studio blues, reds and yellows

2007-11-02T13:11:00.000-07:00

NOT MY DADA,MAN! STILL COOL

Sorry,
Its been a long hiatus since the last post. I have been re-employed in the teaching sector at a nearby college. My art however plods on. I would like you to visit my new art space at
Charlie Spear (charliearts) has some new art work on myartspace.com. View it here:
http://www.myartspace.com/artistInfo.do?populatinglist=home&subscriberid=6faphhl2y9rb2pc1

It has allowed me the ease to post my art oftener than using my personal url www.charliearts.com

2007-06-29T08:38:00.001-07:00

New Gallery Opening...second store in Santa Fe New Mexico 87501----VIVA SANTA FE------works by Charlie Spear...contact Charles and Lynn Gonzales at
226 N.Guadalupe St., Santa Fe, NM or ARTE DEL MUNDO in Santa Fe,NM.

2007-06-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

myartspace.com check it out and even join. You'll meet a lot of artists what we all need.
Charlie

2007-06-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

art & design > home

Campus Sculpture Walk

Art & Design Home

Scholarships

Faculty

Faculty & Student Gallery

Exhibition opens on September 25, 2006.
Exhibition closes August 31, 2007.

Artists from Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and Michigan were invited to submit entries for the University of Indianapolis Campus Sculpture Walk. Seven sculptures were selected for installation at sites located throughout the university campus. The exhibition is currently on display and will run through August 31, 2007.

Selected Artists

Jay Dougan, Indianapolis IN
Geodecent

Robert Evans, Terre Haute, IN
Carousel

Jerald Jacquard, Bloomington, IN
The Flying Wedge

C.R. Schiefer, Martinsville IN
People Emerging from the Stone

EP Slick, Cicero, IN
Second Chances

Charlie Spear, Peru, IN
Cirque I

Mark Wallis, Spencer, IN
Twisted

To contact the Art and Design Department directly, please direct all inquiries to:
Katherine Fries
University of Indianapolis
1400 East Hanna Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46227-3697
(317) 788-3253
1-800-232-U of I (8634)
E-mail: frieskj@uindy.edu

2007-05-31T16:34:00.001-07:00

Simon Keenleyside......................................................I like this guys work. -Charlie

http://www.showcomplex.com/images/Simon%5FKeenleyside/

2007-05-29T05:37:00.001-07:00

A recent trip to New Mexico generated this series of works from Santa Fe and Taos. I was influenced by the 'katsina's'
and the lore of the area. Every shop one could go in these figures pervaded. I found them not only colorful but novel subject matter for a 'Santa Fe/Taos' series. I've always thought of living in NM and I am getting closer to that dream. The locals are real and wonderful people. They are true individuals and speak their mind. This is the 'drawing power' of the old west. VIVA SANTA FE a gallery in Santa Fe will display these new pieces.

2007-05-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

jeffrey teuton
http://www.jenbekman.com/jeffreyteutonindex.html
Another indiana boy makes it big...'we' have what it takes...

Check this painter out....open minded.

2007-05-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.absolutearts.com

http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/c/charliearts

2007-05-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Cool sculpture.
see: http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/a/awaxman/

I like the simplicity of the technique but the complexity of the tangible effect. I saw some work like this in Chicago by a glass artist but I have to say I like this better because it has 'grit' and 'backbone'.
Charlie

2007-05-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

BENCHES OF BROWN COUNTY PUBLIC ARTS PROJECT
Now travel to Nashville, Indiana and experience the Benches of Brown County! Join Nashville in celebrating the Centennial of the founding of "The Art Colony ...
http://www.browncountycommunityfoundation.org/application.html
Charlie Spear

Owner of Spearhead Gallery and Studio in Peru, Indiana, Charlie's bench is called "Morning Rush on the Express-Line." He started his art career at the early age of six by entertaining his five siblings with clay sculptures and charcoal drawings. Charlie paints in acrylics and sculpts in steel and brass, making mobiles and stabile sculpture. He credits Alexander Calder, Paul Klee and Philip Guston, among others, for influencing his art. He leans to the cartoon style but wraps it in a painterly fashion of form, shadow and color values. He has been selected to be the April Artist of the Month on the Liquitex web site. Charlie says, "I do my best work when I am working fast and pushing hard at the subject idea that I am working on at the time. I love both texture and pattern held together with a strong influence of line in my work. The line is the stick-part of the architecture." Examples of Charlie's work can be seen at www.charliearts.com.

