Since its conception, art in all of its various forms has been created for the sole purpose of the artist describing for the world his or her personal visions of a person, event, or place. As a result visual works of art leave the viewer with an impression of an extreme emotion. Whether that feeling is joy or the deepest pits of despair, the artist has done their job if something of their reality shows through their work. Painters of all races and ethnic backgrounds can surely relate to the “starving artist” theory. But for black artist the struggle has been a little more intense. Not only in the U.S. as the children of freed slaves, but unfortunately in their mother continent of Africa, Black American artists have faced discrimination and censorship. Fortunately both sets of unique, gifted artists are beginning to see some of the attention and praise they deserve. Black art painting is finally being seen for the huge contribution to history and the art world that it is.
Both sides of the world have produced amazingly gifted artists. In the Western hemisphere there are certain black men and women who paved the way for the African American artists of today. Horace Pippin is one of those men. After an injury in WWI, Pippin discovered his underlying talent for rich, historical painting. While he avoided the unpleasantness of life for a black man in the U.S. during that time period, he did produce black art paintings that spoke volumes to the viewer. His work was displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in 1938. A less known black artist that contributed to the black art movement in the United States is Walter Ellison. His most famous work is “Train Station” located in the Art Institute of Chicago. That painting is an honest look at the difficulties facing black families as they migrated north in the hope of a better future than the south could or would offer. These two exceptional black artists help give hope of recognition to the many gifted black artists that were to follow.
The scenario for artists from and living in Africa is different though. Despite the struggles with racial discrimination and inherent prejudice in the U.S., African artists are faced with even more difficult issues. Apartheid and censorship have long plagued this long suffering group of artists and painters. While expressing their views of the political unrest and unfair treatment, African artists have been subjected to severe punishment and censorship unheard of in the West. Thanks in part to the academic world’s growing interest in the work of the modern black artist, black art painting is receiving more attention and registering in the minds of museum curators and art galleries alike. Most of the credit belongs to the fortitude and artistic expression of the African artists themselves.
From its humble beginning in rock painting to its depictions of slavery, apartheid, and injustice, black fine art is an expression of the feelings and emotions of a diverse, racially unified community of artists. The rest of the world now has the opportunity to see and experience this unique form of painting.
Mr. Moyo Ogundipe has a Bachelors of Arts degree in Fine Art from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and a Master of Fine Art degree in Painting from The Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, USA.
One of Africa’s most celebrated and renowned contemporary black American artists, Mr. Ogundipe has exhibited extensively in Africa, Europe and the USA. His paintings have been described as hypnotic, colorful and densely patterned.
In 1996, Mr. Ogundipe was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Fellowship. And in 2005 he was invited to become a member of Africobra, an organization founded in the 1960s and whose membership comprises of distinguished African-American artists.
Find and buy black art prints from Moyo Ogundipe at www.Maigida.com.
Image taken on 2005-11-25 00:00:25 by Iman.
I came up with as I was listening to Gwen Stefani’s The Sweet Escape album. Note: I have a little obsession with Naruto right now due to Naruto Shippuden. ANIME: Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto PICTURES: Various Fanart by various talented artists MUSIC: Don’t Get It Twisted by Gwen Stefani, Now That You Got It by Gwen Stefani, and Yummy by Gwen Stefani Characters shown: Hinata Hyuuga, Ino Yamanaka, Sakura Haruno, Temari, Tenten, Tsunade, Anko Mitarashi, Kurenai Yuhi, Naruto Uzumaki, Kiba Inuzuka …
As tattoos become more popular these days, more and more people are getting tattoos or talking about getting one. This is great for the industry and even better for those who would like to get involved in the tattoo industry. But don’t think that becoming a professional tattoo artist is easy. There really isn’t any such thing as easy money by becoming a tattoo artist.
