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Autumn 2014

No. 3

Studio Insider: Wheeled nippers

Art Junkie: Scott Bulger

On the worktable …

Intellectual property rights…yes, it’s a real thing

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I think I'll file this under “Lessons Learned”. Inmy last issue I opined the pace of modernsummers, reminiscing about the languid, happysummers of childhood. No real responsibilities,nowhere to be, days on end stretching outbefore you, ripe with possibility. A superstitiousperson would say that in making it seem like animpossibility in the modern world, I may haveactually contributed to turning this particularsummer into a whirling dervish. No sooner hadI published that issue than I began the processof finding a new home (in Asheville, close to mynew studio). As chance would have it, thatmeant having to coordinate a move at the sametime as a scheduled vacation, finding a newhome for our dog, holding a huge garage sale(moving from a 3 bedroom house with garageand a yard to a 2 bedroom condo!) aaannd....searching for a new car after mine decided tomore or less give up the ghost.

The result of all that instability means I have nonew work to show you, only the sad beginnings

of a mosaic sitting alone in the studio for 2months, wondering why I don't come back.

Things will get back on an even keel, theyalways do, but in the meantime, I'm a littlescattered and absent-minded. Once I get set-tled after this household move, I plan to spenda lot of quality time wandering the shores of theFrench Broad River, breathing deeply the scentof the water, the leaf mold, and listening to thepurr of the breeze in the trees. And then, Ipromise, I’ll get back into the studio rejuvenat-ed and rarin’ to go!

Lee Ann

Musings

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On the Worktable

● The Three Graces p. 4

● The Saltmarsh p. 6

News and Events

● Journeys of Women Art Exhibit p. 8

● Women of the Palette @ Johnson City Country Club p. 8

● Class schedule p. 8

Art Junkie

● Scott Bulger p. 10

Studio Insider

●    Wheeled nippers      p. 12

Angst and Issues

●     Intellectual property rights…yes, it’s a real thing p. 13

Miscellany

● Guess where? p. 15

● On the town p. 16

● Riverview Station P. 17

Contents

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On the worktable

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As a bit of a break from the huge piece I just finished,I began this 18” square mosaic of three white callablossoms.

It took me awhile to come up with a title for this one,which is actually unusual. I sometimes have a titlebefore I have fully developed the idea for the design.But one afternoon, while stepping back to checkproportions and shading as I worked, it evoked amemory of a sculpture that had captivated me as ayouth.

Growing up near Indianapolis, one of my favoritehaunts was the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Themuseum was built on the grounds of the Eli Lillyestate, Oldfields, donated by Eli Lilly’s great grand-children. The Lilly home and its park-like grounds arestill part of the complex. On those grounds is asculpture entitled The Three Graces, of exquisite

Italian Carrara marble. I al-ways found it transcendent,for reasons I still can’t quiteexplain. It may actually havesomething to do with the factthat the sculptor’s name isunknown. For some reason Isense a drama and a terriblewrong involved in preventinghis or her name from reachingus.

The background on my mosa-ic will be an abstract of intense colors, which isinspired by the book

by Ann Blockley The book has a nicepreview on Amazon.com where you can get a senseof what I have in mind.

The Three Graces

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On the worktable cont’d…

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The Saltmarsh

This piece is being returned to the worktableafter a hibernation of several months. I beganthis in late winter/early spring as an interpreta-tion of a poem I adore by H. H. Munro (akaSaki). The poem is titled

Newly hatched dragonflies are called nymphs,so I am illustrating this poem with a dragonflywith green glass beads threaded on silver wireat the top of the wings.

I had put this away because I felt that I wasnot going to be happy with the whole thingdone in mosaic, but I wasn’t sure where to gonext. In searching for alternatives, I ran acrossa book called by NancyReyner. This is what I was waiting for! I willfinish the reeds in glass, then use some of theunusual techniques to finish the piece withacrylic and possibly some silver leaf.

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News and Events

Journeys of Women Art Exhibit

The McKinney Center in Jonesborough, TN willagain host the annual Journeys of Women ArtExhibit. I have been invited to participate, and haveoffered Bellafiore and Poire et Vin Rouge. One orboth may be on display during this show that runsfrom October 30 through November 15, 2014. Theshow will be open Monday thru Thursday 9 a.m. -5 p.m., Friday 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m.to 1 p.m.

