Page 90 - MM July2018

TEMPORARIES
Lisa Rae Designs
Late one night Monica Bosco sent
a picture of an angel she had painted to
a friend. The positive response the picture garnered, snowballed to a point where Bosco realized that she had an idea for
a wholesale business: “Instead of having just original pieces that could only be shared with one individual at a time,
I wanted to share the joy and message
in products that I can recreate again
and again,” she says. Bosco’s business, Scopello, selling a variety of art prints has allowed her to scale her passion for art into a successful business.
Art is not only a creative outlet for
the maker, it gives buyers unique
pieces they can’t find anywhere else. Bosco is one of many artists participating in the Emerging Artists showcase at AmericasMart. The showcase “features
a juried group of artisans offering buyers a diverse range of handmade products able to be ordered for the first time in the wholesale marketplace,” says
Grace Creta, AmericasMart sales director.
Individual talents shine
That diverse range of handmade products includes wood laser-cut images of
lakes from Custom Crafted Silhouettes; handcrafted pieces from Selah Vie Jewelry; and handcrafted pottery from Lisa Rae Designs and Ashley Benton, among
a range of other stunning works from talented artists.
“Art opens dialog, inspires, creates change and makes people happy.”
ASHLEY BENTON
Much like Bosco, Ashley Benton has found that the handcrafted ceramic cups she wholesales allows her to indulge her art through a line that can be scaled up for wholesale production. Benton creates her lines while still painting and showing at galleries. “As an artist you have to press on into new things or the work could become stale,” she says.
Custom Crafted Silhouettes
All this takes time, yet the business aspects also call for attention. Marketing is Selah Kopelman’s biggest challenge, she says, but admits she’s lucky to
be based in New York City where opportunities for collaborations abound.
The artists encourage buyers to ask questions, to request variations of lines. This helps foster mutually symbiotic relationships. “My buyers kept asking for prints in a smaller size that I didn’t think would translate well with my art.
I eventually listened and it paid off,” says
Bosco. Both for the artist and the buyer. “I like when the buyer asks questions,” Benton says. “First, it means they are
interested and then I am able to talk about the story behind the work, which ultimately speaks for itself." >
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