Marketing Mondays: "What Do You Do?"
2.
The "Elevator Pitch"
The short verbal statement about yourself and your work is a useful little tool. Often referred to as "The Elevator Pitch"--so called because you deliver it in the time it takes to travel a few floors--it allows you to provide a brief but informative description or to respond succinctly to that ubiquitous question, "What do you do?"
Go ahead, ask me. I can tell you in two floors: I'm a painter. Geometric abstraction is a good umbrella term to describe what I do. My particular version is succulent color married to the austerity of the grid. I call it lush minimalism.
OK, your turn. Pitch me: What do you do?
I'm mostly a painter. I guess you can call my art contemporary realism. To me is more like the richness and texture of paint daubs plus the aesthetics of photo-realism applied to multiple macro-like shots of the same subject; where each piece is very detailed but can almost look as an abstract painting if shown on its own. I call it organic realism.
ReplyDeleteI paint what I call "short attention span paintings for short attention span culture". The works are geometric abstractions that combine the gestalt read of minimalism with the quick-read quality of corporate logos.
ReplyDeleteThis is my Twitter profile comment: Creator of oil paintings of sports events, those with muscles on display!
ReplyDeleteMy elevator pitch is as follows.
ReplyDeleteMy current project is photographing taxidermic birds and making black & white portraits of them.
Terrific challenge Joanne. I have fumbled this one many times-- so here is my latest version:
ReplyDeleteI'm a painter who explores rhythm and spatial relationships through geometric abstraction. I'm particularly interested in the interplay of activity and calm and relish rich surface texture.
My paintings develop spontaneously through color relationships and emerging shapes. Textured surfaces play against smooth surfaces to add another dimension to the work.
ReplyDeleteI'm a painter. I am passionate about surface quality, gesture and color. Without intent, my work almost always suggests lands and landscape. I tred the fine line between realism and abstraction...mostly abstraction.
ReplyDeleteI'm a painter. I make paintings about places where nature and the built environment meet.
ReplyDeleteI once had the bright idea to turn the elevator pitch into a Hollywood pitch instead (i.e. all about name dropping.) Here was mine:
ReplyDeleteI make work using the suburban home as an icon of the American Dream. It's Rachel Whiteread meets John Baldessari with a nod to Christo and conceptual ties to Gordon Matta-Clark.
I am a painter. I make paintings about where nature and the built environment meeet.
ReplyDeleteOh, groan! I got that question as I climbed into the dentist chair the other day... there is no short answer that doesn't invite the questioner to bring up their close relative who also paints. I'm working on remembering to simply say I enjoy gardening and skip the whole artist/painter gig.
ReplyDelete@Lisa,
ReplyDeleteYou wrap pictures of cowboys around plaster casts of sawn in half colonials? :)
I paint sequences of film stills as a way of representing the passage of time. The images I select are about love and loss. And each repetition becomes a way of resituating the motif in the present. A way of saying now, now, now.
Or, I paint pictures of people.
Depends on the audience.
Pow! Zing! I paint cosmic landscapes with orbs floating around or zooming through the space. They are energetic and dramatic, filled with light.
ReplyDeleteI write about art on the internet, mostly at hydeordie.com. My square job is as a glorified receptionist.
ReplyDeleteI do embroideries with my own hair that look like intricate drawings. I also do lurid paintings informed by images of Catholicism and Technicolor films. All my work tends to be obsessive and disquieting.
ReplyDeleteAbstract metal sculpture.
ReplyDeleteI am interested in complex curves and asymmetrical patterned surfaces.
Wow. You got me. This question is often so intense when I hear it, that I freeze up.
ReplyDeleteSo, here goes:
I am a painter, printmaker, and mixed media artist, who loves to use words like paint and paint like words. A category? Contemporary art.
Thank you so much for the push!
I'm a bookie, I make books - graphic novels/ abstract comics with asemic writing - all digital.....
ReplyDeleteoften someone will interrupt here with 'what's an abstract comic?' or 'what's asemic writing'? but another common response is: oh, I hate the computer, etc.
My paintings explore material, color and space by combining ordered, repetitive elements with visual texture and translucency, simultaneously revealing and concealing. I paint organically, letting my emotions lead the way, literally feeling my way into each piece.
ReplyDeleteI am a painter, a photographer and a beekeeper.
ReplyDeleteI often mix these elements together, so I consider myself a mixed media artist with a current passion for encaustic. I love color and texture.
I am an artist. some would call me a painter, but I do not really paint that much. It is more like I "make" art with encaustic wax creating formations of dots.
