Artists don’t always use what is considered the ‘typical’ canvas to create their masterpieces, and some students aren’t even aware of the exciting possibilities of pursuing a career in the beauty and entertainment industry. M’chel Bauxal-Gleason is an accomplished celebrity make-up artist and hair stylist who has had the opportunity to work with the likes of Dr. Oz, Lou Ferrigno, Henry Winkler, Ty Pennington, Alicia Silverstone, and the Presidential family.

At the age of 18, Bauxel-Gleason says she ventured down to L.A.’s American College of the Applied Arts and later transferred to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, where she graduated with a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Fashion Design in 1996. One of her first gigs out of school was in the special effects makeup department at Six Flags Magic Mountain during their Fright Fest.

“I taught myself all the basics about beauty, airbrushing, special effects and hair designing,” says Bauxel-Gleason. “I then utilized my degree in fashion and glamour applying my knowledge to market myself in the entertainment industry.”

After more than 10 years in L.A., Bauxel-Gleason relocated back to her home state of Oregon, where she landed a position as the department head hair stylist on the Emmy award-winning TV show Portlandia. It was here that

she rounded out her skills, learning different ways to cut and color hair. In 2011, she enrolled into Phagan’s School of Hair Design just south of Portland, and graduated in 2012.

Bauxel-Gleason also had the privilege to do hair and makeup for Michelle and Barack Obama for a Good Morning America appearance while freelancing for Debbie Armend of Fisher Pathways.

“It was an experience like no other and one that I will remember for quite some time,” says Bauxel-Gleason. “I was greeted by several police officers who asked for my credentials, city streets were blocked off and I had to go through several checks by German Shepherds.”

She says her makeup, hair cases, and vehicle were all searched, and she was escorted by several police officers to a “room” where she would set up. “I have worked with a lot of senators and governors in the past, but I have never seen anything like it before,” she recalls of walking down a hallway with Secret Service agents.

However, Bauxel-Gleason says that her most memorable client was Ernest Borgnine, who she worked with just two months before he passed away in 2012. “He was so inspirational to talk with,” she says. “He spoke very highly of his wife…the experiences he went through after he won the Oscar for the movie Marty in the 1950′s.” Afterwards, she attended a screening for the film and walked away with a McHale’s Navy hat for her father – signed by one of his favorite actors [Borgnine].

Today, Bauxel-Gleason leads a wide-ranging artistic career, and she’s been pretty busy in April – supplying hair and makeup for a new TV show on the A&E network this summer called Rodeo Girls. She’s judged The Fresh Faces pageant alongside her husband, Dennis Gleason earlier in the month. She will also serve as a speaker for the Hillsboro, Oregon Chamber School to Work Program on April 23^rd. In May, Bauxel-Gleason is scheduled to beautify two celebrities for the TV show AM Northwest – Julia Sweeney and Chris Hardwick.

M’Chel gives the following advice to aspiring makeup artists and hair stylists: “Make sure you go into it because you love to do it. Unlike many careers, if you don’t like it, you won’t ever be great at it. Second, take the time to learn how to do it right. Short cuts might work now and then, but the real successful artists take their career serious enough to get formally trained. I can’t tell you how much more I learned in getting my degree.” 

M’Chel can be also found on @bauxal on Twitter, Facebook, and IMDB.

The post M’chel Bauxal-Gleason – Celebrity Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist appeared first on TheArtCareerProject.com.

“I lost my eyesight in just 30 minutes,” says Stevens referring to the bullet fragments that caused a stroke in his visual cortex twenty-three years after being shot in the head during a combat mission in Vietnam. “My career, my wife, my future, and my self-worth soon followed.”

After the stroke, Stevens also lost the confidence to continue creating art – a passion he possessed ever since he was a child spending time in his grandmother’s commercial art studio. “I finally had to accept being blind,” says Stevens, “but once I did, I also accepted the fact that to have a life, I would have to reinvent my life.”

In 2000, Stevens decided to become a full-time artist despite his disability, and started by locating special lenses to aid his technical skills. It would take him two more years to relearn his craft. Stevens’ clientele started on the local level, and word-of mouth played a large role in eventually attracting out-of-state and international admirers of his work. He later built his own website, and started taking on commissions.

Commissioned pieces for a sculpture or carving can range from 20 to over 900 hours of work. His body of work includes custom pistol grips, designer pendants, key chains, necklaces, and a belt buckle made out of antler. Images of Capone, Scarface, and a pin-up girl grace the customized handles of automatic knives.

However, the piece that Stevens remembers the most came at the request of his youngest daughter. “It was my first carving after losing my sight,” he says. “And when I felt I just couldn’t do it, she would remind me that I promised not to quit.”

It wasn’t long before commissioned pieces were being requested by the likes of private collectors and New York jewelry designers. Stevens was later asked to teach scrimshaw at the NRA Gunsmithing School. Notes from these classes caught the eye of Schiffer Publishing, which led to him penning three published books on art.

