Arkansas Arts on Tour Artist

Posted on September 29, 2015 by lksukany

I applied for the Arkansas Arts Council Arts on Tour Roster. I was contacted to interview to be an Arts on Tour artist. I put together a sample packet for the interview as well as a presentation.

Included in the sample packet:
Artist Statement
Artist Biography
Artist Resume/CV
Artist Business Card
Press Release
CD of Artworks
Detail List
Portfolio Contact Sheet (a page with the art images as thumbnails)
Exhibition Postcard (Sample)
Exhibition Agreement (Sample)
Artist Photograph
A list of the local galleries and community spaces to exhibit

The first 5-10 minutes of the interview was an informal demonstration with the rest of the time used to discuss programming ideas and marketing/promotional plans. Based on the presentation and the responses in the interview, the review panel decided whether or not I would be a candidate for the Arkansas Arts Council to sponsor through the Arts on Tour roster beginning July 2015.

I met with the Arkansas Arts Council Review Panel for an artist interview. I put together a PowerPoint presentation of my work. However, the panel interviews were held on the first floor of the same building that my work was already being shown. Instead of using the PowerPoint presentation, we all went upstairs to the Attorney General’s Office and I gave a walking tour presentation of the work.

I was contacted by the Arkansas Arts Council Grant Programs Manager that a consensus vote by the panelists determined that I should be included as one of the Arts on Tour Roster artist for 2015-2016. The Arts on Tour program offers grant money to reimburse galleries part of the payed exhibitions.

Artist Interview with Wildwood Park for the Arts

Posted on September 18, 2015 by lksukany

As an Arkansas Arts Council Arts on Tour artist, I recently had an art exhibition at Wildwood Park for the Arts. I was interviewed shortly after the exhibition by Wildwood.

What mediums do you work with?
In printmaking, I work with relief printing (linoleum and woodcuts), etching, and lithography. With painting, I work with mostly oil, but at times with acrylic, gouache, and watercolor. I enjoy drawing with different types of charcoal, pencils, and ink. I experiment with fabrics, fibers, and natural materials (papermaking).

Besides your art practice, are you involved in any other kind of work?
I write and record music with my spouse in our band “The Damsels in Distress.” We mostly create albums, but have been working with KUAR Arts and Letters to create music for their productions. We also have created a children’s story called “The Boy and the Firefly” that has accompanying music. We hope to explore more bookmaking and song ideas to accompany puppet shows.

What does a typical day in the studio look like?
I have a large to-do list and organize the project for that day. I lay out the materials I will need in order, and then begin working in a linear way. So, if I am going back and forth with multiple pieces or projects, it’s all ordered in a list of what to work on for each piece. I often will have an audio book (fiction literature – mostly classic literature or adolescent literature) playing or an old black and white movie going on in the background. I am alone in my studio and cannot work with others in my space unless they are intently working on something as well.

What are you presently inspired by – are there particular things you are reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
I am currently working on a Romania landscape painting series. It was inspired from a missions trip I went on last year with Livada Orphan Care to Targu Mures Romania. Because the region was mostly country side, we had to drive each day to the on-site work location. I was completely inspired by the beauty of the countryside and took many photographs during these drives. I hope to finish these paintings early next year, where I will photograph them to place into an inspirational prayer book and donate the paintings to Livada to sell for orphan sponsorship.

What do you hope your work will accomplish? How do you want people to be affected, if at all?
I hope to use my work to connect with and help others. I think for others to be affected by my work differs for each series I work on. For the “Maintaining Life” series, I hope people are able to see how even the mundane can be otherwise from an altered perspective.

How do you navigate the art world?
I still have a lot to learn about the “art world.” In the meantime, I will continue to create, blog on paperopera.com, and exhibit my work.

How would you define a “successful artist”?
Success is such a personal thing. For me, a “successful artist” is an artist who works, who likes their work, and who continues to challenge themselves in their work.

To see more of L.K. Sukany’s work, visit lksukany.wix.com/artist/.

You can also read the interview here.

L.K. Sukany Art Exhibit at Wildwood Park for the Arts

Posted on September 16, 2015 by lksukany

As an Arkansas Arts Council Arts on Tour artist, Wildwood Park for the Arts was one of the galleries I contacted about an exhibit.

M and I went to Wildwood a couple of days before the opening, and Sofia helped us hang the show.

There were some cool press opportunities: Arkansas Life and Little Rock Soiree Online.

A lot of people came to the opening. There was a sign-in sheet at the front to enter into a drawing to win a framed “Reading Into It” lithography print – for the duration of the show. Whole Foods catered!

Along with the exhibition and delicious snacks from Whole Foods, “The Damsels in Distress” played an instrumental set.

