Mountain Arts Network: The road to accomplishment.
Joining an Artist Coop part 11
A lot has happened in the past few weeks. We just finished our Grand Opening on June 4th and by all accounts it was a success. The gallery space is open and allows for people to walk around and view all the work but to also congregate and mingle.
My sons Madison, daughter in law Sarah, Sean and Malcolm came to help out as did Malcolm’s new girlfriend Alecea. Sean came to serve his pastries that he worked all week on for this opening and walked around being friendly and wearing his Le Cordon Bleu jacket. I asked him why not the chef’s hat and he told me that is worn in the kitchen only.
I had helped set up the gallery a day before with a couple of ladies (members) and it all went well. Kudos to my wife especially since she had to work in Marina del Rey and drive back and forth to Pasadena to help Sean bake and back again and then she got up here at the house Friday afternoon, no small feat because of the traffic coming out of LA, and she and Alecea stuffed the cream puffs and the mini éclairs. She also then did yeoman’s job of keeping the finger food set out on the designated tables and walked around serving the cream puffs and mini éclair’s that Sean had made. He and Malcolm were caught in traffic and got there late.
I spoke to everyone there and presented a plaque to Donal Jolly in appreciation for his long commitment to helping and educating the young artists in these mountains. Now as Fund Raiser Chairman I will get to the business of creating a Fund Raising Campaign that will help us grow and become a serious art organization.
Lou
Joining an artist coop part 10
I "sat", "Baby Sat", "Manned" or any number of descriptions for working the gallery yesterday. Our new location in Lake Arrowhead village just opened officially this week.
It is 2000 square feet and we have been able to accommodate all the members who want to hang their work. I was concerned that I committed to a full day every Tuesday and that it would conflict with work I have that is now getting seriously overdue.
So I thought I would bring the study I am doing with me and while I attended to the gallery I would paint, also giving the gallery a working environment that potential customers would appreciate. Another member – a man about my age – came by in the morning before we opened and thought it was his day. I showed him the calendar and he then saw my set up and asked if he could also sit and work on watercolor and I said the more the merrier. It worked out well.
We had about 18 groups of people no more than five and no less than one walk through and I suppose that was a good amount. No real sales just Looky Loos.
The gallery opens onto the Lake and is very well located for foot traffic for all the events the Village has for the coming season.
Tonight is a meeting of the Board and there are a lot of items to discuss about the future. I have heard from almost everyone with any responsibilities that this organization has had some significant ups and downs, and yet it is poised to be even better than ever before. I hope to be a strong influence and yet I can’t allow myself to get too involved as my painting is and should be a priority.
We have great enthusiasm from all concerned and some very strong artists coming in for the first time and some that have left and now coming back. The one main issue of course is sales. And how difficult it will be to keep any artist in the gallery for the monthly fee we charge if they don’t sell anything. Alas, retail!
Lou
Joining an artist coop part 9
It has been awhile since my last entry but things with the gallery are moving very quickly. People have quit and people have joined. Oh and one member has been ousted. A lot of internal reasons that seem to be more personal than organizational. I have been appointed ( acting) with a full vote in June for the Board and I am the Chair of the fund raising committee. I have mentioned this before but it is becoming more and more important. We had our first gallery members meeting last night and a lot of the members showed. A few want to be members and some of the Board members. We are about to open the new gallery having moved it from the Skyforest location to the Lake Arrowhead Village proper. There are tons more people that will flow through and we are all thinking it will be very good for business.
There are two ladies that have been striving to repaint the walls in the new gallery and I have been enlisted as the final say or an "experienced" person who should have a say. We – the members – voted on a color last night and the two ladies went to get it and they did a test on a section. I got a call this morning to please come and look, there was a problem. The color was off from what we thought we were painting and I agreed we had to make a change. When I got there the two ladies and another member had asked the manager of the Kincaid gallery, this is in reality not a Kincaid gallery but a gallery with other artists that uses (and probably pays) Kincaid for the use of his name for her "expertise. I was put off by this immediately and wanted this woman gone. She is in fact our competition. She immediately launches into her credentials as a TV commercial director, "This is my real job" she tells me and I know color. Well that about did it for me and as I am very careful not to flaunt my CV I had to dispatch her quickly and trumped her experience with my own. I lost control. Not a good thing, but the members that were part of the coop didn’t seem to mind.
I spent more time with the ladies and we all went back to the paint company and got a couple more quarts of new colors that we hoped were closer to the idea we had all voted on and ran back to the gallery and I threw up just a few small areas to see and we got one we all agreed was going to be just what we originally wanted. Whew. Tomorrow we paint. I said to the two ladies at the paint store they were relying on my opinion that would ultimately get me removed from the group and after having been here only four months. One of them said absolutely not, they want me to be President.
We will see.