Today, Stevens’ art appears in galleries across the country, and is collected internationally.

Jim offers the following advice to aspiring artists: “I think success in art grows from finding a niche that you’re good at, making a name for yourself within that niche and then expanding on your reputation into other areas of art that interest you. It has certainly worked that way for me.”

Jim can be found on April 18, 2013 at the Wheat Ridge Cultural Commission “Meet the Artist” one man show. You can also find Jim on Facebook.

The post Jim Stevens – Master Scrimshander (March Artist Spotlight) appeared first on TheArtCareerProject.com.

The Political Influence of Art

One place to begin this discussion is in ancient Athens. More than two millennia ago, Plato put forward his argument that the arts should be censored in an ideal society because of the danger they posed to individuals by appealing to the irrational size of the human mind. While modern politicians may have different reasons for wanting to censor and restrict modern media, most people can agree that this sentiment is nothing new to society. In 2011, a move was made to ban sales of violent video games to minors (this decision was struck down by the Supreme Court) and in 2013, the video game industry is seeking protection from threats of regulation.

It would be remiss to not point out that as media capable of being an art, video games have already been firmly within the political arena for decades. From feminist critiques of the appearance of female game characters to the moral objections surrounding games that include and promote forms of gambling or violence, to say games are becoming more political can only mean that more games are headed deeper into the already thoroughly explored territory of politics and art.

Video Games: The Gender Debate

Perhaps the best context to understand the relationship between politics and games can be found in the great gender debate that has spanned the past three decades of game development. Certainly any long time video game enthusiast has heard time and time again just how miserable gender role stereotypes are in their favorite game; and for perhaps for good reason.

Not only are video game heroes predominately male, there’s even some arguments that studios avoid female protagonists because games without male leads tend to make less—this is despite the fact that an estimated forty-seven percent of gamers are women. To make matters worse, whatever few exceptions one can conjure to the rule of the male protagonist is usually burdened by every feminine cliché imaginable, making the game’s heroine make Barbie dolls look like the height of realism by contrast.

One important reason for the prevalence of physically exaggerated female leads within the linage of videogames has been the restraints provided by early graphics engines, especially during the late 90’s and early 21st century. When a game character is being rendered in 64 bits and is barely distinguishable from the background it’s placed on, exaggerating feminine traits may be the only way to get across the gender of anyone. (The earliest example of this may be Mrs. Pac-Man and her bright red bow.)

But while the push towards more realistic characters and themes in videogames may end up producing a few less caricatures of women, it may be too optimistic to think that the core of the problem facing gender roles in videogames is likely to change, even with the astounding advancements in computing power since these earliest stereotypes emerged.

The simple truth may be that game audiences prefer to play attractive characters, so studios will continue to produce them. A “less chesty” and more covered-up Lara Croft in the new version of the game might have the appearance of progress at first glance; however, in the end, while the race towards realism and originality may in fact drive video games further and further into political territory, for better or worse, the essential character of games may only be as sophisticated as the audiences for which there are to receive them.

The post Engineering More Realistic and Creative Video Games Puts Designers in the Spotlight appeared first on TheArtCareerProject.com.

For some museum exhibits are an acquired taste. Some people don’t understand how non-moving works of art of all shapes and sizes can be so fascinating, which is why we decided it was time to try and change some of those people’s minds. There are many ways to appreciate a museum exhibit, including appreciation for the artist’s craftmanship, appreciation for the symbolism that the exhibit represents, or our personal favorite, appreciation for the larger story and context that accompanies every work of art of this magnitude.

This piece isn’t directed at the people who already appreciate these things and have been appreciating them for years. This piece is directed at the people who think museums and works of art are boring and uninteresting. These aren’t meant to be the 10 best museum exhibits around the country, they are just meant to be 10 exhibits that we think are worth checking out. And hopefully, a few of those people who are skeptical about their own interest in museum exhibits can read a bit about the pieces, go and check one out, and come away with a new appreciation for the appeal of museum exhibits.

Enrico David-Hammer 

This exhibition, held at the Hammer Museum, is Enrico David’s first in LA. It centers on a singular bronze figure, which is circled by paper mummies crawling across the walls and floor of the gallery. Visitors can go from being observers to being participants in this imaginative scene.

Enrico David’s work can be seen at the Hammer until May 5^th.

Alexandre Singh: The Pledge –The drawing Center 

This presentation of Alexandre Singh’s work will be the first in North America. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s new series of Assembly Instructions called ‘The Pledge’. The pieces are derived from interviews that the artist conducted during 2011 with notable figures including scientists, artists and filmmakers, these have then been transformed into fictional dialogues.

This exhibition is being held in The Drawing Centre in New York until March 13^th.

Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by Anatsui – Brooklyn Museum

The globally renowned artist El Anatsui has opened his first solo exhibition in a New York museum. The show features over 30 works that use metal and wood and transform objects we would all recognize into site-specific sculptures. The exhibition also includes 12 recent monumental sculptures, which represent Anatsui’s career progression.

