ABOUT CJ
When I read these “About the artist” pages, I can’t help but laugh. They are almost always written in the third person. “The artist learned his craft on the plains of Colorado, where his parents and sheep used to roam,” and that sort of silliness. You all know what I’m talking about. Fact of the matter is that these blurbs are rarely written by someone who doesn’t also happen to be the subject of the text. I’m dispensing with that here. I am the one writing this stuff about myself, so none of this “he was” stuff — except in those passages where I want to be all pretentious.
Like most artists, I began when I was very young, if not earlier. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t doing something arty. Growing up, I went through pad after pad of newsprint, scores of watercolor sets, and I’d draw with anything close at hand that would leave some sort of mark or impression. During those periods when my mom was all stay-at-home, she’d engage in a variety of media: from sculpting in clay to painting with oils, which did nothing but whet my appetite to be able to make images where none had existed before.
It’s via that route that most of my art education has come: from doing, not by being taught. The last art class I took was in Jr. High in the mid 1970s. Since then it’s been a combination of trial and error, books, and being put in positions where what I knew about art was of some import to those around me. Personally, I finger high school yearbook for setting me down this road. It’s there that I learned the fundamentals of publishing, layout, and quick-and-dirty art that has seen me through any number of jobs from photography to being the production (i.e. art) manager for two advertising papers at the same time.
With this background in hand, one day I walked into an art gallery in Albuquerque’s Old Town and looked at some pretty amazing artwork by the scratchboard artist Kathy Morrow. The gallery manager pointed at one of the $15,000 works (the price has since risen considerably) and asked if I could do work like that. Cocky little me said that I could, but I’d have to take a month or so to learn the medium. We left it at that. A little while later, I came back with a couple of small scratchboard works. The manager was impressed enough that once framing was done, there was work done by li’l ol’ me hanging on the wall next to art selling for five-figures. Not too shabby for a self-taught schmoe like me.
Yet aside from the art stuff, I’ve also been one of those pesky geek sort of fellows. I’ve played with computers since the late 1960s, working in those sorts of techie fields just about as much as in art. In fact, the two have often fed off of each other.
ABOUT CJCS
I’ve owned the cjcs.com domain since 1997. It was created to provide a web presence to “CJ Creative Services”. For the most part, it was oriented to providing a little bit of info on my art and writing, but was mostly geared to marketing my services for web services and computer consulting.
Well, as the years have rolled on, and after over thirty years of doing the “computer thing”, I decided that I wanted to change direction to where my passions have evolved. Since that was in writing, and increasingly into fine arts, I thought it was time to let cjcs.com have a rebirth as the home of “CJ’s Creative Studio”. (Gee…wasn’t that clever how I didn’t have to change the domain name to fit?)
With a greater focus on promotion and marketing, the new CJCS should be much more accessible (and more frequently updated) destination for those with an interest in the creative stuff I do.
FAQ
Why don’t you have more works on your site?
I do a lot of commissioned works (i.e. I take requests), and I have to judge the privacy of the piece versus the display potential. Plus, after a while, no matter how proud I was of a work when I made it, it can get to where I sort of don’t want to show it anymore.
What gallery(s) are you in?
None at the moment (June 2010). Due to life events over the past few years, I just don’t have enough salable originals on hand to place in a gallery. I’m working on building my portfolio back up, so I’m hopeful that I’ll be back on someone’s walls before too long.
Why are your prices so high?
All-in-all, the cost of my originals aren’t very high at all. You figure that an average 16″x20″ work takes at least 30 hours of work and you multiply that by any sort of reasonable hourly rate and then add in the cost of materials and equipment, framing, and other often unexpected fees, then you can see that it isn’t that much at all.
Like you, I’ve seen some extraordinary artists that undervalue their work for whatever reason. I personally think that hurts all artists, but I’m not in their shoes.
Truth be told, if you go into most established galleries, you’ll find that in comparison my prices aren’t so high at all.
If you don’t want to buy an original for my price, I’m perfectly happy if you want to get a print if it’s available. Really, you won’t hurt my feelings.
Why are some of your prints priced higher than others?
Limited Edition prints are, by definition, limited. There will only be a small number made and that will be it. The smaller the edition run, the more a print will cost. Unlike many artists, I consider a limited edition to be a run of 200 or less; more than that, it might as well be an open edition, in my opinion.
Open editions means that there is no upper limit to how many I can/will print or in what format. Signed prints within an open edition might run a little higher than unsigned, but be nowhere near the what a limited edition would have been priced.
Can I get you to paint and/or scratch <insert subject of painting> only for me?
Of course. I’m somewhat open to commissions; it depends on my schedule. Get in touch with me via my contact page and we’ll see what can be arranged. I’ll tell you straight off, prices start in the hundreds and up depending on size, complexity, travel, research, availability, and any other of several variables. As a general rule, unless you are at least a good acquaintance of mine, I will not paint vehicles, helmets, shoes, t-shirts, signs, or other similarly commercial aspects of airbrush art. There are a lot of people more passionate and more skilled in those forms than I am.
Will you do a piece of art for <insert organization> so we can sell or auction it off?
I’m not opposed to it, but it needs to be a cause I’d support in any case. Also, remember that this is my job, and I only have a limited number of “freebies” I’m willing to give up for whatever reason in a year. Even so, it never hurts to ask; in return I request that you don’t badger me if I don’t say yes.
Can I make my own prints of a work that I’ve bought?
Nope. Sorry. I retain the copyrights of all of my works, even the commissioned pieces. Licenses can be arranged.
