Open call to sculptors

Robbie Gordon is looking for sculputors to add to his LA outdoor gallery.  I visited with him on my way to my new gallery in Palm Desert.  A stop off in LA, via Route 1, gorgeous.  If interested, please go to his website and see what he is about & how to contact him.  Would certainly look good on your resume to have your sculpture represented in LA, and Robbie is very fair with his commission fee.

The gallery in his home is reserved for his art, which is in abundance.  He is quite the passionate artist.

Artists, Best Business Practices

Business Week Article

An excerpt from Business Week article:

Send Out Postcards

Callie Danae Hirsch, 43: Paintings

Web site: www.callieart.com
Studio: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Day Job: Telecommunications analyst at New York University

What works: "No one is going to make your career for you. As an artist, you need to get your work out there to the public. I send out postcards for all my shows, and people seem to collect them. I update my own Web site, put together address lists, and create the postcard design myself. I also show in non-traditional places. My work was featured in the luxury furnishings shop ABC Home in New York City, in celebration of Earth Day. I also enter juried shows constantly and participate in artist residencies, which afford me time to concentrate on my art."

A visit to the Tentacle Exhibit at the Monterey Aquarium, CA

The show was amazing, so many tentacle creatures to experience.  The octopus unraveled at the flash of my infrared beam on my camera.  I adore the cuttlefish, and they had them in abundance.  I was delighted to witness two cuttlefish in a mating dance ritual, it was simply incredible.

 Mating ritual!

I was in a trance watching the sea life in action.  They had to kick me out at closing time.

Please help to save our oceans, vote to save our planet when considering a president this election.  Life is not about money, it is about the continuation of life, help keep our planet healthy.

 ~ callie

Featured in NYU ~ Art Digest ~ Fall 2015

Moonlighting: The Artist in the Office Next Door 
by Renee Alfuso

By day, Callie Danae Hirsch programs telephones on campus as a communications analyst for NYU's Technology Operations Services. But when work ends she heads home to paint, relieving the day's stress with her iridescent acrylics.

Hirsch (STEINHARDT '96) has been an IT employee at NYU for the last 25 years but has always made time to pursue her passion for art, earning a master's degree in studio and environmental arts and exhibiting her work in numerous international shows. She even won a commission to design a subway station for the MTA Arts for Transit program.

All of Hirsch's paintings are inspired by nature, and her lifelong fascination with sea creatures is reflected on her canvases. "In my art I bring to life the enigmas that exist just below the surface," she explains. "Deep in the fabric of my being is the desire to generate excitement about the world in which we reside."

Hirsch's dream is to someday visit the Great Barrier Reef, using the sales from her paintings to fund the trip. In the meatime, Hirsch says she loves working at NYU - which allows her to be an artist but still pay the bills - and enjoys that her office job is so different from her creative outlet. "I think if I had to work in something like graphic design all day, I wouldn't want to go home and create because I'd just be burnt out, so IT is such a wonderful opposite, " she says.

- Renee Alfuso

Wonderful News Indeed!

Being "discovered" can take a lifetime (if it ever happens), as many singers, actors, and musicians know, and so I feel extremely fortunate to be able to support myself with my day job so that I have the freedom to pursue my art, my true passion, in the evenings. 

I finally got the attention from the owner/curator of a large gallery in CA. One step down, many steps to go.  The process consisting of negotiating what the art to be shown should look like, creating art pieces especially for the gallery (size and look), shipping the art (which was then lost in NJ for quite some time), then coming up with pricing (based on previous sales), my work is ready to be framed and hung at, drum roll please......

Imago Galleries, Palm Desert, CA

Fantastical in Blue, 2015

How did this come about? How did I get noticed? I submitted art for acceptance in an art journal, which is sent out to galleries for free.  The artist pays for the inclusion and gets a copy of the journal, if selected.  In hopes of getting noticed, one partakes in this practice.  It just goes to show you, you just never know.   Exposure does pay off, just may take quite some time and the artist needs to have the passion to just keep moving forward despite the silence...  The director informed me that she rarely looks at these journals and on a whim took it to bed for a night's viewing.

Together, 2015

The other day I was presented with a fortune that read:  "You will conquer obstacles to achieve success.", the cookie delivered a double fortune, because one sometimes does need to be hit over the head, the second one read: "You will come to the realizations in your life that change you forever."  I interpret that change to be believing in myself as an artist.  It is so very easy to have doubts.

Recently my day job really got me down and I wondered if I would ever be able to support myself with my art, I think this is a wonderful start on a new path facing the right direction.

May you all be healthy and gravitate toward a peace existence.

Callie 
www.CallieArt.com

Bringing New Life

As a continuation on the upcycling theme, here is my latest.

