Spring 2014
New work, first look
Volume 1, Issue 1
On the worktable ‌
Art Junkie: Cagney King Studio Insider: Outdoor mosaics making them to survive the elements Exposure kills, man
Photo credit Jef Poskanzer
Welcome I’m very pleased to bring you the inaugural issue of Shattered. This new publication has several purposes. One is to share my new work with you and keep you abreast of news and upcoming events, much like an email newsletter would. However, this new platform offers so many more tools to work with, I can include so much more.
art business. This will give an interesting insight into the life of an artist for those who don’t practice art themselves, and aims to be a helpful resource for those who do. If you are an artist who would like to share your experience with us in an upcoming issue, please email me at mosaicartbyla@gmail.com. We’re all looking for a fresh perspective.
One new segment is called I love to search out new and different art, art of a style that I would never think to incorporate into my body of work. The appreciation of work that falls far outside of your own creative impulses can add a richness and understanding, not only of art generally, but of your relationship to the world and your place in it. I’ll share artwork that resonates with me, whether from current artists or from artists of the past, without commentary so that you can bring your own experiences to the party and develop your own response without prejudice.
So please, enjoy this first issue, share it with your friends, and by all means, send me feedback (email above).
Another regular feature will be This section is for fans and fellow artists alike, and will feature a link to a short video on my Youtube channel. This will give clients and collectors a peek at just what goes into the making of a mosaic, and benefit fellow artists by sharing some of the things I have learned over the years that have made things easier, added interest, saved me money, or give general instructions for techniques that might not be that common. On the subject of making the life of an artist a little easier, I will also include a column titled which will address ways that artists struggle stay creative, juggle life inside and outside the studio, and keep up with the demands of running an
Lee Ann
Contents New Work ● Flight of Fancy p. 4 On the Worktable ● Bellafiore News and Events ● Unfurled dedication p. 8 ● Edible Bits and Pleasing Pieces p. 8 Art Junkie ● Cagney King Studio Insider ● Making garden mosaics that last p. 12 Angst and Issues ● “People die of exposure, you know.” p. 13 Miscellany ● Jonesborough’s Music on the Square
p. 17
New Work
Flight of Fancy This is the smallest piece I have ever created. It is only 4” X 4”, and was made to those specifications for the 4 X 4 Miniature Masterpiece event held by the Johnson City Area Arts Council. This is an annual fund raising event, in which every piece of art donated is exactly 4” X 4”. For those who live nearby, the Arts Council gallery on East Main Street in Johnson City will feature all those tiny works at the First Friday event on March 7, 2014. The actual fund raising event will be March 23 at the Carnegie Hotel. The dragonfly was constructed first of glass and beads, then grouted in black before starting the background. The background is ungrouted white Carrara marble and glass leaves.
This piece is not for sale, but something similar can be commissioned. Please contact me for details.
On the worktable ‌
Bellafiore
When I lived in New Hampshire, I owned a garden design business, Bellafiore Gardens. This piece is based on a photo I took in my gardens to use as a logo for that business. I am not a good photographer by any stretch of the imagination, so I have to rely on chance and synchronicity to occasionally produce a good image that can be used in my art. The photo was taken of rudbeckias on the north side of the house in late afternoon, and somehow the combination of lack of skill, low light, and cheap camera produced one of my favorite images ever. I can’t explain why the background is so blue in the original photo, but I love it!
This large piece (30” X 36”) has been underway for over a year now (it has hibernated for extended periods). At the risk of sounding schmaltzy, it feels appropriate that an artwork based on my gardens should have spent several months hibernating.
News and Events Now available is , a cookbook by Pam Givens and Jacqueline Iskander. It features some wonderful-sounding recipes, and 64 gorgeous pieces of foodthemed mosaic art from 49 artists. Happily, my piece was accepted for inclusion in this exciting project. The book is available on Amazon.com. See it here.
