Listings

This is broken up into five categories. General Listings, which does what it says in being the catch all. Workshops and Studio Space listings will helps artists learn and find housing. We also have a free Marketplace for artists to sell stuff much like Craigslist.

Lastly, is a fun new idea entitled the Exchange, which will allow artists to off their artistic services in exchange for other artistic services (since we lack money why not revert to the old barter system). Prime example is the potter can give a few of his prize clay pots away to a photographer who will exchange take pictures of all of her art to post online. There is great potential with this method of interaction.

Questions & Answers

There is also a new section, which will allow artists to post questions and the community then can answer to the best of their knowledge. We really like this idea in that it cuts to the core of community collaboration.

Other Updates

We did a bit of refinement to the navigation and the home page. If you have anymore suggestions please let us know.

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This Artcast episode of “Art Interruptions” hosted by Judah Mahay and John Sleek deals with big question like the term artist and much more. Don’t forget to submit questions for John and Judah to discuss.

Please leave your questions and comments below.

The Life of the Intern

Co-Published: BeYourArt.com and The North Shoreian Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 8, Practicalities of the Surviving Artist, The Harvest Issue. Article written by Don Rebar.

Intern.  The word alone strikes fear into the hearts of many—from the most seasoned professional to the hungry high school student wishing to gain experience.  Nightmarish legends of supervisors that transform budding young professionals into ditch diggers, or of slacker interns whose apathy will be the downfall of society are commonplace.  No matter how many of these horror stories are tall tales in actuality, the basic principle behind them remains: at the end of the internship, one party’s experience with the other was poor.  Sometimes, no matter how hard the intern works or how generous the supervisor is, this outcome is inevitable.  Even in these cases, there are a few fundamental rules to help maximize a marginalized experience.

While there are many tools out there to help find internships (ArtSearch—a publication of Theatre Communications Group, Playbill.com, Craigslist), the most prudent way to find out about internships is to take a visit to the theatres you are considering.  Research their work beforehand—who has worked with them, how they approach their brand of theatre, what kinds of outreach they do.  Go see their shows and get to know their staff.  Many theatres will also hold receptions, talkbacks, and other free gatherings to meet and greet their audience members.  Although they might be too busy to speak in-depth with, briefly introduce yourself and try to further the conversation over email, phone, or by making an appointment.  If distance is an issue, surf their website for a glimpse into their work.  Even if another theatre seems like a better fit, being familiar with multiple organizations will aid you in the long run.

Once hired, know what kind of work will be expected, but be prepared to do anything.  The phrase “and all other duties as applies” should be taken very seriously.  Remind yourself that the company will not ask you to perform jobs outside of your chosen field to simply disrespect you.  More than likely the theatre will try to expose their interns to as many different aspects of the profession as possible.  Also, many are operating off of a shoestring budget and their interns are also an inexpensive source of labor.

When this happens (and it will), there are a few steps that will help you take matters into your own hands without clashing with the administrative office.  First of all, finish the jobs that you are assigned to do.  This is a sign of professionalism and also tells the company that you are mature enough to take ownership in their work, no matter what the task.  Feel free to speak to someone if you feel unsafe, mistreated, or intentionally disrespected, but be discreet about your complaints.  Secondly, undertaking these tasks will help you gain respect among your peers.  In small organization like a theatre company, word of mouth is a powerful ally.  If someone sees you preparing a prompt book in the morning, moving furniture in the afternoon, and changing the marquee sign after the evening show, you force them to acknowledge that you are serious about your craft and your career.  Third, do take the time to speak to other artists about their work.  Do not (like many interns) shut down or gossip about how much better the world would be if you were onstage or designing costumes.  Your internship is an opportunity to ask professionals for insight into their process.  Take advantage of it.  Inevitably, your interest in their work will help pique interest in yours.  This is the time to show off your audition pieces or the scenic rendering that got you the “A”.

Remember, the interns who get the most out of their experience come away from their experience with two basic things: connections and experience.  Be aware that there are many ways that these objectives can become derailed.  The best thing for any intern to do is to be proactive and take responsibility for getting the most out of the situation.

Don Rebar is a 3 year MFA Candidate in Dramaturgy at Stony Brook University.  On various theatre jobs he has worked as a carpenter, a stage manager, an undertaker, a wine pourer, a file clerk, an usher, a furniture mover, a stagehand, and a dramaturg.

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This Artcast by Judah Mahay and John Sleek focuses on the article “How to Use the Internet to Promote Yourself as an Artist” by Christine Stoddard. A great article and a fun Artcast. Check it out and leave your comments below.

Also, you can send suggestions for other articles you want to be added to Art Notes by emailing artnotes@beyourart.com. Though most articles will be from BeYourArt.com we are more than willing to consider articles elsewhere.

Subscribe to Artcast on iTunes.

Excerpt from the Article:

The “starving artist” cliché exists for a reason: no matter what kind of artist you are—actor, writer, painter, singer, photographer, dancer, etc.—earning a living is a struggle. Regardless of your talent and experience, which school you attended, or where you took an apprenticeship or internship, you will have to market yourself in order to sell your art. In fact, self-promotion is perhaps the most important way to turn your artistic passion into a full-fledged career…(read more)

Recently, we posted a few ideas to the startup Appswell.com. Each month this company takes the idea with the highest rating and develops it into an app for the iPhone or iTouch.

Below is a list of some of the ideas we posted. If you like what you see, please vote to help them be considered for development. Detailed information is provided for each app through the links.

In order to vote, register with Appswell.com (it takes about thirty seconds) then go to the links below. Also, the company factors in comments as well as the votes in the selection process, so please leave your thoughts and suggestions.

iAuthor
Take control of your novel. All your ideas, your outline, your glossary, your timeline, your notes, and so much more in one place to help develop your dream novel. Being a writer, I can’t think of a better app to help my career as a novelist.
http://appswell.com/site/idea/136

Singer’s Toolkit
Sing a single note into your iPhone and the notation will appear on the screen. No need for a piano to begin your songs. This is also a great way to practice pitch.
http://appswell.com/site/idea/96

Be Your Art
Want to know how people succeed in the art world? Find out from quick and easy audio notes. Give advice, share ideas, ask questions, meet like-minded artists (writers, painter, actors, etc), and rate/review what people post. Save your favorite notes, friend other artists, and even follow a specific topic or artist.
http://appswell.com/site/idea/262

Thank you all for your support in making BeYourArt.com an incredible resource for artists. Keep up the great work.

Subscribe to Artcast on iTunes

This Artcast episode of “Art Interruptions” hosted by Judah Mahay and John Sleek deals with big question like the term artist and much more. Don’t forget to submit questions for John and Judah to discuss. An outline of the podcast is below.

Props

Harold Pinter ” Ashes to Ashes”
Pearl Jam ” Backspacer”
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (a 1974 German film)
These Shining Lives (Written by Melanie Marnich)

Art Rift - Viewer Submitted Questions

A time reserved for asking big art questions from the philosophical to the more down to earth.

Is there such a thing as a writer’s block or is it just a sign to move on?
What role should art play in politics or politics play in art?

Internet Resource for Artists

theartspolitic.com
iTunes New Yorker Festival Podcast “Young Shakespeareans”

Beating the Block

Tips on the creative process

Fear is the primary block to success. The only way to conquer fear is to acknowledge that is exists.

Know the classics in your genre.

Please submit your questions to artinterruptions@beyourart.com or use our Submission Form, and don’t forget to subscribe to our Artcast on iTunes.

1rst Place

“Happily Ever After”
By Julie Wilson
http://www.beyourart.com/profile/Julie

2nd Place

“Just Keep Smiling”
By Anna Katsavos
http://www.beyourart.com/profile/AnnaKatsavos

3rd Place

“The Little Shootist”
By Micki Peluso
http://www.beyourart.com/profile/MickiPeluso

*Don’t forget to subscribe to BeYourArt.com’s podcast on iTunes.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=317258161

The hard part is knowing how to ask the right questions in order to get the right answers.

By Charles H. Bush

They say “write about what you know.” Unfortunately, if you’re like me and don’t know much, you have to find a way know what you need to know. The method I use is “research.”

For years, before advent of the internet, I found research to be a daunting task, certainly not for the homebound or for the lazy like me. But now most needed research is rather easy. The hard part is knowing how to ask the right questions in order to get the right answers. I’ll give you several case studies a bit later to demonstrate what I do. There are several tools I now use to do my research, so I’ll just jump right in.

Tools of Research

There are several principal research tools I use. They are:

• The internet
• The telephone
• Books on special subjects (like modern-day quick-draw gun fighting techniques) that I buy and download or have shipped to me from Amazon or get from the bookstore. I might use the library if it weren’t too far from my house, but our local library is aimed at kids. Not much there for me.
• My own 7000 volume library of classic e-books and other data that I search using a software package called dtSearch. dtSearch allows me to index my entire computer and instantly find any data stored on it, so whenever I see something I need now or might need in the future, I save it to my disk. I have a huge reserve of odds and ends of data now on my computer.

