photo of Kelli Bickman in her studio by Christine Yates
INVEST IN AN ARTIST
Do you support the arts? Help fund youth projects? Sponsor and contribute to peace murals? Love designer fashion? New York artist Kelli Bickman does it all and invites you to help her create community-based art that promotes peace, heals and inspires.
Bickman, a contemporary pop and multi-media artist, recently launched a campaign through Patreon.com where supporters are given the opportunity to co-create art with her. Patreon, a crowd-funding web platform, is currently responsible for generating over $1million per month for artists and musicians worldwide.
“I was recently told by a female art dealer that if I reinvented myself as a feminist lesbian and started painting unicorns blowing each other, my career would really take off.” Bickman laughed it off (she has boyfriend and a young daughter) and went back to the studio to keep doing what she does best . . . make fine art, rich in spiritual tradition. Bickman has been a self-representing artist for over 20 years. Her work is held in private collections worldwide, including writer Neil Gaiman, musician Tori Amos, and NY socialite Meera Gandhi, who states “Kelli Bickman’s art defines my Hudson Valley home.”
Bickman has been the recipient of many grants for Youth Mural Arts, a grassroots community-engaged art program she founded to give youth an outlet for creativity. “Through this program, youth are making history instead of destroying it. Some of these kids had been tagging and burning buildings, but with Youth Mural Arts they beautify them instead by making gorgeous murals.” The large-scale works of public art created by this program have been seen by tens of thousands since the program inception in 2011. Currently Bickman is working with youth and adults to create a World Peace Mural that will be shared on a global scale and launched on World Peace Day (Sept 21, 2015) at the Woodstock Peace Festival.
Taking her art a step further, Bickman recently launched www.1111style.com, a line of women’s active-wear with her art printed on organic cotton knit with earth friendly dyes. The line has been described as “The spiritual Ed Hardy…only better.” 11:11 Style clothing features women’s designs, however a men’s line and also a couture line are in the works.
Kelli Bickman’s Patreon crowd-funding campaign is designed to connect with art lovers, inviting them to help sustain her art projects through several levels of sponsorship. In exchange she offers rewards: video tutorials on how she creates art; sending quarterly packages in the mail of her creations; commissioned paintings and designer clothing tailored to suit each patron’s preference.
Find out more about Bickman and how to help support her art at www.patreon.com/kellibickman.