Saturday, March 3, 2007

C-POPportunity




Mark your calenders. On Saturday March 10th 2007 at C-POP Gallery located in Detroit will be the opening for their C-POPportunity show, in which I have two pieces. The show will run until April 7th and their will be an awards ceremony on March 31st. Three artists will be selected by a panel of judges to be a part of a four man show in July and the fourth artist will be selected by visitors to the gallery during the show's run. The show will feature about a hundred artists from not only here in the Detroit area, but from across the country and around the world, as well.

See if you can find my name on the front of their postcard (it took me and the gallery's owner, Rick Manore a while to find it) and on the back one of my pieces, a sculpture, can be seen at the very bottom with the word "Woodward" printed over the top of it. I'll post my two works in my next post for your viewing pleasure.

For me, this is a big deal, because C-POP Gallery is argueably one of Detroit's most influential galleries.

And the icing on top of the cake? The Reverend Horton Heat will be one of the judges. How cool is that?

9 comments:

singinghawk said...

Hey Bruce,

Wow! You really keep your work out there. That's great! I'm looking forward to seeing your two pieces. I tried looking for your sculpture in the postcard, but it's so small that my eyes hurt just trying.

Congratulations!

Cheers,

Ana

Anonymous said...

Way to go Bruce, Will take a look and go to the show. Hey I found your sculpture on the bottom you had that one awhile. Still haven't found your name on the front yet.

Bruce said...

ANA: It's been a good start to this year with four shows in four months, so I hope to keep that rolling. Yeah, there were a few complaints about the postcards, but considering how much info they had to cram on the thing, it's understandable.

Thanks and I hope that you like the two pieces.

DAVE: Too bad you couldn't make the opener, but hopefully you get some time over the next month to make it to the show. Let me know and I'll go with you.

Keep looking for my name, it's in there! It's on the third ring from the center circle.

singinghawk said...

That's great that you're on a roll, Bruce. I'm wondering how you promote yourself, if you don't mind my asking.

Anonymous said...

Cool Found it your name YEAH!!!!

Bruce said...

Hey Ana,
I'm slow moving with the promotion, but I'm gaining speed. I seriously want to pursue an illustration career and I've waited to get my stuff out there for too long. I'm somewhat of an introvert myself, so I know how hard it can be. As far as the shows that I've been in this year, they were found on-line and I just submitted to them. I'm slowly working on getting a website up and running along with business cards and stuff like that. I have a MySpace page that I really haven't done much with, but will soon. Mike Dutton has helped me out with useful suggestions, too. So, I'm trying to network and talk to artists, such as yourself. Most of my artist friends don't like to talk about art - it's frustrating! And this blog has led me to some other very interesting blogs and has been a positive for me.

I hope that this helped. Are you attempting a comeback into the illustration world?


Oh, and Dave...glad you found it, now get down to the show!

singinghawk said...

That's great that you want to pursue an illustration career. Do you know which market you will target?

It seems that illustration is a different animal these days. I freelanced for three years over ten years ago and it seemed rather easy to find work after only one postcard promotion. A few years back, I tried to re-emerge into the same market, used the same kind of promotion I used ten years ago, and had no response. Although I should tell you that after the first round of postcards, I stopped there -- which is a BIG no no if you want to be an illustrator: there has to be a consistent flood of promotion to get those art directors to notice you. My point is to say that it appears illustrators have to find new and different ways these days to stand out from the rest in this inundated field -- postcards are not enough anymore. I think it takes more networking to get your foot in the door, which you are doing and that's great. You might aslo want to approach some of the online, image stock agencies, since I think a lot of art directors are buying stock art in order to avoid the high prices that illustrators charge.

Anyway, if you ever have any questions about the field, feel free to ask. I do know a thing or two about the industry.

Ana

Bruce said...

Thanks for responding, Ana. I really need all the help I can get as marketing myself is a struggle and it seems like I'm always re-inventing the wheel. And, as stupid as this sounds, I never seem to know just what to ask people when I get the chance. So, it's slow going.

I really don't have a specific area that I want to market, in the beginning I'll take what I can get. I'd really like to do some storyboarding or something geared more for the "entertainment" area of the industry.

I don't know how I feel about the stock agencies. Part of me thinks that they under value the work of illustrators. But, it's something to consider.

Looking forward to talking more about this, Ana.

singinghawk said...
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