In January, the official dedication and ribbon cutting was held at Ciel Gallery in Charlotte, NC for the mosaic mural Over 50 artists contributed to this - the photo on the facing page shows the first of three flowers, the one I contributed to. My section is the pink and yellow streaky petal on the far left. To see pictures of the ceremony and of the entire mural, please visit my Facebook page here. Not only was working on a gorgeous way to bring artists together to enrich a community, we’re all very proud that it was accepted into the Mosaic Arts International 2014 exhibit at the Society of American Mosaic Artists convention in Houston this year.
It’s been a long time since I did an interview, but on February 2, 2014 I was interviewed by RT Thomas of Creative Connections on BlogTalk Radio. I really enjoyed the talk—we discussed inspiration, roadblocks, and some of the business issues artists face today. You can hear it here.
Jonesborough, Tennessee’s Music on the Square will hold their fundraising auction on April 4, 2014 at the International Storytelling Festival. On offer is a six week garden mosaic workshop with me, and the opportunity to purchase an original mosaic, 25% of which will benefit MOTS. See page 17 for details.
© 2014 Lin Schorr/Pam Goode
© 2014 Lee Ann Petropoulos $775
Art Junkie Artwork that resonates with me, from current artists or from artists of the past, presented without commentary to allow you to develop your own response without prejudice.
Cagney King www.cagneyking.com
42 & change
Find your place
Take control of your horizons
Poetry pants Unwisdom
Studio Insider Mosaics in the garden are a wonderful way to bring art outdoors, add color to the garden when not much is blooming, or perk up the landscape in winter. Although the basics of making mosaics for outdoor use is the same, there are a number of things you need to know. You certainly don’t want to spend the time and effort of a beautiful mosaic only to have it crack or fade in a year or less. I am offering a workshop in April 2014 to teach all the insider info you need to learn how to make mosaics that will survive in the elements. Visit the workshop page on my website to learn the details and to sign up. Below is a link to a short video clip from an interview I did with Debbie Hopkins in which we discuss some of the issues with garden mosaics and how the garden ball was made. Click the picture below to view it on Youtube.
Angst & Issues “People die of exposure, you know” If you listened to my interview on BlogTalk Radio, you know I have a real issue with the prevalence of artists being asked to work for free. This takes many forms: performing artists are asked to perform at functions and for group meetings without pay because “it will be good exposure”; visual artists are asked to participate in craft-show type events that aren’t a good fit because “it will be good exposure”. And everyone is asked to donate their art, tickets to their shows, or classes to every good cause under the sun. First let’s consider the good cause argument. Everyone loves to help out a good cause. The problem is that there are thousands of good causes that need help. Economic times being what they are, there seem to be more and more of them that need help. But I don’t care how generous you are—you don’t have time enough to help them all. If you consider yourself a hobbyist and don’t mind donating a LOT of art, that’s wonderful. But if you’re a serious artist hoping to make a living, you have to put some real limits on the time you spend making things that don’t add to your inventory of saleable work. Yes, it’s that someone at the auction will become a future client, but it’s much more likely that they will simply go home with a warm fuzzy feeling from all the lovely things they saw and the good that was done. Not that there’s anything wrong with that … Lots of people can tell you about the charitable tax deduction trap that artists
face, and we’ll come to that too, but first let’s take a moment to remember that story you used to hear growing up about free milk and the cow. If you get a reputation for giving it away, how much harder will it be for you to get a fair price for your work in the future? And make no mistake, people are hoping for a bargain when they go to these auctions. Their mindset is that you have already forgone payment for the item by donating it so they aren’t cheating you by bidding low. And that whatever they pay for it is more than the benefiting organization had yesterday, so if they score a big discount they will walk away from the situation thinking it was a win/win. You (and maybe the organization, too) may think it leans more toward lose/lose. (If had sold your work at full value and donated the money, the organization would have benefited more.) And if your work consistently sells below retail at auctions, how will you ever make another retail sale? So let’s talk about the tax consequences. Many of the people who contact you asking for a donation think you can take a tax deduction for either the amount you would sell it for, or it’s actual selling price. You can’t. You can only deduct the cost of the actual supplies you used. No accounting for time, no value for your experience or level of accomplishment. Keep in mind, too, that a tax deduction doesn’t reduce your tax bill dollar for dollar. So if you claim your supplies as a deduction, only a percentage of that is actually coming off your tax bill, and you made no income from it. So in effect, you haven’t even fully paid for the cost of supplies to make it, never mind the cost of your time.