You can see Anatsui’s work until August 4^th in the Brooklyn Museum.

Angels, Demons and Savaged: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet –Phillips Collection

This exhibition explores American abstract expressionism and tells the little known tale of the relationship between three seminal artists of the time, Jackson Pollock, Alfonso Ossorio and Jean Dubuffet. The exhibition contains 55 pieces and it reunites works by Pollock and Dubuffet from Osorio’s collection for the first time since his death.

The exhibition is running until May 12^th in The Phillips Collection in Washington.

Gutai: Splendid Playground – Guggenheim

‘Guitai: Splendid Playground’ presents Japans most creative works from the influential avant-garde collective of the post-war era. Founded by artist Yoshihara Jiro in 1954, the Gutai group was legendary. It’s young members caused a stir by exploring new collaborative art forms. Amidst wartime totalitarianism, Gutai pioneered ethics of creative freedom.

This reflective exhibition runs until May 8^th at the Guggenheim in New York.

Courtesy of New Museum Of Contemporary Art

NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Start – New Museum

This insightful exhibition looks at art made and exhibited in New York over the course of one year. The year in question is 1993 and a time capsule effect of the year’s creative happening is produced as you explore the exhibition. A range of iconic and lesser-known artworks are presented and together they mark a key cultural history of the city.

NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Start runs until May 26^th in The New Museum in New York.

James Turrell: A retrospective – Museum of Fine Arts Houston

This retrospective exhibition will reveal much of James Turrell’s work to the public for the first time. The heart of the exhibition is ‘The Light Inside’ a permanent installation at the museum, there is also Vertical Vintage, a grouping of a dozen light based installations that lets visitors test their perception and witness how light can dramatically shape space.

This exhibition is at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston from June 9^th-September 22^nd (May 26^th 2012 – April 6^th 2014 at LACMA/ June 21^st—September 25^th 2013 at Guggenheim)

Mika Taanila –Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis

Mike Taanila’s thought provoking and challenging work is to be displayed at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis. The Finnish artist works across a variety of mediums including film, video, sound and installation and each push the limit of technological developments in their own way. His work is predominantly in documentary form and it considers the implications of human achievement and progress.

This insightful exhibition runs from May 31^st to August 11 in the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

Future Beauty: Thirty Years of Japanese Fashion – Seattle Art Museum

For the first time a comprehensive look will be taken at Japanese fashion and the huge impact it has had internationally. Designers such as Kenzo Takada, Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto will be included in the exhibition with the true extent of their influence on the fashion industry revealed. The exhibition sums up three decades of innovative and remarkable designs.

This globally focused exhibition runs from June 27^th to September 8^th at Seattle Art Museum.

Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris – National Gallery of Art in D.C.

This exhibition is the first retrospective of Charles Marvilles work and the only scholarly catalogue focusing on the famed French photographer. The in depth and insightful exhibition reveals recent startling discoveries concerning his art and personal life. The exhibition features over 100 photographs covering Marville’s career.

The groundbreaking exhibition opens on September 29^th at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. 

Let us know what you think of the exhibitions, or if you’ve visited one you think needs recommending. Just tweet us on @ArtCareers or pin your favorite exhibit and find us on Pinterest.

The post 10 Museum Exhibits to Make Time for in 2013 appeared first on TheArtCareerProject.com.

Razorfrog Web Design

Started in 2000 by a young designer from the area named Max Elman, Razorfrog has quickly earned a reputation as a great website design shop and one that’s incredibly easy to work with. The team prides itself on openly communicating and maintaining a close relationship with client, while also providing the client with not only aesthetically pleasing designs, but also the coding, the layout, the copywriting, and even IT consulting. With clients ranging from historical societies to radio stations and even auto repair centers, Razorfrog is a dynamic shop that is willing to work with individuals and businesses alike to create a stunning and easily navigable website that is appealing to visitors.

Check them out on Yelp, Twitter @razorfrog, and Facebook.

Arin Fishkin Graphic Design

Does it still count as a graphic design “shop” if the shop is really just one woman? And perhaps more importantly, does it matter? With a formal education in art and design not just from the University of Michigan but also the San Francisco Art Institute, Arin Fishkin is a versatile designer and artist who has experience creating everything from logos, to print designs, and even website designs. An avid believer in sustainability and someone with an affinity for working with local small businesses and startups, Fishkin has worked with everyone from Burning Man to the Women’s Foundation of California. Few in the Bay Area can match Fishkin’s combination of artistic talent and design sense, making her a truly one-stop shop for your design needs.

Check them out on Yelp, Twitter @MrsFishkin, and Facebook.

MyMediaDesigner

A graduate of San Jose State University, Brian Schwab has been designing websites, logos, prints, tour posters, and more for 15 years. The volume of Schwab’s work is difficult for any design shop to match and he isn’t just effective, timely, and communicative, he also has a strong eye for design and graphics, and his track record of clean, easily navigable, aesthetically pleasing websites proves that. While other design shops branch out into marketing, Schwab has stuck to what he knows, which is fundamentally sound and clean design work. Obviously, based on his reputation, the focus has paid off.

