20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne

I know I said I never really read non-fiction books, but at a show up in Minneapolis a guy was giving me a hard time about my name being nemo and not having read "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".

And with it being so easy to get and read a book on my phone, I searched for it. Well I found a collection of 20 of Jules Verne books for only $3.99. Now how could I pass that up? Also it’s a lendable book so if anyone wants to read one just send me an e-mail and I would be more than happy to lend it to you. First of all it was really cool to read the name "Captain Nemo" on every other page. Though much of the book was just that dude calling out things he saw - red fish, blue fish, and some parts had me clicking over to find it on a map. The story itself was just ok for my taste, it did give me an insight to how a book about my touring could be done. But the idea that nothing else matters but his crew and the oceans are something I can see, however on land in a van it can't happen. But still the list after list after list kinda put me to sleep, but when the real action came, like when they were stuck in the ice or battling the different fish it was more than welcomed.

Having known very little about Verne, and most of that is thru the steam punk movements and the end of Back To The Future 3, I pictured in my mind what I could piece together from that. I didn’t really have any great visuals on my own, I’m not really as creative as people would think I am. After watching the movies both the 1916 one and the 1950’s one I’m even more mixed up about it all, I might have to read this book again. I did hear a new 3D movie was going to be coming out real soon, so who knows.

See Nemo Draw

Hello everyone!

 

I wanted to share this video link with you. It shows me drawing a cow for a childrens' book we are currently working on. We would like to get the word out about Art by Nemo and the book, Goodnight Dog in the Duck Pond, to help build interest. Please share it through your email contacts, on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, or what ever other social networks you use. It would be awesome if we could get this to go viral!!!

 

Enjoy & Thank you!

Why Art Festivals?

As you folks know I have tried just about everything there is to try out here. But more and more I have been asked about Art Festivals and more about Why? So I wanted to share a little bit about why we put ourselves through the Festival Circuit and what kind of benefit it is to us. Remember kids, do not try this at home, we are highly skilled professionals.

Right now, for us, touring and spreading the love is the way we need to do it to build a following and to brand the art by nemo circle into the brains of the public. You hear over and over how you need to do marketing, how you need to build a brand. Most will tell you, you can do it from home and putting in the “right” key words or using SEOs, and of course by paying them to do if for you. Sure its nice to come out on top when someone Googles your name, but what’s gonna make them want to Google you in the 1st place?

Art festivals aren’t like any other way of selling art, they have everything working against them, they are hard to get into (well the ones you want to be in), they cost money to do (anywhere from $200 to $1000), they are miles and miles from each other, you need to spend as much time planning for one as you do planning a vacation but you never get to rest, they take a toll on your body as you set up your booth, then work the crowd, sometimes standing 2, 3, 4 days 10 to 12 hours a day (forget the week and month long shows), then good or bad, you have to tear everything down and drive home or to the next show. But if you love gambling this is as good as it gets, you can return a winner with big time sales, commissions and deals or come home a big fat loser with no money, no gas, no hope and even less will to continue.

See, I live for the roll of the dice, many different variables take place at art festivals and you can see just about everything. Since these types of shows are open to the public free of charge and often take place in areas with a nice bum population (we do realize we sometime set up in their living rooms when we are in parks and downtown areas) and we have seen it all, from homeless people walking in thinking everything is free, to fancy rich people buying up enough art to fill a new summer home. We have done shows where everyone is coming in the booth and ones where it seems like we are invisible. Shows where tons of people are around (like 300K) and no ones buying anything and shows where we only talk to a hand full of people and everyone buys something. Done shows where we were about running out of product and shows where it’s so slow I have time to draw and we leave with more art than when we came with. I have seen beautiful days, seen rained out shows and seen more tents blow away than I care to count.

But on the other hand, festivals are the best art experience you can have. What we do is a whole other way of living, it’s a sub-culture that is almost what I would image the circus life would be like. We RV, so we stay out in the parking lot with all the other RVers and campers, and when you do as many shows as we do you get to learn who people are and we have made some really great friends. Sometime we have dinner or drink wine over at other peoples RV’s, we have spent weeks with other artists in between shows we are both doing. It’s a real family feeling. Its really great to hear the older guys who have been doing it 30 years plus, they have such great stories about everyone. Though I would never repeat some of the things I have heard, but let me tell you if there was a reality show about artists on the road people would get into it.

All and all as an artist locked away in a studio most of my career, its exciting to run with a bunch of people who are in it for the long haul and who are more concerned with making expenses and making a living than satisfying the critics and what galleries have told us. The best part is you know pretty early on if your work is “good enough” since its put way out there. The public is pretty vocal out here and you can hear it all, the good, the bad and the down right ugly. We all feel for and look out for each other. We sympathize with loses and we cheer at the victories. We are all in it together. Show biz people might say “break a leg” but we have “flip a tent”.

