OK, creative/artist lounge lizzards - who are you and what do you do?

[old mark]

My name is Mark and I'm an artist. It's all I ever wanted to be or do. I have engaged in music, writing (published poetry and interviews with artistic people for local papers), photography, and painting, small sculpture and assemblage "full time" for the last few years. I always worked a "real" job to support my secret vices (art) and now find myself retired and loving it.
I have a series of works in oil on plywood that is ready to distribute after taking over a year to get "ready" to my mind. I have been painting since I was a kid, seriously for over 35 years.
You have never heard of my real name. I don't make money at it.

I now paint total nonrepresentational work ("Hell, my KID can do that shit")and I have work in private collections around the US.
I'm planning on placing one in Canada this fall, and possibly two in Europe, and another in NYC and 2 here in PA.
I'm also working on a totally different style of painting (for me, anyway).

Who are you and what the hell do you call THAT shit?


mark

[MiddleFingerMom]

1. "Hell, my KID can do that shit". I think Tom Robbins dealt with that...

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...in "Skinny Legs and All" when the artist. Ellen
Cherry replied something like, "Well, she didn't
and I did. $350."
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[Throd]

3. Graphic designer

I always had an interest in art beginning in grade school. My parents used to take me to museums and galleries and I always found the experience rewarding. Through high school and community college I took just about every type of art class available.

At an early age (about 8) I also started collecting beer cans. I would spend hours looking at all the different layouts, typefaces, and color combinations. I credit that for being the foundation of my graphic design abilities.

In my mid-twenties I got a job at a sign company based solely on the fact that I knew Corel DRAW. It didn't pay much, but after a year into it, I realized I needed to have some kind of bankable skill so I decided to learn as much as I could about the sign industry.

Fifteen years later I'm still at it. There are a lot of disciplines in my line of work and I have to be as much of an engineer as I am an artist.

And I still collect beer cans.

[old mark]

5. I knew of several sign painters who made a decent living at it, and it is certainly

a good business. Guitarist Tal Farlow was a sign painter to support his guitar habit.

link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37zmzkK4Wrg

mark

[Tobin S.]

2. I drive a truck creatively :)

Seriously, I write a little here and there. You may have seen some of my stories here in the lounge. It's not anything I plan on making any money on. I've got about 40,000 words together in short stories. When I get enough together to make up a book or when I retire, I'm going to self publish it and give copies to my friends and family.

[MiddleFingerMom]

6. I think your work has more potential than self-publishing...

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...for friends and family.
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I think you should look into the process of submitting some of it to publishers
and see what responses you get (virtually EVERYONE gets lotsa rejections, so
you'd have to have a thick skin and bulldog nature).
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I think the annual "Writer's Market" reference may have some good introductory
tips on how to go about getting your work published (for CASH!!!).
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It's relatively expensive, so you may want to stop in a library and take a look
before you leap (or a good bookstore that doesn't mind you sitting there reading
it at your leisure).
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:rofl:
In that first paragraph, I initially stated that you'd "have to have a thick skin
and a bullDONG nature".
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[unpossibles]

4. I sometimes paint and am a musician

here's some of my music:
http://www.reverbnation.com/donparisschlotman

Do you have any art online?

[RandomThoughts]

7. I like the term Art becuase of a play on words.

Robert
Robe rt
A rt.


:shrug:

however I am in more in this kind of mood, since nobody corrected issues.


:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[guitar man]

8. Well, like my name says

Guitar is my #1 thing, here's a shot of me playing at some beer joint somewhere, can't remember which one now lol



I also like to make records, here's my little corner of the world where I record music for people and sometimes myself. It's still a work in progress, just moved into this space not to long ago so much work left to do




And here's a couple clips of me and the boys in action at yet again another beer joint somewhere lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmW-nl0lpf0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDW6fa9u76Y

I've thought about hanging it up a couple times but I just can't do it. I first stepped on a stage that I got paid for playing on almost 32 years ago at the age of 15. It's been a hell of a fun ride :D

[JTG of the PRB]

9. Well, I can draw pretty well in MS paint, and I was in choir for years, but I want to be a writer.

As in, I want to make money by writing and not work a "real" job anymore (I currently work in retail). I have a lot of ideas for novels and a couple of them started, but my problem is that I can never force myself to finish. In college the pressure of the looming deadline helped me produce some of the best stuff I've ever written in terms of papers (I often saved the bulk of my work on papers for the night before they were due, and never got lower than a B on any paper).

Now that I don't have that pressure and I can just write... I can't finish a damn thing. And I can't enforce deadlines on myself, because they don't mean a damn thing to me. It's just an arbitrary date in my mind and if I didn't get it done then it's no big deal. All I really want to do is to be a novelist, so I suppose one day I'll have to figure out how to make myself write.

There's a link to my blog in my signature, and I do have a few short stories on there so one can get an idea of my writing style (if one would be so inclined, of course).

