frechstudios

So I'm sitting at my computer checking Facebook and I see a ton of memes on my news feed. I laugh at a few and cringe at others - mainly the dumb ones about "What I really do" because I don't care.

In fact, I laugh at maybe one or two out of twenty and the rest are just . . . kinda stupid. But, they all had one thing my art didn't: MILLIONS OF VIEWS!

Why?

That's when I came up with the idea to create "Make Art Viral" a Facebook group dedicated to sharing the work of other artists in a supportive atmosphere. I thought about it and realized that a lot of these memes have a running dialogue that create debates, sometimes healthy but most times not.

So, imagine your painting with the same discussion going on. Imagine the effect that might have on people. I like to think that if we'd take the time to share artwork and make them go "viral" we could me a small difference.

Here's a thought to ponder as well, many of these newer memes - aren't funny - they're mean. Our FB walls are flooded everyday with Memes that often times promote bullying yet everybody wants to share it.

So I thought, why not share something positive, poignant, and memorable that will enrich the lives of others?

To get involved, go to: www.Facebook.com/MakeArtViral

See you there!!

Hey all!

First off a big thank you and shout out to for suggesting as a DD!

I wasn't expecting this at all and suddenly I noticed my inbox was full! I will answer all the comments on the piece as soon as I get to them. I can't always write thank you on your walls for "favorite - ing" my work but as always I really appreciate it.

Thank you! I am very grateful for this!

I am also excited to see that a healthy dialogue about First Americans has begun and that was the main goal of this, not a DD, not a sale, not First place at a show, but to get people talking!

As always, thank you for the kind comments and keep working!

Jerry

Well, things have cleared up and now I'm able to start focusing on my own artistic endeavors. Actually, school let out in May but I decided to do some summer classes - which are less stressful and more fun. This summer I decided that I would take a course I have never done! I was going to learn a new medium!

I took a jewelry class for the fun of it and wouldn't you know, I loved it! I had more fun in that class than in drawing or painting class. I like painting and drawing but jewelry/metalsmith offered a challenge that I don't get from 2D work. In two dimensional works I think about capturing my message on a flat surface and trying to create an illusion of 3D in hopes of drawing people in. However in 3D art you really have to create a piece that draws people in from all angles with the hope that the viewer will make a trip around the whole piece.

When I was in undergrad, my wife and I had the opportunity to ride a car for 5 hours with an internationally renowned artist: Jesus Moroles [link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jes%C3%B…. One of the things he pointed out about good composition is the ability to make the individual walk around the piece - don't make things two dimensional in sculpture - and I took that advice while working in this jewelry class.

Now, modern jewelry classes are not what you think - honestly - I use to think of jewelry classes as a bunch women sitting around beading and chatting. But, the more I got to know the professor (Alison Pack [link: alisonpack.com/home.html]) I realized that jewelry is sculpture that you wear. It is sculpture - just on a smaller scale.


This is my "capstone" piece from my one semester of jewelry - turned out better than my one semester of Spanish class!

Speaking of scale, I have been working on larger canvases in my paintings - I know I'm jumping from medium to medium here - and the results have been spectacular. I am not as interested in creating visually and photographically realistic images as I use but more interested in creating works with textures and vibrant colors. I enjoy watching the watered down acrylics flow to the bottom and interact with the various artificial - yet random - textures I created. Here's an example:


This year I entered "Can't Hide the Past" in the Chautauqua Fest and won First Place in the Mixed Media Category.

Initially I thought that I would create jewelry that emphasized my art, but I let off of that idea because it was limiting my creativity. So I just let myself . . . create!

In the end I created this wonderful portfolio of jewelry that I would never have thought of. Now, I am using my new found skills in ways I can harness them around my future works in painting. If anything, I learned that trying out a different medium is very beneficial as long as you just let yourself go!

Well, summer sessions are over and my portfolio is online at [link: www.facebook.com/frechstudios] go check it out and tell me what you think!

Hello dA world!

As you may have noticed I have not been keeping up on here for a while. However, I have been busy with my art and with school. During the school year I am a Graduate Student at Radford University, seeking my MFA in Watercolor, and this year I have been awarded a Graduate Teaching Position. In the Fall I was a Teacher's Aid and this semester I am the Professor of Record - I am teaching a class on my own!

Teaching is exciting and yes it is a lot of work, lots of work! So my time has been limited. I have 120 students, about 90% have no interests in the Visual Arts so I spend most of my time trying to make art relate-able and relevant to the everyday college kid - not impossible, just challenging.

