BECOMING A GLOBAL ARTIST
Calling on all New Mexico artists interested in marketing their artwork globally to save the date on Friday, May 13th at 7:00pm for a free lecture at the Kimo Theatre in downtown Albuquerque. Tentatively titled, Fish Worship and the Art of Ray Troll, or Things I Didn’t Learn in Art School but Should Have, artists around the state can gain a new perspective on what it means to be a successful commercial artist by following Ray Troll’s creative life and scientific interests.
This talk covers the practical realities of making a living as a full time artist. While many young people aspire to choose career paths in the arts, it seems few schools prepare them for the day-to-day demands of paying the bills while simultaneously carving out a name in the art world. Ray will discuss topics like copyrights, royalties, licensing artwork, contracts, museum exhibits, public art commissions and book publishing, sharing tips he’s learned from a lifetime of working in the arts. He’ll share his insights on how to “monetize” one’s passion.
Troll’s The Buzz Saw Sharks of Long Ago traveling exhibit opens at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS) on Saturday, May 14.
This major new exhibit tracks the unfolding perceptions of a large, bizarre prehistoric whorl-toothed shark. Although first described in 1899 from a fossil whorl found in the Ural Mountains of Russia, most of the world’s still-rare specimens of Helicoprion have been unearthed in Idaho’s phosphate mines. In 2013, a significant breakthrough lead by Idaho State University researchers collaborating with modern shark specialists and a Helicoprion-obsessed artist shed important new light on this weird animal. The exhibit presents a wide array of spectacular Helicoprion fossils integrated with original artworks by American artist Ray Troll http://www.trollart.com/. It will also include whorl-tooth shark fossils recently discovered near Socorro, New Mexico, as well as the “Godzilla shark” discovered near Albuquerque, one of the few complete skeletons of a Paleozoic shark known anywhere.
During his career which has spanned more than three decades, Troll has developed a huge cult following for his scientifically accurate and often humorous paintings of fossils and fish created at his home in faraway Ketchikan, Alaska. His creations run the gamut from creatures found only in fossil records to marine mammals, and have become iconic in evolutionary biology, science, fishing, and environmental activism http://www.trollart.com/trollart_toplinks/aboutray.html.
Troll has exhibited in many major American scientific museums, successfully creating his own unique blend of art, science and humor – creating his own category of artwork with technically accurate and humorously drawn and captioned drawings of dinosaurs, evolution, fish worship and fish.
Troll’s commercially viable art offers a unique blend of art, science and humor. He is coming to Albuquerque in May to install The Buzz Saw Sharks of Long Ago at the NMMNHS, where it will be on display from Saturday, May 14th through September 5, 2016. Troll’s innovative approach to art has landed him a place in the big pond of living artists making a living!
The NMMNHS, in collaboration with the City of Albuquerque, is hosting this free lecture for New Mexico artists and art students to help stimulate and grow the market for New Mexico artists and aspiring artists.
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The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science is a Division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. The Department of Cultural Affairs is New Mexico’s cultural steward and is charged with preserving and showcasing the state’s cultural riches. With its eight museums, eight historic monuments, arts, archaeology, historic preservation and library programs, the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs is the largest state cultural agency in the nation.