Check them out on Yelp, and Twitter @schwabino.

Lettermade Design + Press

Although Lettermade Design and Press isn’t the same type of one-stop design shop as the two aforementioned shops, the ladies at Lettermade Design and Press have made a reputation for themselves for not only being helpful and extremely friendly, but also for consistently creating aesthetically pleasing and interesting designs for wedding invitations, business cards, menus, and thank you cards. Previous clients praised them for their attention to detail and ability to listen carefully to the client to fashion the design that the client had in mind. The shop isn’t large, but that is a good thing, as the ladies at Lettermade Design and Press often go above and beyond their requirements to meet the needs of clients, customer service that can be difficult to find in any type of business.

Check them out on Yelp.

Elative

Elative isn’t necessarily a design shop in the truest sense of the word, but that is because not only do they employ a number of designers and developers experienced in creating sleek and gorgeous new websites, but they also provide their clients with a full-service marketing team and strategy to engage your target audience. The team is easily accessible and more than willing to walk clients through every step of the process, and they are also talented and experienced marketing and design professionals who stay on top of the latest technological trends. The team at Elative has earned a reputation across the country for creating brand identities and logos from scratch, and their impressive roster of clients that includes Levi’s, Ann Taylor, and the makers of Guitar Hero, proves that the results match the reputation.

Check them out on Yelp, and Twitter @Elative.

Spotted Dog Graphics

It isn’t easy achieving long-term success in a industry as competitive and flooded as graphic design, but the four-person shop at Spotted Dog has been doing design work in the Bay Area since 1993, which should tell you something about the client experience. Few design shops are able to combine their skills with their passion, but the ladies at Spotted Dog Graphics work primarily with food and wine companies and enthusiasts, which is right up the design team’s alley. They believe strongly in a collaborative process that makes it easy for the clients and designers to work together to take a vision and make it a reality. With experience in everything from brand identity to website design, Spotted Dog offers a diverse range of services while maintaining the cozy, small shop feel that so many clients covet.

Check them out on Yelp, Twitter @SpottedDogDesig, and Facebook.

The Velvet Owl Design Studio

Coco Tardiff got her start creating gig posters and album covers for friends that were musicians and now has done design work with huge names like Google, Pepsi, Billabong, and Sony Music, proving her Velvet Owl Design Studio isn’t a bad place to start if you are in the market for unique and inspirational graphic design. While those gig poster and album cover designs remain “at the soul of the studio’s art” as she so eloquently put it, she has expanded her design services in recent years and now offers everything from digital illustration to prop styling, and textile design. Tardiff blends vast and diverse experience in the creative industry and dynamic design talent to create one of the more recognizable and popular design studios in the area.

Check them out on Yelp, Twitter @VelvetOwlDesign, and Pinterest.

Flair Designs

Created in 2004 by designer Leslie Tagorda, Flair Designs is not merely the design shop you turn to when you need a well-designed website; it is also a place you can turn to for creating everything from a brand identity to a marketing campaign, an ad campaign, and even SEO campaigns. The firm is small enough that they are able to offer clients personalized attention to help them turn their vision into a design, but the firm is also big enough o employ a number of talented designers with different types of expertise, allowing Flair to truly be a one-stop shop for its clients. Combining excellent customer service with a positive attitude and a range of talent and skill can be difficult to bring together, but Flair Designs is one of the fortunate few companies that has done it successfully thus far.

Check them out on Yelp, Twitter @flairdesigns, and Facebook.

Bucktrout Creative

Bucktrout Creative is a three-person freelance design studio run by the Bucktrout family, each of whom brings years of advertising and design experience as well as their own unique area of expertise. Founder Simon Bucktrout got his start in editorial design in Scotland and barely a decade later was running a thriving design studio offering clients such as Levi’s and eBay everything from brand identity, to website design. His wife Jen officially join the firm in 2008 and has the digital expertise needed in this increasingly technological world. Now she specializes in custom WordPress sites. The third Bucktrout in the clan, Justin, brings a wealth of design and artistic experience. The shop is tiny by design so the shop can give personalized attention and work closely with its clients, and also so it can remain efficient and flexible, which is important given their wide variety of services. The shop may not be armed with a small garrison of talented designers ready to churn out designs by the dozen, but they do offer a comfortable setting, a collaborative workplace to suit client needs, and years of talent and experience that have helped make the Bucktrout name an easily recognizable one in the design industry.

Check them out on Yelp, Twitter @bucktrout_, and Facebook.

Ian Vadas Brand Identity Design

Another one-man shop, Ian Vadas doesn’t just work with brand designs. He also helps develop and consult on the brand, and provides logo design, packaging and stationary design, and also web graphics. His one-man shop allows him to be nimble and flexible when it comes to his work, and it allows him to work hand-in-hand with clients to craft designs and brands that are not only aesthetically pleasing and impactful, but also in line with the client’s vision. His work includes creating business cards, wedding invitations, and effective logos that engage the user. He may not have the resources as some of the larger design shops, but his attention to detail and commitment to the client are reflected in his work.