This show is sponsored by the Tennessee Women’sFund, Women’s Fund, a fund of the East TennesseeFoundation that raises and awards grant money fornonprofit organizations helping low-income womenand girls.

Women of the Palette exhibit

We will have a one night show at the Johnson City(TN) Country Club on November 6, 2014 from 5:30pm to 8:30 pm. Of course, there will be somefabulous art on display, but if you need anotherreason to show up, there will be wine and fingerfood and a cash bar.

Fall Studio Stroll

The River Arts District fall Studio Stroll is No-vember 8 - 9, 2014. Don’t miss the carnivalatmosphere and amazing art to be seen. Amajority of the studios in the district will beopen for the weekend, with a free shuttle totake you from one end of the arts district to theother!

More info at www.riverartsdistrict.com/studio-stroll2nd-saturday.html

Workshops and classes

Upcoming workshops and classes through the endof this year are posted on the website atwww.MosaicArtbyLA.com/workshops. You may reg-ister online or by calling (828) 772-5522. Class sizeis limited so register soon!

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Art JunkieArtwork that resonates with me, from currentartists or from artists of the past, presentedwithout commentary to allow you to develop yourown response without prejudice.

Scott Bulgerwww.scottbulger.com

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Studio Insider

If you make mosaics with glass, you already knowabout wheeled glass nippers. You also know that withtime and use, those wheels get dull, giving youragged cuts that send glass splinters all over yourwork in progress. How can you get the most of yourwheeled nippers before investing in replacementwheels?

Loosen the wheels and turn slightly to rotate themaway from the dull section. In order to keep track ofwhere you started and how far you turn them eachtime, place dots with a paint pen near the center ofthe wheels when you put a new set on. Then, eachtime you turn them, move to the next dot. See thevideo for details.

Click the picture below if reading on ISSU to view thevideo on Youtube, or visit

www.youtube.com/user/lapetropoulos.

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Angst & Issues

One of my favorite artists is William Morris. Notfor his paintings, not for his textile design, notfor his lectures, not for his poetry, not for hislegacy in manufacturing, not for his concern forthe welfare of the craftsmen who produced thefunctional and fine art of his time. I adore himfor all of these things. There may never havebeen an artist more suited to the term “Renais-sance Man” since Leonardo DaVinci. What I findmost interesting about him and his life is theconsistency of his philosophies of art and of life.No matter the arena, his desire to see that carewas taken in the production of the arts, hisconcern for those who produce them, and hislack of respect for those who didn’t properlyappreciate them remained constant.

Much of what he wrote and spoke about reflectsa visceral horror regarding the change he sawtaking place in how art is produced, and how (orif) it is appreciated. He also, prophetically,understood the implications of the destructionthat was taking place in the environment be-cause of the conversion to mass production—wanton consumption of raw materials and pollu-tion of the landscape was already a demonstra-ble problem. In the late eighteenth century, theproduction of beautiful objects had begun totransfer from the local craftsperson to factorieswith a noticeable decline in quality. We still hearthe same laments about the lack of quality andattention to detail and design in mass producedproducts. Why, though, after 150 years, do westill purchase this rubbish? We could most cer-tainly change the landscape of available prod-ucts by refusing to buy such poor quality crap.But not only do we purchase it, we proceed tobitch about it’s lack of quality and endurance,thereby perpetuating a cycle of unhappy con-sumerism and burgeoning landfills.

I believe this issue of cheaply produced art has amulti-faceted effect in our culture. Firstly, theartist is not regarded as someone whose effortsare worthy of respect. When the end product is oflow quality, it reflects poorly on the originator,even if the design was flawless.

As a corollary to that, it encourages a lack ofrespect for the intellectual property of an artist.Even those who would never license their art formass production on cheap, poorly constructedproducts find their images stolen and used tomake a profit— , of course, for the originalartist. Case in point: Lillian Broca’s recent discov-ery of an image (poorly reproduced) of one of her

mosaics on a butt-ugly shirt. And yet, for those notfamiliar with the original mosaic, would they notassume that the quality of Lillian’s work was fairlyrepresented on that shirt? (See the real beauty ofLilian’s work at www.lilianbroca.com)

This demonstrates beautifully the issue with ourculture’s lack of regard for intellectual propertyrights. It’s not unusual for an artist to reproducetheir images for mass consumption, but theycontrol how that is done, so that they can be

Intellectual property rights….yes, it’s a real thing.

