post the winners names next week (even though there won't be a formal blog.) GOOD LUCK!
I love you all and thank you for the memories (you know I will be back sooner or later- I always am...) all content on my blog is copyright Megan Chapman 2007-2009 unless specified otherwise.
Little Rock Arkansas– River Market ArtSpace will present Fire and Noise: The Paintings of Megan Chapman, featuring contemporary paintings by one of Northwest Arkansas’s most well-known artists. Opening reception will take place Friday, February 13, from 5-8pm, during downtown’s 2nd Friday Art Night, and the exhibit will run through March 7, 2009.
Megan Chapman's abstract paintings have always been about her love of color, and the subtle changes that occur when colors overlap, react, and create something new. In her latest body of work, "Fire and Noise," Chapman, in addition to using traditional canvas, explores a new surface called a Clayboard. This new surface allows her to scratch into the paint, removing the previous layers while creating lines and new textures. The title of her exhibition, "Fire and Noise," comes from the opening lyric of a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song entitled, "Do You Love Me." The artist was entranced by the dark passionate world created by the song and its video and has developed a body of work that reflects her feelings in response. The color red and other deep dramatic colors feature prominently within this body of work.
Megan Chapman was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She received her B.F.A. in painting from the University of Oregon. Chapman has shown her work over the past ten years in Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington. Her work has appeared in various publications and is held in numerous collections.
River Market ArtSpace, located downtown in the Historic River Market District, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am – 5pm. ArtSpace proudly represents the best in contemporary art and craft in the state of Arkansas.
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I have completed twenty new works for my upcoming exhibition. I am currently putting on the finishing touches and preparing them for delivery to the gallery in Little Rock, Arkansas. Next week I hope to have images of all twenty of these works available to post so I can share them with you, my lovely readers. If you have friends in and around the Little Rock area please let them know about my upcoming exhibition. Thanks always for reading and for your support of my work as an artist. It means more to me than you will ever know.
Pictured above on the postcard The Unheard Music 24x30" Mixed media on Canvas 2008 $725
I spent the first day of the new year painting, varnishing, and photographing paintings. I also read a great short story, and watched a fantastic movie. Since I am a Southern girl I also cooked my black eyed peas, greens, and cornbread. I also made sure not to sweep (yes I am a bit superstitious.) So, all in all things are off to a fantastic start. Thanks again to everyone who read and/or commented on my blog last year or last week. Even during the busy holiday week I had some of my highest numbers of readers to date. Thank you- I hope you all enjoyed it and that you will be back.
I had mentioned that one of my goals in the new year was to see more art, and I am happy to report I did go see the wonderful POST SECRET show at Crystal Bridges at the Massey in Bentonville, Arkansas.It is a real thrill that this show has come to the region. They have 450 of some of the best post cards from the post secret collection and if you are in the area or have the opportunity somewhere else to go to a post secret exhibition, I highly recommend it. The secrets are sometimes funny, painful, universal, and even occasionally hard to take, but when I left the show I felt glad to have absorbed it all and felt more human and connected for having done so. I even created my own post secret and left it in the mail box.
My main goal for this month is to wrap up and properly document my work for my exhibition Fire and Noise, that will open in Little Rock, Arkansas on Friday February 13th and close on March 7th at the River Market ArtSpace. I hope those in the area will take note and try to attend, I would love to see you at the reception on the 13th from 5-8pm.
I have thirteen pieces for the show currently, with many more in various states of progress. After all the holiday socializing and family visiting of the past few weeks, I am looking forward to locking myself away and focusing on tying my exhibition together and just painting. This sounds very good to me.I have decided to post the work in progress for Fire and Noise here, I am hoping that by posting these, it will allow me to look at them as a whole and see them as a body of work so that I may either edit them or note things that I can not always see in my crowded studio.
Some of you may have seen some or all of these before...(but this is the first time that all thirteen pieces(so far) of the show have been posted together in one place). Again I wish you great adventures, wonderful art, space and light in this new year.