Check them out on Yelp, Twitter @IanVedas, and Google+.

Kaneshige Design Associates

You can look for a long time and it would still be difficult to find a designer with more experience and longevity than Jay Kaneshige. The man has been working in design and advertising since the early 1980s and has built a sterling reputation for his work creating corporate and brand identities. Of course that is not the only type of design work his shop now provides, he and his team also perform website design, packaging design, and print design as well a wide range of other services to its clients. What sets his shop apart from others is the team’s experiences and the nearly endless list of design services it is willing to provide. Whether it is creating brand identity for a massive corporation or creating a website for a small business, Kaneshige and his team have the experience and talent to handle all of it.

Check them out on Yelp, and Facebook.

The post 11 Design Shops in the Bay Area for your Next Art Project appeared first on TheArtCareerProject.com.

Once again, we feel it is important to issue the disclaimer that we are not fashion designers, nor do we pretend to have excellent fashion taste. We will poke fun at designers who have forgotten more than we will ever know about fashion design and we will undoubtedly make fun of some outfits that others find revolutionary or cutting-edge. After all the serious discussion that usually accompanies any fashion week, look at this as a light-hearted take from some people who love art, but just don’t understand fashion.

Sister by Sibling

Take some powdered sugar and flaked coconut, and you have the makings of coconut balls, one of the favorite dessert treats of people across the country. Extrapolate that idea to the world of fashion, and you end up with whatever you want to call this fascinating outfit from Sister by Sibling. This poor model looks both delicious and ridiculous all at once, and that’s without looking at the pom-poms the designers super-glued to the headgear and the open-toed heels like look like a psychedelic pair of Nike basketball shoes.  I guess you can see the model’s arms barely peeking out behind the white frills of the outfit, but if I were a store clerk and a person wearing this asked for their change, I think I might end up trying to tuck the dollar bills into the bathing cap.

Sister by Sibling

Fresh off yet another disappointing playoff run from the Vancouver Canucks, at least one of the Green Men decided to take his talents to the runway and model for Sister by Sibling. The only difference between the two events is that Sister by Sibling decided to give the Green Man a sexy upgrade, which comes in the form of a fishnet knee-length skirt, some easily visible underwear, and a dainty black bonnet  last seen unsuccessfully trying to convince Little Red Riding Hood that the wearer of said bonnet was her grandmother. I am assuming this poor model can see through her mask, because the heels and tight skirt probably make it hard to walk in that outfit already. We aren’t women, so we don’t pretend to know anything about what they like to wear, but I am not sure too many women are psyched about the chance to show off their entire lower-half without being able to see all the looks they are drawing. But hey, maybe we are wrong.

 Fashion East

As a small child, there is no one who took a more perverse pleasure than jumping into the middle of rain puddles than I, and this outfit looks like something I definitely could have used as a kid, assuming those overalls are made from latex and not leather. Regardless of the material, this model deserves some sort of stoicism award for maintaining that straight face with what appears to be one of the absolute worst front-wedgies in the history of front-wedgies. Maybe next time they can get the model a longer pair of overalls so his private parts don’t seem so…er…suffocated. Let’s not even get started on the bowling shirt that looks like it was rooted from Charlie Sheen’s trailer on Two And A Half Men and just skip straight to the classic Chuck Taylor’s. Some may think the shoes look tacky, but you will never here me speak ill of Converse’s most popular sneaker ever.

Vivienne Westwood Red Label

I wanted to start by mentioning this model’s eerie resemblance to Amy Winehouse, but we are here to focus on the outfits and while the dress is elegant, form-fitting, and gorgeous, this outfit as a whole is quite a doozy. If Allen Iverson had known that these gloves existed when he was dominating the NBA, you better believe he would have been out there rocking those multi-colored accessories. We aren’t done with sports analogies either because, unless the picture is deceiving me, the tan-colored parts of the footwear bear an uncanny resemblance to the protector that some baseball sluggers wear to protect their shins. Now I have no idea why this model or anyone wearing that footwear would feel compelled to protect their shins, but it’s their body, and they can protect whatever part of it they please.

Unique

I am sorry but in what alternate universe or culture is this outfit acceptable to wear out in public? It’s almost as if the designers couldn’t decide whether they wanted to go with formal, casual, or beachwear, and so they just combined elements of all three of them to make on heck of an insane outfit. I guess the coat looks reasonable enough, although I have no idea whether you would consider that a formal or a casual jacket, but I am sorry, call me an ignoramus but you simply can’t combine a sports bra and a business skirt under one jacket and call it high fashion. I guess it would be a sexy and elegant outfit if you were wearing it around the house, but the purse indicates this outfit is meant to be worn out, presumably to mess with clothing store clerks who won’t know which department to send you to when you walk in.