2007-05-15T04:47:00.000-07:00

1920x1920 pixels seen as in a 'canvas image' This seems to be the common desired dimensions for many shows now. I used Adobe Photoshop. I started with the image saved as a tif image. Important to do this as it preserves the image the best while it is being worked on. Next I resized it to 1920 pixels in resizing image the other dimension would be automatic. Then I took it to canvas image resize and made both dimensions the same 1920x1920 and saved it as a .jpg file. This gives the viewer a comparison to a square of any dimension.
Charlie /:)#

2007-05-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

Title:	Village at Winona 8th Annual Art Fair
Location:	Artisan Court
Date:	6/2/2007 – 6/3/2007
Time:	10:00:00 AM – 6:00:00 PM
Details:	Over seventy artists from across the country display and sell their Artwork at this annual event enjoyed by thousands. A variety of media and pricing provides something for everyone. Food vendors, kids tent, music, shopping, carriage rides.

Charlie Spear will have an outside plein aire booth on June 2nd and 3rd at this venue....Come.

2007-05-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.PattySgrecci.com

On a Wing and
a Prayer
72x24x24 2002 I found this kinetic artist online via a forum I belong to. Check out her website.
A breath of fresh air of ideas...

2007-05-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

Notice that pattern has been the oldest form of decorati.
I find myself looking for patterns in the work I am doing and try to make the overall work a pattern. The great thing about pattern is that we are all 'pattern hard-wired'. It is a survival trait to look for things that are out of the pattern or ordinary.Important if you are prey rather than predator. The cool trick is to use pattern which is almost pattern: patterns with deviations within. This is always an eye-catcher. Case in point how many times have you looked to the right to the patterns while you were reading this?
They are soothing to the eye and it doesn't take an active brain to enjoy the movement.
Charlie

2007-05-09T06:11:00.000-07:00

The coming of age of digital work as an art medium has changed immensely in the past 20 years much faster than did photography which has taken over 100 years to find acceptance, also the giclee which is the output of most digital work. From conversations with printers a giclee is guaranteed for 25 years in sunlight. That's better than most watercolor mediums. Protected with UV glass or kept out of direct lighting digital art could match that of oils. The digital divide that separates art from illustrations depends upon the ingredient 'soul' which defines lasting work form decorative work. For those daring artists who are working in this media...hats off. I can picture Caravaggio with a 6 megapixel camera and a G4 Mac tweaking colors in Adobe Illustrator or PhotoShop.
Charlie

2007-05-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

BoundlessGallery.com
FineArtAmerica.com

Some sites to investigate for sales.
Charlie

2007-05-06T06:49:00.000-07:00

I love this guy...think about the outlandish art director who picked this subject for the2nd flagship image of Geico. What's this have to do with art? Everything. Think about the ability of such an image to ring a bell in the human psyche... In an exhibition of ones work this is the kind of "grab" that any artist needs to stand out from all of the rest. It's the 'human recognition factor' that comes into play?In your work what is your human recognition factor : primordial,subconscious?
So easy an artist can do it.
Charlie /:.)

2007-05-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

WOW...Back from Santa Fe and Taos. What a trip we had. We gallery hopped for 8 days and could barely make it back...all in all it was a huge success. Most gallery owners were very friendly and approachable. I took about 100 Gallery cards of my own work and had none left! The food was great! Hot sauce in everything with chilies. The Inn at Alameda and The Taos Inn were the best.
-charlie spear

Home away from home....>>>

2007-04-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

Visit somewhere this summer and change the way you look at things...that's Umphhh.

Santa Fe NM
http://www.santafe.org/Visiting_Santa_Fe/ visitor guide
http://santafe.org/CultureMap/index.html galleries and museums

http://www.ccasantafe.org/ http://www.ccasantafe.org/index.htm
http://www.santafe.com/arts/
TAOS NM
http://www.taosguide.com/index_flash.php
http://www.taosvacationguide.com/arts/index.php
http://www.taosvacationguide.com/daytrips/index.php
http://www.taoschamber.com/index.html
www.angelfireresort.com
http://www.chambermaster.com/directory/events.jsp?ccid=80
http://www.taoschamber.com/whattodo.htm
http://chambermaster.com/directory/jsp/busdir/SearchResults.jsp?ccid=80&command=loadCatg&catgid=167
http://www.taosartonline.com/

2007-04-21T05:46:00.000-07:00

This is a list of Artists I have met in the last few weeks. Check them out:

www.brendamarks.com
www.wallyworkmangallery.com
www.cherylfinfrock.com
www.artbydelilah.com
http://www.rayannorr.com
http://www.miriambadyrka.com
http://www.michellelarae.com
http://www.angiereedgarner.com www.charliearts.com had to include me.