Many tattoo artist aspirants believe that purchasing a D.I.Y. tattoo kit from the advertisements of tattoo magazines is the starting point towards becoming a successful tattoo artist. Be aware that this equipment is of inferior quality and lacks precision. What next? Find a person to practice. And the result is dozens and dozens of people with awful tattoos and terrible scars and who will put you in their hate list forever. Furthermore, a true artist will be reluctant to take you under his wings because he is going to have a headache trying to guide you back on the right path.
The alternative is to pay a fee to a tattoo artist or shop to teach you the trade. So what is the type of fee to pay? As far as I know there are no reputable artists teaching you all he know for a fee. A true artist is not a true blooded businessman. If an artist is willing to teach you for a small fee, then consider this. Is he willing to part with all he knows for what you are paying? In one Asian country, the majority of tattoo shop websites advertise tattoo courses for a very small fee. But the problem is that after completing the course, you will have to come back for one refresher course then another and another. And I understand that after completion several such courses, you will not be able to tattoo properly. So the chances are you will be paying good money to some businessman who is just trying to make a fast buck.
So then, how to become a successful tattoo artist? For starters, you’ll need talent. You will never make it in the tattoo industry by tracing or stenciling, you will need to be able to draw great designs. To even get considered as a tattoo artist, a portfolio is needed. This will require you to draw lots of great designs to build up a portfolio. Your portfolio is proof that you have the skills that are needed to succeed in the industry. Without a portfolio, don’t even bother. I remember one South American guy asking me to train him to become a tattoo artist. And he said money is no problem. I told him that money is not an issue, just draw me a colored dragon and then a reaper. He came back after one week, and said he couldn’t draw a proper dragon or reaper. So end of story.
Once you have a portfolio to showcase your talents, you will need a mentor, someone who is willing to teach you the trade and share their secrets with you. Now this is the tricky thing, tattoo artists don’t like giving away their secrets. Simple reason is because many of them have been let down by their apprentices. Just take the case of my mentor. He has taken more than 20 people under his wings (all without any fee), but today only 3 of his graduates still “recognise” him as mentor. What happened to the rest? They have their own shops, but tell their customers that they can do the same quality of work as their mentor (also my mentor), but their prices are cheaper. So you know how much it hurts to be treated like my mentor? If you do find someone good, a real professional who is willing to tell you anything at all about the industry, then be grateful.
To train as a tattoo artist, you will need proper, high-quality equipment such as a precision tattoo machine, power supplies, shading equipment, needles, medical equipment and sanitation supplies. You will also need to know about cleanliness and what can and can’t be reused, as well as how to clean and sterilize your equipment. The popular professional tattoo artists are successful for a number of reasons, but mainly because they are clean and very talented.
You can succeed in the tattoo industry, but you will need to be talented, self-driven and dedicated. If you want to make lots of money as a tattoo artist, you are wasting your time. Become a tattoo artist because you love the art and love to create breath-taking pieces of body art. Be prepared to work for free and, most of all, if you get someone to stop and share a secret or two with you, take their advice. You will definitely need it.
What you do is you apprentice and work for a tattoo artist for very little pay. You do this so that he/she can take you under his/her wing and show you how to take your artistic skill and transfer it to the art that is called tattooing. If the master you’re apprenticing for is good, then along the way you’ll also learn about how to run a shop, what it takes to succeed, and what NOT to do…
How long does it take? Well…that depends on how fast you pick it up and how good your master is. It’s not uncommon for tattoo artists to apprentice for more than one artist in their careers…and each apprenticeship can last for several years.
This is not to discourage you…but the guys on Miami Ink didn’t just “decide” to become rock star tattoo artists one day. They scraped just to get by for many years before they became successful…and, chances are, you’ll have to, too.
Here is a tribute (kind of) to the girls of Naruto. Funny how none of them are my favorite characters… ANIME: Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto PICTURES: Various Fanart and screenshots by various talented artists MUSIC: My World by Avril Lavigne and Anything but Ordinary by Avril Lavigne Characters shown: Hinata Hyuuga, Ino Yamanaka, Sakura Haruno, Temari, Tenten, Naruto Uzumaki, Kiba Inuzuka, Rock Lee, Neji Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, Akamaru, Chouji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, Asuma Sarutobi, …
Artists who work with oil paints, watercolors and canvases may seem rather old-fashioned with the increasing advancements of computer software designed specifically to draw and paint digitally.
