Social Media Marketing for Artists 

Tuesday, June 27, 2023 
6:30-8pm 

This free workshop will cover three major components of social media marketing for artists. Learn about boundary work, branding, and helpful tools to successfully market your art so that you can tell your story as an artist, start gaining followers, and share your work with the world! 

Presented by Sari Shryack.

Sari Shryack is an oil and acrylic painter based out of Austin, Texas. Her colorful works cover many different subjects and techniques including landscape, still life, portraits, disco balls and even memes. Born in 1991, Sari attended Drury University and studied under painting professor Todd Lowery; she graduated with a degree in Fine Arts in 2014. Sari lives with her husband and two young children.

Registration is encouraged but not required. Register at the Eventbrite.

Tony Quimby and Bruce Lewis Jr., both with Quimby Signs, spruce up the Niagara Art & Cultural Center building with new signage featuring the arts. The six-panel display highlights some of the cultural offerings provided at the arts center and is made up of photos of actual events and exhibits over the past few years. The photographs featured on the panels and designs were created by the NACC marketing team: Dave Riffel, Danusia Nowak-Riffel and Kelly Lang Buckley.

During the past few years, Enid has become more colorful by way of several murals that have been painted around town. The murals have in large part been aided by the skill sets of Kelly and Ty Tompkins and Tox Murillo. Many of the murals occupy a space that was barren previously, and the colorful displays have become yet another thing Enid is known for. 

Kelly Tompkins was director of Main Street Enid until right before the pandemic, and started Hive Appeal with her husband, Ty. Public art was still being funded during the shutdowns, and that helped Hive Appeal continue to grow. There have been dozens of murals completed in Enid since 2015, and more continue to grace the sides of buildings. The murals honor local history, pop culture and the sacrifices of veterans, among many other meanings. 

Tompkins said growing up in Enid, she said she didn’t feel she fit in as an artist, but after moving to Austin, Texas, in the 1990s, saw an example of how colorful a city can truly be. 

“While I was the director of Main Street Enid from 2012-19, we infused all kinds of art into events and projects – a lot of live music, giant traveling ladybugs, performing arts, etc.,” Tompkins said. “In 2015, thanks to help from Traci Conrady of Conrady Electric, Steven Mackie, and OneOK, Inc. on behalf of Bert Mackie, we were able to start the Downtown Enid Mural Program. Each new mural inspired two more and Enid has gained at least 45 new outdoor murals since 2015, by 19 artists or teams. The colorful art brings attention to places and gives Enid natural promotion thanks to people posting photos on social media.”

Tompkins said the executive directors of Main Street Enid before her and after her have all made it a goal to incorporate more public art into Enid, and that it is special to see how much art has been added to the community. She said the mural at Park Avenue Thrift is the 14th outdoor mural she and her husband have worked on, as well as four indoor murals. She said she helped coordinate four murals downtown and was an adviser to the Public Arts Commission of Enid through the process of approving the mural at the Enid Skate Park. She said they have a specific goal for each mural they paint. 

“For each mural, we strive to meet the customer’s goal to create what they want represented, along with our goals of uplifting spirits, brightening people’s days, and making people smile,” Tompkins said. 

Tox Murillo, who grew up in the Los Angeles area and has lived in Enid for about eight years, said he started painting murals around town in 2019. He said prior to murals, he was doing custom paint jobs on cars and motorcycles. He said painting murals is different from vehicles, as he feels there is more artistic recognition that comes with painting murals, which he said he paints for the community. He said some of his customers with custom paint jobs would take the credit for the artwork, which allows him to receive more credit for the work through murals. 

“Right now that I’m doing murals, it’s another story,” Murillo said. “Because nobody else can take the credit. People who love art want recognition, so that made me sad at one time, but right now that’s a different story. I feel really good and I feel like it’s a good way to share with people. Because me being Hispanic, it’s a different feeling now because I’ve done different jobs. I was doing maintenance before, so people treat you different.

“Right now that I’m doing this kind of work, I feel really happy because I feel like I’m doing something for the community and at the same time people can understand more about myself. It’s always good to share with people and always good to know they take you seriously. To me it’s a win-win, because I can share myself and the community can enjoy my work as well. Every time I paint a mural for the community, I feel like they like it, so it’s a good feeling.”