2007-04-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

Public Art Projects are a great place to begin getting ones art out into the public eye. I am thinking about smaler projects in order to build a background for entering larger public art projects. To date I have entered I-Park, Indy Public Arts Competition, Benches of Brown County and The Swope Gallery Colts Public Art Project.
My design was rejected in the INDY project since it I feel was a little too abstract.
The I-Park required a residency which I was unwilling to spend the time creating the park based project. It consisted of a wall built of split wood which formed a spiral starting at an apex of six feet and ending in a 'underground finial' completion point.
I am currently working on the 'Liars Bench project bench' which consists of a line of birds dressed in various clothing 'hats' waiting for the express line flights on high tension wires. See the Website later for winners images.

The Swope gallery Colts project is still in its competition stage. http://www.swope.org/HorsingHome.htm

Benches of Brown County Deadline March 15th 2007 http://www.benchesofbrowncounty.org/

I-Park Residency http://www.i-park.org/residency.html passed deadline http://www.i-park.org/Grants.html

2007-04-18T05:01:00.000-07:00

Today I am going to the studio to paint.
Today I don't care what I need to do I am going to do what I want to do...I want to enjoy, express and involve myself in my work and erase the outer banks from ebbing in. Art is not an easy job and any one who says so is uneducated. It is a place for sanctuary, silence and concentration. You wouldn't bother a musician while he or she is playing a piece of music. You sit and listen or leave. Take heart there is a place for the solitude of the mind and that place is the studio...Make a sign that says, "I am creating!. Come back on the seventh day." Hang it on your studio door and close it. Good Creating!
Charlie
Art work is an acrylic painting 32"x24"on panel $1400.USD

2007-04-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

"Running with Eggs" not scissors this time but eggs. What's the point? Unless you run with eggs the art that is produced is going to be locked up inside the shell of the painter. I encourage whoever reads this that today you....RUN WITH EGGS.piece is 24"x24"on wood panel-->
RUNNING WITH EGGS

2007-04-15T09:52:00.000-07:00

There is so much going on in the art world today that it is hard to define art and keep oneself sane. I am a painter and sculptor and love to play with printmaking but I am still a painter. The video/installations and theater are newer innovations that also beckon but...i AM STILL A pAINTER. So what? STICK WITH WHAT YOU KNOW AND ARE CALLED TO FROM THE "BELLY". The gut is the truth, the gut is where your basic self comes from. When you are dying the brain knows it but the gut feels it and tells the brain. I know. I've nearly died three times. All of the stuff out there seems worth trying but you have this one shot so shoot with the 'gun' you know.

2007-04-14T16:21:00.000-07:00

Its time for the art fairs to start. http://festivalnet.com/events.html?fn00086
http://www.artfaircalendar.com/?gclid=CIqtlrXeyYsCFQGPWAod0iKqHA

http://www.starfirestudios.com/functionalceramics/shows.html

http://www.theartlist.com/?gclid=CPL56d3eyYsCFQkjWAodmV9uGw

The can run up to and over $1500 for one in Chicago. Many run about $65 -$300 dollars. Depends on how long they've been running and the turn out expected. I am in the lookout for a tent or better an idea on building my own that is collapsible and folds away. Also it has to set up quick. I am checking out what is for sale on Ebay and other Tent sites.

2007-04-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

What's a 'CRIT' good for? Its not like WAR. A 'CRIT' can be as good a friend as P-Nut Butter.
I've gotten together some artists who wanted to do 'Critiques' of each others work to add some accountability to our otherwise solitary studio lifestyles. I admit I get out to see some great exhibitions. But I would rather stay in my studio and paint. I don't live in a hot artist community like Santa Fe or Taos or the like but I will some day. So I do the next best thing. Contact some artist people, young and old and in between and send each other your work at least once a week. There are artist communities all over the world and the internet shortens the drive and hauling the artwork around. At $2.80 a gal. for gasoline looks like I'll be drivin' my VAIO for some time to come.
-Charlie Spear

2007-04-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

BLOG POST If you are reading this then I consider you my guest. I will try not to bore you or hog the conversation. That is, this can be a two-way exchange...examples:
Send me your Blog post, add my blog to your blog and your blog to my blog. Let me know if my blog is helpful or not...comment on my thoughts...etc. Now for some meat.
You know at least 250 people in your circle. Take those names and addresses and post your blog to their addresses as an email while also allowing them to opt out by sending you a
re: DELETE... in the subject matter and also apologize for any inconvenience. We are only six people away from knowing every human being. Its' true. It's also been proven in several attempts at least in a city the size of New York...so that gives it some credibility.

PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS BLOG TO: charlie@charliearts.com Yes, I welcome your comments. The worst was a call in the middle of the night by a drunk who said the work I had hanging in Alcatraz Brewing Co. Indianapolis, IN wasn't worth a quarter. OUCH.

The first 50 people will receive a FREE 'block print' of my newest work:
"We All Scream for ICE CREAM."

The work is 5"x7" in cream and black with a border around the print for framing...signed.

Okay, now that's worth sending me a reply...I hope. The print is still in process and will be finished in two weeks. I will need your address in the email. Continental US please.

2007-04-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

Worth Checking out...................................................................

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Charlie

2007-04-04T05:59:00.000-07:00

It's April 4 and its very cold here in the Midwest...looks like snow. Great day to paint. I would like to drop a hint here about color use in the studio...I paint using an old ceramic plate for a palette. The reason for this is the colors tend to run together a little. That's what I want actually. Not a lot but just enough of the other color to suggest a relationship between the three colors in use. I usually use primaries in various combinations: 1. Ultramarine blue, rose madder, cad. yellow light 2. Cobalt blue, Cad. red light, and Cad. yellow deep 3. Pthalo blue, Alizarin crimson, Pale yellow. These combinations work well for me together as I can mix a variety of secondary and tertiary colors with a variations from the color running together on the edges. I add a little water to my mixtures to get them to flow better or sometimes an acrylic retarder. It's just my tip for getting color to work for you.

2007-03-30T05:46:00.000-07:00

A big Hello to Artists, Visitors and Passersby,
Today is so close to April I went ahead and flipped the calendar page. Today its Friday the 30th of March.I have a few ideas for you today...get a sketchbook...don't think that you have to fill it with great pictures and renderings...I keep one next to my chair near the wood stove and one in my bedroom and one in my studio. Why? I figure the best of my time besides being with my new wife will be sketching ideas that I let filter through to me while I am doing something else.
I've noticed for some time that when I am not trying to think I get the best ideas that are already up there waiting to come down in a doodle for lack of a better word.Mysketchbook by the bed usually has the most outlandish ideas while the one by the chair the most finished ideas as I keep a fine line marker there to finish the pencil sketch. My subject matter always seems to deal with humor, people and an event like a Gary Larson or the Quigmans kind of genre. I am a semi-cartoon/artist in the same vein of subject usage like Paul Klee or Emil Nolde. I am tighter than Nolde but looser than Klee. It's good to have others who turn your crank like Philip Guston does for me...no point in hacking all that brush before I see some daylight. My work will always be mine because I can only do my work best. 'Nuff' said (sic) April is just around the corner. Enter a show or two.
Studio:blues, red and yellows.
Charlie

2007-03-24T05:36:00.000-07:00

Alyson B. Stanfield
Stanfield Art Associates
500 Cascade Drive
Golden, CO 80403
303.273.5904
alyson@artbizcoach.com

For those artists of you who want business savvy help...contact Alyson Stanfield.
She has a website called artbizcoach.com .She posts helpful advice for artists who would rather make art than do the business end of the art picture. Her advice is from a background of working in the museum field.
Practical advice for moving forward in our art.
Charlie Spear

2007-03-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

I went online and found the good advice I was looking for to keep going in my own direction. This is really good advice from artists who have reached a level of respect that makes them good mentors. These are professionals in the art world. The following is paraphrase.

• What kind of artist do you want to be?
• Find your subject.
• Keep looking at contemporary art; keep your eye sharp.
• Make work that contents you: that gives you motivation and satisfaction.
• Make work that makes you ‘happy’ (sustains yourself with the way you make
work.)
• Trust your instincts; find your voice.
• Don’t engage in famine mentality (cheap supplies, victim artist, etc.)
• If your art is pleasing to you, vital, exciting scary, or exhilarating,
Why do it?
• Believe in your own unique vision.
• Take your work seriously, sometimes your satisfied with it sometimes your
not.
• Make more time for making your art than just talking about it.
• Dialogue and theory are good but studio time should come first.
• Pay attention to the ideas of other artists but look inside yourself to find
your own ideas.
• Why they are making art? Look at their reasons. Focus then on your own art,
love it, fix it or change it.
• Search out your peers, other artists you respect near your level. Talk about
both of your art.

2007-03-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

Writing this Blog has become therapeutic and a good way to sound off ideas. Lately, I have come through a dry spell and am doing better and starting to paint again. The spell came after January of this year. I went to a show in Indianapolis and saw some work by my Prof. Al Pounders and his wife Loren Olsen, good work both of them.

