Mysterious

Well, well, well. LOOK who it is, I somehow dragged my ass to the computer screen to write to you today. Hold your applause. I’m not sure it’ll be good, but it will be something. I want to get back in the habit of sharing projects with you. So today I thought I would share a bunch of mystery paintings that I have worked on in the past year or so!

“What is a mystery painting?” You might ask.

Mystery paintings are my way of doing custom paintings for people while retaining my ability to have some creativity and not have them be over directed by the client. I have been doing them for about a decade. Before creating Mystery Paintings I would make custom paintings for people and quickly realized that even the most well meaning client can over direct a painting and make it really hard to make something exciting. This isn’t true for everyone but it is true for me, it kills the flow and playfulness that they often hire me for.

This is different from client work, or work I get hired for commercially. That type of client work is collaborative and achieving a particular goal, typically one focused around enhancing communication of a specific thing for the client, an event, a topic, a place, a community. Custom paintings have elements of that, but I have found that the people who seeks these out from me, like the element of surprise, of surrealism and having their memories and dreams interpreted by me. I also want them to feel different, I like having something I am making that is for someone but also is for me.

So all of that said, Mystery Paintings are different than custom paintings in the sense that the person getting one from me chooses a size and I send them a questionnaire with prompts on all sorts of topics. The current run of mysteries I am creating are centered around narrative- focusing on a specific memory or story or several of them. These are both narrative and portraits- and the form they take can and do vary.

I don’t share sketches with the client, I often don’t even send pictures of my progress. Most of my clients at this point, know that they like a surprise and are excited for that element of the exchange. This is often hard for other artists to wrap their mind around when it comes to custom work, and I fully understand.

For a long time when I was first painting and doing custom work (before mysteries) I would let the client be more of an art director. The only problem with that was client wasn’t a trained art director and actually liked the things I did freely and not the things I did that were over directed. What I found is that the client was more often than not a little disappointed with the painting and I wasn’t having fun making them. They were a huge source of anxiety for me and I just couldn’t understand how people engaged in this sort of work at all.

My friend and coworker introduced the idea of a custom painting where the client had no control other than the initial form they filled out. We talked about an artist she followed in the early 2010s who had done just that and how people loved the experience of it and it helped him retain the freedom he needed in the work. I cannot for the life of me remember this artist now, this was about 10 years ago or so. Listening to Brooke tell me about this really made something click in my brain.

We tell people how to engage in our work all the time. We do this in the way we put together our portfolios, our web shops and even our contact pages. We tell clients the rules of the game for custom work, and if I tell the client the rules are that you can send me comps of work by other artists, endless edits, feedback and even reject the painting, then that’s exactly what will happen. In an effort to be accommodating because I was so shocked people would pay me for creative work I was creating a toxic experience for myself. I didn’t want that to be my experience anymore. I wanted making custom work to be fun for both me and the person receiving the art.

So I took some time to figure out what the rules were for my particular custom work, and started releasing spots for mystery paintings. I labored over the language on the product page, I needed it to be really direct while also inviting. A hard line to tow! Over time the rules became more clear to me, I had specific sizes and prices, I increased my prices to reflect the amount of work and because I always worry about affordability I implemented a payment plan structure where I invoice clients monthly.

What has happened has been nothing short of magic. I LOVE making mystery paintings now, and what I love is the making, the clients receiving them, but even more so the stories, memories and dreams that I get to be a part of in making them. The custom questionnaire that each client fills out is so fun, people send me emails with thoughts that occoured to them, dreams they have found important or photos of loved ones for me to use as reference if I need. The connection I get to have with the people purchasing mystery paintings from me is really special and I think it translates into the final painting.

I also am really clear when people think about purchasing these- in the language of the description, that I am a human being making something custom. I sometimes need to paint the painting a few times, I have other work that might get in the way, I might get sick or like in the case of this last fall, I might have family that gets sick or needs my help. These things change the delivery timelines- and because of that clarity up front, it has never ever been an issue. Everyone is so kind and understanding. These paintings take time, and honestly, I like that part of them. They aren’t made by a computer, they are intended to be with the people who get them forever, so taking my time with them feels important.

There is also an element that I didn’t anticipate but maybe should have- the people who take the leap into letting me make one of these for them are my freaking people. I thought I might find a few people who took the risk but assumed I might disappoint some of them. I have found that the people I get to make these for are so happy to have something custom, strange and made in this way in particular, by me- it makes making them so much more enjoyable. It has helped me carve out my audience for custom work in a way that I love so much.

I have had clients who want larger paintings than the sizes I offer, different mediums or even murals- and I am never not just totally elated each time people ask for me to make them one of these. It gives me hope that we artists can and should be weird and strange and make cool things and that there are people who want us to make them.

I just wanted to share this whole structure and experience because I have been doing them for almost 10 years now- and I want to encourage you to find a way of making the work you love making in a way that you love making it. I have friends who have made painted postcard subscriptions, my friend Julie does a cup club (I was gifted this one year and it was wonderful)- there are endless ways to make work you love and get it in the hands of people who love it. Artists are creative beyond the bounds of the canvas or medium they choose to work in, the creativity extends to so many things including the framework for how you sell and make work. I think mystery paintings became so rewarding the moment I was able to see that the artwork could be the final result of a creative collaboration and game that I made. The whole process is part of the art and the experience for both me and for the client.

If you find that you are thinking you might want a mystery painting, you can learn more about them HERE- these make good gifts for others and I have found people enjoy giving them as gifts to themselves as milestones for big life things or just because. I would love to make one for you. I am slow, this is true, but I am grateful to get to be.

I also have a workshop called Down the Rabbit Hole that is a weekend intensive on developing writing that helps expand your visual library for your work. You can learn more about it HERE.