Creating Opportunities for Artists by Turning the Walls of your Business into an Art Gallery

"Art is too important not to share." - Romero Brito

Prior to the pandemic, once a month, I loaded my car with brightly painted canvases, art supplies, and a festival tent, and set up shop at an outdoor arts and crafts festival in the center of my town. This wonderful community event allowed me to interact with potential customers, create art with kids, and sell my own art. Sadly, since March, all of my artwork was gathering dust in a storage area, until I was contacted by the office manager at Holman Family Dental in Chapel Hill.  A month later, my paintings were on display and available for sale on their walls.  

The dentists and staff came up with the idea of displaying the work of a rotating group of local artists even before Covid-19.  This is a solution that benefits both the artist, the employees who have to spend 8 hours a day looking at the walls in this space, and the patients who need a bit of visual entertainment to distract them.  

It’s a different story at the dental office I’ve been visiting for over twenty years.  While having my teeth cleaned, I have stared at the same art prints for every single one of those 40+ visits. The prints are very nice, but it would be nice to see something new.

Artists rely on community festivals, public events, and temporary art displays in public locations to sell their artwork.  With the cancellation of large events, they have lost an important source of income.  Do you have a wall in your business that could be transformed into a temporary art gallery?  By simply making display space available, not only will you directly assist artists in your community, but you will also create a more aesthetically pleasing environment for your customers/clients and employees.

It might seem like a lot of work to line up artists and arrange for then to come in the hang their work up to four times a year.  It’s not as hard as you’d think.  Once you contact one artist, chances are they can connect you to a number of other artists.  Once the nails are in the wall for the first showing, each consecutive artist just uses the same spots without adding more hardware.  Recently, I hung fifty paintings in less than an hour.  Small notecards are attached to the wall with two-sided tape (Scotch Wall-Safe Tape) listing the artist’s name, contact information, price of the painting, and title.  This way, anyone interested in buying the art can contact the artist directly.  

As an artist, it is very fulfilling and exciting to think that my artwork is being viewed by a variety of new eyes each day. I’ve sold quite a few as well.  The dental hygienists have told me they love seeing their workspace transformed with new artwork every quarter, and the dentists can feel proud of their support of artists in their community.  I, for one, am extremely grateful for the generosity during these times.  

THE DREADED BLANK CANVAS

 "It's so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas." - Paul Cezanne

Oh, the sheer terror!  There it is lurking like an evil presence on an easel in your studio, glaring at you accusingly with sheer malice - THE BLANK CANVAS! It is a blinding white void of creativity, harassing you on a daily basis.  How to overcome your inertia and dive into the abyss?  I have some easy tips to make the encounter with the blank canvas more enjoyable - to make it a happy little challenge rather than an avoidance freak's nightmare. So here we go...

1. Set your work area up for success.  Does your studio space double as a sewing area, kids' play room, kitchen?  Picture a corner of a crowded dining room turned art space which often spills out into adjacent rooms in my case. If possible, dedicate an area to creating art alone.  I mean dedicate.  Clear out the other crap, have all your tools out and at the ready, arrange adequate lighting.  Create a space where creativity can sprout and grow.  
2. Load your work area with inspiration in advance.  You know what paralyzes me?  The what.  What the heck am I going to paint on there?  That's because I scheduled painting time into my busy calendar, rather than waiting for the right moment. I understand the need to schedule creative time, even though it is not idea. The trick is to allow the inspiration to flow whenever it occurs while telling it to be patient. How do you do this practically?  Let's saying you're taking a lovely walk in nature when you are inspired with a fabulous idea for a painting.  When you get home, create a super quick sketch and tape it to the easel.  Same thing if you are inspired by an image in a magazine, take an interesting photo, or are inspired by a quote - tape them to the easel.  Ideally, the next time you sit down to paint at the scheduled time, there are five or six fabulous ideas sitting there just waiting to take shape.
3. Erase the nothingness.  What else is terrifying about a blank canvas? The sheer lack of anything - the nothingness, the void.  So make it un-blank - in whatever way you can as soon as you can.  Even if that means simply painting it yellow - at least you have started and taken away the absolute nothingness. Put a sketch on it or lay in some basic values with a few careless and fun strokes of the brush.
4. Embrace immaturity.  Maybe you are being assailed by self doubt.  Your inner critic shouts, "What makes you think you can do this?  Who are you to pretend to be an artist?"  My solution: pretend to be a child.  A young child is never crippled with self doubt, burdened with self-criticism, and hesitant! Pick up that paint brush and start slapping some paint on that canvas with wild abandon, because, you know what?  You can paint over it if you don't like it, but chances are that trusting your instincts and letting your creativity flow youthfully are the best things that will happen to your art.
5. If all else fails, and you find yourself unable to approach the canvas just yet, turn to your sketchbook.  That 8x10" sheet of paper is somehow less intimidating than your blank canvas.  Slap some ideas in there in a low-pressure pencil to paper way.  Next thing you know, you'll have something to sketch out on that canvas with excitement.  Tear out your sketch, tape it to the wall by your easel, and return to step one.  

Remember, every masterpiece began as a blank canvas.  An now, I'm going to go and try to follow my own advice...

Happy Painting, 

Arianne