Philip Treacy

I would be remiss if I didn’t start by mentioning that Philip Treacy is widely known as one of the foremost headgear designers and his hats have been worn by everyone from Sarah Jessica Parker to Princess Beatrice of York. His hats tend to be uniquely inspired and absolute fascinating to look at on someone’s head, but I am sorry, this is not a hat, it’s just a smiley face mask. If I weren’t so sure that this model was female, I would be willing to consider the fact that Michael Jackson was still alive and hiding in plain sight, because the rest of the outfit looks like something he has worn before but since Treacy is a hat designer, let’s stick to the headgear. Can the model even see out from behind that smiling face? It must be difficult. And what about all the annoying people who will want to slap the smiley face as they walk by? Did Treacy think about that? Because it will happen, and I will be the first in line to get a slap in. I am sorry, but there is just no way you can wear that mask and take yourself seriously.

Nasir Mazhar

We should point out that Mazhar has made his name by designing clothing for some of London’s most prominent alternative subcultures, so this outfit isn’t entirely surprising, but that doesn’t make it any less ridiculous either, it just means that potentially Mazhar intended for this outfit to look ridiculous. I am all for long shorts, a short jacket that shows off my ripped abs, and a backwards hat, I am just not sure I would have ripped up one of my grandmother’s favorite towels to make all three items. Those shorts are so absurd and parachute-y that MC Hammer is frothing at the mouth he is so jealous. The shirt has all sorts of things going on and looks like something all of the Spice Girls have worn at one point or another, and I have no idea what to make of the hat other than to say it is clearly a few sizes too large for this unlucky fellow and I have no idea how he will make it fit, because I am not sure whether that enormous black strap across the back means it is adjustable or not. I mean look at this model, has anyone tried harder to look serious only to end up looking really really sad? I don’t think so.

The post 2012 London Fashion Week’s 7 Most Ridiculous Outfits appeared first on TheArtCareerProject.com.

Of course as an artist, you probably don’t have the luxury of a dedicated marketing team to constantly monitor and update your various social media profiles, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t embrace social media, it just means you should be careful about over-extending yourself since you are your own marketing team. When it comes to creating a successful one-person social media marketing strategy, you want to be efficient and effective, and you want to use multiple mediums. We cherry-picked the most commonly used social mediums according to the study and came up with three examples of how artists should be using these channels to network and market themselves so you don’t have to.

It is important to keep in mind that because art is such a broad subject, it is difficult to offer sweeping advice that all artists should take to heart. We think we have done the best we can, but we also admit that different types of artists should use social media channels differently. Just remember that before you start reading and get angry when it feels like none of our tips apply to you. But I don’t think that will happen anyway.

Facebook

It turns out that the social medium that your college kid uses to post pictures of himself getting drunk is also the reigning champ when it comes to preferred social media channels for networking. 92 percent of the marketers surveyed said they used Facebook and the multi-faceted platform leaves artists with a lot of flexibility when it comes to how to use it.

• Create a Facebook page for yourself (as a public figure or create a page for your business) which you can dedicate solely to the promotion of your work and business, and then promote that page through your personal page if you want. You will want a page solely dedicated to your work and/or your business.

• You should obviously be posting photos of your work on your Facebook page. Not only can you use these photos to draw the interest of visitors, but you can use the caption section to link to where someone can buy that particular piece of art on your website. There is nothing wrong with providing interested parties with an easy way to make a purchase, that is just good business.

• Use status updates to promote your appearances and public showings of your artwork, just be careful when you do it. Update if your work is appearing in a gallery, or your documentary is being played in the town square. Don’t repeatedly blast out the news every 20 minutes. People appreciate when you let them know about chances to see your work, but not when they are repeatedly being hit upside the head with that information.

Twitter

While Facebook stills reigns supreme as marketing professionals’ social media channel of choice, Twitter is not far behind, especially amongst experienced marketing professionals who are convinced the site’s dynamic ability to interact with individual customers is key to helping establish traffic and customers. Twitter is also one of the more difficult social media channels to market with successfully because there is such a fine line between acceptable promotion and spammy nuisances.

• You need to maintain constant activity on the site. You can’t tweet once per week and expect those tweets to drive traffic, because they won’t. The more opportunities you can take to connect with potential fans, buyers, or other artists the more effective your Twitter marketing and networking will become.

• Twitter is not just a place for you to send your thoughts out into the nether regions of the Internet. Be a good Twitter citizen and make your feed about more than just your thoughts and work. This may not improve your traffic, but it will let other artists know that you are a good person to connect with and collaborate with.

• Don’t treat your Twitter account as a chance to spam your followers with promotions of your own work. If you have a piece of artwork you are particularly proud of, it is okay to tweet it out more than once per day for a few days, but make sure to talk about other things as well. You really don’t want people thinking that you are treating them like mindless visitors, you want them to connect with you and your work on a higher level.

