RE + MYTH | FAMILIA | 2010

RE+MYTH | 2008

Footage and commentary from the first exhibition of the Re+Myth Series.

Question: Top Ten List for Success as an Artist | Kyle Phillip Clemins

Tekhni:

Hi Kyle,
I wanted to put together a top 10 list of habits or actions that make you become a successful artist. And get and bunch of opinions from different artists. Thoughts? What would be your list?

Clemins:

1. Curiosity about everything.
2. Make more stuff. (never ending attitude)
3. Drink coffee.
4. Look at lots of pictures.
5. Smoke cigs.
6. Make at least one drawing a day.
7. Play with stuff.
8. Teach people new skills.
9. Always think you "need improvement".
10. Make compositions out of everything you touch.

Hope that helps. Later buddy.

Kyle Phillip Clemins

Question: Top Ten List for Success as an Artist | Bryan Ritchie

Tekhni:

Hi Bryan,
I wanted to put together a top 10 list of habits or actions that make you become a successful artist. And get and bunch of opinions from different artists. Thoughts? What would be your list?

Ritchie:

Hi David,

On my list I would include persistence and a strong work ethic. Persistence in that one will face many rejections in the course of building a career. I myself have had many rejections from job applications to juried shows, but if you are persistent, and the work is there, you will find an audience. As for a strong work ethic, as blue collar as it sounds, at the end of the day you need something to show when the opportunity comes. AS they say, luck is when preparation meets opportunity. I remember reading an article about Chris Ofili in which he described his working process. Chris makes a new watercolor every morning before tackling a larger painting. While he is better known for his larger paintings, his watercolors not only served him well as a zen like preparation for the day, the large body of watercolors also became something to exhibit and sell.

Other than that I would suggest being informed through gallery visits and reading periodicals, but also remember that true innovators do not follow the herd, one must always make work that is true to oneself. Perhaps more important, I would suggest defining what success is as an artist and making appropriate changes to accommodate that vision.

Hope this helps

Bryan Ritchie | www.bryanritchie.com

Question: Top Ten List for Success as an Artist | Diego Leclery

Tekhni:

Hi Diego,
I wanted to put together a top 10 list of habits or actions that make you become a successful artist. And get and bunch of opinions from different artists. Thoughts? What would be your list?

LeClery:

If someday I am a successful artist, I will credit it to these magical 10 steps

1. Always think you are wrong
2. Every once in a while be completely convinced you are right
3. Make stuff even if you don't want to make stuff
4. Write everything down
5. Develop a respect for your own worst impulses
6. Crucify your best intentions
7. Be nice to people and learn to love bad art
8. Learn the real meaning of expressionist, conceptual, surrealist, and don't use those words unless you mean to refer to Expressionism, Conceptualism, Surrealism
9. Have faith that you know what you're talking about. Even when you don't, have faith that you know enough to know whether you know or not what you're talking about
10. Identify what you don't want to do or be

Diego Leclery | www.diegoleclery.com

Question: Top Ten List for Success as an Artist | Bill Miller

Tekhni:

Hi Bill,
I wanted to put together a top 10 list of habits or actions that make you become a successful artist. And get and bunch of opinions from different artists. Thoughts? What would be your list?

Miller:

Top Ten????

I can come up with a few... maybe not ten though.
1. Persistence - you just have to keep doing it, something will click, time helps
2. Loans - chances are you won't have any money, get loans and then pay them back forever
3. Have Fun - a lot of times it starts to feel like your work is just that... work. Remember that it can also be fun... and should be
4. Don't Ever Apply for shows that make you pay a fee. As a matter of principal, you should never have to pay someone to look at your work, besides, you probably don't have any money anyway

Bill Miller | flickr-> http://www.flickr.com/gridworks1

Question: Top Ten List for Success as an Artist | Erin Goedtel

Tekhni:
Hi Erin,
I wanted to put together a top 10 list of habits or actions that make you become a successful artist. And get and bunch of opinions from different artists. Thoughts? What would be your list?

Goedtel:

Ooooh!!!!! This is a great idea.

1. Log off, or even unplug the Internet.

2. Turn off the cell phone for a few crucial hours when you are in the studio, and are in the groove that you don't want to be interrupted from.

3. Get up before 9am and get cracking right after breakfast.

4. Attend art events to gather inspiration and camaraderie in the community.

5. Get a website. A good place to get an affordable website that you can create yourself is at www.otherpeoplespixels.com

6. Make sure you have other people critique your work other than your mom! (you know how they love everything you do!)

7. Make business cards, and carry some at all times. You never know who you are going to run into, and where. I don't care how rinky dink, just do it. (and then work on getting nicer ones in the meantime!)

8. Learn some new technologies, or media. Don't rest on one technique.

9. Enter your work in exhibitions. Keep showing work. That is important for future credentials.

10. Charge for the time you have invested. If the client reels back, at least you know you are not undercharging your work. You can always negotiate later.

11. Bonus advice. AND FINALLY! Follow your heart, and make work that you are excited about. Don't be swayed, or feel compelled to copy trends. You never know, you just might find yourself at the fore front of one!
:)

Erin Goedtel | www.eringoedtel.com