Conversation With an artist

For my art, I wanted to find how a successful (living master) worked. I wanted to know how they got there, to where they are now. Basically, how they got from not being able to draw. To being able to draw/paint. I wanted to know all the key steps that they had taken in between. Not neccisarily so I can replicate them. But so u can see how they went the ways they did, led them to being successful, both professionally and technically. It was then, that I contacted David Kassan http://davidkassan.com/. I wrote to him on a social networking sight and he got right back t e and told we should talk on skype because it was too much of a hinderance trying to write it all down on facebook.

He then actually rang me. I was sleeping next to my pc waiting for the right time to ring him when he had finished work. He lives in America however so the difference in time was quite large. He rung at nearly 2 in the morning but I was more than prepared! I actually recorded the conversation on my phone, so that I could go back at a later dater and listen to him answering again, incase I forgot anything. He was very very kind. Ill not go into the detail of what he actually said as I feel they are irrelevant as the module is about the networking part.

The fact that the modern technology allowed me to speak with this amazing guy was what mattered. I had much more of an access to him through these sites/ applications. Ok, in the past there was nothing stopping me from writing a letter to him. Infact im pretty sure he would have answered. However. The fact that regular letters take too long, and the phone too expensive, would have already been a barrier between the connection we had going voice to voice. It was really down to earth. No sucking up arses, it was me asking genuine questions about something I feel passionate about. As I said. He was a very good man.

Online Social Networking

Is social networking the great all mighty answer to all our networking problems?

Personally. I like it but not at the same time… is that strange? I don’t like the constant screens. And don’t like how everything seems to go back to technology , but that’s where people are at these days. Youwant to find near enough anything out you can find it online somewhere. That’s where most of the news is and weather, its where people ‘hang out’ and play games, and share gossip… its very very sad. It seems like some new earth defying technology might shock us all to the core, like how cgi now looks like real life (on screen). Everyone is insanely amazed, wow. But really. All we have done is gone the long way around making a image/video, of something we could have done anyway. Like everyone was so amazed when touch screen came out. You can actually write onto a screen. But just like lee evans says. “well let me this actual biro and this actual piece of fucking paper and write that down” ha ha, the way he says it is funny. However written on this screen, it appears he is one angry individual, he sounds unhappy etc. something that happens everyday through emails, text messages and on sites like face book. People mis read what we say. Some gossip may come in and a girl goe guess what blab la blab la and the other girls goes SHUT UP!... which is clearly easy to mis-read… is she telling her to shut up? Is it a figure of speech? Is she annoyed or thrilled?

Screens, do the same. They seem like lives in themselves but in actual fact the computers in my opinion should just be tools to you REAL LIFE. He he another rant. Man oh man.

Social networking is

· Fast

· Easy to use

· Very easy to access, as Wi-Fi is in almost every bar/ resturante, public place and university

· Its free

· You can upload and display images in seconds

Bad points

· Bad posture

· Screen/ square eyes

· Lazy

· Less full filling as sorting something out with a real person. The experience is diluted

· Rely on machines/ electricity/internet

· Images are often small or pixelated or blurred.

· So much more

Its where people are at. If your not online now. You could be living next door to the god of the arts council but he wont notice you if your not online because he is too busy on the screen while your watching him through the window.

victor albrow. staring into space

Gallery Stats for WJLACEY

WJLACEY has 9,765 pageviews total and their 73 deviations were viewed 41,639 times. Wjlacey watches 138 people, while 160 people watch WJLACEY.

Overall, their deviations received 607 comments and were added to deviants' favourites 1,080 times, while WJLACEY commented 341 times, making about 0.26 comments per day since joining deviantART. This means that WJLACEY received 18 comments for every 10 that given.

The deviation with the most comments is Self Portrait of the soul with 145 comments, and it is also the most favourited, with 662 favourites. The most viewed deviation is Self Portrait of the soulwith 15,060 views.

18 favourites were given for every 10 comments.

Every 17.7 days WJLACEY uploads a new deviation, and it's usually on a Thursday, when 16 (22%) of deviations were submitted.

The busiest month was July 2007 when 11 (15%) deviations were submitted.

The majority of deviations are submitted to the traditional gallery (62), while the favourite category was drawings > portraits with 45 deviations.