LinkedIn

The medium that is on the verge of rendering your paper resume obsolete doesn’t seem like it lends itself to people looking to market their business, yet it is still the third-most popular social media channel amongst marketers and you don’t have to look too hard to see why. LinkedIn has made a concerted effort to court daily returning by adding groups, potential jobs, and a news feed where you can read updates about people as well as interesting news and stories from around the web. Anytime you are able to get that much daily activity on a social media platform, there are marketing opportunities to capitalize on.

• Make sure your profile is complete as possible. LinkedIn is your digital resume and the information you are presenting needs to be up to date and also complete and accurate. People may not know you on LinkedIn, but if your profile is comprehensive, they will still be able to get a sense of how talented and dedicated you are.

• You should use your LinkedIn news feed freely to promote your work, your public appearances, and shows or events. LinkedIn’s newsfeed has similar functionality but half the ambient noise, which means your posts will receive more attention and won’t get lost in the shuffle.

• When it comes to making connections, LinkedIn is in a class by itself, so recognize that and take advantage of it. Join groups of like-minded artists and don’t be afraid to connect with people who you think could help make you a better artist. While some connections may be superficial and the e-mails do get annoying, making a few connections and getting your name out there is more than worth it in the end.

Blogs

It sounds funny to call blogs the old guard of social media channels but that’s exactly what they are. But, while new social media channels launch seemingly every month, blogs have staying power and have maintained their relevancy thanks to their usefulness when it comes to marketing a business or a person. Blogs are more versatile in the sense that you have more space to explain who you are and what your work is, but that much space can be dangerous if it isn’t used effectively.

• Allowing for more long-form writing, blogs allow you to tell a story about yourself. Make a new tab, and then write a 500-word biography, add pictures to illustrate the story, and really allow readers to connect with you as a person, which will be important if they are going to connect to your work.

• Use blog posts to inform readers about the creative process from start to finish. Write about how you came up with the concept, write about obstacles you overcame, and write about your thoughts on the finished product. This allows the readers to follow along and really identify with a particular piece of work.

• Use the space to collaborate with other artists. Invite them to write a guest-post; use a post to host a round-table with other artists to discuss interesting topics; maybe even start a podcast and chat with other artists. Not only will this make your blog more readable, but it will also let you network and collaborate with other, like-minded artists.

YouTube

If blogs are considered the old guard of social media channels, then YouTube and some of the other social video platforms should be considered the new frontier of social media marketing. According to the study, 76 percent of marketers plan on increasing their use of video marketing in the near future, which makes sense when you consider that an estimated 161 million people visit the site each month.  However, the increased YouTube marketing means that there will be more competitions for user’s time and attention, so you will need to find ways to stand out.

• If you want to market your name or business through YouTube, you need compelling videos. Make a video answering questions about your work; make a pseudo-documentary about your creative process; or tell a visually compelling story about your artwork. People will respond to video storytelling and you and your work will resonate with them as they watch.

• YouTube pages and channels all look so similar, which is why it is important to brand yours as your own. A branded experience will improve user experience, so customize your background, choose a color scheme, use a favorite work of art as your background or make a play-list of all of your most popular videos. This will not only improve visibility, but also make your YouTube page more memorable.

• Create a series to keep viewers intrigued and coming back for more. Don’t make it too complicated or in-depth otherwise it will suck all of the creative juices from you, just make a few guides to your art, or a “week in the life” set of videos. A series will give loyal viewers something to look forward to, and could help you garner buzz in an industry where buzz is difficult to achieve.

Google+

Maybe we spoke too soon when we labeled YouTube the new frontier of social media marketing because, according to the report, while Google+ remains a relatively untapped marketing landscape (only 40 percent of marketers currently use it), 70 percent of  want to learn more about Google+ and 67 percent intend to increase their use of Google+ for marketing purposes. Google’s answer to Facebook hasn’t quite caught on the way they were hoping, but you would be wise never to count out the search giant when it comes to improvements.

• Like LinkedIn, you absolutely need a comprehensive and compelling profile. Everything from your profile picture to links to your websites and artwork matters, especially when it comes to drawing in potential customers or connections. Also, Google isn’t the king of search traffic for nothing, so make your Google+ profile easy to search, and people will have less trouble finding you, even if they aren’t looking.

• You will want to make good use of the “Circles” function, because it is probably the channel’s most compelling function. Google+ allows you to bucket your connections in different categories and you would be wise to create a business “circle” where you can communicate with customers, clients, and potential networking targets exclusively.

• Use all of the media they offer. One thing that makes Google+ so appealing is how seamlessly it integrates written word, videos, and images all in one profile. Your profile can become a one-stop multimedia shop to your work and your business, which means that potential customers and networking partners will have everything they need to know all in one space.

The post Art Careers Marketed Via Major Social Media Platforms: Best Practices & Tips appeared first on TheArtCareerProject.com.

Ah the Internet. What a simultaneously wonderful and terrifying place. One moment you can experience a random act of kindness from a complete stranger halfway across the world. The next you could be getting cyber-bullied by anonymous commentators who it seem want nothing more than to make you feel terrible about yourself. Kickstarter is one of the websites that falls in the former category and the crowd-funding website has rapidly become one of the most popular places for aspiring artists, musicians, and writers to raise funds for their project and promote their work and talent.

