St Paul Art Crawl : Echo Arts

Yesterday I crossed the bridge and went into the East Bay, and by East Bay naturally I mean, St. Paul. It's pretty amazing actually, I've lived in Mpls for 7 years and I've only been to St. Paul maybe 10 times. There's no way that's true, I'm sure it's been more than that, but honestly, I very rarely go over there.

I went on this magical journey to go hang our show at Echo Arts for the St. Paul Art Crawl.

























Hopefully you'll be able to join us over the weekend.
The official Art Crawl Hours are:
4/29 6pm-10pm + going late for the poetry slam!
4/30 12pm-8pm + going Extra late for the after crawl party!
5/1 12pm-5pm

Echo Arts is located at 275 East 4th St, suite B200. (Corner of Wall and E. 4th St.) There are plenty of metered parking spots, but there is also a pay lot a block and 1/2 away on the corner of 4th and Sibley or 4th and Jackson, depending on what direction your coming from (Sibley and Jackson are one way streets.)

*Note there is currently a significant amount of construction happening on the block in front of the Northwestern Building (where Echo Arts is located) but the sidewalks are open.

Check out our Facebook Invite. See you this weekend!

St Paul Art Crawl

Next weekend I am participating in the St. Paul Art Crawl thanks to my dear friend, Jessica Scott, who asked me to share gallery space with her.

We will be showing at Echo Arts Friday thru Sunday. Check out the facebook invite HERE. Saturday night will be more a proper gallery opening with music and beverages - but I'll let you know more details about that as soon as I get them.

So do the Crawl next weekend and support local artists!

Here's a preview of the new work I've been making for the show.


"Day Dreamer"
Acrylic and Graphite on wood panel


"Lady Luck"
Acrylic and Graphite on wood panel


"Piper"
Acrylic and Graphite on wood panel


"Someday"
Acrylic and Graphite with Gold Leaf on wood panel


*All works copyright Karen O'Bryan 2011

F*ck You, Pay Me

2011/03 Mike Monteiro | F*ck You. Pay Me. from SanFrancisco/CreativeMornings on Vimeo.

I saw this video of Mike Monteiro on Drawn and I had to share.

It's easy to wrapped up in the process of drawing/designing/art making and forget the fact that what we do is a business. I'm not sure about you, but I only had one class in college about the business aspects of being a freelance artist. It was a really great class, but still, only one - and that was several years ago now.

Since then, I've been figuring it as I go. "Fake it til' you make it" is a common phrase amongst my peers. After numerous horror stories of personal experience, if there is one bit of advice I can give (which is the theme of the video above) is HAVE A CONTRACT. Contract. Contract. Contract.

The best book I ever purchased is the Graphic Artist’s Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. Add this to your library today if you haven't done so already.

I also recently found a post from Nate Williams on How to manage your illustration career. It is essentially a summery of my semester long professional practice class from art school, (that one business class I talked about earlier.)

Another source I've discovered over the years is the blog of Sparky Firepants. Funny name, I know. But he gives some really great advice from time to time.

One last source is a dear friend of mine Mike Glazebrook who has an amazing blog full of very useful information.

Make great work, stay strong, and get paid!

Art in San Francisco

I (somewhat) recently returned home from a glorious trip to San Francisco. (It was nearly 2 weeks ago now.. sorry) I say glorious like it could possibly be anything else.. pssh, get real. San Francisco is always glorious.. unless of course, you live in the Tenderloin, in which case, I'm sorry. I feel your pain. I really, really do.

Anyway, moving on. I always try to make a point of seeing and experiencing as much 'art' as possible whilst on vacation - especially in S.F. I say 'art' loosely because there are many different situations where the word applies. Check it.


General Street Findings:


























Best. Sign. Ever. (And probably - unfortunately - actually really needed..)


Aquarium:












Game Museum on the Warf:














Nature:




















Galleries/Openings:

Giant Robot:








We Are All Animals:






























Fecal Face:




Double Punch: