Category: Solitude

Working with the Help of a Generous Community

5/31/2015

Things have been busy here! Kal and I have virtually given up having a living/dining room, for the sake of art of course.

Above: some of the many mixtures I've been experimenting with.

My wall tests and chemistry experiments continue. I think the "chemistry" aspect is soon just a matter of trying one more real variation and then fine-tuning, which is good as I'll re-coat the wall with my preferred mixture and then get drawing madly on it.

The fabric panels (part of a sculpture installation) are being made with the help of a group of generous artist-student-friend volunteers.

Mira Martinez did the sewing, Pam Bell (pictured below) has put in a lot of hours, Darlene Kulig, Lauretta Santarossa, Helen Jones and Kal Honey have all made contributions (names in black are hotlinks).

Almost four of six panels have their white layer now with the black layer still to go, so if you would like to volunteer to come to Brampton to contribute a few hours, please contact me!

I am also doing prep work on the metal sculpture installation pieces before I paint them.

Though I used to imagine myself as the culturally stereotypical solitary artist toiling (probably painting) in my studio, it hasn't quite worked out that way. It seems my work benefits from community, almost as much as I do!

Below: Pam Bell is one of several generous (and cheerful!) people whose help and company I've been enjoying.

Above: Experiments in our stairwell are already more extensive than in this photo and my surface prep research is moving toward its final stages.

Below: Drawing experiments continue. When the surface prep is finalized, I'll be back up on my platform (see the "Massive Drawing" blog post from April) playing with actual image and form.
The swatches below were drawn inside the taped off rectangles you can see in the lower left of the stairwell photo above.

0 Comments

An Artist's Adventures in Publicity: How I Made the Front Page!

2/7/2015

2 Comments

Pinch me. Yes, that's me on the front page of The Brampton Guardian. The adjacent photo shows the article on page 11, based mostly on an interview with me.

Most people who know me know I do what I can to get the word out about shows, talks, workshops and other events. My philosophy is simple: if I don't invest time and energy in doing that, how will anyone know? Why would I do or offer any of those things if I don't want anyone to know about them?

A lot of artists shy away from promotion and publicity. I can understand why.

The kind of person whose life ambition is to maximize the time they spend alone in their studio listening to their own train of thought may not gravitate naturally to putting themselves “out there”. As well, there is a set of skills and knowledge involved.

In my first career as a designer/art director, I worked a lot in both promotion and direct mail. Those are not necessarily considered the premium areas to specialize in, and not because of budgets (some mailings numbered in the millions!). I believe one reason is that the results were so incredibly and immediately measurable. They were both very much a numbers game.

Every promotion and mailing had specific, tangible goals such as how many orders were placed? How many entered the contest? What kind of traffic numbers visited the booth? And so on.

Everything about the visuals, the writing, and the offers (price, free gift, contest, that kind of thing) was geared toward getting a measurable response while being consistent with the brand (which I always thought of as the "voice").

This is not the kind of thing that gets most artists excited, and while of course the work is the most important thing, if that work is meant to be seen in the world, never mind sold, we need to get first some skills in marketing and publicity, and secondly, just a little bit excited about coming up with a good turn of phrase, or an incentive or increasing our email list size.

Back to my photographs: This is my first front page for an exhibition. The only other time I made it onto a cover was when I wrote an article for The Root my alumni magazine (you can check it out by clicking here, the article is on page 17).

More than a little luck was involved in making it onto this front page: first the curator had to invite me to be in the show; then she had to give other spotlights to the other two artists so that I became the press focus; the show needed to be at a high profile venue like the Living Arts Centre; an editor had to decide that maybe the photograph would be a nice addition to the front page, or the content would improve the mix of stories.

Luck tends to find you more if you're putting yourself “out there” of course. So don't be a wallflower :-)

The kind of person whose life ambition is to maximize the time they spend alone in their studio listening to their own train of thought
may not gravitate naturally to
putting themselves “out there”.

2 Comments

A New Teaching Challenge

8/31/2014

4 Comments

Studio practice is at the heart of what artists do (image)

This summer was the first year for a new program I helped to develop and teach: the Studio Process Advancement (SPA) graduate certificate at Haliburton School of the Arts, a 14-week intensive combination of academic content and studio work.

We were lucky to have an amazing group of 12 committed, passionate and hard-working students for our first cohort. Along with the faculty team of Lisa Binnie (our coordinator), Elinor Whidden, Darlene Bolahood, Kal Honey, me and our fearless leader (and dean) Sandra Dupret, we had a number of visiting artists, a gallerist and a curator (I would thank them all by name, but I don't have them all at hand; a special thank you though to Andy Fabo) who made presentations, conducted hands-on demonstrations and consulted with students on an individual basis. Diversity of vantage points is hugely important in art, so these invited guests enriched the program tremendously by their contributions.

I found teaching for this a really interesting challenge. My favourite experience was having in-depth conversations one-on-one with the students, asking and answering questions, offering responses and suggestions, riffing on ideas. Those conversations are something you can really miss in a solitary studio practice, along with the support of a tight-knit group. Solitude is important for creativity, but so is connection, which makes all kinds of programs, classes, critique groups and so on, essential for most artists, at least on a periodic basis.

I'm very excited about the progress everyone made this summer and am so proud of them all!

The Haliburton Echo wrote an article about 'SPA' that you can check out here:
http://www.newspapers-online.com/haliburton/?p=5541

4 Comments

Art is a Conversation

8/17/2014

1 Comment

Making art is engaging in a conversation; a conversation with the world around me, with myself, with other artists (past and present), and ultimately with viewers and collectors of the work.

Working in the studio is quite solitary unless you happen to be part of a collaborative partnership or team, so artists are often hungry for conversation: about art in general, about being an artist and of course about their own work. That hunger often motivates artists to attend open studio sessions, take workshops and form communities. It may even motivate them to start a blog!

Welcome to my new blog. I invite you to join me in this conversation whether you are an artist, student, work in the arts, or are just generally interested in things art-related. What would you like to talk about?

1 Comment

Working with the Help of a Generous Community

An Artist's Adventures in Publicity: How I Made the Front Page!

A New Teaching Challenge

Art is a Conversation

Kim-Lee Kho

Archives

Categories

Working with the Help of a Generous Community

An Artist's Adventures in Publicity: How I Made the Front Page!

A New Teaching Challenge

Art is a Conversation

Kim-Lee Kho

Subscribe to receive updates on my upcoming events, exhibitions, workshops, Gallery Walk&Talks, and more!

Archives

Categories