Ring of Fire
This place inside
On a Monday
Emulsion
Stranger than kindness
The unheard music
At a loss for words
Baptism by fire
Shared mistakes
3 a.m.
To collect sounds
Through water and fire
Not to be undone
and I will close with one of my initial inspirations for this exhibition
"I found her on a night of fire and noise Wild bells rang in a wild sky I knew from that moment on That I'd love her till the day that I died And I kissed away a thousand tears My lady of the Various Sorrows Some begged, some borrowed, some stolen Some kept safe tomorrow..."
Opening lyric from Do you Love Me by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
I am happy to report I have a featured exhibition coming up in February at the River Market ArtSpace in Little Rock, Arkansas. Now is the time to solidify my ideas and concepts, make my plans and get started. I am relieved to have this new focus. I have been drifting a bit since the last show in June and July and taking some serious down time. I have painted many small works on paper for my Etsy shop and managed about 12!?! canvas paintings since then as well, but just sort of floating through, un-moored.
I decided I would call my next exhibition "Fire and Noise" inspired by the above song. I am a new Nick Cave fan, always knowing his name but never listening to his music, well that has changed. This song has been on constant repeat in my ears for about 2 weeks, and I have watched the song's video (another inspiration) hundreds of times by now. Something about it just speaks to me currently.
When I am germinating ideas for new work, I feel the need to talk it out, test it out and share it with others and that is what I have done for the past week; sharing my thoughts with my community of artist friends near and far. The concepts become more clear when I write them to someone else rather than keeping them solely in my head. I want to compile some of this early correspondence here to remind me of what I want in this new body of work as I move forward in the process.
I recently wrote to a friend about my art career and he asked me the following questions. I think they are important and I want to remember them. "...Why you paint like you do?Why you don't paint like you could?Why you're lost?"
My answers follow. I have a show in Feb. and I want to do all new work, perhaps work that won't even sell.( why I don't paint like I could). I need money and I want galleries to be happy with me- If I paint like I could the paintings might not be as "lovely"(why I paint like I do). I am lost because I am conflicted about marketable work/money vs. art/passion/purpose.
Rest assured I am oversimplifying things in my response to his questions. I do not feel like I am just churning out art that looks good over someones couch simply to make money. I paint with the colors I do because I love those colors. I paint the way I do because it is the way I know to paint and it fits my brain most of the time. I do feel pressure (mostly self imposed) to paint things that have the ability to sell (we all have bills to pay), and perhaps are not the most challenging ie: nothing that new or revolutionary in the grand scheme of the art world. However, I don't really want to create "high art." A lot of what I see in famous art magazines is bizarre self indulgent pretentious shit (there I said it). I don't want to produce that, but I do want to put more of ME into my work, whatever that means. If I don't feel "lovely" perhaps the paintings don't have to be jewel toned, perhaps they can resonate a darkness or coal-like quality if that is how I really feel. (I told you in the title this was a note to myself) Anyway, I digress, back to my conversation with my friend about inspiration for the upcoming show.
I am serious about what I said about the Nick Cave song. I need something to fuel my fire and when I look at that video I would like to dive into that seedy world of fire and noise. But will it sell, who knows... and am I capable of making paintings full of noise and interference???
This is the thing, I doubt my ability to change, I know how to paint the way I paint, it is very intuitive at this point in the game and I don't want to reinvent the wheel. I don't want to begin again, I just want to be more free, and find a way to put more of me into the work, and as an abstract painter, I find that difficult. Certain colors could represent emotions, certain lines can mean things to me, but in the end, how different can it be? My hand does what it does. In a different conversation with another I artist I talk again about what I am hoping to capture.
I want to take all the doubts, the highs and lows, the passion and drama and try to put them in this show. I am going to try to create Art and perhaps art that won't even sell, and try to be okay with that. We will see. I am tired of painting " lovely" paintings. I want a little more substance, something to ruffle my own feathers if you will. I need to get excited about a concept again.I want to go into something a little darker. If you look up the video for the song( Nick Cave's Do You Love Me?) those are the colors I am aiming for. I am not sure I can really pull this off, I may change in mid swing.. interference will feature prominently.. Buzz, hum, the shit that gets in the way.. electronic prattle of emails, and e-dreams, friends that are friends but not, borders and boundaries.
