Last night I presented the mural designs from the call for submissions at the DWK City Council meeting. They went with Design #4 – Congratulations, Matt!
Ok, so tell me in the comments below, which one would you have chosen?
Design #1 is entitled “Flight of the Eagle” and is inspired from Terrie Anderson’s submitted design concept in collaboration with the SWAC Design Team. Terrie writes in her submission … “My ideas for the mural design came from my thinking about what living in West Kelowna means to me. I thought of all the West Kelowna offers, including music, orchards, vineyards… I thought of the eagles I see soaring above my home on the slope of Mt. Boucherie. For me, an eagle represents courage and strength and flight in a positive direction.”
Design #2 is entitled “New Growth” and is inspired from Sarah Parson’s drawing of an Okanagan background of Sun, Mountains and Lake. In collaboration with SWAC’s Design Team, the sprout is an illustration of a grape vine just waiting to be planted. There are symbols of the Okanagan Sunflower, dogwood flower, fruit, music & sports scattered throughout the background.
Design #3 is a bit more complex. It is entitled “Moving through West Kelowna” and was compiled by the SWAC Design Team.
Design #4 is entitled “View from Mt. Boucherie” and was drawn by Matthew Brown. Looking down at West Kelowna from Mt. Boucherie, his vision for this mural is one of hidden symbols within the landscape, representing the local wineries such as the pelican, the quail, straw & the Kalala dog as well as symbols representing the WFN such as the Saskatoon bushes, salmon, a black bear & Ogopogo.
Can you believe, it’s time to do it again! Anyone interested to participate in the Together Westside Gallery Call for Westside Culture Days (Sept 26-27), here is the Call for Artists. Deadline is Sept 11thso get your information in to secure a spot.
Submission fee is $25 for non-SWAC members or $10 for SWAC members. (Go to http://www.swac-arts.com for SWAC membership details.) Submit your form to swacarts@gmail.com or email if you have any questions.
Forms and $ can also be dropped off at the West Kelowna Blenz.
Can you believe it? The District of West Kelowna city council fully supports us creating a mural for Westside Culture Days & they will help us put it up. Now the real work begins. But how fun is that? West Kelowna will get it’s very 1st mural. Super excited. 🙂
Watch for the artist call for design proposals coming soon!
Have you seen this “app” or, I guess, it is really just a website you can access from your mobile phone… http://www.kelowna.ca/public-art/# ? Really neat! You can take a tour of all the public artwork in Kelowna. Who knew there were 68 pieces on public art in the city & now you can see them all. Very slick & well done.
Tonight is my big mural presentation for the District of West Kelowna. Now it is time to see if we can get some public art on the Westside, so that one day we can “get an app for that”.
I feel like I am in school doing a presentation of learning just like my daughter did yesterday for her final project at school this year. I have been working hard on a proposal and power-point presentation to go before a delegation at our city council on Tuesday. I am super nervous but if my daughter can do a 15 min presentation in front of her class, then I can do a 5 minute presentation in front of the mayor, intimidating as it may be.
Before the wheels start spinning about what I could possibly be up to, let me fill you in on some of the details. As you know, I am the vice-chair #1 for our new art council. Since our little town has been starving for art, we decided it was time to work on a community art project mural to be donated to the city.
Nothing like this has been done on our side of the bridge since our municipality is relatively new, so I am going to go to start breaking the ice. Who knows if they will let us hang the mural once it is created but I am going to go ask. It will at least get the council thinking about the possibilities that art can offer the community. Cross your fingers for me! I will keep you posted. I have a feeling I might need a glass or two of wine to decompress when it is over.
Last year when I worked at a dress shop on Pandosy Street, I often was scheduled to work with another sales associate who had come from the art world in Vancouver. Of course both being fine art graduates, we had a lot of similar interests and she would tell me tales of the days she worked in a Vancouver gallery. I was fascinated to listen to her talk about bidding and winning an Emily Carr worth over $600,000 on behalf of a client at the prestigious Heffle Art Auction.
You might wonder why she was working at a dress shop in Kelowna after such a thrilling art career. She had stepped away from the art world to be with her mother recovering from cancer but has since returned to her old Vancouver job at the gallery. It was during this brief sabbatical that our paths had momentarily crossed. But she gave me an eye opening into this mystical world of art auctions.
