An experiment

The artistic side of my brain works in spurts. Sometimes, new works pour out at a rate that I feel guilty doing them that fast. But most of the time, I go through a methodical approach to making my art that takes time, often a lot of time. I often get asked when showing at festivals, “how long does it take you to create that piece.”

I most of the time give a stock answer that goes some thing like, “Because I work in layers, the finished piece might be made up of a dozens or more layers, which combined, make up the fractal.” I then go on to say, “depending on the complexity of each layer, it could take as little as 10 minutes per layer or over an hour. If the piece is say 20 layers deep I could literally be on it for a few days. I normally don’t sit in front of my computer working on the same image from start to finish so I might be working on several different fractals at once to keep each new piece fresh while I create it.”

My art career has become so busy with traveling to art festivals, gallery openings, website and blog work etc. that in order to find time to make art I’ve needed to implement a more strategic approach to being creative.

I’ve read about artists that do a piece of art a day, everyday and offer it for sale on sites like eBay, Etsy and a variety of other online art auction sites. They promote each piece through blogs similar to mine. The common denominator of these types of sales is that usually the painting, photo, collage or whatever is small. Typically these pieces of art are post card size or possibly 6” x 6”. Here is an example of an artist that has taken this art marketing to the extreme. His name is Duane Keiser and his art can be found on his blog at,

duanekeiser.blogspot.com

Take a look and you’ll have a better idea of what I’m proposing for my own art.

Starting soon, along with my regular articles, I’ll be posting a “new” never before sold fractal on this blog. I will give details on each print such as size, matted or not, whether the piece will be framed, if it will be an “open edition” or “limited edition” etc. I’ve decided NOT to include each print in my gallery website www.dennisbradystudios.com until after this “original” is sold.

My goal is to debut between 3 and 5 different fractals per week. If the experiment works, I’ll continue with it. If it becomes too much work for too little return, I’ll kill it. You’ll determine which path I take.

In any event, at least I'll be making art in a very regular cycle.