Although there can be no replacement for the skill, purity and simplicity displayed in an oil-on-canvas painting, as compared to a digitally rendered one, the commercial value of artists has certainly declined with much of today’s art work being created by their digital counterparts.
So how can ‘old-school’ artists start generating enough income to maintain their profession, without giving in to the pressure of turning to graphic software? It may seem somewhat ironical, but the Internet (in all its technological glory) could in fact prove a viable way for artists to boost their fortunes.
Artists who set up their own domains (using their own names, of course) and blogs will find that they have not only uncovered a great method of sharing their art with the world, but have opened themselves up to a myriad of wonderful opportunities. If you are an artist, here are 4 great reasons why you should immediately be investing in your own domain.
1. A World Wide Audience
Because artwork on canvas is significantly more difficult to pass around (as opposed to the ease of a JPEG file!), the people who get to view an artists work are often restricted to those who have visited the artists workshop or has had the artist send some copies of his work over.
With a website or a blog, however, an artist can easily take digital pictures of his work and put them on his blog, even commenting on the inspiration behind the painting and the techniques used. This would be akin to you – the artists – showing someone around a gallery your work!
But of course, the advantage of showing them around on a blog is that your viewers and fans of your work can access your website from all over the world, at any time, from any place with an Internet connection, leaving you to do what you do best – art.
2. Meet Other Artists And Build A Useful Network
It’s always useful for artists to know other artists, as it invariably means that you create more opportunities for yourself and your career. For example, an artist you likes your art and has been invited to show his or her work in an exhibition may help to get your work displayed as well.
By having a presence on the Internet, you will meet a large number of other budding artists like yourself from all over the world, which may prove to be invaluable contacts in the future. You will also allow yourself to be found online by art gallery owners and managers, art collectors and other art aficionados, any of whom may play a role in advancing your career.
3. Sell Art Online
Of course, the most obvious commercial aspect of any website for an artist would be the selling of his or her artwork. Once you have set up your domain and blog, you can also arrange for an online merchant account, which will enable you to sell your art online to customers who will pay using their credit cards.
As an artist, this may not the most ideal way to sell your art work, but it can be an effective way for you to make money selling smaller art pieces, which you can then send to your customers anywhere in the world using a decent courier service. Just selling one piece of work a month can more than cover the cost of running and maintaining a blog!
4. Open To Commercial Opportunities
Aside from selling your work, a website or blog opens the artist up to other opportunities from which money can be made. For example, a frequent visitor to your website who enjoys your art may commission you to create an artwork for a decent fee. Or you may be invited to sell your art at an auction after an organizer of the event came across your website.
The opportunities are endless and mind-boggling, and with an open mind, any artist can take advantage of the vast untapped expanse of the Internet to give their career and finances a serious boost!
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An artist’s perspective is a key that unlocks the door into a new world of understanding for viewers. Yet where does such a novel perspective come from?
While natural objects often inform artists, few powerful artistic perspectives emerge solely from viewing nature. In fact, until the 19th century most serious artists viewed painting or sculpturing from nature with skepticism.
Spending time with artists has helped many to formulate new perspectives. For the wealthy, it has always been possible to buy lessons from the leading artists of the day who didn’t earn enough from making art to support themselves. Some art students traveled to Europe to gain that exposure. Without the need to earn a living, wealthy artists could indulge in whatever creative work inspired them until something useful developed.
For the not-so-wealthy, schools often provided the basics through studying art produced by others and developing fundamental skills like drawing live models. From the Renaissance on, male artists often supported themselves by serving as assistants to established male artists. In the 19th century, women began painting in large numbers, and many earned a living by copying masterpieces in museums like the Louvre in Paris.