Art auctions is big business with the wealthy spending money only we could ever dream of. But with big business and big wealth comes with it a level of stress that I could never truly comprehend, as I write this post from my deck and am enjoying the Okanagan sunshine with my puppy.
Have you heard of Culture Days? It is a national celebration in September that focuses on cultural activities across Canada. If you are an artist, you need to know about this organization and what it does… http://culturedays.ca/en. I spent the morning in a BC Culture Days Task Force meeting and heard all about what they offer anyone wanting to participate in this special event.
This cultural event is what inspired our new West Kelowna Arts Council (SWAC). It all started from a coffee shop conversation between a few artists wanting to participate in the Culture Days weekend. Their passion snow balled into registering 40 businesses hosting 80 artists who showcased displays and demos during the last weekend in September 2014. Many of our organizers of the Westside Culture Days were nominated for Culture Days awards and the Westbank First Nation Museum celebrated its win in the Edmonton conference. This energy continues as we plan to participate in Culture Days 2015.
What I love about the Culture Days organization, though, is that they are there to help the artists in whatever way they can, mainly through promotion of the Culture Days events. However, their website is full of business tips and tools. I have participated in a few of their free webinars which are top notch from experts in various fields such as finding sponsorship to online marketing to the benefits of crowdfunding. Super helpful!
Even if you can’t participate in Culture Days 2015, I highly recommend this organization as a resource for any artist wanting to turn their art into a business. Sign up for their e-newsletter and hopefully with their insights you will help you on your way. Let me know in the comments below what your experience has been with Culture Days, I’d love to read all about it. And check back with me often as I will let you know what our exciting plans are for this year’s Westside Culture Days or you can visit the site at http://westsideculturedays.com.
So excited to be hanging an art show this weekend! It will be so much fun, I can hardly wait. Next week, I will post some pictures of the curating and the event. If you are in the Kelowna area, please stop by to check it out. Our 1st ever SWAC juried art show will be held on this coming Sat, May 9th at the Best Western in West Kelowna. We would love to see you there!
Monday was quite an exciting day for us in West Kelowna (I think I better get used to using our new name instead of Westbank, but I am finding old habits die hard.) It was the day the Olympic torch ran through our town – yeah! Apparently, it ran right by our house at the bottom of the hill, but we were preoccupied by the other celebrations going on at the arena. Faith’s school choir was asked to sing at the torch ceremonies in front of upwards of 2000 people. They did a fantastic job! All the hoop-la was a ton of fun and it was really neat to see the flame so close. Visit my Youtube channel for video of the torch.
Since I am back in the Olympic spirit, I wanted to show you another painting of my mini figure skating series. This 18″x24″ acrylic and charcoal painting is entitled “Figure Skater in an Arched-Back Spin”. Again in my white, layered, texture style, I was really interested to explore movement with this painting. I wanted to capture the spin of the figure skater in mid rotation with rather blurry facial features and a dancing skirt. During this interesting study, it really made me take a look at what lines are necessary to stop the action for a 2D image while maintaining the feeling of movement.
Catch ya later,
Rebekah
PS. To see more of my paintings visit my website at www.rawdesigns.org. Although, if you are interested to see any more of my figure skating paintings it is best to visit my blog as that is where my most recent work hangs out.
AN INTERNET PLAN FOR ARTISTS
Since the last issue of OFF THE EASEL, I have been busy getting settled into our new studio space at the RCA. I am there most days from around 9-2 so have been able to get a lot accomplished. I can already tell this is going to be good for me for me to keep me on top of my goals as my home life won’t be interrupting me or pulling me away during the time I am at the studio.
For the past couple of weeks, I have been setting up the internet marketing strategy for the new studio. I will be sure to give you all the links so you can see what I’ve done, but you will need to read to the end of this newsletter (Ha, that’s a sneaky way to get you to read what I have to say, don’t ya think.) Well, I thought, since it has been my main focus, I might as well tell you everything I have learned to setting up a studio using the internet. I will spill this over into a few issues of my e-newsletters. But, it is something I feel I must write about because, generally, artists are not computer savvy as they are busy in their studios creating. If they can look up from their work for a moment they can take control of their marketing strategy. I am hoping this will empower other artists to go ahead with their own internet marketing plan as I have been getting many requests for tips and advise. I also wanted to write this because I wish I had this all outlined as it would have saved me a lot of time and energies over the past few years.