There is now more of an opportunity for those in Enid to take more artistic pride in their community, which Murillo said he is happy to be a part of. Tompkins said it is great to be able to drive around town and notice all the color that has been added, especially to walls that may have gone unnoticed before. She said it is also great to see the variety of murals that have been completed by nine local artists as well as artists and teams who came from other areas to help make Enid more colorful. 

Tompkins said the beautification of a city through artwork is important for variety of reasons. 

“Public art makes our town more Instagrammable, is used for marketing our community, elevates our city’s brand, encourages walking, increases community pride by showing places are valued, adds to quality of life, belonging, tourism, and foot traffic for businesses,” Tompkins said. “Art sparks creativity and innovation in others and our young people, and often leads to nearby improvements. All of this helps people want to live here and build businesses here.”

Kelly and Ty Tompkins, as well as Tox Murillo, were honored at the Chamber of Commerce awards banquet with the 2023 Civic Improvement Award. Kelly Tompkins said they haven’t collaborated directly together with Murillo on a mural yet, but was happy to see him recognized for his talents. She said she was also proud to see her husband, Ty, be recognized, as he has helped with numerous murals around town. 

“It was wonderful to be recognized with the Civic Improvement award by the Enid Chamber of Commerce,” Tompkins said. “We are always trying to make as much difference as we can, in the ways that we can, and imagining what we can do in the near and distant future. We have four metal projects currently in the works, being built locally by EH Metal Works and SpenCo Metal Works. We’re also designing things to ‘level up’ common amenities for communities.”

With a sense of pride being present for those who help make Enid more colorful through public art, it is a special feeling. Murillo said it just makes him really happy to know that he is creating artwork that can be enjoyed by all in the community. 

“You’re going to be able to inspire people, even kids,” Murillo said. “The thing that it is something really special because they are going to grow up seeing this kind of art around their town and I feel like they are going to be more confident to do their own things.”

Members of the Boys & Girls Club of East Mississippi learned the basics in drawing, clay modeling, watercolors and portrait painting during recent art lessons at the Meridian Museum of Art as part of the Club’s summer camp program.

Barbara Divine, marketing director of the Boys & Girls Club of East Mississippi, said the Boys & Girls Club appreciates Kate Cherry, executive director of the Meridian Museum of Art, and Frances Long, a former board member, for their efforts in helping to develop an art program for the Club’s summer camp.

Helping with the art lessons are Terry Cherry, who taught a watercolor class, and Katy Kemalyan, who taught the students how to create silhouette portrait collages, how to transform 2D drawings into 3D sculptures and how to create a three panel comic strip. Kemalyan, whose husband is a new instructor at Naval Air Station Meridian, just moved to Lauderdale County from California.

The art sessions, held Tuesday through Thursday, are part of the activities offered by The Boys & Girls Club of East Mississippi through its summer camp for members, which runs from June 5 through Aug. 3.

Lauer said she remembers painting outside on her first easel from her grandparents.
(Photo Provided)

NEWPORT — Sixteen-year-old Kaylynn Lauer, a junior at Frontier High School, finds joy in multiple creative outlets.

“All of my interests are creative interests. I love to make and learn new things and to just genuinely be involved in the artistic process, whatever the case may be. I love how art can truly showcase the individuality of the artist. It is so rewarding to see the outcome of the hard work I’ve put into my pieces,” she said.

Lauer remembers her first artistic experience from an early age.

“My hobby since the age of two has definitely been creating. My grandparents bought me my first easel and my parents would set it up outside for me to paint with when it was warm outside. I loved it even back then. I still have my easel and paint brushes,” she said.

As she got older, Lauer found another art form she enjoyed from taking a class at school.

Lauer said she
started on ceramics in an art class and has continued making them outside the classroom. Her parents gave her a pottery wheel for Christmas last year.
(Photo Provided)

“As I got older, not only did I enjoy painting and sketching, but I began taking interest in other forms of expression. I fell in love with ceramics and have moved on from having a little easel at home to a pottery wheel,” she said.

