September 20, 2011

Salon de la Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts


This photo was kindly provided by Marie-Josée Leroux



I am super excited to announce that I have been accepted to be part of the prestigious Salon de la SNBA (Société Nationale des Beaux Arts) to be held at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris this December. The piece that has been chosen for the exhibit is ‘Toronto’


I feel very honored to be part of such a prestigious event. I will be flying to Paris for the occasion and will be at the opening reception in person. The exhibit will run from December 8th till December 11th, 2011 with the opening reception on the 8th


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September 13, 2011

Starting a commissioned piece...

I’ve been very fortunate to have received two commissions in the last couple of weeks. Working on a commissioned piece is a little different from working on my own stuff. Many artists will not take commissions because it takes away from their creative freedom. I can see where that could be an issue and I agree that you need to be careful, you could easily become a one trick pony and you definitely run the risk of repeating yourself. In this case I’ve been fortunate enough that both commissions left me completely in charge. In both cases I was basically given a subject and a size to work in, with the rest being left to me. I did talk to the clients to try and find out the things they liked and didn’t like about my work, so there are some guidelines I need to keep in mind while creating the pieces. 

Overall the creation of these two pieces shouldn’t be much different from creating a piece that’s not commissioned, with the only difference being that the choice of the subject wasn’t mine. Somehow it doesn’t work that way though. I seem to have a little more difficulty starting these pieces. I think it has something to do with the fact that there’s people with expectations ‘waiting’ at the end where normally there’s just me. 

Now I’m not saying that I’m not critical when it comes to my own work, believe me I am, I think artists are usually the harshest critics when it comes to their own work. But with a commission there are people who have expectations of a piece that I haven’t created yet, and they’ve already made a deposit so they have the right to have expectations. This makes the creation of the pieces feel slightly more loaded which makes it harder for me start working on them. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t want to disappoint anyone, especially a client. 

I realize that I just have to let go of these ‘fears’, if I don’t the pieces will never get made and I guess that would disappoint them even more. These people chose to give me these commissions and they did so for a reason. They have seen my stuff and like what I do so I just have to trust that they will like the pieces that I have yet to create as well. 

So this is me, letting go of my fears and getting on with it, commissioned pieces here I come!

September 05, 2011

Commission, Collaboration and Continuous Projects - by Denise Buisman Pilger

Things really have been moving along lately. The two solo shows I did this year have really helped increase my sales and I’ve gotten some commission requests as well. I’ve started a collaboration project with Montreal Photographer Pazit Perez. I’m still working on my ‘Montreal Boroughs’ project which I want to have finished by the end of summer 2012 and on top of that I still want to create pieces for my ‘Traveling the World’ series and my ‘Experimental’ collage series. 

Currently I am working on a small commissioned piece on Montreal as well as a small city scape of Montreal that I’ll be donating to Yes for their silent auction fundraiser event which is to be held on October 20th. This weekend I also received a commission request for a second piece of Mont Tremblant which has to be finished by the end of October. 

The collaboration project I’m doing with Pazit Perez is taking shape as well. We’ve recently decided that the project is going to be called ‘Journey’. The first piece in the series; ‘Je me Souviens’, is nearly finished and preparations for the second piece; ‘The Big Apple’ are in full swing. We are planning to have the first three pieces finished by the end of the year and we hope to have some of the merchandise ready in time for the holiday season. This project is specifically geared towards being a bit more commercial which will be an interesting change for me. 

The Montreal Boroughs project is still moving along as well. the first piece in the series; ‘Pointe Claire’, has not been finished yet but I’m close. Up until now I’ve been able to photograph 14 of the 34 boroughs which is not quite as many as I had hoped for but I think I’ll still be able to get at least half of them done before the first snows arrive. I’ve planned to finish all the pieces of the borough that have been photographed up till that point, during the winter. Come spring I will then be able to start photographing the remaining boroughs and create the pieces at the same time. This schedule should allow me to finish the project by the end of the summer. 

And then there are my two ongoing series; ‘Traveling the World’ and ‘Experimental’. Those, off course, are still awaiting new pieces as well. My next piece for ‘Traveling the World’ will be ‘Halifax’, the panel for this piece has been ready to go for quite a while now but I haven’t had the time to get started on this one yet. I hope to at least get a start on this one before my vacation to Italy. I have a ton of other pieces planned out for this series as well, I still want to do my city of birth; ‘Amsterdam’, as well as a couple of other Dutch cities. I have some ideas for a more nature inspired piece and I will be gathering a huge amount of new material during my vacation to Italy. 

All this means I’m very, very busy and I’m loving every second of it! I’m so grateful that I am getting this chance to build my career as an artist and that I get to do what I love. I am eternally grateful for the support I’ve been given by my gallery representative as well as all the wonderful people at Yes Montreal and ELAN and all the people I’ve met through networking and courses. When I moved to Montreal I had no idea I would meet so many great people, I’ve made so many new friend in such a short amount of time. And off course I am very grateful to have found people who are willing to spend the money to buy my work, I think I will never stop to feel humbled by that experience. Without the support of people like you I would not be able to keep doing what I love so I cannot express my gratitude enough. And then there’s my endlessly supportive husband without whom I would be nowhere near where I am right now. 

I am a very happy artist right now and I just wanted to say thanks!