I have always been an Art Collector in my own right. It started back in 1995 when I was an undergraduate student in Art School, and my art-school friends and I would trade school assignments to each other at the end of every school year.
This trading practice of mine continued onto grad school where at UMASS, Dartmouth there was an actual exhibit in the student gallery called "The Swap Show" where artists drew numbers and selected their favorite works by fellow colleagues in the show. So by the end of my art schooling years I had a pleasing collection of paintings, small sculptures, jewelry, prints, textiles and illustrations of which I am quite proud.
In between those art school years I was fortunate to purchase a couple pieces of artwork to add to my traded collection and it made me feel even more proud.
Now out of art school and working as a full time Artist and Art Educator, I try my best where possible to purchase artwork from local artists in the area I am living.
As an Artist I know and love the exhilaration of selling artwork- its something hard to describe but its an Amazing feeling, it's a feeling of accomplishment, of pride, of hard work finally paying off, of encouragement and of a strong sense of validation. However when an Artist purchases another Artist's work, they are putting themselves in the collector's shoes which is also a great feeling but in a totally different way. It's a feeling of acquiring something truly creative and unique, something that speaks to you in its own special way and it is a feeling of being a part of an art movement and community.
Here in New Bedford the Arts Community is consistently growing and it has become a regional destination for the Arts and has been deemed the seventh "Most Artistic" City in America according to an analysis of US Cenus data by Atlantic Monthly.
I feel very fortunate and pleased to be a contemporary Artist in New Bedford's Artistic Renaissance. My husband and I are also quite proud to have a small but growing Art collection of local NB Artists' work and for the next few days in my blogs I will be sharing some of them with you. Stay tune for more...
Alison
This trading practice of mine continued onto grad school where at UMASS, Dartmouth there was an actual exhibit in the student gallery called "The Swap Show" where artists drew numbers and selected their favorite works by fellow colleagues in the show. So by the end of my art schooling years I had a pleasing collection of paintings, small sculptures, jewelry, prints, textiles and illustrations of which I am quite proud.
In between those art school years I was fortunate to purchase a couple pieces of artwork to add to my traded collection and it made me feel even more proud.
Now out of art school and working as a full time Artist and Art Educator, I try my best where possible to purchase artwork from local artists in the area I am living.
As an Artist I know and love the exhilaration of selling artwork- its something hard to describe but its an Amazing feeling, it's a feeling of accomplishment, of pride, of hard work finally paying off, of encouragement and of a strong sense of validation. However when an Artist purchases another Artist's work, they are putting themselves in the collector's shoes which is also a great feeling but in a totally different way. It's a feeling of acquiring something truly creative and unique, something that speaks to you in its own special way and it is a feeling of being a part of an art movement and community.
Here in New Bedford the Arts Community is consistently growing and it has become a regional destination for the Arts and has been deemed the seventh "Most Artistic" City in America according to an analysis of US Cenus data by Atlantic Monthly.
I feel very fortunate and pleased to be a contemporary Artist in New Bedford's Artistic Renaissance. My husband and I are also quite proud to have a small but growing Art collection of local NB Artists' work and for the next few days in my blogs I will be sharing some of them with you. Stay tune for more...
Alison
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