For storage I have three 300 gigabyte hard drives, one for data, one for backup and one for softwarepplications.

Microsoft OneNote, which is an incredibly useful note taking software package for about $75. If you can afford it, this is the best note taking and data retrieval tool out there.

The Internet

Let’s talk about the internet as a research tool for a moment. Most people know about Google, but there are other search tools also. Ever heard of www.ask.com? Or www.dogpile.com? Or AltaVista at http://www.altavista.com? Or www.search.com ? How about www.metacrawler.com” Or www.scoofers.com ? These are all search engines. When I don’t find what I need on Ask.com, I check the others. The Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/homepage/lchp.html is great, especially for historical data.

Subject Gateways

There are other internet research sites available. Like Owl at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/tools/research.html.  Owl is a subject gateway that serves as a jumping-off place to find almost anything you need to know. I strongly recommend you check it out.   Ditto for another subject gateway found at http://bubl.ac.uk/

What is a subject gateway? It’s just what the name implies. Pick a subject and there will be a link to take you out to specific research locations. Or the Librarians Index at http://lii.org/ Try them, you’ll love them. There really are too many search capabilities to name them all here, so I suggest you run a MetaCrawler.com search on the subject of Internet Research. You’ll be amazed at what pops up. The bottom line for me is that I seldom have to leave home to find anything I need. Let me give some examples of things I’ve researched.

My Current Book:

In my prologue, I have a killer breaking into an old home, so I needed to find out how to pick a lock. Since I’m a crawler in of windows rather than a lock picker, I had to do a Metacrawler search, and almost instantly I found not just the lock picking tools, but how to make them and how to use them. It’s only a line or two in my novel, but it is authentic, which is important to me.

Since the book is set in Washington D.C., I decided that the first scene would take place at the Jefferson Memorial. Only one problem. I had no idea where or how the memorial was laid out or what kind of foliage was around it or where the parking is located. I had no idea how the National Park Service Rangers dressed. So what the hell was I to do? Too expensive to hop a plane to DC just to solve the problem. My solution turned out to be simple.

I used GoogleEarth to get a 3D view of the Jefferson Memorial. With GoogleEarth, a free software package available from Google, I can go in for a close up, I can fly over, I even can go inside the memorial. I can change directions  and look at the memorial from any angle. GoogleEarth showed me the location of the trees. I even decided where my characters would be standing for their meeting and measured how far from the memorial they were.

GoogleEarth solved a lot but not all. What kind of trees were those. I used the phone and called the Jefferson memorial. The Ranger told me Cherry trees. I asked what kind of Cherry trees. He didn’t know, so, I did a Google search for Jefferson Memorial trees. That led me to a pdf document which showed the history of the trees at the Jefferson Memorial and had a map showing where the different types of Cherry trees were located. The document was a free download.

I ran another search for those individual types of trees to see when they lost their leaves. The trees were quite different. My meeting was to take place under a stand of Sargent Cherry trees, which are hardy and keep their leaves until mid-November. So now I knew there would be red and orange leaves on those trees. So that let me know what kind of foliage would be there in  November.

I  still didn’t know about the ranger uniform. So I ran a search for ranger hats. I decided I wanted a cute female ranger, so that led me to a 30-page history of women’s park ranger uniforms.

It had all the photos of the various stages throughout history since 1912. I kept saying “Damn it, what do they wear today?” My patience was rewarded. I finally found color photos on the last page of what the gals wear today. To verify, I called the Jefferson Memorial Ranger again, and asked about the clothes. I gave him a description of what I had found, and he laughed. “Yep, that’s it,” he said.

I had one last thing to learn. What is the weather like in DC in early November. I ran an Ask.com search and found a site with “seasonal weather” right at the top. Here’s what I learned.

• Average High 58 ºF.
• Average Morning Rel Humidity 76.0%.
• Average Low 40 ºF.
• Average Afternoon Rel Humidity 53.0%.
• Mean Temperature 49 ºF.
• Typical Sky Cover: Overcast.
• Average Dew Point 36 ºF.
• Average Precipitation 3 inches
• Average Windspeed 9.18 mph
• Average Snowfall 0.98 inch
• Average Wind Direction S

Now I could accurately write in any plausible weather as needed, as long as I stayed within those parameter. I happen to like moody weather so I picked November. The time of year is irrelevant to the story, but not to me, so November it is.

One last thought. GoogleEarth allows me to fly low through the streets of DC, so when I combine GoogleEarth with my Microsoft Streets and Trips map software, I’m able to navigate easily through the streets as if I know what the hell I’m doing.

