There's this great internet myth that licensing your art is a huge gold mine that happens to most people over night and requires very little work. One of the projects I have been working on for years (actually decades) is licensing my art and photography to manufacturers and publishers. The end products vary from housewares to editorial images to work for interior designers. More often than not, I have no idea what happens to my art or how it is used. I love how fluid the process is. One project complete and on to the next one. I have neither found a pot of gold nor has any success happened over night. I work my tuchus off!
I thought it would be fun to show you a bit of how my process works and also start an experiment.
Usually, a client will see my work in my portfolio and then say something like,
"I love this piece, and this one, and this one, but can you mix this and this and change the colors?" Basically, transform your style to fit our needs. Ok! Sure I can. One of the best lessons I learned in art school was how to handle this very situation.
Take your ego out of the game and make your client happy. Revise, revise, revise.
Here is one example of how three individual pieces from my Zen and The Art of Mixed Media collection became one final design. Elements from each piece were isolated and reworked. Revised, revised, revised. I call this process Art Tetris. Lots of moving around and seeing what fits.
Not every piece in my portfolio sells or gets licensed and not every original art piece sells. I'm totally cool with that. Often there is a weird thing where a print of an original will sell like hotcakes but the original gets no love.
Light Of Day is an example of this weird thing. It is my best selling print for interior designers but the original never sold and I had it in my shop for a year!
I was thinking that this year it would be fun to revise original pieces that do not sell the way I do for my licensing or custom clients.
How many revisions can I make to an original before it sells? The Revision Experiment starts now!
First up: The blue and white ampersand!
Revisions Made: I painted over the entire front with black acrylic glaze. When it was dry, I sanded it so areas of the previous blue and white painting would show through for a fun texture. My inspiration was the punctuation going on in texts between me and my seester. Exclamation points were winning over emoji. We talk in multiple exclamation points, too!!!
Details:
"Punctuation Ampersand"
Mixed media on wood, 8"x9"
Signed and dated on the back.
Sealed with a non-yellowing varnish.
Elements in this textured piece include acrylic glazes, ink, watercolor, and graphite.
My art represents life- full of drips, splatters, and a bit of blur between the lines. Blur, scratches, and texture in the art are intentional. I like to use imperfect items which adds to the charm of each piece. The back side is unfinished.
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Shop: Limited Edition Prints, Greeting Cards, and Pillows | Original Art