The voices started again, you know ..."Why are you painting again?” “Their work is much more mature than the stuff you have been doing..." "Do you really have anything to say?" On and on...same old crap.

Well I went back to my sketch book trying to redeem an old idea. The idea came from an old cartoon (1940’s to 1950’s). I believe it was called Lets All Go Down to the Beach. It was a campy idea using old toys made of wood. The imagery stuck in my head from then ‘til now. So I am working on some drawings, then to the canvas and paint to follow.

Where do the ideas go to? Where do they come from? Mostly they are derived from our past and some from the present reworked in some manner based on something we've seen before. What I find really great is two different people derive a 180-degree viewpoint on the same subject.

That's why I spend so much time looking at art. I figure it's the looking that adds the lubricant to the brain’s creative center. The depression I feel in a creative dry spell is more like a rest between sessions so I don't clutter my brain by thinking too much and robbing my inner instincts for freedom in the tactile response in painting.

That's enough. Feel like you've run out of ideas? Get out and do something else. Let the Muse grab you … again.

PS Apply and enter a variety of art-opp(ortunitie)s. Jurors and judges are people like us and they have specific tastes. Eventually the odds are in our favor to “strike it rich” if we persevere.

Charlie Spear

studio blues, reds and yellows

2007-03-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

studio blues, reds and yellows

Updated website...We need each other...share a critique and get one back...We'll both grow or not.-Charlie

2007-03-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hello, Bien Venue, Salud,
I recently reworked my website..I am never satisfied but thats okay. I recently also heard my words come back to me that I spoke to a young art student who wanted to know how to get started being an artist..art school, lessons,etc.?
I found these words from my own lips to be good personal advice...get a mentor..spend your money on good supplies and an artist mentor. I suggested a woman artist for this young girl. Well. I admit I am doing the same because we are all learning and can't know it all if we are going to make OUR art. We don't have the time, so we don't need to reinvent the wheel, Let's take the lessons from other people and cut short the learning curve for growth artistically, professionally and business savvy. I have been in contact with Alyson Stanfield an art consultant (artbizcoach.com) who's business has grown quickly after leaving the museum business circle. I hope I said that right. Anyway, I have spent too much money sending out portfolios and making 'lead' contacts which fell to the ground like the proverbial balloon. I have a business plan and an artist's plan. The latter is spending as much time looking as painting. Those other artist who've gone before us have had to learn the same things we are right now. By this I mean those inner philosophical attitudes and outer methods that give our work it's uniqueness. I remember when I gave away all my how to books several years ago. They had not been opened for ten to fifteen years. God that gave me more space for work. By the way..Play it forward..give those old books to young artists and whatever else you can to shorten their road a little...it will come back..always does. "Keep your paint caps screwed down." 'til next time this summer I hope. -Charlie Spear

2006-09-15T11:33:00.001-07:00

Gallery Gusto, Putting Yourself Out There

No one, again no one makes art like yours
Show your best work
Don't use cheap materials unless that is what you do!
Keep good records and photos
Start simple with a one or two page Website. I like Networksolutions.com and Web.com
Take great pictures! No shadows, glints, feet, or dark areas anywhere. Use outdoor sunlight!
Believe in your own art.
Ask yourself often," Why am I doing this???"
Don't get in a rut! Try looking at your work from different mental angles.

Good Luck

"I make art because if I didn't I would be miserable."
Charlie Spear

SPEARHEAD STUDIO bluesredsyellows:Putting the Art Out there.

2006-09-07T21:27:00.000-07:00

A real ART thing, MY Studio: SPEARHEAD Gallery

Got the blues? Stretch a canvas and cover it with red. Find a few colors you can squeeze on to clash. Use a roller and smash the colors into the red ground. Okay. Feel better. Anyway you have something to look at later. Artists lose ground sometimes when they forget they are people.

What I mean is that all great art is about people in some fashion. works like Richter, Deibenkorn, Dine, Motherwell, Frankentheller, etc. dive right in to the human element either through a familiar place or known person or personal thing. That's it. Oh, draw often several hours a day if possible. At least one hour a day using 'down' time to sketch or draw what's at hand. This is good material, especially when you look at it later through a different perspective.

I had a good idea lately about getting your work out there. In the public eye. I had a large self-stick vinyl printed of one of my works and stuck it on the side of my Scion! A great billboard with my website also below: www.charliearts.com. Good luck, being an artist without a lot of great sales is the common thread between all of us...perservere and do art!
Charlie