This plan is very easy to implement so you, the artist, won’t have to be a computer genius to go ahead. You will still have time to create art. However, the one thing you will need to be is willing to figure things out and stay with it until you do. It requires time. It requires initiative. It requires no fear of the computer, just the ability to read and click. It requires visits to the “help” section or “FAQ” to find solutions. It most importantly requires maintaining & updating or there is little point to undertaking any internet marketing strategy.
I do believe artists need to learn how to be self sufficient with their own marketing plan, as art is never stagnant for long and is forever changing. It will cost you more money in the long run if you are constantly depending on others to do what you can do for yourself. I just want to point artists in the right direction and give my recommendations based on ease. The details will be up to the individual to figure out on their own.
The key components you, as an artist, will need is, firstly, to be able to take quality digital photographs of your images. This is a “must know-how” for any artist. With a decent digital camera, you will then need a photo editor program on your computer. The complexity of your software will depend on your computer knowledge – the more complex the program, the more flexibility and creativity you will have to manipulate your images. The second key component is to have internet access.
To start, let’s talk websites. Websites are important to have for any artist but you cannot expect too much from them. The point of an artist website is to have a public place for your portfolio, biography and contact info. An artist website is useful for people to see different work outside shows or for galleries to learn more about your art experiences. If you are expecting people to find you on the internet without any external advertising you are deluding yourself. People won’t find your website unless you tell them where it is.
In my experience, to start, it is not necessary to pay for a website design as there is enough free website templates that can be manipulated into uniqueness. The object of the game is to develop an internet presence and to develop one piece to your promo package. Don’t over complicate things in the beginning, especially since creating art should be your main focus. If you google “free website design” you will get a slue of websites that will help you create a website all for free with an account sign-up.
I, personally, recommend gmail (http://mail.google.com/) because an account is free. This account gives you access to so much such as an email address, an email program with a contact list database, a calendar, place to write or store documents, a photo organizer (Note: this is not a photo editor), Youtube and a website builder. Multiple persons with the access codes can access all these things, since it is on the internet and not on individual computers. This has been fantastic for setting up a multi artist coop. In addition, all these things are connected. For instance, the photos put into the photo organizer or the calendar can be use in the website builder. If you need to learn a program, becoming an expert in gmail is worth the time spent.
A website developed through gmail is template based and can be automatically made visible as you are developing it. The web address is rather long and cumbersome for promotional purposes. So, you can register a domain name for a minimal under $10(US) yearly fee. This will be your own personal website address. Again, just google “domain name registration” for websites that will help you with this. Follow the “help” or “FAQ” sections as you need it. Then, forward your domain name to the site created through gmail and again the “help” through your domain name registration will explain how to do this.
If you are expecting sales from your website, then you need a shopping cart capability which is a whole other aspect but is possible with minimal effort. You will need a Paypal account (www.paypal.com), which gives you the capability of payment with the option of credit card payment. Then, there are shopping cart websites on the internet that you can tap into such as www.etsy.com which is a “place to buy & sell all things handmade” or www.artfire.com which is an “artisans marketplace”. I am sure there are lots of other sites, you just need google to find them including selling prints or promo stuff like cards & T-shirts.
Be sure to read all the details and fine print before signing up regarding fees & commissions. You will need to consider your shipping options and accounting tracking within your art business. Also, again adjust your expectations and don’t buy into the sales hype of the site. You cannot expect to automatically start selling with these sights, necessarily, as you are one in thousands on the site and may be difficult to find. Not to mention, the site itself may not be getting much internet traffic which is the sites marketing responsibility. So, again, you will need to tell people where you are on the internet. These sites give you a web address for your shop’s page and a link can be added to your website.
A website is only one piece to any market strategy as there is so much else involved. Over the next few issues of OFF THE EASEL I will move on to the other aspects of this internet marketing plan such as social media and print material.
What a beautiful day for an outdoor art event! Surrounded by the vista of the Okanagan Lake, what more could an artist ask for?
Lots of people visited the winery that Sunday afternoon and enjoyed the tents of artwork on the back lawn.
Towards the end of the day, however, the wind picked up and spilled pieces of art off easels. It was then that some artists decided to pack it up early, unfortunately. But it didn’t dampen the great time we had earlier in the day!
![photo 1[1]](https://rebekahwilkinson.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/photo-11.jpg)
What a beautiful day for an outdoor art event! Surrounded by the vista of the Okanagan Lake, what more could an artist ask for? 
Draw . Design . Inspire 