ARTISTS IN THE TIME OF COVID October 31. 2020
With the Coronavirus outbreak changing the way everyone in the world is working and living their daily lives, artists are learning to adapt to a “new normal” as art fairs, exhibitions and workshops are indefinitely put on hold.
COVID-19 has already rapidly changed the way that everyone—including artists and creative freelancers—will conduct business this year.
In an effort to understand how art careers are changing due to the Coronavirus, we asked artists how the outbreak has affected their careers and how they are planning to alter the way they approach their art businesses.
What we found is that there were many commonalities in how artists were responding to the shifting professional landscape around them. While all the artists we spoke with experienced a level of loss from sales, delayed workshops, and cancelled openings, they were already planning ways to innovate and move their careers online.
Here are just some of the ways that artists have begun to change the way they run their art business during this time, and how you can too.
Strengthen your online presence
In response to cancelled art shows, exhibits, conferences, workshops, and coaching sessions, artists are taking a positive approach to overcoming the challenges of the Coronavirus.
Visual artist Helen Klebesadel told us that she plans to focus more on online creativity coaching. “I will focus less on in-person teaching and creativity coaching for money, but will offer some online options,” she said in response to how she would be adjusting her art business in the face of the obstacles presented by COVID-19.
Klebesadel is already planning for a year with a more limited income, but more time for making artwork. After noticing that some of her students were feeling isolated and afraid, she set up a Facebook group called the “Cabin Fever Creative Community” to share the work that everyone was making during this time of sheltering-in-place. “I will use this time to finally finish setting up an online watercolor workshop that I have been thinking about for five years,” she added.
Increasingly over the last ten years, artists have learned to depend on online tools to run their art business and market their artwork. Now, more than ever, it’s time to harness and tap into the power of the internet to make connections and readapt your business to a changing landscape.
What can you do now to strengthen your digital presence?
Here are some concrete ways to strengthen your business through your online presence during this international “pause”.
- Do a social media audit: Is your information the same across all platforms? Do the links to your social media accounts work? Are your bios strong and accurate?
- Offer an online workshop: Tools like Zoom, Facebook Live and even Google Hangouts allow you to teach a workshop from anywhere—even your couch. Teach online classes, conduct video conferences and more during the time of social distancing.
- Check-in with your contacts: When did you send out your last newsletter? Is your client list up to date? Have you organized your contacts into groups based on your relationships with them?
- Create new content: When was the last time you made a time-lapse video of you working on an artwork? Is there something you can teach or share about your process to engage your audience?
Your online presence is important now and will continue important when we come out of isolation as well. Being online allows you not only the ability to communicate with those around the world also sheltered-in-place, but also creates ways to connect with your audience or with other artists.
Focus on creating new work
Artists are also using this forced downtime to create new work for the future, experiment with new series, and delve into longer-term projects.
August 15, 2018
Books that Inspired and Influenced my Experimentation: Here we have to give homage to my kings of imagery. While I cannot claim to compare myself to them, they continue to inspire my view of the world. Ansel Adams for extending the imagination though light and shadows. Georgia O’Keefe for painting macros and driving the eye into incredible landscapes. Andrew Wyeth for adding a dusting of serenity to all he painted and giving a craving for tea whenever I see his work. Pablo Picasso for always coming to the purity of the image by often outrageous routes. These are perhaps the most accessible influences, but the truth is that my influences run deep through thousands of books and works I’ve seen & read.
May 9, 2016
http://www.c24gallery.com/news-item/crafty-88-presents-caroline-feuerman
NEW YORK, NY.- C24 Gallery announces Hero and Leader, a solo exhibition featuring a new body of work by hyperrealist sculptor Carole A. Feuerman.
The exhibition will be on view May 7, 2016 through June 25, 2016. Additionally, Carole Feuerman will have her first solo show in Los Angeles at KM Fine Arts from July 14 – August 20, 2016.
Hero and Leander is a Greek mythological story of Hero (a priestess of Aphrodite) who lived in a tower off a waterway and Leander (a young man from the opposite side of the strait). Leander fell in love with Hero and would swim every night across the waterway to be with her. Hero would light a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way. These trysts lasted through one warm summer. On a stormy winter night, the waves tossed Leander in the sea while the breezes blew out Hero’s light. Leander lost his way and was drowned. When Hero saw his dead body, she threw herself over the edge of the tower to be with him in death.
Two new monumental bronze sculptures, Monumental Dancer and Beyond the Golden Mean will debut in this exhibition representing the story of Hero and Leander. Appearing amongst these two significant figures will be a thirty-foot interactive video by Italian videographer Michelangelo Bastiani.
Leda and the Swan will be one of the highlights in this exhibition having just returned from the 2015 Venice Biennale. Outfitted in a 1920’s bathing suit, the resin sculpture depicts a reinterpretation of the classic Greek tale of Leda. According to the myth, Zeus seduces Leda while disguised as a swan, and Leda bears Helen of Troy from this encounter. In Feuerman’s own words, the sculpture “embraces the eroticism associated with much of Greek mythology, while telling the story of deceit and treachery.” Leda is an important figure as a wife and mother.
Another feature in this exhibition is DurgaMa, inspired by the Hindu goddess Durga. The bronze figure sits in complete tranquility on a sacred lotus flower. She is the symbol of birth, rebirth and survival, which is a common theme present in much of Feuerman’s work. The lotus flower can live for over a thousand years and along with Durga’s universal powers, she can withstand all that the world throws her way.
Feuerman’s works explore classicism while presenting common themes that occur in our every day lives. Some of these powerful stories are experiences the artist has encountered in her own life, and she feels compelled to tell them as we all struggle to overcome similar personal obstacles. Evoking inward emotions, Feuerman invites the spectator to identify with the narrative before them. Swimming and water have fascinated the artist all of her life as she has always been captivated how delicate water droplets form patterns over her skin after a swim.
Carole A. Feuerman is recognized as a pioneering figure in the world of hyperrealist sculpture. Dubbed ‘the reigning doyenne of super-realism’ by art historian John T. Spike, Feuerman’s prolific career over four decades has solidified her place in the rhetoric of art history. She has been the subject of six museum retrospectives to date. Her works continue to be exhibited worldwide. In Italy, she has exhibited in four of the Venice Biennales, the Piazza della Repubblica, and the Teatro Romano e Museum Civico in Fiesole. In Asia, she has exhibited in Harbour City; Hong Kong, The National Museum of China, Shanghai, and the Daejeon Museum and Suwon Museums in Korea. Numerous public sculptures have appeared in outdoor venues, including Petrosino Square in New York City and the Frederik Meijer Sculpture Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan. One of Feuerman’s most recognizable pieces, “The Golden Mean,” can be seen in Riverfront Green Park overlooking the Hudson River and is owned by the City of Peekskill, NY. Her “Monumental Double Diver” is owned by the City of Sunnyvale in Silicon Valley, California. In 2011, she founded the Carole A. Feuerman Sculpture Foundation in order to generate excitement, interest and passion for the arts and to inspire and award deserving artists with education grants. Her selected private collectors include the Emperor of Japan, President William & Hillary Clinton, Norman Brahman, the Caldic Collection, Mark Parker, Andrey Molchanov, Unlu Menkul Degerler, Ariella Wertheimer, Robert Hurst, and Malcolm Forbes.
Lets have some fun and enjoy life as art. I got this really cool email today with a beautiful proverb.
May 1, 2015
NEW YORK.- A banner of Frida Kahlo’s “Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird” hangs over the entrance of the Mertz Library advertising the “Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life” exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden May 21, 2015 in New York….