“Know Who’s a Robot” also played, and it was a super good time.

After the exhibition, I was interviewed for the Wildwood Park for the Arts website. Read Artist Interview here.

Where do you show your work?

Posted on May 29, 2014 by lksukany

Person you meet: “What do you do?”
You: “I’m an artist”
Me: “I’m an artist.”

Person you meet: “What kind of art do you do?”
You: “Tells the person what kind of art you do.”
Me: “Mumble my way through this question spouting out oil paint, figures, and printmaking somewhere through the murk.”

Person you meet: “Do you show anywhere?” or “Where can I see your work?”
You: “Tells the person where they can see your work.”
Usually Me: “I have a website and I blog. I’m not showing anywhere. I’m not really selling anything. Translation – I make art and hide in my studio.”

“I also kiss baby feet”

Today through the end of the year – Me: “I have a website and I blog. I also have some work up right now at the Arkansas Attorney General’s office downtown in the Two Towers Building.”

How did this happen? Did I get discovered through my website or blog? Was there someone going from door to door in my neighborhood looking for just the right art? Did I go from office to office with samples of my work to see if anyone was looking for my work? It all happened through the Arkansas Arts Council.

I am a member of the Arkansas Artist Registry, and so I get emails of opportunities to show, sell, to apply for grants and fellowship, and other artist things. The Arkansas Arts Council sent a call for submission: “The Arkansas Attorney General’s Office seeks submissions from the Arkansas Artist Registry artists for a revolving exhibition of selected works in the reception area of the Office, which is open to the public for meetings, conferences and other events.” and this attachment

I submitted and was selected! Laurie Jo helped me to hang the show.

Art Competitions

Posted on May 6, 2014 by lksukany

One of the responsibilities I take on as an artist is competing.

Why do artist compete in art competitions? What, you mean besides the eternal glory! Many artists compete to win the prize, the glory, and recognition by an official art community. To get discovered. To be published. To slowly turn into a career artist. To make their artist CV more professional. To feed their personal needs for affirmation as an artist. To be a part of the art community. To experience the heights of glory and the lows of despair. I compete for most of these reasons as well. I have been a competing artist for 15 years.

What is the last competition you won? I was chosen for publication and exhibition in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) Equinox April 2013 for “Large Canvas Figure Study.” However, I did not win Best in Show.

How does it feel to win? Winning is like a group hug! At first, it is great. I feel proud of myself, that I am accepted as an artist in that particular community. I feel like my art is really good, of course it won! This feeling dwindles with time. Other thoughts start to creep in, like, “the competition must have not been too great, that’s why I won” or “ya, I won, but it was only this small competition” and so on. By the end, I just put it on my CV and until I win the next competition, it was my little victory.

Winning is like a group hug!

What is the last competition you lost? I participated in the Arkansas Arts Center “Face Off: A Portraiture Competition” 2014. I didn’t even make it past the first round. However, I did make it in the Sunday newspaper Arkansas Democrat Gazette!

How does it feel to lose? I would love to say that I am a gracious loser and that I say things like , “There were so many talented artists competing, so I’m just thankful I got to be a part of this whole thing.” Instead of this ideal response, I sulk and leave and cry about how I’m a loser.

What was the last competition you entered? My most recent competition experience was the Individual Fellowship with the Arkansas Arts Council. I initially knew I would enter this competition because the prize is eternal glory in Arkansas and $4,000. I thought I would work on a series of gouache paintings to meet the requirements of “works on paper.”

Then I started thinking about how I didn’t win this competition the previous year. I had competed with my thesis work, and if my thesis work didn’t win, why would I expect some little gouache paintings to win.

I got really discouraged and psyched myself out – not finishing any of the paintings I wanted to create – with this competition in mind. I just kept procrastinating and working on other things first. Eventually, the deadline was approaching the week of, and I just took the whole thing off of my to-do list. I decided I didn’t want to be stressed out and I didn’t want to deal with any more failures, etc. This was my attitude until the deadline day.

On the deadline day, I was feeling great – like God-inspired hope and joy. I thought, I can do this!

This is how I felt on the inside – the day I entered the competition.

The thing is, I am an artist, so I have hundreds of pieces to pick from as well as already photographed and documented work on my hand dandy flash drive. All I had to do was put it together in a package for this competition.

I put all of my materials in this envelope and decorated it!

So, I made a quick to-do list of everything I would need to do to enter this competition by lunch, and then I walked it over on my lunch break.

It felt really good to enter the Individual Fellowship competition rather than accepting defeat!

Paper Opera

Art, music, and stories.

Tag Archives: #Arkansas Arts Council