Comments per deviation: 8
Favourites per deviation: 14
Views per deviation: 570
Comments per day: 0.46
Favourites per day: 0.83
Deviation views per day: 32
Pageviews per day: 7.55

Pubs/bars and restaurants are networks in themselves. We see it everywhere in Lancaster. Down in Soupanova the nice woman put up posters of local artists and musicians. She has up work, with prices on it. She literally has posters everywhere in her shop. She is very kind. So does the white cross. Penny street bridge where I work, also has a bit of work on the walls that is for sale. They have considered putting some of mine up too. Putting work in these kinds of places is kind of psychological manipulation. The get you to buy there drinks, put on comforting/ exciting/ welcoming music etc, then make you feel at home with beautiful paintings. When a person has good experience, say they’re on holiday and a song is play very often. Then it sticks. In future the song reminds them of the holiday. Its an anchor and I think it can also be true for art. Maybe not quite as forward however as it doesn’t shout out at you like music does. Obviously alcohol effects decisions also…

I have definitely found that hanging work in the homes of friends and family helps get attention. Because first you draw someone as a Christmas present. Everyone sees it and is amazed. A couple of family members are willing to pay (at a lower cost) for you to draw them. Then the cycle has got rolling. A friend spots it in the persons house and asked who did it. They are impressed, the bill sounds cheap enough. Then they get one, and it continues. However I have niticed, that this can also then (depending of the types of people, your friends and family are), one might like a piece for their wall at work. Maybe if that person is ‘high up’ other high up people may see it, be willing to pay more. Once your in that circle, you have the cv to show any actual job/ larger commissions, they see you have experience. But I think doing it this way alone by wrd of mouth can be very slow.

My work on deviant art http://www.wjlacey.deviantart.com has been seen 41,639 times. That’s intense!! That’s a lot of people. Think, if you piled all these people into a room, how many that would be. Its an army… and im only just starting out. These people add you to their favourites, then other people can see that. Basically, if I have 1,080 favourites, (so people can follow me) that’s 1,080 people who have me on their ‘my favourites’ section. So I am basically spread on the site. There are 1,081 places where you can get forewarded to my work…. That’s so much! Thing is. Many of these people are artists themselves…. Artists don’t often want to buy others work. Why would they when they may be able to try do it themselves. However. You do get the odd spotter. I got spotted over the summer. Gate Films of Manchester offered me a job to do a visual script, a graphic novel for their series. I entered my work and it then got placed in the last ten. Then the last three, and then between us three artists. I had to produce a page of script in drawings/paintings of course. I was the favourite apparently to win the job. However. I declined! After I drew the page, I realise that I was NOWHERE NEAR GOOD ENOUGH! No seriously. Ok, my work may look real, I may be technically sound with my drawing. But I had always missed the skills to produce imaginative work without the aid of photographs… I would have had to do 10 images a page, 82 pages… 820 drawings…. I would get a thousand pounds, it would be fun, I could put it in my cv… but I didn’t want to spend my time trying so darn hard to look like I knew what I was doing when I really didn’t… I struggled skill wise really much. I realised then that I need to proper concentrate. I need to put in my all, in learning how to draw the human figure beautiful and near perfectly. I had to have the enormous understanding that is required by me to produce visually sound work… I wasn’t ready, but I will be!

One of the only things with this illustration kind of work, was that they weren’t my concepts. I believe I have got a lot to say. I don’t necessarily want to be a human printer for somebody elses beautiful mind. I have my own, and my own stories to tell. And therefore I will start from the bottom up!

J

The network at the university, I suppose is already the beginning. In fact even college was. I suppose it can be seen as the portal to other experiences involved within your artistic life. For me. All this is so far away from why I wanted to draw. Its just so shut off and is utter crap. Ok it may help in the future. But is natural progression, not more important. Academically minded people lite to research and read, and write and talk and talk and talk about everything art… I feel like they are trying to tell us/ push us to learn about things, people have spent lifetimes learning in just a couple of years. Its all good. Its all to get us prepared for the big tough world but…. I find all this writing and all this artless art research, so creatively and motivationally sapping. Its all too SERIOUS. It has aDULLT written all over it. Just like when your going to do something epic and then people try to scare you out of it, and believe me this happens all the time. I went to Italy on my own last year to meet a guy I had never met in real life and stay at his/ his landlords home for a full week. Everyone was telling me it was ridiculous, and dangerous, they told me how will I get back if I want to come back early, what If I can find him blad de bla de blah…. I got my back pack and went abroad for the first time on my own. These questions need not be answered (FOR ME) until they arise. I have to trust that I will e able to deal with what ever life gives to me. Its kind of living for the moment with an awareness of the possiblitities etc. I had the time of my life. But when I was surrounded by all the close relatives and friends saying such things, it did sap the freshness, the spontaniousness away a little at first. Its not necessarily that your listening to them, its that the negative atmosphere they give off.

Pfft, I want to be inspired by fresh vibrant inspirational-ness, people/ things who have an immense love for life and being alive. I could ramble more. You want to hear more? Feel free to ask me in person mr/mrs/miss/ms whoever you are.

Anyway. Uni also provides, connections, links, other students to commune with, spaces etc

LAN Membership details.

• · £10 annual fee
• · Supports (whatever that means) and promotes the interests of professional ‘visual artists’, whom obviously live or art part of Lancashire
• 

jho

http://www.lanarts.com/

Networks in Lancaster (local)

-LAN (Lancashire Artist Network)

Dukes

Edge

Vault

Alexandra Building

Storey