One Last Sample

In my last book, I had the bad guy wanting to use a helicopter to hover over a mansion in the Ozark mountains. He was going to build a bomb himself using C4 explosive and drop it on the mansion.

Only two big problems.

One, I didn’t know crap about building a bomb out of C4 or even what C4  looked like. But once again, the internet coughed up what I needed. I got pictures, dimensions and weight for the C4 sticks. They’re wrapped in oily plastic skins. I learned how to make an impact fuse. I got everything I needed for the bomb building and later the dropping scene.

Next, I didn’t know how low his helicopter could fly and escape safely. I needed to know how fast a Bell JetRanger helicopter could accelerate and get away before the bomb blew up. So, I looked up Bell Helicopter. I called them and I told them what I needed. They put me in touch with a designer pilot. I gave him the problem. He was great. He calculated how fast the suitcase bomb would fall, which gave him the amount of time available to get away. He then explained the acceleration of a Jetranger and told me that my characters had to drop the bomb from 500 feet up in order to have time to get away, etc. He included how the pilot should dive away at first in order to gain speed quickly, etc. The result was that scene was not only accurate, it was credible.

What I have learned over the years is, if you’re pleasant and not too pushy, people are very helpful. The rangers thought it was fun to help a novelist who was interested in them.  So, the thing is, don’t be bashful, but know what you’re going to ask ahead of time, and don’t be lazy. Do your homework before you make the calls.

What’s the worse thing that can happen to you when you call? They say, “Sorry, I don’t have time right now.” I’ve never been turned down.

My son works at a huge prop house that services the movie industry. He told me about one of their guys researching bomb making on the internet for a movie. They wanted a prop that looked accurate. The guy spent several days doing the research. Then suddenly there came a knock on his door and two FBI agents were there. They took him to their office and questioned him for two days before they let him go. So it’s probably a good idea to have your excuses handy if that happens to you.

My female romance character in the new book is a self-employed expert internet and other-type researcher, so I needed to know all this stuff I presented tonight to make her credible.

Oh, yes, almost forgot. I have a 14-page or so Word document on the subject of using the internet for research. Anyone who wants a copy of it can email me and I’ll send it along.

Charles Hampton Bush Biography

Raised in rural Arkansas and Louisiana, I wrote my first story (about Thor and his mighty hammer) using crayons on brown paper bags. Since then I have published more than two million words, including numerous popular-science articles for major international aviation magazines, describing aerospace technology fallout.

My professional experience includes a stint as news and sports editor for The Eunice News, a weekly newspaper in cajun country. “Lots of great characters there.”

I was a PR agent for Lockheed California Company, which was a wonderful job. I got to interview and write about many famous test pilots.

I founded and for 9 years ran Marketscience, Inc., a successful industrial advertising agency, where I was both concept man and chief copywriter. I had eleven full-time employees.

During the past twelve years I have been editor and principal photo-journalist for CNC West Magazine, a successful trade publication reaching more than 30,000 users of computer numerical controlled (CNC) manufacturing equipment. I travel, do story interviews with business people west of the Rockies, and then write 3 or 4 articles per issue. We publish every 2 months.

In my youngest days, growing up in New Orleans, I had my own dixieland jazz band and spent three years on tour in Japan, giving big-band jazz concerts over NHK broadcasting and at universities and festivals. I speak Japanese with decent fluency.

I was an oil-field roughneck ’til I busted my wrist. Was a math major in college for a couple of years. Did a bit as an engineering cost estimator for a large shipyard. Though I had no undergraduate degree, I tested my way into the Pepperdyne MBA program. Dropped out after two trimesters, ‘cause it bored the hell out of me.

My novel Brothers of the Light, a mainstream paranormal thriller, is finished, and a new novel, Novus Schola is outlined. I have two more books in the works outlining.

Marie is best known for her starring turn as Christine in the Broadway and National Touring production of The Phantom of the Opera.  She has sung all over the world as Maria in West Side Story and appeared in the National and International Tour of The Fantasticks with Robert Goulet.  In concert she has sung with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, with the Broadway by the Year Series in New York, and with the City Center Encores.  She acted off-broadway with the Manhattan Theater Club and on television on “As The World Turns.”  Across the country she has played starring roles in A Chorus Line, Company, The Mikado, Brigadoon, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and many more.  She has directed productions of The Fantasticks, Arabian Nights, and will be directing Once Upon a Mattress for Suffolk County Community College.

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"Thankfully the Internet has made it easier than ever to bring attention to your art form, if you know how to use it to your advantage."

