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Douglas J. Eng

  • Active Projects
    • Goodbye Hello
    • Creeks Rising
    • Redline
    • My Real Florida
  • Completed Series
    • Drowned Forest
    • Fractured Forests
    • Witness to Extinction
    • Infinite Forest
    • Streaming South
    • On Fertile Ground
    • City Views
  • Series Archive
    • Forest of Dark Dreams
    • Sky-River
    • City Views - Jacksonville
    • Autumn Stillness
    • Intersections
    • Impressions of Place
    • Magnolia
    • Straight and Twisted
    • Faces of Southlight
    • A Walk in the Park
    • After Autumn
    • Of This Earth
  • Installation & Public Art
    • The Forest re:Framed
    • Beyond the Facade
    • Message in a Bottle
    • The Red Chair Project
    • Blu Gras
    • Imagination Squared
    • Photographers for Freedom
  • Commercial
    • Interiors
    • Architecture
  • Acquire/Commission
    • Prints and Licensing
    • Commissions
  • Available Exhibitions
    • Structure of Nature
    • Creeks Rising
    • Streaming South
    • On Fertile Ground
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
Morning Marsh View - Ft. George Island, FL - 108 x 30 Face-mount Acrylic

Morning Marsh View - Ft. George Island, FL - 108 x 30 Face-mount Acrylic

How commissions can take you in new directions

October 29, 2014 in Business, Project Archive, Thoughts

Some artists avoid commissions. They feel that catering to an external requirement somehow interferes with their "art" or message. I totally respect this position, and sometimes I feel that this serves the artist well. I tend to do well with some direction. Maybe this is part of my engineering background, as I am more comfortable with structure and results-oriented tasks. Recently I was asked to provide a large piece similar to the style of artist "x" with a particular color in the foreground to match a wallpaper sample. I was happy to take on the request. The required image was out of focus and abstract. I knew what techniques I had to use, and where I could make the image.

When a fellow artist saw the wallpaper sample on my desk, he asked, "What's this?" I explained my project, and he laughed out loud, "I can't believe you are prostituting yourself!" I was very curious about his response, and did some thinking about my reasons to do the work. I saw it as a challenge and a way to expand my skill set. I also saw it as a paying project and something I would be proud to say I created and was capable of doing. Nothing in the assignment violated my values or compromised my artistic direction. So I carried on and basically ignored the comment. The client was thrilled with the result and complementary on how accommodating I was to work with. I think some artists forget that many of us create art to satisfy purposes external to ourselves. Whether this discounts my stature as an "artist" or  degrades the work, I don't know, but I'm happy that everything worked out for everyone.

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