Prizes, Awards, Grants

Back in 2008 when I was participating in the NYFA MARK professional development program for artists, I heard about the West Prize. We all received a brochure about it and were encouraged to submit entries to be considered. At the time I wasn't ready with enough cohesive work I felt comfortable putting out there, so I didn't do it. This year, thanks to seeing another MARK alumni post about it on Facebook, I decided to give it a try this year.

You can view my entry here, and, if you wish, vote for me. You can just click on the row of stars next to my name and choose how many you think I rate, then click to submit the vote. As I understand it, you can vote multiple times. I don't know how important these votes are to an artist's success in the competition, but I guess we'll find out! Submissions are accepted until November 1st, so feel free to keep voting until then.

(UPDATE! I heard back from the West Prize folks regarding the voting system: "The star rating system reflects votes from the public, however has no influence on our final decisions." Good to know! However it is still fun to get votes, isn't it?)

I am also applying for the NYFA Fellowship... again. This very competitive award is, to my mind, one of THE feathers to have in any New York state artist's cap, not to mention the $7,000 you receive as a winner is no slouchy prize. This year, for the painting category, another prize has been added, The Basil H. Alkazzi Award for Excellence in Painting. I can only dream! Two painters will be awarded $20,000 in addition to the NYFA Fellowship.

I have applied at least three times in the past for a Fellowship, but this year is probably the first in which I have felt like I have a genuine chance. I'm hoping that the judges will feel the same way about my house paintings as many other people seem to! I guess we'll just have to see.

Either way, I won't hear of the results of either for quite some time... next spring. I guess it's nice to have something to anticipate!

Oh, and... wish me luck?

Regrouping

You know that photo I posted last time, the garage that was going to house my new studio this fall? No longer. We're not buying the house... turns out it is in a very flood-prone area which is definitely not conducive to avid gardening.

Back to the drawing board, so to speak. We'll be reconvening our house hunt in the spring, so I will be continuing to work in my dungeon studio for the time being.

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In other news, my calendar is full this fall! I'm scheduled to teach quite a lot in the next few months. Below are the highlights, feel free to contact me for more information on these classes or if you live in the western New York area and would like private lessons instead.

September 19 & 26: The Buffalo Arts Studio, Bookbindings with Sewing Techniques (ages 14 and up)

September 19–October 24: The Buffalo Arts Studio, 21st Century Collage (ages 14-18 only)

September 23 & 30: Lancaster Community Edcuation, Bookbinding for Beginners

October 14 & 21: Alden Community Edcuation, Bookbinding for Beginners

October 20 & 27: Maryvale Community Edcuation, Bookbinding for Beginners

November 3 & 10: East Aurora Community Edcuation, Bookbinding for Beginners

November 7: Western New York Book Arts Collaborative, Bookbinding for Beginners

November 14: West Seneca Community Education, Bookbinding for Beginners

November 21: The Buffalo Arts Studio, Artful Paper Puppets (ages 14 and up)

This is where

my new studio will be.



We're having the back ten or twelve feet of the garage converted into a space that will be mostly studio but also appropriate for storage, with a wood floor and heat.

Everything's pretty much in place, now mom and me and C. have to sell our two houses. Maybe everything will time right and we can start moving in before the houses sell. But quick sales would be nice, too.

Think good house thoughts for us, thank you!

Art Moving Sale!

Life has been a little crazy lately.

I haven't been making much art these days, but instead mentally preparing for a move, among other things. Soon, I must start packing and cleaning and just generally putting my life in major upheaval.

But, hopefully it will be worth it in the end. We're moving back to the country, to a house that has a couple acres, and perhaps most importantly (and certainly most relevant to this blog) a huge garage inside which we'll be building an art studio for me! I am very excited about this. Just imagine, making art above ground again! In light! Wonderful.

The move probably won't actually take place for another little while, but I do hope we'll be in our new digs by Thanksgiving. In the meantime, I want to clear out as much inventory from my studio as I can. Hey, the less I have to transport, the better it is for me!

So, if you have been considering acquiring some of my work but haven't yet, this is a great opportunity. Have a look at my website and see if there is something that floats your boat. If so, let me know and we can go from there. Generally, my smaller works on paper range from $100-$500 (framed, less unframed if you prefer) and $300-$2000 for my paintings on canvas. I have more work available that I hope to get up on the site... you can also look at my Flickr art set.

If you have any questions or would like to make me an offer (I am open to reasonable haggling), you can email me at amy.greenan at gmail dot com. Happy collecting! (Oh, and I would happy to make layaway arrangements, too!)

Here are just a few selections of what I have to offer currently:


Heart & Lungs, Knees & Toes, 2008, mixed media on paper, 10.5" x 16.5". $300 (framed).


Gertrude and Francis, 2007, oil on canvas, 60" x 48". $2000.


Untitled, 2004, acrylic on paper, 8.5" x 11". $150 (unframed).


Two Questions, 2007, oil and colored pencil on canvas, 12" x 18". $400.