Sounds like an interesting concept, but again with only color and line, how is the prattle of email portrayed, how is the increasing bombardment of electronic noise captured in an abstract painting? This will be my challenge.I seem stuck in this idea that my work is simply lovely and has no substance as it is, and I don't think this is exactly true. I guess I do give into the pressure that "Art" should not be pretty or decorative but mean something. I am not sure if I can put meaning to the abstractions I create, even within this newly proposed conceptual framework.
Another conversation, again trying to put into words what I want to accomplish... The ups and downs, the messes that I make, the mix of identities and self imposed pressures, the lines and darkness- I want all of these things to factor into my new work. Perhaps, if the Evidence of the Disappearance was the rise, this show will be the fall- which may actually be free of all the nonsense and soar to new heights?!? Like dirty electricity, a certain truth, static, interference, not pretty- not perfect- Can I ? Do I dare?
Who knows? But I must try...
Today is the last day to purchase work from my Etsy shop and have 20% donated to my friend Will's health care fund. I appreciate all the purchases so far. Also if you put "blogger" in the memo to seller when you place your order I will gladly refund your shipping via paypal after your order is placed.Free shipping to anywhere in the world! So if you have been thinking about it, today is the day to act! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Also if you haven't already, please do not forget to Vote November 4th- this one is too important to miss- thank you.
Are you a success? Am I? How do we know if we are or not? Should it matter? What does success mean anyway? There is the textbook definition, but then there is what it means to us personally. Our personal success can be loosely defined, a floating feeling or it can be measurable and marked by certain milestones. As we work through our art and grow into our process, our personal ideas of success will hopefully change and grow just as our work evolves over time.
Is success about money, acclaim, a studio downtown, or is it about leaving our mark in the hearts of people who come across our work? Is success quitting the day job and painting full time?
Success for some, could be as simple as believing in themselves enough to not flinch when they tell people they are an artist. Success is so personal and abstract, yet at the same time we may tell ourselves stories about what it should mean, making it rigid and unattainable.
When I was much younger, I thought success was to have a simple life of my own creation, free of complications, while being able to see as much live music as possible and just being happy or just having fun. A very loose definition. Then as an art student, it became about getting good critiques and respect from peers and professors, and an occasional showing of my work with no expectation of sales. After school, success became about getting into juried shows, getting more exhibitions on my resume, and finally taking a risk and deciding to quit my job to focus on my art. The focus still wasn't on selling, but on building my body of work, name recognition, and additional lines on the resume. After a couple of years, naturally the next step was the gallery route, this is where my personal definition of success got fuzzy. Success here becomes more rigidly defined as I entered into business relationships with various galleries, this brought on an all new set of rules, expectations, demands, and of course pressures to sell, to have a viable product. This wasn't necessarily created by the galleries, but by myself within the gallery structure. I experienced a heightened sense of being a professional and being responsible not only for myself, but to the galleries taking a chance on me and my work.
It has been suggested at times, that I might want to re-evaluate my personal definition of success, so that I can gauge my progress and celebrate my milestones along the way. However, I find myself a bit stumped. I have at times, lost sight of what my original purpose was, or what I truly desired when I first started showing my work. Not uncommon, I fear it happens to us all.
Is success a certain number of paintings created in a month or a year, or a certain number sold in that same time period? Is it earning a specific yearly dollar amount? Is it painting consistently even if only a few times a week? Is it being picked up by a major NYC gallery, having a solo show and selling out on opening night? Is it being on the cover of an international art magazine? Perhaps it is simply having lots of adoring MySpace fans from all over the world. I don't really know the answer.
So, I am asking- what is success for you?
Please share your ideas with me in the comment section.
For more information about me and my work and the galleries that represent me, please visit my website www.meganchapman.com