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assured their name will not be associated withpoor quality work. When an artist has no rightsto the work and the images taken from it, thereis no way to control how those images are used.They might be cropped badly, digitally manipu-lated, reproduced in a resolution that destroysthe integrity of the work, or diminished in anynumber of other ways. Then again, we have toask: Would someone unfamiliar with the origi-nal work then view the artist in a favorable light?

For many artists, especially emerging artists,their reputation has a very heavy weight. Manyare coping with scanty income in the hopesthat, as they become better known, they willfinally earn enough to make a living at whatthey are good at. To be represented in anunfavorable light through something over whichyou have no control can set a career backsubstantially.

Recently, I discussed the possibility of doing acommission for a local organization. The organi-zation is young and not well established, but itis one whose concept I can really get behindand I wanted to help out in whatever way Icould. I said I was willing to accept some futurepromotion by this organization in exchange forsome of the cash on the project. Everythingwent very smoothly until they received thecontract and saw that I require keeping thecopyright on all my work. They balked. Theysaid they might want to reproduce the image ont-shirts to sell at some point and didn’t want meto come back to them down the road anddemand part of the profits. Well, as you mightimagine, the first thing that popped into myhead was the photo of the butt-ugly shirt on theprevious page.

Beyond the issue of poor quality images, is thefact that I might want to reproduce a part of theimage for resale as prints or greeting cards. Ican’t do that if I don’t own the copyright. Eventhough the mosaic would contain the name ofthe organization, I could use a detail of anothersection. As an example, I did this with mymosaic I cropped the bird from theentire image to use on greeting cards.

Keep in mind that Idon’t object to theidea of reproducingthe image on a t-shirt, and I don’tcare about cuttinginto their profits onthat, because as I said, I would love to see thisorganization get off the ground and be success-ful. I told them that as long as they used animage that I provided them and credited myname on it, they could do that without furthercompensation to me. In fact, I told them to adda clause to the contract stating as much and Iwould approve it. I said this on two separateoccasions.

I haven’t heard back.

You know what is most upsetting to me? It feltas if I was being accused of being greedy andpossibly even deceitful. Even though I waswilling to accept promotion in lieu of part of thepayment and agreed to approve a clause stat-ing that I would require no further compensa-tion, they hemmed and hawed and said “we’llget back to you”. And then they didn’t.

This type of situation is why I write this column.The general public just doesn’t understand thekinds of things that artists are coping with.However, they would understand that if theyask a free-lance IT person to design a softwareprogram that tracks their inventory, they coulduse it but would have no right to sell it to othersfor a profit. It’s really no different.

I suspect it is the high prices commanded bythe upper echelons of the art world that skewsthe impression the public has of art in general.I met a neighbor a couple of years ago who,

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upon hearing that I was an artist, spent 10minutes telling me why he didn’t appreciate art.

It was a ramblingspeech that seemedto revolve aroundthe recent sale ofMunch’sfor an obsceneamount of money.That’s equivalent towalking up to thepart-time teller atyour bank and say-ing that because theCEO makes an in-sane amount of

money, you have no respect for what she does.

I also think there is some confusion about thedifference in business models between fine art-ists and graphic artists. Graphic artists licensetheir work to their clients, or sell the rightsoutright. If you don’t use their work on yourwebsite, promotional materials, etc, no one willever see it. But the licensing of images to theclient commissioning the work is not a commonpractice among fine artists. Nor should it be.

At any rate, I will always keep the copyright toany mosaic I create. If that’s a problem for apotential client, then they will need to findanother artist to work with. My hope is thatmore artists will begin to think seriously aboutthe implications of copyright infringement ontheir own practices, and begin to articulateclearly to their clients (and other unscrupulousartists) why intellectual property rights need tobe protected.

For more information about intellectualproperty rights:

Artists Rights Society - copyright information

www.arsny.com/basics.html

Copyright Basics for Graphic Designers

www.aiga.org/copyrightbasics-for-graphic-des-igners

Guess where?

