Sunday March 30, 2008
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Art Rogue Closes It's Doors and Opens a Million More

This has been by far the most difficult post to write for me. How do I sum up two paramount years of my life filled with achievements, disappointments, highs, and lows? These two years were historical in my life and will prove to be historical to the development of Nashville and it's visual arts scene. After a crazy period of fun and hard work I have decided to close my public studio and gallery.

The story so far - in a nutshell

Art Rogue began at exactly the right time in my life. I was unhappily working at a commercial art gallery in Nashville and was ready to make a significant life transition. At the time I was looking for studio space to work out of. One day during lunch I walked into the Arcade Building and noticed a few for lease signs up. I called the number on the sign and made arrangements to view a several of the available spaces.

At this point DangenArt Gallery had already set up in the Arcade and needed some friendly neighbors. I scored a choice spot right next door to Daniel Lai and DangenArt and then began the month long renovation of the space. More folks jumped on board and secured leases. My good friend Jerry Dale was moving TAG Art Gallery directly across the street from the Arcade Building at the same time.

We had momentum and movement. More importantly, we had an Arts District, which was previously non-existent in Nashville. All the galleries and studios agreed to create a downtown gallery crawl that would occur every first Saturday of each month. I saw this as an opportunity to focus on my artwork, exhibit consistently, and gain an audience that could see my work evolve. In the end I did 18 First Saturday Gallery Crawls, two Artrageous nights, and several private events.

During that period I created several bodies of work and built a base of private and corporate collectors. There were several goals I set out to meet, but the most important was having as many people as possible viewing and collecting my work.

What changed

There were several events and circumstances that led me to my decision to close my space. The first was exhaustion and burn out. Doing a solo exhibit every month without help became too much. The second was the realization that something had to change in order for Art Rogue and me to continue and evolve. Finally, I was offered a great position with the Nashville based technology-focused Web Design and Search Marketing company, Sitening.

Sitening has brought me on board as a SEO Specialist. Through various strategies and methods, the Sitening team will work to get clients better search engine placement, more web traffic, and more business. A crucial part of the overall process is ensuring the client produces relevant and meaningful content to their business. This is a benefit for both the client and internet users. Think of it as creating a better internet.

I’m really happy to be part of the group. Everyone there is really friendly and each member has a different background and skill set to bring to the table. Not only does Sitening develop really cool websites and offer search marketing, they are creating ground breaking web applications such as Raven SEO and developer community resources like Snipplr.

The future of Art Rogue

Several friends around town and they expressed their sadness about me closing my studio and gallery. I reassure every one of them that this is not a change for the worst or any type of ending for Art Rogue or my artwork. In fact, I believe this is a good thing and my artwork will benefit in the future.

Currently I have residential and corporate projects in discussion. After I settle into my new position I will continue to develop new portfolios. I will also be experimenting with new cameras, printers, paper, and ink sets. Photographic technology is making enormous progress and I plan to take full advantage of the benefits. My collectors will benefit as well.

There are several other mediums I studied at The University of Montana that I would like to play with again. A short list would be ceramics, print making, and video. I have also been discussing an art related podcast project with a friend.

This website and blog will continue to evolve and I am going to make a big push to publish more artwork, articles, and blog posts. I will also become a little more personal with the content that I put up. My audience and collector base will grow and this website will be the main vehicle driving the effort.

And finally...don't worry. I will still create, exhibit, and sell kick ass artwork and photography. Art Rogue is not going anywhere. I'm just changing things up a bit.