Well, anyhow, my art has been changing and developing and over the last year I have been reading a lot about the history of the Native Americans. This interest has led from a casual read to a near obsession - on Friday I drove 2 and a half hours each way to visit an Indian Museum and old Mission site to take pictures and gather information. So among the new stuff I will try to get on here are mainly images of Native Americans and their stories. I am intrigued by their stories, struggles and the character on their faces - so interesting.

Well, that's about it for now. I hope to see all of your new works as well - but finding the time is the big trick!

NOTE: This blog is probably more aimed at University Students...but open for all. Just don't take it personally.

So lately I have struggled to get online, let alone get on dA. School has been good, yet busy. This semester I am a Graduate Teaching Assistant and I am assisting a Professor in teaching art appreciation class. I like it and I get to teach the "studio" classes, I teach painting, drawing and sculpture classes which are fun. On the side of that I teach 4 private art classes with 17 students all together. So as you can see, my free time is limited and I don't budge on my painting/studio time - I keep that consistent and if anything I will take out sleeping time in order to make sure I get my time for the studio.

Which leads me to say that studio time, is something that we all wish we had and we want it but during the school year my schedule get hectic and there are evenings when I just want to go home and turn the TV on and not have to think or do anything! Yes there are time when I think we all need that and it is good from time to time but it is when it becomes a habit that it can hurt us.

So, for me, I find that if I force myself to just go into the studio and just doodle for a few minutes and just be busy in my studio that I start to unwind and get creative. It is tough to get things going. My wife and I visited with a publisher earlier in the semester and one of the things he said was a problem was the production drop off. Some artists get going and are excited about being published but then they lose motivation and fall off.

This is true, I think in more than just publishing too, it is true in just about any job out there. There's a sense of excitement and enthusiasm at first but trying to keep that same momentum is a daily struggle after the surge. I struggle with this today even, but I have found that it doesn't always have to be that way.

One of the best ways to keep yourself fighting and in focus is to keep creating milestones for yourself. When I first started out it was trying to create a drawing a day and a well thought-out-complete-drawing a week. Not bad and a good goal when starting off. As I started to grow I began shooting for drawing in my journal everyday, drawing a day, a painting a week and setting a goal for a competition to enter. Today, I shoot for three paintings started each week and finish one each week and I set a long term goal for my work to build up for, ie a show, a competition or exhibit.

Often times, I meet other art majors who have graduated and they lack vision for their work or direction. This is something that most institutions don't teach, which is no wonder why 97% of art graduates are not practicing art within 3 years of graduation. If this were in any other major profession such as Medicine or Law there would be a congressional investigation into the matter (thank God congress isn't involved in what we're doing!).

I have found that a majority of the art graduates who leave were hoping for shows, employment as an art teacher or by some miracle that they'd be "discovered". If you were majoring in medicine and had your post graduation plans hinging on being "discovered" . . . . need I say more?

Artists, today, don't necessarily get discovered by chance as some people think. They create their chances. I have seen work that I wouldn't consider the best but they are selling like crazy. Every artist, art professor, and fine art elitist hates Thomas Kinkade but guess what? Tomorrow morning he is not going to work at a job he hates. But for most of us.....we are! Which makes me wonder why art professors are supposedly "professionals" within their field, almost none of them sell their work or are actively being pursued by museums. Thankfully mine is, and if you are thinking about art school look at the professors and see where they've been. In fact, most of the art professors will claim that artists like Kinkade or any illustrator out there is "whoring" themselves out.

I don't know why, but that bothers the hell out of me! Who the fuck are they to say that? One guy/gal is out there making a living from their talents while the "Professionals" are sitting on their ass in an office with tenure criticizing them?

Teddy Roosevelt was right when he said:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

I don't mean to rant all over the place. But honestly, I think the whole stigma of becoming another number in the 97% who stop practicing art after college is something that I am determined to avoid and can be avoided if schools would train people or hire those who have worked in the field.

I believe that artists need to see themselves as entrepreneurs and schools should put an emphasis on that. But, it begins with setting small goals, setting work times, setting up these little things and making small decisions that create better results for the future. By setting times, goals and reaching milestones you create a discipline. It is akin to going to work everyday, you go there because you have to so that you can pay the bills. But if you have to go to the studio for something you love to do....would you?