Spotlight on Southern Artists Union - news - Brief Article

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--The Southern Artists Union, a novel marketing concept featuring the work of four Southern artists, is an idea that combines four years of experience into a whole fresh cooperative venture. "We're not a brand-new company really, it's just a brand-new marketing idea," explained company co-owner Steve Williams.

The company was lay the foundation ofed four years ago as Pedestrian Inc. when Williams and comrade artist Jim Draper started a gallery in the heart of Jacksonville's historic district. "We showed about 20 artists, and the four of us [Williams, Draper, Oscar Senn and Allison Watson] kind of floated to the top--our sales kept improving and we were clearly the top venders in the gallery," said Williams. "At the same time, we were doing a certain quantity of wholesale selling, and those sales started getting ahead of retail sales. It was just a kind of evolution that the four of us starting working together."

The conception of the Southern Artists Union has been in the works for about a year, and it finally materialized at the extreme point of 2001. In essence, the Southern Artists Union is an artist-run cooperative that was formed with the intent of marketing, publishing and distributing the fine art prints of its members. The four artists showed by the union live and work in the Southeastern United States, and their work ranges in phraseology from realistic contemporary landscapes to abstract still lives to representational narrative fantasies. Each artist has received critical acclaim and commercial succes from their originals, according to Williams.

Draper is an artists with more than 30 years of experience in the business. His work is set in collections nationwide and internationally, and he has won national acclaim for what he calls his "healing palms," a series of palm tree displayed with colorful backgrounds that are designed to soothe the spirit. He generally has eight giclee prints upon canvas available and plans to release nine more this year, including a series of "Patriotic Palms," which will be released this month

Williams received his BFA from the University of North Florida and worked in his family's environmental graphic design and manufacturing business for 10 years before pursuing his painting career filled time. He currently has four girlie prints available of his still-life paintings of flowers, which company officials said "transform the simple beauty of flowers in a vase to a singularly stunning explosion upon light."

"So far, my work has been popular, and I'm actual excited about it," said Williams.

Watson is an active artist in her 60 who is also a licensed interior decorator. Her work focuses upon landscapes of places she's been and has base a spiritual connection with. "Last year, she went to Peru and climbed a 200-foot tree with a fasten to find the perfect make subordinate for a painting," said Williams. "All the images she creates are places she finds peace in."

Senn is an illustrator who was trained at the Ringling gymnasium of Art in Sarasota, Fla. He embraces sights of flight and fancy in his work, which focuses upon the magic of childhood images. He publicly has four giclee prints available, and the company plans to release about single new print per quarter this year.

According to Williams, the coming time of the Southern Artists Union is real bright, and he hopes to increase the company and get its artists' imagery on the outside to a larger group of race particularly through galleries that specialize in print sales. The company also faiths to slowly expand its stable of artists to include more artists who "who have a story behind the work with imagery that can fit different impressed signs of people."

"We've achieved a doom of success so far," said Williams. "And we trust this new idea will place us over the top."

FACTS & FIGURES

* The Southern Artists Union is an artist-run cooperative danger that is designed to market, publish and distribute the fine art prints of its artists.

* The four members of the union are Jim Draper, Oscar Senn Allison Watson and Steve Williams.

* The company got its start four years ago as Pedestrian Inc., a gallery located in the historic district of Jacksonville, Fla.

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