Lauer has showcased her painting skills in various events. This past winter, she painted a snow plow as part of a contest between area schools.

The Ohio Department of Transportation donated a snow plow to each school for decoration. The entrants were displayed on their Facebook page and voted on. Lauer’s entry won and was featured in Marietta’s Christmas parade in November 2022.

In addition, she painted a mural honoring Frontier’s 2023 graduating class on the school’s walls. It includes a cougar on a mountain with a barbell in the middle and cat claws through the wall. The text reads “Class of 2023- We Are One! Thank you!”

Lauer also is active in academics. She has a 3.9 grade average and served as the sophomore class president for the 2022-2023 year.

This mural was painted by Kaylynn Lauer on a wall at Frontier High School honoring the graduating class of 2023.
(Photo Provided)

Along with ceramics, her favorite school subject is history.

“I think history is a subject that everyone should be well-educated in. In my opinion, we won’t be able to truly make our world better without studying societies and events of the past,” she said.

Speaking of timelines, Lauer is preparing for her future by taking college credit classes through Washington State Community College during her time at Frontier High School.

“I have completed college credit Algebra 2 and a college credit health class. These classes were important to me because I would like to have a head start for college and I will continue to take additional college classes throughout the next two years. Having the ability to complete courses through Washington State Community College while still in high school is such a great benefit to students in our area,” she said.

Lauer said she plans to go to college, but hasn’t decided on a specific major or school. She is interested in business and marketing because she may open her own business. She said she would like to stay close to home and a school’s environment will be a deciding factor when she makes a choice. She has an interest in Cedarville University.

Several of Kaylynn Lauer’s ceramic pieces are featured in this photo.
(Photo Provided)

However, she said she’s content to take her time.

“I have learned that it’s ok not to have it all figured out just yet. There is so much pressure on people my age to have a solid plan already, but I’m really just continuing to learn who I am and what my life goals are,” she said.

No matter where she ends up, Lauer plans to keep creating.

“My dream is to always be able to create, no matter where life takes me. And regardless of whether I have an art-related career or not, being able to have my own studio at home where I can continue to pursue my passion is really important to me,” she said.

Kaylynn Lauer poses with her snowplow design featured in Marietta’s Christmas parade in November 2022.
(Photo Provided)

June 23 (Reuters) – A Manhattan federal judge on Friday granted Hermes’ request to permanently block artist Mason Rothschild’s sales of “MetaBirkin” non-fungible tokens following a jury’s verdict that they violated the French luxury house’s trademark rights in its famed Birkin handbags.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said the permanent injunction was justified because Rothschild’s continued marketing of the NFTs would likely confuse consumers and irreparably harm the company.

Rakoff denied Rothschild’s requests to throw out the verdict or hold a new trial.

“Defendant’s entire scheme here was to defraud consumers into believing, by his use of variations on Hermes’ trademarks, that Hermes was endorsing his lucrative MetaBirkins NFTs,” Rakoff said. “Nothing in the First Amendment insulates him from liability for such a scheme.”

Representatives for Hermes and Rothschild did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision.

NFTs are unique tokens on blockchain networks that are often used to verify ownership of digital art. Hermes sued Rothschild last year over his MetaBirkins, 100 NFTs associated with images depicting the luxury house’s prized Birkin handbags covered in colorful fur.

Hermes called Rothschild a “digital speculator” and the NFTs a “get rich quick” scheme that infringed its “Birkin” trademark and created the false impression that the fashion house endorsed the tokens.

Rothschild, whose legal name is Sonny Estival, countered that the works were an absurdist statement on luxury goods and immune from the lawsuit based on protections in the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution for art that uses trademarks in an artistically relevant way without explicitly misleading consumers.

A jury ruled for Hermes in February and awarded the company $133,000 in damages.

Hermes said in a filing in March that Rothschild continued to market his NFTs after the jury’s verdict. It asked the court to force him to stop and to turn over his remaining tokens and post-trial profits.

Rothschild told the court that Hermes’ request went “far beyond what is appropriate in a case, like this one, that involves artistic expression.”

