Today we’d like to introduce you to Buzz Siler.
Buzz, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As a teenager I was hired by my neighbor to paint a large piece for their living room and got paid $100 for it. That convinced me that I could combine my love of art with the possibility of making a living at it. However, when I flunked out of my first (and last) art class in college, I realized that I did not have an interest in the history of art, or other artist’s styles of painting, or any formal lessons on how to paint. All I wanted to do was develop my own style without any interruptions from the existing art world.
So, after four years of college, I moved from Portland, Oregon to Palm Springs, California and opened my first solo gallery, called “The Struggling Artist”. My painting style was not yet fully developed, and I made barely enough to pay the bills by painting for the local housing developers, filling all of their model homes with my art. The interior decorators would paint the walls and put in the carpeting and furniture… then I would paint something to match. Pinks for the girls’ bedrooms, blue for the boys’ bedrooms, bright yellows for the kitchens, etc. My work as an entertainer at the local nightclubs subsidized my passion for painting.
In my early quest for an individual and unique painting style, I experimented with house paints… mixing acrylics with oils… until I was satisfied with the balance of abstraction and impressionism that has now become my trademark style. By laying my canvas flat on a table, and coating it with a soupy-wet layer of water-based latex paint, I could then use a skewer stick with oil-based paint to create my images… clearly impressionistic and vaguely abstract at the same time.
My goal is never to show a brushstroke… I want the paint to look like it painted itself onto the canvas. Thus a certain “liquidity” permeates all of my images, from the foreground subject matter to the background environment. My Siler paintings are inspired primarily by the many wonderful women I meet in my life… strong women, vulnerable women, curvy, slender, depressed, angry and joyous. I realize that every woman excites me in her own way and every woman deserves to be adored and painted at least once in her life. Of course, from time to time, I have ventured outside this favorite subject matter, as I am inspired by animals, insects, oceans and mountains and the full spectrum of my abstract imagination.
Today, at 73, I bring my life experience and passion into every painting. I’m thankful to communicate through this creative medium to the rest of the world and so fortunate to make a living at something that I truly love to do.
Has it been a smooth road?
When I opened my first gallery in Palm Springs, “The Struggling Artist”, in my early twenties, it was the beginning of a very short-lived dream to make a living as an artist. Within a couple of years I realized that 1) I wasn’t a very good artist and 2) I could not support myself on art alone. So I closed the gallery and devoted my time to being an entertainer and inventor. My success as an inventor… collecting royalties from my inventions gave me time to paint, and money to support a wife and four daughters.
After our daughters left home for college and business, I was able to focus on my art again… painting every day to re-learn the techniques I had abandoned twenty years previously. I became a better artist, developing my own unique style, and a better businessman to market my art. I chose to have my own gallery, rather than put my art into other galleries mixed with pieces from other artists. This gives me a business advantage over typical galleries because, when something sells, I get all of the revenue… as the artist AND gallery owner… rather than giving half or more to the artist. It also allows me to inundate the galley visitors with just one style of art – Siler style – and show a large body of work, which documents a lifelong commitment to painting.
An unexpected challenge several years ago was when I opened my pop-up Siler Gallery in Paris, France. I flew to Paris (not having secured a gallery space yet) with $10,000 cash in my pocket… thinking I could open a bank account in Paris and open a merchant account to accept credit card payments and checks.
I walked the streets of the Marais, the primary tourist shopping area of Paris, and eventually found an abandoned space to rent for three months. Unfortunately, when I went to the bank to open an account, I discovered that the French government does not allow anyone without a permanent address to open a bank account. So, for three months, all transactions had to be done in cash. I paid my rent in cash, and I could accept only cash for my art not a problem for small purchases of paper prints, etc., but a big problem for the more expensive pieces. Some persistent and enthusiastic buyers had to go to an ATM machine several days in a row to collect enough cash to purchase a piece. I am so thankful that it all worked out…. and never once did anyone come by to ask for my business license… whew!
We’d love to hear more about your art.
As an artist and inventor, I have several businesses… Siler Gallery is the business of exhibiting and selling my own Siler paintings. I had a “permanent” gallery in Portland, Oregon for 20 years, and closed it to retire to Temecula, California, where I opened a Siler Gallery in Old Town Temecula for this past year.
I set up two “pop-up” galleries, each for three months at a time, in Paris, France and Hudson, New York and next month I will open a pop-up Siler Gallery in Palm Springs for the tourist season and another in Carmel, California for this coming summer. At each of these galleries, I set up my painting table so I can share the joy of painting with gallery visitors. KeyCodeBox and Siler Ventures are businesses to promote and sell my inventions.
KeyCodeBox (www.keycodebox.com) is a specialized metal cabinet, much like an apartment mailbox cabinet, with a touchscreen, electronics, and sophisticated software to manage keys for companies with fleets of vehicles. It is used by UCLA, U of Nebraska, US Army, Wash. DC Water, Hudson Gas and Electric, hotels and hospitals, and many smaller businesses who need to control and monitor access to keys for their business. Siler Ventures promotes and sells other inventions by Buzz Siler, including the popular “Ski-Gee” goggle wiper that fits on the thumb of a ski glove and lets the skier easily wipe off the lens of the ski mask.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
When I moved to Temecula almost three years ago, I was so excited about the opportunity to open a new Siler Gallery in a popular tourist town. People were visiting Temecula for the nearby wine country and weddings and, of course, the sunny weather. I saw that there were lots of antique shops, bars and restaurants but no galleries. My Siler Gallery would be the first fine art gallery in the area.
What I didn’t anticipate was that Laguna Beach, Palm Springs, San Diego, LA, La Jolla and many smaller beach towns had already established a reputation as art centers. All of them were an hour or more drive from Temecula. But I opened Siler Gallery anyway, thinking I could change the art landscape, and that other artist would follow my lead. It didn’t happen… so last month I closed the permanent Siler gallery and will focus on more pop-up galleries. The first will open in Palm Springs from mid-February to May. Next will be Carmel from mid-June through mid-September.
I’d like to explore opportunities in greater LA as I make contact with the art “movers and shakers” in the LA community. And, as always, I will cultivate the art environment in my own Temecula Valley by having small shows at the wineries and other venues. Currently, I have an exhibition at Temecula City Hall/Community Center that runs through April.
It is as important to feed one’s soul as it is to feed one’s mind and body. Art does that. Up-and-coming artists from all over southern California can help themselves, and their community, by taking every opportunity, big and small, to show their art up close and personal. It’s a very different experience than viewing art on a phone or computer.
Pricing:
- Siler originals, acrylic and oil on canvas, are $1,000 to $30,000 depending on size.
- Siler giclees on canvas, personally enhanced by Buzz Siler, are $200 t0 $3,000 depending on size.
- Siler matted prints on paper, 16″ x 20″ are $50 each
- Commissioned pieces are $2,000 to $50,000 depending on size.
Contact Info:
- Address: Buzz Siler, 31906 Calle Elenita, Temecula, CA 92591
- Website: buzzsiler.com
- Phone: 5039690009
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Buzz Siler / and / Siler Studios Gallery on Facebook
- Facebook: Buzz Siler
- Twitter: Buzz Siler
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