The website was only born in 2009 and really didn’t receive major acclaim until the following year. It is entirely possible that you, the starving artist brainstorming ideas for launching your project, have never heard of the website. It is also possible that you are a Luddite who fears technology and wants nothing to do with Kickstarter. If you fall into either of these categories, you need to get it together and check out the site, because you are potentially missing out on a great opportunity get exposure and funding for your work.

It used to be that only artists with the resources, support, and infrastructure were able to create works and projects for public consumption, but Kickstarter has leveled the playing field by allowing for anyone with a creative idea to seek out funding from people interested in the arts. For example, as I type this, there are exactly 337 art projects looking for funding and while I don’t have time right now to go through all of them, you can bet that very few, if any, are professional artists.

That’s not to say that celebrities and professionals aren’t using Kickstarter as well. Heck even Napoleon Dynamite got in on the action. While Kickstarter acts as a grassroots funding project that can help anyone get their start, that also means that it can be very difficult to stand out amongst the crowd. Which is why we are here to help.

Of course, like with any upstart website or business, there are plenty of issues with Kickstarter as well. For example, even if you donate $200 to a project, you have no guarantee the project will get implemented and created. But we aren’t here to talk about the dangers of funding a Kickstarter project, we are here to talk about the growing benefits that come from posting a project on Kickstarter — assuming you actually intend to create said project. So here is some advice on how to use Kickstarter to maximize your exposure and get complete strangers to stand up and take notice of your talents and projects.

Start with a fully-fleshed out plan

If you look at some of the projects currently looking for funding on Kickstarter, you may think that creating your own page to hype your project is a simple task.  Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing funding platform, so this will be your one chance to make a grand impression on people across the world. You can’t just slap together a few photos from your photography project, add a short bio, makeup some prizes for donors and expect your project to catch the attention of people across the country. At the same time, you can’t just cram a ton of details into your project page and expect the consumers to decipher what the hell you are talking about.

This is why you need a plan, so when it comes time to create your Kickstarter page, you already know what it will look like, you already know what you will say, and you already know how you will explain why you are looking for funding. Assuming you have already fleshed out the vision for your project, you should try clicking through other Kickstarter projects, see what it is about their pages that resonates with you. Yes, it’s true that people should be funding your project based on its vision and your talent, but aesthetically pleasing presentation plays a role whether you like it or not.

Think of creative ways to tell the story of your project

Ostensibly your project is telling a story of its own, but that shouldn’t stop you from getting creative when telling the story of how you plan to tell the story with your project. So meta, I know. Kickstarter allows for two ways to tell the story of your project and you would be wise to use both of them if you really want to convince people to donate to your project. The first way they let you tell the story is via video, which you can upload and embed to your page so that it will be the first thing potential funders see when they come to your page. Don’t worry if you aren’t an accomplished filmmaker, because unless you are looking for funding for a film project, the video should be a way for you to show off your creativity and vision. Don’t just interview yourself and use pictures and a voice-over to explain your project because that is boring. Get creative. This is your opportunity to tell your story to the public, and no matter how mundane your story may seem, there are undoubtedly ways to keep people interested.

The second way Kickstarter allows for you to tell your story is in the body section of the page, where you can use your gift for the written word to sell potential funders.  This is the place where you want to be especially careful about what you say. Of course you want to give potential funders a comprehensive and entertaining look at you as an artist, the project you are hoping to fund, and why you need the funding. But you don’t want to get too bogged down in the details, because that will mean writing about 1,000 words more than you intended and we all know people have short attention spans and they will likely not stick around to read the whole thing if they get overwhelmed by small text and large paragraphs.

If your project doesn’t get funded, don’t get discouraged, it was probably still worth it

The primary purpose of using Kickstarter is to ask for and receive funds for your project that you would have otherwise had difficulty coming across. This is what your goal should be when you set about creating your Kickstarter page.  The bad news is, that according to Kickstarter’s own dashboard, less than half of their projects end up getting fully funded. Now the reasons for these failures vary and those statistics shouldn’t deter you from giving your own project a shot on the crowd-funding website. But if your project does end up failing, don’t get discouraged.

Yes, your primary purpose for launching the project was to receive funding, but the secondary benefit of launching a Kickstarter project is that it allows complete strangers across the world a chance to look at and be impressed by your artwork, artwork that they probably never would have seen without the website. No matter how many people fund your project, you are getting serious exposure to your work. If you are lucky enough, a Kickstarter staff member will flag your project and feature it prominently on the site. So even if you come $1,000 short of reaching your goal and funding your project, take heart in the fact that, unless you have a very active base of friends and family, there are strangers that appreciated your work and may remember your name. And that means that already the groundswell for your artwork has started.

The post How you can use Kickstarter to help promote your art career appeared first on TheArtCareerProject.com.