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Space it out in preparing for major event

Trinity Brown creates and sells jewelry – often a lot of it – at the Mint tent at the Palmer Park Art Fair. At a recent Mint workshop, she shared how she sometimes has procrastinated on finishing work, adding the hooks to earrings the night before the fair and created many pieces in the final days beforehand. This year, though, …

The beauty of volunteers, or how Mint got a first class website for free

It started with a call for a volunteer to work on a WordPress website in Detroit. The posting on VolunteerMatch drew lots of interested individuals – close to 20 of them from almost that many states.We quickly narrowed the list to a half dozen and then through interviews, chose one amazing woman Michelle, who became our first web developer. She …

Make the most of your job interview: Interview tips for emerging creatives

If you’re searching for a creative summer job, with Mint Artists or elsewhere, get ready for job interviews.   These may be nerve wracking or thought provoking, frustrating or fruitful. And they are generally one key to landing a job. There’s plenty of research and advice available on job search and job interviews, some of it written by me for Fortune …

Sounds sweet, looks beautiful: Mint at the DSO

Mint Artists Guild has reached another milestone:  A piece of our art now belongs in a major arts institution’s collection. Success sounds sweet after we donated a Paint Detroit with Generosity painting to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The painting, created last year in the Mint Creative Summer Jobs program by worker Charles, will hang in the DSO’s new education wing. …

Help us create more good in Detroit

Give to Mint Artists’ spring campaign today so we may hire more youth. Mint Artists spring fundraiser underwrites a lot of good – good opportunities for Detroit youth, good summer jobs, good art that is donated to local nonprofits, good fun in our free Art in the Park arts and crafts in Palmer Park – and more. The fundraiser supports …

Summer jobs for creative youth

Summer job interviews are coming up with Mint Artists Guild!

Join Mint’s Learn & Earn – deadline this week

If you want to share your art with the world – and sell it to art collectors and lovers – it’s time to join Mint Artists Guild. Emerging artists ages 14 to 20 who are not in college full time are invited to apply to the Mint Learn & Earn program. Deadline to apply is midnight Thursday, Sept. 27. Apply …

New donation tool

Mint Artists is growing – in generosity, in youth working for us and in many other ways. So we have a new monthly or quarterly donation program. Give $5 or $50 a month in this easy, secure online space. It will take less than two minutes – and make a huge creative difference to our growth! Photo of Mint summer …

Judy Bowman believes in setting one big goal – and using that to guide your choices.

Hers  is to create a good body of work, professional presented. “Leave a legacy for my children” as an artist and a person who pursued her passions, she said.

She is pursuing hers intently now after retiring from a 30 year career as a teacher and high school principal. Bowman creates beautiful collage pieces – usually people in happy or everyday moments – and then limited edition giclee prints that sell for hundreds of dollars.  Though she just restarted her art career a few years ago, she’s already represented by Jo’s Gallery in Detroit and appeared in many exhibits, the Essence Festival, Bombay Saphire  and at the Belle Isle Art Fair.  She’s also a regular and amazing supporter of Mint Artists Guild.

“I hear of an opportunity, take a deep breath and say ‘let’s try it.’ It’s stepping out there. Just go for it,” Bowman says.

She believes that artists must “be watchful for opportunities. Be ready to take advantage of them.”

And allow people to help you. Many people have helped her with her career, in part because of her open and friendly approach

Happy Hour mixed media collage by Judy Bowman. © Judy Bowman

When I showed up at an Artist2Artist talk, Judy and I hit it off. We talked about art and artists selling their work. And I told her and the other artists there that night about the debut of the Belle Isle Art Fair.  Judy Bowman followed, showed up – and sold a lot of work.

“Be very receptive,” of people and opportunities, she said, and jump on those that are stepping stones toward your big goal.

(Photo: © Charlene Uresy, used with permission)

Article copyright © 2016 Vickie Elmer, updated 2020

Smart & beautiful insights, advice in pricing artists work

Dorothy Jett-Carter creates beautiful bags and purses from vintage African cloth. Her creative work is sold at the Detroit Institute of Arts gift shop, at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History shop and in galleries and art fairs. She also has experience selling creative work to department stores. And in all those places, she strives for consistent …