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This is a good time to make the disclaimer that I am not a tax expert, nor even an accountant. You should obviously base your decisions on advice from someone who is, but this at least gives you some things to think about and discuss with your tax preparer. It’s also important to point out that this is in no way intended to ask artists to stop donating to causes they care about. It’s just to make sure that they understand what the impact is on their own business. As you can see, if you want a successful art business, you can’t spend a lot of time making things that will have a negative impact on your cash flow. You have to choose wisely. I personally think it’s a good idea to ask that any organization asking for a donation be willing to split the proceeds 50/50 with you. You will have to report that 50% as income, but at least you will have fully covered the cost of supplies. (If not, we need to talk about pricing!) Again, see disclaimer above. OK. Let’s say you feel the need to begin to take control of what you will and will not donate art for. How will you respond when you feel the need to say no? Alyson Stanfield writes a very helpful blog chock full of advice for artists on how to run their businesses, stoke their creativity, and generally exist in this world as an artist without losing your mind. I highly recommend it. Recently she wrote an article about just this issue, and offered links to sample letters to help you get started. Each one offers a unique perspective on how to approach the subject, and each one can serve not only to give you support for your decision, but to help educate those who request donations about what it is you have to take into consideration. Start with Alyson’s blog post here and follow the links from there. But what if you would really like to help, but don’t want to ( or can’t) take a financial hit? How can you work it out?
I was recently asked for a donation for the fundraising auction for Music on the Square in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Every Friday night during the summer, Main Street is closed off and the community comes together to hear a wide variety of musical artists. It’s a wonderful way to bring the community together, and having been a musician in a former life, I support any effort to bring music to the masses. I asked whether minimum bids were typically set (in order to prevent a piece from being sold far below its value). They were not. If the piece were to sell quite low, it would not represent me well to the auction goers, thereby canceling the benefit of the “exposure”. So … what to do? What I settled on was to donate a six week workshop, one-onone instruction, for garden mosaics. These workshops are given in my home studio, and students supply their own substrate. I will only need to provide the time (time IS money) and some glass (in the neighborhood of $25 worth). This will advertise my magazines, classes for less than most newspapers, blogs, and and still provide a reasonable donation to the organization. I could have left it at that and we all would have been happy. But I thought this could also work to promote real sales of my original pieces as well as benefit the organization. I decided that for any sales of original pieces during March and April where the client mentions Music on the Square, I will donate 25% of that sale to MOTS. This is less than a gallery would take from a sale, and by taking home 75% of the sale of a piece, I have my expenses well covered and then some. Yet if no sales occur as a result, no harm done. Now
what I call a win/win.
Prints, mugs and miscellany available with my images at
Society6 Click the photo below to see current offerings
Links and Contact Website www.MosaicArtbyLA.com
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Email mosaicartbyla@gmail.com
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Music on the Square Fundraiser
Garden Mosaic Workshop
25% of purchase goes to MOTS!
This six week course of one-on-one instruction will be auctioned off at the Music on the Square fundraiser at the International Storytelling Center on April 4, 2014. You will learn to design for the garden, what types of tiles are appropriate for exposure to the elements, and what adhesives and grout to use. Make a stepping stone, gazing globe, or birdbath!
Purchase an original mosaic between March 3, 2014 and May 1, 2014, mention MOTS, and 25% of the purchase price will be donated to MOTS! A great way to help a wonderful project and beautify your home at the same time. To view the available art in person, call 423-946-5690.
$300 value!
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