Delaware by Hand master’s exhibition to raise awareness of local artists

The Mona Lisa, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and Yo, Picasso are three works of art that have one thing in common – somebody paid for them.

However, marketing, exhibiting and selling pieces can be a challenge for artists who are masters of their craft, but amateurs at outside sales.

That’s one reason Delaware by Hand was formed eight years ago. What began as a small coalition of artists has grown to a 200-member organization that offers advice, support and networking opportunities for the First State’s craftsmen, said President Deb Appleby.

The group’s first master’s exhibition will open at the Delaware Art Museum in November in conjunction with the Wilmington Art Loop, and Appleby is hopeful the display will raise awareness of how hard artists must work to make ends meet.

“People come into my studio and think I do this just for fun. I am a small entrepreneurial business. I make taxes and I’m making a living,” said Appleby, who works in blown glass out of her Lewes studio.

Many Delaware artists are forced to go on the road to earn money, she said, exhibiting at wholesale shows in other states or doing commission work in distant parts of the country. That is partly caused by a lack of awareness among the general population that these artists are even here, she said.

There are unique challenges to being an artist in northern Delaware, a place where Wyeth landscapes rule the art scene and more abstract artists struggle to be taken seriously, said Virginia Abrams of Hockessin.

Few people realize there are edgier types of art going on in watercolor country, said Abrams, who painstakingly sews abstract art quilts. But Delaware by Hand has a solution for that – the group maintains a website with a map that marks each member’s location.

Finding places to exhibit non-traditional work like her quilts is a big challenge to being a Delaware artist, she said. An even tougher challenge is finding buyers.

“Art quilts certainly aren’t whim purchases,” Abrams said.

Her works go for about $100 a square foot and if a person doesn’t know what an art quilt is, chances are they’re not going to part with the money it takes to own one, she said.

Successfully marketing artwork is really a delicate balance of protecting artistic integrity while creating things people will actually buy, said Dolores Josey, of Arden, who paints and works in ceramics.

“I’m not interested in painting souvenirs” even if that’s what reliably clears the shelves, she said. “I paint what appeals to me and if it appeals to someone else, so be it.”

Many artists are too busy being creative to worry much about the business side of things, she said. So for artists like Josey and buyers who appreciate the value of non-commercialized art, Delaware by Hand is useful in helping to spread the word, she said