[abq e streeter]

10. I sing and play several wind instruments-guess you'd say semi-professionally

since I've usually had to have at least a part-time "real" job. I also have written a few good songs over the years, but rarely have been in situations where I could perform them. With rare exception,it's lyrics only; generally need collaboration on the music with guitar and/or keyboard players. So yeah, mostly just your generic bar and party cover-band musician, but have had a few moments that almost made the bullshit you have to put up with in this line of work worth it. And have had the opportunity to play many styles instead of being stuck in a musical rut. I've done mostly blues and soul , but also a lot of 60's rock, plus rockabilly (my favorite style to sing), Spanish language cumbias and rancheras, reggae, gospel, surf, country, (and next couple of gigs are country swing)... Only one band ever that did mostly original stuff; they were amazing songwriters, and we did a few of mine too, but for the most part, we couldn't get gigs, while at the same time my other bands that slogged through the same overplayed oldies everyone else was doing, got lots of work.I'm semi-retired from it all now, partially due to health issues (both physical and mental---not so much stage fright as social anxiety disorder; not a good thing to have to deal with when you depend on being a performer for part of your income).
Also,I have been extraordinarily fortunate to have played on occasion with people who were, and are, so much better than me, and had advanced so much further than me in the biz (and for good reason), that I can hardly comprehend the good fortune and massive flukes and coincidences that allowed that to happen even once, much less as often as they did.
All I ever wanted to do since I was 10 or 12, was be a rock and roll star (or a baseball player, but that dream bit the dust pretty early on, although I WAS one hell of a center fielder; couldn't hit worth a damn though) ....I'm lucky it didn't happen (the rock and roll, not the baseball). When I was young enough for "making it" to have theoretically happened, I'm certain I could not have handled it, and am positive I would have blown it completely, and self-destructed in the process.

[grace0418]

11. I'm a graphic designer to pay the bills but I like all kinds of art.

I used to make a lot of mixed media assemblage and collage. I also love printmaking and papermaking and wool felt. I don't make too much art any more because I work all the time. But I can't complain. I get to work at home with my kitty by my side. I make twice as much as I did at my last desk job and I don't have to deal with cubicles, pointless meetings and long commutes. It's a pretty sweet deal. And if I can keep making decent money, we'll be able to move to a bigger place where I can finally have a studio. I don't have anywhere I can make a mess in our condo, which is another big reason I don't make much art anymore.

[hippywife]

12. I used to be an artist.

It's all I ever wanted to be, too. But when I wanted to go to college and master in fine arts, my parents said they would only help me if I went for something that would be sensible and make me money. And honestly, they didn't have many resources to assist anyway. So, discouraged and afraid of debt, I never went to college at all. Just been working all of my life.

I can draw, paint, throw and hand-build pottery. And I have dabbled off and on as I continue to just work, but not very often anymore. I no longer have any of my old works, they got beaten up and thrown away through several moves, and we are talking some very large canvases some of them.

I am just a drudge now, but oh how I can still recognize and appreciate works of art that can get the heart pumping and the breath stopping. Those that when you see them you stop in your tracks and whisper to yourself, "Yeah!"

And, while I cannot play any instrument, I adore music. It's my life's blood.

I wish my life had taken an entirely different track.

But on the brighter side, I did manage to funnel my creativity into cooking and baking. People love to eat whatever I cook and my husband tells everyone that no one eats better than he does. I've kind of been out of the mood to do even that lately as work has been literally kicking my ass for the past several months. I come home to tired to do much of anything but try really hard to keep it going over the weekends.

Thanx to anyone who managed to read this far. :hi:

[Auggie]

13. Creative Director

Art and copy. I'm damn good at it too.

[femmocrat]

14. I used to be a portrait artist. But being an art teacher is all-consuming.

I always laugh when people ask me, "Do you do art at home?" Maybe when I retire....

I'm also a pretty decent water-colorist, but haven't painted in years.

[frogmarch]

15. I can't draw, paint, or sculpt, etc., but

I like to write short stories and play my musical instruments. Mr. froggie plays a variety of instruments too, and we play together quite often. Our kids and grandkids join in whenever they come to visit.

I don't mind not being able to draw, paint, sculpt, but I really do wish I could sing. :-(

[GReedDiamond]

16. I have done a variety of art and music related jobs since 1976...

...usually as an independent contractor, along with "entrepreneurial" things like periodically producing and releasing indie label punk/alternative music since 1980.

The most $$ comes out of doing graphic design, color separations, and technical consulting for the garment industry, for silkscreen, airbrush and hand painting/sponge painting processes on t-shirts, jeans, yardage, cut pieces, etc. For labels like 7 For All Mankind, True Religion, (the now defunct) Black Hearts Brigade, Ed Hardy, Ku USA, Lucky Brand, L.A. Air Line, etc.

Plus, the occasional theatrical/movie/tv costume graphic design and application gig, last one was (drum roll....)
"Hannah Montana: The Movie."

And sometimes I show some "fine art" around L.A....



www.freshwidow.com