Rakoff largely granted Hermes’ request, but decided not to order Rothschild to transfer the tokens out of an “abundance of caution” for 1st Amendment concerns.

The case is Hermes International v. Rothschild, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 1:22-cv-00384.

For Hermes: Gerald Ferguson, Deborah Wilcox and Oren Warshavsky of Baker & Hostetler

For Rothschild: Rhett Millsaps, Christopher Sprigman, Mark McKenna and Rebecca Tushnet of Lex Lumina; Jonathan Harris and Adam Oppenheim of Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler

Read more:

Hermes wins U.S. trademark trial over ‘MetaBirkin’ NFTs

Hermes asks court to block ‘MetaBirkin’ NFT sales after jury win

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

But instead of a 45-minute class, the camps run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at KCYA’s facility at 3732 Main Street in Kansas City.

LINC has teamed up with KCYA since 2009 to bring its teaching artists into schools to provide free classes for the same reason that KCYA is giving LINC children free access to its summer camps.

“We want to remove all the barriers” that might stand between children and the power of art, Arvizu said. “We’re all in this together.”

In one recent week of camp, Friday’s showcases presented children who created fanciful face masks, performed story-telling folk tunes, and who had written, casted, practiced and ultimately performed a theater play.

The camp is led by artists from the same fleet of talent that visits LINC’s programs during the regular school year.

The in-school classes are designed with an eye toward matching and enhancing the curriculum in both the school and after-school programs, Arvizu said. The classes aim to bring children into the arts wherever they might be in their growth, and enrich the classroom’s education, culture and behavior.

The excitement in the LINC students during KCYA programs in after-school time is telling, said Sean Akridge, LINC’s Caring Communities Administrator.

“If parents come early to pick their kids up, the kids say they want their parents to wait until it’s over,” Akridge said.

The children are getting a taste of what’s possible in their lives that they might not otherwise have gotten, he said.

“They get something they can connect to,” he said, “something they can own and integrate into who they are.”

About a decade after French educator Louis Braille invented the eponymous system for blind and sight-impaired readers, the New England Institution for Education of the Blind released its own embossed designs allowing those with low or no vision access to important information. Under the leadership of Samuel Gridley Howe, the school, which is now the Perkins School for the Blind, acquired a printing press in 1835 and began to create a variety of learning materials with raised writing for its students. One of those books was an atlas of the United States, which held touchable cartography within its pages.

Paired with descriptions written in standard Latin script—this proved much more difficult to read than braille and never gained the popularity of its counterpart—the maps contain typical information like longitude and latitude, along with the area’s population, climate, and commerce. Solid lines denote rivers, a singular raised shoreline buttressed by parallel lines represents oceans, and clustered triangles are mountains. Printed in 1837 in an edition of 50, this version of the atlas contains just 24 states. Only four copies are known to remain.

Flip through digital scans of the book at David Rumsey Map Associates. (via Kottke)

New Hampshire

Rhode Island

Ohio

Illinois

Pennsylvania

New Jersey

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Page Through a 19th-Century Embossed U.S. Atlas Designed with Touchable Cartography for Blind Students appeared first on Colossal.

Kentucky Crafted is an arts marketing program that provides assistance to visual and craft artists through networking, promotional and sales opportunities and business training.

The purpose of the program is to support professional visual and craft artists and promote a diverse selection of high quality art in Kentucky. In addition to being added to the Kentucky Crafted Directory, adjudicated visual and craft artists are eligible to exhibit at the Kentucky Crafted Market and other events sponsored by the program.

Visual and craft artists who do original work in any medium, are full-time residents of Kentucky and are 18 years of age or older are eligible to apply. Applicants should have a well-developed body of work and some marketing experience.

Potential applicants should read through the complete application guidelines prior to starting their application.

The deadline to apply is Aug. 15, 2023, 4:30 p.m. Eastern time. Prior to the deadline prospective applicants are encouraged to attend one or more Q&A sessions, hosted on Zoom, where you can ask arts council staff questions about the application process. Please fill out this online form if you are interested in attending a Q&A session and we will email you information about when and how to join the conversation.

For more information about the Kentucky Crafted program, contact David Blevins at david.blevins@ky.gov or 502-892-3120.