Surviving as a Starving Artist:

The Chicago Artist Coalition is an organization devoted to giving artists opportunities for showing their work, learning from other artists, and learning how to be successful business people as well as artists. It is also obvious from the different events and workshops that CAC sponsors that partnering with the Chicago-land community is an objective also. Artists can become member quite simply, you just have to sign up and pay a fee… And CAC kindly offers discounts to poor, moneyless students. With a membership you get discounts on entrance fees to exhibitions, discounts at several art stores and framing shops, and discounts on membership and classes at other Chicago-based art centers. I think these resources are incredibly helpful, especially for the self-employed artist. As an art student, I know firsthand how expensive art supplies can be, so having a discount at art supply stores is almost the equivalent of getting free food! I am definitely considering becoming a member, and since my birthday is coming up… Mom? Dad? How about chipping in some cash for your soon to be freelancing artist daughter to get a membership? Maybe… Anyway, the Chicago Artist Coalition is pretty awesome and they have photos of some of their latest galleries and events, so check it out! http://chicagoartistscoalition.org/  Oh and you should probs take a look at Marty Burns’ website too… because it’s totally fantastic and amazing and I’m in awe of her talent! For reals! Oh, and she’s done some work for CAC. So, yeah… http://martyburns.com/home.html

Benefits of Collecting Doodads

Hello! This is a blog. Amazing! I would like to begin with a disclaimer to all critics and other readers: This blog will contain the following,

• Exclamation points!!!
• Misspellings and punctuation errors! Woot!
• An unnecessary amount of cute things
• All around nerdy geekishness
• ARTSY FARTSY CRAFTY CRAFTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boom! So, yep... that just happened. Anyways, on to the real story for today...

The Red Nose Studio is fantastic. Seriously, all the illustration is done by taking photographs of the sculptures they make. The blog even has pictures of the process of creating a train used for a wall mural. So basically that guy gets paid to make stuff from all the little things he’s collected. And my mom didn’t like it when I stored “little treasures” around the house (a.k.a. an assortment of small objects such as buttons, shiny rocks, a ring someone left on the school bus, etc.). Eh… I guess what is junk to most is creative fodder for a select few. Yay for being artsy! If you’re actually reading this, you should check out the website! http://rednosestudio.com/index.htm