Co-Published: BeYourArt.com and The North Shoreian Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 7, Practicalities of the Surviving Artist, September 2009. Article written by Christine Stoddard.

The “starving artist” cliché exists for a reason: no matter what kind of artist you are—actor, writer, painter, singer, photographer, dancer, etc.—earning a living is a struggle. Regardless of your talent and experience, which school you attended, or where you took an apprenticeship or internship, you will have to market yourself in order to sell your art. In fact, self-promotion is perhaps the most important way to turn your artistic passion into a full-fledged career. Thankfully the Internet has made it easier than ever to bring attention to your art form, if you know how to use it to your advantage.

But just how do you use the Internet to your advantage? Where do you begin? What are some of the most artist-friendly websites out there? Don’t worry! The answers are only a paragraph away. Here are ways to promote yourself online:

Become familiar with online content: If you’re reading this article, then you are already familiar with the Internet and have at least a basic understanding of how it works. But you may not be familiar with taking digital photos and editing them. Likewise, you may not know how to shoot video or record audio from your computer. If this is the case, now is the time to learn. Perhaps you’re a writer, for example, who thinks there’s no reason for you to learn how to record audio. Think again. Present a real threat to your competition by recording yourself reading your poems or short stories and then posting the files online. No matter what your primary art form is and whether or not you like modern technology, you must recognize that the most financially successful artists these days have some knowledge of how to promote themselves using different forms of online media. Reach out to new audiences in every way possible.

Join Associated Content: Associatedcontent.com is an excellent venue for visual artists and writers alike. Joining is an easy, quick, and free process. You can create slideshows of your art and photography and get paid each time someone looks at it. The website also pays upfront $3 to $10 for all sorts of writing (unfortunately they rarely, if ever, pay upfront for poetry and fiction) and pays for all page views. Even if your poetry, for example, does not fetch any upfront payment from the website, you get paid every time someone visits your content producer page. So regardless of what form and genre you write, it benefits you to share your page link with as many people as possible. You can also submit audio (like songs or poetry recordings) and video (like your short movies). Join AC today at: http://www.associatedcontent.com/join.html?refer=16739. Other sites you may want to join are ehow.com and Triond.com.

Start a blog: If you’re a writer, then blogging should come pretty naturally. Simply open an account at a site like www.blogger.com and start typing. The most financially successful blogs usually have a specific focus (like fashion; for an example, visit www.paisleyandparasols.com) and include advertisements. Visual artists can post an image a day on blogs. Musicians might post their song lyrics, videos of themselves performing, or their touring schedule.

Create a MySpace profile: If you are musician, then you probably already have a MySpace profile with your songs and schedule of tour dates. Also be sure to have plenty of photos and even a video or two. Actors and other performing artists can use a MySpace profile in a similar manner. Writers and visual artists should post samples of their work and lists of links to their websites.

Use Facebook to your advantage: Think those photo albums are only for party pictures? Then you’re not thinking from a promotional standpoint. The same goes if you think the ‘Notes’ application is only for sharing chain letters and surveys. You can upload any JPG under 5MB on the Facebook albums. Share your paintings, photos, scanned writing, and anything else you can turn into a JPG. If you’re a writer, use the notes to share your poetry, short stories, essays, or whatever form and genre you prefer. The ‘Notes’ applications is also a wonderful venue for linking to your blog, website, or online portfolios.

Post to Flickr: Don’t worry—Flickr isn’t just for photographers. If it’s a JPG, you can post it. That means you can take pictures of your artwork or upload scanned copies of your writing. For digital artists, simply save your work as a JPG and then upload it. Millions of people from all over the world visit Flickr everyday so update your photostream often and make sure that your photos are set to the public viewing for maximum exposure opportunities. Sadly, Flickr’s free account only allows for 200 photos. Luckily an upgrade isn’t too expensive (about $25) and you then have unlimited storage space.

Network on Linked In: Linked In is the perfect place to post your artistic resume, links to your blogs and websites, and have your teachers and colleagues write recommendations to vouch for your talent and work ethic. You also have the chance to write a summary about yourself. View it as an opportunity to briefly outline your artistic experience and introduce your artistic vision and goals.

Post videos on YouTube: If you are a performing artist or filmmaker, YouTube has obvious promotional value. Make a video of yourself singing, dancing, or acting or post your movie. If you’re a writer or visual artist, however, YouTube’s value may be less obvious. Writers can make videos of themselves reading or discussing their pieces whereas visual artists may try creating slideshows or tape themselves at work in their studio.