Art Pride

Pride? I have been thinking about this one a lot lately. What is it about the products we buy that makes us want to show them off? Is it the price? Do we need to spend a ton of money to feel good about what we own? Do we need to have people look at what we got and think “damn, they must have money to own one of those”? Most people I know will go into a store, walk up to something they like only to check the price and find it’s the most expensive one. I know most times it happens to me. I have seen it even happen in our booth.

But just spending an insane amount of money on something doesn’t mean you show pride in owning the product does it? it’s the whole experience behind owning something. When we hear about a product over and over, see people with it, even know people with it, soon we will also want it. I know the more something is out there the more and more it wants to get more out there (and double that if someone puts it into a song). I read something about it taking people 5 times to see something before they buy it, I don’t know how true that is but we are trying hard to get to that number 5 view.

I try not to be one of those pushy salesman type in real life or online. I just inform people of what I do and let them come to me. The whole idea behind going on tour was to build brand recognition and to grow a lager fan base. Some things like these just cant be done sitting in your studio dreaming and even if the internet can gain you views from halfway around the world, there’s nothing like going there and shaking hands and smiling with the public. You gotta get out there by being out there and we are out there. I think of myself much like a musician playing gig after gig, playing just one more venue, meeting one more person, making one more fan and building on it.

The most important part of my job is making sure the people who do come in contact with my art know I draw all the circles freehand. Most will walk by and think they are prints and done with a computer. Sometimes people don’t even notice the circles. So education is of the utmost importance. I show people I draw them freehand, I also talk a little about our touring and how we both work on the art and that that’s it, we have no “real” or “daytime” jobs. I want everyone to have a story behind the piece they buy, I want them to say they saw me drawing, they need to be able to look me in the eyes and shake my hand. Some even take pictures with me to put with the piece. That kind of one on one helps give the art value.

Then with a little luck they will share they experience with everyone who asks about the piece on their wall. With their excitement out there burning up city to city the fire will soon catch on. So buy original art with pride, show it off every chance you get. We all have homes, we all have walls, we all have the same things everyone else has, so set yourself apart with art and celebrate your difference. Go ahead and brag about your kid owning more original art than the neighbor’s kid. Invite people over to wittness the unpacking and hanging of an added piece to your collection, tell them the story of how you found it and how the artists made you laugh. So who rocks your walls?

Koi And Dragon Commissions

Well once again I was BS-ing on Facebook with a girl I met a few years back at The Hope Ball with one of my favorite artists Laurie Maves. It was funny cuz I bumped into one of her boobs during the event but we got to talking about the piece I donated, she took a card, added me to Facebook and here I was bugging her since I take the comment "don’t forget me when your rich and famous" seriously (if you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you know what I mean). Well we were talking about tattoos and she sent me pictures of hers and asked me if I could make a piece inspired by her tattoos. So Hannah and I worked out some sketches and mocked it up for her and she fell in love with it and admitted she had a little "school girl art crush" on me now. Well here’s what we did:

Then she wanted a companion piece that was a little more like a detail piece:

As I posted pics on Facebook while as I was working on them I got a few more commissions for the same pieces, luckily for me my faithful fans give me the opportunity to change the colors and have a little bit of fun with them.

The story of the koi and dragon goes a little something like this: the koi has to fight his way up a waterfall and has to pass a wooden gate to turn into a dragon. Me being born in the year 1976, the year of the dragon, puts this piece close to my heart and I also feel like I’m fighting my way up that waterfall to become a dragon too.

Winter Vacation

Vacation Holiday Weekend, Yeah Right, you know me and you know taking time off has nothing to do with not working and not planning. But what does a guy do who goes to the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore for work and who only works 2 or 3 days outta the week? Good question, I stay put and don’t do anything. Well I might do the same thing regular folks with regular jobs do. I will wake up with the sun, drink coffee, maybe take a little hike, then sit and draw and color, might even have a few late night drunken drawing sessions. I know, I know, that’s the same things I do everyday but this time we aren’t driving around like crazy and we are not setting up a booth. We are staying in Texas in the same spot for a while.

Its all gonna still be rush, rush, around the art offices of Hannah and Nemo but even when there’s tons of work to be done its nothing compared to running all over the nation doing shows. Besides we will be back to that in no time, 3 and a half months is nothing, its just a little winter break. We also need to clean our van and do a little maintenance on it and find a leak somewhere.

Our tour picks back up about Mid-March if everything goes according to plan. Its not up to us its up to the jury who lets us in or keeps us out. But we are looking at a few shows in Texas, Oklahoma, of course back up to Colorado and as many East Coast shows as we can find.

So don’t worry, just because we are taking a few months off its because we have even bigger plans in play that need to be played before we go back to doing what it is we set up to do. I’m just so happy that with each mile we put in we are presented with a new opportunity or some other way of coming closer to making our mark on this world.