The Man, 8" x 10" Acrylic on hard board and printed image.

 

$ 250, unframed

If interested, contact: callie@callieart.com

Upcycling Art

Found objects have the tendency to allow for deeper exploration.  With them I can go beyond what is and go to what is possible.  Below are images from an old book that inspired me in such a way...

Bringing New Life, 7.5" x 10",  acrylic and wax on printed paper.   

$ 250 each, unframed.

contact: callie@callieart.com

Design ideas unfold...

Painting in a symmetrical pattern is not an easy endeavour, this is when photo shop comes into play.  Upon completing some of my paintings, I consider taking them into photo shop and fool around with textile ideas. 

Original, 12" x 9" Acrylic on canvas

 

I then cut and flipped the image, and extended the bottom.  

I then felt the desire to pull it back to make a less complicated piece.  You can add in all directions to make a multitude of ideas to play with.

Enjoy the adventures of creating via your  computer after the paint has dried.

~ Callie

www.CallieArtl.com

When You Became My Forest

Acrylic on wood, size ranges from 6" x 6" to 24" x 20" 

When you became my forest...began as an exploration of the re-imagining of portraiture through the lens of trees. I started with my fascination of the essences of people close to me, painting those essences, those life-forces as trees in single portraits, couples, and families. This is the study in the personification of trees, with all of the character, vibrancy and temperament we tend to only reserve for animals and humans.

They embrace, wrap around and stretch past in a constant state of flux. There is growth and change, encountering ailments and loosing parts, but the will to survive is ever present and powerful in its strength, weathering through different encounters. They engage, protect and provide shelter for all who seek it. Trees and humans are a lot more akin than is visually apparent. My hope is to create a movement of respect for the necessities they provide to us.

Swimming with your dreams

Snorkeling in the sea of your fantasies, floating as if in space, having your dreams actualized, this is how our realities should be.

Selling on Etsy! A how to guide...

You spend so much time creating, your apartment is filling up and walking space is now between piles, perhaps it is time to venture into making money with your art.  Etsy makes this a very easy venture.  First, photograph your art using idealic backgrounds.   Then create a blurb which really sells your art.  Come up with great list of tag words, these are searchable words that describe what your selling.  When people shop on Etsy they put in search words, so the more tag words you come up with, the more visible and your art is which improves the chances of your art coming up in the listing.  Below are my new listings:

tag words: eye glasses case, pouch, black, rubberized, waterproof...

 

CallieArt on Etsy

Rubberized eye glass cases, with attached cleaning cloth.  Each one has it's own unique painting, and signed on the back.

These are small notebooks, with unique paintings on both sides.  People want to see the object as a whole, so be sure to photograph all aspects of it.

CallieArt on Etsy

Good luck!

Callie

Celebratig the virtue of bats

My new work is about bringing awareness of the importance of bats.  We are loosing large quantities of these exceptional creatures to white-nose Syndrome.  This is a huge crisis.  Many think of bats just as scary creatures, but we benefit greatly from them.

They eat insects and mosquitoes (helping to control viruses spread by the insects), and lower the need for pesticides, pollinate flowers and disperse seeds for countless trees and shrubs growth.

"Chinese artists have long used five bats to represent the five blessings: health, long life, prosperity, love of virtue, and a tranquil, natural death. The bats often are bright red— the color of joy."














"White-nose Syndrome (WNS) is a fungal disease that has killed millions of bats in North America. The disease is caused by a fungus from Eurasia, which was accidentally transported here by humans. The fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, invades the skin of hibernating bats and disrupts both their hydration and hibernation cycles.

WNS has killed at least 5.7 million bats since it arrived in North American in 2006. Some winter colonies have seen 100% fatality. " 

http://www.batcon.org/our-work/regions/usa-canada/address-serious-threats/wns-intro

Last issue of MungBeing Magazine

 

Yesterday the last issue of the on-line zine, MungBeing Magazine was issued.  I have been contributing to this zine since Issue 9, I believe that might have been in 2006!  Mark Givens is the creator/editor, a super hero who believed in promoting other artists.  Be it visual, written or performance art, he wanted to share it all with the world. And over the many years that he devoted himself to putting out this zine, he was a success.

My last pieces for the zine is a photo series taken in Greenwood Cemetery titled "Expressive Tree Series". Intimate and humorous views of some quite expressive trees were discovered.

I will miss contributing and hope to find a new place to keep the inspiration going.  Thank you Mark!

All issues can be viewed on  MungBeing

Greenpoint Art Lounge Feb. 2015

The show took place at a two floor gallery in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The show was more of a one night scene, with music and a large number of artists involved.  So much great energy and an amazing turnout.