Joining an artist coop part 8
On Wednesday evening The Mountain Arts Network had our first full membership meeting at the new gallery space in the village of Lake Arrowhead. It is 2000 sq. ft. and through a large front window we overlook the lake on the ground floor. It was a larger turnout than I have seen since joining in January. I am already the Chair of the newly created Fundraising committee but was appointed to the Board by the President that night after the meeting was adjourned. There is an enthusiasm that I am told by some of the Board members that is new and exciting. However there are a number of important business items that need attention and we are embarking to clarify and clean up these issues.
I moved up here in Sept. almost by accident and now my wife and I are full blown residents with an involvement in the community that I have never had before. The time is right one might say. I am in my late 50′s raised four kids who are now on their own, and my wife inherited enough to be able to buy a house almost anywhere we wanted. So we literally threw a dart at a map and drove up here to look around and ended up putting a bid on a house the first weekend. This didn’t end up being the house we bought but we were bitten with the bug of ownership and mountain living. Plus as a fine artist I was getting the idea that I could actually do my work in tranquility, with inspiration that comes from mountain living.
So now I am a Board member and the Fundraising Chairman and I have friends who are artists. No one is really good enough to shake the world but the camaraderie is infectious. Again a new experience, one I haven’t had since I was in art school in NYC. The non-profit wing to The Mountain Arts Network is really the one that needs the focus and development and this is where I will broaden my influence. But I am also looking to make our mission, Support local artists, which I didn’t write, but found it is what I want too grander and more influential.
Yesterday I drove to the gallery to help in whatever chores Candy and Sue our gallery managers needed. We, the Board members, are the ones making the move and fixing the space and painting et al. So in a sense it is a small coop with big ambitions. I wonder why more members aren’t helping and as my wife says trying to get volunteers to help is very hard. Most members want the rewards and want to be left alone without the responsibilities of a coop. As if they are in a formal gallery and leave the running and maintaining to the owner and staff. This is also something we need to address.
We also lose members during the winter because the entire resort has nothing to offer tourist during this harsh season. Unlike our neighbors to the East, Big Bear. They either go back down the mountain to their permanent home or they decide leaving their work in the gallery isn’t profitable. Candy says some come back when the weather gets better. My initial thought was to encourage them to stay members, we need their monthly hanging fee, but unleash the responsibility of sitting in the gallery once a month.
Lou
Joining an artist coop part 7 addendum
It snowed while in the meeting and I had no chains (left them at the house, thought I was safe for the rest of the year), and no snow tires, no four-wheel drive, I was stuck and only one other person was still there. Sue was kind enough to give me a lift to my house and said she will pick me up this morning to go get my car which I had to leave in Darlene’s driveway. Mountain living – always an adventure, so far.
Lou
Joining an artist coop part 7
The weathered cleared up and I got dressed and left the dogs some food and an open door knowing I wouldn’t get back until around 10PM. The drive to Lake Arrowhead was uneventful and the valley was sunny so all was going great as far as any impending weather. I couldn’t find Darlene’s house right off as I hadn’t been there in months, but I was early anyway so I tried a few places off the road to the lake and found it. Went into the meeting which is in Darlene Kraft’s home. She is a watercolorist and a very nice woman. There was John, Monika, Darlene O, Candy, Kelly ( guy) and Sue and me. We were discussing the move from our present location in Skyforest on highway 18 to the Arrowhead Village a Mini Mall.
I was there to add support and some logistic suggestions to our upcoming Spring show/Mother’s Day Art Sale. This will occur in the early part of May. It seems encouraging yet what they have sacrificed for space and more tourists they lost in charm and authentic mountain ambiance.
These decisions are made by the "elder" by this I mean long standing members and then we create ideas with regards to space, member inclusions advertising – basically anything that has to do with the gallery – to the BOD (Board of Directors). Since many gallery members are also on this Board it generally passes smoothly.
There is some dissention in the ranks as a woman I haven’t met yet weighed in on procedures and got into a divisive email battle with another woman who is our lawyer/Photog. This lady can’t be at the meeting for awhile due to her work in San Bernardino. I have gained the respect of some of the more prominent members in that my CV is thought to be strong enough to help the coop gain in stature and member strength, which in turn means more money. I feel a part of the inner sanctum already and yet I haven’t done anything. My wife reminds me that this group is made up of all volunteers so one needs to go slowly for changes and diplomatically too.
My goal is not to make this a viable gallery, because there are too many obstacles for that to happen. My goal is to help elevate this organization on a state/national level where we are the originators of programs that encourage local artists in their communities. Starting with this community. Now I realize this is not the intention of anyone else. Most members I have met are happy to sell there crafts and artwork to tourists and residents and to that end it will happen in greater numbers due to the closer proximity of our gallery and the main tourist area in Lake Arrowhead. SO I will help the coop with positioning, advertising and marketing in so far as we can create awareness and drive traffic to the gallery store front. Then I will slowly develop their fundraising capabilities by galvanizing the Board to reorganize and focus the programs we need to establish some strong funding support. Oh and I need to work myself. But I am enjoying my participation like never before and marvel that after all these years of reveling in being an "outsider" an independant thinker not a joiner of group thought I am actually inspired and enjoy the camaraderie of fellow artists. Plus my experience in the corporate art world will give me a strong hand and hopefully a guiding light to move this coop forward as an organization that imbues art as a way of life for artists and for lovers of art.