ReplyDeleteI’m a contemporary collage artist and use materials like found paper, vintage textbooks, and magazines. I'm especially drawn to color, images and subject matter from the 1950’s, 60’s & 70’s. I use these materials to create patterns and an underlying narrative that open up worlds of thoughts and associations.
ReplyDeleteI am a large scale painter. I weave communities together with public art. My personal studio practice is an abstract response to the world around me.
ReplyDeleteI am a painter, have worked for almost five decades. I have create minimal and geometric minimal paintings. I am inspired by the light of the day, the desert, and every other thing in this whole world. This year I have begun to investigate artists books. I am in love, with every minute in the studio and with every minute out of it.
ReplyDeleteI problematize the deterritorialization of hegemonic meta-narratives.
ReplyDeleteJust last week I was asked this very question. After spewing out my usual response, I realized that I had the order all wrong. Here is my newest spiel: I create layered textile portraits out of fabric that I have knitted and felted. I’m inspired by the work of Chuck Close.
ReplyDeleteI'm a painter... working in the space between abstraction and realism. My current project focuses on architectural elements.
ReplyDeleteI paint about human situations and personal experiences using vibrant colour relationships. I like to balance geometric qualities with gestural, expressive marks, to create a world with its own rules. I call it 'Gestural Expressionism.' (This is a very interesting question, and I love your blog.)
ReplyDeleteI'm an artist. When people ask 'what's your medium?' I usually say 'extra large.'
ReplyDelete(Originally by Basquiat)
I am a painter. I capture the tension of loneliness and isolation in group settings. I paint life at the margins, objects or figures in contemporary social scenes, all with an unfulfilled desire to connect.
ReplyDeleteMy elevator pitch, word-for-word:
ReplyDeleteI'm an artist. A landscape painter and Illustrator. What do you do?
I'm an artist. I paint portraits of shoes. I love the challenge of capturing the textures and details of each pair.
ReplyDeleteI'm in transition. My older work is about being in this world as one of billions. It's full of ancient and personal symbols. It's fiber-based mixed-media with labor intensive processes like embroidery. All i know about the new work is that it'll be more conceptual and interactive.
ReplyDeleteI'm a textile artist. Sewing my feelings as seen through everyday matters - food, trees, books, family, kitchen, flowers, art (in accidental order).
ReplyDeleteGreat challenge!
Here's my card. Go check out my work. You look like someone who is proud to be individual; I think you may have just found what you've been looking for... Call me.
ReplyDeleteI am an abstract artist that paints on very large canvases and I love the tag line and concept of:
ReplyDelete"Let my Loft ArtWork dress your naked wall."
Colour, movement and tones = emotional art experience.
www.loftartwork.com
I'm a contemporary abstract painter. My current work is inspired by the early jazz movement.
ReplyDeleteI am an energy painter. I create artwork that shifts you, and the energy in your space.
ReplyDeleteI am an artist. For the most part, I am an abstract painter working with bright coloured acrylics and texture, although I am venturing into the world of multi-media. And you?
ReplyDeleteI am an abstract artist. I paint with acrylics on canvas. My subject is usually (natural hair inspired) ladies, in bold color and shape. Sometimes I paint from imagination, sometimes from reality.
ReplyDelete(When I get the blank stare, I tell them about the jewelry I make as well. Something relatable.)
I’m an artist. I make wildly abstract collages from everyday papers I've collected.
ReplyDeleteI'm an expressionist artist. I paint and render in pastel, oil and charcoal. Bright colors are my declarative statement of the vibrancy and excitement in the air. And the movement of the shapes says 'we aren't standing still.'
ReplyDeleteI am a part time PAID RN and a full time UNPAID artist. I paint everything, but favor painting feminine figures and faces and buildings. My paintings tend to be colorful and playful since I am mostly self taught and have only painted two years. Art was an accidental and WONDERFUL discovery for me.
ReplyDeleteThere: was that in elevator time?
Wonderful dialogue, Joanne.
ReplyDelete"Contemplative minimalist oil paintings based on grid compositions."
I'm a psychologist, I study time and do a lot of statistics. Don't meet real people, just abstract numbers. I photograph people on the streets in my free time.
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful reading all these comments.
ReplyDeleteI paint the light and color of fleeting moments in oils. (sunsets and skies). This usually gets a dialog going.
My paintings are a dual-realism, combining the subject's experiences with their physical appearance. I invite the viewer to dechiper and relate on their own terms.
ReplyDelete