Greetings...

[drthulium]

Well, I have finally decided to make the jump to doing art full time, a little bit scary in some ways, but also exciting.
I could use some feed back on my work, everyone I show it to knows me, they all love it, but they are biased by their personal knowledge. I have set up a web site, www.organicsculpture.com, and for the time being I am concentrating on smaller pieces that may be sold at local fairs and swap meets.
I guess I need to know if my work is "good" enough from real artists, if it is I would gain more confidence about pushing forward, if not then I will save myself a lot of pain.
Also if anyone has any good feed back on the market for welded scultpures of my type I would appreciate it. I used to be in tune with the art community, but decided to go to grad school for chemistry, 6 years of being around scientist is quite enough for me!

Nate

[Araich]

Hi Nathan, welcome aboard :)

I would think there is a huge market for your work, especially considering the unusual patination.

One thing I would say is, go big! If you reduced the complexity in a spare modern way, and enlarged, you would absolutely find favour IMHO.

Could they make it outside?

[fritchie]

Nate - I tried to jump to your site and got the message "(This URL) could not be found." I have been unable to see some sites before, when others say they have no trouble, so it could be my browser or ISP. I do have cookies enabled, for the originating site, so that’s not the problem. However, you seem to have your own domain, so maybe it’s not in all the address registries yet. I’ll keep watch to see what others say.

In the meanwhile, good luck, and why don’t you post an image or two here. My background also is in chemistry, but I worked first in industry then did research and taught in a university for over 30 years. I started sculpture about 15 years ago, part time, and now am full-time, but in between other obligations.

[Araich]

http://www.organicsculpture.com

Just a typing error. My apologies, I forgot to include the correction in my other post.

[drthulium]

Thanks for your response, it gives me more confidence to get out there and make it as a sculptor.
I have been working mostly on "low" art, wind chimes, they are really pretty, but they have that whole "craft" feel about them. But if i can sell enough to cover my expenses and give me time to do "real" art, then I am more than willing to do it.

I am working on something bigger, it should be done in a few days (painted and all) I'll take pictures and post them.

It's nice to hear of another chemist around, what type of chemistry did you work in? I did grad work in organometallic Lanthanide chemistry (drthulium get it? hee hee)
here is an image from my website, if you want a larger one I can email you it, send me a note at drthulium@earthlink.net.

Nate

[fritchie]

Nate (and Araich) - Glad to see you have an image up, and I'm really surprised that my browser didn't insert the missing http:// - it usually does that. Probably the servers make their own synonym dictionaries over time, and they hadn’t gotten to yours yet.

On the main topic - Yes, I did pick up on the Dr. Thulium part, but I wasn’t sure what to say. I presume you know this word is Greek, and refers to the ultimate North, or the coldest place they knew. I figured maybe you had a frosty personality. My own work was in physical chemistry, mainly structural analysis using diffraction techniques. The subjects generally were organic, but I also did a couple of small inorganic materials during a sabbatical at one of the national labs. This used a neutron source they had at the time, decommissioned now.

Back to Araich’s first question - what materials do you use? We have couple of well-known artists locally who work in copper sheet, making very naturalistic flowers, mainly, and they sell really well. I think the colors are lacquer. Is something like this your approach?

I look forward to your more “serious work”, though there is nothing wrong with craft. Best wishes.

[Araich]

lol, fritchie, your looking for a complex fault in the URL. It was simply malformed, ie the "," is a dissallowed character.
I only laugh because I also often look for the unusual, when really the most likely is always the usual.

[drthulium]

As promised, here is an image of a piece completed today, welded steel, painted. I like it, it has a nice presence in person.

opinions?

Nate

See more pictures at http://www.organicsculpture.com/new.htm

[fritchie]

Nate - I like this piece. It looks about 5 - 6' high. What is the finish? (What kind of paint - enamel?) And, as Araich asked about the earlier pieces, do you think it can go outside, or is it an indoor piece? Regardless, I consider it a fine start.

[drthulium]

It is about 5' 4" tall, which is a nice human like size, a very planned size. I really like it.

I could probably make it outside here in Southern California, but it is painted steel, well primed, but still, Wisconsin winters would mess it up i bet.

The paint I am using is sign painter's paint for a local art store, it is oil based (xylenes actually) and sticks to metal very well. The opacity is also wonderful.

I like this piece so much i went and bought a new digital camera because my old one was not capturing the colors well enough.

I am working on a similar piece, more curves, but this time out of copper....harder to weld, but better colors and durability. I post a pict when it is done.

Nate

[icreate]

nice work. I agree craft is not a bad thing

It is a frightening thing to step out into the world of full time artist. Don't worry you can do it. You may have to take on this project or that job, just to make ends meet sometimes, but that does not indicate failure but is just part of the journey. Soon you will not. Keep focused.

I like the work. I wish I had resources for you to market but my work is so different. I'll keep my eyes and ears open. I know it is just as important to market your work as to create it. A hassel but truth.

Is your website new? Start there and market your web site. I get so much work from mine. A free resource to market your website is http://selfpromotion.com This guy give for free what others ask big dollars for. You can make a donation. I have a ton of info on marketing web sites. So if you want more just let me know. If you read all os the tutorials at self promotion.com you will know a lot as well.

Good luck,

[obseq]

"I used to be in tune with the art community, but decided to go to grad school for chemistry, 6 years of being around scientist is quite enough for me!"



Nate, great to have you here...

I too, got out of the sciences in the middle of my undergrad studies in astrophysics. I was also working in planetary sciences and was fed up with the way the ego and corruption took precedence over science itself, in both academia and in industry.

Needless to say I am glad I made the change..

There seems to be a few of us on here with a science background....a new thread at some point perhaps?

Continued success, Nate. Keep coming to the board--I've learned so much from everyone here.

[drthulium]

Thanks for your advice Bridgette, I am working constantly on my website, it's become some of a project, the website should be a good help. I am not able to work now, due to studio space issues, so the web site it is!

nice to hear of the others with science backgrounds, I firmly believe that the 3-D thinking patterans I used so much in chemistry apply quite well to sculpture. The challenge is finding your inspiration, after that everything is a tool to bring your idea to life. Training in science often gives me skills many artists would not, especially chemistry skills!

I completly agree about the adititudes in science ruining it. Chemistry especially has matured as a science, I believe that true creative thinking is not encouraged anymore (many would disagree) The creativity that is encouraged these days is in experimental design, which I view as problem solving, not creativity. Appreciation of making a compound for the shear beauty of it is being lost, even though a study of history shows that basic creativity in science has lead to the best science.

Nate

PS

I'm looking for studio space in Southern California, How much is reasonable for such space? Any help would be cool, not being able to work is totally stressing me!