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ABN "I DEFINITELY HAVE TO GET INSPIRED IN EVERYTHING I DO. " turn away a customer, de la Vega—who charges about $7,000 for a 5' x 7' fruit painting—admits that not every job is as compelling as the next. "Some commis- sions are more diffi cult to get inspired [for] than others," he says, "but I defi - nitely have to get inspired in everything I do. I try to fi nd beauty in everything that I put my brush to." A native of Argentina who moved to the United States as a boy in the 1970s, Gino Savarino (SavarinoArt.com) paints professionally in Chicago, where he oſt en works on commissioned pieces for private collectors, architects and interior designers. His commission work also in- cludes performances in which he paints for groups of spectators. Savarino calls himself a modern abstract artist who works with "lots of texture and color" and whose style dictates the kinds of questions he asks potential customers. "With abstract, it is diff erent than a portrait painter or landscape work because the outcome is almost never Jennifer Vranes poses in front of a completed 9' x 12' commission what you expected it to be coming into the project," says Savarino, who charges anywhere from $300 for a small painting to $3,000 for a larger work. "T ey have some sort of an idea of what my style is, and they will in turn say, 'I'm looking for this size and these colors and I want it to have lots of texture.' For me, that's simple; that comes naturally. When they want certain shapes or [for the piece] to look a certain way, I try my best to accommodate them. But because it is abstract it's sometimes almost impossible to create exactly what they're looking for. Although I allow up to three revisions, it is always best [for clients] to give me a basic idea of what they're looking for and allow me to just create." Recently Savarino had to explain to artist colleague of mine that specializes in that." Jennifer Vranes (JensArt.com), an Oregon-based artist who specializes in large-scale landscape paintings that she calls "happy art" (with a laugh, she says she has been told that her work helps lower the blood pressure of its viewers) has found herself in a similar situation only once since she began painting com- mission work in the late 1990s. "T ese people just wanted a copy, and I don't want to do a copy of anything," she says. "It's always unique and original." Customers typically provide Vranes— who completed approximately 50 com- missioned paintings last year—with fur- niture swatches and information about wall colors as she's working. "Sometimes "GIVE ME A BASIC IDEA OF WHAT [YOU'RE] LOOKING FOR AND ALLOW ME TO JUST CREATE." a potential customer that he just wasn't the right artist for a particular job. "A bride-to-be wanted me to do a live paint- ing performance with an abstract back- ground, but she wanted the foreground to be her and her new husband doing their fi rst dance. I told her, ' Although I Gino Savarino 36 welcome new challenges, I cannot com- promise my work or my style.' If it's not what I do, the best thing for me to do is what I did in this case: To refer her to an they're really specifi c: 'Can I get this painting in this size?' And I'll say, 'Every painting is unique, but it can be very similar and it can be done in any size you need.'" "If you want to make a living and cre- ate art for other people's homes, then you need to be fl exible," Vranes continues. "I'm not the one living with it, they are." Lee says he has never had to turn away a potential customer, but notes that WINTER 2012