Be the first person to correctly guesswhere I am in Asheville in this photoand win a set of 5 assorted greetingcards with my mosaic images on thefront. Email me atmosaicartbyla@gmail.com

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On the town

Boy, howdy, does Asheville have some amazingplaces to fill your belly! As one who has a tendencyto prefer to return to the familiarity of a well-lovedrestaurant over culinary adventure, this town is areal quandry for me.

My husband and I both have birthdays in the fall,so when our daughter Alex was visiting recentlyfrom London, she wanted to take us out for a jointbirthday celebration. After about a day and a halfof dithering, we chose Zambra, in part because wehave never walked by there when it wasn’t hop-ping, and in part because we love tapas.

Oh. My. God.

Even Alex, who has dined in cosmopolitan cities allover the world (including Madrid and Barcelonawhere the tapas surely can’t be beat) said it mighthave been the best meal she ever ate.

The only downside would be that you could easilylose track of how much food you have orderedsince with tapas, you start with a little of this, alittle of that, sharing everything, then order moreas the evening goes along. It’s a fun way to dine– sort of like picking up the sushi plates from aconveyor belt — but before long you realize you’regoing to have a big bill to match your belly at theend of the night. Even so, all three of us wouldhighly recommend it.

In addition to having wonderful food and an exoticatmosphere, Zambra is a supporter of theAsheville Sustainable Agriculture Project. They useall natural meats and source local organic productswhen available.

See their website at www.zambratapas.com forthe menu and hours and

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Riverview Station

In last Sunday’s Asheville Citizen Times therewas an article that outlined the planned im-provements for the River Arts District. Some ofthe improvements are already funded, somearen’t, but it seems that all of them pertain tothe other end of the River Arts District fromRiverview Station. Because we have a greatvenue full of fascinating artists and gorgeous art,I am beginning a column to bring all the good-ness that is Riverview Station to your attention,lest we be forgotten down here on the south endof the district!

The building that is now Riverview Station wasconstructed in 1902 and originally housed theHans Rees Tannery, which produced leatherbelts for industry. The property at one timeincluded an additional property that extended tothe rail yard.

In 1955 Ness Brothers, Inc. bought the buildingas a textile remnants processing plant. Theghost of the “Ness” logo is still visible on the

front of the northernmost building. The nextyear, the additional property was sold off andtorn down. The building we now know asRiverview Station remained a manufacturing sitethrough the 1980s.

In 1990, sisters Helaine Greene and Trudy Gouldwere searching for a larger site for their candlemaking company. They began by renting 7,000square feet, but by 1996, their business had

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A little history, and why it matters

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grown so large they decided to purchase thebuilding.

In 2004 Helaine and Trudy sold the candlebusiness and named the building RiverviewStation. Renovations and upgrades made thebuilding attractive to a wide variety of artisticand entrepreneurial tenants and established itas one of the pioneering properties of Asheville’sblossoming River Arts District.

Today’s Riverview Station houses the studios ofoil painters, jewelry makers, fabric artists, bas-ketry, interior design, a giclee printer, a dogobedience school, and of course, mosaics!That’s not even a complete list!

In addition, this spring, Jonas Gerard opened hissecond River Arts District location — a stunninggallery near the south entrance to the complex.

In each upcoming issue I will bring you profilesof two occupants of Riverview Station – a peekat their work and a bit of biographical info tohelp you understand why they do what they do,and why we appreciate them.

I hope you’ll come visit us and see for yourselfwhat makes this place special.

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Prints

I am very pleased to be able to offer high quality, archival prints of someof my work produced for me by the amazing Jim Daley at Fine ImageArtistry. These are printed on acid-free paper with archival pigment inks,not dyes. These pigment inks have been tested to last at least 100 yearswithout fading. Sized to fit in an 11” x 14” frame, image size will varyaccording to the proportions of the original.

Visit studio #221 at Riverview Station, 191 Lyman St., Asheville to see theselection of currently available prints. Online availability throughwww.MosaicArtbyLA.com coming soon!

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Websitewww.MosaicArtbyLA.com

Bloghttp://mosaicartbyla.blogspot.com

Emailmosaicartbyla@gmail.com

Phone(828) 772-5522

Google+https://plus.google.com/u/0/+LeeAnnPetropoulos

Pinteresthttp://www.pinterest.com/lapetropoulos/

Links and Contact

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iPhone cases, mugs and miscellanywith my images available at

Society6

www. society6.com/leeannpetropoulos