You Gotta Have Heart

[annabelle]

Our local artists collective is hosting an invitation only evening of art and refreshments on Saturday, August 15.  The title for the evening is Life, Inspiration....  I had asked for your ideas on the subject of Life....All you your suggestions were great, and lead me in other directions for my own inspiration.  Here is the first one of at least 2 pieces I will be offering for sale that night.  It came from a book called "Anatomy"....I think it turned out pretty well...There will be lots of doctors at this event, so I hope it strikes someone's fancy....I am currently working on a wire/glass wall sculpture I call Tree of Life....Time is short, but if I don't get too distracted, I should be able to finish it....So, here, for your consideration is "You Gotta Have Heart"...

[Lou Ann]

Annabelle,

that is really neat...

I could see a cardiologist scooping that up pretty quickly...

Lou Ann

[Kev]

Me too!

[Anne]

Yup, I can see that being snapped up right away.  Really nice job Annabelle!

[meaco]

Pretty   

I'm sure it will sell...it's a pretty unique piece! :)

[PiscesGlass]

Nice job!  Very original and nicely done!  I hope you do very well at the show!

De

[ct4mom]

Very  Annabelle Great job Im sure it will do well.

[Lynn]

Very cool piece! 

[Barbara]

Really great piece Annabelle, there will probably be a few more orders as well when the drs see it.  Will be waiting to see your wire/glass sculpture as well
Barbara

[Audrey]

No doubt that will get the doctor's attention and sell.

[Scooch]

Nice heart.  I like it.

How did you do the lettering?

[Tre V]

Nice heart.  I like it.

How did you do the lettering?

Looks sandblasted? It looks terrific! I'm currently working on a "Hip" for my orthopedic surgeon... weird, but I think she'll like it..

[Kev]

LOL..all these body parts...maybe you guys can get together and open a body shop...lol

[Tre V]

Chop shop

[Kev]

lmao

[annabelle]

no, the mirror was not sandblasted.  It was hand etched......And thank you all for your compliments.....Is there not one among you who does not like it?   We can all use constructive criticism, even if the item is finished....  Could I have used different colors?  Should I have used something different for the bottom piece?.....Maybe embossed copper, or flashed glass (If I could find some).....could it have been framed differently?.....Any ideas for improvement just in case I get commissions on it?
annabelle

[Alan]

We can all use constructive criticism, even if the item is finished....  Could I have used different colors?  Should I have used something different for the bottom piece?.....Maybe embossed copper, or flashed glass (If I could find some).....could it have been framed differently?.....Any ideas for improvement just in case I get commissions on it?

Glass choices:
Personally, I do not like glue chip but I know that there are a lot of people who like it. Perhaps granite glass instead?
The red and the blue in the heart are perfect.
Background for the heart - perhaps a white or pink streaky or maybe even some waterglass?
Bottom - leave that to the customer to go with their color scheme or their favorite color.
Framing:
What if a customer wants a wooden frame?

[Kev]

About the only thing I might change would be to move the lettering up and drop the leaves, but I think it looks great the way it is as well.

[ct4mom]

Looks perfect to me

[Becki]

The subject matter doesn't particularly appeal to me but it's executed well and I can see where it would appeal to a certain audience.  Nice!

[JoanFrances]

All the best of luck with you're showing on this one Annabelle

[annabelle]

thanks for all the good input!  The subject did not really appeal to me, either, but I knew there were going to be lots of doctors on the invitation list....I like the idea of dropping the leaves, and almost did that with this one...and a different color for the background of the heart part also ....I even considered leaving off the bottom piece, and leaving the leaves....Lots of variables are possible with this pattern....  Right now I am working on a glass/wire sculpture....and I want to enter a vessel with a nice etching on it, or a mirror, as I thought to do earlier....With just a week to go before the event, I better just do something!!
annabelle

[Tre V]

Annabelle, how do you do the etching?

[annabelle]

I have a super high speed engraving tool that runs on compressed air...
annabelle

[annabelle]

OK   ...the art event was last night.  The room looked amazing ....Our members are wizards when it comes to setting up the room for an art event.  Everyone I spoke to talked about the fact that the funeral home chapel had been turned into an upscale New York gallery for the evening....It was just awsome!...I offered "You Gottah Have Heart", a red dragon mirror, "The Tree of Life", a couple of Victorian hand mirros, and a green bottle hand etched with a mermaid....The only thing I sold was a hand mirror.....I heard LOTS of conversation about the other pieces...just not many sales were made....But it was an absolutely wonderful event...Folks were wanting to know where we were showing next.....
I am currently president of our artists group, and when we first started planning this event, the idea occured to me that to put our group on the map, we should think outside the box, and not do what other groups in the area might be doing, and our group has done for years....There are certain events we are sort of expected to do on an annual basis, but if we don't change our approach to showing our work, the group may not survive....So I have come up with an ongoing series of small, short showings I call "Art in Unexpected Places"....Maybe a new business opens and want publicity cheap....we could go in and hold a showing.  We get publicity, the business gets publicity....I will start out with showings quarterly, and hope to go to monthly....On October 10, we are sponsoring an evening called "Art After Dark...In the Grove" in a tiny town with stores across from the railroad that runs through town.Each merchant will host an artists from 6 til 10pm..The City Council is hosting a dance from 8 - 11pm...So not I have to get back into planning mode immediatly....I don't think I will be president next year, so I am mentoring a young person to take over for me....I still will participate and support her, because she has no experience, but I think she wants me to do the planning for next year so she can just execute what I put into motion.....Life is an adventure!

[Anne]

great ideas Annabelle, and I agree with you, you do have to think outside the box today.  If we always do the same shows we get the same people out.  By going to the other venues we hope to get a new audience and expand our horizons.  There is a city in our province that does a similar thing to what you're calling Art in Unexpected Places. They do it a little differently wherein they have a lot of businesses participating in the showings over a period of about 6 weeks and the shows are changed every two weeks.  It took a couple of years to really get it up and running but I believe now they have business and artists lining up to participate! The public are told which businesses are participating and it has generated more traffic for the businesses and exposure for the artists.  It's too far away for me to participate but I can't imagine the artists would be interested in this unless they were generating sales.

It's awesome what you're doing for the local community.  Kudos to you!!

[Tre V]

No kidding. What a great idea. Business is difficult in small towns and that's a great way to get people inside. And if our community is any indicator, folks are looking for things to do.

[PiscesGlass]

Yes, what a great idea "Art in Unexpected Places" is.  I sure wish someone up here would kick off an idea like that!  Sounds wonderful!