Lou
Joining an artist coop part 6
Today it is misty,cloudy and cold here on Mojave River Road. I am back at my mural where it is now just a matter of WORKing the painting. All issues of composition, color, elements, etc. are in place. I am also still trying to help my wife get the house in LA cleaned out so we can get back our substantial deposit.
I sold a painting last month from this Mountain Arts Network Gallery and it was one I didn’t think or wanted to sell. In fact most of the paintings I hung were what I had laying around in this gargantuan move. Still it was exciting in the sense that it is a new venture and I was told the couple that bought it "loved" it so what is better than money but love?
And yet I get an email last night asking for a date that I will sit in the gallery. Every member of the gallery must watch it for a day a month. Two days if you pay for an entire wall. In this email I learned that the gallery is moving into Lake Arrowhead Village. Now at first you might say hey that is where the tourist go, but the gallery we have is right on the major two lane highway that runs through the mountains and people going to Arrowhead, Silverwood Lake, Lake Gregory or Big Bear go right by us. The cottage is quaint and authentic looking instead of a typical retail shop you find in every mini-mall. Also there is a meeting of the gallery artists tonight that I will attend to see and hear what the rationale was for this move. I think it a mistake, I will say it right now, March 31st. 2010.
Lou
Joining an artist coop part 5
Last night was another meeting of the Board of Directors. I missed it. Not being on the Board means it isn’t mandatory. I am however the fundraising chair and in this capacity I felt I should go. Except I have no voting powers. That is fine for right now. I am very busy trying to finish a large commission, moving out of our house in LA and confirming another commission. I had requested an informal meeting with the members on my committee two weeks ago and all but one could make it. I was prepared to meet with the one member and then make notes to pass around via email to the other members.
Besides, my car was my wife’s this week because she had slid off the road a few days ago into an embankment and needed my car to go to work down in LA, but fortunately only (haven’t really driven it) the front bumper was damaged. This evening the weather came in and it was very dense fog and slight rain, add to this I was feeling pressure about quitting the progress on the painting, which I am having a hard time staying motivated by anyway, and I decided not to go.
EARLIER:
About two days ago I did some research on the Internet about how to fundraise for a non-profit and coupled with what I found and my own extensive experience with non-profits such as The Braille Institute, ChildHelp USA, The Progeria Foundation and others I wrote up an outline for the members to look at and respond via email. Not one response either about the content or for that matter acknowledging they got the outline. Then on top of that I decided to introduce myself to the President of The Network via an email. (I still haven’t been told precisely why there are two entities, The Mountain Arts Network and The Mountain Arts Gallery).
I know, you are saying it is obvious, and it is, but I need to know without assumptions, primarily because as a fundraiser I have to have all facts and current figures with me when I approach someone for money.
The email I wrote to the President was forwarded to two of the ladies in the group, one of whom is on the Board and the other isn’t, and the lady on the Board never answered her part of my questions.
I now see the problems I have heard about from the moment I joined. It is run haphazardly. No central authority. They have meetings but they don’t seem to understand that someone (the President, maybe?) needs to oversee the projects and coordinate so as not to allow one area to mismanage the reputation and progress of the Network/Gallery!
Joining an Artist Coop part 4
Yesterday was a cold and cloudy day with the morning giving us the only chance to get the dogs out for their run through the woods. As I stepped out of the ground floor door I encountered my neighbor, Ken. He was holding a piece of his work – a found piece of deadwood that he proudly says he never alters but paints in the things he sees, i.e. animals etc.. In this case it was a castle built out of this enormous craggy wood. His question was whether he should leave a painted snarling dog head or take it out. Now to put this all in a perspective, he is a primitive, self taught, artist and yet he has never tried to be "more" than he is, so he has managed to create a number of very interesting pieces. I bought one that sits in my living room called the sun bather. Here was an easy suggestive fix. Never, I told him, allow your work to be inconsistent. And the beauty of the work lies in consistency. That all he paints is organic to the shape of the wood and when a knot is formed and it becomes organic like an eye then he has painted it such, but here he painted a snarly dog head without any wood appendage to help that idea along, thusly becoming inconsistent with the general idea of his work, that is to find natural wood pieces that look like "something" and paint that something out of or into the wood. Here is the essence to coops. They raw talent exposed to a public that doesn’t have a chance to see this raw talent, a group of local artists serving themselves to their public without the official gallery owner/manager. Ken hasn’t joined and as yet I can’t see what benefit he would derive from it except his three pieces on the group site.