Rejections, rejections

I'm still receiving responses from the slew of emailed gallery submissions I sent out two weeks ago—I'm still surprised that I have heard this quickly from as many spaces as I have, even for rejections. I figured I probably wouldn't hear much at all from anyone, so maybe that's a good sign? Or maybe I am just grabbing at straws.

Today's reply was another Atlanta gallery where once again my work did not "fit". However, I was asked to keep them abreast of the development of my work, which I will certainly do. I liked the looks of that gallery a lot, actually. I won't give up so easily, even if it is a follow-up a year or two from now.

All these rejections remind me of an artist friend based in Florida, who decided to keep a blog of all her rejections. It looks like it hasn't been updated in quite a while (in fact, she kind of dropped off my LiveJournal radar a while ago, what a shame!), but you can check it out here. Well, at least we can say we are not alone in our piles of rejections? That must give some comfort to emerging artists like us.

My personal life has been a bit challenging the past little while, so I haven't redoubled my efforts to pursue galleries more since then, but... I will. I have a whole big country to hit up!

New Contacts, New Friends

One of the things I enjoy about being an artist is making new friends, often of quite like minds (though unlike minds are just fine, too!) as I navigate around trying to get my work shown, or just to make contacts and "be seen".

Last week I sent out a bunch of inquiries and submissions to galleries in Chicago and Atlanta via email. I've been surprised to already hear from a couple places in Atlanta, and while those inquiries didn't result in shows, I did receive some nice feedback (though C., who is from the south, says they're Southern and so just being polite—I don't know!) and one of the responders is not only the director of an awesome gallery, but a pretty incredible artist herself! Check out Dayna Thacker's website to see for yourself. You can imagine that I am very attracted to her architectural collages, but the work that I originally saw on the gallery's website (click on "PAST" to see the archives) is also lovely.


Ego as Architecture, Portrait #7 (giraffe)
24"x32", collaged paper, graphite and pastel on panel, 2008

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Another artist I have recently discovered is Danna Ray, whom I had the pleasure to meet when I was in New Hampshire in June and attended the opening of a three-person show in which her work was included, at Nahcotta gallery in Portsmouth. I was really blown away by the quiet magical quality of her paintings, which seemed to emulate her personality (at least as far as I could tell in the few minutes I was able to speak with her!).

(I couldn't find the title or medium or size info!)


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So let me get back to my recent foray into getting my work OUT THERE. This past year I had my first major one-person museum exhibition, which no doubt helped me get three smaller solo shows I have lined up in Buffalo, Corning, and Binghamton, NY. I've also showed my work in southeast New Hampshire. I have a plan, kind of. I feel comfortable with my level of success locally now, so that I have extended my reach regionally and state-wide pretty well, too (not yet including NYC). I pursued galleries in New Hampshire because my dad lives there, and I thought it would be easier for me to get around, deliver artwork, etc. if I knew the territory a little bit. I suppose my next step could be Boston as far as that region goes, and still be within easy driving distance of my dad's as home base.

Now I'm thinking of doing the same with other cities, hence Chicago and Atlanta. I have a pair of good friends who live just outside Chicago and who are collectors of my work, so they can be yet another home base for me. As for Atlanta, C. is from nearby Chattanooga, TN so I figured that would be another less intimidating market somehow. Familiarity factors in here quite a lot for me, I guess, so even with cities where I've yet to visit, if I have a close contact there, it's more comfortable. It's not always easy taking a big step into a major unknown! Anything to personalize it somehow works for me.

Of course one of the things you need to make reasonably sure of when you are submitting your work for gallery consideration is that it's a good fit! You can look at the gallery's website and the artists they have showed in the past and are showing now. You also need to look at a mission statement or read the "about" section. Maybe the gallery only shows local or regional work. I am usually very careful of this, yet when I submitted to Gallery Stokes my brain neglected to process the fact that that is just the case, so, as Dayna put it so diplomatically, "I'm afraid you are just too far afield." Indeed!

I kept an eye on my Google Analytics page to see who's been looking at my website since I sent that batch of emails. Seems like it's about even between the Chicagoans and the Atlantans, with the major difference being that the Atlantan visitors spent a lot more time on the site! I can't help but wonder now, does my work somehow appeal more to a southern audience? Or is it just coincidence?

Interesting.

I guess in the meantime, rather than obsessing over statistics, I should head into the studio and make more work. After all, I've got three shows to prepare for in 2010—and who knows what I still have to look forward to in 2009!

Panic Mode

It's good to be busy, and to have things to prepare for. But now I find myself with quite a big freelance design deadline right at around the same time that I will be having a group of curators from the area traipsing through my basement for a studio visit to determine whether I'll be accepted into what amounts to the biggest art exhibition in the region, the Beyond/In Western New York biennial. I've applied at least a few times in the past and this is the first time I find myself accepted to the studio visit stage, which is certainly an honor in itself.

But holy cow, will I ever be super busy in the next couple weeks! So much to do.

Better than nothing to do, I know. Especially as an artist. :)

Here's an older work, gouache and pencil on paper, titled Equilibrium (2004). That's what I will be striving for!