Sarah Schmerler » Lawrence Swan

Post Passeggiata report. A July night on Van Brunt Street—indoors.

sarah — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:27:40 +0000

Well, It was 103 degrees outside. And instead of walking, we sat on our buts, and looked at the cool, copper-penny skins that Andrew Coates made (by melting the zinc out of actual pennies) and drank a LOT of wine courtesy of Fosco, who, I must say, has a great palate. Reds and whites from La Marche, and Sardegna, and a bubbly Lambrusco…

In attendance were such stellar artists as Lori Ellison

Lori Ellison's Green Hatches

and Lawrence Swan
and Jim Osman
and Eric Cherry (of the 1st “Passeggiata“), and restlus.com’s Kurt Strahm, and Ellen Letcher

Ellen Letcher composite media piece

and Kevin Regan of “Famous Accountants” (yay, Bushwick!)

As for me, I’ve more than a bit of a hangover, sitting in a deli sucking down coffee and trying to decide whether to get an Advil. Heck, it’s only 98 degrees out! *sigh*

I’m not done with La Passeggiata. Just resting; feeling sort of content that new art now hangs on walls thanks, in part, to the fact that I took a walk and people read about it.
But the real praise goes all who came out (I neglected to mention too many) and to Alessandro and Francesca.

No Advil for me, after all. But, hey, a bearded man just walked into the deli wearing a kilt. So life is good.
Even when you don’t walk far, interesting things come to You.

Own an Art Bum for $200.00. For Real.

sarah — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:28:17 +0000

Check out Art Bum Mini-Comics; it’s got its own mini website here, and also here. Swan gave my new art project, 45projects.com, this new series to exhibit, and they’re all original artworks. Yes, I’ll actually sell art. This is a good Cause. So catch them while supplies last.

it's an original artwork, guys!

We’re selling only the ten color images, which are ink on paper. But maybe Swan will also wanna make facsimiles of the b&w’s if you talk to him real, real nice.

more at 45projects.com

To purchase, write to: contact@45projects.com; or call: 347/967-5915. Or contact me at left.

The Art Bum will not be Televised!!

(Read up about Lawrence Swan on his site, and in the bloggisphere here and here.)

Holy Cr*p: E-Commerce (Powhida, Element Editions) looks better than “real” commerce

sarah — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:18:39 +0000

Awesome Powhida on today’s 20 X 200 is already (partially) sold out.

buy it while supplies last....

And our buddy, Chris Spinelli, is the featured artist at Element Editions‘ classy e-commerce site:

"Inbred," Digital print on Arches paper w/hand additions

And let’s not forget that I’ve got a Lawrence Swan project in the works. Very affordable, at $200.00 a pop for an original—not an edition:

Art Bum Mini-Comic #8

Stay tuned.

Still lovin’ “Art Bum” Comix

sarah — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:26:14 +0000

Ever feel like this?

Still goin’ strong, Lawrence Swan.

nyfa says, yes, there’s a Recession, and…

sarah — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:55:26 +0000

…illustrates it with work by Lawrence Swan, who says, among other things:

The art world, so-called, has been hit by the recession, and that means our ways of thinking about art and making art will change, like it or not. Do you really think that art made to adorn the homes of the rich, or made to be invested in by the rich to make them richer, is the highest form of art? Artists and dealers are now looking for new forms of distribution, new business models.

You can read the interviews with Swan and other hardworking creatives, like Kevin Regan (excerpted below) on nyfa.org, courtesy of Hrag Vartanian.

Kevin Regan, who co-runs Famous Accountants in Ridgewood/Bushwick.

The recession has made me more cautious. I went from working part-time as a commercial artist to working full-time. I was fortunate in that I could do this, but it’s not really what I want to be doing. I would prefer to focus on art and work only part-time. Working full-time really gets in the way of making art. I have to confess that I’m actually deeply pessimistic about the possibility of making a living from selling my art—but that’s okay! I don’t care. I want to do it anyway. I just need a minimal level of financial security. And this is what I was doing. When the economy plunged it just began to feel very irresponsible of me to be leaning on my wife as much as I was. So I stopped. I was worried about money for a little while, not because we couldn’t pay our bills, but because I was worried my wife was going to lose her job. Her support is what allowed me to work part-time. Ultimately, I guess I’m pretty lucky.

I’ve had to cut back on time. Space, supplies, and storage have not been a problem—yet. Again, I think I’ve been rather fortunate. My big frustration is not money but time. There just never seems to be enough of it. I traded time for money.

I’m planning on showing Swan at 45projects in my upcoming Guilt Show, fyi, along with Regan’s Famous Accountants partner, Ellen Letcher.