AN EPIPHANY IN THE DARK

Many artists say they had a life-changing moment. This is such a story. Joel Conison saw something in the blink of an eye that changed the direction of his life.

What if you were brought up in a traditional household and never thought of yourself as an artist. You had the advantage of a mother being an award winning sculptor in both stone and marble. Your father is a CPA. A career in art never crosses your mind because you are too busy being a kid.

Going to Ohio State, he did what any normal college boy would do, and trust me, he didn't write home about it.

He will admit he had an interest in photography. BUT - when taking a photography class, the teacher had a lesson called "art in the dark" - showing famous photographs on a screen. It was here he saw the famous photograph, Pepper 30 by Edward Weston. At that exact moment he knew he was meant to be a still life photographer. Truly an epiphany in the dark (that is the photograph above).

After seeing that photograph, he moved to Chicago and apprenticed for five years with several still photographers (and yes, one worked for Playboy).

Joel became a successful commercial photographer in the Cincinnati area, photographing prestigious clients like the Cincinnati Symphony and the Cincinnati Ballet, But, after 20 years, he found himself a little bored and he knew the advertising business was changing. He had been teaching adults in the evening and realized he liked it. So, he sold everything and moved to Brooklyn and pursued his MFA at Pratt. (This is the highest you can go as a studio artist)

Fast forward to today, he has come full circle. After practicing commercial photography, getting an MFA, teaching on the college level, he went back to what originally made his heart beat - still life art photography.

At this moment he is photographing taxidermied birds. (see them and read his artist statement here) Yes, I didn't understand taxidermy either, but trust me - animal lovers out there - they are the biggest animal lovers in the world.

So - compare Pepper 30 to what Joel is doing now (see below Empire on the left, Raven on the right)

I'd love to hear other stories of a moment that changed your life!

CREATING A SIGNATURE STYLE FOR A BODY OF WORK

2010 is the year I want to move forward in my art career business. To help facilitate this, i have begun working with art advisor Aletta De Wal with Artist Career Training throughout the year. I am learning to set up a foundation upon which to build my business. This involves going back and setting up a database to build a mailing list and to track my artwork, as well as getting a business license and separate bank accounts, the list goes on and on!


However, this month's exercise is one of the most important steps an artist will take in their artistic career - developing a "signature style". To do this, you have to have a body of work and assess the direction your art is taking. Luckily, I have continued taking part in critique groups, as well as taking classes and workshops. Through this, I saw a style emerging that differentiates my work from others. No matter what series of paintings or drawings I'm was working on, I began seeing pieces that were heavily layered, with details that emerge upon closer inspection. I was experimenting with different mediums, which further gave my pieces a "story" (i.e. using salt, of coffee and tea and why).

Now, it is time to perfect and expand this style.

To do so, I approached my friend and fellow artist Lance Carlson to take part in an exercise. I feel my work is very different from Lance's, but because we use similar techniques, we have found our work very compatible to show together. Is it too compatible??? To answer this question and see if our styles are our "signature" individually, we have set up an exercise.

We are both going to create a series of 10 works, measuring 12x12 each on 100 lb Lenox paper. The theme of our personal series is music. We have given ourselves roughly a month to complete this task. At that point, we are going to mix them up and show them to our friends in the Shadowline Artist Group. We'll see if they are able to discern my pieces for Lance's!

Now - I have to figure out how to incorporate my "signature style" into my collages, etc. Please leave your comments about your journey in developing a signature style!