In the Studio

Paper notes, meet technology and the Cloud. [...]

This has been a year of strife, upheaval, uncertainty and dismay, but I’m looking forward to the holidays and some time to reflect. With the presidential race claiming almost every headline, it’s been hard to think, let alone figure out the next steps. I am talking about my corner of the glass industry, which has been reeling from serious regulatory changes. This arrived on my radar back in February, when I read a blog (masquerading as a news outlet) regarding the air quality in an area near two glass manufacturers in Portland, OR. It quickly [...]

Back in April at the ACC Show I met the owner of the Plum Bottom Gallery. He bought a good number of panels wholesale to sell in his gallery located in Egg Harbor, Door County, WI. A typical gallery will sell an artists work on a consignment contract. All that means is that they take a percentage of the sale (usually 50%) and then send you a check after something has sold. This definitely works to the gallery’s advantage: they have lots of great artwork, and no major upfront inventory costs. The artist and the gallery work out how much work [...]

Why should you apply for a public art commission if you are don't meet all the 'qualifications' exactly? [...]

As part of my continuing education, I follow (and actually read the posts!) a few art blogs. Some of them are more business oriented; some of them cover the gamut from tutorials to reviews, but all of them relate to growing your art business. These are my favorites and most helpful in my opinion in no particular order: http://www.artbizsuccess.com/; Alyson B. Stanfield, Art Biz Coach. No excuses! Alyson is hands down the best resource for beginning and mid-career artists on the web. Her no excuse approach is something the every artist needs to embrace to [...]

When I was working on my list of accomplishments for 2014, I also made the decision to invest in growing my business this year. Specifically in setting up and IMPLEMENTING systems to market my work and better get it out into the world. So I signed up for Alyson B. Stanfield’s Art Biz Bootcamp. And even though it’s only been a week, I can already feel the shift in my energy. The first week’s lesson forced me to confront a number of “beliefs” that are actually not true, even though I have in essence made them into self-fulfilling prophecies. We all know [...]

When I was in school, we were subjected to numerous critiques: some constructive, some destructive, some subjective, and all of them personal. But in order to use a critique and grow from it, you have to let both the extreme negative AND positive roll off your shoulders. A 180 shift in response to a negative comment is just as bad as not exploring any other options because someone really loves your current work. Either response is stagnation and limits your growth. Personally, I love critiques, and frankly, I have always learned more from the negative comments than the positive. Whether it was [...]

So I am taking the plunge, and launching a crowd-funding campaign. What’s the plan? Well, the studio needs some better electricity and a new kiln, so I’m offering rewards to help me fund the infrastructure. Want to help? Currently my 396 square foot studio has a tiny baby kiln, and if you have been following the studio lately, you know that little baby has broken down & been fixed more than once because it has been working overtime. The dilemma is that the current electrical load is already maxed out in the studio. So when the kiln is [...]

People are always taking photos of artists’ artwork. And at a show, most people never ask if it is OK – which is pretty annoying most of the time. But in this digital age of cellphones and social media sharing, it is inevitable… I am just as guilty as the next person (but I always ask first). This is the photo I took of my set-up at Art-A-Whirl in the Grain Belt Bottling House this spring: My Art-A-Whirl display during a lull in the afternoon.   Now contrast this with what another artist sent me the week after the show at the top^^ of this [...]

The calendar is in the clear CD case that opens up to sit on your desktop – how cool is that? Fall is in the air, and you know what that means… the Holidays are almost here! In the studio this year, that means that I have been busy designing a new series of greeting cards and a special 2014 Desktop Calendar in a CD case – all featuring art glass images. Brief Anatomy of the Envelope and Greeting Card sizes Why do cards have such odd size designations like the A2 and #9? The “A” actually stands for ‘announcement’, but it also is a designation [...]

Well, no, but you will have the artwork a lot longer than you have the sofa, so is that really important? And contrast is good, which in designer speak is called ‘accent colors’, so go ahead, buy that painting, pottery, art glass that you love… it truly will compliment your home, even if it doesn’t match the sofa. The simple secret to collecting artwork is to LOVE it.  All else will fall into place, and you will find a place to display it – even if you think you don’t have space. I come from a [...]

Retreat to the woods Hiding out this week in the Wisconsin north woods… the Heartwood Conference Center, just outside Minong to be specific. Beautiful setting, quiet in terms of people and traffic, but very melodic with birds and frogs, where you can sleep with the patio doors open all night long and wake to the call of a loon. And in truth, the mosquitoes have not been too bad.   Marketing, Goals, and Focus I have been doing some sketching of the great spring landscapes, crooked pine trees, and the lake, but mostly working through business strategies. This is the [...]

I have an open studio 3-4 times a year. Two of them are in conjunction with the Saint Paul Art Crawl and I invite guest artists to show their work with me. It has become a fun collaborative event! Here are 11 things you must do to promote your open studio event: Postcards – mail and hand out to everyone I know and many I don’t. Make sure you have contact information, address and a small map (or QR code linking to a Google map) Email blasts – I try to limit this to only 2; one announcing the event, and the second a simple reminder [...]

Artwork Archive is FANTASTIC. I signed up in December 2012 after looking for a couple of years for software that both did the job AND looked good (Seriously, this is the ONLY artwork database software that actually has a nice looking interface. Hello! When the target market are visual artists, shouldn't just a little bit of effort be put into designing a decent dashboard that doesn’t look like it came out of a beginning programming class?!?!), was intuitive to use and did not have so many bells and whistles that it bogged down its effectiveness and created a steep learning curve. I first [...]

The best life and business lessons learned are from failures. But I think the key is to LEARN and GROW from those mistakes and not repeat them or compound them. One of the earliest lessons I ever learned was in high school. I played fast-pitch softball, and I could throw the ball really hard. I also threw it over the backstop, took out my mother (she never did agree to be my catcher again), lost count of how many batters I hit and I even disabled a few umpires. Even though I threw the ball very fast, I never did know if the batters [...]

When I finally made the decision to smash my older work, it really was about allowing myself to grow and letting go of the work I am no longer making. It was an artistic decision and a personal one; one that took me 3-4 years to actually make and implement. And the mental release and euphoria completely stunned me. I truly figured that with the short notice, the crappy weather (rain & the potential of sleet) and the proximity to the holidays that maybe half a dozen people would come by the studio. The “show” started at 10 am and at 10:30 [...]

This is the press release (hence the third person) written for the studio Art Crawl: Josephine A. Geiger, who has won numerous media awards for the Saint Paul Art Crawl, has invited three other artists to “Crawl Off the Map” and into her Eastside studio this spring. In addition to her own art glass, there’s Beth Colaizy of Rustic Road Studio, a stoneware potter; Brenda Brousseau of Luna C. Bede, a beadwork & jewelry artist; and Tracie Thompson, a painter and mixed media artist whose animal portraits sell to national and international clients.   Geiger was recently featured on TPT’s MN Original, and has become nationally known for [...]

In my previous life as an architect, we would ask our clients what they absolutely really needed, what they would really like, and what that one really “wow” factor was. Then we would ask what the budget was… and sometimes reality got in the way. But there is always a way to work around limitations– that is what creative vision is about in the design (and art) world. In working out the plans, I would design as many of the likes and “wow’s” into the project as feasible, but creative editing is a good thing. Sometimes, the compromise is actually better than [...]