Those pathways worked well for those who were wealthy or knew they wanted to be artists at a young age. What could the others do?
Choices were limited. You had to earn a living and carve out a little time to do what young artists had already accomplished by the time they were 22 or so. Without a background in art, you couldn’t hope to earn a living teaching it.
This was a classic Catch-22 problem (when you need what you don’t have to get what you need) for aspiring adult artists with limited backgrounds until online education expanded the art world. With a computer you could travel the world from your bedroom, see the great masterpieces reproduced, and hear the works discussed by countless art historians. College art lectures had long featured showing lots of slides in dark rooms while an art historian commented. The view on a computer screen was often better than from the back of a crowded, overheated classroom. You can also “visit” major art historians online without attending their lectures in person providing much flexibility for those with limited time for travel and study.
What does the future hold for artists who want to further inform their perspectives? Online education provides an unparalleled additional opportunity.
Let’s consider the case of Ms. Raeda Ashour to appreciate how large the changes are. Ms. Ashour is a native of Saudi Arabia. While growing up, she didn’t yet feel a calling towards creating art. Instead, she felt attracted to literature and the chance to learn English during her studies in Egypt. As a college student at the American University in Cairo, she deepened her understanding of Middle East culture through reading Arabic literature.
In the process of her Middle East studies, she gained some exposure to Arabic art. She discovered that she loved to paint and took up this activity as a hobby. She also visited galleries and began reading about art.
After graduating from college, she could not obtain a work permit in Egypt and had to bide her time until she gained exposure to book publishing through some friends. Eventually, she founded a publishing company with two partners and especially enjoyed designing book covers. Her artistic hobby also expanded to making collages that friends admired.
After seven years, the publishing business started losing money and was closed. Ms. Ashour was unsure what career to follow next.
Soon thereafter, she married a Lebanese photographer who encouraged her to spend more time working on her art. Ms. Ashour held a solo exhibition in Cairo that was well received.
When the couple moved to Saudi Arabia, she continued to focus on her art and soon built a following as one of Saudi Arabia’s leading artists. In the next twelve years, she added a base of collectors through six solo shows and twenty group exhibitions.
In 2005, Ms. Ashour found that she wanted to expand her artistic vision and improve her perspective. By adding a solid art education, she hoped to gain new insights she could apply to her work. She also realized that a master’s degree could also help her gain either a university teaching job or consulting assignments with companies. The wildly fluctuating income of a freelance artist can be stabilized through such activities. In addition, she wanted to write about the potential for art to play a larger and more helpful role in Saudi society.
How might she gain those educational perspectives while living and painting in Saudi Arabia? The possibilities of an online education to serve her needs soon attracted her keen eye.
After considering many online degree programs in art, she selected Rushmore University as her school. Why?
Here were some of her reasons:
1. The possibility of designing a custom major.
2. She could start classes immediately.
3. She could earn credits for her previous life experience.
4. She could study as much as she wanted and accelerate her graduation date.
5. Since many of the university’s students had published their work, it gave her confidence that her master’s degree writing might also be published one day.
6. There were no exams.
7. The tuition fees were affordable for an artist.
After she graduated in 2007 with an M.A. in Arts Education, I asked Ms. Ashour to share some thoughts with me about her distance learning experiences. Overall, she described this way of learning as a very rewarding step in expanding her artistic vision. She felt that she accomplished several things including:
1. Enhancing her knowledge about art and art education to help improve her career as an artist.
2. Regaining her research and writing skills.
3. Improving her credibility in the artistic community.
In addition, she gained confidence about publishing her papers and seeking teaching jobs at the university level. She intends to continue her education through either specialized studies or possibly earning a doctorate.
How is her art career doing? A recent e-mail shared the good news that she is busy preparing work for two important solo shows in 2008.
What career boosts are you seeking?
How are you going to improve your vision and perspective to enhance your career?
What role can distance learning through the Internet play?
Image taken on 2005-11-24 23:59:26 by Iman.
Image taken on 2005-11-24 23:59:51 by Iman.